Experiences of My First Half Marathon

'Behind every successfully man there is a woman' - Saying seems hackneyed but when you achieve something and you look back, you see an army of people who made sacrifices for your success. There are some who contributes a little more than others and mostly they belong to fairer of the two sexes. I would thank my wife who stood by me and helped me in every possible way to achieve the feat of finishing a half marathon in sub 120 minutes.

The experience of finishing Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (ADHM) was awesome undoubtedly. Warm-up for the half marathon started with a session in Max Hospital, Saket where marathon veterans like Sunita Godara and Tanvir Kazmi shared few of their experiences and important tips. All of were quite helpful. I ignored one of them and suffered. It was- 'Reach the event venue at least 1 hour before the start of event'. My figures would have been different if I had taken this advice seriously.

I had an inkling that certain roads will be closed but never imagined that whole area around Nehru Stadium (Event Venue) will be totally fortified. I reached near Nehru stadium at around 6:20 am and kept on looking for parking for next couple of minutes. Parking was conspicuous by its absence. At around 6:35, I parked my vehicle in a no-parking area at around 1 km from the stadium and rushed towards the venue. Count down for closing the doors of holding area was going on. When I entered it was in between 4 and 3. I had luck to enter the arena at around 7:55 am, almost 15 minutes after the start of the race.There was a huge crowd of runners in front of me which reminded me of traffic jams on Delhi ring road. I was not running at my natural speed due to congestion on the road.

Second advice that I neglected was 'you should not try anything new on race day'. But this advice got a lower precedence over another one which goes down as- 'If you miss first water station on the race day that is your first mistake'. So drink some water at each water point'. I normally do not drink water while running. I might be surviving long runs without water because I drink nearly 2 litres of it immediately after getting up in morning. That's a kind of anomaly that works well for me.

On race day I stopped at almost each water point on the route till mid way and realized that I am not very comfortable in taking water during running. So on my way back, I skipped many and felt much better.
I finished a race comfortably clocking 1:49:45. Although I had no experience of such a long timed run but I targeted 1:40. My target is not yet achieved and this will keep me desperately looking forward to the next marathon.Nothing can replace once's own experience, lessons from other's experience can just speed up your learning process.

I never imagined that an activity like running can attract such huge crowd. It was an awesome crowd. People from all age group from different races- African, Asian, White, Brown- people from all walks of life and from around the globe. Flying ladies and gliding aged runners deserves a standing ovation and so do the 'pacers' in the event. I got introduced to this term 'PACER' very recently. That's someone who helps other runners to finish the race in within a particular time. Scintillating musical performances by rock bands, cheerleaders, people standing besides road cheering for runners, superb arrangements for water and other refreshments and not to mention the glimpse of elite runners from different countries- These highlights will stay in my memory forever.



  

Fitoor

Long back when I was merely 10 yr old, it all started with a kick. I was the goalkeeper and stopped the penalty shoot in a football match during our games period. My fellow team-mates lifted me up. The feeling of  exuberance are till fresh in my mind- strong enough to give me goose bumps. And this was the splinter that ignited the passion for soccer in my mind.

I searched for a place where I could get a chance to play this heavenly game in my home town- Hisar. My search ended in Jat College football grounds where I got a chance to get training under a team of Coaches: Sh. Madan Singh Rathore, Sh. Ashwini Kumar, Sh. Jagdeep Sheoran, Sh. Shushil Lega, Sh. Vinay Kumar. I love this sport. To increase my stamina I started going for long runs during morning. In winters, when it was cold and foggy outside, running caused sweating and sweat use to evaporate. I felt excited to see vapours fuming out my body and that encouraged me to run even faster. I use to run hard to experience that phenomenon. I played football making sure that it never interfered with my studies. So whenever there were examinations, I skipped going to grounds and thus missed a couple of opportunities to play certain official sub junior championships. It was in yr 1995 that I played first state level tournament. In yr. 1996 when my classmates were enjoying preparatory leaves for class 10th board exams, I was playing state level tournament in Kurukshetra. My team secured first position in that tournament.Then in August 1996, our team repeated the feat in Pre-subroto cup. In September 1996, I represented Haryana in Subroto cup. Playing in Delhi's Ambedkar Stadium against teams like Bengal and Nagaland was experience of lifetime. Somehow, due to excessive pressure of studies during my senior secondary days and certain other domestic engagements, I stopped going to ground regularly. But whenever I use to get chance, I made sure that I visit grounds. My craving for workout shifted from sweating in grounds to burning calories in morning jogs. I love the smell of green grass and watching the vast blue skies after getting totally enervated after a good morning work out and that still keeps me ticking.

