Last evening I went to my friend Gauri’s home for her birthday. As always it was raucous and fun with family and kids milling about, food and drink flying, cricket on the television.
I was introduced to Shalini who I learnt was a golf pro. Almost immediately, we spoke about the good old days at Delhi Golf Club in the early 90s and it made me reminisce this morning on the drive back from the run. Ali Sher, Gaurav Ghei, Arjun Atwal, Daniel, Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa, Shiv Kapur. This was the stuff of legends. In those days, anything seemed possible.
Three decades later, meeting Shalini, trading stories – although we barely scratched the surface – her life in the sport continues on.
I was thinking about this as I ran with Gaju today, up and down our usual road, adding a few bits and bobs of extra road here and there, to compete an exact hour.
The sport has changed from golf to running. But then so has time. Those days of lounging in the clubhouse ordering sandwiches and fresh lime sodas, pottering about the putting green near the eighteenth, going to the range to hit another bucket – time had a different cadence then.
Today as I ran back – literally to the car – thumping along to Flo Rida and Usher on the way home – for a few moments, I was against my usual self, nostalgic for days past.
Writing about Running 