“Sizonqoba” – Together We Triumph

Title also happens to be Campaign slogan for Comrades 2019

Growing through 90s, traveling in IR sleeper class was an experience both cherished and abhorred in equal measures. Cherished coz it was more often a prelude to a vacation at grandparent’s place. Abhorred – Well, there were multiple reasons. For me, it was about how the concept of “Reserved Seats” didn’t quite exist. “Reservation is for sleeping at night” was an oft heard phrase. Foothold of space created for a co-traveller got converted to a full-fledged seat in no time. Before train docked at next station, a total of 6+ people are comfortably seated in a place meant for three.

 

Our life seems to follow a similar pattern. We crib about being overworked. However, when further work / duties are pushed on to us (voluntarily or otherwise), latent bandwidth seems to arise out of nowhere.

Blogging about first year post child-birth, I had called out “Importance of Planning to retain sanity”. Year 2 further reinforced this belief for not just me but me and Durgesh both. Juggling between the 4Ps – Professional, Personal, Passion and People, was tad difficult for both of us and like any other normal couple, we had our shares of fights 😊 but in the end it was all about team work and clock-work coordination, and hence the title of this blog…

Professional: At the risk of sounding morbid, it is a great time to be a turnaround specialist in India. Without delving into the enabling factors, let us just say that these skeletons have been hiding inside the cupboard for a bit too long. NPAs have been eating into the very fundamentals of our economy rotting us from within. Bringing the likes of Essel, IL&FS and DHFL in the open will surely have short term ramifications but long term benefits. Having played a key role as the industry expert in drafting the Bankruptcy Law with Government of India, it was only natural for us at A&M to play the lead role in implementation.

With Mumbai being the HQ location for most firms, I have not had to worry about staying away from home barring occasional travel to Shastri Bhavan corridors in Delhi. Having handled individual firms (Jet Airways, Bharti Shipyard, Alok etc.) which were behemoth in themselves, it has been an altogether new ball (read debt) game with IL&FS. Working on firm saddled with Rs 95,000 Crores debt, I now have an altogether new definition of Traffic lights – Red, Amber and Green. Phew!!

Personal: Off-home matters seem fairly settled. However, at home our flight has been turbulent. KVJ seems to be growing every day and takes special pride in taking me for granted. As DK says “He is already half your height and a quarter of your weight. Possibly, he considers you on par with another 8-9 year from his day-care”. Talking about day-care, Karun has helped to draw an entire range of kids his age giving confidence both to the parents and the day-care team. Have to say, we have not been so lucky with the maid. I have said it earlier, will say it again!! Behind the success of every working mother, there is a maid. We have had 6 maids in around 2 years, with long periods of me and DK being the nannies! And before we could relish our peace of mind, it is already time for school bringing with it, the own share of issues – School, School Van, Morning routine, Adjustment with New Kids blah blah!

Reading books have taken a bit of back-seat. However, we have inculcated lot of learnings from previous year in overhauling our diet plan. To state a few, after hogging bread in breakfast for 20+ years, we have put a full stop to it. Trying to avoid eating any sweet after sunset (Except dark chocolate!) Barring one off cheat days, completely removing any instances of outside food during dinner. Increasing intake of few not so tasty – Beetroot, Amla, Ginger, Dark Chocolate etc. in our diet. There is still quite a long way to go but some benefits are apparent. Not only have these helped to maintain our weight, it has also helped us be far more energetic.

Passion:  Success is a destination. Failure is the beginning of a journey.

Way back in 2015, riding on the high of a relatively comfortable finish at 2014 Comrades Down Run, we had stood at the start line of Comrades Up-Run almost certain of another finish and the special back-to-back medal. During the course of 90Km race somewhere in the valley of 1000 Hills, everything else fades into oblivion. Devoid of all material aspects, the race is reduced to a continuous tussle between you and the course. Ten Hours later getting into the bail-out bus (bus runs slowly behind the last runners, mopping up the people who fail at cut-off points and deposits them with a cross on both their BIBs behind the finish arena), it was difficult to describe the myriad of feelings going through my head. After 5 months of efforts and traveling half way across the world, it is difficult to take “DNF” badge lightly. Well, there could be few better examples of “Failure”.

