Happy Birthday

My joys of running!!

Life is richer by your experiences ,your learnings and by the love you give and receive.

Running has changed my life for the better, for all the cliched reasons and more. .

For instance….

The other day,one running buddy called to say her friend wanted to do something special for HER friend’s 40^th birthday. She wanted to do something special for runners specifically because the birthday girl in question loves running. My buddy wanted to know if I would speak to her friend and help connect her to runners who were possibly not as privileged as us and would benefit by this gesture. I wasn’t too sure how I would be able to help .But well, I did end up talking to her friend.

I figured that because of the DRG shoe drive that I have been handling and the social media posts I make to that end ,these wonderful women thought I could possibly guide them somehow .Anyways, thanks to this very shoe drive,I do end up meeting many such underprivileged runners. They come home and collect runable shoes and gear donated by other runners. I get to meet some of them and many I don’t. But I am always showered with love, gratitude messages and happy runner pictures. I accept it all happily and humbly on behalf of all the runners who donate the stuff.

One runner ,Alok, has come to my place a couple of times and collected shoes for some young runners who train at the Ramjas Sports and Mountaineering Institute in Patel Nagar. Along with Amit, who coaches these runners ,Alok makes the effort to support these runners however he can. Everyone has only 24 hours in a day and everyone has personal and professional and social commitments. The ones who still make time to go beyond have my respect always! So all kudos to Alok!

Alok and these runners (whose pictures he would send me every time he took shoes and stuff for them from the DRG box) were the first people that came to my mind to help make this 40^th birthday special.

I connected Alok to the birthday girl’s friend and she bought them 15 pairs of running shoes and winter running tees from Decathlon. All she wanted in return was some birthday messages from these kids for her friend. She planned to make a collage and a picture story for her friend.How cool is that!

And me, I was plain lucky to find myself  in the middle of all this awesomeness. Alok messaged to say it would be great if I could meet these runners and give away the shoes to them myself.That invitation was pretty difficult to resist ,because I didn’t want the awesomeness to be over yet.

So there I was at the Ramjas field one Thursday afternoon giving away the shoes to some happy runners.

They had ALL written out individual birthday notes for the birthday girl,mentioning their running achievements and goals.( Each one wants to run for India in the Olympics mind you. And each one probably believes dreams do come true!!) I was bowled over meeting the kids. They had a birthday cake ready too .

They sent video and picture messages for the birthday girl with me. I found many of them wearing the shoes taken from the DRG box and it warmed my heart that the shoes were being put to good use. 

Most of the runners training there are short distance runners training to clear the tests and get into the police or the Army. Most of them play at inter college and inter school level competitions.

Well, back to the anonymous good folks that spread the joy. Pictures and messages sent on Whatsapp. The physical notes collected from my place by her driver.

I am not one to go overboard or feel too excited about birthday celebrations. The idea is to celebrate LIFE..every single day ,right?

But THIS….I would like to think twice now about celebrating birthdays.

It was the lucky girl’s birthday yesterday. I hope her friend’s efforts paid off and brought her joy on her 40^th.

I share this story with you all with  permission from the lady I was talking to. She just didn’t want herself or her friend’s names to be mentioned.

BTW,I don’t know this lady personally. I have never met her. We are not even friends on FB!!

I had never met Alok before the other day OR any of these runners.

All this worked purely on trust.

I get asked sometimes how I ensure that the donated shoes reach the right people.

Well, love and trust make my world go round.

That axis on which the earth rotates is imaginary anyway!!!!