There is no magic ingredient

Every runner has some superstition which he thinks makes him run long and hard. I used to credit my prowess on the road to the spent green tea-leaves which I used to tuck into my mouth before I started for my run. Today when I started my run it felt a bit different (it could not have been the absence of the spinning of charkha before the run, which happened because of a mechanical breakdown!). I was almost at the end of the Sterling road, when it struck me that my mouth was drying up, I had forgotten to tuck the wad of tea leaves. Anyway, it was too late to return for that and to wake up the house at that ungodly hour would have been unpardonable.

My mouth used to cud-chewing on the run was feeling orphaned, like the tongue encountering gaping holes in the gums after one loses a tooth. I consciously tried working up saliva for keeping the throat wet! I reached the Gandhi statue in my usual time. I was tempted to declare that there was no magic ingredient! While it is liberating on one hand, it is also saddening. It is like the loss of innocence which makes one realize that there is no tooth fairy/Santa Claus! These constructs keeps one interested and, I believe, makes one go the extra mile!

Today Harishankari accompanied me on the return leg from Gandhi statue to Alwarpet junction. It was nice to have the security of the strong arm of the law when running in the middle of the road. It is a different matter that he needed my assurance to face the honking water-lorry instead! We had an interesting discussion on the efficacy of setting stiff goals for improving performance. We concluded that real running free needs a certain retirement age which he is yet to reach and which I had reached already. He tried interesting me in a few events which were coming up, but, I guess I have become too lazy for travelling for run. If I have any bucket list of run I would like to participate still, it shall be the ‘Narmada Parikrama’ and the Comrades!

The weather was kinder today and I had Sundar’s company for the last part of the run from the Uttamar Gandhi Salai to my home. While the cheers from the schoolkids in the auto were unconditional, an auto driver decided to greet me only after getting my age. I trust runners mature like wine with age! I guess people get disappointed when they hear my age, as they expect me to be older going by my white beard and hair (or whatever is left of it!). There is a good business model for make-up for runners to make them look older! The time for the run from start to finish by the wall clock in our drawing room was a little less than 3:30, the absence of magic ingredient more than made up by the magic weather!

Requiem for Tutu!

I do not know the connection between my being on facebook and my blogging. My literary juices seem to have dried up starved of the vitamin ‘Likes’. Two things happened over this weekend to force me to wield the keyboard again. The first was a father and daughter duo emerging out of the morning darkness on my Saturday run over the Napier Bridge on the river Couum, the father shouting out to me as he passed me that I was missed on the facebook. It felt nothing less than what famed creator of Sherlock Holmes would have felt after he had to bow to public pressure to resurrect the character after having dumped him in the Reichenbach Falls.

                The second event was much more shattering, Biscuit’s cousin and my brother’s pet ‘Tutu’ breathed his last around midnight this last Sunday. I woke to this heartbreaking message from my brother and the last line made me feel my heart would burst, he had written that he would wake up alone at 3 AM without Tutu’s company. I could fully relate to this. When people ask me about my regularity in running, I invariably credit it to the unsung hero, Biscuit, who is next to me as soon as the alarm goes irrespective of the time. I did not have the courage to speak to my brother, I left him a message knowing fully well that empty words cannot be any good for the loss he and his family have had.

                I messaged him to not to run alone for a few days till he recovers a little. I for myself was sure to pay homage to the good soul in the only way I know, running a full marathon! I had considered a day of fasting, spinning and prayer, but, rejected the fasting part knowing how much he loved hogging. I am sure he would not have liked his family to punish themselves by abstaining from food. I still cannot forget the way he used to gobble up chewstix while Biscuit when confronted with the same treat used to lick and soften it for hours. I hope he gets his fill of chewstix wherever Dogs go after spending their allotted time on earth (My brother later told me that he was buried with enough stock of his favorite chewstix, a.k.a. Tutenkhamem, his namesake!

                I have been thinking about why such loss affects us so deeply, my guess is that we try to imagine the same loss for ourselves and the enormity of it does the rest. Biscuit is still surprised why we all are being so nice to him, I am sure he is not complaining! Every dog I encountered during the run and Labradors in particular sent fresh bouts of pain through my heart. I saw an attendant shepherding three Labs on a leash, instantly, I imagined Tutu on an imaginary fourth leash making up the quartet! I just hope the family gets over this if it is at all possible. As for Tutu, I am sure he must be spreading happiness as is their wont at a place which could only be heaven (I cannot imagine a heaven without Dogs and no Dog does anything to go anywhere other than heaven), or, if they do not go to heaven, I hope I go to where Dogs go after dying as one anonymous writer has famously said!

