.. and that’s not a bad thing.

Today was a bright and beautiful day, so I chose to hit a close by trail with a friend. After about couple of hours of hiking, we found a peaceful spot in a shade by the lake. We were sitting and chatting away when a lady walked to us.

I had seen her standing and watching the horizon of the lake holding a bottle of water and her stance had not changed for quite a while. When she walked over I gave a friendly wave and started the conversation. That’s when I realized she wasn’t acting normal. She wasn’t speaking clearly and kept looking at my backpack asking “What have you got in there?”

Although it was a bit creepy, I did not feel threatened. I said it’s just my backpack here. She repeated the same question like 3-4 times “What’s in there?” So I humoured her, I said here’s my bottle, here’s my notebook and then thought maybe she was hungry. I dug in to retrieve a chocolate croissant (individually wrapped) and held it up saying “I’ve got this, interested?” She immediately reached out taking it and said thank you.

Then she started mumbling “I like to walk alone and that’s not a bad thing.” She kept saying that over and over again. I smiled and said “Of course. It’s absolutely fine if you want to enjoy this weather alone.” But it didn’t look like she was registering anything that was being said, she seemed to be in her own thoughts.

I pulled out a few candies I had stashed in another pocket, held them out to her in my palm and asked “Want some of these?” She grabbed all of them and said “Thank you. I like to walk alone, and that’s not a bad thing.”

But I could see she was happy with what she got, she kept turning around saying thank you and went back to her bench resuming her initial stance of staring into the horizon.

She wasn’t a homeless person, or at least she didn’t look like one. She was dressed in athletic wear, maybe in her late twenties (I am not good at guessing age, let’s just say she was young) and seemed healthy enough. Anyways, what struck me were the words that seemed to have chained her thoughts today.

“I like walking alone, and that’s not a bad thing.”

Human minds are impossible to figure out. And not everything needs to be analyzed. Sometimes things and events can just be what they are. However her words seemed very random yet very profound. May be her repeating these words endlessly made an impression on me, nevertheless, it indeed isn’t a bad thing. And I hope she finds what she is searching for.

Comments

Zindagi Gulzar Hai - A feast to ones eyes!

Today I am here to make a much interesting comparison of our current Indian TV industry with our neighboring country’s television industry. Interesting because I never thought I would ever engage in watching any of the Pakistan TV series/movies or listening to their music. My disinterest in Pakistan entertainment was not because of the tensed relationship with the country. But I myself am not a big fan of TV serials. The kind of drama that is filled in Indian TV Channels today is just exhausting and tiring to watch. I hardly follow any Indian TV series. When I visit home on vacation, I join my family in watching the program they watch and that’s how I keep myself updated with what is trending in the TV industry. I love listening to music and I listen to all genres of music. I did start listening to Pakistani music since last few years and have admired their music. Strings, Fuzon, Kaavish, Jal, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ghulam Ali, Parveen Abida, Quratulain Baloch and many ...

Ahamasmi Yodha - My First Tattoo

I finally did it. It isn’t a great achievement to show off, but for me it’s one more item on my bucket list getting fulfilled. So I am very happy about it. What did I do? Oh like I said nothing great – I just got my FIRST Tattoo :) My first Tattoo Artist I had done a lot of research on it since last couple of months. I wanted to get it done on my birthday, but it somehow dint work out. For all the first timers, I wanted to list out my personal experience, just in case it helps :) First of all, I felt it will be very helpful if you have some friends who would have got it done already. But I dint have that privilege. So I went through lot of blogs and articles in About.com, Wikihow, YahooAnswers etc… Well Google, the new lord of knowledge :) has all that you need to know. So, in summary, what I got from all these sites were First decide on what you want to get tattooed and where. Go over it again and again, since it is permanent, you will have to live ...

Uncovered, Not Exposed

After ages of procrastination, I finally decided to try formal art classes. I had always feared that rules would take the fun out of my art. Art is where I go to unwind and let my mind wander, and the idea of placing boundaries in that safe space never sat well with me. But this year, I signed up for weekend spring classes; telling myself to keep an open mind and take in only what resonated. I was intimidated - I didn't know if this would draw me deeper into art or push me away. To my surprise, it was overwhelming, but in the best possible way. The reason for this post is however not to cover my art journey ( I have just started so I will give it some time to settle in ); but instead to capture my thoughts upon observing a profession in real life that I have only watched on screen - Live nude models. And the quiet power of their bare form. I spent an entire day observing nude male and female body for figure drawing, and it blew my mind in ways I had not expected. ...

Life... A Blank Page!

