It is amazing how converstaions flow within us; and it is fascinating when we listen to these conversations that happen within ourselves. There are different times and places when I have conversations with myself and one of the times is during my solo walks.

It is not just conversations that happen with myself, it is also memories that get triggered of my own past experiences, when I see and hear something during these walks. I am a strong believer that we may not always revisit our experiences voluntarily but they do get triggered from time to time, based on our current experiences. This walk was one such walk, one that triggeed quite some memories and each of them brought with it, a small or a wide smile in me.

Pictures don’t do justice to this Bougainvilla plant. She so beautifully has climbed this tree and has let her pink flowers do all the flowery talk, to everyone who sees her. Resplendent in pink, be it high on the tree or bending gracefully with the branches or lying on the ground in company of a fellow flower.

She looked so beautiful up close that I couldn’t but say it loudly to her, “You look so beautiful.” I was reminded of elderly people at my home who would hear me at times talking to myself and ask, “Nobody is with you in the room and I hear you talking. Who are you talking to?” I would have been thinking of something and muttering to myself or complimenting myself for a job well done etc. Memories of a bewildered aunt who just couldn’t fathom this, brings a wide smile in me.

At around 7.30 AM on a quiet street with only the bird chirping sound heard in the background, when a song is heard playing loudly, it jars. When I looked to see where it was coming from, I saw it coming from a small truck belonging to one of the state government bodies. The song was set in the tune of ‘Breathless’ by Shankar Mahadevan. The lyrics were promoting the concept of ‘One house one tree’.

When ‘Breathless’ was released, it went absolutely viral. At that time, there was also news doing the rounds that the singer sang the entire song without taking a breath. I recall many trying to do the same and able to get past only a few lines of the song, without taking a breath. They would try again and again :-). It was much much later when it was known that it was smart editing and ofcourse clever vocal play by the singer. An evergreen catchy tune indeed!! The tune was doing the loops the rest of my walk, with many a breath taken 🙂

Oh and this one definitely got an instant smile in me. I don’t know whether this canine is a he or she but whichever gender this canine is, it was literally like seeing Mr. D in the form of this Daschund. That’s what made me stop in my tracks. I looked at the canine who looked back at me. We just held our gaze for a few seconds. I had a tear ready to roll out and a wide smile too. It was a spontaneous, “Love you, Daxu” that I muttered under my breath before I left from that place.

What a tall, dark and handsome fellow Mr. D is in all of our minds!! Continues to bring loads of happiness, with memories of our times with him.

As I was almost at the end of my walk, I passed by a house with a name plate that read  K Udupa. I read it as Kudupa because the . after the K seemed to have dulled :-).  In Tamil, the word ‘Kudupa’ is informally telling someone to give something they have with them. I wondered why a house was named so. Peered a little on the name plate and saw the dulled . :-). I then read it as K. Udupa.

I recall the time when the movie Swades (a Shah Rukh Khan starrer) was released. I didn’t understand why a Hindi movie should have the title SwAdes (with the long vowel sound of A) and what was the meaning. When I asked this to a couple of friends who were proficient in Hindi, they burst out laughing. It took them a couple of minutes to stop laughing and it was then that they told me that it should be pronounced as ‘Swadesh’. I mean, “Why would you not spell it ‘Swades’ with a h, which makes it so easy to pronounce? Carzy people. They spell it wrong and the unfamiliar Hindi me, am supposed to get it right?” :-). Duh!!

No solo walk of mine is complete without a learning revealing itself. As I sat sipping a glass of hot tea, happily seated on a step, in front of a small coffee  shop, I overheard a conversation that resonated with some situations I have been in. The thought that started doing the loop then and continues to do so, even after a couple of days now is,

“If someone tells you that what you have done is wrong, there are only two things you can do. If it is true, learn from the mistake and correct it next time. If it isn’t true, ignore what is said and move on. Why did they say what they said, is none of your business.” Hard hitting but so apt!!

As my guru, Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati would say – you are the problem, you are the solution.