The summer is officially on and
Biscuit is restless at night. He is out in the Hall much before my alarm goes
off in the morning. His friends have shifted to sand pits and ditches to beat
the heat. The colony roads are getting a makeover, but, it means road rollers
and Tar mixers which Biscuit is mortally scared off. Tiggy( my colleague’s Rottweiler!) continues
to challenge him the moment Biscuit enters his range of vision. Biscuit realizing
that he is all bark and cannot bite (as he is chained on first floor!) gives
him the royal ignore. Tiggy is not amused and more and more resembles a Hindi
film villain haranguing in chains and irons!
Heat
has become sapping and the 32K on Saturday followed by the quarterly blood
donation with not much of rest meant a tired self who fell back in bed after
switching off the alarm yesterday. The whole day was spent in catching up on
sleep and hydration. The Little red cells regrouped under the soothing
ministration of the goddess of sleep. My Hb% was a healthy 14.3% this time and
considering that the iron tablets have been reduced to one per day in the
previous quarter this is creditable. Experimenting with no iron tablets this
quarter and see if I pass the muster for donation in June!
I was up well before the alarm went
off today to surprise Biscuit in the Hall. At an age when the reverse countdown
is on, birthdays no longer excite me, but, remind one of the approaching finish
line with so much to do! I wanted to have a good run nevertheless to mark the occasion.
A
young boy with plying tea has been meeting me at the Lighthouse in the last few
days. He wished me from across the road when I was crossing Stella Maris College
today. He finished selling a few cups to his customers and caught up with me.
He asked me if I was not afraid running alone and so early. I asked him what do
I have to lose but my shorts and the top tied at my waist. I returned the
compliment and asked him if he does not fear for his tea container and the
cycle. He said all the policemen on the road are his customers! He has finished
12th and is aiming for a degree. Will get more about him in my
future runs!
Another
young lad gave a run for my age on Saturday when I was returning on my first
lap from Labour statue to Lighthouse. We competed hard, but, neither wanted to
show that we were in a race. I was able to keep up with him despite small
diversions at the break in road where I have to take a detour to avoid pebbles.
He joined me when I started my second lap, this time at a steady and non
competing pace. He stopped/slowed down at the road breaks to let me join him.
We parted at the Anna square police station with just an exchange of smile and
mutual respect! No names were asked nor exchanged!
The
Jaya/Amitabh pair of Abhimaan fame walkers have started walking hand in hand
instead of running, maybe, Jaya has vowed to only sing duets (what a waste of
athletic talent!). Thankfully, today both were running together at a mutually
agreed pace!
Having
saved some money in having got a gift of Kindle, I was reconciling myself to
get my wife some gold trinket to assuage her long term grudge, but, guess what!
The finance minister presented a dream budget and all the jewelers downed
shutters against the proposed Excise duty on jewelry. Even they could not
digest a Gandhian being forced to shell out money on jewels!
The next challenge is to
participate remotely in the 10 day marathon challenge from 22nd of
this month. Hope I can start early enough to beat the heat and catch office in
time!
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