Last Night

I usually take long walk in night, alone, or with little mp3 player which sings my favorite songs for me. Music and night and solitude!! Wow!! It's SUBLIME! It's complete. Perfect. You dont want anything else. You don't get tired. You almost walk on air. You just feel happy. It's my type of fun, and I can't tell you how much I love it! I have always loved night. I have always been in awe of her beauty, her capacity to flood me with delight and intoxication. She inspires imagination and give it wings to fly away to distant lands, vast oceans, high hills and dark forests that I have never seen before. I see myself picking flowers I never had smelt before, fruits I never had tasted before. I look for my Eve and we eat all sort of forbidden apples in our garden. I create my own small world there where all my little dreams are fulfilled. It's the very existence of this world, however ephemeral and however volatile, that gives me enough enthusiasm to face the sun next day! Don't you have your own little world where you visit and get rejuvenated? I am sure you must have one. Anyways, lets come back to night before I talk more nonsense. But still I don't understand how others fail to see the way I see. Believe me, night is made for sleeping, and something else, and something else too.

OK. Let me ask you a question, an interesting question. Have you ever wondered how many type of nights we have? Think. Have you ever thought that tommorow's night will be different from yesterday's night! Why? Oh it's so simple. It's so because we have so many moons. And so many stars. And so we have so many nights! The landscape of sky remains the same every day, but it alters every night. And so the world remains the same every day, but it alters every night! We have at least 15 type of nights depending on the shape of the moon. And then 14 more depending on the moods of the moon. It is altogether a different experience to see a moon on its way to her glory. Those nights, of course, she shines more cheerfully. Her face glows with only she knows what. And then comes the festival, the night of the full moon! Oh it's the night of magic! How else can you explain what happen to us? It's the night when poetry descends onto earth, from heaven, in form of milky smoke, giving highs to mankind. It's the night when love blooms in the heart of men and women. It's the night when desire stretches her limbs in every breathing creature. That's her charm! That's her magic! We can hardly capture her magnificence in words. She is ineffably fine for words. She slips through them.

Can you find the Great Bear tonight? No, you have to wait till summers. But yes, you can see Orion if you want to. What I want to say is that if we include the stars and their patterns then we have even more type of nights. I dont know how many. But sufficiently many. Don't you feel thrilled? I do. I have so many varieties to explore and enjoy! Apart from it, I feel a sense of freedom in night. I find a privacy in the openness. Free from heat and dust and noise and haste, I walk freely knowing that nobody is looking at me.

I had developed this habit during my stay in Germany and now this has become a part of my life.

Last night too I felt an urge to take a long walk, at 11.30 night. Some questions had demanded a ransom of appropriate answers to release my peace of mind that they had abducted. So I had to think over them.

But can you do anything when there are people with evil intentions ambushing behind some shady place waiting for you to pass by? I was almost scared when Ravi put his hand on my shoulder. I thought that my songbird is in danger, its so nice, anyone would want to have it. And I was in no mood to part with it. Well I knew karate once upon a time but I am not that young and strong anymore! And anyways my punches and kicks have long been decimated by rust due to disuse thanks to my peaceful(ahem) nature. I put off my earphones and shook hands with him. Thankfully it was him. Then I saw Akshaya who was walking towards me with utmost physical application, stuffed with kebab as he was, and looked like a typical character of one of (his favorite-) RGV's underworld movie. And he was doing what he always does - he was saying something. Bad of course as I made him walk. In summary, apart from breaking my chain of thoughts they blasted me for not hearing their calls and having been devillishly lucky to miss the pebble they threw at me! Mind you they are my friends!

Well, I knew that the night had been ruined. I had to salvage whatever I could. So I sat with them and listened to them. Akshaya lambasted in his usual style a few popular writers and IIMs and professors and us of course :)

After sometime, an irrepressible desire of having tea surged in Akshaya's body. That means that the night is gone! It has happened with us earlier too. We came back at 4.30. That too because we had to attend office. Yesterday too we took our bikes and rode to Pune railway station. I love that place. I love that place. I love that place. I rode at 100 kmph, wow! the night was saved finally! It was such a fun to fly on the empty roads! Boy, night is beauty!

We had had our tea with Sachin and Sahir. Sahir whom I worship, even Akshaya does so and anyone else would do, provided he has two things- 1. a heart, and 2. exposure. Even talking about Sahir is so much fun!

What else does one need in life! Sometimes I wonder why people are crazy after useless things when happiness is spread in so many little things. Almost everything which can give you enduring happiness is free! You don't have to be a millionaire to buy music, noone can buy music. Neither night nor solitude. Leave it. I was so happy. Music and night and solitude, everything was there. I dont exactly remember what we talked because it doesnt matter. I remember that I felt quite nice and I wanted to stay there and had more cups of tea. I wanted more Sahir and more Sachin and more of everything. But again, we had to come to office today. So we rode back at 4.30.