Do a new thing: First Week !

See - Why I am doing this

I don’t want to die wondering how a particular thing feels like because I never got down to doing it.

So I made a plan to do a different thing once every week.

Since I intended to keep it simple, I started by planning to walk from Phase 1 of our office to Phase 2 [ Phase 1 and Phase 2 are my company’s two office complexes separated by roughly two and a half kilometers in Pune, India]

Some may argue that is by no means a feat of endurance, or an achievement of any sort.

Exactly. That was the whole point behind the exercise.

Do things that I always wanted to do but never came to actually do because I thought they were not worth doing. Because as some of the documents that I help to design and develop say– The Return on Investment is negligible.

Well if I had a penny for all the little things that I never did in my life because I thought they were not worth doing, or were downright silly or ‘stupid’ to be done –I would be a millionaire. I would also be more happy.

So I have never got down to screaming at the setting Sun from my balcony since I was afraid that the neighbors would finally call in the cops to put the crazy kid next door away.

I have never got down to walking down a small road close to my house which has fascinated me since the past two years for I have no idea where it leads to. Every time I have tried to walk down that path surrounded by thick bushes, I have turned back because something holds me back. I know that something is simply what I have become in the past few years.

I have never apologized to a friend for a silly thing I did when I was a younger fool , simply because I assumed she has already forgiven me.

Every time I took the congested company bus between Phase 2 and Phase 1, I always wondered what it would be like to walk between the two phases. How the massive buildings will look like when viewed while walking towards them instead of being driven to them. How the Sun would reflect of the dust that has simply made the entire stretch its home. How this unremarkable, poorly constructed, and insignificant road I have been over on a million trips will feel beneath my new sports shoes.

The last time I had planned to do it had rained just as I had started with a friend from Phase 1. So we had to catch the bus. Incidentally, that day I also happened to meet a good friend for the first time in my life. So this road had to be done.

My buddy Sam bravely volunteered to join me. Now, Sam is a nice fellow who is always open to a new experience no matter how challenging it might seem to a lesser person. Yes, he is incidentally married.

You look at Sam and you notice the glow on his face and the smile which is just around the corner. And you wonder, is he still in denial?

Now, I am not the most athletic person around (My paunch slightly limits my body movements. To my lips and eyes) so I decided to ask a friend Abhishek, an avid trekker, to come join us on our arduous journey of 30 minutes over wild asphalt and a terrain inhabited by out of control buildings.

Me: I cant go on anymore. I need food… I need food….

Sam: Damn I am married. I cant go on either.

Abhishek: Hang in there. There is a restaurant every two meters. We will chance upon one soon.

It was a fun brisk walk of 35 minutes. We talked about this and that and had a good time. We also noticed a new office complex that has opened right next to our campus in Phase 1. It is amazing that a complex that can house thousands of workers right next to our office is in operation and none of us ever noticed it being built or started. Forget the little things, we have become so busy that we fail to notice a structure of steel and glass twice the size of a mountain.

As we walked I never thought about how the sun reflects off the glass, or the feel of gravel beneath my shoes. But at least I will not die wondering how a simple walk with friends between the two phases feels like.