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Published: December 6th 2008
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Three things prompt this “exercise” subject. First: India has the highest rate of adult-onset diabetes in the world. It was recently World Diabetes Day, so there has been daily coverage in the newspaper about diabetes - causes, complications, and prevention, primarily the importance of exercise.
Second: A tag line of the front page of the newspaper this week said “Mumbai Remembrance Run, p6”. Participating in an organized running event interests me - an opportunity to run with other runners, to run a different route, an opportunity to not be the weird running western woman (see below). I was disappointed to learn the run had taken place the day before, in huge Bangalore (4 hours away), and that it was a “1km marathon.” A runner was quoted: “Running like this is hard. But is helps remember the pain of the losses in Mumbai.” There’s a blurb about an up-coming 3km run in Bangalore. To put it in perspective, the shortest run for adults in the US is typically a 5k, that’s the sprint distance. Needless to say, I won’t be making the trip all the way to Bangalore for a 3k race.
Third: The Wellness column in today’s
Times of Roadside Entertainment
Miscellaneaous scenery, such as this mannequin hanging ominously from a pole, together with random roadsigns, provides constant entertainment while walking or running. India newspaper: “
Walking helps you stay fit. Walking is the nearest activity to perfect exercise because it is a low-impact cardiovascular exercise that works the whole body. It puts minimum strain on joints and improves the heart, lungs and bones. Walking involves nearly all muscles; abdominal and back muscles get stabilized as they hold the spine erect, arms work in opposition to legs. Walking also improves posture, tones the arms, shoulders and legs. Walking for 30 minutes for approximately two miles a week can reduce risk of heart attack by more than 25%!”(MISSING)
So today I write about my exercises here. I don’t include yoga in this category for two reasons. First, the yoga practice is a meditation to clear and focus the mind, which happens to be physically quite rigorous. Second, Guruji, our now-retired master yoga instructor, practiced this rigorous yoga for several hours every day for about 70 years, until he retired from it about six years ago; he now has diabetes. While I exalt the many many virtues of this and any yoga practice, I do not assume it will prevent diabetes, nor, presumably heart disease and other such afflictions.
I run on days
I don’t have yoga practice. Nothing about the yoga practice prevents me from running on the same day as yoga practice - the yoga practice is not so exhausting as to physically preclude a run, and there’s no philosophical “yoga rule” against it (like the rule that forbids eating garlic or onions, or the rule that forbids progress to a new pose on Tuesdays, or that you don’t practice on full- or new-moon days). It’s because I will only run early in the morning (first light, between 6-7am), and that’s my yoga practice time. I only run at first-light for two reasons: fewer vehicles and fewer people. Most of the day and into the night, there are so many cars, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws on the roads: pedestrians seem almost to be a target for vehicles, and I don’t need that added hazard while running; also, the vehicles are grossly polluting, which I also don’t need while running (or any other time). Further, I don’t see many (any, really) people running, so a western woman running around town is a bit unusual, and the fewer people who see this bizarre sight, the better. (Tina, our favorite cooking teacher, commented on it when
we were at her house for breakfast this week - “TJ, you are the one who runs, right?”). Who is on the street at that early hour are mostly men going for walks, a few people playing badminton, and some people out walking their dog. While none of these is a particularly sweaty activity, I do feel some kinship with this exercising population.
In addition to being limited by these “timing” factors, I have a limited area to run. I confine running to an area bound on 3 sides by busy roads (bustling even at first light); the fourth side is a fenced-in, wild green-space “park” area that appears to have been created to isolate the major power line that runs through it (it is also home to a shanty-village of make-shift lean-tos, a cricket field, loads of trash, packs of dogs, and some happy cows). The neighborhood changes significantly beyond these boundaries - not as affluent, relatively inhospitable to a single western woman running alone at dawn. What this defined neighborhood lacks in area (it’s small, requiring zig-zagging routes up one street, down the next) it makes up for with its varied terrain: the neighborhood is on a
steep hill; road conditions or vehicles often force me off the road onto dirt and grass trails; and then there is the dodging of large pot-holes, the jumping over sacred cow dung where-ever it happened to land, and the clambering over long-abandoned piles of construction material. There are at least 3 small parks within this area with paths or “tracks” through them, and there are usually people walking around these tracks for exercise (and socializing). Sometimes I run through these little parks, usually 3-4 times (they’re small, maybe 3 minutes to run the whole track), to add a little diversion and distance to the route. Needless to say, I now know well my way around the neighborhood.
Despite these limits, I manage to go for a run at least once, if not 2-3 times a week, depending on the yoga schedule. I also take a walk just about every evening, and I’m not so confined for these excursions. During evening walks, I see more women out walking (and socializing), particularly in the parks, and often clad in saris and nikes. I even one time saw a sari-clad woman run one lap around a park-track. There is a lap pool
Plastic Free Zones
Certain locations, like Chamundi Hill and the Zoo, are declared “Plastic Free Zones,” which means it’s not acceptable to throw plastic bags, bottles, straws, and other plastics in such areas. Needless to say, "plastic free zones" are the exception. at the university, which I have not yet checked out. There are gyms, but mostly geared to weight-lifting. My tentative conclusion so far is that the exercise-to-prevent-diabetes movement has not quite taken off around here, at least.
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