Walking on the edge

Though I attempted for a better caption, something that would be more catchy, I think “Walking on the edge” would suit aptly. It is literally what this blog post is all about.

Living a sedentary life, sitting in an “ergonomically” designed chair in a lofty building, like any other IT professional I too decided to look for options that could make my lifestyle healthier.

I have had my fair share of intensive workouts, I lost my pounds and also lost the battle by gaining the same after a couple of weeks when I just could not go on killing myself. So I decided to adopt “Stairways as a lifestyle choice”. My office space and my apartment complex gave me the luxury of less than 5 floors height to proudly announce it to my community of friends and family …that I now take the stairs always. After the successful completion of 2 weeks of a better lifestyle I thought that I should be,of course, “pushing my limits”.

When I perused google results, Facebook pages ,Instagram hashtags and articles I realized that there are so many benefits to walking everyday. An article headed  “5 surprising benefits of Walking everyday” inspired me. But what I forgot to realize that in the heavy traffic of Bangalore city I will reap these 5 surprising benefits only if I live to see it.

The distance from my office to my apartment complex is a decent 3.3 kms. I would do myself justice if I can finish it in 45 minutes. Well I completed that in 35 minutes and I was happy that I …survived.

Let me make my walk or ordeal a little bit more descriptive. The first stretch of the walk is very beautiful. There are IT parks on both sides and the pavement is well maintained and it is lined with trees on one side. I felt good at that point, by listening to music and musing why I did not walk before. All the calories that I could have burnt… !!

The excitement turned into panic as soon as I made my way into the National highway. Let me be elaborate in describing the landscape. The national highway is a 2 lane road with pavements to walk on each side. Through the middle point runs the construction work for metro station. They have taken more than half of each of the lane,yes on both sides, which leaves a narrow space for vehicles to move. Hence the traffic congestion, that beats the block that causes even a cardiovascular bypass. I am not sure if it is possible for even water to trickle down that lane. The bikes give competition to ants and form a strict line which conveniently detours through the walking pavement. Well I believe that what I saw so far is still justified. But I am not sure if metro work was inspiring to dig more into the roads, but the pavements are also broken to lay pipes underneath.

I braved the stretch for quite sometime. I reached a point ( physically and mentally) where I could not go longer. There is a 8 feet square hole dug into the pavement and I am not good at long jumping. Well I think, why not just normal jumping into the main road…but that does not help either because I am already blocked by the many one legs of bikers who are in the art of balancing their bikes in an inexplicably narrow path.

I looked around and I was at the verge of booking an Uber when a good samaritan walks past me as if showing me a way out of distress. I follow the footsteps of that god sent soul and did not look anywhere else but the footsteps leading me.

Multiple times I could feel my bag entangled in the handlebars of bikes. But since my feet marched faster than their wheels I was only scared for the bikes. Finally the stretch of utter despair was crossed with precision,a skill-set of long jumping and high jumping and a lot of perseverance. I survived, burned more calories and gained more courage.

Well that is that. Guess walking do have surprising benefits. 🙂

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