My ride today

My ride today

This evening I went on a ride. When i started off from my hostel room, i did not know where i was headed. I go till the petrol station and find myself taking a right turn from there. So i decide to go to Kallanai. It is an old dam constructed many hundred years ago, is a marvel to conceive in those times.

I keep riding, slowly. Some school kid hitches a ride with me till some village. I tell him that i do not know any villages in this route. So he has to ask me to stop when he wants to get down. He gets down a few kilometers later and i am alone again.

I take the blind right turn, and am headed towards the dam, when i notice this bathing ghat. It has some 10 steps leading down to the river Cauvery, to take bath and draw water, only that the river is dry.

It is a wonderful sight. Its dusk and the birds are going home, the sparrows and the mynas, and the water fowl. No other people there. Absolute silence. A wonderful breeze.

I am sitting on my motorcycle. The beauty literally rolls out in front of my eyes. Sands directly under my feet. With wavy patterns and endless possibilities. Further up, there are the reeds, dark green, with white flowers. Bending to the breeze. And then there are the trees, teeming with birds, making preparations for the night. Giving life. And further up, there are the palms. Solitary and still. Permanence and poise.

I get down on to the river bed and start walking, sandals in hand and dragging my feet. There is a gentle bend to the river and beyond it I find a small puddle, teeming with egrets. They are having the final feast for the day. The water is drying out and they are choosing and picking in this abundance.

I sit down on a rock in the middle of the river bed. I then lie down on the stone. I gaze at the sky and i observe the birds. Birds, i think, are like humans. I saw one like me today! Ya, really!

He was flying alone, in full sight of a flock of birds, not caring to go too near. Yet interested in them! Having them near, just in case! How mean and selfish.

He would go near them, mix with them, then fall back and would sometimes even try to lead them. Then he would give up, and try following the flock for a change.

The flock went home, among a cluster of trees. Even then this guy was flying, seemingly without anything to accomplish. He was doing exactly what i was doing at the very moment. Hanging out, and may be even thinking! And he seemes to be a loner.

Then it started getting dark and the place a bit scary. So i start off again and have coffee and some bajji's (slices of banana or capsicum fried in oil and had with chilly or onion chutney). The ride back was fun, coz the road was full of paddy, being dried on the roads, by the enterprising Indian farmer. My motorcycle's underside is full of hay. And my mind is with that sparrow, who I think like me, needs his space, his freedom and his uniqueness.