'Park'ing

No, no! The post doesn't refer to the fine art of wedging ur car precisely between two others without bumping into either of them! Rather it refers to the other lesser known art of enjoying yourself in a park.

It all started when the jogging bug bit me recently and i took up to going jogging in the evening (yes i said evening! i'm one of those ppl whose eyes refuse to open at 6 am!!). My evening begins with walking 10 of my feet to the park frm my home. Then a ticket of Rs. 2 which the nice gatekeeper allows u to skip if ur nice to him. (bt bcos i'm such a good citizen i always pay up! psst since i gav up lollipops i can spend tht Rs. 2 here!!)

Once inside, mom sits on a bench to enjoy the cool breeze and i start jogging. Listening to radio if there r good songs playing and to my saved songs on the phone if not, its very refreshing to jog around. Yesterday though my jog was cut short after just a round. Reason? A little gal of 2 yrs and some mnths who was squirming and fidgeting too much beside her grandfather! So I took her on a round of the park.

We bent down to see a very benign doggie solemnly loking at us as he relaxed on the jogging track edge. That was till Mia (nw i dnt remember her real name bt she looked so much like Amelia Mionet Thermopolis Renauldi or Princess Mia frm Princess Diaries!!) slapped him on the nose!! Then he stood up and growled at us and my jogging resumed with Mia in my arms!!!

Thankfully doggie uncle decided relaxing was more imp than chasing us in the park. So we headed to the sandbox...tried building castles in the sand bt bcos it wasnt the wet sand of the beach, Princess "don't want" Mia got bored! Then some young boys of her age interested her (bcos they had lots of coloured rings to play!! wat wer u thinking???) and she went up to say Hi. Bt i thot continuing our educational walk wud be more fruitful and neways i didn't want her grandpa thinking i kidnapped her!

So saying Bye to those young men we started walking off...guess wat? All 5 of those young men followed us!! Boys will be the same at all ages...ladki dikhi nahi ki bhaago peeche!!! Neways nw we come to the other side of the park where the flower shrubs are. Mia wanted to touch the flowers. Ok. She wanted me to pick her up for this. Ok. She wanted to eat them and even put one straight in her mouth wen i lifted her! Not Ok atall!!! So deprived of apparently tasty food, my efforts to convince her tht she isn't a honey bee or a butterfly were futile.

Ha fortunately Mr. Frog is at hand. So what if i don't intend to touch him or go near him (no those tales of frogs turning to prince r for movies!!) I can always say Hi. Bt Mia thought she was a real princess, the kind tht kisses frogs!! So Mr. Frog finds himself chased by an enthusiastic gal till he disappears in some shrubs. Poor fella must be so relieved and gasping for breath!! Hmm there is grandpa waving to us.

So walk concluded. Mia back to grandpa and headed home. I'm supposed to resume jogging bt am afraid of being spotted by doggie uncle who might hav changed his mind abt chasing by nw. I also decide to head back home. Forgot mom at the bench so risked crossing doggie uncle's path to get to her. All in all a typical yet not so typical day at the park. Reminds me of my childhood days at Shivaji Park when I always came home laden with lots of stuff. Candy sticks, amazing looking stones, leaves of all shapes and sizes, sometimes flowers (when my granny could dodge the watchful eye of the park watchman!) and ofcourse raw mangoes and tamarind (deelicious!)!!!

So like they say in that kids bicycles ad...**knock knock on the computer screen**..."Still sitting here?? go and do some 'park'ing!!"