A few weeks later through a common friend I was introduced to Basav, a techie who had just returned from the US and was interested in working together on the walking tours. I mentioned the Srirangapatna plan to him and said “You join us”!!

So on a lovely Sunday morning last September Akhila, Namarta (Akhila’s friend and another conversational architect), Basav and myself drove to Srirangapatna and spent the entire day exploring the island. A great place with amazing history but then I guess it also works on your chemistry!!

Before

And 10 months later Akhila and Basav  tie the knot!!

Let me not take too much credit for all this, after all they have worked really hard to make it happen. So heres wishing Akhila and Basav, who have decided to walk together in the journey of life, A lifetime of happiness!!

After

Dedicating Elvis Presley’s number Island of love to the newly married couple!!

So all you single folks out there… join us on our next walk, you might find more than what you expect.. a future wife/husband may be!!

Was at one of my friend Raghav’s place, they had a nice display of dolls and few of them were made from ivory. His aunt was telling me that they were more than a hundred years old and they got them for a Rupee or two back then. She also said that the sellers would force people to buy they dolls if it meant the payment came months later. Guess Mysore had quite a few elephants to spare All this displayed in a 100 yrs old house which Raghav’s granddad bought from a British Officer makes it even more special.

Was also at the Ramsons Kala Parishad , They have one of the finest collections of handicrafts in Mysore and they had organised a week long exhibition cum sale of their dolls. Most of them very tastefully done, like the chess board game with Tipu’s army on one side and the British soldiers on the other. Creative ! The reason their dolls appeal to me is because there seems to be some kind of life infused in their creations, You would not refute it if you knew the people behind it, Mr RG Singh and Mr Raghu who have done some incredible reserach on the history on dolls and also on traditional board games in India. It blew me. Their passion comes out in their creations. Check them out the next time you are in Mysore, well worth a visit.

Lastly, I went to this place in Srirangapatna where this woman had displayed a collection of 500 odd dolls. I personally dint enjoy them. And I dont think just buying dolls from all over and displaying it talks about your interest in them but rather about the size of ones husband’s wallet :)  like I said some dolls are great, some dolls are fine , Not all dolls are pretty

The track is a bit uneven making your run a little more challenging, especially the uneven stones begin to hurt you later on in the race. But what was quite amusing  was loads of people carry all sorts of gadgets while running, for people who couldnt stand their own breath you had the i-pod, there was also a bunch taking calls while running, wonder how busy a person can get ?? and then you had those who carried so many water bottles around their waist belt. Crazy I tell you. Given a chance I would run almost naked (just the bare essentials though) because the lighter the better. Aint it ? plus you had hydration points at regular intervals. Its not like you running on Pluto. There was one great soul who asked me while running, “I think my blood pressure had dropped, What about yours? ”  I wanted to ask him, Surprising you haven’t carried your BP kit huh? People i tell you.

Anyways for me, after having done two 10k runs, A half marathon would be the obvious next transition but with less then 2 weeks of preparation it turned out to be much tougher than I imagined. The first stretch was all fine but the last 4 kms was a real stretch. But thanks to the spirits around, with fellow runners pulling you and your morale up it wonderful how it makes your journey so much easier And in the end it all feels worth it for having finished the race and then diving into water to soak into your personal achievement.

Guess now am an inch closer to run a full marathon and strike it off my “to-do list”. But I’ll look at it only after a lot of preparation because 42 kms I personally feel is quite a distance for an earthly mortal . And hopefully I should have reduced my weight so that my knees are in a much better position to take it. This time I was practically immobile after the race and navigating a bunch of stairs seemed like a huge ordeal.

As of now I’m in great shape for walking , so on Royal Mysore Walks, Keep Walking should be fun, A lot of fun