Unexpected Kindness by Vaibhav Mohan

The weather is finally opening up so I have been (unsuccessfully) trying to get into an outdoor running routine of some sort. On one such recent run, I was unexpectedly helped by the kindness of two strangers - one of them actually unknowingly. More on that later - some background first. 

Over the past twenty five years, my relationship with my weight has been rocky at best. The quest to have a flat(ish) tummy has been a never ending struggle and a combination of factors (genetic disposition, laziness, over indulgence in food and drink) has presented seemingly insurmountable hurdles. This love-hate dynamic has naturally been extended to the one form of exercise that seems to do me some good: running. 

It all started when I showed up as an overweight kid on admission day at Marine Engineering and Research Institute in Kolkata. Like most of my peers, I had dutifully followed the herd and spent an inordinate amount of time preparing to ace one of the toughest entrance exams in the world (spoiler alert: I didn’t!). The stress eating during those prep years had done me no favors and showed up in unflattering ways and in all the wrong places.

Like all self-respecting engineering colleges, we too had a glorious tradition of ragging that was bequeathed to us by overzealous seniors - these led to a number of interesting stories, perhaps to be told at another time. The point to note is that the ragging was intensely physical and it aligned well with the way the course was set up - the college prides itself on being a para military institution and along with regular coursework has a number of other components designed to prepare mariners for the upcoming tough life at sea.

One such component was the annual 10km race (we all referred to it, incorrectly, as the annual marathon) which became the bane of my existence for the first few months of college. As a first year cadet, it was a rite of passage (read: our seniors forced us) to participate in the marathon irrespective of your interest, experience or enthusiasm for running.  And so began the daily morning preparation - this wasn’t some voluntary activity - we had to report every morning at 6am at an assigned point and join our batchmates in running laps around the college campus under the watchful eyes of seniors that had been tasked with ensuring that the whole batch was well prepared for d-day. The punishment for not showing up was two fold - you would face the wrath of aforementioned seniors and more importantly, you would risk losing academic course points on account of your absence from extracurricular activities.

Needless to say, my heavyset body which had been accustomed to all the comforts of home did not take well to this outright assault. In the first few days, I barely managed to keep up with my batchmates after 200 meters and always ended up having to run extra laps as “punishment” for being slow. As time progressed, my stamina grew and I could run for 3-4 kilometers but could never keep up with the rest of my batch. 

On the day of the race, I was resigned to my fate of being the last  or worse even - not being able to complete the race at all. As expected, my energy ran out somewhere around the 5k mark and I was dejectedly trudging along alone, none of the other participants in sight, when I became the recipient of some totally unexpected and non-solicited kindness. One of my seniors from the third year batch who was a volunteer for the event (handing out water and other supplies to the runners) noticed that I was lagging and started running alongside me. He used all sorts of tactics to egg me on - using words of encouragement, cursing, thumping my back, questioning my manhood - and he kept on running by my side. Soon, the silhouettes of other runners began to emerge in our line of vision. We kept advancing at a steady pace and managed to overtake a couple of people. I finished the race at a respectable (by my standards) 55 minutes and I wasn’t even the last to finish! And I owed it all to this senior who had somehow run the last 5k with me without any preparation! Thus began my love-hate relationship with running: I continued to do it throughout the fours years of engineering and beyond but was inconsistent and lazy.

Years later, on a random run in Hoboken, I was reminded of that unexpected act of kindness by two strangers. I was running after a long time and was beginning to feel that familiar ache in my muscles and loss of spirit when I noticed a guy running in front of me. He was running at about my speed and I motivated myself to keep up and maintain the distance between us. He didn’t know it but he helped me set the pace and continue to run. After about a mile, we parted ways and I started to slow down again. An oncoming fellow runner probably recognized the agonized look on my face and tried to grab my attention. As I looked up towards him he gave me a huge thumbs up and a big encouraging smile. I don’t know why, but that really got me going and I was able to run a lot further than I was planning to.

As I pondered on how the actions of these people had such a positive impact on me, I resolved to try to be unexpectedly kind to people around me - you can never overestimate it’s magic!