My introduction to the Marine Corps Marathon 2009

A couple of interesting events happened during September of 2008. Siraj and I were towards the end of our walk at the W& OD trail near Reston when 4 Indian men in their 20-30 briskly walked past us huffing and puffing and then stopped. It was as if their target was just to overtake us! This irked me, and I ran and overtook them! And walked back to join Siraj.

I am generally wary of the way Indian men behave towards Indian women, and being in the IT industry I have seen it all! and when this happened I told myself 'Hey guys! you know I am marathon material.. I am just extremely lazy!'

The same afternoon I stumbled upon an email address that was associated to the town I grew up. As we communicated, we realized that we have been neighbors for about 10 years, attended the same elementary school, have common friends... Best of it.. Shekar my new friend was training to run the 2008 Marine Corps and I was fascinated and he becaome my hero.. Though he dismisses my admiration of him quite modestly.. He has since then completed the 2008 MCM and National Marathon 2009 in DC as well. And is now training for the Marine Corps 2009!

Though I am a retired Athlete, and wanted to run for India when younger.... it has been 20 years since I actually trained consistently and was very nervous to commit, but deep within I wanted to get back to running.

The worst of it all I know how easy it is to quit silently.
How easy it is to be admit failure when bullied.

So when an opportunity came by in the form of an email from a local Tamil
Association, I couldn't avoid it. It was an invitation to train for the Marine Corps Marathon 2009. I was so nervous to even attend the initial seminar. I was a total wreck there, babbled constantly, and chirped like a trapped bird to my own amusement. I still am in a state of excitement and filled with nervous energy that scares me and am afraid that I would end up doing all the wrong things.

But here I am 4 weeks into the training. Still taking baby runs (I mean 2-3 miles is a baby run for a marathoner isn't it?)

And here I am waiting for Oct 25th. My target date to check off one childhood dream!
And here I am waiting to run. Waiting to re-connect to the joy of running.



----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fun fact # 1:
From a co-runner:
- When the coaches say 'you need to eat plenty of carbs as the runs get longer'
- He just says 'ha! I just eat Idlis'
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Lost words

1. Where and when?
All over the world, Almost started

What will vanish:
"Do you know the meaning......"
"Do you know where I can find...."
"I am lost....."

Why so?
-Thanks to google and GPS we will stop asking these questions.
-Anyone who asks such questions will actually be ridiculed and mocked at!
-Even the most polite coworker will raise her eyebrow, smile and say gently "I googled and found the answer!"
-Even if a brave guy decides to ditch the GPS and goes to buy a road map, he may not be able to get a paper copy.

2.Where and when?
Developed nations in about 20 to 50 years:

What will vanish:
Pen and Pencil will be part of a legacy medium used for teaching writing. Unless a teacher is extremely art oriented and enjoys teaching using pens, pencils, note books, color pencils and crayons.. these will slowly be left behind from the 'back to school supply list'

Why so?
-Tons of tiny tots and their parents take extreme pleasure in exploring a computer even before the toddler can speak.

-Preschoolers learn alphabets using other medium (electronic games etc) and by the time they are in school they can read.

-School assignments are increasingly focussing on computer rather than conventional medium.

3. Where and when?
In China and India in about 50 to 100 years:

What will vanish:
Words and phrases: Sister, Brother, Sibling, Sibling rivalry, Eldest child, Youngest child, Middle child, Elder of the two sons, Elder of the two daughters, Eldest and hence mothers pet, Youngest and hence fathers pet, Looks like her sister, Looks like his brother, sandwiched between a sister and a brother,
Relationships: Sister, Brother, Older brother / Older sister / Younger brother / Younger sister

What else will vanish?
-Hand me downs: A mother can no longer take pleasure in saving the tiniest frock and wait for another few years to adorn her younger one and recreate a moment only known to her and live in it.
-Children will forget that there is a beauty in sharing.

-Learing to play the first games of life at home - sharing, understanding, negotiating, sensitivity, people skills (will sharing become a subject in school curriculum?)

