Long Walks On Leafy Streets

8/14/2015 Beach Drive, Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
The Irish novelist George A. Moore wrote: “A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” I have not traveled the world over. My travels have been limited to a few places. Mostly in the states of Tamilnadu and Kerala in South India and then California and the Northeastern U.S. I have not felt the urge to find myself by wandering the world, although I do love wandering and getting lost. As Tolkien said, “Not all those who wander are lost.” I also love traveling and seeing new places and having a little fun in the sun. I like to visit the Eastern Shore of MD to spend time at the beaches every year. We really enjoyed our visit to Puerto Rico a few summers back. But since I was young I have always felt that the place to look for meaning in life is within myself. This was reinforced by the influence of the teachings of Advaita in particular and Hindu philosophy and culture in general.
I have strived all my life to understand the inner being within myself as well as the universal being. I have reached a certain amount of satisfaction in that regard, although I feel like the journey will continue all my life.

The reason I brought up this quote by Moore is this. Although I have spent a lot of time trying to understand the inner self as taught by our ancient seers, I have neglected the other aspects of my Indian culture. I have not learnt too much of our scriptures or our music or food. That is beginning to change now. Although it has been over two decades since I left India, the experiences from my growing up there have left their impressions on my subconscious mind. They are starting to come out, especially now that Prashant is here. I want him to have those experiences too. I have been cooking a lot of South Indian dishes in the past few years, especially when my parents stay with us. I have been playing or singing Carnatic music and old Tamil and Malayalam songs to calm him down. I have been chanting some scripture passages like the Purusha Suktha and Shanti mantras. Finally, since I stopped watching Football and other commercial sports I have been watching a lot of Test cricket matches played between countries of the former British Empire. Cricket was particularly a big part of my childhood. We spent so much time playing it or listening to commentary on the radio of Test matches, since we didn’t have a TV at home.

On Saturday I went on a long walk by myself. Nicole’s mother was visiting and so I availed of this opportunity to take a break from family duties. I am really glad I did because at the end of it I felt refreshed and clear minded. I could feel that due to the sleeplessness and other disruptions in daily routine the mind has been unusually turbulent of late. Although I have been able to take care of my family and enjoy doing it there have been times I felt irritable. Also I got very little work done outside of household chores.

Leaving home around 4.30 pm I walked on van Buren street all the way to 16th street where I walked down Whittier trail to get on the valley trail that goes along the rock creek (pictured). It was a beautiful afternoon and to my surprise the trail was very quiet. The gurgling sound of the stream right away took me out of my urban mindscape into the comforting embrace of nature. The trees and the bushes were lush green in the peak of summer. I walked mostly down Beach drive all the way to Park Rd and then took it to 14th Street. Totally I walked about 6.5 miles. Although the trails were quiet the picnic spots were full of people having parties. There were lots of bikers on the road. A father was helping his daughter learn skating while another was biking with his son. I was happy to see many people of color out and about, enjoying nature. There is a lot of concern among environmentalists about the fact that most of the people enjoying the parks are white. Along the way I sat down by the creek for about 10 minutes, just enjoying the scene. I completely lost awareness of the sounds coming from the picnic spots. All I could feel was the waters of the creek running around the boulders.

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