However weighty the issues on hand,
the customary invocation to Biscuit in the beginning cannot be suspended! The
previous Saturday edition of Metro Plus accompanying the Hindu newspaper made
our day when a long article on Biscuit’s brethren being employed in offices
with fancy designation as CFO (It is Chief Fun Officer and not Chief Finance
Officer!). Biscuit appeared sad thinking about the missed opportunities, but,
the commercial world’s loss is our gain. He is like the humble housewife whose
contribution is often underestimated as compared to the working women. Biscuit
has a full day helping all the inmates live a full life while challenging squirrels
and engaging in shouting matches with his quadruped neighbours in the block.
It takes something special nay
foolhardy to join issues with the Bard of Avon, but, if you substitute Rose
with ‘Pain in the B#$$’and the alternative name is as exotic as Piriformis
syndrome, I think it is fair game. I felt like Kakaji in movie Anand, gloating
over his ‘Lymphosercoma of the intestine’! I am speaking of unspeakable and
unbearable pain in my glutes about two weeks back which had immobilized me and
more importantly kept me from my running for a full three days. Thanks to a
chance conversation with my Doctor brother, I got a name (a fancy one at that!)
to bandy around which can be fashionably discussed even in mixed company. I
have found this that sooner you can give a name to your medical condition and
immediately you start feeling better, I guess it is because you move from the
uncertainty to an area where others have gone before!
Dr. Google tells me that this
condition afflicts people who sit on their backs and/or who run long distances.
I think my job is the cause and my wife believes it is my daily dose of
running. I have made a concession to walk around a bit during my office hours
between files and meetings and a few stretches before the run. Thankfully, I am
back to my normal quota of runs.
Weather gods have been kind to the
running community these past few weeks and my recuperation has been greatly
aided by it. I am normally quite chirpy during my runs and I only get chirpier
if the rain gods oblige. It was on one such day that while running with Sameer,
the swimming coach to youngsters near Anna square, I engaged in small talk with a person speaking
animatedly near a water puddle and with hilarious consequences. When I answered
his repeated query as to ‘How one could survive without the Sun’ with an
assurance that the Sun would come out assuming he was worried about the puddle
splashing people. He got agitated and asked if I voted for the rising Sun? He
castigated me by saying that if one does not vote for the rising Sun then how
could it come. Only then it sunk into my thick skull that I have been had by a hard
core political analyst and supporter of the opposition party of TN. I got away
by promising him that I would consider voting for the rising sun next time
around!
The loop
around the Island ground forms Km 19-23 of my run and should technically have
me tired, but, with enthusiastic greetings from the Army men all through it is
the most enjoyable. Now, this part of the run has got even better with the
young kids practicing skating and their parents starting to acknowledge me with
greetings as they whiz past me multiple times. One young boy really stands out
as he seems to enjoy his sport and even greets me as he crosses me on my way
back on the Radhakrishnan Salai when he is relaxing on the pillion of the
scooter!
Many incidents
worthy of adorning this blog happened in the last few weeks of the run, but,
newer encounters get overwritten on the older ones. Two days back when I was
refuelling myself at the water point near Saravana café, an athletic looking
man rushed to me and said that he is from Rajapalayam (a town known for its
breed of dogs!). He said he has come for an event (It was Arignar Anna’s
birthday!) and I thought would it be my introduction to the political class. He
said that he has read about me in a Tamil magazine in a saloon while waiting
for his turn and that led to his reading the book ‘Born to Run’. He stated that
he has graduated to barefoot running and has inspired a set of youngsters in
his town to take up long distance running. Talk of the power of the media! While
I was about to ask him about his name and job, a scooter bumped into a parked
car and fell down with the young rider thrown on the ground. We rushed to help
him. The boy had a bout of fits and we helped him endure the episode politely
turning down the people coming forward to give him a metal object. I quietly slipped
away to complete my run feeling good about a chance to help a kid ( inwardly feeling
sad that my repeated requests to them to wear helmets and not drive rashly goes
unheeded!) and having met an admirer!
While on the topic
of rash driving, the scene on the Cathedral road was gory today morning with
lots of smashed auto rickshaws. This is the place where many of these are
parked and drivers sleep in their parked vehicles. I had thought that it was
another rash two wheeler riders doing, but, it transpires it was a drunk racing
car driver who killed one of the drivers and smashed a few autos.
