A Run in Bombay

This morning I went for my first run in Bandra, a suburb of Bombay where my Dad grew up. I woke at 6AM thanks to the jet lag, and the roads were relatively quiet, so I slipped out and hit the road for the first time in a few days. I managed to make it to the shoreline, but was still weary of the cars and rickshaws as I’m not used to people driving on the left hand side of the road. It was a stop and go type run, as I kept hitting dead ends and cutbacks, though I managed to make it about 55 minutes and only get lost once. I have a feeling it was more mentally therapeutic then physically beneficial, as I could actually see the pollution in the air.

India has really been westernized in the last 5-10 years. For the first time, I saw other people jogging and walking along the promenade. There were even signs that said “Exercise Daily.” Definitely a sign of western influence, as exercise has never been an Indian value.

However, at one point, I reached the end of a promenade (Indian version of a boardwalk), and hit a poorer area where the smell of fish hit me like a brick wall. The fisherman apparently cast the excess fish on the side of the road, for consumption of the crows. I went for another two minutes, passing through a very poor, dilapidated area, when I finally had to stop. The road went on, but in this environment, my running for the first time felt like a show of extravagance. The people on the street side watched me carefully, and I felt guilty passing by them as if to say

“I have so much excess in my life, I run in circles to get rid of it.”

I made my way home, where my uncle and aunt were awake, and despite knowing about all my running and exercise pursuits, looked at me as if I were an alien species.

Tagged as: Bandra, Poor, Running, Slums