A Walk to Remember

It was your average day on an average weekend but for once I wasn’t walking the streets of Bangalore buying provisions and the like for the week to come. I was walking rather aimlessly in Masinagudi with a couple of my cousins. Sorry, we had a purpose of sorts. In fact, our purpose was multifaceted in nature.  There was the exercise, the fresh air, the beauty of nature and a “boy” at the end of the road. There were three of us and each one’s goal was different. The important thing is, we worked as a team to fulfill all our goals, which by the way, we did.  A “united we stand, united we fall” kind of thing.

And so, we trudged on

And on

And on

Until we gave up - Almost!

We’d been ordered to stick to the main roads as we didn’t know the jungle and to be honest we’re not that insane. I had no intension of running into “Akbar’s lair” – the infamous wild elephant with tusks that sweep the ground and a trunk that loves to toss people around before going for the kill. My way of dealing with this? I took my cell phone out of its hiding place and dumped it in my pocket. What!? You see, she-who-never-carries-her-cell phone around figured it made perfect sense to pull out the weapon of her choice so she could bid her family adieu before the elephant (I was sure it would be death-by-elephant) said hello. Eh, I figured they’d grant me a last wish or something as I’d never intended any harm to begin with. Makes sense now? Of course it does! To be honest there was a bigger chance of my cousin Teena killing me as my “nursery rhyme” refrain of the day was “Three Blind Mice!” Not very comforting really as I’d pipe up with it every time we took a wrong turn.

Anyway, getting back to reality and walking on main roads: The only animals we ran into were goats and cows which meant my cell phone remained tucked away the whole freaking hour it took us to reach our final destination; a destination that greeted us with elephant dung, deer and turkey. The latter reminded us of the Knights Templar. Oh come on, you don't see it!?

Footnote:  The same walk through well known trails in the jungle takes only twenty minutes. Something we discovered when a kind “local” soul took it upon himself to show us the way back home. Now, we know. Ha!

(Photograph of turkeys courtesy Cousin Anitha)