Have you walked down a street at 2 in the morning? - All bundled up in woolly warmth but with that tendril of cold dread shooting up your back at each approaching face.
A street that you walk down with such familiarity and confidence under the warm friendly sun but under a blanket of stars, it's all about clenched jaws and unblinking eyes covered up by a deceitful easy swagger.
Have you walked down 20 feet of road flanked with dried shrubs on either side and deserted under the heated afternoon sun? - All covered up in the sweat of speed walking 2 kms from college to tutorial, clutching a collection of Economics notebooks to my chest while holding up an umbrella in self-defense.
A road down which you walk in easy camaraderie and jollity on the way back from tutorial to hostel with a bunch of guys and girls. A stretch which takes you 5 minutes to walk down with friends but which you crossed in a blinding minute an hour earlier with a 3 second break to wet your umbrella under the broken pipe on the wayside. For, whatever uncertainties lie in store, you absolutely must have that wet respite - watching that water flow allows you time to unclench your jaws and have a much-needed saliva respite for your throat.
Have you walked down a road in the dawn chill of 5 am? - Walking a dearest friend down to the auto stand to catch her 6 am train. Then finding that there are none, and so you desperately troll streets looking for the elusive auto. And when you have found one and your friend is on her way and you have come home and crawled into your bed to warm up your cold body, you fall asleep straight away and then dream of your friend caught up in a realistically ominous dark swirl and wake up hyperventilating.
Every road teaches us as we walk past.
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