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Walker's progress thru the crowd

Janaki Murali

IF you live in the heart of the city, you are likely to wake up with a heavy head and a leaden heart and all you want to do is swallow a couple of aspirins and go back to sleep. But what if you were able to move your lethargic limbs to take that power wa lk every morning, then the rest of the day, however bad it turns out, becomes easier to face.

And with green cover being scarce in the city, you may find that for your rendezvous with nature, you have to drive a while, until you find a place, where you can still listen to bird song, smell the flowers and breathe in ozone rich air. If you are det ermined, find it you will.

A bamboo grove, miles and miles of trees, quaint pathways, a defunct fountain, stray dogs, precarious overhangings, broken branches under foot, Queen Victoria guarding an entrance, Lord Cubbon at the High court and Wodeyar with his stubbed foot and of co urse the priceless sight of the flight of pigeons over Vidhana Soudha, make the Cubbon Park the more interesting of the two favourite haunts of walkers in Bangalore.

As for the other favourite haunt, any time is walking time at Lalbagh, for mercifully, the park is not open to vehicular traffic. Open for tourists throughout the day, the gardens have some exotic trees, green benches lining a boulevard, a Japanese nook, and of course the famous glass house and the lake. And if you are lucky you could even get to see the diving ducks.

At Lalbagh, you could join a walkers' club or yoga classes or the laughers' club or you could choose to meditate quietly with the breeze from the lake caressing your cheeks, or you could always trek up the hillock and watch the world passing by, from you r vantage point above the city.

And if you are a dedicated walker, you will find that you are always looking for your patch of green, wherever you are. Whether it be at Hyde Park in London or the Walkers Lane in Bandra, Mumbai. At Hyde Park, you get to see neatly manicured lawns and th e fair English on horseback amidst the centuries old structures steeped in history, while at Bandra, you get to walk chock-a-block with the other enthusiasts, four in a row sometimes.

And if you want to escape the crowd, however interesting their conversation may be, which it is almost always, as a rule on the stock market, or how business has been, you could always sit on a bench facing the sea and watch the smog-ridden skyline, whic h Mumbaites love to liken to the Manhattan skyline.

And imagine your luck, if you land up in the hills and get to walk among the wisps of clouds in the Nilgiris with the blue mountains in the background, with the smell of spices in the air, or if you got to walk in the sleepy coffee country of Coorg, or.. ..

Well, one could go and on, but if you are a walker, all you want to do is walk on and on and on....