Haiku

Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going --
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.

-Kozan Ichikyo

Against All Odds

An old classic

Heard this old classic after a very long time ....

Invictus

Invictus :

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my SOUL.

- William Ernest Henley


This poem inspired Mandela while at prison. A new movie by the same name ad directed by Client Eastwood is going to be out soon ,here is the trailer ..

Surely A Different Spirit

I was sitting around at home this Saturday and feeling a bit low with the mind and its wandering and pushed myself to walk across to the college campus at IIMB to attend the monthly guest lectures, this time the talk was by Malathi Holla and came back in a very different spirit.


One has to meet Malathi to even know what an indomitable spirit and positive spirit outlook can do to oneself and to people around you . Malathi was paralyzed neck down when she was a year old and after 2yrs of electric shock treatment that helped a little in improving her condition she was admitted into to a residential school for the differently abled in Chennai where she spent 15yrs of her life. She then came back to Bangalore to study further. Her father ran a small udupi hotel in Bangalore and she was one among the four. Being differntly abled in India is in itself one of the biggest challenge for such people , and how many times would someone like me even think of how tough it is for someone to cross the road, get to a bus or travel by train etc. Malathi struggled through all this and not ignoring the fact that she is from an orthodox family that too a woman. However, with her never say die attitude went around conquering all the challenges that life threw at her and overcame them. After 32 surgeries and some even life threatening ones where she was in Coma for 3months she is chugging along with a smile and a passion that I see lacking in normal folks around.

She spoke about her struggle as an athlete where she had to borrow wheel chairs the previous night of the competition (Para Olympics etc) and practiced all night and went on to win a Gold the next day or how she competed with men at her first nationals and beat the men in the 100m race. She has over 300 medals and ParaOlympic Gold in her kitty!!

I was really moved listening to her story and was wondering why we create excuses for not doing things and remembered what she said find the POSSIBLE in the IMPOSSIBLE!!

She now runs an NGO (Mathru Foundation )where she has brought in differently abled children from rural villages nearby and provides them shelter,food and takes care of their education. I also picked up her authorized biography ( A Different Spirit)

Letter Writing

This is so very true, the lost art of letter writing.. I don't remember when I last picked up a pen and wrote a letter to someone and posted it .. I however, still do have some old letters that dad wrote those days when there was no email, yes there was such a time only a little while ago !!

Back to Cycling..

Woke up at 4:45a.m on a perfect Sunday morning and headed(drove down ,didn't have the stamina to cyle it:)) to Tumkur Road , about 30kms from home for participating in my first cylothon race. I hadn't trained at all for this race and hadn't cycled long distances for more than a year but decided to sign up for the long 50kms race in the amauter category.

The weather was just perfect for cycling after heavy showers the previous night and another positive was that the race distance had been reduced to 36kms because of traffic hold up issues.

My aim was not to race but to just complete the distance. In all my previous long distance hauls, some of which were longer, was more at a leisurely pace and didn't really need to think of a completion time but this time around things were a little different ! I kept going at a steady pace and then stopped for a water break at the 18km rounadabout and thats when I felt my right leg cramp as I got back to cycling.Two of us (another colleague from work) had tried to keep similar pace from the race start but with my leg giving up, I didn't want to delay him and asked him to go ahead. The return course was a lot tougher with lot of good inclines and I did see lot of cylists give up and walk !! I tried to keep a constant pace and kept going without thinking of the intermittent cramps and decided to not take any water to risk making matters worse . I did complete the race and over took my cycling partner about 3kms from the race .
Was a good feeling to push oneself a little to complete the race and yeah get a good night's rest later!!