Born to Run

Christopher McDougall - an amateur runner - asks his doctor perhaps the most frequent question asked by runners - "How come my foot hurts?", and when his doctor tells him that the human body - specially his at 6'4" - is not designed to take the kind of abuse that running exposes it to, Christopher McDougall - the journalist -  sets out in search of answers and insights into running. He ends up telling a fascinating story that involves an ancient tribe of running people, elite ultra runners and other crazy characters in his book - Born to Run.

Anyone who loves running or has a taste for adventure should like this book, not the least because of the ensemble of interesting characters involved in the story. The writing style is clever (even though sometimes straining to be too clever) and the author handles the multiple threads in the story quite dexterously and naturally. It is an engaging read which every now and then wanders tangentially to the interesting subjects like history of running and evolution and morphology of humans as a running species.

However, the fault of the book lies not with what it includes but what it fails to. In his zeal to counter the conventional wisdom, Christopher McDougall cuts some intellectuall corners and fails to provide a balanced perspective while making conclusions based on studies that are still work in progress. At one point he cites a study which shows that since the introduction of running shoes in '70s the Achilles complaints have increased by 10%. Now this statistics in itself doesn't tell anything unless it accompanied by the number of runners involved during two study points. The 10% increase could simply have been due to increase in number of runners. The author doesn't think it worthwhile to clear this important point.

Somewhere else he cites a study that found that the most common factor amongst the injured runner was price of the shoes worn and concludes that the most expensive shoes are the most dangerous. His conclusion might be right - but he might as well be completely wrong. What he shows for as evidence is correlation but what he claims is causation and the two are not interchangeable. Let me try to explain what I mean. Consider a very reasonable scenario where all the runners wearing expensive shoes are richer than the runners wearing inexpensive shoes. Further, consider another reasonable scenario where the rich runners lead a lifestyle that is qualitatively different from their poorer counterparts. Now, it is entirely possible that the injury inducing factor in the study is not the shoe type but the life-style of the runner. (McDougall , himself provides some support for this argument when he advocates coach Vigil's nutrition strategy for olympic marathoners: "Eat as though you are a poor person" suggesting that the life-style does play a role in how you train for running.) A well designed study will therefore try to eliminate such correlations. They control for all other factors except for the one being tested. So, in this case a better designed study - where income level and all other factors amongst the runners were same on an average - would have been necessary to reach the conclusion that McDougall makes.

At another point McDougall cites an interesting study by Professor Lieberman that shows how the impact forces experienced by the runners wearing thick heeled shoes are greater than the those experienced by barefoot runners. The study also shows that the way bare foot runners habitually strikes the ground is qualitatively different from the shod runners. While the study is quite interesting and suggests that wearing thick soled cushioned shoes for long distance running might cause injuries, Prof. Lieberman is quick to point out that no controlled studies have yet been done to conclusively prove these claims. So, while McDougall tells that no study conclusively proves that shoes prevent injuries and pitches for bare foot running, he conveniently chooses not to mention that studies to prove his claim - barefoot running prevent injuries - are absent as well. Again, he might be right about bare foot running but - as the Prof. Lieberman says - the current evidence is totally anecdotal and needs further research.

In conclusion, the good things going for Born to Run are its plot, characters and its love for running. However, I suggest you take the scientific claims in the book with a pinch of salt and consult the original studies for a more balanced understanding.

P.S.  Here are the links to the two interesting studies by Lieberman et al. that were published in scientific journal Nature. Both of these studies are relative easy to follow and understand.

1) Link to Endurance running and the evolution of Homo.

2) Link to Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners.

Journal Update: Hyderabad Runners Club Run

They say organizing a marathon is as rewarding as running one. OK, may be no one has actually said that and may be running a marathon is tad more rewarding but, as I found out this Sunday morning after working for organization of the first Hyderabad Runners Club Run, the assortment of emotions you feels at the end of both are not entirely different.

You feel the same sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and exhaustion after both. There's the same feeling of relief that it's successfully done; mingled with that contradictory sense of void at the loss of an immediate purpose. And eventually you internalize both as a mix of fond memories and lessons learnt and look forward to do them again in a better way.

