Things can go wrong, anytime, anywhere and in any context. We use different adjectives to identify such situations. Mainly these adjectives reflect the magnitude of the impact the situation has on us. We refer them as a mess, a blunder, screw-up and in worst cases a catastrophe. Obviously, prevention is always good. But most of the times we cannot foresee it and we are caught off-guarded.
When reaction is the only option left, how best we react to adversities is directly related to our maturity and our wisdom. Our wisdom, maturity of thoughts and past experiences, take us one level above the adverse situation, helps us establishing correlations and take appropriate actions. It brings us to familiar path and exerts confidence with in us. Mostly our action bring us fruit and if we fail, they add on to our list of experiences.
What gives that wisdom? What brings in that maturity of thought? What shall we do to gain experiences in life?
Well the answer is simple to say but difficult to execute. Close the TV, get out of house and do that what you have never done in past. You read it right, all we need to do is to come out of our self-defined cacoon and do something different from our routine lives and gain more experience in life.
The more risks we take, the more we travel through the unbeaten path, the more we accost different situations in life, more we get used to of the unknown and gain confidence to take up unforeseen.
A soldier is subjected to bombs and firing so many times during the training when he goes to the battlefield he doesn't panic. We need not subject ourselves to bombs and gunfire to accumulate that wisdom. All we need is to make everyday a different day than yesterday.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
My Father
Today I am missing my father for some reasons. I miss him very often and always wish I was with him at this moment. I wish if I could revert the time and take myself to my childhood and be pampered by him again. To walk with him holding his coerce hand, in the roads of Mukteshwar on a Sunday morning, collecting forest grass to decorate in drawing room vase. To watch him see playing tennis with his colleague and listen his thunderous laughter upon hitting the ball hard past Bhaskar uncle.
Wish I could reverse the time again!!!
Well! The need of earning my bread and butter will not allow me to realize my wishes. I am going to be here in Dubai, thinking about him, his smile, his innocence, his dark strong body etc etc…
When I think of him, first thing that I reckon is his smile. Never ever pretentious to hide his happiness he was flamboyant to show his happiness with his wide smile and thunderous laughter.
He never raised his hand on any one of us. Just a thought of disregarding his high self-respect, his innocence, honesty and the popularity of these characteristics kept us away from doing anything that goes beyond our family values.
My love marriage was a big shock to all. How can the son of Dr RC Joshi fall in love and go ahead with love marriage? What a disgrace!!! How can he do that? Well, I knew from the bottom of my heart this is temporary. In the long run they will be proud of Rashi and my choice. Now I can see the satisfaction in his eyes. He is so fond of talking to Rashi and loves pampering her.
He was a good sports man. In the small sleepy town of Mukteshwar, where anyone could fall prey of slow lifestyle, he maintained his routine of playing tennis, long walks in the forest roads, gardening and cutting fire wood on his own during winters. He did all his chores by himself when lot of his colleagues sought help from junior staff in the office. He did it all by himself, not for one, two or three years but for 33 long years consistently. His shoulders were rock solid like stone. I used to love feeling his arms, shoulders and back. He would eat 5 chapatis at a time. 5 chapatis? The thick and big one made by my mom and ghee flowing down from all sides. Well, I cannot even think of eating 3 and Rashi will never give me ghee with my food.
He had plenty of time to do his own chores. He would only watch the news at 8:30 on Doordarshan, when my mother would leave TV to cook food and that is all. Other then that, he would have never watch TV. We would call him to watch the movie only when the comedy actors would appear for 5-6 minutes. He would come running, laugh profusely watching them and leave us to watch serious or romantic part of the movie.
He has been a quite person all throughout his life. He has always done simple things in life, that gave him immense pleasure, without becoming a hurdle for anyone, neither with in the family, nor outside. Even at the age of 76 years he is what he has been 30 years ago.
I am proud of you Babu. I miss you very much.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Did you research about your shoe enough?
In April, 2009, I had just returned from my vacation in India. Little bulkier, I started running in Mamzar for my usual 11 km loop. It was my second or third run. I had not crossed even 3 kilometers, all of a sudden I felt sharp pain on my left foot.
Since then, I couldn't run or train till quite recently. I tried running several times in between, when the pain had subsided a little. But, it was temporary. The pain would resurface every time I would stress my foot. For a regular runner such a long gap is unacceptable.
