Slowly but surely, I’m falling in love with Secunderabad, the city in India we relocated to from the US. I’m beginning to appreciate the difference it makes to have family around to help us care for our kids. I love the food scene here- So many restaurants and cuisines to pick from. I also enjoy not having to worry about cleaning the house or ironing my clothes as such services are easily and cheaply available. I can’t tell you how much time it saves me. Now what I do with all this free time is a material for another post. But what I really want to describe here is how much I enjoy my morning walks.

Every morning my husband and I go for a walk along Gunrock Enclave, where we reside, and within the adjacent Army colony. We leave our 11mo. old with his grandparents ’cause he doesn’t have a say yet! But our daughter insists upon coming along; her idea of a walk is being pushed around in a stroller. We believe she joins us just to soak in all our conversation like a sponge and, maybe, to spill them all to our family! Anyways…

Flowering plants like sweet-smelling Jasmine and Bougainvillea of every hue imaginable line our path and welcome us. Gargantuan trees like Peepal, Neem and Teak form arches with their branches and provide shade from the Sun who can be pretty radiant in Summer. He spills his early morning rays on the vast expanse of greenery that surrounds us. I remind myself to carry my phone along, if not my DSLR camera, to capture the play of light with color (I love watching the sun’s rays filtering down to the earth through the bough of a tree and try very hard to shoot it!). In March we even spotted a few peacocks perched on tombstones in the adjacent graveyard. Such beauty has to be cherished and preserved, on photographic paper atleast, before buildings and people invade its space.

Such beauty also brings out the best in all of us walkers and make us greet one another with a nod, a smile or a “Good Morning” and reminds me of the walks we used to take in the US. Prasad and I enjoy our time together and talk up family matters, the cute doings of our kids, about how awesome it would be to turn a corner and find a Starbucks Coffee Shop with its distinct aroma (We don’t have one around!) and about what goals we have already achieved and what needs to be pursued.

I’m glad we live in a locality that isn’t noisy, crowded or messy like most of the rest of India is. I’m also glad I take the time to enjoy life’s little pleasures like an early morning walk.