BRIEF CASE: Are You Walking?

Anjana Pradhan / Apr 8, 2008, 00:01 IST

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Baba, my grandfather, walks 16 km every day, as he has been doing for the past 50 years.

Grandmom has nicknamed him Left-Right �� his sons, in his absence, call him Apollo 13, and we call him Baba. Our 87-year-old Baba, a disciplinarian in his own way, has seldom skipped his morning and evening walks.
Baba, my grandfather, walks 16 km every day, as he has been doing for the past 50 years. When we were kids, an invitation from grandpa to accompany him on his walk was a tough thing to avoid.
So willingly or unwillingly, we would put in our best effort to keep pace with his brisk style for 20 minutes, after which we would gradually step back and vanish from his sight.
Even now, it is hard to walk with my grandfather. Be it rain, sunshine or when the sky is pregnant with mist-laden clouds in Sukhia Pokhari, a hamlet just 20 km from Darjeeling, my granddad never misses his walks along the 4-km winding road covered with pine and rhododendron trees.

For the monsoon, he has a pair of gumboots and an umbrella. And with the onset of wintry weather, Baba takes out his black overcoat, a woollen cap from the closet and a pair of sneakers. People who live along his walking route have been seeing him for years.
He is no stranger to the schoolchildren he meets everyday. He has a special bond with them, and chats with them about their studies, sports and TV serials too. His constant advice to them is: "Walking keeps one away from all sort of diseases, never stop walking".
We've been hearing this since our childhood, but grandpa doesn't tire of repeating the same sentence. He is hundreds of miles away from my brother and me but the first line we hear every Sunday morning when he calls us is "Are you guys walking? Or do you have another excuse?" We cannot explain how difficult it is to walk on Bangalore's roads, which is reeling under the grip of chaotic traffic.
Baba has not seen the jam-packed roads, inhaled the choking air or walked on the congested pavements. As an old-timer, he knows Bangalore as the Garden City, famous for her fresh air and cool weather. But, how long can we go on making excuses? Or, maybe he should visit us and see the chaos himself. On second thoughts, perhaps it's better he waits till Bangalore is unlocked.

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