Physicians and physical-fitness buffs seem to have unshakable faith in walking as an exercise, offering numerous health benefits to people of all ages under well-marked levels of their fitness. Their prescription, as simple as walking for as short as 30 minutes in a day is receiving appreciable response nowadays by all cross-sections of society, particularly in urban spaces, unarguably a welcome sign, despite the unstoppable expansion of vehicular population, not excluding the rural regions. Bicycles, which tended to virtually become extinct during the recent past decades also seem to be staging a come back, thanks to measures such as Trin-Trin facility introduced in Mysuru. The civic authorities too have pitched in to promote the walking habit in the citizens by creating exclusive track for walkers on some stretches of roads and also lakesides. However, the condition of footpaths on the roadsides continues to be inhospitable to walkers, particularly senior citizens, not to forget the risk of getting knocked down by automobiles while crossing from one side of the road to the other.
The land’s philosophers and luminaries of the spiritual world are known to have walked tirelessly singing lyrics of their own composition and delivering discourses several centuries ago, among whom Adi Shankara (eighth century) stands out. Maybe, absence of automobiles and motorable roads to commute compelled them to resort to walking, unlike their counterparts of our time, who are jet-set.
