Le vieillard assoupit, regardant des images
Dans sa tête, qui planent, volent
Comme des chaux-souris
Dans des caves illuminées de petites bougies
Qui brulent dans l’air torride.
L’air torride, les bougies brulent,
Les chaux-souris brulent
Les images brulent
Le vieillard s’endort, rentre plus profond.
Les meubles qui se cognent,
Les tables en bois, brunes et foncées,
Qui s’avalent,
Rien ne reste, le vide.
La cave approfondit,
Le cœur bat, la peau douce,
Toute nue
Les seins doux.
Le vieillard dort, dans une chaise
Il se réveille, ouvre les yeux tout doucement
Il y a un lac plein de bougies, chaux-souris,
Tables brunes et la peau nue.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
HYDERABAD 10K RUN
Wake up early, heart palpitating. Get ready, give a wakeup call to the auto wallah. Check on your co-runner and others who will come with you to the race. Heart palpitating. Water bottle, check, bib number, check, change of clothes, check, mobile check, watch check, timing chip, check. Ready for the famous Hyderabad 10km run around Hussain Sagar at 7:20 am on Sunday 28th Nov.
I arrive to the run scene. It is one big mela, one corporate mela. All the event sponsors have their banners along the route, there is tight police security, from 5 am to 11:30 am no vehicles are allowed around the elite Hussain Sagar, Necklace Road and Tank Bund road area. In my goody bag are gift vouchers from all the sponsors. All they want is to advertise their brand, get you introduced to their product so you will buy it again in the future. I have CCD coupons, I have gift vouchers from SBH, from Lotto the list goes on.
The corporate mela has 20,000 runners in all, of which 13,000 are corporate runners. It is a corporate run.
What am I doing here? Is this what I waited for for a year? What am I running for?
I attach the timing chip to my shoe. This will record my timing as I run. I warm up. There are 2500 people in my Amateur 10k Run category. I barely spot 10 women.
We all assemble near the start line. Men jostle around, some touch me from behind- “Allez, il ne faut pas toucher” I scream irritated, taking solace in the fact that I’m using a foreign language. But thankfully they get my point without making a fuss.
The race starts. I start slow. People overtake me, in large numbers. Most of them are seasoned runners, with fancy gadgets, listening to music.
We run along the lake, early in the morning. This is the first time this year that I’m running in the morning. I signed up for the run 10 days back. My training went from running 2kms to 10kms in 7 days. Crash course 10k training in Osmania ground. I last ran the 10k in February 2009 in Auroville. I had clocked around 70 minutes.
There a thin haze on the lake, the wide roads are clean. Policemen, marshalls, medical help, water and entertainment are there all along the 10km stretch. The water stations on the way give away bottles of water and orange flavoured Glucon D. I take a bottle of water and take a sip while running. Then throw it on the side of the road. I am not the only one. As I run, I see hundreds of plastic bottles, half empty, lying on the road side. A sheer waste of water, a sheer waste of plastic. Is this what the run is about? To waste bottled drinking water and plastic? That is where my comparison with the Auroville Marathon starts. They offered me glasses of water on the way. If anyone wanted a drink they would stop, have a sip and return the glass. No wastage of water, no wastage of plastic. That is how it is done.
And encouragement to runners is mandatory, it is more necessary sometimes than water. The Hyderabad 10k doesn’t get that. Barely two people along the way encourage me, they are my saviours. At other times, I repeat to myself, come on, you can go on, come on. I should hear that on the way. There are scores of people patrolling the 10km stretch, I am thirsty for a word of encouragement which I got in abundance when I ran the Auroville Marathon, from people cheering me on the way, known, unknown faces, so happy that I was running. Here, no one is happy that you are running- you are a cow from where to milk Rs 500/- for the run. All that they do is their duty, to see to the security, manage the traffic, the people. Little children on the way shout – “Taklu jeet gaya, usko 12 lakhs mile”. They are referring to Ethiopia’s Million Feyisa who won the 10km Elite Men’s race and got the prize money. Others stare at us, sweating it out in the early morning sun.
Some runners on the way wave the India flag, the video cameras focus on them. There are Sakshi TV and other channels’ vans on the way. Photographers, videographers- we are being covered as we run, and the video is shown in the big mela ground at People’s Plaza next to Eat Street.
I don’t look at my watch even once during the run. I don’t know how time flies. I spend my time looking at the scenery, the lake, the roads, the other male runners. Luckily there are enough men in my category, I alternate between the scenery and the running men. Everything is pleasing to my eyes.
