ALL SORTS OF WALKERS

People walk for a variety of reasons. An average person normally walks about 5000 steps in a day, say the experts. For those of us who need to take at least a few thousand more every day, there is the morning or evening walk. Apart from the resultant exercise, one is also treated to a variety entertainment programme on such occasions,more often than not.

The park which I happen to frequent along with my better half, presents a particularly amusing assortment of walkers, day in and day out. Our walk is thus
punctuated with smiles and giggles, as we have our fun at the expense of our
unsuspecting fellow walkers. It is another matter that others probably find us just as amusing, from their perspective.

There are all sorts of walkers in our park- Weighty ones and reed-like thin ones,
the aged and the young, the married and the soon-to-be, the fitness-freaks and the social walkers, the brash and the courteous, the cell phone lovers and the beauty-lovers. All of them love walking, but their reasons are vastly different, for sure.
While my wife and I are certainly fitness-conscious, we also realize that the walk
gives us an opportunity to actually talk with each other (a rare occurrence, between
husband and wife, nowadays). Another couple, whom we cross repeatedly every day,
walk as if they have nothing to say to each other, and never ever open their mouths. A third two-some, who are also daily walkers, are just the opposite. They chatter non-stop as if there is no tomorrow! Yet another couple that we usually encounter presents a very one-sided picture. The wife talks, and the husband nods. We are not sure if he actually listens to her, but he does go on nodding, without ever stopping, as if his name is Noddy. People tell us that this last mentioned couple is the most common one in our society. I am thankful that I and mine are not in this category, as of now at any rate!

There are of course those who walk as if their life depends on it, and it probably
does, for they are grossly over-weight. One such worthy, apparently in his mid-fifties, keeps looking down at his huge stomach while patting it, after every few steps, to see if it has gone in a bit since last time. One feels sure that the exercise is doing him a world of good, and one just hopes that he doesn’t get disheartened by the lack of instant results. It is, however, the cell-phone walkers, whose tribe is rapidly increasing, who cause us the maximum amount of mirth. One such die-hard was, on one occasion, so engrossed in his conversation with god-knows-whom, that he walked as if in a trance, waking up only when a pretty lady passed by. What happened was that between the conversation and the stares, he forgot to the walk on the path for a bit, and to the delight of some unashamed onlookers like us, soon found him self right in the middle of the pond! It is another matter that he still had time to say a sweet goodbye on the phone, before extricating himself
sheepishly, and making a quick exit toward his car.

Those who prefer to skip their walk on most occasions just do not realize what
they may be missing!