Kissa
I go for a morning walk every day.
It is approximately five kilometres. Once I leave my society gate, I usually take a right, complete the round, and return to the society from the left side.
I have been following this route regularly.
But today, for no particular reason, I started from the left.
The starting point was the same.
The ending point was the same.
The distance was almost the same.
Only the direction had changed.
And that small change made the entire walk feel different.
For most of the walk, I had the strange feeling that I was doing something wrong. Whenever I saw a familiar building or gate from the opposite side, it looked unfamiliar.
I knew the place.
I just wasn’t used to seeing it from that angle.
I also noticed people differently.
At one tea stall, I usually see two older men sitting together and talking. Today, I saw them reading the newspaper.
Maybe I had reached a little later than usual. Maybe their morning discussion was already over.
At another tea stall, I normally see a man drinking tea. Today, I saw him smoking.
Even the smell around the road felt different.
Nothing major had changed.
The same buildings were there.
The same tea stalls were there.
The same road was there.
But I was seeing everything from the other side.
At one point, I even felt that today’s route had more of an incline.
When I came home, I checked the route.
Both sides had almost the same incline.
It was only my perception that had changed.
Perspective
The walk made me realise how much of what we see is shaped by the direction from which we see it.
The road hadn’t changed.
The buildings hadn’t changed.
Even the people hadn’t changed.
I had changed my direction. And suddenly, I was noticing things I normally missed.
Maybe that’s what routine does.
It gives us comfort, but it can also make familiar things invisible.
We don’t always need a new road.
Sometimes, we just need to walk the old one differently.
So I’ve decided to take this route the other way around once a week.
Not because the usual route is wrong.
Just because the other direction shows me something I usually don’t see.
