The Puma Urban Stampede Mumbai 2013

On your feet (14th April 2013)

The Men, The Feet, The Run

          When was the last time you ran? Not from your spouse, I mean!

          Not for the psychopathic madness to catch a seat in the train, nor to get away from the maddening crowd, just ran as in RAN RAN??

          Well some of us do jog regularly, others run marathons. Some even aspire to run the Comrades Marathon (79 kms crossing 5 hills - sounds crazy, isn't it!).

Well, we just ran 20 kms between the 4 of us. Got up at 4 am to be there at the MMRDA grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex at 6 am as the event was to start at 7 am! What a waste of a Sunday morning, most

would say.

Those who danced were thought as insane

by those who could not hear the music!

          The Puma Urban Stampede made its presence felt for the first time in Mumbai. The event has been held 4 times in Bangalore before but Mumbaikars gave them a reason to awe at the high spirit of Mumbai – it got itself the fastest team and the fastest runners in this race! It is a relay race of 20 kms, with 5 kms being run by each of the 4 runners belonging to the same organization. The race was well attended by teams of almost 150 organizations.

          Amidst a lot of hullabaloo and blaring music, the race started as the A runners made a dash with their batons. Our A runner i.e. first runner was Tejas Mehta. Tejas M, who is a marathon runner, completed his 5 kms in 32 minutes and handed the baton to Tejas part II, and Tejas C took off.

          It was blazingly hot and was getting hotter as time progressed. The last 2 kms were without any shade and you felt the heat of the moment as invisible fumes fumed out of your body with the rising temperature. It is only when you participate in such events, can you truly recognize the greatness of other runners and the level of effort and discipline involved. You get a glimpse of the lack of fitness as I did! As Tejas C appeared after 34 minutes, Soumen Das Choudhury (me) took the baton and sprinted off, only to appear after 38 minutes, truly feeling his heart BEAT and almost leap out of his mouth! Anand Sharma was the last runner and he being a seasoned runner, completed his stretch in 27 minutes.

          How I longed to get a foot massage at the massage counter (Yep, there was one too!) but the heat was getting to us and we decided to head back home soon. As we celebrated getting our photographs clicked and having our breakfast, we got our medals of completion. It felt proud to be part of the event and run as a team. The prizes were swept by the Mumbai Police, both the men and women teams and they got gift hampers worth INR 40,000 each. The mens' runners up was won by the American Consulate of Mumbai and each of them were around 50 years old - talk about fitness! An excellently managed event and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Run, run, run,

run when you hear the gun,

if you fall and scrape your knee,

just smile, get up and run

coz it is so much fun,

there just might be a surprise at the next turn!

Run, run, run

Gearing up

Look Mom what I won!!

Hamaari kadi tapasya ka fal

Mayabono Biharini - a bond of seperation - Brilliance of Tagore

Mayabono Biharini Horini

          Another drop of pure brilliance from Gurudevs ocean of thoughts. The song/poem is as lyrically strong as it is musically sweet on the ears. This is one of those poems which appears seemingly simple but when you get deep, deep, it gets deeper and deeper. The song was recently covered in a Bengali movie called 'Bedroom' and has been brilliantly sung by Somlata Acharya Chowdhury

Maya bono biharini horini
Gohono sopono soncharini -
Keno tare dhoribare kori pon?
Okaron?

Thak thak nijo mone dure te.
Ami shudhu banshuriro sure te -
Porosho koribo or prano-mon,
Okaron

Chomokibe phagunero pobone
Poshibe akash bani shrobone.
Chitto akul hobe anukhon,
Okaron

Dur hote ami tare saadhibo
Gopone biroho dore bandhibo
Bandhono bihono sei - je badhon,
Okaron

Literal meaning of the song

The deer roams freely in the illusive, enchanted forest
 It roams within my deepest dreams
 Why do I pledge to imprison it
 without any rhyme or reason

Let it be by itself

I, with the melody of my flute

will serve her my life, my soul

without a reason

She will shine in the spring wind

Nurtured by the sounds of the skies

Her soul will get restless

without a reason

I will offer her my distance

secretly tie her in the bond of separation

I tie which isn't a tie

without a reason

This is my deduction of the song.
          Gurudev , like in some of his other poems, places the simple, shy and effortlessly beautiful deer as an analogy for beautifully vulnerable things. As humans, we thrive for all the beautiful pleasures of the world. The moment we see a beautiful object, we tend to run after it. Only after its possession, do we breathe a sigh of relief, else it lingers in our minds and we envy, strive, vie, cry, fight for it.
        
         It makes us restless. Whether it is a beautiful girl we fell in love with, or that stylish car we always longed for, we cannot find peace till it becomes ours. Even on holidays or when at a scenic location, there are very few moments when we actually relax, sit down and just take in the beauty of the scenery. We get busy in imposing ourselves on the scenery, getting our photos clicked or capturing it in our cameras.
          What is captured stays for further retrieval and reference and for reliving the moments but what remains in that mind, the first glimpse, the awe inspiring moment, the strange feeling, a shallow mild pain in the heart is what makes the moment; the scenery different from million others and is much much more valuable.
          We don't always need to be in the picture. Some things are better left the way they are, especially nature and it is better to be a mere observer and breathe in the freshness by just observing, no need to plunge in.
          Leave the quest for conquering. Let it be! Conquering isn't always achieving, most of the times it is losing, and what remains with you is a soul in bondage. You may impose, get it to do what it wants, but you will never win, because deep down it has never become yours.
          Let nature and what God created be by itself. Don't make the useless effort of trying to capture it or put boundaries to it or beautify it. The simplicity and the beauty might get lost. Just feel and enjoy it though your eyes, your touch. Keep the beauty alive by singing praises for nature, for the Lord who created it, who let us get a glimpse of it; always be in awe and never take it for granted. Give it your mind and soul. Only then will the creation of God be truly yours and you will feel oneness with him, you will feel utopia!
          There are times you will feel restless on seeing this beauty. You may have a lot to say, to express and your soul will become restless without reason. It's trying times like these, when you need to promise yourself "I will not give in, I will offer my separation, I will be at peace with this separation. This reclusive separation itself will be the bond that i tie with the Giver, with the Creator. In this separation will I get nearer to him."

          The song, according to me signifies the importance of nurturing the value of separation and letting things be, because once conquered, the value is lost or diminishes over time as we move to a new conquest. Unconquered, it lingers in our minds for a longer time and the value remains.