Guilty of not running :(

My Lord or as the overly enthusiastic Bollywood lawyers call it, Me Lord or Milord, the person standing right up there has been accused with the charge of MURDER!! Hell, No, why can't I get my lines right, actually he has been charged with an even serious offence of NOT RUNNING!!!
Oh yeah, this time it's as crisp as it can get, this guy named as Siddhartha has started making up for the loss of running by just walking. The judge took a demeaning look at me and order, Proven Guilty, he should be made to run until his last breath.
I protested, No Milord, this isn't true, I really want to run, I can run and I will run but no one paid heed to my cries and my voice returned to me after trying to negotiate with a few blank faces. Suddenly a cool December breeze hit my left ear and my entire left cheek got frozen. As I opened my eyes to see a struggling sunlight trying to make its way through the non-budging clouds, I realized it was a dream, or more aptly a nightmare but annoyingly close to reality. I have kind of given away running and taken up extensive walking. After walking for around 4 kilometres, my legs get all warmed up and rare to go for another 4 kms without any sort of trouble. I walk nearly 4 to 5 kms on a daily basis and really love the entire journey even though I had to walk on the busy streets of the city on my way back to home.
The hands move a little slow at first and the knees and ankles feel jammed but as the first 10 minutes pass, it feels all well oiled up and in great nick. I try to make it 10,000 steps a day but always feel that I am reaching to around 8,000 only. Still, these 8,000 steps do make me feel lighter and better. I know there is nothing like running in a cold morning breeze but I have happily accepted walking as its substitute as it requires less commitment and its virtually injury free as well.
I hope that I would try to run at least once in a week but for the rest of the week, I would be just slowly measuring miles on my foot. The only thing that is disturbing me are such foolish nightmares.

First Jog since ages

I have looked at it already, I said it and left home. My closed ones have recently started to bring it to my notice and ask me to do something about it. Fed up of looking at my growing paunch, I motivated myself to do something about it. My first urge was to start running, however, crippled by my old and painful knee injury, I cautioned myself  against any such over enthusiastic idea. Now, more muddled than ever before, I decided to chose a safer option of an early morning brisk walk.
I set an alarm of 5 am and surprised myself by sticking to the time. It took me another 15 minutes to leave the coziness of my apartment and come out in the fresh breeze. It was still dark out there and I started walking with in the premises of my society. I avoided the urge to jog but even before I took my 100th step, my legs started to jog. I was wary of the sudden pain that may arise out of my knees but really started to enjoy the freshness that the morning air was offering. Really the best things in life are free and this balmy air mixed with curious chirps of the early birds was just one of them.
Motivated by this wonderful atmosphere , I covered around half a kilometer and there was no sign of any pain. I took another round and started to see some lights coming up in the neighboring buildings, must be some ardent fans of Baba Ramdev, I thought, and increased my speed, around 800 meters covered and my legs were going strong as each second passed. I saw a watchmen sleeping on his makeshift bed that he made out of two chairs. Away from the hustle bustle of the city, he seemed aloof to all the worries that an awakened mind has plenty to offer.
Without feeling any fatigue, I covered a little more than a kilometer and just when I thought I would surely cover another kilometer, a sudden pain in my right knee forced me to halt and for a few seconds, I was unable to even stand properly. Ignoring the pain, I decided to continue but thought of not overdoing it on the very first day.I walked for another 2 kilometers and decided to head towards my apartment. Rising early today has given me plenty of takeaways that I would have lost if I had kept sleeping.

Someone has truly said,  जो सोवत है सो खोवत है, जो जागत है तो पावत है.

The jog up to the gym

Wow!! That's all I can say. After a gap of an almost "I-don't-know-how-many-years", I woke up at 6:45 am and hit the gym at 7:15 am. I took the first step out of my block and started to warm up. I looked around for a softer ground and unfortunately as I found no soft track in the visibility range, I decided to test my shaky knees on the hard turf itself. Ran for around half a km and hurray, there was no pain. Forget pain, there was no issues at all with my knees. I decided to enter the gym first and did a few crunches and did some light exercises.
I ran back to my block and climbed the stairs.
This habit of climbing stairs has at least kept me in a a little short of round shape else FIFA could have used me in place of Jabulani. A good way to start the days. Hope to add many more miles during coming days.
Run Sid Run :)

Where is the jogger?

