"It's all about the Journey"

Today, walking back to my room from the gym, I had the strangest revelations from the unlikeliest places.

I was walking briskly on the footpath with my ears plugged to music when I was slowed on my tracks by a grand old man who was walking ahead of me on the footpath. The pedestrian walk was quite narrow and enough for only one person to walk through at a time. I’m the kind of person who hates to get down onto the road let alone jaywalk with the crazy rush hour traffic. 

To my dismay, the old man was walking super slow, even slower than what is expected of his age. I tried to tell myself that he’s old and he can’t help it but he seemed to be walking slow on purpose. 

He leisurely looked around taking in the sights around him and appeared to be in no hurry. At this point, my patience was running out. Why is he walking this slow? Doesn’t he have any other work to do?(I didn’t either, but still..) Wait, he does know I’m walking behind him, right?

Now, there was a long trench dug on the side of the road (for around 100 mts) and I had lost all hope of overtaking him. Is he walking slow intentionally? To take revenge on the millennials for all the annoying things we do? Should I squeeze past him? What if he falls into the trench? Maybe I’ll squeeze through the other side? What if I fall into the ditch? Damn, I’m stuck behind him for eternity!

Wait a minute, is he looking at the sky?

That was when I started to notice.

I saw him looking at the tiny kiosks like a little kid full of wonder, he paused for a second to whistle back at a cuckoo that let out a tune sitting on a low tree to our left, and he greeted the friendly tea kadai bhai on the other side of the street and enquired about his son’s health. He even waved at two little kids inside a compound playing with cardboard planks as cricket bats and asked them if they’d let him bowl an over. 

I was taken aback. He had so much of life in him than a lot of 20 year olds. He was actually living every moment. 

 

After a few minutes, the path widened enough for me to overtake him. However, I didn’t. Unconsciously, my hands unplugged my earphones and I could feel my legs slowing their pace. 

I now knew what matters more: the journey, not the destination!