As it is common with most runners, I refrain from going to doctor. At the sametime not many people trust doctors in Dubai. Specially, from my past experience I have seen a general orthopedic surgeon doesn’t understand the reason for sports injury and sports medicine practitioners are not covered by my health insurance policy.
I kept treating my foot with ice, ointments and rest. In the meantime, in my mind I was consistently analyzing my injury. Why this injury occurred at the first place? I looked at running websites for the clue. I checked on forums where people had complained about similar injuries. I found in most of the cases rest was recommended as most common remedy.
Once, while looking at http://www.runnersworld.com/, I ventured into shoe and gear section. Curiously, I entered the make of my shoe - Saucony Jazz, in the space given. The result was astonishing. I was using wrong shoe. This model is recommended for light weight runners with neutral foot. On the contrary, I am a heavy and overpronated (flat foot) runner.
This was shocking. I felt so stupid. How many times do we buy our sports shoes after researching enough about the technology and our foot type? Not many. We simply go to a sports shoe shop, may be flex the shoe a little, ask few question to the sales person who may not be trained about the foot mechanics and purchase a pair of shoe.
I further investigated and found I should wear shoes that provide stability and motion-control to overpronated runners. From there, I printed long list of shoes with stability and motion control features. I chose to stick to Saucony and Mizuno because of their cost effectiveness. Out of more than 18 shoes, the local dealer had only one model- Mizuno Wave Nexus 3. Fortunately, it had very good reviews on the website as well.
Now I have started running back again. After resting enough and with my new shoes on, I do not feel any pain. I am now good to run.
Yes, now I am looking forward to run my 4th run marathon this year. I am sure I will do better than last year, with my new shoes on.
Since then, I couldn't run or train till quite recently. I tried running several times in between, when the pain had subsided a little. But, it was temporary. The pain would resurface every time I would stress my foot. For a regular runner such a long gap is unacceptable.
As it is common with most runners, I refrain from going to doctor. At the sametime not many people trust doctors in Dubai. Specially, from my past experience I have seen a general orthopedic surgeon doesn’t understand the reason for sports injury and sports medicine practitioners are not covered by my health insurance policy.
I kept treating my foot with ice, ointments and rest. In the meantime, in my mind I was consistently analyzing my injury. Why this injury occurred at the first place? I looked at running websites for the clue. I checked on forums where people had complained about similar injuries. I found in most of the cases rest was recommended as most common remedy.
Once, while looking at http://www.runnersworld.com/, I ventured into shoe and gear section. Curiously, I entered the make of my shoe - Saucony Jazz, in the space given. The result was astonishing. I was using wrong shoe. This model is recommended for light weight runners with neutral foot. On the contrary, I am a heavy and overpronated (flat foot) runner.
This was shocking. I felt so stupid. How many times do we buy our sports shoes after researching enough about the technology and our foot type? Not many. We simply go to a sports shoe shop, may be flex the shoe a little, ask few question to the sales person who may not be trained about the foot mechanics and purchase a pair of shoe.
I further investigated and found I should wear shoes that provide stability and motion-control to overpronated runners. From there, I printed long list of shoes with stability and motion control features. I chose to stick to Saucony and Mizuno because of their cost effectiveness. Out of more than 18 shoes, the local dealer had only one model- Mizuno Wave Nexus 3. Fortunately, it had very good reviews on the website as well.
Now I have started running back again. After resting enough and with my new shoes on, I do not feel any pain. I am now good to run.
Yes, now I am looking forward to run my 4th run marathon this year. I am sure I will do better than last year, with my new shoes on.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Being healthy - Important or Urgent?
Face of the doctor was grim as James fought for his life. He was pale. Doctors were trying to resurrect him. They were trying frantically. 100 kg of weight, high blood pressure, diabetes, hyper thyroid and what not. Everything was making it difficult for doctors to revive him. His terrified wife was looking through the window of the ICU, as his two small kids clenched her hand in anticipation of what will happen next.
James was not like this before. He was not obese or suffered with so many health complications. He was once a very good sports person. He played several out door games during his school and college days. But, gradually the busyness of life took over him. He managed projects worth millions, earned good money, travelled across the globe. But he had no time for himself. No time to exercise or hit the gym. No time for post dinner walks with his wife. After all, he had to earn big money. Buy a big car. Own a big House. Can you imagine, a person managing projects worth millions unable to manage his own life? What a paradox???