                I had the company of a barefoot runner for the last loop and he loved the billiard top surface around the Island ground loop. To a regular passerby who made a face on crossing me commenting to his partner that I run barefoot everyday (to the tone of ‘What do you do to a problem like Maria’!). I told him I am a little mad which seemed to satisfy him. I told my runner friend that I was not wrong, I was trying to take my passion of running to the limits of madness, Isn’t there a very fine line between madness and passion! The run even at a leisurely pace got me home in 4h:35m.

                Today morning when I lined up for my run, a group of workers, who are engaged in putting up a steel median on the road outside the colony, were relaxing after their graveyard shift. One of them asked me why I do not wear shoes. Generally, the tone of such queries is one of pity and awe. I disabused him that the act was deliberate as it helped me recover from my runs quicker. One of them asked if Drivers of trains stayed in the colony I was coming out from, I quipped the colony has drivers of such drivers. He correctly guessed that we must be officers. My leg even if a little painful at the start has been getting better and today’s weekday quota of 32K was downed in 3h:31m!

Where is your shirt Mr. Gandhi

This was the day before the Republic Day, when Gandhi gets appropriated from the Public by the Great Indian Republic! I was greeted by two suited booted employees of Hotel Taj, I felt like Gandhi must have felt confronted by the King of England when he went to meet him over tea. There was no condescension here, the youngsters knew the Hubli passenger by sight, but, I could not resist the jibe that ‘they had enough for the both of us’.

Gandhi was hiding behind a big tent, it looked like he was uncomfortable and wanted to disassociate from all the fanfare. A policeman of ample proportions, his lathi carelessly laid under the chair, asked me about my missing shirt! Though, I could not claim any higher motive like Gandhi about going topless till all the Indians are clothed (his bare top was to befit the occasion was suitably covered with a thick garland!), told him that a bare top helped me in efficient heat exchange, the physics was obviously lost on the gentleman of the constabulary. A safari clad (must be a higher official from North of Vindhyas!) took offence to my tone (he couldn’t understand our conversation conducted in Singara Tamil). I explained to him in chaste Hindi that it is unbecoming of them to object to Gandhian attire right under his nose! All ended with a good laugh when a traffic policeman who knew me from my daily runs interjected on my behalf and lightened the atmosphere by asking me my day’s quota of run.

Republic day meant that the pavement dwellers had to make way for the elite, it was heartening to see my friend ‘Val-vil-ram’holding fort at the base of Kannagi statue and carrying on an animated discussion with the traffic policeman on duty. I felt a sense of belonging at being urged on by his ‘Tumhi Gold medal, first position!’.

Talking of policemen, my friend traffic policeman at the busy Nungambakkam station crossing informed me yesterday of his transfer to Triplicane along with his inspector. Alas, the morning crossings at the busy junction would not be the same anymore. Love the way he eggs on the people and carries on his daily chit-chat amongst the chaos. I told him that I would miss his VIP treatment of mine, but, the saving grace is he relocates to what was my in-laws place of residence and where I have a lot of happy memories attached with. Turns out that he also grew up thereabouts! I am used to the make and break of transferable service, having been in one last close to three decades and having been born into and grown up in an Air force family.

My friendly street dog of the Mariamman temple opposite Loyola crossing, whose skin tenor I used to envy, was bleeding from a wound around his ear. I have seen him being brought up on tea and biscuits and living on a busy crossing and wonder how it is that Biscuit with all his pampering never matches his ruggedness or skin tenor! I have similarly wondered at the healthy babies in the arms of nomads and beggars gorging merrily on plain boiled rice while our well bred kids have all the nuanced infections!

Chennai marathon came and went and I am happy to report that I could abstain even from my normal run on the D-day without tinge of jealousy. The runners must be having a hangover after the event and the usual crowd of runners is yet to pick up.

School children have slowly warmed to my running and I now have my own cheering squad of squealing kids near the finish point (Sangeeta hotel) on most days. The traffic policeman at Sterling road crossing engages in a chit-chat giving my tired soles and lungs an excuse to break my run. Two days of abstention due to a pain in the right foot has me grumpy and here’s praying I get my fix tomorrow.

