Vs Mild Fear

What comes next is a confrontation with a tiger

New city, new routines

And the instruction to get the job done. Now, that the job is done. Things are tuned slightly, differently. What the whole fiasco taught me about leadership. Which is to say there lay many dormant parts in the heart of man. Only, to find their courage in times of trouble. Which was certainly the case for me.

While I briefly mentioned this in the previous article. I shall greatly expand on it, in this. So, with that comes the question comes, what does consistent laziness on your part does to you? It chips away at routines, at first. That was certainly the case. I was like a newly wedded bride, it took a while to find my place in city’s ethos. Then, from there it clicked. I was alive again. For this brief time, that Mumbai Version of mine came like a hurricane.

So, back to how laziness chips away at routines?

Humanity and my past experiences has shown if you lost a habit, lest say talking to people, your social sphere shrinks, and fear of starting again increases by the measure of every little bit you have avoided. In our lantern on the hill, if the priest is sleeping. Who is putting ghee in the lantern? Soon, the lantern falls silent, and so does the town. 

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What comes next is a tiger.

So Miss Shweta was talking about this, courage thing.

There. It came to me this mythological image of a tiger. When, the lantern falls, and the priest is asleep. Someone from this town, has to run a few errands. Now, what was previously treaded upon, is now a wild path of rumours, where a tiger is pouching a stray soul that is running beyond the border of this town. Yet, the grain in house is running low, the man must go hunting for it. 

So, he walks the trail, of the tiger. And a few steps later, the rumours prove true. Middle of the path, they lay a tiger. The man falls…

Were the rumour’s true? ...

Crouching in a pouncing stance. The man approaches with grain thoughts in the sand, the tiger growls a bit, then some. As if setting the stage for a final confrontation of man and the wild. The man trembles, feet wobbly. Hands like a bird in the jaws of a snake.. bit by his side.. He gets up.

Walks. The tiger growls. The man. Takes another step. Fog comes in. It's heavy. Only gets heavier. The man walks through, legs rambling a bit less, hands a little bit freer. 

Thinking, where did the Tiger go?

And isn't that the question for all of us, when laziness rules or for one reason or another, we forget ourselves. Stop participating in our hobbies, that lantern on the hill goes cold, do we have courage, to look at the Tiger, and hear his growl, and court that path again, cause the grain is running low.. 

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PS : I shall catch up on comments through tomorrow. Thank’s for your patience cool folk of Substack. Next up, we shall talk about what makes a person mad enough to see a big cat, ignore his routine of walking through the park, and climb the tree, rescue it back to pavement.

Sincerely,

Vimal.. 

(May your week to come, bless you like lavender fields bless the spirit of someone mad enough to walk through it.)