A gap.

In the daily schedule.

Monday – the 10th day after Ganesh Chaturthi. A procession of about 1 million people will pass through the city and assemble at Hussain Sagar, where the Ganesh statues are ritually immersed. That would roughly be the population of Bhutan in a 6 square kilometre area containing Hyderabad’s busiest roads.

Mercifully, my office has declared it a half day.

I leave for home from office at 2.30 pm.

Even the weather seems to have a gap in its monsoon schedule.

After 4 days of incessant rains, the sky clears. Temperature stays within a pleasant lower 20s.

There is an explosion of bright colors. A warm sun streams down yellow-golden rays. Cotton-white clouds race across the bright blue sky. The green trees sway in the strong winds.

As I walk back, a spring comes in my step.

An entire afternoon stretched out with nothing planned and nothing to do.

Sometimes, such sudden gaps give me more joy than 2 full days of weekend.