I got admission into an engineering college, shifted to a new city and football again entered my life but the level of game was much lower than what was there at my home grounds. Besides that soccer games were not regular phenomenon in engineering college. So my focus shifted more to morning work-out. Chandigarh offers a lot of places where you can do that. But nothing beat the experience of watching sunrise on banks of Lake Sukhna while listening to Sitaar. Leisure valley was another very good location for work outs. In second year I met with a road accident and suffered medial meniscus tear in my left leg. Doctor advised me to take rest for sometime and avoid strenuous activities. Jogging was out of question for 3 months till I recovered. After 3 months first run that I did was a 10k run. I was last among 6 people who finished it but I was happy that I can at least run without any problem. Playing soccer was difficult with knee injury but still I managed to play for my college consecutively for 4 yr. I love soccer so much that on every valentine's day -I use to make sure that I play football.

College got over. I joined job and was lucky enough to get a 5 month paid holiday whom my employers referred as training. It offered a chance to play different sports at a splendid location on the banks of lake Khadagwasla in Pune. My soul still clanged to soccer till the time my knee got injured again and left me limping. I took up squash-another sport that took my breath away. I use to play it all alone in the courts for hours. In few days, I became quite good at it. But the honeymoon period of training ended and I was placed in Pune city where there were no grounds or squash courts. Only badminton courts were available but it never appealed me that much. Thanks to hills of Pashan region- I ended up jogging in evening as well as in morning at that splendid beautiful location listening to the chirping of birds. There were occasional tryst with my first love (Soccer) when I played for my office and then again for west Zone of my department.

Times changed and I again decided to go back to college for post graduation. Got a chance to play soccer. For nearly one year I played without any complication till one day my knee started giving me trouble once again. I tried to play soccer after recovery but discovered that my body is not able to take it any more. Sadly I had to say good bye to my favourite sport.

The passion for soccer got metamorphized into passion for running under the pressure of knee injury. I shifted to a number of locations where I searched for locations for jogging. KBR Garden in Hyderabad, Shanti Stupa in Wardha, Mayawati ashram in Champawat and Lodi garden in New Delhi are few of beautiful discoveries I made in the pursuit of running.

My madness is shaping up in desire for running half marathon these days. Lets see what the future holds?

Financial Inclusion and Politics in Indiya

Dramatic events are often part and parcel of a democratic nation. Be it allocation of 3-G connection or small loans to rural poor who are excluded from banking, there is always a series of events that get listed as breaking news on news channels or get festooned on front pages of local print media. Every event touching lives of large number of people often takes a political turn with leaders from all parties coming together and adding their own flavors concocting altogether new situations. I am using this platform to share one such event which took place in the heart of India.

 This region is notorious for suicides by farmers who were in debt trap. Nowadays suicides in the area are being attributed to credit offered by Micro-finance Institutions or MFIs. These institution use social security to offer small loans to poor and un-bankable people. The interest loans charged by these companies are often higher in comparison to bank loans due to greater cost of funds taken by these MFIs from banks or private investors and higher operational cost as they provide loans or do recovery at doorsteps of customers.But inspite of all these, they are much cheaper than those offered by local private moneylenders. In recent year a number of companies have mushroomed in India. Many people have been benefited by financial assistance provided by these companies but at the same time easy access to money and very huge targets given to field staff of these MFIs has resulted in indiscriminate distribution of credit and over indebtedness of their customers. An amalgamation of personal as well as financial problems is often as hazardous as potassium cyanide and people often succumb to such pressure and take extreme steps such as suicide.

