From John Abraham to Mahendra Dhoni

Many people accuse me of not trying to do much to prevent growing old. They are right! Even now, as I write this word and you read it, I am aging. However, age does not necessarily mean bad things. I mean, look at Bollywood heroes -- the more they age, the more ridiculous they get. If I can become so ignorant as them by the time I am their age as not to know left from right, or a black buck from a tree, I will have to consider myself a lucky man.

I digress. Again.

What I wanted to share with you loverly people (for those of you who think I mistyped, please go and watch the astonishing Jim Carrey in Lemony Snicket's a series of unfortunate events) was the fact that I still got it. Yesterday, on January 15, 2006, I finished the second half marathon of my life. Exactly 365 days back, on January 16th, 2005, I ran the first half marathon of my life, at Mumbai. I finished the 21.1 km run in 2:02:57, which I was quite pleased with. At that time, I used to go much faster during practice sessions, but I blamed what I considered a sub par performance on humidity and temperature (last year the race started at 9:00 AM and temperature went up to 33 C towards the end). I saw no less than four people collapse during the run. I was happy enough to have finished in one go, without stopping and without collapsing.

This year I didn't expect to do much better. I had definitely not practised so much as last year. I had drank a whole lot more beer since then, and I felt like I was not so fit. However, I decided to just start running and finish without stopping. I decided not to worry about the time, and that anything in less than two hours was acceptable. So, I ran a flat race this year, reminding myself not to slow down continuously. I drank a lot of fluids during the run, and enjoyed the scene a whole lot more than last year. I took Gina's advice and carried a cap with me, which came in very handy on the back stretch when we hit Marine drive and the Sun beat down on us mercilessly. I listened to the crowd a lot more, waving to them when they called me John Abraham (I had washed my hair prior to the run and they looked rather nice, I must confess, though a little narcissistically) at the beginning of the race, and when they called me Dhoni (my hair were rough and tangled towards the end of the run, I must confess, a little abashedly) towards the end. I made a conscious effort not to look at people's watches on the back stretch. So, when I was running to the finish line and when I reached close enough that I could see the timing clock, I almost fell to the ground in astonishment when the clock read 1:52:11. My final time -- 1:52:17.

Still got it!

My legs didn't hurt at all after the race. After all, I have been walking on air.

PS. If Mahendra Dhoni happens to read this post, I would like to clarify that I have nothing against his looks, and I think he is quite well built and I am sure he is very attractive, but I would prefer my hair to be compared to John Abraham's.

PPS. If John Abraham happens to read this post, would he be kind enough to leave the name of the conditioner that he uses?