Kallola

          S ummer was expected to be hot, but the ‘highest temperatures in eight years’ was the last endurance test we were willing to abide by at the end of a hectic spell of changes and reorientation. And so we decided to run – literally.          My parents were headed westwards on work and though we desperately needed some rest, anything seemed better than having to tolerate the mercury in Bangalore. So we joined them. And as, bit by bit, the smog of a city bursting at the seams gave way to wider and roomier stretches of relaxed and less aggressive countryside, our stresses also started ebbing. By the time we rolled, unaccustomedly unhindered, into laid-back and even (as a friend says) languid Mysore, we were breathing easy again.         And then we stepped out of the car.        Ah! The mirth of deception! The Sun seethed as if avenging a lost victory to the winds of past years. Large open waters sighed their vapours away and the rest of earthly life simply gave in.