Magical Morning

It was time for the monthly dose of morning tranquility that I have become addicted to. I could have gone on the last Sunday of the month but there was the Hyderabad 10 K Run scheduled. Also, there was a lot in my mind that had accumulated and that I wanted to get rid of. Saturday night I went to bed eager to get up early and drive to Necklace Road before it was sun up.

It’s winter already in Hyderabad and I had expected it to be cold early in the morning. But it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be as I took the bike out. Though it was only six in the morning the streets were busy with traffic. I reached my usual spot only to find it occupied. I walked further ahead and sat down waiting for the sun to come out. The sky was cloudy adding to the silence of the morning and the chill. Just sitting watching the calm lake seemed so soothing.

After a while the sun broke out of the clouds, a golden orb that was reflected in the placid waters. I sat for about an hour immersed in my thoughts- another month and the year would come to an end. I had nothing to show in this year except completing the draft of the book. I had a month more to do something in the direction of completing the revisions or write an article for the papers. I had begun a travel piece about my visit to the Andamans. I am halfway to finishing it. If it comes out well then maybe some newspaper will carry it next month or later.

The next phase of the morning was in Adarsh Cafe. It was quiet in the hotel as I sat poring through the Sunday supplement of the Deccan Chronicle. Inside were two articles on two women who had lost something in their lives. Chitra Singh, the wife of Jagjit Singh, the ghazal singer talked about the loss of her teenage son in a road accident years ago. Mona Singh, divorced from Boney Kapoor talked how she picked up the pieces of her life after her divorce. It made for inspiring reading, these two stories.

There were only a few people in the hotel and they all seemed to talk in quiet voices. The mild winter sunlight streamed into the hotel through the tops of the trees gently swaying on the other side of the road. Lost in reading the paper I did not notice it was already half past eight and time to return home.