Obviously, there were some glaring omissions (e.g. lack of quality long runs, mileage tapering) in our practice which is expected when one is training on their own in mostly a hit n trial mode. But then, it is also easy to be wise in hindsight. Support from our dear ones was good but truth be told we knew this albatross will stay with us for 4 years till Jun 2019.

Route at Comrades alternates between Down (PMB – Durban) and Up (Durban – PMB) every year so our next chance could have been 2017 which was ruled out around the birth of Karun (Apr’17). Clocking 1200+ kms during my pregnancy combined with a half marathon at Mumbai in Jan’18 did give some bragging rights but did take some toll on my already struggling knees. Post-delivery, it was a fight against time to recuperate from runner’s knee. I strongly believe that comeback from injuries is a lot about one’s own belief. With ample assistance from physios, I was back on track completing half marathons at Airtel Delhi (Nov’17) and Tata Mumbai (Jan’18), full marathon at IDBI Delhi (Feb’18) and rigorous Shimla Ultra (Jun’18). While my timings might not have been interesting, these definitely laid the platform for the future.

Somewhere in Oct-Nov’18, we decided to give it a shot and once we decided, there was no way we would leave any stone unturned to exorcise the albatross. All the necessary corrections were incorporated. Ran a 50K every month from November itself in races across India (Goa – KV, Jaisalmer – DK, Lonavala – DK, Mumbai – Both, Namakkal – DK, Ooty – KV  along with the regular Malabar Hills and Bhakti Park). After we ensured that we got the necessary mileage (~1,200 Kms in 4 months) including the full at Mumbai Marathon in Jan’19, we focused on cross training to get some strength. By the time, we reached Durban line-up in 2019, finishing was a foregone conclusion!

After I felt little confident about Comrades 2019, I resorted to swimming and cycling sessions for cross training and also to be little easy on my knees, given the history. With the endurance in place, I initiated baby-steps towards triathlons and finished my first sprint triathlon at Hyderabad in Nov’18 and Half Iron Man (pool based) at New Delhi in Feb’19. Hopefully, some time in future, I will talk in the same breadth about triathlons. Pray!

People: This is probably the most important areas of all for me, also because it’s not my strongest! Those of you know me, I am not as social as DK, but can still make a conversation if you get stuck with me on flight! 😊

On my part, I am trying to get the sports culture going at A&M India. It was heartening to have group of 25 odd people run 10K (most of them first timers) at India Unity run in Mumbai in Mar’19 and 10 odds at Oxfam Walkathon in May’19. What more, we have another 25 eagerly awaiting for IDBI Marathon in Aug’19 & 20 of us for Oxfam 50K and 100K Team event in Dec’19. Complemented by our weekly soccer and occasional cricket sessions, I think our firm’s health index is on right track.

Closer to home, I am lucky to have a bunch of like-minded folks in our area’s running group – Bhakti 4ce. Each of us celebrate finishes as if we ourselves were running the race run by our compatriots. The group has a long spectrum from 3:00 hour half marathon finishers to sub 3:00 hours full marathon finishers. We also organized possibly the first multi-sports tournament (Badminton, Table Tennis, Running, Soccer, Cricket etc) at our building on this Republic Day. Gleam in the eyes on receiving a winning medal remains the same whether the winner is a 6 year old or a 66 year old.   

Both my parents and in-laws have come to terms with our “running” life-style. Specially after, we organized a full vacation for both of our parents for the South African trip, to look after KVJ on the day of run! Feels good to see them respond to queries of their colleagues as to “why we run?” But sometimes when parents ask us the same question, I like to recount the same answer which they used to give us 25 years back in that railway compartment:

Me: Why passengers are pushing us out and taking our seat?

Parent: In life, if you can get more, seek more!

PS: The above blog in its entirety could have been written by DK and not much would have been out of place.