She shall stay alive

Mopping the dirt, cleansing the earth
Using the unutilized
Teaching us the art of conservation, the rag picker stays alive.

Loving the unloved, preserving the unpreserved
Giving hope to the hope-denied
Furbishing her home with the unprivileged, the rag picker stays alive.

Skimpily eating, generously waiting
For the day when her day shall be bright
Lightening what we squander on the road, the rag picker stays alive.

All she needs is a little smile,
All she needs is that for a little while..you give her warmth instead of the chide
And the rag-picker shall....stay alive.

Run Maadi Run- The Pride

I like to address this event as ‘Run-Maadi’ rather than ‘Sunfeast 10K marathon’ for a simple reason that the former is more associative, refreshing and I like to boast of some Bengaluru lingo that I know. :)

4:30am was the time I decided to wake up on the ‘Run-Maadi’ day. Some regular stretches and muscle- flexing was the idea. But, wah kya idea hai sirjee, doesn’t do the trick until you work enough to fuel your ideas. As for me, my fueling was more important. 4:30am was a better time for some lasagna and I have reasons to support this:

Did you know that pasta contains energy-giving complex carbohydrates (mostly in the form of starch) plus a little dietary fiber? Some types of pasta, when eaten alone, may even raise blood sugar levels due to their high glycemic value.

Huh, so after obtaining all the carbs and fibres, I rushed to dress-up for my first marathon, only to realize that my running shoes were in absolute mess and I had to do with my pumas (which weren’t designed for running).

Post maneuvering our way past all the diversions and road-blocks we finally reached Kanteerva stadium (our starting point for marathon) at 8:15am while the ‘Run-Maadi’ was supposed to start at 8:10am. By the time we made our way through the crowd into the running field and reached the running point, the clock struck 8:30.

Running is an experience. Trust me. And specially if you run a marathon, you feel the racing pulse: your pulse and so many other pulses. The running mile read “1KM, congratulations!”

One kilometer! They must be kidding me. I am super breathless, my legs are giving way, I am sweating like pig and all they have to say is “Congratulations, 1KM!”

I Thought I’ll need my inhaler. Asthalin was the name I recalled. Nevertheless, I continued with my alternate jogging and walking routine. Water booths with electoral powder were a great relief though I tried not to drink too much water as there is a well recognized danger of drinking too many fluids which may reduce blood sodium levels. (I did my research :P)

The 5KM milestone brought mixed feelings. I knew I had completed half the run while at the same time I also knew that similar distance is to be further covered with the sun shining overhead. But to be honest, post the 5KM mark, it was a cakewalk (except for the cramp in my leg).

What made the rest of the run a cakewalk was definitely the comparatively opened-up muscles. But besides the pumped-up stamina, what made me do it were my cheerleaders.
NO, they weren’t the bikini-clad chicks or the slick male-models adorning yellow dolce-gabbana underwears. They were the Bangaloreans. All age, all sizes were out in sun to cheer us. Little toddlers came out with their mothers and gave us lovely smiles. The oldies sat in the bus-stand and shouted slogans like “Mera Bharat Mahan”. They made you feel like a soldier who is all set to conquer the enemy and do proud the nation.

Proud is me, my friends, my Bengaluru, my India. Proud is my heart!

‘Run Maadi Run’ is the pride.

Run Maadi Run

If you breathe in namma Bengaluru or are an avid follower of newspapers or even a close acquaintance of mine, you would have guessed by now what this post is about. However, if you don’t fall in any of the above mentioned categories, there are chances that you still deduce right.

Inability of knowing the context of this post yet, might urge you to rush your eyeballs in search of some key words. Don’t rush. Don’t panic. Your quest ends right here! Unlike most of my posts where the end reveals what the beginning was, Run Maadi Run is a pretty straightforward post.

30,000 gathered for this celebration. Young-old, black-white, thin-fat, big-small, men-women-others….brothers, even animals came together to rejoice. Those who did not directly join us in the festivity came out of their homes to exchange greetings with us…to wish us…to cheer us.

I was the 8,912th member of this gigantic family. Though it was practically impossible for me to know the other entire 29,999 affiliates, there was some unknown yet evident bond felt. A bond which ties the young, old, black, white, thin, fat, big, small, men, women, others….brothers, and even animals to each other. The bond which is so beautifully woven by the creator that the very rupture of this bond is nothing but the final stop. The final stop for everyone, everything, every time, everywhere.

