A Star

Yesterday I had requested Ashwini to come especially early to the track. When I reached, he was already there.

We had a 3 x 5k hard session today. We warmed up, to what extent it was possible in this cold weather.

Just before starting, I asked him if we should just combine the run and do fifteen kilometres all at once. Bilkul, he said giving me a thumbs up. Coach Ravi had arrived just then too, the white helmet swinging off his arm.

We began faster than prescribed pace and after one kilometre settled into a rhythm that would be, kilometre after kilometre, within a couple of seconds of each other. Lane one was just us, the track for the most part empty.

Coach Ravi stood there calling out the splits every 400m, admonishing us if we were even a second off. It helped. It encouraged. It was simply incredible.

When I left from the track itself for Kota, Rajasthan, I hoped the day ahead would be what we wished for. It turned out it was the day we brought the very young girl home.

Driving back, the young boy and the girl at the back, a new beginning, my mind wandered to the morning, the way Ashwini pulled me through the run, the determination on his face, the way he ran with effortless elegance.

A day to remember.