That was the morning of 4th
of October 2015. We were awaiting to join the monthly walk. In the uncertain
weather during hazy days, how did we feel that it was certain that we could
carry on with the morning walk?
The Grace of Mother is always
with us. The haze which had reached a hazardous level of 190, the day
before had reduced quite substantially. Hence we could enjoy the morning
walk mingling with Mother Nature and having conversations with our dear ones.
The walk was arranged at gardens
By the Bay. We all gathered dot on time and with no surprise to all of us,
Kashyap uncle was there at sharp 8 AM as usual. The commencement of the walk
was thus by walk the talk.
The weather was pleasant, just
bringing the right mood for a good morning walk on a leisurely Sunday.
As we started off, I saw a board
describing about the 12 characters of the Chinese Zodiac. It was actually a
race that was arranged by the Jade emperor. The rat came first after deceiving
everybody and pig was the last. Was it just indicative about the rat race that
we all humans have to undergo? There are always lessons learnt during the walk,
direct or indirect. There is much to be taken during the walk.
The garden being adjacent to the
Marina reservoir, we set off for the walk with the Super trees by the side and
the sky walk above. Walking along the waterfront promenade we could see the
Marina Bay financial district skyline. This month walk at the Gardens was
through different shades of nature, with us enjoying the quaint stroll walking
by the shrubs, palm trees, admiring flowers and the beautiful water promenade.
Different shades of nature,
different people, different discussions, but all leading to the same ultimate
goal. Mr Krishnamurthy was discussing about the 15th chapter of
Shrimad Bhagavad-Gita and we enjoyed the walk, listening to him. I had another
opportunity with Jared, discussing about how to understand Savitri that has
immense meaning in it. It was really encouraging to listen form him how to
uncover the hidden beauty of the meaning in Savitri.
We walked through the Heritage
Garden. It is a collection of four themed gardens that reveals the history and
culture of Singapore’s ethnic groups. Wondering the fantastic architecture of
the two domes, viz. the Flower dome and the Cloud Forest, we also realised that
exhibition of Chrysanthemum was going on in the flower dome. A wonderful thing
about the Chrysanthemum is that, it is MOTHER’s flower. The word mum in
Chrysanthemum stands for the flower of the mother and in some western
countries, it is given to mother on Mother’s Day. How symbolic of the flower
and our walk in this month! It would be quite unimaginable, but some of us just
took the opportunity to peep into the flower dome and had a quick tour of the
Chrysanthemum flower exhibition, which would normally take more than an hour.
Everything is possible, if there is a strong will and all of us followed the
time line strictly. This is the wonderful thing about the walk that I
personally like.
After the walk, we had a warm
welcome at Kashyap uncle’s house. A very distinctive thing about the walk,
hosted by Kashyap uncle is the beautiful singing of Bhajans by the entire
Kashyap family. This experience was enhanced by Kashyap uncle’s grandson, Amit
who did a great job with his beat box. That was amazing. Another noticeable
thing was the bhajan by Anand, who sang the bhajan despite him having to join
for his concert at Esplanade the same evening. Kudos to Anand.
Afterwards we all joined---not
for the brunch, but for a sumptuous lunch. A wonderful time was spent on a
beautiful Sunday morning and we will all cherish the memories of those moments
spent.
-
Kiran
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