Yesterday was a stormy day with darkness blanketing the sky at 3:30 pm. The wind made queer whining sounds as it ruffled away everything free from the ground. Sunday morning would be a colossal mess to clear off, I thought to myself, as I looked at the browned-yellow leaves hugging the backyard door under the greyest shade of sky.
I wouldn’t think of myself as someone domesticated for home management in the very typical ways. I don’t cook for one, except occasionally- whatever tickles my taste buds, and servant assisted, for all the uninteresting and tiring jobs. I can be a pro at shining up the washrooms though, but that wouldn’t really count within the standard Indian ‘home-maker’ context. Hmmm!
Come Sunday morning and the sunlight streamed brightly through my window, radiant and cheerful, after an over-empowered afternoon. The dry leaves floated aimlessly on the sun-filled muddy backyard that had cool, damp and shady walls along the plants. The sweepress, with a lean body and strong arms, marched into the yard with a sturdy broomstick to check the rubble out. A quick impulse took over and I decided to give my untrained hand a whacking at the job.
Fifteen minutes of the brooming exercise along with ten minutes of mopping the stoned pavement on hands and knees, and another five minutes of watering the plants lifting the heavy watering cans, burnt calories equivalent to a forty minute of treadmill walk. What a holistic experience it was working out in the garden- flexing the muscles, skin soaking Vitamin D, fresh air filling the lungs, sweat purging the body of toxins and de-clogging the pores, and a feeling of accomplishment at having tended to some mundane household chores.
Burning calories by doing a little something without the extravagance of gyming essentials may sound so ‘not-cool’ to the swanky gym freaks who have more faith in shedding off pounds in their well-equipped gym gear, branded gym bag with exercising clothing, an I-Pod and Bluetooth headphones, and not to forget, the neoteric nourishment- nutrition bars, satchels of Vitamins and upscale nutritional supplements.
There’s nothing overwhelmingly wrong with the gyming culture, other than that, we’re just doing it out of a sense of fad. Being a fitness freak feels chic and in vogue. The gym-mania gets us to abandon simple exercise opportunities we could assimilate into our household and work regime. Something as simple as fetching a glass of water from the kitchen yourself, walking down a plate of food to the kitchen sink after a meal, light cleaning stints, basic gardening like weeding out and trimming the plants, walking out to a copier to make copies at work, standing instead of sitting in a sedentary work life, and putting our legs to work than the fingers for running errands through inter-office phone, can form into an effortless daily work-out routine. So, get the fad out, and try something simple that works better for the body and the soul.