An exciting Morning walk :( From my childhood memories)

A knowledgeable person can never be bound to the flowery bands of nature and an innocent person can only enjoy the lap of nature.

I am basically a town girl, so remained very close to nature, in my childhood days. Ours is a small town surrounded by natural mountains milieu. I have so many experiences in my mind to explain and it’s too difficult to choose one of those, but still, I would like to recoil the memories of a morning walk. My father used to go on dawn walks. Whenever he used to go, I remained in bed till he returned from the walk. I was about eleven years old at that time. Once I told my father that I would also go with him on a walk. Those were the days of winter and my father even told me that it was too tough to wake up at 5 and walk in winter. I started crying and stubbornly said that at any cost I would go with him in the morning. So, my father woke me up at 5 A.M in the morning. As my father made me wake up, I just stood up and got ready. We started at 5:30 am from home. It was intensely cold and still; the light of the moon was making the streets silvery. Trees and grass were fresh and were breathing out the oxygen in the atmosphere so that we humans could breathe them in. I can’t describe to you the feeling of freshness I felt, it seemed that silent roads were chanting mantras of sublimity, every silent road was having a divine look of greenery, and dew drops on grass were embroidered on the grass and flowers. Even though I was covered with clothes but I was feeling cold and was amazed that how my father used to go out at such a time when there is dark and cold all around.

Still, the stubborn child in me was insisting to me that I should move on with him. There were some Neem trees on the way. My father took some small twigs from them and started to chew them; he was having a cutting knife with him. He gave one twig to me. When I chewed, my mouth taste became so bitter that I spit on the road. My father laughed and talked about the benefits of Neem twigs. He said that they make our teeth firm and clean. At that time, it was too difficult for me to believe that. I was walking and shivering but my father told me to walk fast so that I should not feel cold. There were only a few people on the road. I started enjoying my walk and moved here and there with happiness. It was an exuberant experience. Then we reached into a long grassy park and my father spread a mat on the wet grass and told me to do yoga sans with him. There were so many people around us doing the same activity. I was following my father as he was doing and was getting pleasure in it. Now, there was no feeling of intense cold. We spent two hours in the park and at about 7.30 when it was daylight, came back. Since that time, I started going on walks with my father for a few days. It continued but after that when my winter vacations went off the routine got disturbed, still, those moments are alive in my memories.