WALKING

Though I am not a keen walker, I am fully convinced of the virtues of walking. Thoreau said, walking  awakens our spiritual values. I have started taking short walks at my rooftop, not to awaken my spiritual values, but to listen some old Hindi film songs. This is the time I connect with my essential wildness. I don’t walk briskly. I walk idly. I don’t walk in the morning. I walk in the evening. It is Godhuli Bela. This is the time for the birds to return home. I don’t walk to burn my fat. I walk to recall my beautiful days at Kanpur. I walk like a river. I walk like a free man. I walk leisurely. Music gives me the freedom of walking freely. My thinking knows no bound. In half an hour I cover 70 years. I meet those who have gone far away, much ahead of their time. Walking is not a waste of time. It is leisure. Leisure is hard earned commodity. Not everyone can afford it. While walking I think of those who walked with me all these years. I think of those who let me hold their hands.