Spacing Out

The air is cool and the skies are dark. The monsoon winds have blown their bounty over the Arabian sea, through Kerala and now all the way inland into Bangalore. After weeks of activity and strain, some of which still continues, I am finally back to being able to run at least three or more times a week. I finish my 7th lap in just about 28.5 minutes, still a minute over my best time when I was relatively freer in mind and fitter in body.

It's amazing how quickly I am able to gain weight. Four weeks of high stress and no exercise and suddenly its already difficult to complete the 4.2 KM run.

I lie down on the narrow parapet wall that borders the ground. I look up, at the gray sky, and the branches of a gulmohar tree are in the field of sight. They sway gently against the magnificent gray infinity of space that I lie under.


Lying on your back and looking at the sky is very similar to sitting before an ocean. You just don't get it.... no matter how long you stare.... So much space ... so much water ... where does the infinity end?

During my run, as always my mind is abuzz processing the rather copious amounts of reality on my plate. But now as I lay back, balanced on a narrow wall, and as I contemplated the wind blowing the gulmohar branch against the gray background, I am liberated from all that surrounds and imprisons me, if only for a few minutes in silent lucidity.

Words from a famous poem I once read back in school come to mind

"What if this life is full of care
We have no time to stand and stare"