Morning Walk

What’s the best alternative to swimming? Once, during an assessment of my routine medical report, a cardiologist told me that the athletes, especially who walk and run a lot, have the healthiest of the hearts. While on my short vacation to Amdavad (Ahmedabad), as I couldn’t get a good swimming option, I took to morning walk.

I recollected a spot which had maintained its attractiveness for avid walkers by not giving-in to the pressures of modernization. I was delighted to find it as untouched as it was a couple of years back. Only the enthusiasts, who would like to utilize such a rare facility, had increased in number. I’m talking about the campus of the ‘Sardar Patel Institute of Economic & Social Research’ located at the junction of Drive-in road and SG Highway.

The natural beauty on both sides of the entrance road is the first welcoming sign which sets in your mood for a good walk. The gradient of the climb is so perfect that it puts enough pressure on your legs, so as to remind you of your objective, yet not discouraging you from moving further on. The walkway is a combination of a tar road, a cemented section followed by long narrow path of natural soil leading into the woods.

You can see people coming here from all walks of life, to walk! People of all ages, gender, some who are fitness freaks, some who come because others come, some who do not skip as they are pretty serious about their goal, some who cannot skip because how will they survive without their daily dose of gossip! For elders, this is the best spot where they can share their joys & sorrows with others who are sailing in the same boat. For some it’s a place to do yoga in a group, for a few it’s a perfect location to do ‘surya namaskaar’ or ‘pranayaam’ or ‘kapal bhati’. Some even indulge in meditation, chanting ‘shlokas’ in the serene beauty of the greens touched gently with an occasional sound of ‘mandir ki ghanti’.

The entire surroundings are an abode to different birds who can be heard chirping, singing and seen enjoying a place which are now-a-days extremely difficult to find in a bustling & expanding city.

While I completed my few rounds of the whole complex, I got my gift of choosing such a mesmerizing place, a sight for which I held my breath while I shot it with my mobile camera, to delightfully share with all of you…

PS 1: This is arguably the best time to be in Amdavad. You can watch people in a very nice anticipative mood of ‘NaMo’ becoming the next PM, about which they happily indulge in a long ‘chai pe charcha’ in their Gujarati language which is as ‘meethi’ as their ‘chai’.

PS 2: Personally for me it’s so important to walk as it takes away all the guilt which otherwise would haunt me while I satiate my desires with foods like ‘phaphda-jalebi’ for breakfast & ‘dal-bati’ during dinner!