Recently one such sad incident took place in one of the towns in this region where a lady has taken credit from a couple of MFIs. This lady who was mired in the debt trap had some altercations with her husband a night before recovery date. In morning it was found that she hanged herself. People from MFI came for recovery and insisted on repayment and also used some unparliamentary language. Such a situation at the funeral place instigated unrest among the community and people gathered there firstly thrashed employees and then ransacked their office. A complaint was lodged in local police station against the company and a memorandum regarding coercive recovery practices used by MFI staff was submitted to local administration. People involved into all those things also took into confidence local leaders and also threatened other people in city not to repay to MFIs. MFI employees who went for recovery were threatened and were not allowed to collect recoveries. Pamphlets were printed in which an appeal to public was made not to pay to any of the MFIs and were distributed all across the town. The current Andhra Pradesh embargo is adding fuel to fire rather it started the fire itself as cash squeezed MFIs are not able to disburse any loans since mid of October.There are rumors in market that these companies are shutting down. The biggest irony is that those customers to whom MFIs are catering will fell into debt trap of local money lenders again and thus majority of people want that MFIs should continue their operations but the long pause in disbursement is razing one big question mark in their minds: To pay or not to pay?
A lot of wrong things have happened in the field that has resulted into current state of MFIs in Indiya. Some of them are as follows:

1. Indiscriminate disbursement of money without realizing the absorption capacity of customers or without taking into consideration the purpose for which a customer is availing loan..
2. No appraisals before disbursement of loans in most of the cases.
3. Multiple lending to same customer by different MFIs.
4. Mutual respect plays an important role in any business. So MFI staff need to give due respect to their customers and avoid using coercive recovery measures/ castigating remarks.
5. Politics on present situation and resorting to populist measures rather than finding constructive solution to the problem. 

Reserve Bank of India has appointed one committee under the leadership of Mr Malegaon which need to submit a review by end of January. Hope it will soon come out with some suggestions which will be helpful in avoiding untoward incidents in the field.

Lets hope for the best! Merry Christmas.

Never Imagined that I'll start blogging one day

A line in Bodhitree's GMD goes like this- "Gaon main saabun bech raha hai jhoot hai uska hasna."

Well it may be true in case of XLRI but do we need to rethink when we talk about IRMANs?
At least in my case situation is no different although I have stayed in remote villages but never had the feelings that I am having these days- Solitude has slowly turned into feeling of loneliness. I may not be selling soaps in villages but still working in an office setup that is very much similar.Why are seniors so much mollycoddled in India? When juniors show such behavior then every time even I have to dissemble sincerity and commitment when actually I feel like saying "who cares" or "what the F***". Not being yourself is not everybody's cup of tea and when you are short of other options then frustration keeps on mounting. Hats off to all those hospitality people with plastic smiles pasted perennially to their faces. Being a prisoner is much better than being a management trainee- at least they have fellows with whom they can talk freely. I was never fond of talking on cellphone and most of the times it acted as a landlines during my college days but these days I keep on staring it hoping that my stares will make it ring. Sound of its ring tone seems even more melodious than compositions of Mozart or Beethoven. Every time when I look at my laptop screen something within me says -"Don't you have anything else to do?". I shut it down just to realize that I have no other option than to reboot it or go for a walk alone in unknown city or go to sleep. I love to go for long walks but every time it is not feasible and there is a limit beyond which a human being cannot sleep. So the only option left is to boot it again and search for those green signals on Gtalk. Live is full of irony- when you are busy then you have a lot of things to discuss with your friends but when you are free and have ample time then you fell short of ideas and the chat just restricts to "Kya haal chaal hain - main theek thaak tu bata - aur kya chal raha hai -kuch nahin life as usual and then a BIG pause. A pause that has filled up life of management trainees like me who keeps on wandering to new locations with new set of problems.

I never dreamed of writing a blog but then may be blogging is one way of fighting that blankness which has eclipsed my present life.I don't know whether it will help in making things better but I am happy that it has kept me engaged for last couple of minutes.