Downsize me!!!

I once got inspired by this show "Downsize me', to shed off some fat from my overweight body. My wife used to ensure that the show is recorded if I am not at home, and make me watch it once I am back home. I can still not understand where she got the inspiration for that, 'cause she would always forget, even if I had asked her to record other shows, which were of more interest to me. Most likely, the inspiration came from seeing my consistent expansion over the years. I had hit another scary milestone, 80kg, and for my height 167cm, I was about to be declared as obese.

I love food. Usually, I eat until my taste buds are tired, my stomach never gets tired, it just adjusts according to what I eat, I sometimes feel that my stomach has no boundaries. Being a vegetarian (controversial statement), my choice of food is limited. The best food, is the food made by my mother. All of us would feel the same because that is the taste we have enjoyed from our childhood. And what more can a man ask for, if he gets a wife who can make food which is equally tasty as your mother's. Yes, I am one of those lucky person. The only consequence was that no one could stop my craving for food. My last known weight was 62, in recorded history :), and from there I consistently improved, 65, 68, 70, 73, 76, 79... And there I was, with a man's biggest asset, his tummy. I never used to worry about losing it, why should I, when that is where half of a man's earning is. :)

I have tried many things to reduce weight in the last 10 years. My first attempt was when I was in Pune, I had joined a local Gym there. It was a gym with modern equipments but with a traditional master.

Myself and one of my friends joined, and on registration date, the master told us, the dressing code. Oops, you have to wear a langotti??? Our master asked us to buy one, and the next day he would teach us how to wear one. Well, since this news came after we joined, I didn't have an option of not going. We bought this thing, and I played a drama of not being well next day. My friend understood that I didn't want to attend the "How to wear session...", but he couldn't convince me, as I was still not well ;). Later, once he returned, I tried to get the secret formula, but he refused to tell me, and after about half an hour of sentimental requests, he finally taught me. I must have gone to that gym for 2 or 3 weeks. And due to personal reasons, which is laziness, I stopped going.

Another attempt, in Pune, me and my friend, Aji started to go for morning walks, we used to walk for around 5 km. The problem was that, at the end of this 5km walk, was a Kerala restaurant, and they used to have a nice breakfast. Once we reach there, as light refreshments, we used to take around 7-8 dosas, and after that we would be really tired, and then decide to go back either in bus or by rickshaw. As a result, I gained 2kg, which turned out to be a bit too much to get out of morning walks. So, we decided to stop this activity.

I used to love potato chips a lot during those days, and whenever I used to come early from office, I would buy a big potato chips packet (worth Rs 25), I think it was Lays (Tomato Tango), and eat the whole packet. The craving was so much that sometimes I eat faster to finish it so that I don't have to share even one piece with my friends :). I must accept that I was selfish in this matter. The morning breakfasts also used to be yummy, in the office canteen, I used to start the day with 2 Aloo Parathas, 2 boiled eggs, and a tea, this used to be a daily routine.

I moved to Bangalore after two years, where I stayed for 1 year, and I tried to continue my attempt to maintain my fitness :), first by joining a Gym. I used to regularly go there for two weeks, and thought that I will become a body builder in one month. But, in Bangalore too, the eating exercise dominated all the other exercises, and again due to personal reasons I stopped going to the gym. I decided that I should do something which I would really enjoy, and at the same time will become a good exercise. So, I bought a racing bicycle, worth Rs 3000, and started cycling either in the mornings or in the evenings after I return from office.

But, soon I started getting back pain, as I had to bend down to hold the handle of the racing bicycle. Ok, the truth was I didn't find it interesting, as the interesting part was already over (buying the bicycle). When I was leaving for Singapore from Bangalore, I offered to sell this bicycle to my friend, Aji, and told him that he can buy the bicycle from me, and it was very good for reducing weight, especially reducing the tummy. He just asked me only one question, "Will the weight reduce if we just buy the bicycle and keep it at home". My wife then told him, in an attempt to get rid of the bicycle, "It is very good for hanging clothes, it has lot of places, and hooks where you can hang any kind of cloth". Finally, I had to sell off the bicycle in a nearby shop for some Rs700 as I realized that no one would buy in my idea, especially after seeing my Gym body.