Personally, the August Run has a special significance for me as a runner. As I wrote exactly a year ago, this was my debut half marathon where I first discovered the joys of long distance running. And it was at this run that I got introduced to the Hyderabad Runners - a group of enthusiastic runners with whom I later ran my first full marathon at Auroville. So it was doubly satisfying to work along with this same group and successfully organize this year's Run. 

However any discussion of the event will be incomplete without mentioning the enthusiasm and passion with which the volunteers helped in organizing this run. From event photography to the runners support at aid stations it was these volunteers who woke up at 3:30 on a Sunday morning just to make sure that the runners got as much support as possible during and before the event. And as is evident from the numerous testimonials that we received from the runners, the volunteers did an excellent job.

Accused of Protecting Self Interest

This article from IBN-Live reports "Whether it's the Bhopal gas tragedy or the oil spill, the US government is being accused of protecting its own interests." which makes one wonder who might these bright folks be that are doing such accusing. Last I heard, a government is supposed to protect its own interests and unless someone shows how this has changed overnight, the inanity of such accusations will remain baffling to me. Such vacuity would not be of much importance during the normal course (who would be surprised to find such inanity in the daily news items?) but in so far as such accusations divert the attention from the real culprits, they should be addressed.


It is the job of Indian government (and not US) to ensure that interests of Indian citizens are protected. And what has the attitude of various governments in India during this whole Bhopal Gas Tragedy episode been? "Protective of its citizens' interest" is exactly not the answer that leaps to mind. In fact, the attitude has been anything but protective.


Arjun Singh, the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, hoping to score a few political points for the upcoming elections got Warren Anderson briefly arrested in his own guest house and released him a day later on orders from central government headed by Rajiv Gandhi. As if in an apology for the inconvenience caused, a government aircraft was arranged to take Anderson to Delhi from where he then boarded a plane back to US, never to be seen again on Indian soil. Since then Indian government has never made a sincere effort for extradition of Anderson.


In 1989 Indian government struck an out-of-court settlement with Union Carbide for $470 million in compensation, reduced from original claim of $3.3 billion filed earlier in an american court, essentially reducing the price tag attached to an Indian life. That US places a larger values on its citizens lives can not be held against it.


Not only did the subsequent government of Manmohan Singh refused to increase the payout to the victims but he has also been heard saying "Bhopals will happen, but the country has to progress" suggesting that such accidents are part and parcel of country's high growth agenda. If the Indian Prime Minister himself advocates a move on approach,  can we expect others to be more sympathetic to our problems?


Given such attitude of successive Indian governments (all headed by Congress party) and absurdly slow Indian judicial system (26 years to pass judgement in the worst industrial disaster!), it is ridiculous to accuse US of what essentially is an Indian failing.

Freakonomics - Some Thoughts

If morality represents the way that people would like the world to work, then economics represent how it actually does work.


After a gap of 6 months, I read a book this weekend. Not knowing what exactly to read and not wanting to spend money or time on something that I would not enjoy, I scanned through the book collection of my flat mate. The advantage of this approach, I thought, was that even if at a later point I did not like the book I could safely abandon it and avoid the sunk cost fallacy - you know, that feeling of obligation to finish a bought book even when it becomes clear that you do not really like it.


So browsing through the collection I came across a book titled Freakonomics-A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Levitt and Dubner. According to the authors, the book had "no unifying theme" and their aim was to "follow whatever freakish curiosities may occur to them". To me, who did not exactly know what he was looking for, this seemed like something that I might have been looking for. And the book did not disappoint me.


The book is an easy and interesting read. And even though it does not have an underlying theme there are some recurrent ideas throughout the book that are applied to a variety of situations. Following are some of the most stressed points in the book -


Correlation does not imply causation. This perhaps is the most prevalent logical mistake found in wide range of situations - from the suggested implications in popular advertisements to the conclusion of scientific studies. However, correlation very often hints at causation and the distinction between the two is made further difficult by the subtle nature of relationship between them. As xkcd points out - "Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there’". During the course of the book, the authors make it sufficiently clear that anyone trying to look beyond the casual and conventional wisdom should be aware of this trap.


