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Remember reading in the Reader’s Digest when I was 16 an article on the ‘power of goals’, about a guy who made a list of things he wanted to accomplish in his life and how he went about blah blah blah typical inspirational stuff…Anyway, it inspired me to make a list of my own, don’t remember much about that list except that Brooke Shields was in it, and for some strange reason ‘run a marathon’.

A few days after this, my neighbour Pookka asked me if I wanted to jog with him in the mornings. (Detour: Pookka is 13 years senior to me, he has two brothers – Aakka, who is my age, and Ani, 10 years younger to me. Many years later, when I told a friend about the age-gap between the brothers, his response was ‘the fun never ends in Pookka’s house’, sung to the tune of the Black Thunder jingle)

I bought a new pair of shoes, wrote 42195 on one shoe and 2:8:13 on the other (marathon distance in metres and the then world-record time of Alberto Salazar respectively) and started my marathon quest. Within a few months we were doing about 5 km with coupla breaks and in real good time – then I moved to REC, quickly build a reputation for being physically uncoordinated and had to stay off the track to protect my rep. But even today I keep track of the marathon scene, and am sure that one day I will run a marathon, even if it takes 14 hours, 24 minutes and 36 seconds, like the Maruti Suzuki K Series engine.

TV Ad. Check out the display on the finish clock when the ‘sprinter who can win the marathon’ finally does it.