Back In The Saddle

Thought of picking up the bike again. It’s been more than a year since I rode. The ‘Thunderbird’ was lying idle with a friend for some time and then not so idle with Kashid. Kashid is one the fittest guys I know. He had been riding it regularly – for office, for football practices, for anything.

I called Kashid and asked for my bike. We met near Nal Stop after a long time, had a little chat over a cutting chai. Called Tamal to join but the rascal was working that day. Kashid was apprensive about me riding after so long and so long a distance at that. Took promise I will call him before I wear myself out. I had to go to Market yard from Nal stop and from Market yard I had to come back to Wakad. Roughly around 30 kms.

Went to market yard via Mhatre bridge, Laxmi Temple. Felt a renewed sense of disgust for motor vehichles and wondering why do we have to drive a motorvehicle at all. Well, reached market yard very sore, got the few documents, had a nariyal pani and started at around 7.30.

Near Bremen Chowk in Aundh, witnessed something unbelievable. As I was riding, a few meters away, saw an elderly lady riding pillion with a guy, her son perhaps. They were dragging a cat along with a nylon rope tied around her neck. I still get shivers down there when I remember that. Perplexed I watched, hoping they would stop not no. They just went on dragging the delicate animal(cats are very delicate). People standing near by just watched in horror. I sped and caught the biker. He stopped. I asked what exactly he wanted to do. He just left leaving his mother and the terribly shocked cat behind. His mother told they are taking the cat home. I was aghast at the cruelty. I offered to take the cat home for her and she agreed. Tried to get the cat on my bicycle but the poor beast just fell off, her mouth was bloody and barely could she stand. And the shock she had had at the treatment was immense. I stopped an auto, gave him money and told him to drop the lady and the cat whereever they want to. Now the lady dragged the cat again to put the cat on the auto and I almost had to shout. I wish I could bring the cat home. I love them. We had six of them when we were in the hostel. Hope that cat’s alive.

Started off again. Very disgusted and very angry. Nothing happened on the way. Kept to my extreme left lest some biker decides I am coming in the way. Stopped near Kalewadi to buy a kg of chicken. Reached home at around 8.45. I had ridden at a fairly good speed and at the end I was feeling very tired. I am not used to riding and was exhausted. Was ok after a few minutes.

Came to office on my bike for a couple of days and then just went lazy. The Hinjewadi roads are pathetic to say the least.

I have bought the helmet. Had to go to Pune for that as I didn’t find any in PCMC area. Shakti Sports had a few but I wear XL and the max they had was L. There is a firefox store in Pimpri Market but the helmets were expensive there – starting at 1500 and up to 6500. Expected for a Firefox. Mine did cost me 250. Bought a small handpump for 250. It’s a handy tool.

I will be coming to office on bike once I fix my schedule. Right now, its topsy turvy.

Amazon Trail

Just heard CCD chairman has got 1.85 million hectares of Amazon rainforest for his furniture  business from Guyana. So 1850 sq km of world’s oxygen cylinder will be lost forever and will come to our drawing rooms. It is just criminal.

I wonder what and whom do we celebrate. And what world we will be leaving for future generations.

Global warming, water scarcity, natural calamities are not just words. They are a reality and stare at us everyday and still we refuse to wake up to it. To run a furniture business, grow your trees and cut them. No one has right to mess with such a vital treasure.

Using a poor country’s helplessness to bag such a vulgar deal and then portrayed a winner is nothing but disgrace. I feel businessmen increasingly are using poor but rich in natural resources countries for mindless money making. Development should be sustainable. Does it mean money and beauty doesn’t coexist? Ahh stupidity.. thy name is human.

3 Idiots

I did watch 3 idiots recently. Recommended so highly by teammates,colleagues and friends alike, that when it was offered to me for free, I couldn’t say no. I have decided not to watch movies in theatres because wasting 200 rupees and 4 hours to watch something outright stupid didn’t appeal to me no more. But since this movie was offered for free and as media declared it to be bigger than even Sholay(not RGV’s Sholay), I did watch it.

And it was a 3 hours of torture. Right from the chiched events and jokes to the oft repeated Aamir Khan’s, I am so good at everything, stand left be quite dumbstruck about the taste of Indian junta. The question is are we left with fools only in this country? Har shaakh pe ullu baitha hai…

What did we celebrate in this movie?

