It's Jungle Out There

Many joggers and runners greet us as we enter into Gandhi Krishi Vigyaan Kendra (GKVK) on the Devanhalli Airport Road. The place seems to be the favorite of early morning risers. And there are good reasons for that. If lush green trees on the both sides of the main road are any indication, this campus is no less than a forest. We park our car near the small temple. Three dogs are taking naps on the steps of the temple, unmindful of the warm-up exercises the runners are doing. It is the first time I have come to the place and I am rightly forewarned that there are many trails inside the large campus and a wrong trail may lead one running around the bushes for quite a long time! 

Within first 100 meters of our run, I realize the importance of that warning. Left or right? Which way I go? I decide to stay with other runners who know the track. After a while we leave the pukka road to follow a mud trail. The overnight drizzle has made the soil soft. We avoid jumping into small water patches on the way. The surrounding is getting denser now. Chirping of the birds make me take notice of them. We don’t care about that free music anymore. The air is fresh with the smell of rain soaked earth and green shoots. The trail becomes narrow going forward. The touch of grass and the water droplets on it sends a sensation up my body. Remember the childhood sensation of running your hands on the grass? Make no mistakes; the grass is greener on my side, or for that matter, on the every side. There are mango and chiku orchards, the sight of which makes me hungry. This is a perfect place to indulge all the five senses in. 

The trail again becomes wider now with downward gradient. I can see a Gopuram in the distance. We need to take right once we reach to the Gopuram. The road is closed there by a fallen tree. We get inside the chiku orchard to catch the road a little ahead. But what is this? It’s a massacre out there. Many trees are felled and made to bite the dust. Some lunatic has decided to make a wide tar road here. Such a mindless pursuit of urban amenity in this jungle! A crow, saddened by the death of a tree, is mourning at the root of the tree. Many birds go homeless when a senseless man sees a purpose in such a nonsense act. 

In the sudden attack of youthful exuberance, and to escape the murderous scene, I start running fast. The route is straight as far as I can see. But at certain point I have to decide which turn to take. I go right. Why? I have no idea. A dear friend says that though we think that we don’t know our soul intrinsically knows the path. It always leads us to the right path. We somehow block that sound coming from within and invite the troubles. In case the soul doesn’t know, there are other souls to guide you along the way, aren’t they? After all they are also part of the universal soul of which yours is a tiny dot. So am I on the right track? Well, it doesn’t matter at all. The soul knows.