Friday- the real start

Friday morning is when we were to start at 5-30 pm on the dot but inevitably with Kulkarnis involved we got a little late getting off the starting point. Swati and Mangesh turned up more or less on time but my backpack was biting into my shoulders. Apoorva got me another one at 5-00 in the morning from somewhere deep in her In-laws house and the process of transferring stuff took time. We then went over to Swati’s parents’ house nearby to get their blessings and finally started off from Aya nagar at 6-30am.

As we trundled over to make a good beginning we encountered in sequence some swine – with no symptoms of flu- so we felt safe, then we met an ass which very propitiously brayed at us.( I am sure you do know that all the tribal chieftains in the eastern side of lower Zanzibar regularly employ ass brayers to make their asses bray at them )and then we met the horses!!! Some magnificent horses walked past us and as we walked by I could not resist the temptation to pick off a few snapshots. As I walked along with the horses I am sure I stuck a magnificent figure- noble man and noble beast walking in sync- because that is when I stuck pay dirt.

I suddenly found 4-5 local women walking by begin to look at me with interest, at times giggle, at times points at me, at times jabber excitedly. Naturally I drew the right conclusion and stopped with my stomach pulled in, my chest thrust out and gave a masculine side ways glance at the prettiest of the lot. Will wonders never cease!!! She started jumping up and down in excitement and point at the road behind me, This of course totally unnerved even me- class 1 rake that I am. “Wouldn’t this be too public a place” I wanted to tell her and as I was mentally translating this into Hindi I decided to humor her and check out the place she wanted us to obviously use. And there over the last 200 meters were all the contents of my rucksack. Apparently the zip had come open on its own and stuff had spilled on to the road.

That besides the rest of the journey was uneventful. We walked little less than what we had anticipated but also found that there was a major glitch in the calculations- whereas google earth had indicated the distance to Dharuhera was 42 kms it apparently it measured it at the end point of Gurgaon where as we had walked from the Delhi border. We also managed to walk a bit less than what we had planned and therefore ended up 17 kms behind where we should have been that night. We consoled ourselves with the explanation that this was just after all the first day and next day we would start on time and cover it up.

There were minor pains and aches but nothing not manageable. But yes we had forgotten to do all the things we had been told were must do’s when we walk. We did not drink enough water- we started off an empty stomach, and I even forgot to take my blood pressure medicine due to which I felt a little dizzy when walking in the afternoon. Yes an important fact that came up was that we were not at all hungry. We had a sandwich each for breakfast and maybe one and a half for lunch and yet dinner time were hardly hungry. Food that was quite tasty was just pushed in before we dropped off to sleep.

Aakanksha came up with the idea that whereas lunch and breakfast could be light we would have a normal dinner -though not stuffing ourselves.” This would give us something to look forward to” she thought. .

She also walked over to me before sleeping and softly said ,”Papa thanks for bringing me on this trip-life suddenly seems so sorted out” Before I could bask in the glory of a lesson well taught she added , “ before this day I used to sympathize with you for having crazy daughters- but now I know the reason I and Tai are what we are- and no longer feel guilty about it:”.