online: 31 july 2017
modified: 27, 31 july 2017

27 july 2017 cool evening overlooking vale of health


...gentle wind is moving leaves and branches by no more than a few centimetres... pale blue sky with streaks of blue cloud... sudden gust of wind puts branches and trees in motion... (seems already past the height of summer) drops of rain on screen... put computer back in bag only to find rain ceases...

...looking at the house where Rabindranath Tagore stayed (was it in 1913?).. but he now seems less present there than in a book of his i am presently reading*... is it that our written thoughts are more real than the objects and places that we lived amongst?..

...at which it began to rain quite strongly and i went quickly to a bus stop... where i found someone mending a bicycle puncture... i was amazed to see that he had all the necessary tools (even a light) and knew exactly how to do it... (even how to disassemble the gear chain and sprockets)... later he told me he was not an engineer but a lawyer of nearly 50...

...while he completed the repair the rain became quite heavy... and dusk changed to night... the bus arrived just as he was testing the bike to see if the puncture was mended... and it was!

how i like to see someone doing something with competence... especially when it's very different from the work they are normally paid for...


*Rabindranath Tagore, My Reminiscences, Macmillan Publishers Ltd, London 1917, 1991.




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