Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Joys of Jogging

Jogging is a great form of exercise. It pumps oxygen in your body, removes cholesterol from your arteries and keeps you healthy and active for the day. Personally I don’t have any of these conditions but then why do I insist on jogging? Because I like the morning weather and I like to believe that I am fit.





I remember the first time I tried my hands or rather my legs at jogging. I was in engineering college that time. I was young, vain and naïve. Before I started the jog, I put on my fake nike running shoes, wore a grey T shirt (sweat looks the best in them or so I thought) and was ready for a 5 km jog(I have read somewhere that Milind Soman clocks 5 km and he is 40 so if he can why can’t I?)


I started my jog at the evening hours (that’s when the janta assemble and to run looks cool). I wore my happiest smile, ran towards a path that crosses girls hostel for obvious reasons (exercise should not only benefit your body but should also soothe your eyes)..


I have never jogged before and years of inaction had made me completely unfit for 1 km run let alone the 5 km that I was hoping to cover. But oblivious to all I ran. The first few steps felt good. I liked the way my foot pounded the pavement and propelled me forward, the cool breeze grazing through my hair and the activity around me all encouraged me. I ran, happy with my decision to start jogging. Life however had something else in store for me, before I could reach girls hostel, I was out of breath, I was puffing and my chest started to hurt, it almost felt like that I am going to have a cardiac arrest. To make matters worse, I reached the girls hostel too. Now I could not lay breathless and on the ground in front of the girls hostel; that would be ignominious. These are the girls that I would spend my next two years of life and in campus news travel fast so I cannot be the person who was lying breathless in front of the girl’s hostel. I had to carry on no matter the price or how hard the effort I have to put in. Giving up was not an option.


This was also the first time that I realized about ‘male ego’ thing that people keep writing about, for I was willing to do anything but lay there in front of the girl’s hostel. I took one last deep breath and ran as fast as if my rear end was on fire, took a short cut to get out of sight and turned the corner.


As soon as I turned the corner, I sprawled on the ground faster than Rajnikant can blink his eyes. Yes I said it and I am fully conscious what the repercussions could be but there has to be a measure of truth when I make such a tall claim. I remember very little of what happened later but I saw white light at the end of the tunnel and my whole life flashed in front of my eyes. I lay there motionless for what seemed like forever, may be I passed out. I was awakened only by the sniffing of a dog very close to my face. If I had not awakened when I did, the dog would have probably mistaken me for a piece of wood and took a leak on me. Thankfully I was up before that happened. That day I realised I am not fit, in fact I am far from being fit and that i have to start working on it.





Nowadays when I run/jog, I do not go near girl’s hostel (I am scared of a repeat performance), I do not run during evening when everyone is around but during the wee hours of morning with some old timers around. I am the fastest among them(makes me feel good) and if I get all puffy they do not make fun of me for they are in the same state and in case I ever get a attack they would know what to do (they have been there and done that I suppose)and will not judge me..

If you think you are fit then try running to gauge your health status, may be your opinion will change.

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5 comments:

  1. Again very nicely written. You have done good to overcome tendency of ending stories abruptly. Length too is optimal

    But you could have done away with using less of statements in parenthesis in beginning and in the end

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  2. I love jogging, but had left it for some reasons. Your post makes me want to put on my running shoes back!

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  3. @Pooja- Make sure u r no where near boys hostel:)) and do continue with jogging..

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  4. Keep running....and well written.

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  5. Thanks Alka..keep coming back for more

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