Monday, December 01, 2008

Jogging isn't my piece of cake!!! (Part - II & concluding part)

YAWN!!! That was interrupted by a Final Year girl chipping into our class, when the boring afternoon sessions were going on in full swing. she made the announcement for the "TCE MARATHON RUN" for world peace or something. We were in the second year by then, and somewhat excited we gave our names. The run was scheduled to start by 5:45AM from Germanus Days Inn entrance and supposed to end in our college for guys and for the fairer sex it was to start somewhere near Pykara. Now everyone joined in the run with their own ulterior motives like.......freebies :) Sriram was reluctant to join because of his wheezing problem, but I saw to it that he was there in the race too.

And so I got up early in the morning woke up my roomates in hostel(Sriram, Hariprasad and Yuvaraj) The former two murmured and got up, the latter cursed like anything in some foreign language :) and went to bed again. Our college had arranged the college bus to drop us at the CSI church near to Germanus, and I was irritated for they had worked out even the finer details like arranging separate buses for Boys and girls :( There they were, in the midst of the crowd subramani, our super senior Bamu with high levels of adrenalin and flaunting the T-Shirt given as part of the Race. Shocked to hear that the Freebies were over, we(myself, sriram and hariprasad) started looking around for some guys of our sort for the race, but before we could find any, our principal had flagged off the Marathon.

We were with the crowd initially and Bamu ran along with us and when we came near the Aparna Towers(400 Mtr from starting point) I made the first Pit stop. From then on there was no more running, only pit stops one after another near to places like Raymond showroom etc. By this time Bamu got irritated and started advancing ferociously. By the time we had covered some 1KM, I can safely confirm that we were the last ones in the race and we could not even see the runners in front of us anywhere near the horizon :) It was around 6:25AM

Totally dejected, I turned around seeking for some help from someone, Goddess Meenakshi came to our rescue!!!

We were standing opposite to Madurai Meenakshi Bhavan on the By-Pass-Road. A look at Hariprasad told me that he too had what I had in mind. Then by Veto we overpowered sriram and he too budged. We turned the course of the Marathon and the three runners were spotted running through the entrance of Madurai Meenakshi Bhavan as early as 6:30AM. The watchman told us that it would take another one hour for the Tiffin to get ready. No probs was our reply and we sat and started chatting coolly. By 7:30AM we got our Pooris and then we helped ourselves with the second serving and finished off the Breakfast with a cup of Coffee. Slowly and clearly evading the refreshment centers set up for Marathon(In fact, they were already packing the stuffs) and also any college guys from spotting us coming out of Meenakshi Bhavan, we reached Palanganatham by walk.

We boarded the bus and were glad that we had given a nice slip and happy over the fact we had been saved from the embarrassment if anyone had spotted us when we came out of the hotel or when we had boarded the bus.We were quite sure that by now the Marathon would have ended and people would safely be in the respective classes for the sessions to commence. Clad in Tracks or rather Pyjamas, some local sports shoe and T- shirt we got down from the bus HORRORSTUCK!!!! The whole college was in the bus stop!!! Our Principal had cancelled the first two periods because of the run and people were going back to their house and hostels to change their dresses!!! Most of the good looking girls of that time were there giggling at us. And our set guys, would they be left far behind somewhere?? they were also there roaring with laughter. We dashed towards our hostel and by the afternoon we entered our class only to hear fresh peels of laughter from both the sides.

After one year, one Final guy asked for excuse and entered into the class. I started looking at the ceiling to avoid Sriram's glare who was sitting next to me when the announcement was being made for the next series of "TCE MARATHON" :)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most of the good looking girls of that time were there giggling at us. --- யார், யாருனு எனக்கு இப்ப தெரிஞ்சாகனும்???

Praveen Krishnamoorthy said...

Please note this "of that time" :)

Senthil said...

Anyway you can quote the names, so that we can recognize them. Just stating "of that time" leads us nowhere. Enna solra Subramani ?

Balamurugan,S said...

dai.. i do ran the full kms da.. with very small pit stops.. i didnt stopped running.. :) storya thappa sollatha da...

Arun Ponniah Sethuramalingam said...

@ Praveen
Well written!

@ Bala
Nee appo odunadhu irukattum. Ippo nee oduradhuku ready-a ? :P

That marathon is still fresh in my mind. We were in the final year, I participated in that marathon purely for fun. I started off with few of my mates. I remember Keyan taking a left turn when we reached the S.S. Colony cross road (some 200 yards from the starting point) saying he is going home to take his breakfast and return back very soon in his bike. As he told me, when I was nearing the Palanganatham bus stop, he was back with his bike.

Once he was back, I climbed on his bike and we drove cheering and encouraging the runners on our way. By the time we reached the college (in the bike), we realized that the first and second place winners have already reached the destination point :)

That was a fun filled day!

Praveen Krishnamoorthy said...

@Bala

Yeah! thats what I have said, you left us and started advancing faster. "WE" here refers to Myself,Sriram and Hariprasad alone.

Balamurugan,S said...

@Sap: Bala eppovume ready da.. :) variya mothi parpom :)
@Praveen: Sorry da misunderstanding. Nan vera englishla weak :)