Sport "...He showed me his medal. It appeared like a treasured piece of metal from the Mars! I glimpsed at my little human paunch that was trying to thrust out from my otherwise athletic body. It looked totally out of place in the age of flat screen monitors. No way, I thought! I started running." Marathon,  Hiking Click on the images for larger view.

        I watched Joseph Chebet win Boston Marathon. Before the finish, I had tried to photograph him on Beacon Street. When I got there on my bike I missed him by a whisker; got a picture of his back. I hung my camera to my neck,  turned around my bike and pedalled a few blocks on a parallel street. Went to Beacon again and muscled my way through the crowd to the road.  Well, this time again I saw only his back. He was running at my bike speed! Amazed and intrigued, I asked myself, how long and how many steps it would take to finish a Marathon? After some 'fuzzy math' I figured it would take 42,000 ft to complete one marathon. I later found that the recorded time was about 2hr 10 min. When I imagined myself shifting my feet on the tread mill 42,000 times, it sounded terrible. I had, previously,   trekked several times about 20 miles/day. But running 26 miles in 2 hr 10 min was, I thought, way beyond my abilities, it was testing the limits of human endurance.  A few months later, I saw my colleague Kristi Pance finish NY marathon. He showed me his medal. It appeared like a treasured piece of metal from the Mars! I glimpsed at my little human paunch that was trying to thrust out from my otherwise athletic body. It looked totally out of place in the age of flat screen monitors. No way, I thought! I started running. In three months I was running half marathons regularly (twice a week). I found myself enjoying the runs - they were seductive. When I told Kristi about my runs he looked at me in total disbelief. So one day we ran half marathon together. Rest is history, so is my little paunch. I went back a  hole in my belt (for those of you curious in specs: 30 inches for a body of 5'7", 153 lbs). I am now inching towards NY Marathon, 2001 - for a cause*!

        When I had been to Paris on a week long trip in June this year, I wanted to add some excitement. I told Deb and  Deanna that I would run half marathon at 5.30 a.m. on the last day of my trip! My flight to India was scheduled to depart at 10.00 a.m. Having known me well Deb said simply "whatever you do, don't wake us up in the morning!". Deanna said I was crazy! She was in total disbelief that I would risk my long flight to India. Next day morning I ran through the avenues of the timeless city. (Parisians don't seem to have time sense. They live in  buildings that are as old as 200 years and lunch for cool 2 hr. Even clouds forget to drift away from the city. They hover over your head like a swarm of flies in a rain forest. Anyways, Paris was cute and the people were sweet. Kudos to Parisians for preserving the hundreds of  years old city successfully sans allowing any major modern developments.)  I Started my run at Republique, reached hotel De Ville running along rue de Temple. From there I ran all along Seine river. On my left I saw the Seine flowing ahead, on my right I saw the French Art zipping back. I passed by   musee de Louvre and musee de Orsay. Kissed the steel of Eiffel tower. Touched the facades of Ecole Militaire and ran back. Circled around Arc de Triumph. Left my foot prints on Champs Elysees (the most popular street in Paris). Danced at the Center Concorde and made a beeline to my hotel Mondia. For 1 hr 52 min I had enjoyed 13 miles (=21.5 KM in Paris) of French art moving all around me! Back in my hotel room, I saw both Deb and Deanna still sleeping, sieged by the timelessness of Paris and wrapped in thick layers of lazy clouds.  Talking of being Parisians when in Paris. Amused, Ha! Ha! Ha! I laughed loudly. They woke up!
        I took bath, later my baggage and left for India.

*
        My run in NY Marathon is intended to help preserve wildlife. I am thinking of raising funds through my run, that will be used to preserve wildlife in India. I will soon finalize my plan. Please look for the forthcoming program around July 2001. Also, I would be happy if you come forward to join me in this crusade. I need help from you in disseminating the information, coordinating the event and creating web pages. Any ideas/suggestions are most welcome.

