I Met GOD this Sunday Morning : Courtesy my Long Distance Running
A Must read - Bijay Nair


A incident worth Sharing : What Running taught me off the field:

Definition of GOD: GOD is somebody who make difference in your life.

The day was Sunday 16th October 2011 – It was a long training run – run supported till 5hrs . It’s a thrilling thought to meet the happy troopers from Navimumbai Runners Group . Undoubtedly , it was going to be a gr8 organised training run .

After a hiatous of ITB Injury , my Sports Doc from KokilaBen Ambani Dr Heath Mathews ( South African) and a longdistance runner himself , trainer to Mr Ani Ambani , had given me clearance to go for my Long Run . I was happy to be back on track for a long run . Trust me ask any runner , injury makes u feel unwanted . And I was going through this for the past month.

All set , had enough hydration done and carboloaded previous day for the long 30K run which I had planned . But as they say Mr Murphy strikes whenever he feels so :

At 0200 Am , I received a call from my brother that , my Niece of 13months was showing some breathing trouble due to the sudden climatic change and had to be rushed for Nebulising at a near by Child Care Hospital , I had to drive the little one , at 0300 , the act done and she felt comfortable and I dropped them at their place . Was going back to my place a police patrol van stopped me and asked about my wherabouts and wanted to check whether I am drunk being a Saturday Night . All those blowing up in the analyzer and no luck to them ( see runners hardly drink alcohol on the previous day of their long run ) , had it been on Friday they would had their luck .

Hardly anytime for sleep , it was 0400 am ,my otherwise set time on alarm for the beginning of the day . So decided not to sleep . Got ready for the move to Khargar . Running Kit packed with all the change clothes , Gatorade, Water bottle , Protein shake, dates etc. Also, this was the only time I was traveling alone to Khargar else we are 4 or 5 of us . My good friends Anand, Chetan , Varun , King etc were not there to accompany . Whenever we travel , we always have this dreaded thought of tyre getting punctured or vehicle konking off at the wee hours , but it never happened .

The adventure begins : GOD decided to test me , at around 0445 hrs ,on Thane – Belapur Road , somewhere near Rabale , I felt my car was tilting towards right side . My thoughts were gonna come true . Yes , the car got punctured , the stephny , which I was carrying was having some problem too ( You See Stephnies always trouble :)- ) . Now was the real test of the time , it was dark , thanks to the Municipal corporation , the street lights were not working too and over all I had never ever undertook a tyre change exercise my self :(- , ( the thought going on in my mind “Kaash Pehle kiya Hota”) , I was struggling as I had to start my run by 0540 to achieve a target on 30KM ( Aur mein toh Facebook status pe bade shaan se declare bhi kiya tha ) . So many cars, trucks passed by nobody had the courtesy to stop , poor me alone on the road , the so called educated and qualified people , didn’t had the humanity left , but they r the first one to wear “Being Human” Tshirt and proclaim the same :(- ,

I remembered , how many times , I had done the same , yes was happy that I had done few times ( my Runner friends still remember , once to stop vehicles plunging into open manhole on JVLR Powai me and Kavin had literally stood on the road at 0500 on a cold January morning and waved off many vehicles and informed police to help the cause at Powai).

Time now read 0515 on my GARMIN , no help and I was not going to reach by 0540 hrs , my plan of running of 30k was going for a toss . Just then a Black and Yellow taxi stopped and stepped out a driver who was in his late Sixties . He saw me in a stage of desperation and asked me what was driving me crazy . I told him about the puncture , he was amused , as why I had not changed the tyre . Very reluctantly I told him , though an engineer , I had never changed the tyre on my own , I even don’t know where to fix the jack (only solace , I had just learnt driving a few months back ) . All done , he gave me solid piece of mind and I took it . He asked me to get the stephny and I promptly offered him to pay Rs 50 if he did for me as I was getting late . To my surprise he asked me to change myself and told me “Saahab Agar mein aaj laga ke doonga toh aap Zindagi mein Kabhi yeh kaam Nahi kar payenge” . He stood like a mentor , with a small torch in his hand and guiding me on how to jack the vehicle . I was feeling guilty , that a simple act of jacking a vehicle was also not known to me . But my Mentor , guided me , I jacked the car , unbolted the punctured tyre , tough job , then bolted the stephny , unjacked the car and kept the tyre back in the space . I was sweating profusely , the man was watching , I had a great sense of achievement , as if I had won something , the man still watching . It took me one hour , normally it takes not more than 10 to 15 minutes . The man was himself satisfied as if he had trained a undeserving guy.

It was 0615 , my plan gone for a toss . I took a 50 Rs Note and handed over to him , he refused , I thought he needed more and took a 100Rs note and he didn’t take the same. All this time , Mr .Gandhi on the Note was smiling . To my surprise , he told me , he was 68 years old, name Mr Rehman Bhai , 02 Sons are married and are in Saudi , they are educated and don’t sent him money , he leaves at Kurla , struggling to live . I was touched and wanted to give more money , but he patted on my back and went back into his royal black and yellow . I asked for his mobile number , he sais he didn’t keep mobile and said “ Kudha ne chaha toh phire milenge” and left . Spent close to 1 hr with me , I was shocked with awe and was wondering is this possible during this time when Auto and Taxi drivers are minting money happily by all means . The lifestyle of Mumbai and the suburbs have taken a toll on all of us and here was a man , who had done an act which was hard to believe . Did I meet GOD in disguise ? , yes anybody makes a difference in your life is a GOD and that’s the definition of GOD and yes I met GOD .

For my Run , I did reach at 0645 at Khargar , was happy to see people already into their 7th or 8th KM , was vey happy to see my friend Srivatsan manning the aid station , I began my run with a feeling of joy and a new found fervour , did 17 Km in 1hrs 50 Mins and had a great time catching up with Folks Venkatkrishnan, Subramaniam, Swaminathan, Jitu , Kripa , Aishorjoyo , Mumtaz, Sukanta, Dyanesh , Shashi , Dhanraj , Dr Otswal , Dr Pravin , Deepta, saw a glimpse of Roshni , Sejal , Venakt sir , Sushmit , Unmesh and many more friends . Went back , iced my ITB and did a 9k in the evening on tread to complete my quota of 26KM for the day .

This was   a great lesson learnt and yes if anybody wants to change the tyre you can call on my cell :)-