Who is James? He is not a stranger. He is one of us. Like you and me. And, this is our story. This is the story of many of our relatives and friends. If this is not a reality today, god forbid, it can be in future. Our health always takes back seat till something catastrophic happens. Catastrophic like diabetes, hyper tension and in worst cases heart attack. Some survive, some don’t.
We all know it. But still, our health doesn’t figure out in our schedules. We might be making elaborate plans for daily lunch and dinner, weekend movies or partying with friends. But plans for healthy living? Never! We make resolutions every new-year and ruthlessly break them. Diet plans drown in the watering mouth the moment we pass through the pizza, pasta or chicken curry restaurant. We actually end up practicing the art of die eating. Our pledge to hit the treadmill 4 days a week dies an unceremonious death as more important and urgent things take over. How often do you say - Where do I have time to go to gym when I reach home only at 9:00 PM from work? We always have so many pressing issues. Or excuses?
You cannot escape. Merely closing your eyes and thinking everything is fine will not make you healthy. You have to act and act, now! Before, it gets too late. You knowingly cannot make the same mistake that James made.
My running at 5:00 AM in the morning doesn’t make me a world class marathon runner. But it keeps me healthy. Gives me immense confidence. Refreshes me to take the bashing of a stressful day. It helps me ignite my thoughts, which are usually overshadowed in the busyness of life. In nutshell, it brings out the best in me.
But, the time still remains the problem. Time is biggest culprit in our lives. We are always short of time. We have so many things to do but cannot because of time. But, remember friends, 24 hours in a day will never become 26 hours to help you accommodate these very very critical things in life. So whatever you have to do has to be done in these 24 hours. No matter how busy you think you are, it is you who has to find time for your own things. No one else can do those things for you. Imagine, your wife running in the treadmill on your behalf and you pelting and sweating in the couch watching TV. Pleasant, but impossible.
I advise you make a list of things that are important to you. Important to you as an individual, as a spouse or a parent. List them down. Every time you do anything, ask yourself; is this thing important for me? Go back to the list of important things you have made. For example, on a Friday morning you are surfing TV channels. Ask yourself, is some thing more important waiting for me? As a father, may be a walk with your child to the beach more important for you than watching TV. Or pursuing your hobbies during weekends rather than window shopping in the malls.
Don’t confuse between urgent and important things. Urgent things always take priority and important things are ignored till they become urgent. All I am saying is take care of important things. Identify them and finish them at the earliest. Never ignore them or procrastinate them. You will soon see that you have deleted so many urgent things from your life. You will see you have so much time for important things. Specially something as important as your health. Try it. It has never failed.
At 76, my father is a very busy person with his exercise schedule and gardening every day. He does all his personal chores by himself. His diet is much better than mine. He didn’t get all of it in one day. He played tennis and football even at the age of 55 years. Despite his busy schedule as a scientist, he was always consistent with his workouts. Everything is paying off now.
Every second day we read, listen or watch programmes on healthy living. And as soon as our attention shifts, we simply press Shift and Delete keys in our mind and dhoooop its gone, deleted permanently from the memory. But today before you press these mental buttons - Think of James. Think how lovely is the life without ailments. Think just changing priority can change your life.
Friends, buying insurance policy doesn’t assure you a healthy and fun filled life. You don’t need a shock treatment like James, you need a wishful thinking to judge - what is important for you? You might be managing projects and businesses worth millions. But, it has no value when you are unable to enjoy it?
Wake up friends!!! Wake up and take charge of the moment. Else, this will not be the story of James here. It would be yours.
Friday, February 6, 2009
10 points to keep your project on track
Most of the time when a project is nearing its rollout, if not everyone, atleast the Project Manager can be seen running around like a headless chicken. Nervous and distraught a project manager has so many things to look after. If one thing in 500-1000 tasks is missed out, everyone has one and only person to nail down – the project manager.
Usually when we begin any project we are very optimistic of completing the project with in the tenets of project management namely – cost, schedule and quality. But, as we move on, we start to digress. In the beginning, we miss few reports, few requirements or few weekly meetings and one fine day we realize we have already lost a big chunk of cost and schedule. Usually it is too late to realize and salvage the project. In this last effort, we finally jeopardize the last tenet of project management as well– the quality.
A successful project is an outcome of multiple factors and no one factor can be looked in isolation. Therefore, it is important for a project manager to strike a balance between these various factors. In this project, we identified and experienced various facets of project management and we hope these experiences compiled in this report will benefit us all, in rendering professionally managed successful projects.