People respond to incentives. A truism of sorts. And particularly so when you define incentives in the broadest sense possible - from financial to psychological and social motivations. In defining so, an incentive just becomes an all encompassing term that can be used as a placeholder for the motivations and reasonings involved in decision making. But as some of the cases in the book demonstrate, more often than not understanding the underlying incentive scheme is crucial to understanding the behavior and interactions amongst various actors.


Conventional wisdom is often wrong. The key to understanding this is, quite unsurprisingly, understanding the underlying incentive scheme. More often than not the propagators of conventional wisdom - the experts and the media - are busy serving their own agenda which results in anything but wisdom. And when this propagated wisdom happens to resonate with the prevalent views amongst the masses, who themselves are loathe to critically examine the situation, it becomes conventional.


P.S.  A word to someone looking for a book recommendation - if you are someone who is curious to understand why the things are the way they are then you should find this book interesting.

Why do I run?

I don't know, I just like to run.

"A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding." - said Steve Prefontaine about races.

Running, in a similar way, is an experience that also affects people in as many ways as they are capable of  appreciating. In its most basic form, running is so inherent to us that it readily lends itself to a large array of meanings that we might be inclined to assign to it. For instance, a novice may extol running for its health benefits while a veteran, on the other hand, may find spiritual upliftment in it. The question "Why do you run ?", therefore, has as many answers as there are runners. The articulation of this answer, however, is not always easy and specially so when the innate desire to run precedes the conscious motive for running. And I think this is the source of the often repeated existentialist answer  - "I don't know, I just like to run."

So, Why do I run ?

I started running for a break from the routineness of my weight training sessions in gym. But why I continue to run (now exclusively), as I said, I do not know. I just like doing it. So, rather than giving reasons for why I run, I will list down some of the better things I have discovered about it along the way. 

Running affords me an opportunity to disconnect from the external world and have a continual mind-body conversation, which is very difficult otherwise. The conversation starts just before the run when the mind asks the body - "How do you feel?". The body might reply "Good!" in which case mind just says "Kool ! Let's go then." or the body might say "Not good." or "I don't know." and then mind tries to cajole it - "OK, we will start easy and then see how it goes from there. You are not such a wimp, are you?". And then as the miles go by, this intermittent conversation continues, interspersed with occasional, and almost meditational, blankness.

Then there is that famous high - that ecstatic feeling when everything just clicks into its rightful place and all becomes well with the world. The scenery becomes more beautiful, birds more melodious, lungs stronger and body lighter. And the best part is the unexpectedness of these highs, they may follow one of the most pathetic phases of the run or there may come multiple of these highs sandwiched right between some of the more pathetic phases of the run.

Finally, post run I love that indefinable feeling of lightness in both body and mind; as if while running I have shed some of the unnecessary mental and physical load.

I am sure this is only a start and there are a lot more other things that running will reveal to me. Till then, whenever asked about why do I run, I will be comfortable with the customary explanation - "I don't know. I just like to run."

Journal Update: November Runs

November has been a good month for me - running wise. Not only have I completed two half marathons - Delhi (1st Nov) and Hyderabad (22nd Nov) - but I have also been able to improve my time by 18 mins over my first half marathon (30th August, Hyderabad) time. Importantly, I have been able to remain injury free. The knee pain which was becoming almost a regular presence during the first two months of training is gone now. I always knew that the pain would last only until my quads get stronger and start taking more responsibility of my relatively broad and heavy upper body. A bit of cycling in the gym also helped in cross training and easing the work load on my knees. Apparently my quads are stronger now and behaving like good responsible grown ups! Though I am sure they still have some way to go when it comes to running up the inclines. Hopefully, all in due time.

Now, about the two runs.

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon

After my first taste of endorphins during the August Half Marathon in Hyderabad, I realized that the endorphin was not a bad thing to get high on. So I registered for ADHM and Ghaziabad being my hometown I also decided to use the occasion to make a trip back home. Only, now because of the run I was going home a week after Diwali - which, as you can imagine, was a bit hard to explain to family and friends. But I managed.

