just a walk in the park

Last night on the way home from the office, Ajith and I stopped in to buy a map of India for the office and a map of Kochi for me. I've already put the latter to good use this morning on a 45 minute walk down Hospital Road to and around the Sabash Park, located on the harbour.

It has been my first real exercise since I arrived in Kochi and I must say I feel much better for having done so (although at the beginning my right knee was protesting vigourously against its use for this method of my locomotion; I wondered for a while how far I would get but the good news is that the further I went the less of a struggle I experienced from the knee).

I was struck by many things along the route (now there's a surprise) but the one I want to write about this morning is the similarity in the faces that we meet on such walks (I wished I had brought my camera with me but in its absence I will need to paint some word pictures instead).

As I said, the main reason I was impressed was because of the similarity in the demeanour and behaviour of the people that I passed to the people that I would pass walking or cycling around Olympic Park in Sydney. At either end of the spectrum were the archetypal opposites. The enthusiastic greeters, who cannot wait for you to make eye contact so they can flash you a smile and a hearty "Good morning" were in contrast to those opposites, who probably constitute two subgroups. One group, it seems, is determined not to make eye contact or acknowledge your existence as they walk or run past you. They have come to the park for their self-absorbed exercise and do not want to be distracted from the solitary experience. The other appears to be saying, yes I know you're there but you are an object to be scorned rather than engaged. I noticed this as a group of five men walked past, animatedly engaged in discussion. The eldest of the group was a "greeter" and we smiled and exchanged "mornings". The man at the centre of the group though, a Harbijan Singh lookalike (the non-cricket fans among you will have to investigate that one), looked past me with disdain as if to say "What are you doing interrupting my monologue and, indeed, what are you doing here at all?"

In between these extremes is the usual variety of people passing by - the uncertain greeters who, having been greeted, will return the greeting with varying levels of enthusiasm; the surprised greeters who, like the uncertain greeters, return the "morning" but with a sense of delight at the engagement, having not expected the greeting in the first place; the perfunctory greeters feel the need to say"morning", whether in response or initiating the exchange, but would probably rather not if they had their druthers. There were other characters too, along this spectrum but a more fine-grained distinction risks a level of complexity that distracts from the exemplars that those who have taken that walk in the morning will know so well.

On an entirely unrelated matter, the drive home was punctuated by a phone call from our IP consultant who confirmed our capacity to proceed with registering the Kochi International Business School, with "KIBS" incorporated in a logo designed in the office between Freeda and I, so there is now a firm basis for us to proceed with the raft of trademark related activities - another full and exciting day awaits.