Day One - 7th July 2009

There is palpable tension in the air as he thinks if he should be taking it up at all? The last time he had done something similar was as a 12 year old, when he was given the opportunity to bat by both the teams since there weren't a lot of expectations from him - and that was the last time he looked at anything to do with sports/athletics!

But this was going to be quite different, to begin with, it has been sixteen years since he had exercised any of his muscles and what he was attempting for was a relay run in a month's time (precisely on the 9th of August http://www.urban-stampede.com/). There was a lot at stake; and to some extent, this would be a litmus test on if he was really up to delivering something that he was committing upon? Committing, but to whom? A lot of questions are unanswered in his mind at this moment, but he took the plunge.

The air outside the famed Embassy Golf Links Business Park - Bangalore, is still cold - as he does a few warm up activities (sorry - but cannot call those exercises), the unused muscles start speaking with him - "c'mon dude? Do you need to do this at all?” It is just these conversations that he needs to avoid if he wants to crack this test (?) within a month.

The target for today is to run at least for 2 kilometres and walk for some more - as he passes by the well built Security Guards at the entrance/exit gates, getting a complex, breathlessness sets in. C'mon, it has just been some 300 meters - all right, it was probably uphill, but that does not mean you stop at 300 Meters on day 1. This will take him nowhere and wasn't he told that it is all in the mind? Ignoring ardent pleas by some muscles, he continues, to go on at least for half a kilometre.

As cabs pass by at blazing speeds, with tired employees who were done with a day's work in some "MNC" in the park, he reminisces on what it was getting dropped in a Sumo way back when he started working - gosh! That was eight years ago. The first pit stop is just a kilometre away from where he started - a traffic signal where all the cabs usually take a 'U' turn. An Alto parked there causes some commotion, resembling the state of his mind, but he moves on. To the left is Military Area, fenced, but could he still get in? There is a deep urge that is running inside him, to scale that fence and run inside - would he? We would have to wait and see if he would, one of these days. As he reaches an electricity junction box, he says to himself - that is it! It is time to turn back and that was going to be tough - since the headlights of all those cars on the main road would be piercing thru him. Some driving in the past should stand him in good stead.
There is a neat arrangement of 20 small pieces of broken tiles (or were they stones) on the footpath - what was that for and who would have put it there? Would he see it tomorrow again and that is would he run tomorrow?

To the reader: Do you think the protagonist in the above story would make it for the Urban Stampede on the 9th of August? Do you think he really should be taking the pain of going thru all this? For what, for whom? Do you know him and does he know himself? The author welcomes bouquets and brickbats and encourages the reader to predict, leave comments and more than anything else - read on. Till tomorrow, so long!