Delhi Diary...

This blog is running a few weeks behind on it's promise of an entry every week, so here's a quick digest of some highlights and thoughts to try and make it up...

& We're having a mercifully mild summer in New Delhi till now. This is good news for runners here, especially if you're lucky enough to have a 500-acre forest around the corner, like mua :-) I've been exploring some of the smaller trails and discovering that Jahanpanah is also home to wonderful critters beyond the regular peacocks and my friendly fox. Last week, a fabulous creature ran past me on one of the more wooded trails...he/she looked like a civet or a raccoon.

Large as a dachshund (no short legs though), with lovely bandit-mask eyes and a striped tail, it was as pleasant a surprise as one could hope for, running in the heart of south Delhi, barely a few hundred metres away from the uber expensive Greater Kailash 2 kothis. Once again, with my very limited knowledge of the animals in the area, I am left wondering what I spotted and would be obliged to anyone who could enlighten me.

& I'm listening mostly to podcasts during my runs these days, with special interest to this one. The lady who runs The Brain Science Podacst calls it a show for "anyone with a brain".

The bad news is that she's not referring to just the physical organ :-) and the good news is that she makes a real effort to not just simplify brain science, but to extract practical tips from advances in neuro-science, so that we can all use these in our everyday lives.

For those of you who would rather have the Cliff notes on her work, rather than listen to it all, I will be posting just the practical tips soon :-) Call me a nerd, but I'm hooked.

& Caught the finale of the Zee TV show Dance India, Dance (Doubles)! over the weekend. P and I have been following it for a while, moved by the enthusiasm of the young participants and the high levels of skill on display. I am also moved by the 'dare to dream' power that these kinds of shows give kids from the middle and lower income families in India.

Most days, as I go past the more crowded 'garden' areas of the Jahanpanah forest, to the quieter red mud track, from where I start my run, I see kids practicing their acrobatic moves - flips and cartwheels and what have you. They use the leaves that have been raked and heaped for disposal as natural cushioning, to break their fall, and take turns 'boosting' each other through cool dance moves.

Dance-based TV reality shows a-plently on satellite TV, cheap MP3 players, role models for whom dance has proved to be the ticket to a better life, testosterone pumping through young veins...it all adds up to a heady, high-vitality mix for youngsters from economically weak backgrounds. Only one from thousands of such kids must be making the final national TV cut, but every kid living the dream gets in touch with his body in a very intense way, something that I believe must be a good thing. I could go into the brain science behind it right here, but I think it might be better to leave it for my post on practical brain tips :-)

& That about sums up my random thoughts on offer for now. Here's wishing everyone well and hoping to post a more focussed entry next time :-) Cheers!