Salwan Marathon : Sunday 6th November 2011

Sunday the 6th Novemeber there was held an excellent event at the Army Equestrian grounds. A running race. For school children under 18, under 16 and under 14 boys and girls. desitances from 5-8 kms. The special thing - they had also a 3.5 km race for visually and the intellectually challenged kids ! Why was this special ? Not because of the physiological challenges they are facing life with but that the race organisers were not trying to coddle them and make an eye wash event with a 100 mt or 500 mt run but a nice respectable 3.5 KM ! That too a cross country. (for the uninitiated, cross country run means no paved road, ditches, mud, stones, rocks, inclines, declines, bushes, thorns, dust and some horse shit thrown in for good measure, equestrian grounds, remember)




They called out for runners as volunteers with the idea that each runner hold hand of 1 kid and run the distance guiding them. I was with a kiddo named Ayush Prakash from Bihar studying at the Blind School in RK Puram sector 5, New Delhi. He loves social science, reading and running.

Before the run :



We had some small chit chat, warmed up for the run with some stretches, got all hyped for the run and had some fun. We faced all the things typical of a cross country run as mentioned above. We finished the run in about 32 odd minutes. sweaty, dirty and happy!

After the run :

Sleepless nights.... ON

Yesterday night was my first sleepless night (nearly) with Rudra. It wa s also a record of sorts for him. He slept only 3 hrs in a 12 hr period. and all those 3 hrs were in snatches of 15 min - 20 mins at a time. Both Sunina & the nanny were tired and sleepy but the dudes switch was turned all the way up - to ON!

Around 1 AM Sunina woke me up and presented me my opponent - Rudy to lull him to sleep. I tried various forms of martial arts - the rumbling stomach, the walking sleep, the shoulder chin up art, then my sonorous sound style. All i could get was 15 minutes out of him. He was more trained then I thought. I did the best thing possible - bring in the experts ! I sauntered back to my bed and fell off asleep.

I was woken up again around 3 AM with the tough warrior still fighting it out. Then my memory blurs. I remember buckling in and bringing in the nanny who was a now a little refreshed. We decided to tackle this tough guy from scratch.

We cleaned him up, changed his clothes, turned him around on her lap and gave him a constant one- twos on his back and off like a light for 4 hrs ! Here's the story :

A second on the lips, a life time on the hips

Temptation. Is my Enemy. And I continually love to give in to it. Regularly.

Made this collage for self motivation to keep off the stuff I should not be having and to keep on running.

Rudra Shakti Madan

Three is a magic number. Man and a woman had a baby, they had three in the family - a magic number.

This has been one of my favorites for sometime now. Must have been more like a prophecy as it has now been fulfilled.

Our baby boy Rudra Shakti Madan was born on Friday the 7th October, 2011.

He is probably going to be terribly spoilt as all the family has been looking forward to welcome him and now that he is here all the bottled up Love (and in my case love garnished with liquor) is going to gush and surround him.

Rudra Shakti Madan

Bhosadi Ke

No no no no no....

that is not an abuse. Delhi Belly has made this suddenly hip & popular now, but this is pretty old from since I was in school (DPS RK Puram, New Delhi, since you ask) or even before. Cryptically DK Bose has been around for a long time. For us, it helped that one of our friends was actually a D Bose. K was introduced by us in his name. It suited. It also helped understand the meaning. Now I am being mean.

anyway.. it is not an abuse.

As history goes, its supposedly originated from Gujrat. To understand the origination, break the word down..

BHO + SADI + KE

BHO - Earth - fertile earth
SADI - Rotten
KE - From

Combined - One who hails from infertile or rotten land.

Useless Trivia : In Pune there is an industrial area called Bhosadi, only they pronounce it as Bhosaadi ('aa' as in aadmi). I cant resist snickering everytime i tell the taxi driver to take me to Bhosadi. God people can wait to get out of Bhosadi and I am asking to be taken there. Bhaiya 'Bhosadi ke' liye rasta kahan se jaata hai ... ha ha ha ha ( Bro, bhosadi ke, how do i get there ?)

So the song is actually awesome, even if you remove Mr. DK Bose from it. Music is rocking, singer is awesome and the lyrics are stupendous.

Daddy bola to galti hai meri..
Zindagani tujhpe guilty hai meri...
Sabun ki shakal main beta tu to nikla keval jhaaaag....
Jhaag.. Jhaag Jhaaag -- BHHAAAAG !

In the shape of a soap you turned out to be only foam.

Bhag DK Bose Bhaag

DK Bose will run.

He will run in Leh at the La Ultra - The High the 222 km run at crazy heights making it one of the toughest runs in the world ! see the website : www.thehigh.in

To quote directly from the website :

-----------------------------------------



Its an ultra marathon in Foothills of Himalayas, with a total distance of 222 km (137.64 miles).

The High course crosses the highest motor-able pass (controversially*) in the world, i.e. Khardung La (17,700 ft, recorded by National Geographic to be at 18,380 ft) down to Leh an then up again to Tanglang La (17,583 ft), finishing at Morey Plains.
*We aren’t bothered about the record or the claim. Khardung La is HIGH enough for us.

Highest point: Khardung La at 17,700 ft (5395 m)

Cumulative vertical ascent: 10,193 ft (3,107 m)

Cumulative vertical descent: 8,873 ft (2,704 m)

At 14,765 ft (4,500 m), The High’s average altitude, the partial pressure of oxygen is 40% less than at sea level
-----------------------------------------

So what does one do when faced with this ardous task... Run (so the famous Raramuri would say) :

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 ?