C(r)owed down !

I woke up a little later than usual today and was in two minds about whether to go late to ymca just do my own sweat-it-out. Decided I'm better off doing the latter and so I took off. Ran up the western express highway flanked by the arabian sea all along,and further towards the site office of the bandra-worli sea link, touted as mumbai's largest/newest landmark in the making and rightly so.

The summer sun, however nascent, has this uncanny habit of showing up too early, too big. Relentless and staring at you in the face. But what sees you through is the cool breeze of the sea inches away and the impressive skyline miles apart. (barring the stench, which is another cons that needs special mention)

Braving it all, as I ran on the 'promenade' I reached a dead end with a metal frame blocking the rest of the route, probably to keep pedestrians and over enthusiastic joggers (read me) from the construction yard. Any which way someone had forgotten to lock a small door on the frame so I walked right in. And from where I stood the route looked just like those tracks unkempt/unattended to and condemned to disuse. The elephant grass dint let me walk through it so the only other option was to walk on the parapet braving the gust which fortunately was blowing inwards.

(Incidentally what I distinctly remember is how a certain crow perched on the parapet was trying hard to stay put but got blown away a coupla times till it realised it was safer behind the parapet on the track where the wind broke) There were close to a hundred crows there, a quick estimate told me, scavenging and crowing away. A hundred of any species is a big number but what can crows possibly do to you ?

It all started with one of them kissing my head a coupla times. I'd almost dismissed it as coincidence when the third time it tried I ducked and it still hit me hard and thats when the realisation dawned on me that it'd actually missed the first two times. Still not to be cowed down I decided to shoo it away and swore hard. The fact that no one was around to get offended helped but not much, cuz not later I realised that other crows were being called upon to redeem their struggle against the lone crusader of mankind who dared to challenge them in their own backyard.

I ran. Ran, not as much for my life as for my head and the hair that adorns it.I understood that underestimations deceive but most importantly the fact that however old that adage about unity and strength is, it still carries as good a punch as the peck of a crow.