I first heard about the Delhi Half Marathon from the newspapers last year, didn't pay too much heed to it. My weight, my body and my enthusiasm, none seemed to be right for a marathon or even half or quarter of it. Then sometime in July beginning, my cousin Meera Aggarwal told me over dinner that she was training for the half marathon. Doesn't it start somewhere in the winters I asked her? Yes, first Sunday of November, she told me. Then, why the hell are you training right now....she just laughed.
As the night went on, I got an insight into the Half Marathon and realised it is more than just a run. This Great Delhi run starts and ends outside Central Civil Services Cultural & Sports Board ground. This is near Nehru Park and the shoot off time is 7:30 Am. that early? on a Sunday? I almost tried to convince her to quit training. Who the hell wants to spoil a nice Sunday morning waking up so early.
It extends to 21.097 kilometers to be precise which is the exact distance from my residence in Punjabi Bagh to Mohit's office near Andheria More. I tried to picture running from house to office everyday and shuddered. It takes him an hour on horse power, how long would it take an average human being to cover it on human power? 3 Hours, she told me. Which means you need to run 7 kilometers in an hour. Even during my best gyming days, I have never run more than 2.5 kilometers at a stretch, another no - no for me.
Then she told me of the prize cap: You get a certificate proclaiming you finished the race. Now that sounded like an achievement because all this while I was wondering why would anyone just run. Wake up early in the morning, wear your shorts and shoes and start running? For nothing? nope, you do get a certificate...As we finished dinner, i decided that I will give the race a shot. If Meera didi was already running 7 kilometres today then i could also make it and run 21 at a stretch by November. After all, this was only July.
Well, natures call told me the very first day of my motivated self that I wasn't the marathon types. Another spurt of energy followed in September and Mohit and I started running in the club park. Well, that still carries on but I am nowhere near running the half marathon. Not even the seven kilometer sprint. Miserable, I must say! Well, it seems I have accepted that I am not cut out to be a marathon runner and with just a day left to the marathon would sit on the sidelines and watch. Rather, sit in front of the TV and watch DD's poor telecast of the same and cheer Meera Didi. I think I might be able to watch her finish. Who the hell will wake up early on a Sunday morning?
Who, I say? The motivated ones!!!!
Bravo to all who run!!!!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
It doesn't get sportier than this!
I have always been associated with sports. I played competitive Lawn Tennis while in school, was my brother's training partner when he practised for competitive Table Tennis and then was the Sports journalist for Express. So the tryst with sports goes back to my teens. But little did I know that me and sports will be so much into each other at a certain point of time.
To put it on the table, my annual overseas vacation is to that part of the world where some mega sports event is taking place. I sit up at 2 in the night when Drogba scores a goal or Tiger gets a birdie or for that matter when Phil Taylor wins at Darts. Yeah, we watch Darts championships too. And F1 Racing and swimming and Trick Shot pool. I watch them all with my sports crazy husband.
While watching and loving sports has been endorsed from him, Sports writing has come naturally to me. Maybe its from my Express days that I picked up a flair of writing about sports. If I start counting, then there isn't a sport about which I haven't written. I have written sports reports about cricket, football, hockey, cycling, roller skating to name the ordinary. In addition I have also written about the unconventional bullock cart racing, fencing, fishing, horse racing, jukskei, weightlifting and many more. These are some sports I didn't know much about and still have no clue about. But i write about them because I just love to discover each one of them and talk of them.
Currently, I am writing for 5 sports blogs, each for a different game. Goal Post is my favorite one and also the first one that made me so close to football. Many other football blogs followed but Goal Post is stationary for me. Small contributions for cue sports followed and then for racing sports. I have been trying to get a cricket news blog of my own started and hopefully it will be on track by year end.
Plus, I also write for the online game side with online casinos being the biggest contributors. I am not sure if they are a sport but I have written 1000's of articles on them and have mastered slots, poker, bingo...All thanks to my writing skills.
Lately, I have been involved in a Fantasy League in which people make a virtual cricket team and then score points based on the players real life performance. Couple of friends and Mohit and I were participants and this is the second league I am a part of. In the Champions Trophy, I came third and was fairly proud of it. But in the just concluded Champions League I topped a list of 14 people and am elated.
Though my contribution was limited to selection and it was the players who did the real job but strategics did take up a lot of time. After playing two of these Fantasy Leagues at CricInfo, I have come to appreciate BCCI Selection Committee a little more.
Anyhow, with each passing day, I keep going deeper in the sporting world and am learning a little about poker these days. So next time someone wants to discuss any sport, they know who to chat up with!!!!
P.S Did i mention that I have written Punjabi sports news? And hey, what about that time when I did a TV news report on hockey in Punjabi...Truly Sporty!
