Whom did I marry!

It’s been more than 6 years of courtship followed by 8 years of marriage, still wondering who is this guy whom I married!! I married a gross hefty man weighing almost 100kgs and after 8 years I have a handsome tall and lean man by my side. Do you know the recipe? Hmmm... Exercise, Diet, Lifestyle, Running, Yoga blah blah blah. While, I can’t deny any of these but none of the recipes is complete without salt. And salt here is the dedication! And that’s exactly what I am going to talk about today. Dedication brings unbelievable transformations.

While he may not be a stranger to the running community in Bangalore, I will introduce my husband, Vivek Malhotra, to the people out of the Running world. Vivek started running in 2010 to reduce weight. But slowly it became his passion and now in 2017, he has already run around 15 full marathons, along with many half marathons and 10ks - http://www.teammilesahead.com/runners/vivek/. To say a couple of his accomplishments - He finished IDBI Delhi full marathon in a terrific 3:26 hrs. He had a podium finish in the 12hour stadium run where he ran more than 100kms at a stretch. Imagine all this from a person who could not sit upright to finish even a half an hour TV serial, who could not imagine sitting his legs crossed, for whom touching his own feet was a farfetched dream. He would eat like anything and still complaint why there weren’t enough snacks at home. During my early years of marriage, my mother used to wonder would this four jumbo sized Aloo parantha suffice only to be taken aback by surprising answer of No. And today there is always war at home when his mother tries to feed him even single oil-less Aloo parantha.

Sometimes I wonder are we just hard piece of muscles and bones or are we fluid mix of emotions and thoughts. While we can keep pondering to find the right answer, one thing I can say for sure is that the emotions and thoughts are lot more powerful than the physical and muscular strength. Is it only physical endurance which is important when he runs like 30kms, 50kms or 100kms? The pain and discomfort do not peak while running the last mile. Running long distance is not body game, its mind game! While I am wishing hard to have Vivek as a Working Class Hero, he has already crossed the boundaries of working class to be a Hero in the realm of his passion and determination. What wakes him up at 4 am when he sleeps only at 11pm after a hard day at work followed by wife’s mundane requests and 2 year old daughter’s thousands tantrums.

Many of us have physical limitations which stop us from achieving our goals in life. I would like to say to all these talented people that the real limitation is not physical, it’s mental. The thought that you have a limitation, is the real issue.

While Vivek is a big inspiration to many out there, as his wife I may have wished many times his availability at home rather than his terrific finish time. But still as he already knows, I would like to re-iterate on the beautiful occasion of his 34th birthday – Vivek, I am proud of you and I am blessed to have you as my better half and off course a very happy birthday to you :)