My Experiments With...err... Health

A great irony of my life; though a fitness freak, I have always struggled to stay fit. 

Every initiative to achieve that well toned body and radiant psyche has been hammered down deep into the earth for reasons that seem befitting to the circumstances.

Over the years I have tried many ways to stay fit and healthy; have always been willing to go out of the way to achieve that but no success. Every time I adopt a new technique some obstacle comes up such that I am left with no other choice than to quit.

I was an obese kid in school.  Though I enjoyed playing outdoors, those were very limited thanks to the timing restrictions imposed by dad. I finally lost that flab and gained good height after joining the N.C.C in 8^th grade. I turned me around completely. We had it for 2 yrs and it transformed me into a teenager with decent built. I have always had a low metabolism which means I tend to gain weight quickly. So I am always supposed to eat in control and exercise frequently. This has never happened. I am a voracious eater with a sweet tooth. ‘Khaane Peene Ka Shaukeen’. My parents have spoilt me too.

I once joined Karate classes when I was in 7^th grade. I was made to do splits, kicks, and jumps on the day one itself. Others had conditioned their body over the time to endure that level of flexes but mine was completely untrained. The result was a horrible body pain. I suffered from torn ligaments, and bruises. My elbow still bears the small patch gifted by the bruise. The worst part was that my thigh muscles were paining like hell. I could not walk straight for a week and had to quit the Karate dreams. Maybe I could have braved the pain and continued next week, but I was too immature to muster that will power at that time. My parents didn’t compel me too.

I used to go for walks frequently and the I.I.T Bombay Campus, where I was brought up, was an ideal place for that. I still enjoy walking a lot in the outskirts of my new locality, listening to some great tracks on the headphones, lost in my own world.  I am nuts about cycling. For me it is one of the finest vehicles invented by man. Unfortunately I don’t own one now, but used to cycle a lot in I.I.T campus. While others crave for bikes and cars, my dream to own a high end bicycle!

During college days I started working out at home, doing pushups, crunches, on spot jogging. Soon I started developing good contours. But it lasted only till a semester. Viral fever hit me. I was weak and rested all the time for a month and was soon back to the squishy bodied former self.

My next stint with fitness came when I finished graduation and was sitting idle at home without job (It was during the recession of 2008-09) and as expected started putting on weight. I and my college mate who stayed nearby decide to go for brisk walking. We used to wake up at around 5 in the morning and walk like our butt was on fire. It went on for a week after which we realized it won’t show substantial results when we could do something more strenuous. So we started jogging instead. We jogged around a circular track built inside a nearby garden so that we could measure the number of rounds we covered. I started getting back in shape, feeling rejuvenated and active. But the fun lasted only for a month. I started experiencing excruciating pain in my right knee. There was no pain when in first few rounds but it surfaced once I had finished two or three. I ignored it in the beginning, but showed it to the doc when the pain refused to subside. The x-ray showed an abused knee cap. I was running on a concrete surface and with canvas shoes.

Our knee caps bear humungous amount of shock while running as the entire body weight is burdened upon them. If we jog on a rigid surface instead of grass or clay, the pounding our knee cap takes is huge, let alone friction it endures. Wearing improper shoes adds to the damage. You need special flexible shoes for jogging.

I continued jogging wearing a knee band hoping it would absorb some of the pressure. But that did not help too. Finally after many days of painful mornings post jogging sessions, I finally quit; was back to square one. My partner continued for some time and he quit too after some days… due to laziness!

I learnt swimming In Hyderabad when I was on an assignment there. We had a small pool where I used to dive in after office with colleagues. I am not a very experienced swimmer but know just enough to survive if I happen to be drowning anywhere. Though I feared the deep end of the pool, I enjoyed swimming a lot. It is a complete exercise and is very enlivening after a stressful day in office.

