Spring's here!!

Spring is indeed here! Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, butterflies are fluttering -- bringing joy to the world. The breeze is filled with the fragrance of newly blossomed flowers. In the mornings, the birds fly, singing announcing the arrival of yet another sunny day. I was never to know this but for the early-to-work habit of our maid. She starts pressing our doorbell, never later than 7 o'clock. One of these days, the consistent doorbell found me to answer. After letting the bai in, I tried hard to get back to sleep, but it never happened. I picked up the paper and got to the balcony. It was very pleasant there; the warmth of rising sun, the chill of morning breeze! Bang - this was the inauspicious moment when the doomed idea hit me. I decided to get up early every morning and take a walk!

As if it wasn't bad enough, I announced my plans to my room-mates also. At first they didn't believe me and had a good laugh but eventually they understood that I was pretty serious about it and they laughed even better. The news spread like a wildfire and pretty soon bets were being made over my ambitious decision. Now it was a question of pride for me. I have a pretty long history of making such decisions and ditching them later; first there was the plan to learn guitar, then Spanish, then the swimming club, then cooking, then tabla, etc. etc. I never had any problems ditching them -- no guilt, no question-answers, no ridiculing friends. But this time the situation had gone out of hands.

Bothera, who was in habit of going jogging every morning, promised (quite cynically) to wake me up every morning sharp at 6:15 & take me along. As a matter of principle, I take rest on weekends, so a Monday morning was selected for the start of my jogging chore. I was pretty excited about the whole idea as I had my own ideas about jogging. I imagined young girls jogging with me in the park, I estimated it'll take some 2-3 weeks for me to have 6-packs for my abs, most importantly I thought it'll be quite easy to get up early for jogging. I was in wait for a rude shock!

At the Sunday evening, I kept my shoes and track suit ready for next day. I ate early and by 9:30 I was in my bed. After tossing & turning in there for about half an hour (which felt like an eternity) I decided to watch TV for a while. (Un)Fortunately, Andaz Apna Apna was on! I had to watch it. By the time it got over, it was 11:15. I thought I'll sleep easily this time, but sadly it was not to be. After another tossing session, I thought about reading myself to sleep. I picked up some of the most bore books, even the dictionary - only to be disappointed! The view of my jogging shoes, from the corner of my eyes, was making me nervous. I decided to spend some time on the net. Three emails and two long chat sessions later, it was about 12:45. I felt little sleepy but a lot more hungry! I decided to have a Maggi before sleeping. When I finished eating my Maggi it was almost 2:00. I checked the set alarms, my jogging clothes & my shoes. I kept the phone under my pillow and for the third time in the night, hit the bed. I can't remember how many sheeps I counted, I think eventually I lost the count, but this time luckily I fell asleep.

I woke up with jogging (and the park full of beauties) on my mind. I woke up even before the alarms could ring. I checked the time and it was only 4:45. I cursed my broken biological clock and after re-checking everything, went to sleep again. My sound early morning sleep was broken by the harsh ringtone of my phone (I wish, I had some melodious ringtones, but my ancient cell is quite oblivious to these new technological advents!). It was Bothera. I straight away cut the call and cut it again twice, quite reflexively. The phone fell into a tranquil silence & I went back to the jogging park full of Parizaad Zorabians, in my dreams of course. I was again pulled back to the not-so-glamourous reality, this time by the alarm clock! I took Parizaad's excuse for a moment and banged the clock with my hand. I guess it din't take it that well as I have not heard from it since then. I finally got up at 9:45 and good for me, my room-mates had left for their offices by then. It was only a delay for the inevitable though and that evening over many dinner tables across Bangalore, I was the butt of all jokes!

Now I have found a decent excuse, "The work load has increased in office and I've to stay there till late! Early morning won't be possible at presnt", but I guess no one buys it :-(