The beautiful September 3rd morning dawned with the two
specific thoughts – a comfortable feeling that the walk venue is not too far
from home, at the calm and serene Bedok Reservoir, one among the 17 reservoirs
in little Singapore. The second thought, of Mr. Lok and family who used to host
the Bedok reservoir walk.
On the way to the reservoir I collected a few purple coloured delicate
flowers to offer at the altar. “Shankh Pushp” – Its Radha’s consciousness –
symbolizes perfect attachment to the divine.
Familiar faces welcomed us at the meeting point. With many families
travelling the “little chirpy members” were missed. Walk started with Mr Lok in
the conversation, a person who explained the meaning Aspiration to me. He lived
Mothers words in many ways.
Since the 4.3 km track goes around the reservoir, one has choice to walk
in the clock wise or anti clockwise direction around the reservoir. With a
strong morning sun shining, the group made choice for anti-clockwise direction,
to have the sun on the back for most of the walk than have it on the face. The reservoir water had a silver sheen
because of the morning Sun. Along the path, scenes changed every few hundred
metres. Many were serious runners, going around the track. Among the tall trees
were koel birds throating their calls. Along the path we saw an area where
various bird lovers bring their birds in cages and let them chirp together.
“Are they true bird lovers?” my mind questioned. I also wondered what these
hundreds of birds were saying to each other.
Among the few walking together, the conversation shifted to “Perception
and its place in life” – “Same situations” which different people perceive and
react differently. We climbed the mound around the reservoir, which gives an
elevated view of the entire reservoir. It was beautiful to see the Kayaks and
boats rowing unison which were out by now.
While we all rave about reservoir
parks, but many of us do not notice the beauty around where we live and work. A
friend and neighbour, a hard-core bird lover, has spotted 150 species in Changi
Business park area which is an ecosystem by itself. I too saw a 2-inch-long
sparrow, at the mound as well as a rare bird with bright colours I saw years
ago at Sungai Buloh. The huge tall trees on the mound gave lovely shade around.
We wanted to spend the rest of the morning on the benches generously spread
around by NPB – National Parks Board – Like the many groups playing games and
sharing breakfast.
Venkat later mentioned to me that even among the group that he was
walking with, for a while the conversation was related to perception. But more
about the ill effects of giving too much importance to it. Organisations now a
days reward their employees based on feedback from customers’ which is based on
the latter’s perceptions of the products and services offered. While this is
good in most situations, people have misused this power demanding medicines or
treatment of their choice from doctors and given negative feedback when denied
that, based on their perceptions. These have in turn seriously impacted careers
of good doctors who follow their professional judgment over pleasing their
patients for positive feedback.
While the group of men did the walk around the reservoir the ladies
retraced the path from the mound to the exercise spot. We were to transit later
to the calm and serene terrace premises in Simei of our current host Arjun
Madan. The preparation for the sublime prayer and meditation and brunch place
had been in full swing.
The altar was set in a simple and beautiful manner. Meaningful prayers
were read after meditation. A lovely rendition of Purusha Suktam by Arjun
brought out the traditional Guru Shishya relationship between Arjun and Shri
Krishnamoorthy.
After wishing the members for birthday in the month, a sumptuous spread
awaited us. Thanking the host for a wonderful morning, we reluctantly left,
awaiting the next walk at Gardens by the Bay hosted by our dear Urmil Aunty and
Shashi Uncle, our Singapore Centre Chairman.
Jaishree Venkat.
No comments:
Post a Comment