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Evening walk in the rain
So, it's 5:30 in the evening...I am getting bored and stressed at work, it was some menial task which was taking a long time, I was done with it and I decided to go back home. Well, it's a Friday evening the most anticipated World Cup match is about to go down between France and Uruguay 2 hours from now, everyone seems to be running hither and thither to grab some bar/hotel or someplace to sit down with their friends watch the match, bitch about their work and go back home.
I decide to be a part of the crowd too except I wanted to rush back home, turn on my tv watch the match with my parents and get some sleep 😴. So I decide to order my cab for home, and lo and behold the adventure begins I get a waiting time of 25 mins, I call this dude to ask him,
Me: How much time is it gonna take you?
Him: It'll take 30 mins.
Me: Well I am in a bit of a hurry please cancel so that I can order some other cab.
Him: Well I am not in a hurry you are in a hurry and so you should cancel.
So I cancelled that with some outstanding fees, I started walking to the nearest junction where I can order another cab (thanks to a friend who dropped me till there) and again I get a waiting time of 30 mins. At this point I must say I am a man whose temper is a vice and a boon at the same time, so I am obviously pissed at this point so I start walking towards my home (9--10km)(still contemplating to order another cab). I reached the next junction, I check my uber...still says will take 30 mins. So I have a genius plan I see there is a shortcut to my home somewhere around a km or two from that junction so I kept walking.
If you are thinking why is this idiot not waiting and ordering a cab instead of ordering and cancelling...your assessment is more or less accurate except I am questioning that to myself as well. Why am I not stopping? Why do I want to keep walking? What is even going on? This is definitely not real.
I wasn't walking fast or running or anything, I wasn't worried about getting myself hurt in traffic, getting myself wet or anything as such I just kept walking. Just to give you a picture of how the Hinjewadi traffic looks.
Welcome to Hinjewadi, the land for IT companies of Pune.
I have a very likely tendency to indulge myself in philosophical discussions, where I am debating with myself about the nature of consciousness and things people usually tend to stay away from. I have watched the video of Sam Harris before leaving office, where he says there is no such thing as a self, I had gone deeper in his ideas and found his video where he tells that, people have no free will. Now, for those people who are interested in such conversations can check out those videos I don't want to get into them in this blog, but it sort of explains my headspace.
I am just questioning what compelled me to walk, by the way, I must say at this point I can see the clouds approaching (it's going to rain I am pretty sure about it). I see the small fields, children playing there, somewhere across the road there are old broken buildings where its home for a lot of wild plants now. It all seemed soothing in a way that I was able to take some time and see the place I usually drove past every day and didn't care much.
On my way, I was admiring nature, how we may have forgotten how beautiful nature is. Until I forgot that nature has its cruel side and it's out to spare none and choose the fittest. So how do I come to know it's cruel nature? Well, it starts to rain, you might say well, rains are not cruel they are rejuvinating...this was not, it was pouring cats and dogs. It's quite fitting though...it hadn't rained the entire day I was thinking I'd reach home dry as a bone, alas! I thought I'd order the cab now, but something in me wanted to keep going. I am suspecting it's very likely because of runner's high.
I was feeling good, positive overall I had taken shelter under a chocolate shop for a while, bought an energy bar, collected myself about what I was doing, was taken aback for a while but, I have done a lot of such crazy stuff...when I was a kid I have cycled for some 20kms or such. I have run a marathon where I signed up for 5km and due to the failure of the volunteers ended up running some 10km or such. I am fine with extreme physical activities this wasn't one of them anyway it was quite mild compared to what I have done before. I am not sure how I should end this article on high note but, I'll say my friend called me a few minutes later and he dropped me... for which I am extremely grateful so overall I had walked like some 5kms and I had an interesting experience.