I reached Singapore on a Monday morning, and had to report to work on the same day. So, I skipped the breakfast, and was really hungry by lunch time. One of my colleagues took me to the food court, to an Indian stall. Wow, lot of dishes, in all colors, but when they served me, the quantity was so little that if I had to take a heavy breath at that time, the entire plate of food would have gone inside through my nose.

I felt so sad that a drop of tear escaped my eyes. And the meal cost $5 and that was Rs250, for which, in India those days I could have bought myself a feast. The thought about what my achan always said went through my mind. He would say never to bother about the money you spend for food, and there was no need to restrict spending in food even if we restrict it in other things. Anyways, little did I know at that time, that, Singapore was a place where you could get all varieties of food. You name the food, and you are very likely to find it within 3km of where you stand.

In the first two years, my wife and me used to get ice creams every time we visit a store. And we would have ice creams after lunch and after dinner. We thought breakfast would be an odd time to have ice creams. Potato chips, french fries and chocolates used to be side dishes or after meal snacks. Within years I was about to touch 80kg, but I never bothered, because I used to have a feeling that I was "living to eat", and not "eating to live".

In Singapore too, I continued my attempt to get back into shape, and at least from the time I arrived here, I used to play badminton on all Saturday mornings, and cricket/volleyball on Saturday evenings. The problem that all the fitness activities were packed into one day, and so it was more of a torture to my body even if I enjoy to play from morning till evening. And Sunday usually will pass because I will have all kind of body pains. And moreover these activities were not enough to reduce my weight even by 100 gms because the demand (for food) was more than supply (exercise).

I have tried to go for jogging, and when it became difficult to continue, I tried to make it interesting, by buying a MP3 player, so that I can listen to music while running. Later I thought it is too difficult to carry a MP3 player as I am already carrying my mobile phone, so I bought a memory card for my mobile phone so that all songs can be in the mobile phone itself, and I would have to carry only my mobile for running. But later I realized that it is difficult to carry my mobile as it was a bit heavy to carry while running. Actually, all these items were in my "to buy" list, and I used it as an excuse to get them.

Benny and Sheela, my best buddies, used to accompany me in all the weight reduction activities, from the time I arrived in Singapore. Once, we saw an article which said, we had to drink 5 litres of water every day, and then we started it as a full time activity in office. I am not sure whether there was any water shortage in office those days, as in the beginning, Benny misread it as "5 gallons", I used to see him going to the water dispenser every 10 minutes. :). I drank so much water that one day I could not feel any taste at all. Considering the productivity at office, as we used to spend more than half of the time in the rest room, we decided to stop this. Another incident, which brings a smile the moment I think about it is... me and Benny going for cycling, the main problem was that we under estimated the distance to the destination. We cycled a lot, for hours, and finally reached ECP beach, and since we were very thirsty, we cycled another 1 km to find a shop were we could find water. And worst part was that we had to cycle all the way back home too. Benny might have enjoyed the return journey, as his brakes were jammed, and he had to put extra effort to pedal the cycle forward. Finally, when we reached home, we were cursing ourselves for having gone for it, and were good for nothing for the remaining part of the day. After one year or so, we tried to go for swimming in Tampines swimming complex. Benny promised me that he will teach me how to swim, but I just ended up drinking some water from the swimming pool when I drowned a couple of times. This didn't last for even 2 weeks, and yet another try ended in vain.