1. Funsuk or Rancho or whatever that guy was named was so upbeat about what? Was he not a cheat in the first place? Shouldn’t all his 400(yes, he had 400 patents in 5 years, trust me) patents be scrapped and that guy be put in jail for being a ghost student. In a country where every ordinary medical or engineering seat is coveted, that guy snatched one seat for which 4000 appeared and kept preaching throughout the movie. Put him behind bars. Instead, he is called jahaan pahaan and what not.

2. What was that secne trying to prove where a senior who was pissing at this gate is electrocuted? I guess, he was so brilliant that he couldn’t wait to show that he knows a metal conducts electricity even if it meant a life lost. It’s dangerous, not smart but outright stupid. Because after that it is clear that seniors won’t stop at just killing you. Be it any college.

3. What did the movie promote – suicide? If your teachers ask you something which is perfectly legal and within the rules of college but falls outside the imaginary liberties you have taken, jump off the floor or hang yourself. No more fighting. Just kill yourself. Let me tell you guys, You will be the same person to your parents with or without a degree. Your life is least yours. Think about your parents before taking such a step. I guess, the director’s second movie was better in this sense. It told you to go down fighting. I believe Mr Khan has poked his super intelligence here.

4. Why does Mr Khan poke his nose in every girls affairs? If someone wants to marry Doctor Lector, let her do so. India is a free country. And why are his girls’ suitors so very weird that even a person with as low an IQ as Mr Khan’s can see it but not those girls, unless Mr Khan tells them.

5. Didn’t Mr Khan have even an iota of respect for his college when he changed the annual day script. It was not at all funny. Nowhere you will find a script with so many chamtkar words in it which when doctored supposedly made us roll out laughing. And where did your college stand in all this? A loser?

6. You enter your principal’s house at night – dead drunk. And barks a lot until the girls wake up, soaked in Rancho’s romantics. Well, I bet I will be in jail if I try something like this. But here the girl’s elder sister gets so overwhelmed by this that she right away asks her sister to kiss him. Just imagine what would she be like in her heydays.

7. Why does he tell his friends to change profession just before the finals? What was he doing all these years when he was so smart. Why wasted 3 seats, 3 years, lakhs of rupees and caused plenty of heartbreaks?

8. Why was Chatur portrayed a loser? What was wrong with him apart from his nasty habit of putting magazines just before the exam.

While I am writing this, I am wondering if I am the other idiot? The controversy was the a major factor behind the success of the movie and when I had seen the whole world involved in so called fighting over this movie, I had not paid any heed. But see, here I am – writing a full 1000+ words over the movie and doing what those guys want. Create more controversy. Will try to restrain myself in future.

Mr Khan has done a few good movies in past. Kayamat se Kayamat Tak was brilliant and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was terrific. But that was ages ago.

Today is his birthday. And above is his birthday present.

An evening in Lonavala

It was Saturday, 20th Feb and I had nothing better to do than flipping channels. Asked my friends to come to Lonavala with me but they were busy. So I started on my own at 3.45 PM. Near Chandni Chowk, decided to have the air check, only to realize that my bike’s front tube had 4 punctures. Got a brand new tube and got the fillers for my tyre and after getting set back by a cool 500 bucks, carried on.

Near Baner, there was lot of police bandobast because of the blasts that had taken place some time back. I showed them my DL and PUC and went ahead. I was going at an easy pace. On the highway, one sardarji asked for the lift and I dropped him near the toll naka just before Lonavala.

Lonavala has changed a lot. It has become more crowded. It has Domino’s and a couple of CCDs. But I didn’t have time for refreshments. The sun was setting and I had to reach the Rajmachi Point. I had maintained a fairly good speed because in almost an hour and a half after starting from Pune, I was at Rajmachi Point. The day was still bright and I decided to to go Amby Valley to have a look at it. The road to Amby Valley is mostly deserted and it looked spooky in the evening. So I returned after the signboard showed that the valley is still 9 Kms.

Returned, parked my bike and went to look for a suitable place to take pictures. Went towards the cliff, a little into the bushes and after making sure that I will be able to take pictures in peace, took my camera out and took snaps.

After the sun went down the hill, I started to go back. Near my bike, I found two young ladies, checking their makeups in my bike’s mirror. I waited for them to finish and started back. On my way back, I had kanda bhaji and tea and bought a bottle of mineral water. It was 7.30 when I finally started on my way back. I was back in Pune by 9.00. I constantly maintained a speed of 80+ kmph and never cared to stop for bumps or for any speed braker. And so, my shock absorbers gave in. Another set back on this small trip but it was my fault. My bike was not to be blamed.

