Early morning walk and jog at Cubbon park - 17 Sep, 2016

So glad that BTC started the walk and jog events again, after a bit of break. Given the rainy season in Bengaluru, my daily 3.5+ KM morning walk wasn't regular too these past few weeks.

Image credit: wikimedia

As usual, meeting point was Cubbon park gate besides Metro station. Best way to reach is via Metro and usually you get to meet others on the way. Met Sandeep Paul and Naveen, and later came to know Arvind (good to catch up with him after long time) had also come. While waiting at meeting point, we discussed about our recent treks and introducing ourselves.

By 6:35 AM, everybody had gathered. Short intro telling our names. Then Ankit explains how we'll do a circuit around Cubbon first by walk and then jogging. New comers were advised to stick to regulars for familiarizing the route.

Perhaps because of working day that Saturday, our group was about half the size than normal. Add to it different pacing, we were pretty much on our own throughout. Except at major route points where Ankit and regulars co-ordinated to guide the new comers.

And as usual, thanks to Jyothi, we followed our walk and jog with equally (if not more) demanding stretching exercises. Laughter exercises were the best ;) We then had feedback session (praise all around, especially first timers), took a few pics, had sugarcane juice and dispersed.

 

Pictures credit: Naveen Kumar

Early morning walk and jog at Cubbon park - 24 July, 2016

Well, I did push myself to participate in another walk and jog event. Like the first one, it was satisfying in the company of BTCians.

Perhaps owing to spree of western ghats treks, only few registered. About 15 turned up, some few minutes late. Ankit and Veera took us through the now familiar plan - walk on the jogging track around the park first, followed by jogging and then stretching exercises.

Though our group was small, we soon split across as per our comfortable walking sprint. Veera and me discussed on Himalayan treks. Near the library, we stopped about 5-10 minutes for new comers to catch up. Continuing our discussion, Veera and me completed the circuit only to discover that others took a short-cut and had already started their jog :P

It felt even more difficult this time to keep myself jogging without a break, despite my usual slow pace. Around halfway mark, I did think about taking short-cut or break from jog. But somehow I found motivation to keep going and finished it. Very satisfying.

Then Jyothi led us through series of stretching exercises. Again, they felt even more difficult to keep up than 5+5 KM walk and jog. Her commentary, energetic motivation and counting did help though. Highlight was holding our breadth as much as possible and releasing as laughter.

Water and snack was followed by feedback session. It was heartening to see newcomers heaping praise about the event and promise to be regular in future. We then had sugarcane juice before dispersing. I do hope I will attend this at least once a month :)

Early morning walk and jog at Cubbon park - 10 July, 2016

Another attempt to make jogging a habit. Not ambitious this time, but trying to start small. To be consistent, instead of aiming for glory. And what better way to start again than with BTC and Cubbon park as location?

Meeting time 6:25 AM and meeting point the entrance gate near Cubbon part metro station. No problem, if one gets up early enough to catch the 6 AM metro starting from either Byappanahalli or Mysuru road.

About 10 of us came in metro from Byappanahalli side and got chatting. At meeting point, we waited 5-10 more minutes for everybody to come. Signed our attendance forms. Organizers Pavan and Gaurav gave an outline for the event - first up walk around the Cubbon park (also helps newbies to get to know the path), then jog around the park on same route followed by stretching exercises.

So, walking first. But hold on, no leisure walking. Brisk walk it is. Although we were a large group (around 25), we soon thinned as per our pace. When you can talk without discomfort, that is a good pace to maintain. And helps passing time, without brooding on length of walk. Being monsoon season, it was cloudy, cooler morning and pleasant to walk despite sweating. Overnight rain meant the muddy walking/jogging track was slimy here and there. 

Image credit: wikimedia

Most of us finished the walking round in about 45 minutes and assembled near Queen Victoria's statue. The public restrooms spaced around the park were useful. There was one nearby here as well.

Before starting our jogging, our organizers stressed again to go at your own comfortable pace. And to assemble at the entrance gate near metro station (i.e the meetup point for event). Some of us had water before starting out (thanks to those who were carrying water and shared with us)

Predictably, we were even more spread out during jogging. I just had one simple aim - jog without stopping and finish the run. And I did it, except for those iron bridges where I preferred to walk instead. Took about 40 minutes, not much difference compared to brisk walk :P But the last kilometer or so was very demanding. And tempting to give up and walk.

The park was crowded with people everywhere. Most people walking, jogging and running. A few cyclists, skaters, some playing badminton, cricket, etc. And probably some slack lining. Some were feeding fishes in the dirty looking pond as well as birds in nearby clearing. There were stalls here and there, selling water and fruit drinks,  vegetables, fruits, pot plants, etc. 