The venue of the run was about 30K from my home so on the day of the run I had to wake up at 4 in the morning and then my brother drove me to the venue - Nehru Park. There were long queues with hundreds of runners waiting to enter the holding area in the park. It took about 15 mins to reach the holding area from where one had to go to the other gate of the park and then to the starting line. By the time I reached the starting line, the big clock there read 8 mins - but that didn't matter because the run was chip timed and I was not competing for a top slot.

Waiting to get into the holding area.

What surprised me at the very beginning was the sheer number of runners on the road. It took about 15 mins into the run for the runners to be distributed to a reasonable density. After that it was easier to get into the rhythm. The cool November morning, an even route and historical delhi buildings like Indian gate and Rashtrapati Bhawan as a backdrop made for a perfect race settings.

Personally, I felt quite good - the rhythm was good and I was feeling strong. In fact, I remember that somewhere around 12K mark I felt so good that I thought - "Good thing, still 9K left". But as someone said - "If you start to feel good during a marathon, don't worry you will get over it." I did get over this feel good thingie. I remember my feet grew a lot bulkier and gravity a lot more intense during the last 2 Ks.

Joy of Running @ 20K: Ignore the face. ;-)

But all the weariness just flew away when I looked at clock on the finishing line - it read 1:59:xx which meant my net time was comfortably under 2 Hrs. After that my brother helped me stretch a bit and gave me a really good on the spot massage.

01:50:55 :-)

I then collected my certificate and the medal along with some much needed refreshments. Considering the number of participants, I think the race was well organized. Most of the times one step just smoothly flowed into the next - which is always a good thing.

Hyderabad 10K Half Marathon, 22 November

In terms of performance and feel-good factor, this was undoubtedly the best of my three Half-Marathons. I improved my timing by about 5 mins in three weeks and more importantly I still felt strong after the run. In fact, going by my experience in Delhi Half-Marathon I was surprised to see the finish line so early - just before I saw it I was thinking that the finish was still at least 1K away.

01:46:14 - My best so far !

The conditions here too were good for running - nice comfortable temperature and decently even roads. Though, I think a little more thought could have gone into the organization part of the run. For instance since the run started when it was still dark the organizers should have made sure that the street lights were on for the initial stretch around Husain Sagar. Also the traffic at some locations could have been better controlled. At one point an half-awoke APSRTC bus driver almost got competitive with me while crossing the road at the same time. Had not my natural modesty and good sense made me back out from this encounter the things could have got interesting. But I am willing to ignore these minor slips and specially so considering that some of the traffic cops were genuinely clapping and encouraging the runners.

Here I must also relate a rather peculiar incident that happened along the run. In my overenthusiastic effort to remain hydrated before the run I drank lots of water in the morning. But, as is my wont I reached the venue in a rush and just on time and forgot to relieve myself. As anyone who has drank more water than he can handle can imagine the things got a bit uncomfortable after a while. Luckily, I saw a Sulabh Sauchalya (the paid urinals on the roadside) soon enough and darted right into it. Since I wasn't carrying any money on me I tried to explain to the guy that I was running and didn't have any money right now and will pay him later. He apparently wasn't convinced (and I am not sure he even understood what I said) but not wanting to waste any time I just ran away from there - literally. I heard him say something under his breadth which luckily I did not understand. After that it was quite a different run. :-)

And the other good part of the run was that I got to see the Charminar for the first time - even though I have been in Hyderabad for about 3 years now. But again, to be true I am not much into the historical sight seeing scene right now. I still remember my first reaction on seeing Taj Mahal a few years back was "Man! It looks the same as it does on TV." Shahjahan would not have been impressed. But I digress, back to the run.

The other good part of the run was catching up with Hyderabad Runners group - a contagiously enthusiastic lot with some really good runners. A good thing for me because I can use all the enthusiasm and experience I can get to train for my next big run - which I hope will be a full marathon.