The bond of existence.

The Sunfeast 10K Bangalore marathon was a celebration of existence. You run-you don’t run, you win-you don’t win, you finish-you don’t finish, you do charity-you don’t, doesn’t disqualify you as long as ‘the you’ exists.

A celebration of existence, an acknowledgment of life, the subsistence is what this marathon was about. The details shall follow in the next post. See told you, this is going to be one straightforward post.

Run Maadi Run!

;-)

FLU-BUG BITES

No knock no notice
No admonition, no consideration of the time
It’s absolute no respite when the flu bug decides to bite.

No teeth, no marks to be seen
No evidence, it passes off clean
It’s absolute no respite when the flu bug decides to bite.

No breather still, the snout becomes asymmetrical
No better is the head or eyes, every sneeze is a slow demise
It’s absolute no respite when the flu bug decides to bite.

No tenure or agreement of the finish line
The bug bites and you are penalized till.... time undefined
It’s absolute no respite when the flu bug decides to bite.
Its decision and its might
The Flu bug bites.

The Nerves are Dead

“You nerves are dead now. You won’t feel the pain”. I was a little perturbed.

‘You took them away from me. You rendered them dead. I didn’t come to you for making them lifeless! You cruel creature!’ was all I thought. I had not even recovered from the emotional agony when she struck the hammer again. “I will have to remove this. You can’t keep it”.

‘Yes b*t*h yes, take away everything from me. You have the opportunity now. I am at you mercy, the needles that you have poked in me to keep me from running are proving their mettle’, I spoke to myself.

It is bright, yea, the sun is shining bright. Wait! It isn’t the sun. The sun cant b so near. O my! She has second copied the sun. I am not sure what this ‘sun-replacement object’ was called but I could vouch for its efficiency in doing what it was supposed to do- produce heat & torture eyes.

The needles were beginning to hurt harder. She pushed them hard into me. I pitied my state. I could imagine her evil spirit whisper into my ears, “You have to pay for it”. ‘Yes boss, I agree I had to pay for it and so I am’.

Post an hour of poking needles into me, when she finally set me free, I thought my bad times are over.

(I should have seen the hammer coming again) “Come after two days again, same time.” I noticed the spiteful smile.

‘Irony is when your dentist tells you it won't hurt and then you see him catch his hand in the drill’,
;-)

DEAD END

They say, there is a decided end
But what if in the middle you feel
You caught yourself in a dead end

Now even though the end is far
The path is so departed
There is definitely no mending
To what you already have started

Traveling through this path, the only respite is
You already know the worse is omnipresent
What bad can subside it?

You get so accustomed to what is around
Or atleast you show, you are
No confrontations, no negotiations,
With smile the desires depart

But this is when you believe the end is dead
What if your heart is so merry, so merry that it never sheds
What if you don’t know it’s the end, what if you never did
What if you keep thinking it has to be the way you thought
And the final day stares at you, you thought it was far off.

I ask you so many questions, the questions are all mine
I need some help to figure out, a help so divine
That it tells me what is right, and where lies my might
Which makes me so beautiful, so beautiful that I never fight.

But nobody is perfect & so will I never be
Changes happen over time & changed I have been
My past has seen the tantrums, the tantrums have reduced
The present thinks I overdo, man! It has no clue!

It takes no time for the future to come
And the present becomes past
Memories linger all the way
And you say ‘Alas!’

Hold me before I break from you
Hold me before I sway
Lets hold together so strong
That the dead end stays away.


- Disha

It's Head vs Heart

It’s a trifle I have been involved in from time when I was old enough to comprehend the meaning of ‘wisdom’ & ‘emotions’. I love both and I realize their importance & presence but many a times they don’t come to terms with each other and these times are difficult to live through.

I feel like an arbitrator who at times forgets his own identity while identifying the reliability of their arguments. The head practices the discipline of ‘wisdom’ while ‘emotions’ are governed by heart. They cross paths at times & then I forget which was the start? Poetic huh?? Now this is surprisingly funny, that poetry is where they actually work in coalition inside me.

Yes! Whenever there is a conflict, I pen down my ‘emotions’ in words of ‘wisdom’. They tease me here too but at the end the ‘head’ & the ‘heart’ formulate the art!

And its very complex to reason out as to why at times the head wins whereas heart is crowned the winner other times. Whoever wins, there is always a win & a defeat staring at my face together. Sarcastic though it is, I choose whom to welcome first.