A walk to my birthplace Day – 49 (136 km covered so far)

I am pathologically nomadic! I can never sit at home. Even on a weekend, I keep figuring out multiple options to roam around. My friends always keep asking me about the reason for my high energy when it comes to an outing.  I never have been able to understand it …. Well at least till today.

My mother underwent a serious cervical spinal cord surgery over four years back. She fought hard to get on to her feet but that surgery did leave serious restrictions on her movements. She has to walk with some help and that too slowly. After the surgery her going out for long trips became difficult and I also could not take her out anywhere for a vacation due to multiple reasons.

Finally things worked out. Pallavi, kids and I decided to go to Mahabaleshwar (about 120 Km from Pune) along with my parents. We had planned this vacation just to relax but my mother made it clear that she is not going to sit at the resort. She suggested that we should go to some place around Mahabaleshwar which we have not gone earlier. I did some search and narrowed down on Tapola – beautiful place with confluence of three rivers. We decided to go there and take ride in a boat for couple of hours.

We reached there and booked a boat exclusively for ourselves. As we went down to the water, I realized the problem! This place was not well developed with a proper jetty etc and one had to climb a little iron ladder to get into the boat! Impossible for my mother for sure! I abandoned the plan as I did not want to take any risk. My mother stopped me. “I will try”. I told her not to worry about the money that we might waste – it was ok for me. She insisted. “It’s a beautiful place = lets try”. Looking at her spirit the boatman was touched and he offered an innovative solution. He pulled the boat next to a small platform from where my mother could sit on the edge of the boat and we could get her in on the bench inside! She actually did it! Thank god nobody with a faint heart was around to watch it!!

The boat ride was great. It was serene surrounding and we sailed through at a comfortable speed. I looked at my mother. There she was - sitting quietly enjoying the breeze in that lovely surrounding. It was such a lovely picture that I forgot to look around and kept staring at her. That instant I suddenly got answer to the question my friends keep asking me. The answer was so obvious and in front of me! I know the source of my madness and answers could be found in genetics!!