Behind our home is the expansive, enviously green SPIC cricket ground and adjacent to that is the famous YMCA College with its sprawling forest-like campus. Early in the mornings and late evenings YMCA campus is infested with fitness conscious people – walking jogging, gym-ming, swimming etc.
It’s an old campus so the trees there are massive. Neem trees, Flame of the forest trees, Tamarind trees, Banyan trees – all huge trees jostling for sky space. The cluster of trees are interspersed with open fields for playing football, badminton, basketball, tennis courts etc. We go there sometimes in the evenings – my daughter and I – for a walk. Just to collect leaves and make wild flower bouquets and generally run around in the vast outdoors.
There are deers inside this campus roaming in the wild. If we are lucky we catch a glimpse of them in their spotted, shiny coats. The look up startled at us and then sprint away – an incredible sight to see right in the heart of the city!
We go there – usually, after a spell of rain, when all the snails come out…
We went there last evening – hoping to see snails. First we crossed the cricket ground – lush green after the recent rains. The sight of such a vast expanse of open space and fresh green grass does strange, happy things to us! We went berserk skipping, hopping, running and rolling on the grass. When we reached the other end, we entered the YMCA campus. Yesterday we were greeted by the sight of three handsome stags with their long horns. And for the first time I heard the call of the stag!Perhaps it was calling out to its mate…who was chewing grass a little distance away. We were absolutely fascinated and stood transfixed to see what would happen next. However the stag did not like our presence and moved away towards his female counterparts.
As we moved on a mangoose crossed our path! We ran after it screaming “mongoose mongoose”and the poor creature rushed to hide in the thicket of bushes around the place. We tried to follow him into the bushes – but then decided against it - worried about the presence of snakes.
And we saw plenty of snails. Big ones. Small ones. Medium size ones. All of them lazing in the great outdoors. We touched them with twigs and watched them disappear into their gorgeous shells. We fed the little ones with leaves. And decided to wait and watch them eat. But this obviously was going to be a long, slow process. For a while nothing happened. The leaf just shook from time to time. “Why is a snail so slow mom?" Asked my daughter curiously. “Just to tell us that everything need not be done in a hurry!” says me wisely. “I think it’s to teach us patience.” Says she even more wisely. We mulled over this for a while and decided to move on.
We went to the open area where joggers were jogging and walkers were doing their thing. We walked a couple of rounds and then got distracted by wild flowers growing all around. We made a huge bouquet with all kinds of pretty wild growth and then decided to head home as it was getting dark.
As we walked back across the vast cricket ground, breathing in the freshness, our hair getting blown by the cool breeze, I thought of the things we do to entertain ourselves. We go and watch silly movies on which someone even more silly has invested 100 crores. When, really, all we need to feel happy is fresh air and time off to do nonsensical little things. This little outing of ours left us tired, excited and very happy. What was it worth? A million dollars? Nay…priceless!