New Year resolutions

                It is Valentines season come early for Biscuit’s brethren. They seem to be courting danger in the middle of the road unmindful of the traffic. There is this brown girl who has been stalking Biscuit unabashedly these last few days during our morning walks. Now, though he is a confirmed bachelor, he has sometimes been tempted to make cooing sounds (It is like Maneka tempting Vishwamitra again!). He is made of sterner stuff, but, thanks to this love angle he has become regular in his morning walks again!

                I do not wait for the 1^st of January to make resolutions, changes have been happening to me gradually without my having to plan for it. This year, however, I did make a few resolutions. First being getting off facebook. I spent a week slowly weaning myself from this latest addiction and took the plunge yesterday. I was overwhelmed by the ‘Tussi Na Jaao’ kind of comments my post regarding quitting facebook got. I am actually jealous of Biscuit as more than my absence my friends seem to be worried about missing Biscuit’s adventures! I shall continue to inflict my writings through my Blog at www.blogger.com titled ‘My experiments on the highway’.

                The last week of December has been very productive in terms of runs. I ran the last week of previous year without a break. That made me to resolve to run every day in this year. To keep out statistics and competition, the distance shall not be full marathon except on Sundays. The daily quota has been pegged at 32K. The going is good till the time of going to press.

                I have gathered a lot of encounters in these two weeks of running which I shall unleash to the extent my memory serves;

                M S Amma has deserted her post and she seems to be sabha hopping in this Music season. Deserting the commoners for serenading the cognoscenti has not gone down well with the morning walkers crowd.

                Road relaying work has again picked up pace after the rains undid the previous work. I seem to have worked up a decent following among the workers who are doing these works on my route. Usual introductions are the question if I was going up to the Beach road, other times I just overhear the word ‘Daily’ as I pass by. This is their way of telling me that I am being followed. Yesterday, one young worker ran alongside me on the Beach road. He is from Thiruvannamalai. After enquiring about my routine, he asked me why I run barefoot. I asked him in turn that he himself is barefoot. He made light of his effort by saying that he is used to it.  He got my name and when I returned the favour I was surprised to know that his name was Rajiv Gandhi. I jokingly told him that Sonia Madam would shed tears of blood finding her dear departed’s namesake working on hot tar road bare footed! I am aware that such stories should not be made light of. I was imagining with what expectations his parents would have named him ‘Rajiv’. I hope he has a better future in the Shining and Digital India.

                Today a lady cyclist who regularly crosses me on R K Salai told me that the Beach road is blocked for road work, I just took a chance to just say Hi to Bapuji. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a smiling Rajiv Gandhi from across the barricades. He let me in and introduced me to his co-workers, Har Ek friend Jaroori hota hai! I felt like a VIP being taken ahead of Aam Aadmis for the Tirupati Balaji darshan.

                I think I have mentioned this distinguished looking person who sits near the Kannagi statue and who had broken my heart by begging. He has come back after tours to Bangalore and Tiruchi. He always greets me with a ‘Jai Sia Ram’ as I cross him. Curiosity got the better of me and one day I stopped to know more about him. So, here goes, He is 81 years young and resides near Mylapore tank with his guruji. He retired from Royal Enfield factory at Ennore more than 30 years back. His name is Val-vil-Ram. Now he chants ‘Gold medal’, First and that his name is .. whenever I cross him. I feel like I have won a fan like Sachin’s painted friend! Will find out more about him and why he has been reduced to begging by and by!

                I used to be reporting about the mentally challenged lady who used to stay at the R K Salai bus shelter. Now, I have lost her since the rains. I have tried enquiring with the Sanitation workers who work that beat. I have settled for the reply one of the lady workers gave that the lady may have found a shelter in some better place, hope it is true. Meanwhile, I have been introduced to a young lady who works for an NGO which rescues and shelters mentally challenged women. Had I reported about her earlier, maybe, she would have found a shelter fo sure! I have been seeing a lady with a young child begging on the Beach road. She is disabled at her hip and drags her lower half of the body. Fresh from the tragedy of the R K salai lady, I asked this lady if she would like to move to a home and earn her keep if a NGO offers to take her. She has been enthusiastic and things have been set in motion and I hope she finds a decent life instead of having to beg on the road.

