Summer’s in the Park... Runner’s Diaries

When most of the city has retreated to cooler climates, exotic locales, beaches,  we fools take to the park to continue with our off-season training. And it seems like the park is happy to see us, tired from all the  cannodling couples, lukka kids with their cameras and selfies, and many morons who get their vehicles and come to the park (talk about the irony). Nature has laid down a carpet of yellow to welcome you.

The trees are In full bloom with their , yellow, orange, pinks, purples and white, the colours of summer, making the park bursting with a riot of colours. Not to forget the runners and walkers have their own colourful attire.

As you run, there’s a cool breeze in the air that lightly caresses your face, keeping you cool from the harshness of the weather outside, from the highway that passes outside the park. And further you get from the concrete jungle, and into nature, the cooler the weather, the fresher the air, except when you come to Kanheri when you once again feel the heat, not just of the weather but of the climb also. So you have some hot patches (not because of a hot runner Running there), and the challenge of the slope.

The trees in all their colourful glory, though some stripped off and standing there bare, naked and brown, lining up the road, often overarching it, promising to protect you from the harshness of the sun, keeping it nice cool, for summer. 

The cloudy skies too seem to be doing their bit, trying it’s best to dilute the harshness of the season trying its best not to heat the weather. But the great and mighty sun would have none of it, peeping through the clouds, bursting through the trees. But the Sun’s intention is not to make you cower before it, or bring you to your knees, but to show you what stuff you are made off, to make you stronger and fitter, more resilient, as you face more adverse conditions like the hot and humid condition of mumbai weather. 

So as you go, you listen to the sounds of nature, the music that it has prepared for you, the gentle rhythm, the blended harmonies, of the breeze, rustling through the leaves, the chirping of the birds and the crickets, nature’s very own music, the soundtrack for your run, so often drowning out your chatter.

So you try to keep up with the chatter and the pace, trying to weather the heat of summer, the rolling terrain, while navigating the slopes, as primates blankly stare your way, wondering what these humans are upto, torturing themselves in the summer heat. You’re glad for the light breeze on your face, as much as you are for the company, for the colours that burst through the foliage, hiding away the concrete you left behind. The only concrete you see is the one beneath your feet.

So no matter how the weather maybe outside, the weather inside will be pleasant, albeit a bit challenging as the morning wears on. But no matter the weather, the park will always the place to be, to hideaway from the summer’s heat, to escape the air that’s been polluted, from the concrete jungle, into the arms of nature and all the challenges it has to offer. So come the weekend, come summer (or any weather, or climate), you’ll find this boy, and his friends, running, chirping and chattering away, in the park.