Intro

This blog as might be apparent from the title has to do with running, biking and basically other outdoor individualistic sports, sometimes extreme, such as rock climbing . But don't be surprised if you find articles on work, personal life, music and even philosophy, this blog is an exception in this aspect in the blogosphere of running blogs and I am trying to revamp the blog to make it more runner friendly. You might want to look at the sidebar titled 'categorised', which as is obvious, categorizes my posts into different areas of interest.
The other thing that might interest many people is a section on 'running videos' and 'general videos' on the side bar, which I keep updating now and then.
I plan to bring in more posts on running and biking, with some added colour, so as to make them 'complete'. That's about it for now.
As a post-note, I have run a half-marathon, but I am yet to attempt a marathon, which through some concerted effort and time should happen in the future, but that ofcourse is not the culmination of this blog, it would on the contrary be something to jumpstart this blog onto new vistas.




Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The rock

Let's observe a rock, a rock perched neatly and snuggly in an otherwise flat desert.

Now when I say observe, the obvious question is from which frame of reference.
Let us say I am stationary in all the observation points with respect to the desert floor.
Now from all possible observation points, I pick two: within and without.

Within is the frame of reference when I peep into the fundamental constituents of the rock.
Without is an observation point outside the rock as seen by a normal human eye.

The without observation is a simple one..you see a small rock 10 metres away from you..is it stationary with respect to you?
You are not sure, maybe the desert wind lifting up the sand is blurring your vision. For all you know, it could be the head of a rattle snake! So you move closer, now 5 metres away, you can clearly look at the contours of the rock, the different hues of black and green mingling to give the rock a sublime look. You don't care, all you need to know is whether the object you have designated as 'rock' is as it seems to be: ever at rest. You aren't convinced, you want to have an even closer look..At 25cms from your eye and with the rock in your hand you are convinced that the rock isn't jumping around. Still to be sure, you hold the rock in your hand till you get tired of this exercise; the rock is a dense object after all. You put the rock in the place you originally found it and sit beside the rock, looking ahead into the seemingly endlesss desert.

The cool breeze gently caressing your face as the sun sets beyond the horizon makes you want to lie down for a while. You do the same observing the stars slowly emerging into the night sky.
Looking to your left, you can't see the rock, so groping the hand around you find the rock..the same one you observed a while ago. It's still there.
The stars and the whole cosmos that is visible to you seems to start blurring now..you wonder if the rock is still there, but you can't lift your hand as it feels as heavy as the rock. Now you are asleep, but ofcourse you don't know that unless you were lucid dreaming ......

*************

I see something huge in the distance. I can't make out what it is. The swirling dust in front of me doesn't seem to affect me in the least. I try to stop, but I can't. I seem to be moving at a steady pace and effortlessly at that as if propelled by some external force. I can't make out the speed for there is nothing else to compare to save the floor..wait a minute..I can't see the floor either. Where ever I look there is this brownish dust that clouds my vision. Taking stock of the situation, I decide to see where it is that I am proceeding. The word 'I' seems meaningless, since I don't see any body around 'me'..just the swirling brownish-grey dust.But ofcourse I can look around, only to see an endless desert except in the direction I am proceeding....
I estimate that I am no farther than about a furlong away from this massive wall in front of me, which must be atleast about a 100 metres high and about 5 metres wide...and its oval shape is a queer one..somehow supported at the base..

As I approach this wall closer, I see that the wall isn't stationary...It seems to be made of some dense viscous material..a maroonish-black colour and the wall seems to be in a state of vibration...No I can't call it a wall now..Its a live monster that seems to be dancing to a particular tune..Each part of the monster, part here would mean the dense material, seems to be in tune with a particular rhythm..going back and forth..The sight amazes me as much as it frightens me...I have never seen such a gigantic mosntrous vibrating thing before...

Holy cow! The material that makes up this monster as I see it now, just a few metres away from this monster is the same brownish dust that I can see around me..only more dense..
I move closer to the base of this monster, the vibration effecting my motion..Now I seem to be dancing the same tune as the monster..I am now in tune with the monster..It feels good..I am now within a hand's reach of the monster. I will myself to stop and amazingly I slow down to a crawl. I will myself even strongly and come to a complete halt.

Woah! I can't seem to resist the pull of the monster. It seems to be drawing me in as a magnet might to a metallic piece. I hold on to my will, for lack of a body and the consequent muscles to resist the pull of the monster. I look down and now look around and then look at the monster. What do I see?
I see the same brownish dust everywhere..It is now that I notice very clearly that what I thought to be a wall at first and turned out to be a vibrating monster is nothing but a very dense column of dust..........
All this makes my head spin..The world I now see is filled with the same dust, more dense at some places, taking shapes at other places like the rock and thinning out into the distant desert horizon.
I now see the dust-devil in front of me to be just an apparition..its just the same material somehow packed in a precise manner to resemble an oval shaped wall from the distance.
I am lost now..I have had enough of this sameness..I can't seem to do much in this 'alternate reality' except move around in dust..for life..not at all an interesting prospect..I sense a growing heat around me..I feel thirsty...

***********
The blazing sun overhead must surely have made my face sun-burnt. I turn my head with a deep groan and feel my left hand around and sure enough the rock's maintained its position..though its dug deeper into the sandy dust so that I can only see the upper half of its oval body.
Picking up the rock, I heave a deep sigh as I place the rock into my rucksack, addding to the existing collection of 43 rocks. I head over to a probable oasis in the distance masked by a few date palms to refresh myself and continue my journey to find the next stationary rock.

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