Simply BE

It’s yet another of those days; thankfully! Quiet, yet bustling with activity; twilight, yet illuminated; unplanned, yet looking ahead to the week to come; alone, yet with the entire world in my lens. In a life so hectic and so well scheduled (more out of compulsion rather than habit), I seldom get a moment that I can call my own…all by myself…my space.

6:00 pm, refreshed after a good Sunday siesta, a cup of ginger tea by my balcony railing, comfortably seated on my jute and wood throne, addressing my digital audience – life doesn’t get better than this. Perhaps it is the din of kids playing downstairs or the sound of drums playing somewhere not so distant, or just the auto revving through the society gate, maybe the pressure cooker’s whistle from someone’s kitchen or the slight hum of an evening prayer…whatever it is, I am loving every moment of this melee of extremely disparate chords.

And then there are the voices within me. What am I going to do next this evening? Am I going out for dinner? Or just grab a movie at home? Catch up with friends online or call folks back home? What’s the plan at work this week? Which page did I leave the last book I was reading? Chuck it dude…I’ll continue gazing through the balcony.

It’s almost impossible to articulate such moments. When you have nothing to do, or even remotely planned for. No timelines, no deliverables, no commitments, no accountability, none to respond, neither to hear, nor to watch, much less to understand. When you can simply BE.

The only thing that comes perhaps close to such moment is the destination-less drive that I sometimes indulge in. When you can just soak in everything that’s around you without judging it, when it’s not important that you reach some place at a specified time to do a specific activity. When you just let Kishore Kumar and the road drive you, rather than the route and the small watch on your dashboard.

It is such moments that make the week’s grind worth it. Every now and then, you need a pit stop to recharge yourself before you are back on your daily track, racing towards the finishing line, hoping you’d be uncorking the champagne on the podium once you win. And of course, you anxiously look forward to the next one post that.

For now, I’d prefer ignoring all that and simply savor this moment. Simply BE.