The mobile made a merry beep. Sameer scuffled over the bed, scrambling for the damn thing. A rude jerk from the indulgence of an early morning dream. The blanket seemed to pamper him and for an instant he thought there would be no place on earth more comfortable than that. With eyes half open, the eyelids playing a tug-of-war with itself, he pressed some random keys on the mobile. The bright light of the mobile hit him on his eyes and for once he hated himselves for buying a nuisance. 4.40 am shouted the device. Which meant he was 10 minutes behind schedule even before he had woken up. He got up, threw the blanket to the other side and walked towards the window. A bird flew across the horizon. He felt as though the sky was a huge screen and someone was projecting the bird’s image from behind. A silhouette. The morning was still in deep slumber. Nothing seemed to disturb it.

Sameer walked across the room to the basin. There he stood looking at the mirror for a few seconds. He had slept at 3 the same morning .The thought of which made him want to slump back to the bed again. A million other thoughts populated his mind in an instant like the products of a fission reaction. None seemed urgent, none was important. His hands seemed to be a mechanical robot, brushing the teeth for him. By the time he had finished, he was awake. He splashed a handful of water on his face and again and allowed it to work its magic on him, the way it does to flowers. He could instantly feel freshness all around him. He left his face undried , allowing the drops of water to do a face massage while it rolled from the forehead , over the eyes along the nose to the chin and below.
He changed to his tracksuits, slipped in the sneakers and was ready for the morning trot. The mobile beeped again, this time a missed ring from Nayan to inform him that he was ready too. They met below the building, smiled a good morning and set off.

They talked as they jogged. The early morning breeze swept gently across their face, over the forehead and the hairline, in an attempt, they thought, which defined their face from the rest of the body. They moved ahead, sometimes in a silent competition. They kept moving, the legs tired but the mind at its briskest best. A realization of how the mind tires one’s body more than any other part and how the mind propels you to keep moving how much ever any other part is tired. A testimony to the power of man’s will power. A thought of a navy diver from the movie “Men of Honor”. You don’t stop until your mind decides to. One’s mind. One’s god. They looked at each other. They exactly knew when the other wanted to stop. Silent conversation.