A Dose of Calm

There’s nothing more stress busting than spending an hour early in the morning near a lake all alone. Never was the need for a dose of solitude more felt than now what with a busy work schedule playing havoc with my mind and body. I desperately need a vacation somewhere near the sea in a cooler climes but as luck (and my finances) would have it I can never hope to go anywhere other than the Necklace Road for a couple of hours that too early in the morning on a Sunday. It is exactly what I did on Sunday. I was there much before the sunrise, in fact it was so dark I actually had to search for the bench I usually sit on.

Somehow I felt that the magic of my earlier visits had waned or was missing. I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that a major part of the wrought iron railing on the edge of the lake was missing. The whole place seemed to be lacking in upkeep. Then there was the fountain that got switched off at exactly six making a whooshing sound and shattering the calm of the morning. However, the sunrise itself was magical and calmed the nerves. I sat for about an hour trying to get all the major worries out of the mind but not exactly succeeding completely.

There are some places where things are totally different early in the mornings. Irani hotels are such places where one can spend an hour or two poring over the papers in an unhurried atmosphere. After spending an hour or so watching the sunrise by the lake I sat in Adarsh Café going through the Sunday papers while sipping on Irani chai. As usual there is never anything interesting in the papers except the pictures. As usual a couple of the waiters picked up the papers lying on the table and went through the pictures of movie stars. My friend the smoker wasn’t to be seen since a long time. The last I had come to Adarsh so early in the morning was sometime in November or earlier than that. I spent an hour reading the papers and returned home ready to face another month of turmoil.