BREATHING THROUGH THE MORNING

I can’t resign from the fact that our place lacks the basic facilities of a fitness gym, a swimming pool, a jogger’s park and many more. But time and again, I also give in easily to the realization that this place of my current residence boasts of an innocence; I fail to experience in other abused/overused parts of the maximum city. At the same time I don’t want to create an opinion about other parts of Mumbai. Every place within Mumbai continues to be significant because of its many pros and cons. Many a times, an insane thought definitely crosses my mind to go back to the place; I was born at and grew up in. But somewhere deep within resonates a voice – Don’t compromise on the innocence of this place. And I continue to live, I continue breathing through the morning.

At around 5.30 AM, it seemed to be sufficiently dark. To begin with, I felt more private and more to myself while I headed straight towards the playground. From a distance, I could hear dogs barking at a lunatic, who seemed to be headed towards a bush nearby. There was not much to be bothered on that front. After seven years of my splendid stay at the same place, I now know very well what lies beyond those bushes. The municipal authorities had tried their level best to cleanse these bushes. But they found it economical to retain the natural setting for the homeless to defecate. Quite interestingly these bushes are located right behind a temple, which some say is aged beyond 1000 years.

Surrounded by silence, darkness and oneness; my feet took me to undiscovered places around the playground. Right at the entrance of this playground, to the left is located a (now dilapidated) fitness gym. To my knowledge, I never found any great muscles inside. Every time I took to walking near it, I had seen it in utter darkness. There used to be some mirrors, few dumbbells, weight bars and a bad stink around it. The guys who used to come visiting were driven by two important hobbies of killing mosquitoes and eyeing the females who attended the morning walk sessions at the playground. Surprisingly some romantic inclinations, led to impromptu morning romances too. To my surprise, just like the (now forgotten) formation of Jogger’s Park, the gym seemed to be lost in oblivion. On enquiring with a veteran, whom I have found walking here, ever since I started making my way to the playground; clarified that due to lack of funds there was no way how one could have maintained the gym. Was it maintained ever? I enquired. To which, he raised his eyebrows and replied – At times, it was.

The darkness persisted. But the level of oxygen seemed to have gone up. There was no particular odour to feel bothered about. The same couple made a repeat appearance today. The prolonged darkness seemed to have added to their courage to grow a little more physical today. Ignoring their unmentionable actions, I made an attempt at jogging. But I am sorry, I should not think of jogging for another ten days. The body and mind are yet not ready for heavy duty physicality. How I wish, we had a good gym in place? We do have a gym in place. There are around three to four gyms. But all of them enjoy an invisible existence. How I wish, we had a swimming pool to chill in? There used to be one around. But the repeated water cuts and endless pursuits of land sharks reduced it to a puddle. Only tadpoles swim in a puddle. Humans go to water parks. But I am not a fan of the two or three water resorts located a few kilometres away from the place, we live in. They are infested with too many humans and their ugly habits.

But for once I chose to ignore everything around me. I chose to also ignore the things that were absent around me. I concentrated on the things that we were in possession of. The first thing that struck my mind was the presence of this silence. So beautiful is its presence. Nothing interrupts it. Absolutely nothing. There are residential buildings located around. Everyone is awake early for the single purpose to start traveling to their workplaces. But neither does a conflict between bangles or gossips between vessels seem to challenge the silence, we imbibe peace from. For a moment, the dogs do tend to go overboard with their barking habit. But after a certain period, even they calm down.

After celebrating the silence, it was time to enjoy breathing in, inhaling the pristine air. No smoke from factory chimneys, no smoke from vehicles and no smoke from the food cooked in kitchens. Absolutely nothing could disturb the virgin quality of this air that we inhale every morning. Every day that I retire to bed to not wake up early in the morning, I actually close my eyes with a heavy determination to wake up, never ever late than 5.15 AM in the morning.

The morning or the mornings that I talk about are very special to me. I think so, I desperately try to discover a little bit of my hometown in these mornings. I am speaking of no other hometown but Kolkata. I know it is rather foolish to find Kolkata in Mumbai. Or to even imagine Mumbai in Kolkata. But these lovely mornings, transport me to the unscathed memories I hold of Jhargram, Jamshedpur, Bhatpara and Madral. These lovely mornings continue to help me maintain my sanity. These lovely mornings continue to help me stay inspired and motivated.

Every morning is so intense that even when I sit down to write about them at around 3.30 PM during a sun bathed mid noon, I can reiterate the experience. The only difference being that this experience is narrated through my chosen set of words. Once again, I sign off by only imagining about breathing through another morning, another day.

-vociferous