Winters in Hyderabad are very severe and water turns chilly. Swimming in water so cold may invite troubles ranging from a common cold to a heart stroke! I tried to ignore cold in the beginning and swam in the evenings. The number of swimmers too had reduced to a handful by mid winter. I too finally decided to quit one day when the water became unbearable. I wasn’t even able to paddle my legs and had difficulty in timing the breathing.

I joined the Gym close to the pool thereafter. The trainer there advised me on the regimen to be followed. I gave more importance to cardio than body building. I hit the treadmill first and jogged for about 20 mins, then on twisters followed by crunches and finally did weight lifting for about 20 minutes. It was working well for me and as always I was getting in shape. But fate laughed at me once again as I my transfer request got sanctioned and I got posted in Mumbai, my home location.

I haven’t really dared to venture into any other means of fitness after that. Walking is the sole ally. I walk home from the railway station while coming back from office, listening to songs on the headphones and I enjoy it. I don’t miss it on weekends too. But that is not enough. To stay fit u must expel more calories than you consume. My mother makes sure I bombard my mouth with dry fruits, apple, and banana in the office. I’d rather gulp them down than arguing with her. I am seated before the computer all my day in the office, a symbolic life of an I.T professional. All these have added to my weight and I now look quite beefy.

I have started doing Suryanamaskars lately getting up early in the morning. I have been doing it since a week now and already feel quite light and active all day and must say it has been rewarding till now. I pay good attention to my eating habits too.

I have absolutely no idea how long this new experiment is going to sustain. Hope someday I am able to attain that proverbial Nirvana!

Raghu Uncle

We all have someone whom we admire in our life, who is our idol, whose life inspires us, who leaves a sharp impression in our mind with his/her charismatic personality. I too have many such stars in my admiration list.  I don’t treat them as idols as I believe you should never strive to be a mirror image of someone. Such people are unique and it is impossible to emulate them. They have each left a distinct mark in humanity and we too should do exactly the same in our conquest for greatness, leave our own distinct mark. But there are many whose qualities I wish could imbibe, whose allure I could match, whose struggles I could take an example from. My one year stay in Hyderabad made way for one more name to be included in that list – Raghu uncle.

Raghu uncle is a distant cousin of my mother who is settled in Hyderabad since more than 30 years. Unfortunately we had never been in touch before because of the distant family roots. I hadn’t even heard of his name till I was posted in Hyderabad.  I was reluctant to call him after reaching there but finally did so, much to Amma’s insistence. But when I spoke to him over the phone for the first time, he talked as if we have known each other for years. His voice had a tone of humility in it.

That week he came to the office campus where we had been put up, in a hired SUV with a driver and took us to his house in a place calledKarkhana, located well within the city limits. At first I thought it would be his own vehicle since had heard from Amma that he is a marketing director in some firm.  But as days passed I realized that he owned only a Honda Activa and had no penchant for cars or any luxuries to that regard. His better half, Geeta aunty was no less than an angel. She fed us, enquired about my family back in Mumbai. The display of hospitality was something I had never seen or exhibited before.

Raghu uncle tried finding us an accommodation in places where he had contacts but unfortunately Hyderabad is averse to renting apartments to bachelors for obvious orthodox reasons. He even offered me to stay with him since only he and Geeta aunty were staying there; both their kids are in the U.S. But I thanked and refused as it would be like deserting my batch mates.  We found another apartment by ourselves later through an agent. Raghu uncle on hearing this apologized to me for not being able to help. I wasn’t expecting that from him since he is an elder. Yet he had the humility to say sorry. He did that on couple of other occasions.

He is a deeply spiritual man but at the same time does very well know that we should try hard and seek answers ourselves before knocking the doors of the Almighty. One gets wonderstruck seeing his active nature at this age. He must be 60 something but moves around like a person half his age, full of vivacity and ardor. He is involved actively in number of social activities in nearby temples. I was fortunate to be a part of few of them. It was really kind of him to take me to those activities. The Ayappa temple near his house feeds the poor every alternate Sundays and provides free medical treatment too. He involves himself actively in all these.