With my experience of managing the projects, I would recommend IT Project Managers to consider following 10 basic points while managing a project.
1. Scope definition
You must know what you have to do and what not. My experience is, unless the scope is not well defined and agreed upon by all the parties the project never finishes on time. Customer expectations keep on changing and you keep on updating your requirement documents and project plans. Your development team keeps on modifying their code for existing functionalities and new development becomes slow. At the end, the product is not what was expected by any of the parties. Everyone is aggrieved.
2. Weekly meetings
Periodic Meeting– No matter how smooth the project is going, periodic meeting must happen to ensure that all issues are discussed, all action items are assigned to task owners. If the gap between two meetings is long and the meetings are not periodic, the momentum is lost. The project begins to move away as other things start taking priority, which eventually affects the project.
Agenda based meeting – A meeting with predefined agenda gives all attendees a clear vision of what they can expect from the meeting without digressing during the course of it. Agenda also helps in drawing the minutes of meetings, making action plans and identifying task ownership.
3. Project plan
A project plan must have detailed Work Breakdown Structure and tasks defined to the most basic levels. The clear project plan helps in foreseeing what is going to come for various task owners. The project plan should be up to date at all the times and accessible to all the stakeholders and task owners.
There is never a perfect project plan. Project plan evolves over a period of time and to achieve it you might have to go through a series of meeting with end users and the stakeholders.
4. Documentation
Usually in a project, technical part is given more importance and documentation of any kind is neglected.
For any project, documentation has to be excellent and very clear for all the stakeholders and task owners to know what they should do, when and how. At the time of development, testing, implementation or support for any kind of ambiguities, issues and questions these documents are referred. An appropriate set of documents help in resolving issues amicably. There are no game of pointing fingers and missing requirements from the system.
As such, there is no perfect list of documents. However, Project Manager should ensure all the critical information is documented.
5. Reporting
Strict reporting regimen must be followed during the span of project. All the stakeholders must distributed detailed report on achievements, contributions of team members and the plan for the next period.
If everything is clearly and proactively reported, there are no assumptions and confusions. This is very important for the steering committee and stakeholders, who do not monitor everyday action. A simplified consolidated report gives them confidence about the project progress.
6. Resources
A good project manager entrusts specific task in the project to specific specialist resources to accomplish tasks effectively. At the same time, he cautiously avoids overlapping tasks for resources. For example - A project manager doesn’t do the job of a business analyst or a developer doesn’t substitute for business analyst.
The project manager manages the project and a separate business analyst collects, analyzes and documents the requirements. So is the case with other resources. This helps in a big way as every specialist focused on his/her area of expertise is assigned appropriate tasks and contribute in the best.
7. Risk assessment & mitigation
It is important that project related risks are proactively identified, documented and mitigated. A project manager must complete the risk assessment in the beginning of the project itself and if required assign risk ownership appropriately so that at the time of contingency risk owner takes steps to mitigate the risks.
However, risk evaluation and mitigation is a continuous process. Not all the risks cannot be identified in the beginning of the project. Therefore, project manager must revisit risk sheet periodically and update it.
8. Team work
You need people to realize your dreams, to turn them into reality. You cannot work on your own in isolation, no matter how strong or intelligent you are. A cohesive team with right blend of resources can ensure success of the project.
9. Attitude
You might have experts in your team but if they lack right attitude, you have a serious problem. I would choose to work with a team with moderate skill sets but excellent attitude rather than a stubborn and arrogant expert with laidback attitude.
In my projects, I have observed if all the project members are persistent and proactive in approach the project can never fail. The laid-back attitude of even one member can kill the team spirit and over all project.
As a project manager you might not perfect blend of resources or I will say you will not be always lucky as I have been. You have to have right soft skills to pursue and extract the best out of every team member.
10.Authority and Accountability
The project manager without appropriate authority is like a toothless tiger. The project manager must be given free hand to run the project under right balance of supervision. The steering committee, must also directly or indirectly make it clear to the team members that the instructions of person of authority must be abided. If there is no single power center, there will be several power centers and conflict of interests, which will hamper the project goals.
Accountability goes hand in hand with authority. When the project manager has full authority to run the project, he has full accountability for all the outcomes. Like a captain of the ship, a project manager is accountable for the outcome of the project and anything associated with it.
