Civil Twilight

I had a couple of drinks last evening after nearly a month. The Negronis were simply delicious. Undoubtedly, the trick is in the quality of the three ingredients and especially the vermouth rosso.

I thought about this just as I started the easy run in Lane 10. A part of me wondered whether the two drinks would affect the run although I had them in the early evening. Within a couple of rounds, Suryansh joined me. I took off my headphones. He motioned to me to continue listening.

I said I would rather chat or hear us breathe to which he looked at me sideways and said, yeh bhi sai hai.

Through the hour, others joined in for part of the run or weaved in and out of the formation joining us for a couple of loops at a time. The lady in the salwar kameez, the short haired daughter, the man with the flaming mehndi hair – companions and pacers – unscripted and working perfectly.

I thought I whiffed a sense of coolness today in the air. I had noticed the night become longer – the civil twilight had already shifted by fourteen minutes through this month. That shift is palpable when you go nearly daily to the same place at the same time; the awareness of that shift seems to me magical and somewhat despairing – perhaps surrendering – at the same time.

Hamara bhi ho gaya aap ke saath, said the lady in the salwar kameez to me as I exited the track.

Mera bhi, aap ke saath, I said. We exchanged smiles. The sun was making its way up behind the buildings of Gurgaon.