Four Friends In A Car (To Say Nothing of the One at Home)

The Planning

If I must start from the beginning, which I propose to do, then I must tell you how and when the trip was planned. Well, it was planned on a late Friday night (or early Saturday morning, as the purists would like to put it, for the time was 5:30 in the AM) when a certain talkative Aishwarya suggested to a certain enthusiastic Neha about a trip to Sri Sailam on the following Sunday, to which the drunken I readily assented. Now, if you have ever decided to do something while being drunk or have witnessed someone decide to do something while he is being drunk (or have read this paper), then you would know that being rational and judgmental are usually not the characteristics associated with such decisions.

But, I am a man of my words - even if they come from my drunken lips. So, when the enthusiastic Neha later enquired about the trip I said that it was still on, provided we wake up early enough (read before 11 AM) on Sunday and then start on the trip right away. Aishwarya, on the other hand, apparently didn't believe in such gentlemanly niceties as keeping-the-promise (even though he was dead sober the previous night) and upon being entreated to join us on the trip blurted out a platitude of an excuse : "I have some work to do". I have never understood that excuse. I mean, shouldn't it be the other way round - you go on a 250 Km trip through a dense jungle with jolly friends and have a good time and then make up an excuse for not getting the work done. It makes more sense that way. Anyway, there are infinite number of things in the world that I do not yet understand and such misplaced priorities of otherwise sensible people are some such things.

On Sunday morning, the day of the trip, I somehow woke up a bit late - 11:30 AM to be exact. Now, there's nothing wrong with a well-into-the-day-sleep on a laid back Sunday morning, but when you have plans to execute and distance to cover then time, as they say, is of import - which in everyday English means that you should act quickly. And act quickly I did. Right from the moment I woke up, I started to mobilize the support of Abhishek and Amrita (my other two room mates and friends) for the road trip and their assent once secured, we, in a flash of inspiration, reduced the time for the trip to half just by the simple act of changing the destination to Chilkur Balaji which we all believed was only about 100 Kms from home - just about the right distance to have a long enough drive and yet return home before nightfall. So, not only did we make up for the lost time but we also gained some extra time. Smartness has its own advantages.

The Beginning

Once the plan was thusly frozen, the three of us (Me, Abhishek and Amrita) proceeded to get ready for the trip. (Enthusiastic Neha was already waiting for us). For me getting ready is quite a simple and trivial four step process - get into shower, apply soap, rinse and put on a clean pair of jeans and shirt. A 10 minute affair, at most. Abhishek and Amrita, on the other hand, belong to a different school of dressers altogether - there is a certain elaboration about their whole dressing thing. They, for instance have to iron at least two dressing articles and try at least four combinations and get approval for these articles from at least 2 different people. (I am included in the poll, only if no other options are available). Now, I would be lying if I say that such drawn out affair doesn't bother me - it does, and particularly so when we are leaving for some place in the evening and, well, the time is of import - but it being a Sunday and we having enough time for the shortened trip, I took it in good humor. By and by, all of us got ready and we left home. Once Neha joined us, we were an excited lot of four people in a black car - two in front and two at back. It's hard to imagine a more perfect beginning.

Now, if you know Neha then you probably also know that all that is required to get her laughing is a coherent sentence. So, I wasn't surprised a bit when she started laughing right away at the first opportune moment - which, if I remember correctly, was some mundane remark by Abhishek. The other thing about her laughter is that it is highly contagious - not unlike the famous Gabbar Singh laughter in so much that it makes everyone around feel obligated to join in. So once she got going - and rest of us along with her - the distance to the temple (which we overestimated by some 60 Km) seemed even smaller and we were at the temple in almost no time.

Here, a bit of background about Chilkur Balaji Temple is in order. The temple is also know as Visa Balaji Temple for the legend that anyone who prays hard enough here can get a foreign visa of choice. The finances for the foreign trip though are generally not covered in the plan. For it, I guess, you just have to work hard. (There may be a separate branch of temple that deals with finances but I am unaware of it.) We paid our respects to the deity by performing the regular rituals. I am not sure what visa everyone else prayed for, but if I were a believer in the organized religion then I would have prayed for a visa of some European or Latin American country, but being what I am, I didn't offer such prayers. The visas now have to be secured through other ways.