I still considered myself as fit, as I was still able to play for the whole of Saturday, even though my weight was so high. One day, while me, Sreejith and Sheela were having a post lunch walk, we noticed a road show in Millenia walk, Fitness First road show, this was a Gym next to my office, and the sales manager, Gio, approached us enquiring our interest to stay fit. As we discussed about the pricing plan and features in the Gym, my interest to join increased as usual, and finally, he said the punch feature, 'you can even rent DVDs for free in the Gym'. That helped me make my final decision to join the Gym :). Sreejith, seeing my interest to stay fit, also jumped into this, and got himself registered in the Gym. He was unaware of my history of how I used to consistently continue such activities, :). Sheela knew, and so she didn't join.

After joining, for one or two weeks, myself and Sreejith used to go regularly to the Gym. Sreejith convinced his wife, Keerthi, also to join, and she used to travel a long distance to work out. And then as office work picked up, I started missing a few days, and then I stopped going to the gym. I had a contract with the gym for one year, and the payment mode was automatic from credit card. So, I was very punctual in paying the monthly charges, but never turned up. Sreejith and Keerthi used to regularly go for all those months. I had got two free personal training sessions when I had registered, and in June, I decided to atleast use that, and since my project had already completed, I was able to use some spare time for it. Sreejith suggested me to enroll with his personal trainer, Henry, according to him was good. So, I went to the trial personal training session on the first day, and met Henry. The trial session is for half an hour, and he made me do some simple exercises, and in 10 minutes, I was out, I felt giddy, wanted to throw up, and was about to faint. Henry made me lie down on a yoga mat, and asked me to raise my legs and rest it on a gym ball, a technique he uses for all such cases. That is when it all started....





(to be continued...)

The Not So "Sporty" Me

Four!!!! Antony had struck another fine boundary of a decent bowling attack by Tampines Rovers. We enjoyed every stroke played by Sreejith and Antony as we were cruising to a victory in a do-or-die tournament. Everything changed suddenly when both got out and I went to bat with just 11 runs needed of 11 balls. Yes, I messed it all up. I started playing my "not so usual" swings trying to hit every ball. Wasted 3 to 4 crucial balls and giving up my wicket by trying another stupid swing.

My presence in the pitch proved too costly for our team with the required run rate sky rocketing. We LOST!!! And "This loss was proudly sponsored by Rakesh". Every stupid shot I tried flashed through my mind over the weekend. I kept thinking, what was I trying to do? Trying to be a Hero??? I didn't have any answers to my own questions. Only think I know is that, it was my "Not so 'Sporty' me" moment. I really apologize to all my teammates who believed I could pull it off. Sorry. And great batting - Antony and Sreejith.

Actually, I love sports, to play or to simply watch it, be it on TV or be it some casual outdoor games. I have this very faint memory of my father buying me a football while I was a little boy. We didn't have lot of football loving kids those days, and I don't really remember me playing football in my childhood. The only thing I recall is a torn football with the inner rubber layer jumping out of the outer surface when I tried to fill air in it. My Achan (father) would get me all sorts of sports stuff. Even though I am not a sports champion or a well known celebrity, I still thank him a lot for what he has done. Without his support I wouldn't have known to play most of the games I play today.


We had two badminton racquets with wooden frame, and we used to play in front of our house with the gate as the net. I mostly would play with Raakhee chechi (my dearest sister) and my achan. Sometimes, my friends in the neighbourhood used to come and join. The top part of the gate was covered at that time and we would not be able to see our opponent most of the time. Sometimes, we used to play in our terrace and my amma would tell us to jump slowly or the house would come down. :)

My father got me a good racquet after the 10th standard board exams. Me and some of my friends used to go to the Rotary club Badminton courts (Cochin). Then, during my 11th and 12th standards, we used to play in a court near my friend's house. We used to cycle around 10-12 kms to go to that place. Me, Sujith, Nidheesh, Balakrishnan, Vikas, Kiran - this was the circle of friends that time. Badminton always used to be there, in school, in college, when i was working, in pune, in bangalore, and in singapore. I just love this game.

