A walk in the park in my new grey gym pants!!!

I woke up early this sunday morning, smiled at the gradual light filling my room, got up and dressed for a healthy walk at my neighbourhood park. Before one jumps to errorneous conclusions regarding my sense of fitness and/or madness to have subjected my sunday morning to such treatment, I owe you and myself an explanation.
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I bought these new gym pants yesterday. I mean they are really hot. I had to grab the nearest occassion to wear them ... hey, what?!? You've never done this before ?!?
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So my little walk-in-the-park-to-show-off-my-new-gym-pants could have ended up being just that. Only that would have been plain embarassing to write home about. Therefore, this post is not really just about my fashion parade. It did start of dangerously like that. I was well aware of my I-Pod perfectly complemeting the shade of my new grey hot pants. I was confident and happy to be part of the walkers world. I switched on my music, decided to look out for cute joggers and took off.

I felt the gentle nudge of a soon-to-come winter in the cool morning air, just as my favourite country song came on. Suddenly, I started to notice the shades of green around me and a random thought of 'how green was not just one colour but many pretty ones' found its way to my head. I think thats when I began to forget what I'd really come here to do.

The brisk round of the park that I'd planned soon followed with a slow second. I took time to observe the obvious signs life around me and to look out for the quieter ones -

> I laughed quietly when a I passed group of pensioners sitting around practicing 'laughter therapy' and planning a movie at PVR.
> I smiled when I walked by a little girl of about 8 earnestly practicing 'Pranayam' that her grandmother was teaching her.
> Despite being a part of the large majority that watches but doesn't play cricket, I felt the child in me rejoice along with the kids I saw playing the game.
> I left the walkers path and strayed to a quiet place that gave me the illusion of being alone in the woods. I switched off my music and decided to really listen for the sounds and the silence of the woods. I was suprised that I actually heard something. I wasn't suprised at all that I liked what I heard.

I now sit at the duck pond, watching the most amusing flock of bright looking birds clumsily make their way out of the water to investigate my presence. I take out my journal and put my pen to paper. As I continue to watch them, there is a disturbing presence in the background ofthis otherwise deserted spot where I sit. I look up and see a middle aged man climb a distant tree and hang himself upside down from one of its brances as his wife looks on.

I stare and then decide I've seen enough for a day. Just then Dad calls and asks me if I intend being home in time for breakfast. I tell him Im getting up to leave and apologize for the delay.

As I get up to brush the leaves off of my pants I notice them only for the second time since I came to the park today. I smile. Not so much at the perfect fit and the perfect shade of grey, but at the passing thought that I might not be here if it were'nt for my new grey hot pants.