Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Lonely Runway

For last couple of weeks I was at a remote place on official field duty, so remote that there was nothing in the ten kilometer radius of the guest house. The place where we used to go to work was again five kilometers away form guest house. Every morning a car used to come to take us to the field. When we returned from the field it would have been 8pm in the evening. So boring, so hectic the days were, that either we would be found slogging in the field or sleeping in the guest house.
Only good thing was a runway! We had to cross a deserted runway on our way to our site of work. Years ago it must have been full with activity, now the concrete slabs of the runway has cracked giving way to saplings. There is nothing all around, only trees and bushes and the runway lying between them.
Last day when we finished our work early in the afternoon, I started walking along the runway on my return to guest house. Everybody else were waiting for the car to come. As I walked and walked along the almost-two-km-long runway I was getting engulfed in it. A plethora of sights of sounds hitherto unnoticed came to my senses; chirping of unknown birds, insects; sunset on the horizon, group of birds flying back to home, few birds looking out for their prey in the cracks of the runway ...
I remembered one of my favourite songs. I never realized how real the imagery of the song could be. But this runway gave me that feeling. The lyricist must have been in a place like this.

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