The Second Plan

Due to the little misunderstanding - we thought the temple was 100 Kms away, but it actually was only 30 Kms - we completed our road trip a lot sooner than we wanted to. And Hyderabad being located where it is, there are not many places nearby that are worth visiting. Now, in such a situation the majority of people would have simply said "So be it. Perhaps, next time we will plan something better." and would have gone home to their dull and boring lives. But not us. We are a determined lot and once we decide to have fun then fun we must have, no matter how inconvenient it gets.

So, with this in mind we all decided to leave for Nagarjuna Sagar dam, which according to an optimistic estimate was reachable before dusk. I called up Aishwarya to get the directions for the dam and the people who know him will vouch for it that asking instructions from him is like simultaneously listening to two news channels - you have to be extra alert to get the whole (and the right) story. The trick, as I have figured out, is to look for keywords. So, equipped with this knowledge I was soon able to identify "Airport", "Srisailam Road", "Left Turn", "Nagarjuna Sagar Road" and "150 Km" as the words of interest. Thereafter, it was a trivial affair to put the metaphorical two and two together and get the complete route from these keywords. But, as we were to later find out, following the route was definitely non-trivial.

The Long Drive

Having figured out the general route, we set out on the road with enthusiasm and cheerfulness of 10 year olds going to the grandma's during summer vacations. We followed road signs wherever they were present and guessed the route wherever required. By and by, we reached Srisailam Road. Just to be sure, we checked the route with three people and got three different answers in possibly three different languages - none of which was Hindi or English. The fourth person we asked however knew some Hindi and told us that this was the longer route and we should take the other shorter route. We straightaway called Aishwarya and let him know the availability of these new facts and asked for his more researched opinion. (He had access to net and maps at home). He assured us that our current track was the right one and we can ignore the other guy's suggestion. We took Aishwarya's words over the one's whose name we did not know. A very human characteristic - to believe someone whose name you know over someone whose you don't.The doubts about the route thus satisfactorily resolved, we relaxed and continued onwards.

The roadside soon turned to a pleasant shade of green which was pleasant to look at. A slight drizzle added to the overall beauty outside and we opened our windows despite the feeble protests from Abhishek about his hair being ruffled in the wind. He put some music (mostly of dhinchak variety) on and in between appreciating the scenery we cracked jokes about this thing and that and laughed ourselves out of our seats. In short, we had a jolly good time.

But, the law of averages is never too far behind- it always catches up. And especially so when you are having a jolly good time. So, just when things were going so smoothly we realized that the road had narrowed considerably and that milestones were now counting down to some obscure place. We promptly consulted a passing farmer about our whereabouts and through hand gestures he indicated that we had left the Sri Sailam road quite some distance back. We turned around and reached the right road 25 Kms back. By this time it was getting late and dark so we decided that instead of searching for Nagarjuna Sagar road we will directly go to Sri Sailam and spend the night there. The rest of 100 Kms were covered through dense, dark and hilly Nallamalai forest. Much to his credit, Abhishek drove us safely to Sri Sailam.

The Long Night

We reached Sri Sailam at around 9:00 pm. and after 300 Kms and more than 6 hrs in the car, all we longed for was a good A.C. room with a neatly made bed and an attached shower. Not too ambitious, you would agree. So, we again called up our old friend in need, Aishwarya Mishra, and he amidst the usual drivel managed to gives us name of two-three hotels which we promptly noted down. In addition, Neha and Abhishek - always so ahead in planning - gave me a list of articles that they thought must be bought for a convenient night's stay. The list consisted of toothbrushes and toothpaste, some soap and towels. Little did they know that we had bigger problems to confront than these minor inconveniences.