Tring Tring Tring, the alarm bell screamed, I jumped out of the bed. Thank god, it's morning and I woke up to take my 5 km long jog. I ran out of my building compound, felt a little charged up, then I ran up to the nearest garden, felt my rhythm coming back, then I ran to pottery factory, felt a little tired, however I kept running till I reached MLB college where I brother used to knock off a few heads with his bouncy deliveries.
I thought of stopping for a moment but then kept going to reach the Shiv Temple. I thought this is it, I cannot hurt myself more and thought of walking back home. Some people say walking is also a good exercise. Cetrainly not for a 19 year old with a zillion liters of adrenaline oozing out of the nerves. So, I kept going, till I completed my 6kms run and reached back home. I know 6kms is nothing and a teen should run at least same number of miles which can match up to his years. However, it was still a major achievement, given the personal barriers that I had broken during those days.
I started with a km and increased my limit up to 6 without a break. That did hurt my knees and my physio cum sports mate cum mentor cum tormentor brother shouted at the top of his voice and admonished me for running on hard grounds but I guess, I was too much inspired by Rocky Balboa's run and thought of outdoing him someday. Highest certification of supreme stupidity, I know but cannot take away the credit of dreaming big once from my mostly dormant these-days-mind.
 
How I hated sleep and loved the first rays of the sun. However, it was back in late 1990s. It has been more than 10 years since then and I have doffed off all such healthy habits and donned a lot more extra pounds. I have used the excuse of torn ligaments to console my grieving soul which craved for a healthy body. However, somewhere deep down in the unexplored territory of my heart, I knew that I am going the wrong way. I very much was in accordance to the doctor's advise to not exert too much pressure on my knees, still they were not as fragile as I made them to look.
I also knew that I cannot run 6 ks again on the very first day of my jog and I have to build my stamina step by step but somehow I embraced the laziness as my second cousin. Unhealthy food habits contributed to my zest for unhealthiness.
On my 30th birthday, I hope that I am still in a position to say  "Let bygones be bygones" and nothing can be done about the sins committed in the past. However, as wise people say, the process of atonement can work wonders, I rest my unhealthy lifestyle here by and would like to begin my search for that missing jogger. He must not be that far and I am sure some effort in finding him will justify it's worth. I will keep you posted about the results of this search.

Road Trip To Mumbai

I love driving, No no I hate driving especially when it includes waking up at 5 am and starting in the dark to skip the unforgiving jams of the city and reach the expressway before the dawn.
So, it was decided that we will spend our Xmas in Mumbai at our relative's place and it sounded real fun to roam in the city that I have never seen before.
So, the three of us i.e. me, my footloose better half and and my sis-in-law with an even looser foot woke up at sharp 5:00 am and my red beauty started roaring at 5:30 am.
Wow!! that is an achievement, we all looked at each other as we inhaled the relatively less polluted air that was on offering .
Odometer was willing to reach greater heights but I curbed my instincts so as not to make today as any stray dog's last day. Even when there was too much of temptation to hit the gas pedal, logic prevailed over impulse. However, we missed the road to reach the Express way as there was too much to talk amongst ourselves even at 5:30 in the morning. Still, we were content as the old Bombay Pune Highway was not that bad and I had the experience of driving on half-baked roads all my life.
After we covered 60 odd kms, we managed to enter the Express-way and then the tables were turned. Now, the impulse was overwhelming and at least the logic was thrown to the winds, if not the caution. Odometer reached 100, then 110 and slowly made its way to 130, I was feeling like a jaguar with my eyes all over the place. I was looking left, right and of course straight as well. However, my desire to act like an eagle to spot almost everything in our way was not fulfilled as fog engulfed us like a mother wraps a sleeping baby in its lap.
                               With in next few minutes, the nerves were relaxed and I was at much more ease now. However, along with all the bad things attached to it, the good thing with impulse is, it is extremely short-lived and soon the logic admonished the odometer which started showing speed of 90 to 100 kms/hr.
Very shortly we entered the picturesque  valleys of Lonavla and Khandala. I saw the Rajmati garden which we visited last time around.
We entered Mumbai at around 8 am and it took us one more hour to reach Borivali. It was a very swift journey (though covered in i20 instead of SWIFT) and the combo of the speed and the scenic route made it 
even more enjoyable.

We spent two full days visiting to Gate way of India, Churchgate, Marine Drive, Gorai Beach and it was great to visit all these places. Great food that the city of Mumbai offers was an added delight. At times, I was either mesmerized by the speed at which the city moves or the British architecture that the building in the chruchgate area displays.

 For the first time, I inhaled the same air that my all time favorite Sachin Tendulkar inhales and thanked mumbai for producing such an incarnation of the almighty. Looking forward to many more such trips to explore the biggest and the most lively city of India.