Email
Print
ShareTales from the Locker Room
So, the Mumbai Marathon has now completed 37 years. Of course, for the first 30 years, the marathon was largely unsung, and the participation was on a daily basis. Every single day of the working week, scores of Mumbaites would leave their homes in Borivili, Kandivili or Andheri (in an effort to break the existing world record) for Nariman Point. This of course was the 21- kilometre event and had a large following. The 42-kilometre event, which flagged off from Panvel then didn't have enough takers.
All this with time has changed. Today, the marathon is a mega event, which culminated in a final last Sunday that left all of Mumbai gasping for breath and this was partly due to Bipasha Basu's outfit.
However, to understand the essence and spirit of the Marathon, let's meet one of the running stars of Mumbai.
His name? Naval Bir Kumar. His designation ? One of the top guns at Standard Chartered. How do we know he's a top gun? That's because he owns three different pairs of jogging outfits, all neatly allayed in the Standard Chartered colour.
Here is Naval Bir's candid confession, (which was hammered out of him at the Colaba Police station) on why he's a huge fan of the marathon and how he's set his store on a fourth jogging outfit in the year 2008...
"I became a marathon convert due to one word--parking, which is impossible in Mumbai. It's a strange paradox. You can travel anywhere you want in Mumbai but you may never reach, as more often than not there is nowhere to park your car. To counter this I tried many things including a portable office. However, logistically, this was very challenging. You see it's very difficult to have a meeting with your client in Churchgate when your office is stuck in traffic at Haji Ali.
"Then the Mumbai Marathon shone a light on me. And when I say 'shone a light', I mean literally. Two years ago at 5.30 am, I was miraculously parking my car at Marine Drive when a marathon executive and a security officer flashed his torch on me and asked me to vacate the premises.
I then watched the marathon and discovered the true meaning of life, which was running, and this overtook the old meaning of life, which was parking. Thanks to the marathon I run everywhere. For example, now I'm off to Chennai--sorry got to run."
In Naval Bir Kumar resides the spirit of Mumbai, oh and the ... essence.