Cricket was my favourite game, as it is with majority of the Indians. My house was near the Cochin backwaters, and there used to be a big open field. There were some houses nearby, but the field was so good, full of trees, mainly coconut trees and a few mango trees. I used to play there almost every single day. After returning from school, I used to immediately change and run to the field with my cricket bat. If I dont find anyone in the ground, then I would start visiting everyone's house and would call them out to play. Balu, Jayesh, Jaison - were my playing friends that time.

I really dont remember how many cricket balls we might have lost, either by hitting it into the backwaters, or by hitting it on top of the coconut tree, or by hitting it to the house next to the ground, the aunty would never give us the ball back. If the ball goes into that house, then we never even used to wait, we would run for our life before the aunty could spot us. We would not attempt to enter that house also, as there were many dogs in that house, atleast 3. My mother was mentioning recently that they are facing the same problem, with some kids now playing in front of our house. She said my father would jump out and all the kids would run away. I am sure, my father and mother are enjoying those moments, remembering how we used to behave when we were kids.

I would never get tired playing, and my mother still says that even if the first group of kids return after playing, I would still wait in front of my gate waiting, and hoping to see another interested kid to play with me again. Finally, I would return home when it used to turn dark.

Our family (Achan, amma, raakhee chechi and me) used to get together at the Dining table every other day. No, not for dinner, we never used to have dinner together, thanks to the TV, we all could never open our mouth for eating, without the sound from the TV. Then why??? Our Dining table, used to be our Table Tennis table :). That is where I learnt to play Table Tennis. Again, thanks to my achan, I learned this wonderful game only because of him. He used to take a piece of cloth and make a net, and then we used to play. Smashes, spins, great serves, great games, everything used to be there in that wonderful stadium.


There was one table tennis table in our school, and everyone used to play there. There was a main group of players, with all expert players, and then there used to be an amateur group of players of which I was part of. We really used to wait for a long long time to get our turn on the table, and even if we got one, the expert players will smash us top to bottom, and the match would not last long. One particular incident I remember during that time, there was a tournament in our school, and my TT racquet was in bad shape, and I asked my achan for a new one. Achan was a bit tight with finance at that time, and he asked me to manage with the one I had. I went into Satyagraha, and I remember not speaking to my Achan for 3 days. Finally, Amma came and told me that I should not be doing that, and I should go and speak to achan. I broke my strike and became friends with achan again, and then very next day he bought me a fantastic racquet. I took it to the school and went boasting about it for days. I sometimes feel sad when I think of the way I behaved with my Achan, but then if not to my Achan, to whom can I behave like that :).

I remember my physical training sir in school, Poulose Sir. My school, "Kendriya Vidyalaya No. II, Cochin", was located in the Katari Bagh naval quarters. There were lot of mango trees in the courtyard of every house, and during the season the kids from the school would climb on trees or throw stones to get the unripe mangoes. And all this normally used to happen during the lunch time. The house owners often used to complain to the school management about this. Once, a few children were caught by Poulose sir, coming late to the school after lunch, and some of them had mangoes in their hand. And, by default, all of the latecomers were branded mango thieves. I was one among those unfortunate kids, although I was not involved in the mango stealing. I had gone to play with some friends, and was late. Sir caned all of us in the hand, and after the whole ritual was over, I started crying and told Sir that I did not steal any mangoes and was late for some other reason. Poulose sir scolded me for not telling him before he caned me, and then later comforted me, gave me a chocolate and asked me to stay in his PT room. That was considered to be a privilege a student can get, the room was full of sporting equipments and trophies.


My school taught me the basics of Volleyball, which I love to play even now with my friends here in Singapore. The only problem I faced, back in school, and even today, is that I am a bit short for playing this game. I like to play near the net, but to block a smash or to smash a ball would seem nearly impossible. My generous friends would sometimes lower the net for the benefit of all the short players to experience how a smash could be hit :).

I hope my body would allow me to enjoy all these sports for a lot more years in my life. I can't imagine a life without sports. Every game I play brings back a lot of memories in my life, which I would always cherish, and bring back the child in me. Sports for life....