The task to inquire for vacancy in the hotels was assigned to me which, as is my wont, I immediately set forth to finish. First, I went to the APSRTC run Punnami hotel which from outside looked decent. But the lady on the reception desk said "No" even before I asked anything and she said it with such finality in her tone that nothing was left for discussion. Thus disappointed, I went to other hotels and inns on the list and met with the same response. Finally, I returned back to the car to report on my errand and then all of us went together in search of the room. While previously we wished for a room in an at-least-3-star hotel, we now inquired for rooms in ashrams and choultries as well. Of course, a room was no where to be found. One thing that I noticed about the people sitting on reception desks of all these places was their invariable lack of hospitality and politeness. I understand that places were full and occupied, but saying "No" with a smile would have taken almost same amount of time and effort. So, I filed this observation in my "World Not Understood" folder and moved on.

Unable to find a single room in whole of Sri Sailam, we finally decided to spend the night in the car. Even though we had never slept for a night in a car, we knew that it was not an easy thing to do. So we decided that the best strategy will be to go for a night-out. For night-out, we of course had to keep ourselves occupied and for that we decided to play cards. Only that we didn't have playing cards with us.

If you haven't done it then I must tell you that buying a deck of cards in Sri Sailam is like making one of those shady drug deals that they show in movies. The moment you mention playing-cards to the shopkeeper, he starts to talk in low voice and urges you to do the same. While pretending to do normal chores of his shop, he brings and hands you a deck of cards with his palm facing down in such a way that the deck is invisible. He then asks you to immediately keep it in your pocket and never mention the deal to anyone. Even the handwritten bill he gives you doesn't mention the name of this item against its price. We later found out that the selling cards is banned in Sri Sailam, but why it is so we could not find out.

We then whiled away our time by playing cards till 3:00 A.M. after which everyone started to doze off. Now, sleeping in a car with three other persons is like being a strand of noodle in a spaghetti. You regularly mistake some one else's leg for your own arm and start scratching it while half asleep. The owner of the scratched limb then indignantly scolds you for tickling them at such an ungodly hour to which all you can manage to do is issue a meek apology.

Much in this manner, we eventually got through the night and the day finally broke.

The Return

The new day brought a fresh set of problems with it. To begin with we needed to find some place where we could brush our teeth, wash our face (a shower, of course, was a luxury we could not afford) and, as the euphemism goes, freshen up. We were thinking of our options when Abhishek came up with a brilliant idea. He suggested that we go to some restaurant for a cup of tea and while we wait for our tea we can also use the washrooms in the restaurant. He had almost killed the proverbial birds with a single stone.

But, as you might know, any plan that works perfectly in theory also has very peculiar knack of going its own unexpected ways when it's put into practice. So, when we went into the only decent looking restaurant around, we found out that it did not have any attached washrooms. We then quickly altered our plan to match the ground conditions and while our tea arrived, we went in search of a washroom in the common area of the hotel. We eventually found one. But, of course, like most of the public washrooms at such places, it was so dirty and unhygienic that it looked like a sadistic joke. We somehow managed to make ourselves believe that we were 'freshened up' after using it.

A joke of a ropeway ride aside, we hurriedly started on our way back home. The atmosphere in the car on the return trip was markedly different. We were all jolly and enthusiastic while driving to Sri Sailam but now the drowsiness in the car was almost palpable. Everyone was dozing off on regular basis except for Abhishek - who was on steering wheel the whole time and only dozed off thrice. It was probably because of this somnolence that, on our way back, we missed the waterfall to which everyone was so looking forward to. We had already overshot the waterfall by more than 25 Kms, when we asked a local about it. This person, it turned out, had a particularly sadistic sense of humor and he sent us to a village, some 16 Kms away, telling us that we would find a great waterfall there too. He also added that we can even bathe there. On reaching the spot, we found a thin streak of water along a rock surface.

After this final disappointment we assumed a more fatalistic view and figured that it was not one of our day. We (actually only Abhishek) then singlemindedly drove back. We finally reached Hyderabad at around 4 p.m. and were so exhausted that even Neha could only manage a fleeting smile at some genuinely funny jokes.

Later we told the story of this trip to friends and realized that the trip in retrospect became more enjoyable than the actual one. I guess, it's true in general - adversities, once successfully overcome, become good stories.