I had to once take an early morning flight to Kochi to attend my sister’s wedding. A special bus shuttles between the airport and different bus bays in Hyd. Raghu uncle drove his Activa early morning to my place to drop me till the bus bay. To say, it was a small thing but imagine doing that early in the morning for a distant relative, when I could have easily taken a rickshaw. That was really a kind gesture from him.

He and Geeta aunty treated me really well whenever I visited them. I hardly remember to have come on my own to visit their house. Uncle used to pick me up from my place on the day I wished to meet, which was usually Sundays. We then used to visit 2-3 temples, where he offered flowers and prayed. His prayers were very brief, not praying for more than five seconds before a deity! He was very swift in his movements and very particular about doing ‘pratakshinas’ around the temple.  We rode home after that where Geeta aunty served awesome homely breakfast. Sundays at Raghu uncle’s home were indeed a big relief from the bland hotel food. We used to head to other temples after that, wherever there was any activity. Raghu uncle had huge social circle around him. Almost everybody in Karkhana knows him and he is always greeted with a smile; he reciprocates with a bigger one, enquires about their health and families and jokes at times.

The donation he makes is just commendable. It is never monetary, mostly groceries and edibles. I still remember him carrying sack of rice to temples on the scooter with me. Upon reaching the temple he unloaded the sack in the temple kitchen and instructed the people there to utilize it judiciously. He cares for the beasts too; feeds the cows with cooked rice and bananas on the way! All this was a totally new and moving experience for me. I had never donated anything substantial in my life, though I always wished to, but never knew of a proper channel to make it materialize. But now he seemed to be giving me a direction on this.

In his company I have experienced the cultures and traditions of Kerala, many of them just heard about or seen in the T.V before. It was a holistic feeling; taking part in pushp’abhishekam during Shabarimala season, hearing all sing Harivaranasam, doing service in temples on Sundays.

He is not a kind of person who would say yes to anything and everything. He actively voices his opinion and doesn’t care if it is conflicting with other’s views. He scolds people whenever he felt they did wrong, praises them for their good work. He is in fact one of the few men on my elite list of people whom we need as leaders and bureaucrats in today’s India. He is bold, confident and courageous in his talks, and most importantly walks his talk.

 The day I visited his house for the last time (I was posted in Mumbai after the assignment in Hyd.), I touched his feet. He blessed me whole heartedly, hugged me and gave me his wishes. It felt like coming from a genuine person and I will always cherish the warmth of that moment.

I call him on festivals to wish and at other times too. He still has the humility and charisma in his voice. He enquires about my job, family, everything. He still apologizes repeatedly whenever I call and he’s unable to answer. I and Amma plan to visit Hyd. soon particularly to meet him and Geeta aunty. We have got lots to thank them for.

Raghu uncle has taught me to have an existence that is not centered on making money or thinking of just your well being, but to take the world with you by helping the unfortunate ones. I will always be indebted to him for helping me out in situations, for treating me as a part of their family without paying heed that we were never in touch before, bringing me closer to human qualities, social well being, the culture and traditions of Kerala and of course relieving me of vapid hotel food on Sundays J

The Beginning of Kir Kiri in Hyderabad

I woke up startled as the alarm on my cell phone buzzed on the morning of July 28 2010 inside the crammed sleeper of Mumbai-Hyderabad Express. It was 4.45 in the morning and we were to reach Begumpet station in 15 mins. As I got freshened up and al set, my mind was still reminiscing about the days spent in the city I had started loving dearly, Pune.  I was on my way, reporting for my maiden assignment in Hyderabad along with two of my batch mates Chaitanya (CP) and Jenson (JD) after a grueling but fun filled training of 2 months.

Send off by batch mates at Pune Stn. JD seemed pissed off, CP optimistic and  I was somewhere in between.

