WHEN I WENT BACK TO THE MORNING

‘Apur Panchali’, directed by Kaushik Ganguly; is a Bengali movie about which I wish to write on my other blog www.urbansurprise.blogspot.in. But I wish to write about what it did to me last evening. In the movie, I found a page of a morning; I hadn’t turned over for days together. But why do I owe something about a morning to a movie, I fell in love with. The movie reminded me of something called life. It made me realize that what if I don’t own up to life today, will there be a tomorrow left for me to do so?

Taking a page of inspiration from the movie, I start writing about a morning; I took very long to go back to since January 18, 2014. After four months and almost on the same day or a day later of the last time; I wrote about my morning sojourns; I settle down to pen down my thoughts of a seamless morning.

At around 5.15 AM, the alarm went off; just like it does on other days. Except on Saturdays and Sundays, when I wish to wake up at leisure (in this case means 6.30 PM). Being an early riser, I’ve always been fond of mornings. For the last few months, I had either given the opportunity a miss. Or maybe I had grown a little lazier.

The titillating feeling to slip into my sports shoes was just leaving me restless. Therefore at around 5.45 AM, I stepped out to be greeted by a carpet of Gulmohar flowers. The tree seemed to have shed these flowers, to mark this occasion as a significant one. I hate to step on flowers. But the flowers were dry enough and making up my mind to clean the street would had been a lost effort. Every second later, a new flower kissed the ground after extricating itself from the tree above. I wasn’t carrying my mobile (which I never do while going on a Morning walk) and neither was I holding a camera. Therefore I missed this opportunity of capturing this red carpet of Gulmohar flowers, spread across to make my morning walk seem very special. Crossing a few more yards and having scaled the tarred road of our colony, I reached the unattended playground to extend my walking session to a wider span of an extra 15 minutes.

The playground wore an abandoned look. Even though the summer vacations are on, kids were nowhere to be seen and neither were their parents. At around 6.15 AM, there were a handful of disinterested senior citizens, a middle aged lady and a romancing couple. After I joined, we brought the number to three senior citizens, one middle aged lady, two people in love and me; a total of 7 to be precise. As I continued walking around the playground, I was amazed to see how the couple was reacting to this newly found privacy. In the fifteen minutes that I walked passed them, I found them playing badminton. After badminton they chose to walk barefoot on a scarce piece of grass patch. In the last five minutes they chose to hug and catch a nano smooch before they could depart. Cut to the three senior citizens and none of them could stop at debating between Narendra Modi’s landmark win and Congress’s landslide. The middle aged lady might be somewhere close to fifty five. But her fast-walking like slow jog inspired me to make a point to live these mornings or reclaim them with dignity.

Sensing that I might get delayed to spend yet another unproductive Monday in the confines of my not-so-ad-agency kind of an agency; I prepared to bid adieu to the playground. As I readied to exit, I found the board of a long proposed Joggers Park lying in a tattered condition. This was the same club, for which some people had toed around me to opt for a membership. Today none of those who were trying to promote it, were to be seen in the playground. I arrived at a conclusion that the plans might not have gone down well with the Municipal authorities.

As a regular practice, I looked up to the skies to offer a prayer to Sun God. Today Mr.Sun too seemed to be on vacation. The skies wore a jacket of cloud (which it still continues to wear at 11.45 AM, while I am staring blankly out of my cubicle’s window). The mood of this Monday seemed sober. Therefore I signalled my feet to walk me back home.

The school, which falls to my left while walking back home is closed for summer vacations. So the classrooms echoed silence. The bell which rings between changes of periods was covered under a thick layer of dust. The caretaker who usually unlocks the main gate of the school was sitting on one of its stairs to pay heed to some chores that might be left undone on a functional day.

On a Monday when everything seemed so still and so lifeless, there was so much life back home. Mom was back carrying her favourite flowers. She is back after spending a healthy three months in Kolkata. My sweetheart was already dreaming of a Monday that should have never come. And my mom’s aunt who has come down to visit us was already up, offering her prayers to the Divine.

But on a personal level, I feel happy that when I went back to the morning, I came back with the same feeling that there are experiences; innumerable experiences to be written about. In few days from now, the sky might open up and the Rain Gods will unleash its fury. I am unsure if the mornings will be the same or free enough for me to take the walk. But whenever I will get the time, I will continue going back to the morning and keep writing about these mornings, when I go totally footloose.

-vociferous