Twin successes in a trip to Mumbai

The past week has bought nothing but good news for 21-year-old Kiran Sahdev. Her tickets from Meerut to the City of Dreams were booked. But for another cause. The political science student from Meerut University came to Mumbai for the Western Railway selection trials on Wednesday. Little did she know that she was going to run on Sunday.

Call it some much-needed motivation or a final push, following Sahdev’s selection for Western Railway, she decided to make her debut in this event, participating in the Women’s Half Marathon, where she finished third. “Forget winning. A week ago, I wasn’t even sure if I would run this race.

My mentor Sunita Godra had filled up the form months ago but my presence wasn’t certain. My good show on Wednesday was perhaps what I needed. Things just fell into place,” says an elated Sahdev, who stayed with her aunt in Jogeshwari over the past week.

Sahdev’s father is a farmer in Meerut, who grows sugarcane and jowar while her mother is a nurse. Her third place finish with a time of 1:21:57, three minutes behind winner Sudha Singh ensured that Kiran goes back to Lucknow, where she now lives and trains with the Uttar Pradesh national team, with a cash prize of Rs50,000.

Her dream is to wear the national colours. “Running 10,000m for India one day. That’s what motivates me,” she says.

Marathon Musings
Providing relief
Sambhaji Patil and his wife Bhagyashree offered relief to many participants at the marathon. They had 50 other volunteers from an organisation called Trinaini. What was special about these volunteers was that they are visually challenged. This Kandivli-based organisation runs a foot spa that’s operated by the blind.

Jolly good CST
CST never looked more colourful, thanks to a team of doctors and health experts from Kohinoor Hospital in Kurla. Everyone was flaunting a Lasith Malinga hairdo in different colours and were preparing for their human train. They made a train of four compartments. Every compartment had a message which said how to avoid cancer. The name of the train – Anti-Cancer Express.

Commotion at Kurla
The effect of the marathon could be felt as early as 6am at Kurla station when the railway official closed down the counter thrice in a span of 20 minutes because of crowd. The result, “ticket nahi dogey to dus dus ki daud lagani padegi Aamir Khan ki maafik (if you don’t give us tickets, we’ll have to run like Aamir Khan did) – it was a stunt performed by the actor in Ghulam (1998) where he ran towards the train.

Models promote health
While actor John Abraham waved his hands from the podium, there were lads who could give him a run for money. Fifteen male models from a health magazine flaunted their torsos promoting health and fitness. They did distract them for a few minutes with a painter constantly rubbing his brush on their bare bodies.

With inputs from Wriddhaayan Bhattacharyya