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Showing posts from 2018

Keeping up with the fitness Joneses

The 'hum fit toh India fit’ movement is a great initiative and if you look around, it seems as if every other person you run into is gearing up to run a marathon or on some fancy ass diet. But a lot of the mushrooming fitness industry seems to be becoming more niche and out of reach of the common man. I run and practice yoga. So by most standards, I am fitness conscious. There is a thin line between that and being a fitness freak. It began a couple of years ago when I trained and completed my first half-marathon. When my already bad back started acting up and caved in after I overdid the running, thinking that it was the solution to all my problems, I took refuge at the feet of yoga as paying 400 bucks per physiotherapy session was too much of a beast of burden to bear.  When it comes to being open to new experiences, I am as flexible as a bhakt who is questioned about his blind love for all things Hindutva. Not that I had any grand illusions of doing 108 suryanamaskars ...

The fortune cookie elections

Nothing changes after elections. Yet they are fascinating. Maybe it's because as humans, we are designed to perennially live in hope.  Karnataka is going to vote on Saturday. Politicians who claim to cement every pothole and bring the metro to each and every nook and corner of the city, have already hijacked all the cab drivers and finding a ride home means endless waits. And if you run into an election rally, your wait can extend into eternity. We may display apathy towards elections and our politicians, but like a bad movie that you have paid to watch, we just have to know the ending. Before the elections, newspapers publish the net worth of our netas. They run into hundreds of crores. Close your eyes and imagine a crore. Then add a few more zeroes to it. Makes you dizzy, doesn't it? Why do we vote, when we expect little or no change? It's like going to work without expecting a salary. Just before elections, roads that are already tarred get magically re-tarred...