The Pune farewell was no less than a nightmare with 6 of the associates in my training batch being terminated from the organization on the grounds of copying during assessments, one of whom was my roommate and a close friend in college.  As I made a transition back to the sleeper coach, we were caught in a dilemma. The three of us, had been speculating whether to get down at Begumpet or the next and final stop Nampally (Hyderabad Deccan Stn.). Some friend of CP had told him it would be easy for us to reach our reporting location, Mahindra Satyam Tech Centre (MSTC or MSAT), Bahadurpaly, Hyd from Begumpet.  So we decided to descend there.

Next task was to find a lodge where we could freshen up and hire a vehicle to Bhadurpally. It was difficult to walk with all those heavy baggage so I decided to wait with bags at the station while CP and JD went out for lodge hunting. I was alone now. I looked around, at the world outside the station. It was still dark, but could see buildings and foliages. It was intimidating. Thank god I was with 2 other fellas. Had it been a solo assignment, life would have seemed much harsher.

They came back 10 mins later only to tell me that there’s not a single lodge around, not even a hotel. A Samaritan lurking around over heard us and advised us to head towards Nampally stn where we could find some place to stay. Damn! That’s where our train was headed to! Nevertheless we boarded a local train and reached Nampally, a km away from Begumpet. We hadn’t bought a ticket for the local train, assuming the previous ticket would suffice. To our rotten luck we were caught by the T.C. A young and well built fellow, he was adamant at first and started arguing that we cannot travel in locals with a mail ticket (works in Mumbai though doesn’t it?) But finally I guess he got frustrated by the din or was struck by an iota of humanity or maybe sniffed another prospective victim; he let us go with a warning.

Such was our welcome in the city of pearls, Hyderabad.

You will find many men in kurtas (a typical attire in Hyderabad besides lungi clad southies), hovering around Nampally stn offering you rooms in lodge. We randomly choose one such chap who led us to a hotel nearby. We paid the deposits and checked in.  It was an unpleasant looking room with strange room plan. We choose not to give a damn as we had to hurry to MSTC. All had bath. We headed out to find a transport. Bahadurpally sounded village’y and we had no idea how far it would be from Nampally. We went around asking cabbies. They cited fares as high as Rs. 800 and we were no way willing to pay that much. After many trials and lot of persuasion a guy finally agreed for 300. Much of the bargaining credit goes to JD and CP and I was mostly a mum cat.

He drove his Ambassador near to the lodge. We cursed ourselves for lacking the basic intelligence to avoid the need for lodge having already paid the day’s charge and vacating in a matter of hours and like dimwits loaded bags and set off. As the cab moved around, I had a look outside, the city that will be my address for some time now. It was daybreak and there was no crowd, no jam, all were walking around quietly. Unusual sight for a Mumbaite! The roads seemed good, weather not too hot. Suddenly Hyderabad seemed welcoming. The journey was long. The city ended, we entered industrial areas on the city outskirts (called Jeedimetla); that ended too and the Ambassador was wriggling through unknown roads. The driver too had no idea beyond Jeedimetla. We were growing skeptical about our new office. After an hour and a half journey, we finally spotted a tall obelisk beside the main road with ‘Mahindra Satyam’ printed on it and a road leading further inwards.

The sight that caused the sigh of relief

 The car drove in, we were relieved, and so was the driver, who now realized why others were charging 800 bucks. After 10 more minutes of drive through the narrow but tarred alley we reached the gates of MSTC. We were frisked and then told to proceed towards ‘dorms’.  Dorms is an agglomerate of guest houses inside MSAT which houses employees who are on a temporary visit. We paid the driver 50 bucks more for his courtesy and unloaded at Dorms.

Unloading at Dorms

It thus began; the Hyderabad journey and as the time passed by we would realize that our life here is going to be a cocktail of good and bad experiences. But most importantly, the life outside the comforts of home made me mature, independent and responsible. I learned to live and survive. I am forever indebted to this place for bringing about that transformation in me.