Sal-aam Mumbai - The Prelude !

'Love thy sleep more than thyself' -- a simple motto in life which I surely love and dearly follow. For a person like me, who is fast asleep even in an awkward standing posture in a crowded suburban local train, there needs no invitation to traverse to the other world just by closing the eyes. But, it certainly takes tons of energy to get me out of it. So now imagine my plight when required to 'arise and awake' at 4:20 in the morning !!! Well, the time mentioned is very dear to me (no - dont read it without the colons !) - it's my birth time :-) Anyways, maybe that was the reason or something else, we (Shirya too !!!) DID manage to be in time at Borivli station. (of course it's relative... we were 10 min late than the decided time , but 10 min before Varun !)

The ticket counter was buzzing with uprecedented activity. Looked like everyone wanted to leave very early that day -- that too on a chilly Sunday ! We were wondering where all the junta was headed for .. and vice versa. Well, we couldnt get our query solved, but for the benefit of all those puzzled souls, lemme put forth our perspective - we were raring to go for the Mumbai Marathon.

We also had one more friend - Shreya - with us. Varun was the only 'experienced' one amongst us novices. All of us were 'running' the half-marathon. So we did plan our strategy, in the train journey, to triumph. Shirya was already implementing the strategy of being relaxed and at ease ... long before was he into his own world of dreams. No wonder i heard that these days he's in love with meditation. The healthy discussions in the journey (healthy coz we had our share of Parle-G biscuits ! ) apparently made it quicker, but alas the clock didnt share the same feelings. We were supposed to reach Azad maidan before 6:15 - we reached C'gate at 6:25 ! So this gave us an opportunity to start running much before others - we had no option but to run to the ground. We were surely getting in the groove !!! Sanket was to meet us at the ground. So operation Search Sanky had begun the moment we reached the ground. Finally we did succeed -- no we didnt find Sanket, but found out that the race had begun 10 min ago --- net result the mission was completed, albeit aborted.

We were so excited to run now. All of us came towards the entry point with eager eyes and longing legs. This was the moment I had visualised so many times in the past week, finally it was to be real and kicking. But there was a slight problem --- we werent allowed to run !!! Yaa, as per the rules, the late comers couldnt be a part of race. I always loved figures of speech in school, but never understood why would anyone use them in real life. Now, here I was, revising my concepts of 'anticlimax' !!! Huhh -- the good part (if there was any) was, we werent alone. And maybe it was this pressure (pleading) by all of us, which finally let us in the racing field. We were fifteen min late already, but who cared. The moments which lay ahead were far more precious than the minutes wasted. The feet were running now and so was Mumbai !!!