At times, when we are managing a big project, we might become too focused or obsessed with only one aspect of the project. It can be deadlines, quality, resource management or meetings. A project manager has to have a balanced approach. Even under pressure cooker situation, the project manager should be clear in his head - what the project objectives are and how he plans to achieve them.
Usually when we begin any project we are very optimistic of completing the project with in the tenets of project management namely – cost, schedule and quality. But, as we move on, we start to digress. In the beginning, we miss few reports, few requirements or few weekly meetings and one fine day we realize we have already lost a big chunk of cost and schedule. Usually it is too late to realize and salvage the project. In this last effort, we finally jeopardize the last tenet of project management as well– the quality.
A successful project is an outcome of multiple factors and no one factor can be looked in isolation. Therefore, it is important for a project manager to strike a balance between these various factors. In this project, we identified and experienced various facets of project management and we hope these experiences compiled in this report will benefit us all, in rendering professionally managed successful projects.
With my experience of managing the projects, I would recommend IT Project Managers to consider following 10 basic points while managing a project.
1. Scope definition
You must know what you have to do and what not. My experience is, unless the scope is not well defined and agreed upon by all the parties the project never finishes on time. Customer expectations keep on changing and you keep on updating your requirement documents and project plans. Your development team keeps on modifying their code for existing functionalities and new development becomes slow. At the end, the product is not what was expected by any of the parties. Everyone is aggrieved.
2. Weekly meetings
Periodic Meeting– No matter how smooth the project is going, periodic meeting must happen to ensure that all issues are discussed, all action items are assigned to task owners. If the gap between two meetings is long and the meetings are not periodic, the momentum is lost. The project begins to move away as other things start taking priority, which eventually affects the project.
Agenda based meeting – A meeting with predefined agenda gives all attendees a clear vision of what they can expect from the meeting without digressing during the course of it. Agenda also helps in drawing the minutes of meetings, making action plans and identifying task ownership.
3. Project plan
A project plan must have detailed Work Breakdown Structure and tasks defined to the most basic levels. The clear project plan helps in foreseeing what is going to come for various task owners. The project plan should be up to date at all the times and accessible to all the stakeholders and task owners.
There is never a perfect project plan. Project plan evolves over a period of time and to achieve it you might have to go through a series of meeting with end users and the stakeholders.
4. Documentation
Usually in a project, technical part is given more importance and documentation of any kind is neglected.
For any project, documentation has to be excellent and very clear for all the stakeholders and task owners to know what they should do, when and how. At the time of development, testing, implementation or support for any kind of ambiguities, issues and questions these documents are referred. An appropriate set of documents help in resolving issues amicably. There are no game of pointing fingers and missing requirements from the system.
As such, there is no perfect list of documents. However, Project Manager should ensure all the critical information is documented.
5. Reporting
Strict reporting regimen must be followed during the span of project. All the stakeholders must distributed detailed report on achievements, contributions of team members and the plan for the next period.
If everything is clearly and proactively reported, there are no assumptions and confusions. This is very important for the steering committee and stakeholders, who do not monitor everyday action. A simplified consolidated report gives them confidence about the project progress.
6. Resources
A good project manager entrusts specific task in the project to specific specialist resources to accomplish tasks effectively. At the same time, he cautiously avoids overlapping tasks for resources. For example - A project manager doesn’t do the job of a business analyst or a developer doesn’t substitute for business analyst.
The project manager manages the project and a separate business analyst collects, analyzes and documents the requirements. So is the case with other resources. This helps in a big way as every specialist focused on his/her area of expertise is assigned appropriate tasks and contribute in the best.
7. Risk assessment & mitigation
It is important that project related risks are proactively identified, documented and mitigated. A project manager must complete the risk assessment in the beginning of the project itself and if required assign risk ownership appropriately so that at the time of contingency risk owner takes steps to mitigate the risks.
However, risk evaluation and mitigation is a continuous process. Not all the risks cannot be identified in the beginning of the project. Therefore, project manager must revisit risk sheet periodically and update it.
8. Team work
You need people to realize your dreams, to turn them into reality. You cannot work on your own in isolation, no matter how strong or intelligent you are. A cohesive team with right blend of resources can ensure success of the project.
9. Attitude
You might have experts in your team but if they lack right attitude, you have a serious problem. I would choose to work with a team with moderate skill sets but excellent attitude rather than a stubborn and arrogant expert with laidback attitude.