                The Parle G lady is regular in her feeding of her canine charges. She has this habit of plucking flowers during the walk and putting them in her hair. Fully adorned she looks like the lady in Lage Raho Munnabhai who teases Lucky with her hair full of flowers. She seems to be always tauting me with ‘Get Well Soon’!

                I am taking around 3hour 30 minutes to 3 hour 45 minutes for my quota of daily run and weather permitting would like to make the form count while it lasts to create a record of daily runs without a break!

After the deluge

It was a rusting Hubli Passenger which started with uncertain steps at 4:16 AM today morning after a week of abstinence. Somehow I was not feeling the joy which I had been anticipating. I was imagining that this is how the loco pilot (that is what the good old Engine driver is called now!) of the first suburban train after the last few days of break due to flooding would have felt when the services were up on Monday morning bringing relief to many office goers on what is otherwise portrayed with a prefix blue! I was tentative and watching for potholes and puddles. The Airport had become operational yesterday bringing cheer to stranded passengers.
I knew the physical dullness would give way to joy inside once the endorphins kicked in. I was keen to renew contact with Gandhi and was eager to see how my friends on the pavement had done for themselves. But for a big puddle of water opposite the Hotel Park near Gemini circle which smelled of kerosene, the road to Gandhi statue was clear of water. The road was however badly scuffed and the loose gravel took its toll on my soles. The usual permanent occupants outside the church and bus stops enroute was heartening. There was no sign of the lady at the bus stop and I can only hope she has shifted base!
The clock struck five when I crossed the Gandhi statue after an about turn at the Lighthouse. The friendly and loud chatter of the walkers was heartening. The alms seekers on one side of the pavement and the well heeled near their parked vehicles at the other end meant that the surging waters which had brought all strata of the society together in the last week had retreated to their earlier positions. I thought I sensed more empathy in the giver when they bent to give alms to the seeker today!
Yesterday our office celebrated the 60th Mahaparinirvan diwas of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, what one of our colleagues said after the event was very apt. The one week of flooding in Chennai has achieved Dr. Ambedkar’s ideals of a classless and casteless society and if only we remain that way after the threat recedes. The last one week has surely taught us the price of energy and water conservation. I hope the teachers strike at the hearts and minds of the students as soon as the schools re-open so that the theory classes on Climate change can follow the practical demonstration they have had first hand.
M.S. Amma was soothing the walkers with her soulful rendition of Vishnu Sahasranamam. The guard who usually used to strike a balance between the temporal of the temple and the corporeal of the temple next door by sitting right in the middle of the two had succumbed to the air-conditioned charms of the corporeal inside the ATM today. The attendance of the walkers as well as the beggars was full today. The municipal workers were cheerfully going about their mundane task.
Couum river was flowing majestically and its span today was like the proverbial 56” and the waters diluted with the rainwater was much cleaner. I was reminded of the photograph in the Hindu newspaper yesterday where the swollen Adyar river had spat back a load of plastic and thermocol waste. Guess even holy rivers cannot digest this sin. Talking of the plastic, I must say, it is not all that bad. I remember how it protected the common people from the rain, I think there is no harm in using plastic, the problem is the culture of use and throw indiscriminately!
I met a few runners today, but, the cyclists were conspicuous by their absence. I had the company of Gerald Martin Joseph​ in my second loop from light house for a few kilometers and he was telling me about the relief work he was able to do. I have been feeling absolutely impotent the last few days. The lack of knowledge of the lay of the land, being a novice in swimming and absence of a suitable means of transport rendered me useless and I just satisfied myself by enquiring from the people who deliver milk/paper etc. to us about their well being. I was thrilled when I saw in the papers on Sunday that the NDRF teams largely consisting of North Indians were in need of people who can act as interpreters for them with the local people. I found their number from their website and offered my assistance. Even though they took my number, I was not called to the battle front!
My day was made during the run today when an MTC bus driver stopped and greeted me and I reciprocated by telling him how the MTC had done a wonderful job during the floods. To their credit they were the only public transport apart from Metro who braved on during the floods. My cup was full when a person stopped me when I was in the final lap towards Gandhi statue with the word ‘Hubli?’. I asked him how he knew me. It turns out he is Sakthivel, and he drives a molasses tanker and used to cross me daily on the Highway during my runs in Hubli. He has come here to help clean up the mess after the floods. He was very happy that yours truly is from TN!
Despite ample doses of endorphins and cheers from friends, it was a tired Hubli passenger which reached the colony gates after a 3 hour 33 minute run. I know it would get better from tomorrow!