Whenever I open a notebook and come across the set of blank pages; my mind goes blank. For some reason, it always reminds me of my life. It forces me to start thinking about my life; about the past and the future. Being part of the age of computers and belonging to the IT industry, I hardly get an opportunity to actually pick a pen and write in the notebook. I write lot of blogs, poems etc… but I write them on the webpage or in Microsoft word in my laptop. Once in a while I like to go back to traditional form of writing; using the actual pen and paper. And in last few years; I noticed that every time I try doing that for some reason the blank paper gets me all philosophical. Although I never have that thought while opening the book; but whenever I see those blank pages; I just go blank. I always feel that my life is staring back at me with all those unanswered silenced questions, doubts, thoughts…forcing me to think – What does my lif...

My Favorite Read - 6 - The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev (and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer)

So, now that I want to get into some serious mountaineering activities, I started with reading books on mountains. When you check for top few books on mountains the one that comes up is " Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer " followed by “ The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev" ; both based on the 1996 Everest disaster which was made quite controversial. I started with "Into Thin Air' and while I was reading, I was continuously in conflict with Jon's views. Mind you, my memory is pretty weak when it comes to remembering details of any story - whether its books or movies. I had watched few documentaries and the Everest movie based on this topic; but that was a while ago. when I started reading this book 2 weeks back, I had no background; you can say I was totally new to this story. And yet, it was difficult for me to understand some of Jon's accusations or feelings. But nevertheless, Jon's style of writing was amazing; he knew how to keep reader's...

Dawn & Dusk at 7th Wonder of the World!

As I walked down the street through the red walled East gate entrance , I stood still at the first glance of the Seventh wonder of the world! The Taj Mahal! First glance of Taj hidden behind the gates! It was an abrupt trip, completely unplanned for; thanks to a friend who shot this idea my way to take a pit stop at Agra for an evening before I catch my flight to US from Delhi the next day. I just had one evening in Agra, and did not have time to plan anything. View of Taj from the main entrance. Time Check — We reached Agra at 5 PM on a Saturday evening and headed out to buy entry tickets at 5:45 PM; were inside the East gate by 6:15 PM and it was not crowded at all. We saw the interiors of Taj and then sat outside in the veranda watching the sunset. April being the hottest month, the evening was warm but not uncomfortably hot. 7:30 PM we had to leave as it was closing down. The next day morning we got the tickets at 5:45 AM, were in Taj Mahal again arou...

Reading between the lines

“ What makes you think it’s you? ” She asked cocking her head to her right giving him a studying glance. He thought he was sure, but now looking at her piercing eyes, he wasn’t so sure after all. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and clearing his throat said “ Well, you know, you always write about broken heart. And ahem, we both know, how that happened. So.. you know, I thought that it’s written around our relationship .” “ Hmm ” she said, straightening and sipping her bourbon. “ But now looks like I was a fool to think that? ” Now it was his turn to shot that questioning glance. “ You were always a fool. You know that right. But anyway you were my fool! ” She smiled. “ I like the sound of ‘my’ there. But I am getting a feeling there’s no place for it anymore? ” he asked with slight nervousness. “ Tell me Erhan, why are you really here? I have my assumptions but I want to hear it from you. Tell me. ” She leaned forward, throwing her full weight on the table and her full atten...

Solving Life like a Rubik's cube!

I had bought Rubik's cube around 4 years back I think, and I would just keep turning it's faces around without any logic to see if color's aligned. I knew there was some trick and logic to solve it; but I never had a deep interest in learning it. So it used to lie around in my house with not much success. Last month, I got an urge to check this off my list. So, I sat watching Youtube videos and reading numerous webpages, learning about various tricks/moves to solve the Rubik's cube. I solved it. Then I scrambled it, to start all over again. I solved it again. I scrambled it again, and redid the process till I memorized it's move so I could solve it without any guidance. During, this process, I learnt something. There were times when I was close to last few steps in solving the cube, then I would make a bad move and cube would get messed up. I would scramble it again, and start over. There was this weird feeling of losing what I have accompli...

Journey of Supertramp - what's your life's version?

Alaska has many reasons to be my favorite, the ultimate wilderness. But here's a pic from Alaska that reminds me of Supertramp. Remember his big game? Into the wild. I had read the book a while back, but watched the movie last week on Netflix, kind of got me thinking all over again. It's beautiful yet melancholy version of how he stripped himself away from the clutches of the society. The way he went from McCandless to Supertramp and during his last days with a quote of "call by it's true name" he goes from Supertramp back to McCandless, is quite an emotional journey. It's one thing to destroy your world and breakaway, but another when you want to return back into that shattered destroyed world. Not trying to justify the actions of his family, that moulded Chris into Alexander; but they had a painful and emotional journey too. The worst thing that can happen to anyone is not knowing what happened to their loved ones - are they Alive? Dead? Injured? Happy?....

When Silence Speaks...

Search This Blog