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Instead of deliberating on the cause and effect of such a decision, I had just walked out of my home in one of the hottest days marked by the Indian weather bureau at noon! The heat was literally boiling out from everywhere, from the earth, from the sky, from the air and from all around me.

There were not many people on the road, not even the commonly visible hawkers and the building workers. There were a couple of cars flying over the flyover and a handful more were crossing the signal at the other end of the road. There were quite a few cars parked at the residence fronts, at the mall fronts and at the restaurant fronts!

I had walked on. I could see the vapors raising out of the Mother Earth and the trees were swaying according to the invisible rhythm of the hot air that was lazing around the area. I had felt, rather than seen the sweating that had started pouring out of my face and my body. Within seconds, I could even see the salty water rolling over my hands, were dripping from my chin and had pooled over the neck and in between my shoulder blades!

I had walked on. The heat was bad, was tough and was unbearable. I had continued to walk, wondering as to how the men who had bravely ventured into the desert at this point of time might have felt? I could never imagine the special courage that is required to undertake such an amazing journey of crossing the desert in summer! I could always cut back on my walk, get back to my home and could relax. I could stand below the shower and get refreshed after venturing out into such a torturous weather. What they could have done, instead of continuing their odorous journey under such an inhospitable desert? How do they get their courage to undertake such a journey? What had made them to play such an extreme sport, that too, for days and weeks together?

I had continued to walk! After an half an hour, I had started feeling good about myself and about the weather. It was strange that I had even started feeling a bit cool inside. I could walk comfortably now. I had started looking all around me, mentally noting the little shops in between the big shops and the residential societies, the cyber café, which I was disparately searching for on the other day, the various eateries and the coffee shops, the narrow lanes in between the normal lanes and the roads…

It had felt good rather to be walking like this, instead of sitting at home, browsing on the net or watching some stupid soap opera in the TV or reading for the sake of reading something…

The more I had walked, the more I had started enjoying my walk in the mid-summer mid-noon and the more comfortable I had become! It must be after a couple of hours that I had decided to trace my steps back home!

It had happened a long time ago! Now the mid summer mid-noon does not make any difference to me.It’s amazing how, when you don’t mind, nothing ever matters!

Lalitha V. Raman.

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