Morning Calm
It was that time of the month again when the need for a bit of solitude becomes overwhelming. I had to clear up the mind of all worries so last Sunday I set out for the Necklace Road early in the morning. I was up too early and I guess I must be the only guy (in the government, anyway) who gets up earlier than the usual time on holidays. Anyway, it was cool enough but the roads were not as empty as I had expected. The traffic was already bustling by the time I hit the road. I had planned to spend about an hour at Necklace Road soaking in the morning’s calm watching the sunrise and later spend another hour in Adarsh reading the Sunday papers. I had in mind a peaceful time at Necklace Road. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be so.
Actually, the whole of Sunday people seemed bent on disturbing my peace for some reason. At Necklace Road I watched the sun rise and was just beginning to feel good as a peaceful calmness descended on me. Just when I began to tell myself what a good thing these early morning visits were turning out to be, there burst upon the scene The Gentleman with a Radio in his hand. I don’t really understand these guys who go around with a radio on full blast in their hands as if there were no other being on earth. If it was a young feller I wouldn’t have minded but he was a middle aged person, wearing a red tee shirt, tracks and sports shoes. I thought after a while he would move on and leave me in peace. But no, he stopped at the very place where I was sitting on the cement bench. He put the radio at the bottom of the railing and proceeded to do something astonishing right before me.
He began to exercise to the music, Jane Fonda style. I wouldn’t have minded if it was some fast number he was exercising to but it was a tragic song that was coming out of the radio. It wasn’t just any other tragic song, it was such a tragic Telugu song, a dirge actually, sung by someone in so mournful a voice I wouldn’t have been in the least surprised if the guy exercising suddenly jumped into the lake and ended his life. It was the first time in my life I was witnessing someone actually exercise to such depressing music. But I couldn’t bear the noise any longer. The song shattered the silence of the morning and also my peace of mind. I got up and looked for another place to sit. However, it wasn’t the same anymore so I left to begin Stage Two of the Sunday morning.
Hardly had I settled at a table in Adarsh and begun to read the papers that cigarette smoke began to waft towards me. Now, there is nothing I detest more than a person who smokes anywhere as if it is his birthright. This guy before me, with his back to me was smoking away merrily. The smell was awful so I told the waiter to ask the smoker to snuff it out. When the waiter told him, the smoker turned around and glared at me. I told him to buzz off and smoke outside. But he did not move and continued to glare at me. He was a short, dark fellow somewhere in his mid-fifties. He was some kind of a security guard judging by his khaki dress. He looked at me like he would have picked up an argument with me if it wasn’t an English paper that I was reading. Once again I wished I were a cop because I would have hurled that shortie out of the hotel if I were one.
I realized he wasn’t going to snuff out the offending cigarette. Rather than get worked up over it I decided to mind my own business and continued to read the paper. But he seemed very upset about it since he continued to turn around and glare at me now and then. I ignored him, not exactly wishing to pick an argument so early in the morning and further spoil my already spoilt mood. Some days things don’t always go right, I thought.
The Sunday Haul
Later in the day, at Abids I was disappointed that a book I had seen last week was gone. I had thought of picking it up this week. I couldn’t find any new book worth picking up for a long time until I came across a title that grabbed my attention. Now, there are a couple of things I cannot get the hang of no matter how much I try. Mathematics is one and economics is another subject I simply cannot comprehend. There’s a lot about mathematics and what it did to my life that I can write but I leave it for another time. Economics is dull as ditch water but when I came across the blurbs on this book that I saw I was tempted to pick it up.
‘Brilliant,’ ‘Non-stop fun’ were the blurbs on the cover of ‘Freakonomics’ I found on the pavements at Abids. I picked it up and saw that it was a brand new book and the sticker on the label at the back said ‘Rs 265-50’ which wasn’t surprising since it was a Penguin imprint. I got the book for only thirty bucks which seems very reasonable for the 242 page book that I hope to read some day very soon.
Next Post on Friday: A Night in the Company of a Skeleton
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