India Running!

The legend of Philippedes has it that he ran from Marathon to Athens to declare the victory over the Persians. This happened in 490 BC.  Last week a population of 1 plus billion people from an even older civilization produced a gold medal winner at the 400 M world junior athletic event for the first time and the whole country went into frenzy.

However the followers of Philippedes are a plenty in India and it has become more of a fad than a sport. As one might be aware, barring one sport nothing else is revered as a sport in India. Almost every city in India has more than a couple of branded Marathon events all the year around. I happened to ‘witness’ (A recent survey says we are the largest sporting event ‘viewers’ in the world) one this week which started and finished close to my house in Chennai.

Went there to check on a friend who claimed to be a marathoner and me being the doubting Thomas wanted to go by the seeing is believing principle and I had my reasons for that, knowing him for long now, his closest association with the word RUN during college days was with a Hotel by the name RUNS in Adyar. Was amazed at the size and splendor of the event. Close to 5000 odd people sweating it out, some sprinting, some gracefully cantering and some even ‘selfieing’ their way in, while a few others limped to the finish to be greeted to the sounds of ‘chenda melam’ and egged on by a handful of lazy onlookers like yours truly and proud family members of the descendants of Philippedes armed with the latest Phone cameras and DSLR’s to capture their moment of glory. What further amazed me was the accessories that the runners where adorned with apart from good running shoes some were strapped with the latest fitbit and the likes monitoring their vitals as they made through this gruesome endurance challenge. Some ran barefoot too. Some hydrated themselves with water from PET bottles while some sipped from long pipes hanging over their shoulders. I was later informed by a well-informed runner friend that particular gadget was called a camelback. A water pouch that one can carry on his or her back with a sipper to keep hydrated.

Mercedes Benz as one of the lead sponsors had displayed large Digital Timers on the roof of their cars at the finish lines so that the runners could see their timing and also kindle that urge in you to own the coveted brand, for which, you need to run a different race though.

Marathon for sure is not for the weak hearted and calls for skills that revolve around endurance, focus and monk like concentration; this has now opened up an entire tribe of life coaches / Management gurus drawing parallels with marathons and emphasizing that these very skills will take you to the top at your workplaces. Sadly none of these Management gurus give you gyan on how to make it big, taking up running itself as a profession.

It’s an irony that in India many take to Marathons once they are secure and successful in life unlike the Ethiopians or the Kenyans or the Mo Farahs who went on to make it big for themselves and their country running for a livelihood.

Marathons are run every second day across the country for various causes which is certainly good, however wish one could be run to promote the spirit of sport as a profession and not only as a fitness fad and thereby help in producing at least one marathoner or an athlete from India who could make it big on the world stage.

Horses for courses!

A state that is home to the so called Silicon Valley of India has been witness to the dance of democracy the last 48 hours. The dance has been all but graceful, plunging the constitutional pundits into a huddle.  Though this is something we Indians have got used to irrespective of who is in power, sadly highlights the grey areas of democracy in a diverse and populous country like India.

We thump our chests with pride when we are referred to as the largest working democracy, largest yes, but working I am unsure. We sure are diverse and thanks to our colonial teachings on leveraging the multiple  cast / tribe / regional and religious divides, it makes the working of democracy all the more difficult. That is why a fragmented mandate turns the dance of democracy into a bacchanalia.

As a citizen of the largest democracy I have heard this term Horse Trading from the time I was old enough to read a Newspaper and follow politics. The origin of the word goes thus - courtesy the wiki.

Horse trading, in its literal sense, refers to the buying and selling of horses, also called "horse dealing.” Due to the difficulties in evaluating the merits of a horse offered for sale, the sale of horses offered great opportunities for dishonesty, leading to use of the term horse trading (or horse-trading) to refer to complex bargaining or other transactions, such as political vote trading.

We the people are the protagonist in the theatre called democracy and it is we the people who should choreograph the dance of democracy, but sadly with our numerous differences we are unable to evaluate the merits and elect our representative who later turns a horse to be traded. They end up being traded at exorbitant sum which is always proportional to the complexity of the fragmented mandate. The masters who trade them are extolled for their political acumen and compared to Chanakya sadly this comparison maligns Chanakya’s famed political dexterity.  

Democracy is all about people and not about horses. Thorough bred horses fetch a fortune and let’s not compare the illiterate opportunistic elected representatives to those lovely creatures of pedigree.  Let’s ensure when we exercise our franchise next, to house the political stables with horses for courses and not horses to be traded.

It’s all about the jeans!