Why so?
- Due to extensive political, social, cultural and financial pressures families are restricting to having 1 child or 2 children now a days. It is a long shot to expect these children to have more than one child. With no sister or brother to play with, these words will be part of a fairy tale of a bygone era.


4. Where and when?
In China and India in about 1oo to 200 years:

What will vanish?
Words and relationships: Cousin, Aunt, Uncle

What else will vanish?
-Sitting in an aunt or an uncles' lap as they weave their childhood tales and watch gleefully as their parents and aunts and uncles argue over the intrinsic details of their childhoods tale that they are never tired of hearing ----- children will learn about their parents childhood by watching 'home movies'

-Religious ceremonies will be more social functions since it will be all about friends and not families.

-No more uncles and aunts to gift cash on Diwali.

-No more uncles and aunts to secretly hug and say 'don't worry, I know your dad.. we can convince him'.

Why?
-Since children will be part of the ever growing nuclear one child families they will never need to use the words aunty or uncle

5. Where and when?
In China and India in about 100 to 200 years:

What will vanish?
Second Cousin and all related relationships and words


6. Where and when?
In India in about 100 to 200 years:


What will vanish?
-A sister-in-law to tie the wedding knot along with the groom (what ritual will replace this role?)
-Marraiges within the family (we can do away with this)

-No long lost relative to show up at the door and stay overnight

-Mother and daughter ganging up against the ill fated daughter-in-law (yippee!)

-Large guest list of extended family for weddings (hmm! extended family is the cream of any wedding)

What benefits the society from this trend?

-Unprecedented womens' liberation (Wow! - will India finally openly acknowledge our women do have sex before marraige? )

-Finally Indian women will learn to accept their daughters as rightful heirs (yeah!)
-Families will learn to share wealth outside the family
-Indian families will learn to conduct smaller weddings with no wastage of valuable resources (finally)
-A chance for Indian families to marry outside of their community in large numbers

But what will never vanish:
-Abortion of the female featus until a male is conceived
-

A Sapota and a Calf!

We waited for this brown, bouncy, young calf every single day.

As the calf came running towards us, my daughter would shout with glee, and be ready with the fruits that she had picked up from the garden floor.

Some time earlier when we noticed this calf for the first time I suggested to my daughter that we pick up a few half ripe, half nibbled Sapotas probably dropped by squirrels and feed to the calf. She was afraid at first, but the calf was quite very young, and had such wonderful eyes..that she just fell in love with it.
And then we did the same the following day. Very soon this had become a routine, and as the calf approached our home, it would come running to us, and eat the sapotas. If not sapotas, we fed the calf other fruits..

We tried feeding the calf unripe sapotas, and she would spit them out. This caused great amusement to my daugther and so we fed the calf one or two unripe ones and watched it try to chew it and spit it.. and savor the ripe ones! It probably didnt have strong teeth yet, or knew there were better ones coming. After a few months it was time for a new routine.. The calf stopped visiting and we picked up fruits from the garden and left it near the gate for any stray cow to savor..

One day when it was time for a bed time story.. my daughter mentioned that she loved feeding the calf and wondered why it had stopped coming down our street. I included this as part of my story that night and we now had a new routine. The calf was now a deer or a bunny rabbit eating fruits from the forest floor.

We enjoyed every moment of the story telling until both of us dozed of happily dreaming of our wonderful forest friends.

This blog is a solemn reminder to me of those days that we shared in fear and uncertainity. She had faint memories of a different past, but didnt know how to question me. I had made choices that she had to live with.

The stories that I told her soothed her, and we were trying to convey our thoughts in a different form. She was looking for comfort and solace; And I was offering a secure cocoon for her to grow.

For almost three years the story telling continued, it was the same story..but told differently every time to suit the mood of the day. There were days when the baby deer had very little to eat ; some days it ate so much that it couldnt move.. We laughed and cried; and hugged; and held on to each other.