It started drizzling as we neared meeting point. So we met inside a veranda nearby, seemingly built for just this purpose :P Gaurav led the way with stretching exercises, from head to toes. Phew, they seemed more difficult than the 10 KM walking and jogging. And they informed that it was shortened for lack of space and continuing drizzle :P

After that, we moved out despite the drizzle for laughter and clapping exercises (needed bigger space). We then introduced ourselves along with feedback on the event. It was good to know that many were regulars and there were a few suggestions given as well. One particular suggestion to run on roads instead of muddy trail in rainy season was countered with the fact that running on road wasn't good for knees.

We took group picture before dispersing. Some teamed up to go for breakfast, some went to have fruit bowl or sugarcane juice, while the rest took leave, having somewhere else to go or long distance to their stays.

Learning Sign Language - session-1

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“...the greatest gift you can give someone is your time” - Rick Warren

Not that I went with this intention, nor have I yet served anyone. But, one can easily relate to above quotes. After feel good factor of Colorthon, I kept a lookout for such events. It duly arrived in form of 'Learn Sign Language' (the all knowing facebook letting me know through a friend)

Organized by "Empowering Social Impact" (ESI for short - mail id: esiteambangalore@gmail.com ), team, I went without much aim - learning something new and feel good factor being top two reasons. Afraid of being late, I caught an auto from MG metro station to Cafe Coffee Day at Vittal Mallya road (about 1.5 KM). I ended up being early after which I spotted Ashay (from previous trek) and later joined by Ramya, Dhananjaiah (Organizers) and Deepa. We had to wait a bit for Meghana to join - turned out all 5 of us are trekkers too, never short of something to discuss, be it some waterfall in Kerala (where Ravana was shot) or trekking to western ghats in summer. Ramya shared her workout in NGV training Kalaripayattu too.

We settled in shadows of one of the large trees in Cubbon Park for the session. Ramya and Dhananjaiah distributed a handout of what we were going to learn and then gave a short introduction on their two main types of social events - Uthan and Nirman (short and long term social impacts). Our course is long term one - raising awareness to understand/interact with differently-abled person. They are yet to bring up a full-fledged website about ESI.

I wasn't prepared when we were asked to describe our interest in joining the event. Ashay's interest dates back to DD1 hearing-impaired news (a sample), Meghana had a live experience and Deepa always wanted to learn it. I mumbled something - but won't have to do it the next time someone asks me :)

And so, we were ready to learn the alphabets again. Not before getting to know two main types of Sign language followed in India - American Sign Language (ASL), Indian Sign Language (ISL). There are other types in different countries like Japanese, Malaysian, Ethiopian, etc. ASL is more prominent in Southern cities like Bangalore, Mysore while ISL is common in North India. The main difference between the two you ask? ASL uses one hand for alphabets and ISL uses both.

As Ramya peeled off first four alphabets (a,b,c,d if you didn't know it yet ;) and no uppercase/lowercase nonsense ) in a hurry, we sure were in a trance. As were few people around us, perhaps their sleep stolen by us. Though Sign language is primarily language in itself and secluded from spoken ones, we do need alphabets to spell out words like someone's name. A good thing we were doing it in English - only 26 letters unlike regional ones - say Hindi/Tamil.

Over next hour or so, we did all the letters in stretches of four at a time. The fingers refused to co-operate easily when switching between alphabets and I often had everyone in fits by interchanging 'd' and 'f'. Practice, practice and more practice - it started to become familiar and all of us could do a-z in one go with just a few slips, if any. It helped that it wasn't exactly a class, we were out there by our own will. It was more fun, any mistake a cue to laugh out loud. If nothing else, the session certainly provided loads of 'feel good' moments. Very few times would I have concentrated on the present as I did during the session - mind freed up to do something without pressure is priceless.

Image credit : link (A bit different from what we learnt)

Learning the Basics

Spelling out our 'long' names as part of practice helped sharpen our memory as well as provide context to learning. We then proceeded to numbers - 6-9 are tough - one has to be adept how to enact as well as recognize the mirror image when deciphering. As with alphabets, I botched up the sign to indicate one is going to say numbers next - Ramya had fits throughout in telling me that I was frequently representing some other meaning with my errors. We practiced better by enacting out our date of birth.

Image credit : link

By now, Amitesh, another of ESI organizer joined us and we insisted him to take snaps :P He also elaborated more on 'spending time' and 'empowering kids' rather than donation (which according to him only makes the child more dependent).

We then moved on from letters and numbers to words. Like - how/who/which/what etc, good morning/afternoon/evening/night, thank you, can I help you, sorry, nice, etc. What's important now is that facial and body language becomes very important in conveying the meaning rather than signs alone. Most of them utilize both hands too. Ramya also stressed on how is/are/etc are ignored in such communications. (Needless to point out that I totally got confused with so many different words and again had everyone in fits with mistakes)

Group pic - identify my sign (hint, see video below)

We gave our feedback (both written and oral), also some discussion on next venue. Group photo for memories. Then I had to leave in a rush to reach Barton Center - thus missing lunch together :(

All in all, very good way to spend time. I hope I might one day find it useful to communicate with someone differently abled. Just the sheer pleasure of learning something new is good enough too :) I will leave you with this: