A walk and a breakfast, with me and myself for company.

When I go alone on my walk and a breakfast after that, I introspect a lot and sense less (not senseless surely :-); however today, each one of the five sense was in their full element.

Touch

The softly flowing breeze caressed my face and tousled my hair, bringing a wide smile on my face

The slabs of course stone that were stacked one on top of the other on the pavement, invited my fingers to run over it

Sight

The red flowers that so joyfully mingled with the green leaves, attracted my mobile to take a shot

So many independent houses, old and new and named so differently from one another

Kailash and Vaikunta stood next to each other; Well, if one says, “I have seen and been to Kailash and Vaikunta, all in a day” one couldn’t be disputed

Afreen Begum, Sreedhars and Smiths were neighbours and were enjoined by a small parapet wall; united we stand, certainly

The only thing missing in Mathura, Dwaraka and Vrindavan was an idol of Krishna

Almost every lane that I walked thru’, gave a blessing in the form of Ashirwad

I passed by Amba and also by Ambika but missed seeing the third sister, Ambalika

Venkateshwara and Padmavathi stood separated even in Bengaluru, though only by a few lanes; looked like their respective counterparts in Jagadeeshwara and Parvathi gave them able company

Mandot, Vasantkunj, Kaustubh and Hansraj stood tall, white and in splendour; coudn’t but walk past in a slower pace when crossing these houses, to see thru’ their living room windows, at the so visible huge crystal chandeliers

What’s in a name? Well, seems like much is behind the name!!

And if this wasn’t a sight enough to behold, here was this lady having her breakfast (where I had mine) wearing diamond rings on three of her fingers (she certainly didn’t appear to be the type to wear a Zircon ring). The diamonds sparkled when she turned her hand ever so slightly; and caught my eyes offguard with that ever so discrete wink of a sparkle

Sound

“Soppu, Soppu – menthiya, palak, dhantu, sabbige. Soppu soppu”. When I heard this, I wondered if this person calling out would have a sore throat by the end of the day. When I turned to see who was calling out, I realised that the voice was being played from a recorder. Technology has spared no one!!

At the table where I was standing and eating, was this group of young men and women, perhaps in their 20’s, eating their breakfast, laughing and giggling. One of them broke out into a song mid-way thru’ her breakfast. A lot can happen over a plate of breakfast 🙂

Smell

Carts on the pavement were ready to start their business – the smell of steaming idlis and the frying vadas wafted and teased my olfactory receptors. I deeply inhaled the smell of the idlis and vadas and deeply exhaled my desire to stop and eat. Voila, suddenly the memory of my brother’s love for good food and his passion for cooking, marked its presence. There was no stopping of tears after that, for the next half kilometer. Quite unconsciously, the words “Love you” slipped out. Memories maybe ephemeral in nature, but one never knows which memory will be pulled out from the stack, and in what situation; no matter which recess of the mind it is residing in

As I stopped at a hotel for my breakfast, I was hit by a barrage of smells – the steam from the idlis, the smell from the fried vadas, the buttery smell of the plain or masala dosas, the fragrance of the kesari bath.. Gastronomic delight!! Couldn’t help but have one idli, one vada, one white masala (without the red chutney spread on the dosa) and one tea.

Taste

The idli was hot, the vada was crisp and the masala dosa had a crispiness to it which was complemented by the nicely mashed masala. The tea was the fitting finale to the breakfast. Well, if anyone goes out to a hotel to have breakfast after reading this, the credit goes to one’s giving in to temptation 🙂

When I reached home, there was a joy in doing a 7 km walk but this was accompanied by a feeling of an overload of the senses. All I could do , was to sit in silence and do no work for the next few minutes. It took me a while to get back to doing my household chores. This left me finally with a question – if handling this sensory overload ain’t easy, how will a person who has a difficulty to integrate the sensory inputs, handle it?