It was an evening well spent. You can see the snaps I took on my picasa album.

Here is the link: Lonavala Sunset

Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day. They are presenting the women’s reservation bill in RS. If has to be approved by a two third of total votes. After this, the bill will be presented in LS and then to every state’s Assembly and if approved by more than half of the states, the bill will become a law. Then women will constitute at least 33% of the ruling polictical leadership.

It would be a great gift to around 50 crores of Indian Women on Women’s day. Some parties are against it like SP, BSP, RJD and a certain fraction of JD(U). But in all likelihood, the bill is going to be a law soon. It has waited for 14 long years.

No doubt, it’s great step in women empowerment but giving power in the hands of someone without actually empowering them enough is something I am against. And that too a responsibility as big as ruling the country is an idea I do not comply with at all. In all likelihood, it is going to promote the rule of the proxy. And noone would be able to do anything. We already had one such instance when a certain leader decided to appoint his wife as the CM when his turn to go to jail came. And we all knew who ruled the state then despite constitution not allowing him to do so. It was a contradiction. Constitution had this provision which went against itself and it couldn’t do anything.

I have witnessed many instances in ward council elections where there are reservation for women. Almost every reserved seat were presented by a proxy candidate.

The reservations in jobs made sense because it was meant to strengthen the backward section of the society but reserving seats for decision makers? Where is democracy? People must have the choice to elect their leaders on the basis of merit, not on the basis of quota. I agree, merit will be involved even after the quota and so will be the choice but that will be a skewed choice. And that is not democracy.

If there are 50% women in India, then ideally there should be around 50% women in parliament. But since a very few Indian women are interested in politics, so the women representation shouldn’t ideally be more than 25%. And since an Indian women’s priority is her family, the number would go down to 20% at max. So next 15% or so are bound to take space of some more worthy candidate who may never get to represent his people.

No doubt this law will help women. But the last 15 years have witnessed a sea change in women law. To the point that voices are being raised against its misuse. So the need of the hour is not providing women with quota on the platter but is to make sure existing rules are being implemented properly. Just making sure that will ensure an exact and deserving number of women representing people.

One area where this quota is going to help the country is bringing the humane touch in the house because women think from the heart and having been in the thick of action for so many years, they are better equipped to understand the plight of the people and to act upon them. Also I have a feeling that so many women representing us should have a soothing influence just by the way they perform.

I wish women of my country prove my apprenhesnions wrong. But if implemented, next five years are surely going to be interesting because we will be witnessing something never been witnessed before. Hope that’s for good.

Holi

It was Holi yesterday. Holi is a big festival up North. It is fairly big in Pune as I have seen people out in the street celebrating Holi with infectious enthusiasm. I didn’t go home this Holi. I was to go home on my bike along with my friend, Manoj. But the plan didn’t materialize. One, because Manoj is writing CSE and couldn’t afford to spare 10 days. Two, I didn’t get the leave. So, my little adventure is waiting.

I was so buoyant about this plan that I hardly could contain my excitement. But I do not regret not going. Some truck driver was spared some sin .

My sister joined me in Holi.  Called home and talked to everyone. When I was talking to my granny, I asked her, how is the celebration back there in my village. She got nostalgic and told that it’s on with full fervour but somehow the fun of my grandpa’s time was missing.

When I was young I used to be home every Holi at least 5 days prior to the festival. Holi is celebrated in Falgun, the 11th month of Bikram Sambat – the Hindu Calendar. In the evening, people of village would gather, form a group with tabla,dhol and what not and would go to some elder’s place. There they would sing something called faguha, a collection of folk song in which every song would end with Jogira sa ra ra ra ra. I didn’t get the lyrics but I used to stand in the corner watching all the people singing and being merry. The host would server them chicken, mutton and ofcourse Tadi. The fun would go on for 4-5 hours and then people would retire to their places. I could literally feel Holi then. This went on for every night till Holi.

Holi witnessed unrestrained energy. They would shower you with anything – mud, cowdung, rotten vegetables and if they could find, color. We would form small groups and would pick up fights with the rival gangs only to make a larger group later and picking up a larger gang to fight with. This used to go on till noon and then we would come home to find Mom and Granny waiting for us and have shower and would be served some real delicacies. In the evening, we would go out and apply gulaal to elder’s feet and seek blessings.

