I Hope I Grow Into Growing Older

It took so long

To realize

And I can still hear

Her last goodbyes

Now all my days

Are filled with tears

Wish I could go back

And change these years

I'm going through changes

by Black Sabbath - 'Changes'

I have become kinda addicted to action movies. Earlier, I could watch any kind of movie - action, old westerns, romantic comedies etc etc. I asked myself - why the change in preference? The only answer I came up with was that I was growing older and action movies made feel - you know - kick ass. The adrenaline, the recklessness, the ability to move your body the way you would at a superb physical condition (I like the combination of those words).

I do feel that I'm at a pretty good phase though. Well paying job (can afford Scotch), two cars, rented apartment at a nice location in Delhi, platinum card which if lost could cause a serious hole, the best family and the best wife in the world, wonderful dependable friends... If you read my last post, you would know that I ran a half marathon in 2 hrs:4 mins and that my friend is a pretty good timing. Even then, there is a nagging fear in my mind. Most of the time it comes up when I see my parents. Its not easy to see that there is not a single black hair left, a little loss of memory, a little less sure of themselves. It does happen so very often that I call them up and ask where they have been and they would be going or coming from a funeral. I know, very morbid.

At one time, I asked myself - what is the mark I have left on this earth? A billion people in India, six billion i the world, living RIGHT NOW. Forget about the ones who died. Whom do I remember - Adam, Eve, the rest of the biblical characters, the Good Lord, Napoleon, the Indian Freedom fighters, Adolf Hitler, Muhammed Ali, Mariah Carey? Whose gonna remember me? So I toyed with the idea of doing 'charity'. Step out, use my weekends, help the underprivileged. I am ashamed to say I didn't do a thing. In fact, my wife's cousin asked me to organise funds for charity as a part of my run and I didn't raise a paisa. I was busy at work and barely had the time to train but the fact is I completely forgot about it.

Coming back to the topic - I wish I could freeze frame life right now but I like the way each day unfold into the next (unless I haven't slept enough). Something new comes up else my routine keeps me going. Some of it is good like our new Nikon SLR camera. Some of it makes me feel older - like the dance class we joined where 90% of the batch consisted of 12+ students. I mean, what do you relate to? Its all good mate especially when you use a few few angles to beat the young uns :) So hit the gym, listen to some hip-hop, shake a leg, have a drink, make the ones you love feel special - that's my formulae. Whats yours?

Random

Random - without definite aim, purpose, method, or adherence to a prior arrangement; in a haphazard way

Lots of random thoughts come to us - some make us smile, lots makes us think, few make us laugh - if we are lucky and one or two make us despondent. Its all good, mate. That makes me think of two things - one is hows it going?? We start off with - its all good but.... the second is Australian = Mate = Fosters (Australian for beer).

Australia makes me think of the movie with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Good movie, quite entertaining, Hugh Jackman is quite inspiring - makes me want to hit the gym everytime, Nicole Kidman makes me wonder if Katie Holmes was a better choice, Tom Cruise shoulda won the Oscar for A Few Good Men or Jerry Maguire, Renee Zellweiger looks really hot in Jerry Maguire but old these days........

Random - difficult to deal with, but nice to flow with. If you are in the mood. Random drive by shooting - touch wood, no one I know had to deal with it. Random kindness by a stranger - nothing comes to my mind. Rude behaviour - not very random but still disconcerting when you come across it especially when you are driving.

My sister had a toe fracture and has her toe in a cast. First one in the family. Every time I go for a medical check and I keep No, No to questions like "Did you have a fracture?", "Did you have jaundice, typhoid etc?", it feels good. Luckily, no one asks if I had IBS :)

Conclusion - that's what y'all are looking for. Well, you don't feel random, you been lucky. So go ahead, enjoy. If it doesn't last, the good times will come again.

Like the Japanese say - I Like

The Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (ADHM)

I don't know what is wrong with my health. I fell ill in May, then June, then August and again over the last weekend. I don't know whether it is the stress at work but I can definitely blame my absence from blogging on that. Otherwise, my food habits have improved and I go to the gym quite regularly especially after the weather cooled down in Delhi. Of course, regular can be defined in many ways. As one of my learned friends said - "Yeah, I go to the gym regularly, I go once a week." Well, I used to go three to four times a week. Ever since I started training for the ADHM, it has reduced because I run on the road.

When I say road, I means the roads of the colony I stay in. I have been running at night because I have completely lost the ability to get up early in the morning on a consistent basis. The few days that I tried to get up early, I ended up psyching myself so much the night before that I couldn't sleep before 01.00 am. Till date, my wife pulls my leg for 'Project Sunrise' - a theory of mine that I shall now expound for y'all out there. Before the age of electricity (and other modern forms of lighting such as gas lighting), people had to get up at sunrise and go to sleep / rest after sunset. From the time of the early hunter-gatherers to the last century (this date has been arrived at only because it goes with the flow, no bloody research whatsoever), the human race didn't have a choice. You couldn't read up late, you couldn't party, you had to sleep as soon as the big light in the sky went out. So the longer we stay up, we are going against all those centuries of conditioning. I told my wife - I am gonna get up at the crack of dawn, get ready, hit the gym and do all sorts of things before the rest of the world rouses itself. I even went to the extent of checking the time of sunrise in the newspaper and setting the alarm for the afore mentioned crack of dawn. Well, all it achieved was one more arrow in her quiver.

Running at night has been very pleasant. If you are familiar with Delhi you will know that every colony has parks, big and small. Well, there is one right outside home but it is shut at night. The walls are not high but the lighting is very poor so I start with the one behind my house. I orbit around this one a couple of times and then head out on the roads of the colony. I can easily do a ten minute run to the other end of the colony and back. The weather is fine, obviously there is no traffic and the stray dogs are too lazy after extenuating themselves the whole day. The few people on the road stare at me curiously. I always feel like stopping and explaining - "Its not that I cant afford a gym. I am a member of one of the popular ones close by. Its just that I am training for the ADHM. Have you registered? No! You bloody wuss." But you know what - after about five minutes, I start feeling the physical strain and automatically slow into a rhythm that I can carry on with for the rest of the run. Then, I forget all about work and my mind wanders all over the place. When the run is over, its like coming out of a pleasant daze. I normally finish at the park, cool down with a few stretches and then head back, take a hot shower, some nice food in front of the TV and crash. Waah waah, kya baat hai. I cant say that all the tension is busted but yeah its pushed way back.

So far, I have not given any useful information about the Airtel Half Marathon. I confess - I don't know much about it. I know its on Nov 21st. The registration closes on 10th Nov. The days have been quite sunny and the forecast is pretty much the same for that date. If there is some breeze, it will be fine otherwise the latter part of the run could be sunny. So if this post appealed to you, log on to the website http://adhm.procamrunning.in/ and register NOW. Go for the Great Delhi Run at least. It will be like you are part of a carnival and I promise you will have fun. If nothing else, it gives you an excuse to tank up on beer cause you will definitely need the liquid nourishment. Hoping to see you there, cheers and all the best.