In my projects, I have observed if all the project members are persistent and proactive in approach the project can never fail. The laid-back attitude of even one member can kill the team spirit and over all project.
As a project manager you might not perfect blend of resources or I will say you will not be always lucky as I have been. You have to have right soft skills to pursue and extract the best out of every team member.
10.Authority and Accountability
The project manager without appropriate authority is like a toothless tiger. The project manager must be given free hand to run the project under right balance of supervision. The steering committee, must also directly or indirectly make it clear to the team members that the instructions of person of authority must be abided. If there is no single power center, there will be several power centers and conflict of interests, which will hamper the project goals.
Accountability goes hand in hand with authority. When the project manager has full authority to run the project, he has full accountability for all the outcomes. Like a captain of the ship, a project manager is accountable for the outcome of the project and anything associated with it.
At times, when we are managing a big project, we might become too focused or obsessed with only one aspect of the project. It can be deadlines, quality, resource management or meetings. A project manager has to have a balanced approach. Even under pressure cooker situation, the project manager should be clear in his head - what the project objectives are and how he plans to achieve them.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Dubai Marathon 2009
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible – Walt Disney” – I saw this quote on bill boards several times during many of my training runs on Fridays and while driving around the city. Every time I saw this quote, a surge of energy flew through my body and I told myself – Yes! I will do it again. I got a chance very soon.
On the chilly morning of 16th January, 2009 I was standing with hundreds of other strong minded people who had decided to overcome the limitations of their physical and mental boundaries. They had taken the challenge of running Dubai Marathon, a distance of 42.195 Kilometers, starting from Westin Hotel, Mina Syahi, till the big flag at Al Diyafah and back. I started strong. My yearlong practice was showing its fruitful results. This was not the first time I was running a marathon, rather the third time.. I have done it in 2007 and 2008 as well. I have learnt the physical pains and mental agony of running a long distance of 42 plus kms. At the same time, I also know it is never the same every time. Unlike ever before, I faced a bigger challenge this time as I got cramps on my upper thigh at 34Km mark. I had to stop. I couldn’t bend my leg at all. Several thoughts flashed into my mind. How will I go forward from here now? Am I going to be carried away in an ambulance?? Am I not going to finish the marathon on my feet? What will my friends and family think? Am I a weak person? I recalled how good it feels to cross the finish line. I remembered how good it will feel to complete the marathon, not that I want to prove anything to anybody but to myself.. Suddenly I recalled the famous saying – It’s kind of fun to do the impossible. I felt the same rush of energy and slowly I started stretching my legs and walking.. My legs supported my thoughts. Slowly I started running again. Walking and running & running and walking I reached the finish line in 4 hours 28 minutes. Though the timimg was same as last years’, I am happy I didn’t give up.. I am happy that I didn’t let myself down. I am happy to be one of those rare few who did accomplish something not everyone can accomplish.
See you in Dubai Marathon 2010.
On the chilly morning of 16th January, 2009 I was standing with hundreds of other strong minded people who had decided to overcome the limitations of their physical and mental boundaries. They had taken the challenge of running Dubai Marathon, a distance of 42.195 Kilometers, starting from Westin Hotel, Mina Syahi, till the big flag at Al Diyafah and back. I started strong. My yearlong practice was showing its fruitful results. This was not the first time I was running a marathon, rather the third time.. I have done it in 2007 and 2008 as well. I have learnt the physical pains and mental agony of running a long distance of 42 plus kms. At the same time, I also know it is never the same every time. Unlike ever before, I faced a bigger challenge this time as I got cramps on my upper thigh at 34Km mark. I had to stop. I couldn’t bend my leg at all. Several thoughts flashed into my mind. How will I go forward from here now? Am I going to be carried away in an ambulance?? Am I not going to finish the marathon on my feet? What will my friends and family think? Am I a weak person? I recalled how good it feels to cross the finish line. I remembered how good it will feel to complete the marathon, not that I want to prove anything to anybody but to myself.. Suddenly I recalled the famous saying – It’s kind of fun to do the impossible. I felt the same rush of energy and slowly I started stretching my legs and walking.. My legs supported my thoughts. Slowly I started running again. Walking and running & running and walking I reached the finish line in 4 hours 28 minutes. Though the timimg was same as last years’, I am happy I didn’t give up.. I am happy that I didn’t let myself down. I am happy to be one of those rare few who did accomplish something not everyone can accomplish.
See you in Dubai Marathon 2010.
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