This was ages ago though, a thing of last millennium. My grandpa is no more, nor is Holi the same in my village. When elders pass away, they take a little bit of fun with them, it seems. Some rituals too and something is gone forever with them.

This Holi, I had something nice to eat which my sister prepared and then sat in McDonald’s with Udit. We had chicken McNuggets and cold drink. It was fun to see people playing Holi out there in the streets. Wanted to take pictures but didn’t. Came home, watched a movie on TV – The Empire of the Sun by Spielberg. That’s it.

Next Holi will be great.

Death of a King

It’s 2.40AM and I find myself unable to sleep. Last night I slept at 4. Don’t know what’s bothering me. I do not fit in my new abode.

My thoughts, I don’t know why, wandered towards the tigers. Tomorrow, I am planning to go to Melghat to see tigers in the wild. They are saying, only 1411 left. I know the number is exaggerated. There won’t be more than a 1000. And soon there will be a time when tigers will follow the path of Indian Cheetah. That is, only to be found in Indian folklore. I am not being pessimistic. I am being realistic. They won’t make it.

The reason is human being – the silliest and the puniest of all the creatures. I think we are nature’s biggest blunders. Having said that, I have heard that nature doesn’t make mistakes. It’s Mother. But there are aberrations, exceptions, and so, I strongly believe, we are the one. Hobbes after pouncing on Calvin predicted that he won’t survive in the jungle for a minute, to which Calvin retorted that that was why he lived there. No wings, no fangs, no canines, no speed, so strength, so endurance, no prehensile tail – Only so called intelligence using which we are destroying ourselves and others. We left the jungles but we carried the insticts with us. Like most of the animals, we also are territorial and that is the reason for so many clashes across the world, for the sky rocketing prices of homes. May  be I am wrong but the ‘chota sa ashiyana’ thing is that very instinct. It’s that very urge. And it’s that instinct and that urge that has led to the clash with nature. We are so successful, and hence so many that there are little scope of anything else on this earth apart from us. We cut trees because we need furnitures but what about the birds who were living there? We kill animals because we need purse, bags, souvenirs and what not. What about the young they left behind? We encroach land meant for animals and then complain they attack us. We went to their land, not the other way round. But I cannot complain about so many people living in buffer zone. We are just so many and so successful that we can’t help. We need animals eliminated.

Jungle’s rule rules – survival of the fittest, and so we will kill. We no doubt are the fittest. And so only we will live. Let’s see.

Starting 1900, there were 1 lakh tigers. Come 2000, there are 1000. 99000 tigers killed. It’s not the doing of poachers only. They have been active in the last 30 years only and are mainly poor people who do this because one tiger kill will ensure them bread and butter for a lifetime. It’s that lucrative. The major share of blame goes to erstwhile Maharajas and Kings for whom, gaming was a hobby and a tiger kill was the ultimate sign of masculanity. The photograpgs with their legs on the dead tiger carcass depicts that. I ask,  is sitting on an elephant, with a 1000 beaters to hole the beast out and firing numerous shots to kill one scared, poor animal is masculanity? I have read stories where hunters ventured into the jungle, saw a tiger or a leopard and bang they fired. That time it was not the necessity of land which prompted tiger kills. It was sheer fun and adrenaline. Now, the problem is that we need their land.

Tigers won’t survive because a certain players comes and tells there are only this much left and pockets some cool crores and goes. Tigers won’t survive because we sit in our A/C cubicles and write blogs and forward emails. It will survive only when left alone which we cannot because we must interfere. We are right into the buffer zone. Itcan’t  be helped and we are getting inner and inner. In short, they won’t survive. To expedite the exit, it’s they ear of the tiger in China.

Awaring city folks will not help. We need to reach out to the people who are directly involved. The poachers and the villagers. We need to make them aware that tiger tourism holds more potential than a tiger body. People need to be relocated and a share of tiger tourism should be shared by them. The same is being followed in the case of desert lions. Poachers should be brought to the mainstream. Because the problem is that people don’t realise that their one act of madness is so devastating. All they see is the money they get.

