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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