To put it on the table, my annual overseas vacation is to that part of the world where some mega sports event is taking place. I sit up at 2 in the night when Drogba scores a goal or Tiger gets a birdie or for that matter when Phil Taylor wins at Darts. Yeah, we watch Darts championships too. And F1 Racing and swimming and Trick Shot pool. I watch them all with my sports crazy husband.
While watching and loving sports has been endorsed from him, Sports writing has come naturally to me. Maybe its from my Express days that I picked up a flair of writing about sports. If I start counting, then there isn't a sport about which I haven't written. I have written sports reports about cricket, football, hockey, cycling, roller skating to name the ordinary. In addition I have also written about the unconventional bullock cart racing, fencing, fishing, horse racing, jukskei, weightlifting and many more. These are some sports I didn't know much about and still have no clue about. But i write about them because I just love to discover each one of them and talk of them.
Currently, I am writing for 5 sports blogs, each for a different game. Goal Post is my favorite one and also the first one that made me so close to football. Many other football blogs followed but Goal Post is stationary for me. Small contributions for cue sports followed and then for racing sports. I have been trying to get a cricket news blog of my own started and hopefully it will be on track by year end.
Plus, I also write for the online game side with online casinos being the biggest contributors. I am not sure if they are a sport but I have written 1000's of articles on them and have mastered slots, poker, bingo...All thanks to my writing skills.
Lately, I have been involved in a Fantasy League in which people make a virtual cricket team and then score points based on the players real life performance. Couple of friends and Mohit and I were participants and this is the second league I am a part of. In the Champions Trophy, I came third and was fairly proud of it. But in the just concluded Champions League I topped a list of 14 people and am elated.
Though my contribution was limited to selection and it was the players who did the real job but strategics did take up a lot of time. After playing two of these Fantasy Leagues at CricInfo, I have come to appreciate BCCI Selection Committee a little more.
Anyhow, with each passing day, I keep going deeper in the sporting world and am learning a little about poker these days. So next time someone wants to discuss any sport, they know who to chat up with!!!!
P.S Did i mention that I have written Punjabi sports news? And hey, what about that time when I did a TV news report on hockey in Punjabi...Truly Sporty!
Monday, October 19, 2009
There's a name next to mine!!
It was the Diwali weekend and a very busy one. Everyone was in a mad rush to visit friends, relatives. Those at home were busy with the pooja or were spending money SMSing others a Happy Diwali. It was premier SMS pricing day but that didn't stop anyone from messaging their loved ones.
Diwali Day was a very busy one so I didn't get too much time to check into the messages I received. But come Sunday and I wanted to check who sent me their wishes and who didn't. One of the wishes I received was from my cousin, Ankur who is getting married in November. A small greeting followed by two names: his own and his fiance's. I joked with him later that he is already attaching her name to his even though they aren't a couple legally.
Then I saw another message sent by Sumedha, my best friend. Her greeting had four names. The first being her newest borns followed by her elder daughter, then Sumedha's and then her husband's. Four names of the whole family were there. Another greeting sent to me had the name of a single friend of mine. A lone name wishing me a colorful Diwali.
When I sent thank you messages to everyone who wished, I joined Mohit's name next to
mine. Just four years back, the same message only had my name. And there was immense pressure from the family to have another name joined next to mine. That time my Dad used to send a collective greeting to everybody he knew and he put my name in his message. Then I got married and my name was deleted from his SMS! The complex structure of relationships ensured that my name came only next to one name at one time....
How couples are formed and they automatically attach themselves to each other is amazing? Ankur's greeting is a classic example. He didn't think there was anything extra ordinary in writing his fiance's name. That was the most natural thing to do. They are going to be a couple soon and sending a joint message to all was only normal.
Then come the families as the babies come into their lives. And even if they aren't wishing anyone, parents always use their names in such group greetings. Isn't that so natural as well? And there is always pressure to attach more and more names next to yours all the time. Parents, grand ma's, aunties, uncles and even those distant relatives, everyone loves to see as many names next to yours....
That is the circle of life. We form relations, more names come next to ours and some names go away and join other names. That is what the relation paradigm is all about!!
Diwali Day was a very busy one so I didn't get too much time to check into the messages I received. But come Sunday and I wanted to check who sent me their wishes and who didn't. One of the wishes I received was from my cousin, Ankur who is getting married in November. A small greeting followed by two names: his own and his fiance's. I joked with him later that he is already attaching her name to his even though they aren't a couple legally.
Then I saw another message sent by Sumedha, my best friend. Her greeting had four names. The first being her newest borns followed by her elder daughter, then Sumedha's and then her husband's. Four names of the whole family were there. Another greeting sent to me had the name of a single friend of mine. A lone name wishing me a colorful Diwali.