Before I know I’m nearing the finish line. I sprint the last few meters. They scream my bib number as I cross the finish line. A woman wants to take down my name. “What is my timing? What is my timing” I scream, repeating myself hoarse. No one tells my timing. I find it online 4 days later: it is 72 minutes. Not bad considering the crash course training, not bad considering the months of illness prior to that, not bad considering my lower than usual fitness level.
There is no water or any rescue after the run. I sit by the road side. I hear all runners complain about the same thing- no timing, no water. After a while I find a bottle of glucose, and gulp it down.
After some rest, I meet up with my friends and we decide to hang out at Eat Street. They are making good business today. We relax by the lake, having a second round of breakfast. The run is still going on- the 8kms Fun Run and Corporate Run. That is when I find the run truly problematic. People are shouting: “Bharat Mata ki Jai, Vande Mataram, Kashmir Hamaara Hai”. Kashmir Hamaara Hai? Where does that come from? This is getting to be ideologically problematic. If you need to run for a cause, run for Telangana, run for Azaad Kashmir, run for freedom, run for right of secession, run for a clean lake, run for minimising use of plastics. What is this run for? Kashmir Hamaara Hai? At this moment, Geelani, Roy, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Varavaro Rao among others are being booked for sedition and FIRs filed against them. And here the runners shout Kashmir Hamaara Hai. 20,000 people here seem to be buying that cry, while there there are a few individuals standing up for the rights of thousands of Kashmiris against State oppression and who are being filed for sedition. The situation strikes me as problematic. Is it only I who sees the problem?
As I think over the run, I realise, the pomp, the show, the money, it is all just an eyewash. Yes, it was necessary to charge me Rs 500/- for the T-Shirt and goody bag, for the security, for organising this massive event, for co-ordinating with the police to close the roads for me.. But what about the wastage of bottles? What about clean toilets? What about the Bharat Mata and Kashmir slogans? Where do they fit into a run? Was this run for fitness? No. Then what was it for? I don’t know.
But yet I will say that I liked the Hyderabad 10k run. The roads were cleared for me, I had 100% security, it was a dream route, the organisation was systematic. I got a chance to see how fit I am; I got a chance to run unhampered along Hussain Sagar in the morning. Yes, I enjoyed the run; I enjoyed the feeling of nearing the finish, of not running alone for a change, of proving to myself I still had it in me to pound the gravel for a good 72 minutes and 10kms.
But I loved the Auroville Marathon, I loved the leafy run through the forest, the peacocks on the way, the drummers’ sexy song, the encouragement, the cheering, the known faces, the bonhomie, the lemon juice and bananas post run, the warm breakfast, the basket ball match after a short rest, the clean toilets. Auroville Marathon was home run, it was dream run, it was politically correct. Hyderabad 10k run was reality run, reality check. It was ideologically problematic- politically, environmentally problematic. I loved the dream Auroville Marathon, Hyderabad 10km rudely woke me up. So this was the underlying ideology of these so-called runs for fitness, famous city marathons? Was it the same elsewhere? I don’t know. I’ll have to run them to say any further. Till then, maybe I should start training again.
I arrive to the run scene. It is one big mela, one corporate mela. All the event sponsors have their banners along the route, there is tight police security, from 5 am to 11:30 am no vehicles are allowed around the elite Hussain Sagar, Necklace Road and Tank Bund road area. In my goody bag are gift vouchers from all the sponsors. All they want is to advertise their brand, get you introduced to their product so you will buy it again in the future. I have CCD coupons, I have gift vouchers from SBH, from Lotto the list goes on.
The corporate mela has 20,000 runners in all, of which 13,000 are corporate runners. It is a corporate run.
What am I doing here? Is this what I waited for for a year? What am I running for?
I attach the timing chip to my shoe. This will record my timing as I run. I warm up. There are 2500 people in my Amateur 10k Run category. I barely spot 10 women.
We all assemble near the start line. Men jostle around, some touch me from behind- “Allez, il ne faut pas toucher” I scream irritated, taking solace in the fact that I’m using a foreign language. But thankfully they get my point without making a fuss.
The race starts. I start slow. People overtake me, in large numbers. Most of them are seasoned runners, with fancy gadgets, listening to music.
We run along the lake, early in the morning. This is the first time this year that I’m running in the morning. I signed up for the run 10 days back. My training went from running 2kms to 10kms in 7 days. Crash course 10k training in Osmania ground. I last ran the 10k in February 2009 in Auroville. I had clocked around 70 minutes.
There a thin haze on the lake, the wide roads are clean. Policemen, marshalls, medical help, water and entertainment are there all along the 10km stretch. The water stations on the way give away bottles of water and orange flavoured Glucon D. I take a bottle of water and take a sip while running. Then throw it on the side of the road. I am not the only one. As I run, I see hundreds of plastic bottles, half empty, lying on the road side. A sheer waste of water, a sheer waste of plastic. Is this what the run is about? To waste bottled drinking water and plastic? That is where my comparison with the Auroville Marathon starts. They offered me glasses of water on the way. If anyone wanted a drink they would stop, have a sip and return the glass. No wastage of water, no wastage of plastic. That is how it is done.
