Brahma Muhurta

Making use of an auspicious time - with caution

- Ms. Simone Preuss

When my daughter was around ten years old, she was enrolled in an early-morning running class at a sports ground close to Juhu Beach in Mumbai. While she was making her rounds at the said sports ground (after a thorough warm-up of course), I was joining the morning walkers on the beach by about 5:20 am.

Would there even be many people at this ungodly hour, when it is still dark, one may ask, wouldn't people come after sunrise? Well, there were quite a few people at that time, trudging in one orderly line by the water in one direction and in another in the other direction. It was like a caravan, minus the camels.

I remember doing this in December and January, Mumbai's "winter months" when temperatures drop below 20 degrees, sometimes even below 15. Well, let me tell you that I was feeling cold, despite walking briskly and despite wearing a sweater. I was feeling so cold, in fact, that I wished I had a nice thick winter jacket. There was just something about that darkness in the last quarter of the night that seemed impenetrable. My spirits sank with each step I took, I also felt hungry and somehow it seemed as if the sun would never rise again.