When I sent thank you messages to everyone who wished, I joined Mohit's name next to
mine. Just four years back, the same message only had my name. And there was immense pressure from the family to have another name joined next to mine. That time my Dad used to send a collective greeting to everybody he knew and he put my name in his message. Then I got married and my name was deleted from his SMS! The complex structure of relationships ensured that my name came only next to one name at one time....
How couples are formed and they automatically attach themselves to each other is amazing? Ankur's greeting is a classic example. He didn't think there was anything extra ordinary in writing his fiance's name. That was the most natural thing to do. They are going to be a couple soon and sending a joint message to all was only normal.
Then come the families as the babies come into their lives. And even if they aren't wishing anyone, parents always use their names in such group greetings. Isn't that so natural as well? And there is always pressure to attach more and more names next to yours all the time. Parents, grand ma's, aunties, uncles and even those distant relatives, everyone loves to see as many names next to yours....
That is the circle of life. We form relations, more names come next to ours and some names go away and join other names. That is what the relation paradigm is all about!!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Of Diwali...Then and Now!!
I have seen 29 Diwali's in my life so far. But the way I remember them can be divided into three categories.
As a school going kid, Diwali was all about getting new clothes, eating lots of chocolates and mithai and burning crackers. Though I was never so bold with cracker bursting, watching them from a distance was my forte. But eating and wearing new clothes was my favorite part for Diwali always. The colorfully lit house and the candles all around are also a memory I remember from my school days.
Post my grandmothers death on Choti Diwali in 1995, Diwali took a different image for me. For years to come, I couldn't think of the festival as anything but a ritual. Something that the world was celebrating but marked my dear ammaji's loss for me. Then as I grew up, I reached redemption for the same and started looking at the festivities differently. The old colors and happiness that marks this festival was back and I was an adult celebrating it in my own girlie way.
Diwali meant rangolis, diyas, wearing a suit(a bi-yearly ritual) and the evening puja with the whole family. All the four happened only once/twice an year and have a clear impression on my mind. The evening puja where the full clan sat together in the puja room and prayed for half an hour. The wait for tauji to polish all the silver coins, the eagerness to get on with the proceedings so we can eat the pooris and then the collective teasing of the little ones. Everything seems so fresh....
Then there is the third type of Diwali. The one I have seen as part of being the Dilli ki bahu. Now what do I cherish of this, you ask? The mad rush to buying that last crockery set, the abuses hurled at each other in the traffic, the huge money lost in cards, the endless hours spent in deciding, buying and distributing gifts and the sleepless nights that follow after playing cards and devising strategies to reverse the losses...These will go on and on...
But yes, the better memories are opening the gifts the others give and finding the glasses you wanted for long, a visit from Mom to wish Happy Diwali, making Rangoli and cleaning my new house, dressing up in a Sari and seeing Mohit in the one Kurta he wears each Diwali. All this make Diwali the memory it has for me... Its ever changing but there is something that never changes for the festival. The memories it leaves each year...
Here's to a Happy Diwali for all!
As a school going kid, Diwali was all about getting new clothes, eating lots of chocolates and mithai and burning crackers. Though I was never so bold with cracker bursting, watching them from a distance was my forte. But eating and wearing new clothes was my favorite part for Diwali always. The colorfully lit house and the candles all around are also a memory I remember from my school days.
Post my grandmothers death on Choti Diwali in 1995, Diwali took a different image for me. For years to come, I couldn't think of the festival as anything but a ritual. Something that the world was celebrating but marked my dear ammaji's loss for me. Then as I grew up, I reached redemption for the same and started looking at the festivities differently. The old colors and happiness that marks this festival was back and I was an adult celebrating it in my own girlie way.
Diwali meant rangolis, diyas, wearing a suit(a bi-yearly ritual) and the evening puja with the whole family. All the four happened only once/twice an year and have a clear impression on my mind. The evening puja where the full clan sat together in the puja room and prayed for half an hour. The wait for tauji to polish all the silver coins, the eagerness to get on with the proceedings so we can eat the pooris and then the collective teasing of the little ones. Everything seems so fresh....
Then there is the third type of Diwali. The one I have seen as part of being the Dilli ki bahu. Now what do I cherish of this, you ask? The mad rush to buying that last crockery set, the abuses hurled at each other in the traffic, the huge money lost in cards, the endless hours spent in deciding, buying and distributing gifts and the sleepless nights that follow after playing cards and devising strategies to reverse the losses...These will go on and on...
But yes, the better memories are opening the gifts the others give and finding the glasses you wanted for long, a visit from Mom to wish Happy Diwali, making Rangoli and cleaning my new house, dressing up in a Sari and seeing Mohit in the one Kurta he wears each Diwali. All this make Diwali the memory it has for me... Its ever changing but there is something that never changes for the festival. The memories it leaves each year...
Here's to a Happy Diwali for all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)