My Journey so far….Living my dream

It’s hard to put down in a few words what life has shown me so far in terms of experience but I will give it a shot. So here it is, my first hand experience:

My dad was in the Army so I had the opportunity to be born in a small village in W. Bengal, India. Thereafter, we traveled across India, living in different cities every couple of years or so. On one of his transfers, mum and dad fell in love with the city of Bangalore, so eventually when dad took early retirement, we packed our bags and moved here. I have called it home ever since and it is the one place that I have spent majority of my time in and it to be my roots.

Somewhere along the way, I started my first love affair – it was with horses. This affair was passionate, intense and all consuming. It lasted 10 yrs, 4 hrs a day, 6 days a week. Oh! those were good times. I went on to compete and win in the nationals at Showjumping, dressage and the One-day eventing amongst others. Considering the limited career prospects of a professional sportsperson, we unanimously decided that it would make sense  for me to pursue a more regular career choice for my further studies. And so it was.

I packed my bags and went overseas. New Zealand was to be my new home for the next seven years. One would think that I would get further hooked to adventure in this adrenaline junkie’s paradise. Regrettably, this was not to be the case. In a series of choices and bad decisions I made for myself – my lifestyle changed – completely. Slowly, the active lifestyle I had maintained for so long turned into a more of a party animal. Don’t get me wrong, I had a ball of a time and there was a lot of travelling, a few treks even, ski trips, snorkeling and bungee jumps – basically I tried everything that I could. However, there was a heavy cloud of alcohol surrounding all of it. Add to that an average of about 30 cigarettes a day, it was a recipe for disaster!

After this stint, I came back home to good old Bangalore ( which I can now confidently say is the Fitness capital of India) and this was when my journey with fitness began. About 6 months after getting back home, I started working. With my first paycheck, I purchased for myself my Trek 3700. I used this bicycle over the next 3 months to commute to and from work. The lack of showers at my workplace had me rethink this decision. With cycling, my drinking had been cut down to binges over weekends only. It was a start!

The next alternative was to join a gym and get into a routine. So I did. Once I got into a routine, and as my system cleared up slowly, I realised that I really didn’t like the hangovers I had after an evening of drinks – so slowly the drinking reduced to fortnightly and then monthly. I started feeling good and also started noticing changes in my body and energy levels.

Then it happened – a couple of my friends signed me up for a 7k race. I ran it, I won it. Two weeks later, the same friends signed me up for a 10K race. I won that too. And just like that, I started my second love affair – this one is for the rest of my life – running – one step in front of the other – I just keep running – away from nothing, towards something, running is my therapy, running is my release.

As I continued this sport, changes began to happen – it started with distances, I first pushed myself to do a 21K in the first month of running, then I ran my first FM (42.15K) within 6 months. Then I started chasing PB’s. Then, after being a smoker for 12 years, in this pursuit of a better timing, I finally quit. As I looked around, I saw changes – My workmates started cycling to work, they started working out and getting conscious. My brother joined me in my experiences and adventures. As I got stronger , I became more positive. As I became more positive, I started attracting more positive people around me. I didn’t go looking for them they just dropped into my lap. I met and am continuously meeting the best, the most inspiring, the most humble people and people who opened my eyes to so much more.

The more that I followed the sport, the more honest I started becoming to myself. My life became simpler – it became easy. It did not take long for me to decide that I wanted to devote myself to fitness and sport. Give it a voice and give it some recognition – spread the awareness and benefits in my own little way – whatever I can do. So, as a birthday present to myself, I quit the corporate world and started doing all those things that my heart was screaming out for me to do.

Soon I was introduced to triathlons and other fabulous endurance events. Events which have such great energy and which test your spirit each time and leave you with this indescribable feeling. It’s as though you were floating around feeling complete and fully aware of yourself and then you go through this experience and you found a part of yourself that you never knew existed and you realize just how incomplete you were before.

I will be using this blog as a medium to share my stories, my experiences in this journey that I have chosen for myself. So far it has been incredible and I believe that it is only going to get better.

#Bangalore #India