Biscuit seems to have settled
into the new place, he woke up with my alarm, maybe, first time after coming to
Chennai and stayed up with me for the entire spinning session. We had a
leisurely walk starting 3 AM. What struck me while going around the Railway colony
was that all the blocks have been named after rivers of India and despite that
they together are not able to stem the stench of Cooum river flowing alongside,
irony indeed! Back after the walk at 3:45 AM, with another 20 minutes for the
Chennai Express to arrive, I tried the plank for 30 seconds (measured by
breathe in- breathe out!), and followed it by a power nap. Today I was at the
gates before Chennai Express arrived.
Sundar arrived at 4:05 AM,
today’s discussion was about my attempt at buying a second hand car and my
fears of getting cheated. He has graciously accepted to negotiate and gather
market intelligence for me! The run was not as smooth today, maybe, sore from
yesterday’s run. Reached Lighthouse at 4:49 AM. Cow feeding accomplished in the
first loop itself, today, I did not step on to the green as I had a bad
experience yesterday and waited for the cow to come to me. The grass has some
other vegetation with thorns and is not barefoot friendly. I have become comfortable
with giving the peels in the cow’s mouth without fear or revulsion.
The Marina was very crowded
today and we had to weave through walkers and sleeping people on the pavement.
A man sleeping and his best friend (read dog!) curled up at his feet presented a
heart warming sight! The run on this stretch has now become a quiet affair and
usually punctuated with waves and smiles exchanged with other runners and
walkers.
Now is the time to introduce
the protagonist of today’s blog. Near the Labour statute usually a large number
of dogs are found. They assemble and wait for this lady to arrive who feeds
them Parle-G biscuit every day. While waiting for their b’fast to arrive, they
were playing games and some veterans were just lolling around. I had an
interesting exchange with her when I reached the same point in the second loop.
Reached RBI at 5:22 AM, today was 3 minutes slower than yesterday. On the way
back we were following a young runner who was setting a decent pace
effortlessly. Without showing that we wanted to overtake him, both of us tried
to accelerate to overtake him. He also looked behind every time we reached near
him. We caught up with him when he reached his finish point, the Gandhi statue.
We crossed him and an exchange of smiles of mutual respect happened. Reached
Lighthouse at 5:52 AM (the gentleman had made us do the 5K+ in 30’ flat!). I
gave him a clap of admiration when I crossed him on the second loop drawing a
wide grin from him, one more friend added to friends list!
At the labour statue the lady
was there distributing Parle G biscuits. I stopped and politely told her that I
am a dog lover myself and appreciate her feeding the stray dogs and also asked
her if she would mind a few suggestions from me! She immediately got on her
guard and asked if it is about littering the covers and told that she takes
back all the covers in her bag. I said that the glucose biscuits are not good
for dogs and any bakery biscuit without salt/sugar and very less oil/fat is
best for them. She asked me if I could help her find a bakery, I accepted and
promptly passed on the problem to Chennai veteran, Sundar! We have a saying in
Tamil, which goes like this; when a young Brahmin was asked by a lady as to why
he was still unmarried, he is said to have asked the lady if she would be his
wife!
Balaji Ganesan met us here
and joined us for a run to RBI and back till Gandhi statue. I came to know that
both Sundar and Balaji are Loyala college students, and in no time the two young
Loyola loyalists ganged up and left the Hubli passenger huffing and puffing
behind. It took me till RBI to catch up with them. We reached RBI at 6:23 AM.
We ended at Gandhi statue around 6:50 AM and had a big break for some
photographs with Balaji. Reached home at 7:36 AM.
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