Autumn's here! The leaves left on the trees are turning a lovely brown or a bright yellow. The autumn colours must be the most beautiful of them all. I do like the greens, but there is something melancholic and poetic about the colours that autumn has on show. This is the time of the year when nature gives up its past to rebuild itself. Leaves float down to the earth creating a carpet across the pavements and roads. The world looks dressed up in full evening dress.

The cold is here too. Some days are particularly so. The cold wind clings to you sending shivers from head to toe. The locals of course are used to the weather and go about their ways with nonchalance.

My evening walks had been shelved in fear of the cold weather. This sunday though, with nothing better to do, I decided to take a walk. To catch a breath of fresh air and to air my mind a bit. Left the hotel a little about 6 in evening to return at 7. I couldn't smell the fresh air though, because it was too cool for my nose to open up.

It's so much fun to walk aimlessly for an hour with no place to reach and no hurry. Yeah, you could do it in India too but definitely not for more than a few minutes. You either run out of safe pedestrian paths or will have had enough of the jostling traffic. Oh and here it is kind of hard to get completely lost. I didn't, inspite of the fact that I randomly chose turns.

It was cold. But with so much effort put into the walking you tend not to notice. It was dusk and there was this dull warm light lighting up the autumn colours. The soothing sounds of bird calls kept my mind from thinking things. The crunch of the dry leaves under my foot never seemed so much fun before. It was like one of the things you did as a kid tapping on the floor or hopping on the stairs to hear the sound it make. I also got to discover a few more viewpoints overlooking the town. The town center is situated in this sort of a valley bounded by hills (they are more mounds than hills though). These areas are mostly residential. I got up to one side of the hilly side and there was this beautiful view of the town laid out in lights with the setting sun creating a pretty canvas over it. On one side of the sky, a big half moon was still undecided about whether it was time to come out.

So although this weekend was in inactive mode, it was not a complete waste.