Running s(h)ort of

The road was shining, every drop of rain adding to its glitter; the green moss over the parapet of the old house, by the seventh street; the blowing breeze and the green leaves swinging in rhythm. The Royal Enfield bike vehemently making its way through the pot-holes, on the narrow tar road, with green meadows on both sides. He was lost in his old memories - good and bad, sweet and sour. Just then, almost out of nowhere he heard a distant music, a song from an old Bollywood flick. It was coming from some distant place, but it captured his attention all of a sudden. Sunken in his thoughts he continued his ride.

He knew every single bend, ups and downs of this road. He had travelled numerous times on this same route over weekends in last five years - since the time he has joined this new job. He comes back home every Friday evening sees the same trees, same meadows. There was nothing new, yet this music, as if, telling him to take some time out and listen to his heart. As if telling him to go back to that old college building, sit with friends, have that chai and samosa in that college canteen, jamming on the same old numbers he has grown up listening to.

He proceeded with the steady pace, subsiding those thoughts, as though, telling himself not to get distracted. He could see the lights far off telling him that he would be home, may be, in the next half an hour. The mood was jubilant with the thought of next two days that he will be spending in solitude, with himself, away from the crowd of a big city, gossips of the office, chaos of professional life. Suddenly he felt that the music has come closer. He could now hear the song, "kahin door jab din dhal jaaye...". Almost then a small roadside tea stall caught his attention - a small hut with earthen chulha, small bursts of smoke coming out of it, a small table and an old fashioned tape recorder . The rain has now turned into a drizzle. As he approached the hut he felt an urge to halt there for a while, have some time with himself. With the first sip of the chai he asked himself a question - how is it that over last five years, he never noticed this place? Prompt came the answer from within, busy life and glitters of the fast city life hardly gives time to be vis a vis with self and realise what we really need...