A Walk for Friendship!
Last Sunday, the
5th of January 2014, was a day when we took the first steps to
fulfil the pledge we had made some months earlier. We are a motley bunch of
classmates who had joined school in the year 1964. When we realised that we had
known and had been friends with each other for 50 years, we decided to mark
this milestone by walking a distance of 50 kilometres.
This idea of a
walk for friendship came to us at an earlier get-together and was welcomed
enthusiastically. But when it came to be known that some of us were seriously
thinking of actually doing it, the enthusiasm waned a bit. We committee members
started getting anonymous calls threatening us and also came to know that there
was a move to black-list us from the group. Not wanting to be chucked out, we
watered down the proposal a bit by suggesting that the 50 km could be done
collectively. We also announced that there was no minimum distance to be
covered and a classmate could even contribute as little as half-a-kilometre to
the class kitty. The enthusiasm increased tenfold with this announcement. We
promised to meet at the Stuart Battle Tank end of Ulsoor Lake at 7:45 a.m. on
Sunday to do the walk and thereafter treat ourselves to a hearty breakfast.
Some of our
mates were travelling and some were otherwise engaged, but we decided we would
start this off if we had just 5 participants. The others would pitch in on
other Sundays.
One of our mates
is a bit of a Tangential Thinker (probably on account of a coconut being
dropped on his head by the maid when he was two years old). He suggested that
he would come an hour early and do a couple of rounds 6 km before the rest of
us reached. We did not want any violence from him, so all of us agreed without
a murmur. Let him come early if he wants, let him walk all he wants, he will
still get the same breakfast as the rest of us, we decided.
I prepared
myself for the tough-a-thon by having an early dinner and going to bed an hour
earlier than usual. I set the alarm on my mobile for 6:10 a.m. and a second
alarm for 6:30 a.m. I also told my wife to wake me up by 6:45 a.m. I missed the
two alarms but my wife did not miss when she splashed water on my face.
Hastily
completing the download formalities, I donned my track pant and an orange
t-shirt and then called a classmate who lived down the road. Apparently he too
was roused by his wife a while ago and had completed his roll call, so he was
also ready to roll.
We reached the
Stuart Battle Tank corner well in time. I was not surprised to find that Tan
Thin had already completed 2 rounds and was looking none the worse for it.
Before he could suggest 2 more rounds, I prudently changed the subject by
pointing to the flocks of geese doing their morning flypast exercises over our
heads. We were saved.
Soon 2 more
classmates sauntered in and we were ready to go. It took a couple of minutes to
get into our stride but once we did, we simply ate up the kilometres. We made a
few halts along the way to savour the morning air. We also managed to break the
rhythm of a couple of passing walkers by stopping them and having our pictures
clicked by them. Each of us completed 3 km while Tan Thin did 9 km, for a grand
total of 21 km, rounded off to 20 as a mark of our generosity.
All puffed up
with pride and satisfaction after having achieved this stupendous task, we came
to the concluding and most important part of the agenda – breakfast! We
adjourned to a nearby darshini and
feasted on idlis and vadais washed down with good, strong filter
coffee.
Seeing the darshini owner nervously fidgeting, we
went up to him and reassured him that we would leave soon and he need not worry
about payment or depleting stocks. He thanked each one of us with folded hands
and told us that our good deed would certainly be rewarded, though not by him,
but by The One Above.
I reached home
around twelve o’ clock, had a quiet moment of introspection, reliving the
morning in fast playback. With a smile on my lips and a song in my heart, I
told my wife I was about to take a well deserved nap and she should call me without
any water-splashing when lunch was ready.
Wow, what a
Sunday!
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