And encouragement to runners is mandatory, it is more necessary sometimes than water. The Hyderabad 10k doesn’t get that. Barely two people along the way encourage me, they are my saviours. At other times, I repeat to myself, come on, you can go on, come on. I should hear that on the way. There are scores of people patrolling the 10km stretch, I am thirsty for a word of encouragement which I got in abundance when I ran the Auroville Marathon, from people cheering me on the way, known, unknown faces, so happy that I was running. Here, no one is happy that you are running- you are a cow from where to milk Rs 500/- for the run. All that they do is their duty, to see to the security, manage the traffic, the people. Little children on the way shout – “Taklu jeet gaya, usko 12 lakhs mile”. They are referring to Ethiopia’s Million Feyisa who won the 10km Elite Men’s race and got the prize money. Others stare at us, sweating it out in the early morning sun.
Some runners on the way wave the India flag, the video cameras focus on them. There are Sakshi TV and other channels’ vans on the way. Photographers, videographers- we are being covered as we run, and the video is shown in the big mela ground at People’s Plaza next to Eat Street.
I don’t look at my watch even once during the run. I don’t know how time flies. I spend my time looking at the scenery, the lake, the roads, the other male runners. Luckily there are enough men in my category, I alternate between the scenery and the running men. Everything is pleasing to my eyes.
Before I know I’m nearing the finish line. I sprint the last few meters. They scream my bib number as I cross the finish line. A woman wants to take down my name. “What is my timing? What is my timing” I scream, repeating myself hoarse. No one tells my timing. I find it online 4 days later: it is 72 minutes. Not bad considering the crash course training, not bad considering the months of illness prior to that, not bad considering my lower than usual fitness level.
There is no water or any rescue after the run. I sit by the road side. I hear all runners complain about the same thing- no timing, no water. After a while I find a bottle of glucose, and gulp it down.
After some rest, I meet up with my friends and we decide to hang out at Eat Street. They are making good business today. We relax by the lake, having a second round of breakfast. The run is still going on- the 8kms Fun Run and Corporate Run. That is when I find the run truly problematic. People are shouting: “Bharat Mata ki Jai, Vande Mataram, Kashmir Hamaara Hai”. Kashmir Hamaara Hai? Where does that come from? This is getting to be ideologically problematic. If you need to run for a cause, run for Telangana, run for Azaad Kashmir, run for freedom, run for right of secession, run for a clean lake, run for minimising use of plastics. What is this run for? Kashmir Hamaara Hai? At this moment, Geelani, Roy, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Varavaro Rao among others are being booked for sedition and FIRs filed against them. And here the runners shout Kashmir Hamaara Hai. 20,000 people here seem to be buying that cry, while there there are a few individuals standing up for the rights of thousands of Kashmiris against State oppression and who are being filed for sedition. The situation strikes me as problematic. Is it only I who sees the problem?
As I think over the run, I realise, the pomp, the show, the money, it is all just an eyewash. Yes, it was necessary to charge me Rs 500/- for the T-Shirt and goody bag, for the security, for organising this massive event, for co-ordinating with the police to close the roads for me.. But what about the wastage of bottles? What about clean toilets? What about the Bharat Mata and Kashmir slogans? Where do they fit into a run? Was this run for fitness? No. Then what was it for? I don’t know.
But yet I will say that I liked the Hyderabad 10k run. The roads were cleared for me, I had 100% security, it was a dream route, the organisation was systematic. I got a chance to see how fit I am; I got a chance to run unhampered along Hussain Sagar in the morning. Yes, I enjoyed the run; I enjoyed the feeling of nearing the finish, of not running alone for a change, of proving to myself I still had it in me to pound the gravel for a good 72 minutes and 10kms.
But I loved the Auroville Marathon, I loved the leafy run through the forest, the peacocks on the way, the drummers’ sexy song, the encouragement, the cheering, the known faces, the bonhomie, the lemon juice and bananas post run, the warm breakfast, the basket ball match after a short rest, the clean toilets. Auroville Marathon was home run, it was dream run, it was politically correct. Hyderabad 10k run was reality run, reality check. It was ideologically problematic- politically, environmentally problematic. I loved the dream Auroville Marathon, Hyderabad 10km rudely woke me up. So this was the underlying ideology of these so-called runs for fitness, famous city marathons? Was it the same elsewhere? I don’t know. I’ll have to run them to say any further. Till then, maybe I should start training again.
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