WALKING AND WALKING AWAY

 

“I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask,

‘Mother, what was war’?” 

Eve Merriam 

My friend, Vikram, who is one year older than I am, is a relentless walker. We lived in our housing complex for nearly twenty years, till a year ago, when he and his wife moved to their new house in Pune. Besides his crazy sense of humour, Vikram, as I said, was a crazy walker… His walks, always, started when the Sun was right over your head – that was around 10 or so in the mornings. He was able to follow this routine because he ran his own business. So, while the rest of us were well into our daily grind at our work places, Vikram kept orbiting around our buildings in his walking shoes for over an hour every day… He would never miss it, come hail or come tsunami…

“What about your walks?” I had asked him in the thick of lockdown.

“That’s what I am doing right now?” was the answer.

                                                         (Vikram with his grandchild)

Yes, Corona or no Corona… Vikram would never, ever walk away from his walks!

Against this back drop, I was not motivated enough to read a WhatsApp message he had sent to me a couple of days ago. “Walking is the Best Exercise!!!” The message was titled as…

“Well, Vikram, you have told this to us for almost two decades,” I thought in my mind and did not read beyond the title. But, then, last evening, something prompted me to open this message… And, it was something I had come across somewhere, sometime before:

WALKING"* IS THE BEST EXERCISE!!!

🚶🏽 

*Walk Away* 🚶🏽 from

arguments that lead you to nowhere but anger.

*Walk Away* 🚶🏽 from

people who deliberately put you down. 

*Walk Away* 🚶🏽 from

any thought that reduces your worth. 

*Walk Away* 🚶🏽 from

failures and fears that stifle your dreams. 

*Walk Away* 🚶🏽 from

people who do not care for you and who are opportunistic. 

The more you

*Walk Away* 🚶🏽 from

things that poison your soul, the happier your life will be. 

*Give Yourself A Walk*🚶🏽

Towards love, peace, kindness and goodness 

*Give Yourself A Walk*🚶🚶 to Positivity. 

Let's do more walking. 

So, it’s clear, that the key to my friend Vikram’s childlike laughter has two sides: Walk… and Walk Away!

For quite a long time, particularly, whenever I am down, one of the places I have been taking refuge in is Jimmy Kimmel’s encounters with li’l kids. There are hundreds of them available on YouTube… So, just to tell you how healthy they can keep us, I am sharing here three of them. When I watched them, early this morning, I could feel the detox in my bones…

 

They say, “You cannot be sad or mad when you exercise.” They also say, “You cannot be sad or mad when you are with li’l children.”

How right they are!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: 1. pixabay 2. Indira Iyer

 

Video: Jimmy Kimmel Live