Thank you for living dear Tigers. You lent some of your beauty and grace to this world which is getting increasingly uglier with each one of you passing every day. You were the most beautiful and most powerful animal we saw. We killed the King.

swami and friends

I am a huge fan of RKNarayan. His was the first book I picked for reading and his was the first book which introduced me to the joy of reading. The book was ‘Man Eater of Malgudy’. I picked this book from my Papa’s library which has more than 2000 books. And yes, this number is after more than half the books are stolen. Well, it’s not about any man eating carnivora. It’s about a conman of Malgudy.

This book introduced me to the town of Malgudy, to its people, to its din and bustle. I felt an instant connection with Malgudy. It can be any town in India. Yours..mine..anyone’s. I wish one of the towns of India be rechristened Malgudy in the honor of this great writer. A few years back, I heard Shashi Tharoor criticizing Narayan on the ground that his writings lacked vocabulary. He was with UN at that time. I felt that this man doesn’t possess an eye to literature. With due respect Mr Tharoor, let me state that you do not know abc of writing if you can come up with such statements. He has been corroborating my stance since then with his tweets. Show some restraint Mr Tharoor when you throw stone at people who have achieved heights even one hundredth of which will ensure immortality.

Writing is definitely not about vocabulary. It’s all about reaching the depths of human soul, picking up the feelings, the pain, the struggle and penning it down in such a way that the reader could feel the emotions of the protagonists. If the vocabulary is good, I don’t mind. I don’t want to quote Greene here because I myself an convinced beyond comparison about the greatness of Narayan but here is what he had to say – This is a book in ten thousand (About Swami and Friends).

Swami and Friends is about a small town boy named Swami and his world which is his friends and of course his Mother, Father, his granny and of course his enemies. But the book is called Swami and Friends because Swami doesn’t acknowledge the presence the anything else apart from his friends. Swami goes to school, is poor at studies, loves cricket, fears his Father, comes up with excuses to miss his school, gets spanked by teacher, befriends a bully named Mani who he thinks is the mightiest man in the world, scores poorly in exams. You name the characteristic of a typical 10 year old and he has it and that makes him all the more endearing to me. He appears timid but he is not when he throws the stick from his headmaster’s and leaves the school. He appears apathetic but he is not when he is disappointed with himself for not bringing lemons for his ailing granny. Swami is impulsive and somewhat stupid. Time and again he puts himself in trouble. Swami has a friend called Rajam who is the Captain of MCC (Malgudy Cricket Club) and is the son of the city SP. Swami takes cricket very seriously and is disgusted beyond belief when his granny, who is an ear for all his adventures he recounts at bedtime, displays ignorance about Tate – Swami’s nickname in MCC. Rajam leaves the town when his Father is transferred and Swami gets to meet him only when his train is leaving. Swami is heartbroken and the Mani tells him that Rajam will write to him. Swami asks does he know his address to which Mani replies in affirmative. When Swami asks Mani to give his address, Mani just smiles. How very like us.

Narayan never gets preachy. His characters tell you if you could listen. Swami and Friends reminds me of Me. It tell me that it’s the smallest of things which makes life what it is. It reminds me that I have left my best days behind and I didn’t even realize it. May be they were best because I just lived that time without worrying about making the best use of my time. It tells you to feel from the heart without worrying about getting hurt. Thanks a ton Mr Narayan for making me live my childhood through your couple of hundred pages of pure gem.

Enduro 2006

I was sitting in my cubicle on 3rd of February 2006, when Sarvanan called me.

Let me tell you about Sarvanan. I had the worst of fights with this guy a few days back over a ball of mine which he declared as wide. We patched up later on on Yogo’s insistence. So Sarvanan called and asked me to meet him. I went there and met Saravanan and Trilok. Both these guys told me that they are participating in the Enduro race and unfortunately the team’s captain has got injured in the morning in an accident and will not be participating. Now they had the dilemma before them. The race requires a lot of endurance as the name suggests and it was hard to find a worthy replacement just before the race. These guys were practicing since a month and were all set for this amazing race when this tragedy struck. Well, they didn’t have to ask me twice. I was just dying to compete in the race and hadn’t because I couldn’t find the partners.

I don’t know why they chose to pick me as their third partners. But thanks a ton to them.

The day was spent in getting the kit ready, getting the bicycle from Captain (Shubha Mehrotra) and other formalities. I must mention that if you are not quite used to a geared bicycle, better not use it in a race because it will then be more of a burden than an aid. And Captain’s bike was a geared one and I had to ride that. Well all prepared and done, I went to my place to sleep (Nigdi, which is 25 km from city) at 12.00. Well, it was such a disturbed night as lot of things were there to think and all too hazy.

