Walking with Meena!

I say this as someone who was born and raised in this colorful city for the first 2 decades of my life.  Walking in the streets of Chennai is no joke.  It has never been for the frail-hearted but it is more true today than ever before.   Taking a stroll on a suburban Chennai street alongside a procession of motorcycles, cars, auto-rickshaws, buses and school vans is a challenge that requires supreme navigation skills.  After landing in Chennai for my recent trip, I learned to my dismay that I no longer have that skill.  

If you expect the vehicles to stop and let you cross a street just because you are at a pedestrian crossing, expect to watch the day turn to dusk and still be there.  You might as well have Gandalf thumping his staff on the street bellowing 'Thou shall not pass' (for reference, watch the movie The Lord of the Rings).  So then, how does one cross a busy road in Chennai?  Making eye contact with the drivers to stare them down and then bulling your way through the onslaught of traffic is the only winning technique, as far as I know.  I admit that having been away from India for too long now, I no longer possess this ability to casually cross the street deftly navigating the rushing traffic from both sides.  I used to be very good at it but these days, I am reduced to clutching my baby sister's hands and blindly following her lead to get to the other side. Shameful? Yes indeed but I do get a kick out of reaching the other side with my limbs intact.  I am quirky that way.

Not only are Chennai's streets crowded, they are also incredibly boisterous..  That is because most drivers in this city communicate through their honking.  Even in parking-lot like traffic conditions where cars are stacked for miles ahead, you will be treated to a symphony of honking sounds from all directions.  These honks are invariably followed by some of the choicest, if not creative language, hurled by angry drivers at the cars ahead.  Where do they expect the vehicle in front of them to go when the entire city block is stuck in traffic?  Once I figure it out, you will be the first to know. 

In addition to the vehicles, I found myself  sharing the streets with a handful of cows that liked to lazily munch on the previous day's produce discarded by the vegetable vendors at street corners and a horde of street dogs that are always out and about, ready to defend their territory against intruding visitors.  If you are going to be startled every time a cow's tail brushes you or a dog bares its teeth at you or a truck speeds past you barely avoiding running over your feet, then you are not adequately prepared for your stay in this beautiful city.

If you are visiting the city after a long break like me, you are also unaware that the city's streets have fallen victim to the construction project of the Metro Rail and closely resemble a plate of  'Kothu paraatta' wherever you turn.  Patches of ground have been dug up and left on a proud display for the public everywhere.  A store that is less than 5 minutes by walk according to Google Maps takes an hour to go by car, as most streets have now been declared one-way and one has to creatively pretzel their way to their destination. 

Has this put a stop to the furious pace of life in this city?  Don't be silly.  Signs splashed across the city that claim 'Inconvenient today for a better tomorrow' have more than done their part in helping people move on with their lives without complaining.  After all, they have been sufficiently warned that it will be inconvenient.  These past 2 weeks, I have watched, in awe, all the people hopping and skirting around the many holes in the streets to go about their daily work with ease and stoic resignation.  No amount of inconvenience seem to deter the Chennaites' love of life.  "Bring it on" seemed to be the motto of folks here. Adaptability honed to perfection, I would say. 

Coming back to walking with Meena, after years of vegetating on the couch, I finally decided to sign up for a 10K walking program that started just before I left for my India trip.  The walk is only in April but apparently, one must train intensely to make this 10K walk.  I chuckled loudly when I first heard this.  Of course, I know how to walk, silly.  It is true that I don't do it often but that doesn't mean that I need training for it, right?  Wrong, said all the folks who are seasoned runners and walkers in the RHWB network.  I am now part of this amazing group and even have a dedicated coach who gives me weekly walking schedules, monitors my exercise data and keeps me going.  It is really great except that I had to start off my program with a schedule to brisk walk 7 to 8 miles on Chennai roads each week.  Oh boy!  

I will have you know that losing heart is not something folks out here do.  I may be a US Citizen today but Chennai is wired into me so I put my brain, the only thing that works reasonably well most of the time in my whole body, to work and quickly eliminated the streets of Chennai from the potential list of places to walk.  After all, how brisk can I walk if I had to constantly skirt around construction areas, cows, dogs and cars?  My sister's family suggested an alternative and thanks to them, I found a park within 2 blocks of my sister's place that had a nice walking trail and zoomed in on that as my walking space.  

I set out each morning at dawn, with a slight breeze flirting with my unruly hair, to this pretty park where toddlers came to play on the swing, seniors came to catch up with their friends sitting on the benches, college kids came to weight train together, parents brought their little ones to skate in the newly built skating ring and where I went to train for my very first 10K walk.  Most days, I could hear the faint whistle of pressure cookers from the apartments nearby where mothers had already started to cook breakfast and pack lunch boxes for the children.  

I chose not to take my phone along to listen to music during my walks in India. That's because I wanted to use the opportunity to observe life pulsing all around me and absorb the sounds and smells of my beloved hometown to bring back with me after my trip.  I even made friends with 2 small puppies that managed to slip through the gates of the park every day to romp around on the grassy area.  That park was a melting pot of all the things that I love about Chennai and I am incredibly grateful to have started my training right there.  

A huge shoutout to the head coach Bala of the RHWB network for giving me an opportunity to get off my favorite couch and go for a walk every week.  Also, thankful to my personal coach Nay for being super positive and encouraging all of us to do our best.  It was just an added bonus to sign up for this 10K with 2 of my best friends.  Would you like to walk too?  Find RHWB on FB and Instagram to get updates on their next season's schedule.  

Take it from someone who has blindly resisted every attempt to get fit for many years.  Life outside the couch is pretty great too.  Go ahead and give it a shot.