Air travel in the past was a mode of travel confined to the rich and famous, and if at all one managed to afford it, they would make sure that they were donned in their Sunday best as they walked into an airport or boarded a flight.  Though the world has come a long way since, the skies are now as crowded as the gullies of an Indian metropolis, the old school patrons like yours truly still take travelling by air a little seriously when it comes to looking your best. So, during a recent trip to Europe I slipped into my relatively new & favorite pair of jeans.

Walking through the plane’s aisle I ended up tearing my jean at the thigh. As soon as I realized it, I was absolutely horrified at the possibility of having to walk through two international airports wearing a pair of torn jeans. There were days one used to rush back home from school or office when a part of your attire had given up at the seams.

As I got off the plane I walked coquettishly trying to hide the damaged portion of the jean. A quick glance around the airport made me realize that almost every second person passing through the airport had encountered an even worse mishap with their jeans. The denims were all ripped in different shapes and forms, and the so called rich and famous were flaunting their ripped jeans with pride. I developed a complex again when I realized mine was an accident and was confined to only one thigh; the others sported a more symmetric damage which actually made them look good.

Growing up in the 80’s I have worn different kinds of denims, stone wash, acid wash and even one with the complete lyrics of a Deep Purple song hand written on it, and yes some were torn at the knees but that was caused by natural wear & tear. We never bought a branded torn jean then, so when my daughter wanted one I was aghast at the possibility of having to actually pay for a torn jean. Its then I was given a crash course on the denim jargons I am supposed to use.

I was told it’s not torn… It was called ripped and the more expensive and the more torn it was it had to be addressed as distressed. In fact I have a better name for a recent distressed version that is doing the rounds on social media valued at 168$. It could be called STRANDS…there are a couple of strands left of what, was once a denim.

The irony is that the celebrities today who wear a distressed pair of jeans paying a fortune for it are all depressed while we were quiet happy growing up wearing hand-me-down jeans that were torn at the knees not as a fashion statement but as a result of over wearing.

The evolution of Gyration

Circa 1988, all of 16, I ended up in a theater watching a Hindi movie with a few friends; probably the first time I watched a Hindi movie on the silver screen. Sholay might have been up there but for someone who was baptized in the Kollywood land it was sacrilege to watch a Hindi movie.  

The Heroine was a fresh face who  had a very not-so – filmi-name, 80’s was decade when close to 13 ladies made their debut into Bollywood breaking the hegemony of Rekha, Hemamalini, Zeenat, Shabana, Smita Patil and the likes. This movie was the break this actress was looking for and her dancing skills catapulted her to fame and stayed queen of the industry for close to a decade.

Having been so conditioned to the Sri series (Sreedevi, Sripriya, Srividya, Srilatha et al) of actresses in Kollywood it was a welcome break for me to see a dance performance by this relatively unknown actress who would go on to be part of the history of Indian cinema.

Life and the world moved on since that day in 1988, we went our separate ways; the actress went on to make a name for her while I went on to try and make a living for myself.  That performance stayed however in memory for the gyrations and the graceful moves and above all the music associated with the song. It was the so called catchy performance which in today’s cinematic jargon gets referred to rather crudely as an item number.

The song and the dance unfortunately was replicated by an expat actress recently 30 years down the line in a movie officially as an Item number, watching it made me realize the transformation  the art of music and dance had undergone in the last 3 decades.

The radius of gyration had increased exponentially while the bending angle had moved from acute to obtuse, the epidermal exposure was directly proportional to the elapsed time period and above all the first part of the song was missing…3 decades back.. It began with a conversation that went thus…

Dancer: Namaskar…kahiye kya sunengey aap!!! (good day! What would you like to hear)

Audience: Arrey!!! Pehley yeh kaheye kahaan thi aap? (Oh tell us where you were all these days)

Dancer: Mein…Mein karr rahithi kissi ka intezaar… (Me? I was waiting for someone!)

Audience: Khon hai wo? (Who is that?)

Dancer: Wo jissey mey karthi hun pyaar!!!  (The one that I am in love)

Dancer: Aur jissey karthi hun minnethe baar baar! (And to the one whom I keep requesting)

Audience: Kaisey? (How is that?)

Dancer: Aisey ( Like this!!! Ding…Dong Ding…Ek Do teen…)

Well, the song and dance had a dialogue like prelude that gave the audience an interactive experience that made them remember this number for years to come.  Unfortunately 3 decades down the line the cultural landscape does not allow people the time to enjoy a work of art at length and hence the fast paced version did not resonate with me.

I might sound old school and so not in sync with choice of the Gen Z when it comes to music and dance. But it’s left to each one of you to watch both the version below and take a call.

PS : The direct links are posted below. Its possible you might have to log on to YouTube to watch the Gen Z version.