Running and Beyond

Category: Navagraha Ottam

  • Navagraha Ottam – Part 5

    All’s well that ends well! That’s precisely what I was expecting on a final day of the arduous, yet enjoyable trip. While a finish looked all but assured, a grand finish was what I was expecting. It didn’t look as easy as expected. I got up with a severe pain in the arch of the…

  • Navagraha Ottam – Part 4

    Day 3 looked daunting for both runners and support team alike and there was a mountain to climb. For runners, it was about covering the total distance of 49 Kms in 4 stages – 13, 14, 8 and a final leg of 14 kms and for the support team, it was to ensure that none…

  • Navagraha Ottam – Part 3

    One done; three to go. It wasn’t the distance we ran that mattered; it was more about the frequency of start-stop-start that made the run more difficult. After a good night sleep and an early morning coffee (Our crew made sure that we are served coffee every morning), we were all set to start the…

  • Navagraha Ottam – Part 2

    वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सुर्यकोटि समप्रभ निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा The first thoughts for the morning were set on having a cup of filter kaapi in davara-tumbler. Staying in a traditional Agraharam house which included two oonjals (loosely translated as Swing which I feel does not do justice for the wonderful piece of furniture), it’s nothing…

  • Navagraha Ottam – Part 1

    Saturday, September 28, 2013 – I disembarked from the train at Kumbakonam to venture into an unknown territory of long distance running – A multi-stage run into roads that I have never known before. The run was a consequence of ‘Bib’ Bala’s association with Selva ‘Sir’ and a confluence of their passions in scriptures, temples…

  • The Navagraha Ottam – Preview

    There is no better way to reflect on my Comrades experience except through a short story of RK Narayan. And the one that sums it up best would be ‘The Hero’ – where Swami attains stardom by accident and how alone knows what he did was out of luck while rest thinks that it is…