Demand and Supply

                Now do not get me wrong, I am no Raghuram Rajan wannabe! Even to my untrained mind I see a Demand and Supply play in all the major debates on today;

                Take the Beef ban; by enforcing a ban the supply side is targeted by the powers that be causing much air turbulence. I hold that an Aamir Khan why even the humble Hubli passenger going vegan does more to the cause of the bovine population in a more sustained way.

                For all this reckless construction in the environmentally sensitive zone, if the ‘Caveat Emptor’ sounded by the mother nature is heeded such depredations would die down non-violently. It has been proved now that ultimately the buyer or his progeny pays with all its belongings and even life, not to talk of the collateral damage on the neighboring population!

                And the much talked about Prohibition, if the consumer gets aware, all the liquor in the state outlets cannot intoxicate the people. The talk of the revenue loss due to prohibition sounds like a cruel joke. Is it not like taking a poor man’s kidney (or Liver if you please!) to give him freebies!

                While walking back from work yesterday, the various pipes spluttering out water at the coaxing of the tired pumps made it appear as Chennai was on its back taking a count with Chennai’ites giving it the mouth to mouth resuscitation. What made my day was a young man cheerfully holding me up on the Guruswamy bridge. I shied away thinking some friend of Bacchus was trying me for a touch. He said that he knows me and he sees me running on the Beach. He is Mohammed and he also confessed to not having gone for a walk for the last few days. Any thoughts I had of getting a run today were doused by my wife’s killer looks!

                Sun came out bright and early today, like a maid after a weekend away, dreading the mess that its absence would have caused in the city. I never thought I would welcome my old sparring partner so affectionately ever. It has gotten into its supersoaker mode and Insha-allah Chennai should be home and dry soon.

Chennai is not what it used to be!

                The Sun came out apologetically after taking a hiding for the last few days. The people wading in knee deep waters were egging him on, what do they care if the cognoscenti believe that we are in the eye of a storm! Biscuit and yours truly had a leisurely walk in quite some time now. He could not help growling at his canine friends and got a cold stare from me for being rude to the less fortunate.

                Before the National media turned its attention to the tragedy that was playing out in Chennai, I got to squeeze in a run in the rain. Just when the waters of the sea after scaring the living daylights of the people decide to go back to its peace time station. What I noticed about the rain in Chennai is that it was business like (a la Dravid like!) not flashy and theatrical like aka Sehwag. If it wanted to discipline the greedy land grabbers it did it quietly. I have run through a much more extravagant Light and Sound show in my morning runs in Hubli! When nature decided to reclaim what was stolen from it surreptiously, it did so politely but firmly!

                The next two days were revealing as horror unfolded on National television. The stories of pollution in the national capital and rains in Chennai keeping kids from school was a lesson, which their elders failed to teach them, but, the one they would never forget in their lives. It does not require eminent people gathering in Paris to teach us the lesson of the costs the Climate change is wreaking on us!

                It is not only that the Hubli passenger missed its morning run the last two days, the Railways too had to suspend many trains and the airport closed the skies to make us feel truly marooned. The people of Chennai used this calamity to truly bond. The last two days of commuting to office and back first on the MTC bus and today on foot in knee deep water really brought out the character of the people. The strength of the people sure came out when they were put to test. The tales of humanity makes all the divisive stories which hog the limelight in the National media otherwise truly irrelevant!

                The Aavin (state owned dairy plant in the suburb) and the Hindu (the Chennai’s favorite newspaper) press having been brought to their knees by the incessant rains meant the Chennai’ite woke to a morning without his cuppa of filter coffee and the HINDU newspaper. The message is loud and clear, let us not mess with nature!

                While the bigger questions of town planning have to left to the big people. Each of us if we make an honest effort to live sustainably we would have been the Change that we want to see!

                I sincerely hope that I am able to run tomorrow and maybe then the train service and the Airport authority would take a leaf out of the Hubli Passenger’s book! Stay strong Chennai’ites, maybe, the weather gods have relented and believe that we have learnt our lesson.