I got up at 4.00 and left room at 5.00 in order to reach Trilok’s place. Saravanan had slept at Trilok’s place and

we had kept our bikes and kit at his place. We left Trilok’s place at 6.00 and reached the ground- Kataria High School, Swargate in 15 minutes. There we went through the formalities and the race finally started at 8.30. We had to reach Chandni Chowk and from there to NDA where the first time check was located. We reached there and registered the time. And then we had to trek for 12 Kms. We finished it easily, the only problem was that I developed rashes because of thighs rubbing against each other and I had to carry this throughout the race. It really hurts to do things with rashes and when there is no help. But we finished the trek in less than 2 hours thereby being second in this trek.

We came to the reporting point huffing and puffing and then we had to get ready for the rifle shooting. I and Saravanan went ahead and took shots- 5 each. I hit 4 , Saravanan hit 4. After this we had to cycle towards Peacock Bay. Doing this, we had a great view of National Defence Academy. It’s a beautiful, sprawling campus. You can find wild animals there. And the place is so serene and grand that it gets to you. The majestic Sudan house, those be beautiful bunglows, the deserted roads and plenty of trees.

We were not unnecessarily stretching ourselves gven the task we had in hand. But we were steady and were good. We reached Peacock bay and there we had to boating. They had placed a green color ball in the Khadakwasla dam and we had to make a round of it. When we reached Peacock bay, it was time out, means our timing was not being counted. We had a breather and then we signed for the Boating and time started. TK and Saran started rowing while I was giving directions to the boat. After some time I took from Saran and started but because of poor rowing technique had a back pain. TK took over again and rowed. We did average in that event.

Captain’s bike was heavy, very heavy and after that we had to do cycling towards Bhalewadi. Bhalewadi is 17 km from Panshet Waters Sports Club. We passed many a villages and and watching those small kids react was fun. It was very hot and I was so exhausted despite drinking energy drinks continously. Here I want to mention that when on endurance excercises, keep drinking plenty of fluids even if you are not thirsty. Because what happens is ,when you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated and then you will have bad, real bad cramps and dizziness. But I was so pissed off with the salty drink that I longed for fresh water and stopped my drink completely. On the way I decided that this is my last Enduro race .

On the way I had my bike punctured. luckily it was not far from PWSC. We dragged the bike and reaced PWSC where we had a time out. There we tied to repair the tube and were successful with the problem that we had to remove the front brakes, a risky thing to do in the mountains where brakes are of utmost importance but we had no choice.

Reached Bhalewadi somehow on that bike and then crossed the river on a boat. Refilled our empty bottles from Panshet. There we had to cross the river which is 200 feet deep. I don’t know how to swim but it was easy.They had tied a rope from this end of the river to that end and we just had to hold the rope and move. Saran is a champ swimmer. He was ahead, I was in middle and TK in back to support me.

After river crossing I was told that still 22 kms of trekking is left. I was devastated. I was very tired and wanted to sleep but it was very cold and we had just taken a bath in the river. And we had to start in wet T only.

The flag off was at 00.45 AM and we started. My rashes were troubling me like hell. We continued nevertheless. It was such a beautiful starlit night. Very clear and very calm. Those sleepy villages sorrounding Panshet were looking so ancient, I felt as if I am back in times. Far from the madding crowd. It was very cold and we were stopping for 5 minutes after every 1 hour of trek. I had a drop of brandy to keep myself warm.

We finished that distance of 22 km and reached the check point at 3. And it was time out again so I decided to catch some much needed sleep. After some time, another team from PSL reached. I slept for one hour. Then we had to cycle back towards PWSC. It was decided since I had done cycling on a heavy bike,Saran will ride my bike and I will take his. Saran agreed and started. After a few seconds we heard a crash(It was still dark). Saran was lying on the road. He was not badly hurt though.

We moved on and reached PWSC at 8 and finished the race. Came back on the back of an auto with our bikes. We trekked for around 30km. Cycling around 80 km. 300 meters of river crossin and 500 meters of rowing besides 5 rifle shots.