        This was the ad I created for the University of Hyderabad Adventure Club (UHAC) of which I was founder Convener. I founded UHAC aspiring to develop a group that is not only bubbling with spirit of adventure but also is versatile enough to explore the cultural and geographical diversity. It's adventure with a difference. During 1995-1997. we had taken up many activities, from trekking to hiking, to slide shows on geography, life styles and culture of Europeans, wildlife and environment. It was a mini National Geographic in action. For a couple of years, it was a great success thanks to all the enthusiastic members we could do what we envisioned when we founded the Club. But as time went by old members of the group left the campus and it seemed we could not generate enough enthu among the newcomers. When I left the campus in 1997 I tried my level best to persuade the then members to  carry on the activities. But I guess I failed in my attempt, the club is defunct now.
        Treks/hikes are part of me since my college days. Besides UHAC activities I have enjoyed hikes in the Himalayas (Gharwar region), Western Ghats and treks in many forests in India. In the US, recently, I hiked the White Mountains.

The most challenging and exciting part of White Mountain National Forest is the Presidential Range. Its been said, as the picture shows, that it's home of the worst weather in the US. Well, I must say though such a precaution is of course necessary in any adventure sport, it is more of an off-shoot of  typical American paranoia, which is strikingly visible in the fat-free-calcium-enriched-food habits (we only drink carbonated-decafinated-fat-free-Y2K-complaint-mineral-water, and  for lunch the must-have-order is a double cheese burger,  large fries and a diet coke!) and  extreme individualism! ......Well, I climbed three major peaks. Mt. Washington, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Madison. Each hike is really worthy of it. From all these peaks one can enjoy the ethereal view above the clouds, without ahving the wings of the aircraft in between.

8/27/00, Mount Washington

Mt. Washington is the highest peak (6300 ft) in New England. The weather on the mountain was so fickle that the supposedly sunny day turned out to be a cloudy, rainy day. All through the hike we had the clouds go through us, drenching us to the skin.  The visibility was treacherous, we could hardly see more than 4 mts. We took Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail and then turned left on to Crawford Trail 1.4 miles from the peak. The ravine trial lead us into a forest of birch, spruce and fir. After about 1/2 mile we crossed Franklin Brook, it's a stone to stone crossing. In the next mile we passed a tributary brook and hit Gem Pool below a waterfall. Wow! the The mountain water was crystal clear and sweet. .....And oops! we spotted a cute squirrel here. A wild squirrel, for want of its name. It's a baby and had three gray stripes separated by reddish brown coat on its back, unlike the squirrels we see in Boston.

        These trails are glorified to be scenic, but god knows what it means all that we could see around was just fog and rugged terrain under our feet. On the way, in the Alpine region - after the treeline disappeared - we came across a lake (large or small? ....shortsighted we couldn't figure out). The Crawford trail was marked by cairns, it made things easy for us to follow the trail. Funniest thing is you climb the mountain with lot of difficulty pulling yourself up, not to mention your fully loaded backpack, and when you reach the summit you will see all these rotund tourists  who came on the cog railway or in their cars. They would shake hands with you and say " hey! we took a ride, it was tough driving uphill" - on some of the cars you would see decals that say " this car rode Mt Washington". We thought for a moment what a welcome. I am sure they would have thought we were out of our minds for climbing the Mt in such a bad weather when we could ride. Anyways, we left our names in the register - the so called trail art - and headed back. It took us 5 hr. including 1 hr rest at the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) hut to climb and 3 hr. to descend. Wow! what an uphill task we had.

9/3/00, Mt. Adams

        The hike to Mt Adams is supposedly the most difficult of all the hikes in the Presidential range. When we started the weather was cloudy with occasional showers.  We took Airline trail after parking our car at Appalachia on Rt. 2.  This trail meandered through steep ravines and offered us excellent view of Alpine vegetation which was not that obvious on
Mt. Washington. In fact Mt. Adams has deep ravines and long ridges. From the  ridges the view of wide open spaces and all the mountains around was quite refreshing. We finished the 5 mile ascent in 2 hr 45 min! One good thing about Adams is that the ruggedness of the trails guarantees no tourists! So, if you want climb Mt. Adams you got to be a hiker.