The last walk

It was late evening on the 4th of August and just a few hours to go for my flight to the US. I suddenly remembered that I had given my bike for service and I had to get it back. Infact it had broken down (midway to the petrol bunk) the day before with an engine seizure and a broken kicker pedal and only I knew that mechanic shop (and I had to pay for it as well). I decided to walk all the way to the mechanic shop. On the way, I saw around four people with some simple percussion instruments (the traditional ones used for playing "DAPPAN-KUUTHU") and behind them were two people clad in red dress and totally drenched. I thought it was one of those mad religious ritualistic processions. So I kept on walking. But the music was pretty good. So I turned back to see. Quite a few small kids had gathered around them and they had started dancing. The band played danda-nakara nakara nakara ... danda-nakara nakara nakara .. danda-nakara nakara nakara.... pakka dappankuuthu. They played it quite beautifully and I also felt like dancing. Infact after listening to it, if a person doesn't feel like dancing, then there is something terribly wrong in that person. But I knew that I had a job on hand. So I kept walking to the mechanic shop. The crowd around the band was increasing by the minute, and the party was getting merrier. The band was also getting louder, so I could hear the music all the way. Simbly Suuper and "The more the merrier". I too felt so happy. I marvelled at the innocent happiness of those kids. They dint have to go to work on monday morning and write C/C++ code to fix a silly bug. They dint have to travel halfway across the globe to attend graduate school. They were happy in their own backyard. I knew at that instant that I was going to miss all this for atleast a couple of years. I was moving to a very mechanical and commercialized world. But I knew that there was a pupose behind that move of mine. So "KEEP WALKING".............