An evening walk.

I look forward to my everyday walks. Our apartment is near the harbor - a part of the Atlantic Ocean. There is a board walk near the harbor. One can see boats, ships, yachts, swans, ducks and different types of sea-birds . There are trees, there are clouds, there is the Ocean, there are benches to sit on and enjoy the view, there is also a tiny beach....and it all makes a very picturesque scene.

Mostly, the evenings are rather cold and windy. Lots of people come out with their dogs or children. Here, people always greet each other with a smile, a "Hi", or a "How are you?", or a "Have a good one"...but its strange how these strangers still remain strangers. Nobody seems to have the time to even want to get to know another person.

I like to see their pets. They seem to care a lot for them. Some dogs have hair right above their ears tied neatly in ribbons...like little girls. Some have funky hair styles, or hair streaked purple or red . I saw one even wearing a jacket. Cute. Nice. But we Indians are not used to pampering animals so much. Or should I say ... humanizing animals so much. I like pets. I like dogs. And someday, I would like to have a pet dog, or maybe some fishes. But, I don't see myself tying ribbons to their hair, and spending crazily or their hair-dos. Come on, there are children who don't have clothes to wear. Or forget the homeless, who would spend any amount of money and time on taking a pet to a pet-salon, to get its hair colored? I would play with my dog, take it out for walks...sure....even train it to do stuff like fetch the newspaper, etc etc. But ribbons? No way. Dogs are dogs..I would rather let them be that way....they are nice that way.

I take my i-pod along with me and occasionally my camera too. Yesterday I took some leftover bread crumbs, to feed the swans and ducks. It was fun. As soon as I threw the first crumb in the water, several swans and ducks came swimming hurriedly from no-where. I tried to make sure each one of them got atleast a few crumbs. Then I noticed at a distance, one small duck, its neck was bright green and wings were gray, it looked slightly smaller than the others. It did not come close for the crumbs. It was swimming hesitantly in our direction, changing its mind every other second... once hurriedly swimming away and then back in our direction, and then away again.

It finally came a little close. I had stopped dropping the crumbs and was engrossed in this little duck's journey towards us. The other bigger ducks and swans, realizing that the crumbs and stopped coming, were expectantly but calmly staring at me. But I wanted to save my last piece of bread for the little duck. These bigger guys had had their share. And then, as if following my gaze, one big white swan, turned towards the little duck. The little one hurriedly swam away. So that was it..these bigger guys were bullying the little one. Poor him. I suddenly felt a little let down. Weren't swans supposed to be the symbol of Love, grace and beauty? Imagine a swan bullying a little duck? Not nice. I decided to reserve the rest of the bread for the little one. I walked along the board walk for a while. The gathering of other swans and ducks dispersed in different directions. I kept an eye on the little one. As if it had understood my intentions, it kept up with me. It remained in my sight. We spent the next 15 minutes walking/swimming. And then when the time was just right, it swam under the bridge, to another side of the waters...where there were no other ducks as the water was very very shallow. I quickly dropped the rest of the crumbs one by one...and it excitedly gobbled up each one of them.

My little mission accomplished, it was time to go home. :-)

In case anyone is curious, in the above post, "here" refers to Stamford, CT, USA. "They" refer to the local people here.