The Gurgaon XC cross country trail run

Running & Living Gurgaon XC trail run happened on 29th May 2011 on Sunday. And man .... it was AWESOME !

Why ?

1. An excellent, tough trail



2. Excellent running camaraderie



3. Off-roader jeeps - had me salivating enough to start thinking of buying one




4. Flying RC chopper camera





5. Param finishing the run in fortyfuckingfive minutes (I took 70 minutes)



6. Ankur casually strolling in after running from IIT gate to the XC location (just a measly 40 kms !!)



7. Finishing the run and stopping for a hydration drink - a beer before 9 AM !

8. Mango shake & fruits at Param's place (the hospitality & the company)

After the run, Param got stuck with a few of us who trailed him to his home and got themselves invited for some fruits & mango shakes. I got to ride with Ankur. While I kept on telling him he was crazy and he kept shaking his head (in the negative). He said its all relative. For some I am crazy. I woke up at 3.15 and rove an hours across to a different state just to run 10k in the country. For me Param / Ankur were crazy. Param because he ran and aced the 10k with a back ache, Ankur because he ran 40k interstate, alone. Ankur then said for him the guys running the 75k, the 100k and the 222 k that too in leh (www.thehigh.in - organised by Dr. Rajat Chauhan) are crazy. Hmmmm... thats like saying i am not crazy. UNACCEPTABLE.

I have to start running regularly increasing my distance so that I can go next level of crazy and not be near the sane level of crazy, which is lame. That makes sense, doesn't it ?

Adele - rolling in the deep - we could have had it all

A fantastic song thad had me humming and hanging in my brain like a ghost high on ectoplasm.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and the lyrics or the poetry is rich with it/

Here is the song with the lyrics :

BUGS

I have been into bugging for a few months now, ever since my kabini trip (near Mysore at the Fork of kabini river) where we went on a nightly bug watch trail. It has made me more observant of the plants, ever on the lookout for the bugs, over under around the leaves, flowers bushes etc. And I fount that my small patch of garden outside the office has such a huge variety.

Some sample shots below :

THE EVIL DOCTOR

Over a pot of Darjeeling silver tips brewed a discussion of Evolution with good friend Drs. Shantanu & Sonali. Though in no way an equal discussion, them being trained and educated on the stuff, I was able to throw in some nice big words bluffing my way into making them talk and seemingly discuss evolution (it was more of a lecture).

But what came out was my understanding that this discussion was actually outstanding. I am quite surprised (or probably not well read) that this topic is NOT highly debated.

To keep it simple, our fore fathers (fore-mothers for the feminist) did not have many of the diseases we are facing now. That was because of a lack of medical science. If there was a diseased person, (s)he could not be cured, therefore (s)he died. That means the weakness died leaving the rest still physically strong.

Now that weakness is "cured". allowing the diseased genes to be preserved and passed on and also spread. The more cures are found the weaker we get. The adage of "survival of the fittest" is no longer true. The weaker are not only allowed but are helped to flourish. SO the gene pool instead of becoming stringer, due to evolution, is becoming weaker. Which is why man has taken onto himself to improve on nature as nature is no longer allowed to improve on itself !

Discovering genes and their effects and then manipulating them is no longer the stuff of fiction but a stark reality of our weakness.

Now my wife asked me, on hearing this surmise, will you forgo cure were you or your loved one be in need of one -- for the general good ? I do not have an answer. I am not great enough to take one for the civilization but being a human also means to be on the lookout for me, is that also not a survival instinct ? It is.

But the puzzle now is that in search of survival, the human kind is getting weaker diluting the genepool and making more weaker humans than stronger. If that is so, then it is not the survial of the fittest but SURVIVAL OF THE SCARED-EST. The more I am scared of being eliminated the more I work toward preserving myself, the more I work towards preserving myself, the more I have to lean towards medical science to preserve me which brings us back to Doctors.

So I am no longer able to make it black or white - Are the doctors good or evil ? I am inlined to lean both ways and will fall flat on my face right down the centre.