We were second and we won 5k and a trophy presented to us in a small ceremony. Yes, I didn’t keep my promise and went to compete again next year. Enduro is addictive. I saw an ad of Enduro 2010 in my office today and was filled with nostalgia and pain. It will be second Enduro I will miss and I feel so crippled, so frustrated. I am missing something which I will never have again, something I love to do most.

But I will be back.

The Marathon

It was 29th of November and the last day of registration for National Marathon, popularly known as Pune Marathon.Pune Marathon is India’s national marathon and the champion here is the national champion.

I left office at 4 and reached Nehru Stadium. There was a long queue. I waited in the queue for 3 hours and was finally able to register myself and Trilok Khairnar, famously known as TK. We were given one baniyan and a sticker with number on it. TK is my senior in office and a great adventure junkie.It was with TK I won my Enduro3 in 2006.

Me and TK were preparing for the race since last 15 days though mostly separately. I used to run uphill for about 6 km daily at ARAI Hills. When you run uphill, it works wonders for your stamina. It sky rockets. In a few days, running 10 kms on flat road was like a cake walk.

The race was on 2nd December and the flag off was from Khandoji Baba Chowk(Goodluck Chowk). I reached there at 8.30 and parked my bike at TK’s sister’s place who lives near by. I wore just the red baniyan given by race organizers and the sticker on it, and of course, shorts . I was in the full marathon category and so was to be flagged off first. There was a host of dignitaries and celebrities present to flaf us off. Salman Khan,Sunil Gavaskar, Suresh Kalmadi. And yes, Aarti Chabaria.

We started at 9. Me and TK in tandem. After a couple of kms, when I reached Laxmi Road, I sped ahead of TK and went about the race alone. What a site it was!! Everywhere the traffic was stopped just to let us pass and the crowd cheered us to move. I felt like a Hero. I ran nonstop and reached Pune Central near Yerwada and it was the 10km mark. I saw many people having eggs there. I thought I also will be given eggs and stopped. I can’t resist eggs. Give me a dozen and I won’t say no. After a couple of seconds when no one paid any attention to me, I realized that the eggs were for 10km runners, mostly ladies. So I moved ahead. I stayed there for about 30 seconds.

From there we had to go to Airport Road, Bombay Sappers and Khadki. I didn’t feel any fatigue or exhaustion. Small kids with drums, elderly people to coerce you to move on, people all round to watch you.. with all this, stopping was a shame. I didn’t for a second. Near Bombay Sappers, a gentleman game me some ice cubes and lemons. Let me tell you, these people weren’t the oraganizers or volunteers, but they were involved in the race as mush as I was. Tremendous feeling. When I was about two kms from Khadki, I started feeling pain in my knee joints and it gradually increased.

I had done a mistake. I hadn’t brought race specific shoes and it was costing me now. I was neither tired nor exhausted but the pain in the knee joints was killing. I was a little overweight and running 19 km on tar roads on worn out shoes were taking its toll. I decided against stopping and increased my pace to reach early. By the time I finished half marathon point, I could barely stand and decided against doing the complete race. I had done 21.1 kms in 2.10hrs. I waited for TK for some time but he was nowhere in sight. A bus was waiting there to take us back to the stadium. I boarded it and just fell flat on my seat.

I reached Nehru Stadium and the prize ceremony was on. There were giving ertificates to everyone so I didn’t take it. Now was the predicament. I had to come back to Khandoji Baba Chowk and I had no money. I walked towards it and on the roan in just a baniyan and shorts and tired and limping, was feeling very awkward but since it was a race day, it wasn’t that big an issue. I had difficulty in finding TK’s sister’s house and when I found it, the question was how to get to her floor because I just couldn’t climb stairs. I did it by sitting on the stairs and pulling myself by hand. Got the bike’s keys and money and came back to my room. Was lying there for 2 hours when TK called. He had finished the race. Full 42.2 Kms. And he was very happy.

Next day I had to take leave from office because the pain in the joints didn’t leave. I was ok in a few days.

When I look back at those times, I wonder whether I am the same person or what. Those days, we used to talk like- let’s do 50kms of cycling or 10 kms of jogging in everyday’s talk. I was a different thing then. Last 2 years have been extremely frustrating. Bereft of any activity because of ligament damage, I feel like devoid of any life. It’s so dull. I just want this testing time to pass. God! make me fine. It made me see the beauty of things and has changed me a lot. Not the same guy anymore.

There are two types of people in this world – One who run marathon and one who do not.