Evening walks have become a small but meaningful part of my routine. Around 7 PM, the streets shift from the hurried energy of office commutes to something slower, more personal. People return home, some tired, some relieved, some still carrying the weight of the day. It’s interesting how sharply our lives divide between the 9-5 and the 5-9—one dictated by obligation, the other by choice. What we do with those hours outside work often defines us more than the work itself. The faces I see tell stories—some strained, some content, most simply enduring. There’s a quiet resilience in the way people move, a reminder that life continues regardless of how the day went.
India’s financial diversity is impossible to ignore during these walks. A short distance can take you from high-rises to roadside stalls, from air-conditioned cars to hand-pulled carts. The privilege of stability is easy to forget until you see how hard others work just to get by. Street vendors setting up for the evening, laborers heading home after a long shift, shopkeepers tallying the day’s earnings—each has a rhythm, a struggle, a quiet determination. There’s inspiration in that, not in an exaggerated, sentimental way, but in the simple acknowledgment of effort. It’s a useful counterbalance to the insulated frustrations of desk jobs and routine.
What strikes me most is how little we notice these details in daily life. Walking forces you to slow down, to observe without agenda. You see the way a chai seller remembers his regulars’ orders, how construction workers share a joke while waiting for the bus, the tired but focused expression of a mother balancing groceries and a child’s hand. These are not grand moments, but they are real, unpolished, and far more telling than curated social media snippets. There’s a humility in recognizing that everyone has a life as complex as your own, even if their struggles and joys look different.
Evening walks, in the end, are less about exercise and more about perspective. They’re a reminder that life exists outside meetings and screens, that time moves differently for everyone, and that small observations can recalibrate how you see your own day. I don’t walk to escape routine but to see it clearly—both mine and others’. There’s value in that.