I met GOD on 16th October enroute Navimumbai : A must read . Courtesy 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 :)-
Add a Comment
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Comment by sameer sakpal on October 20, 2011 at 12:24 -
Bijay, God is everywhere, Watching each & every one of us very closely ,so don’t worry, If your Good & helpful to others, nothing can go wrong or bad with you in life.
On 16 th Oct. God decided to take your test & he was testing you for your courage, your patience. In fact, God wanted to teach you about, How To Change the “Punctured Tyre” & how to “Jack The Vehicle”:) (because this simple exercise you might have never tried or you might have overlooked it) & believe me, God himself came there as a mentor in the form of "Rahman Bhai" & You passed in his test very well:).
These small problems teach us a lot ……so Always Be Alert.
Congrats to you on the passing the Test & You are very lucky you have spent 1 Hr with God ( Rahman Bhai) & got training from him.
Excellent Write up. Enjoyed reading it:)
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Comment by zico on October 20, 2011 at 10:46 -
Bijay - I enjoyed reading your write up. GOD comes in various forms of disguise. Savor the memory and the experience and pass on the good Samaritan work to others in your life.
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Comment by Ashok Someshwar on October 20, 2011 at 10:20 -
Thanks for sharing this Bijay. What goes around always comes around. I know you have helped others in difficult circumstances, Rajmachi trek being one of them.
These experiences always make us believe that goodness still exists despite all the mayhem around. May Rahman Bhai's tribe grow! and God bless him.
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Comment by Roshni Rai on October 20, 2011 at 10:18 -
MANAV SEVA, MADAV SEVA, SAAB KI SEVA KARO.
Really touched with ur blog. I do believe in miracles. Thanks for sharing a wonderful experience. Rehman Bhai is a KHUDA.
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Comment by Unnikrishnan Nair on October 20, 2011 at 9:51 -
Thats great.... always god is great.....he will come and rescue us from our problems. If we believes on him.
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Comment by Madhumita Dasgupta on October 20, 2011 at 8:37 -
Bijay,
It is said : There is a circle of love and it gets completed , not necessarily between the same people but it sort of passes through a divine chain. And that is what happened to you. God bless both you and Rehman Bhai and many others like you. And also, Every action has an equal and opposite reaction:)
So welcome Life with a smile...as you always do and I always feel very nice and warm to meet you and your open , friendly smile. It reflects your goodness, Bijay. Take care, dear Friend and wish you happy miles. And yes, even when we are injured, our true friends remember us while the rest dont count. So dont feel unwanted:)
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Comment by khushru patel on October 19, 2011 at 23:51 -
Bijay I too had similar experience in just before I retired one of my last flts as an airline crew 1997 ,I got Of a public transport in Singapore and found my wallet missing, all my money was gone and the most important thing was my crew id without which i would not be able to clear immigration as crew members do not have tickets,we have different procedure, I had to leave the hotel that afternoon,looked around for a cop not a single one in sight found a man in uniform i remember his name he was from the auxiliary force I told him about my plight and told him i had to get to the closest police station He made some inquiries and he said we should go to the tourist police station he hailed a cab took me there we lodged a complaint the police gave me a letter for the immigration. etc he then dropped me near my hotel before leaving I asked him to come up so that I could pay him for the cab he refused i asked him for his tel no:and address he refused and he said if i give you these you"ll feel obligated and try to repay me some how the purpose would be lost,pl. do not try to get in touch what I would like to do is since you are travelling all the time you may come across people who need a helping hand & if you go out and help them then i'll be repaid and the cycle can go on. and I feel in my own humble way I have.I remember his name it was KP Choo .WE shook hands and that was it..
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Comment by satish gujaran on October 19, 2011 at 22:40 -
Every test in our life makes us bitter or better!
Every problem comes to make us or break us!
Choice is ours whether we become victim or victorious!!!.
Even I encountered a incident once it’s little different than yours.
I was coming from Coimbatore. Came out of the airport caught a Auto from the auto
stand. Went all the way to Mulund where I stay, as I entered the house I remembered I forgot my Camcorder in the Airport, immediately left to Airport on
my way back I was hesitating to go all the way to the Airport becoz I
remembered I left my Camcorder along with the case on the top portion of the trolley
while I was getting into the Auto.After making few enquiries around the auto stand, I went to meet the Airport Manager.
He started asking me the details of my Camcorder and he reached for his safe and handed over my Camcorder in which I had very important clipping which I shot in Coimbatore which was more valuable than my Camcorder.I really salute the honesty of that loader who returned my Camcorder.
I rewarded that person to encourage him to do what he has done.
These incidents teach us lots of things and make us feel really very humble in life.
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Comment by Chetan Gusani on October 19, 2011 at 21:39 -
Bijay , the day u SMS me that you had Tyre problem - I was wondering as how did u fix it all and I know u were alone. I thought to tell u that you should write blog about this event ( but I forgot to tell u that u should write ).
And here u have written touching blog and we do have such a nice taxi driver who really help like God.
Kudos to you too !
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Comment by Bijay Nair on October 19, 2011 at 20:59 -
Thanks Jitu , Manish, Ankur .
@Unmesh - i was glad that i cud be of use during last Bandra NCPA run . It was gr8 playing role of 12th man on that day .
GU Energy
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