Musings of a runner: On eyes being the door to another reality

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.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

On eyes being the door to another reality

He was headed towards the quadrangle in the hostel to play a game or two of cricket, dressed up in his usual gear of tshirt, shorts and now ofcourse, his 2 year old reebok shoes. He could see some junta assembled on the ground and as he took a closer look at them from the second floor he was on, all the while walking towards the stairs, he was given a thorough shoulder shake. Pg (as he was called much to his dislike) gave a nod to his friend, Safari who had pleasantly surprised him but then his presence had been a harbinger of something unexpected. Suddenly things didn't seem all right, or atleast he wasn't seeing things right...
"Safari, I am not able to look straight, my vision has tunneled down.. literally. I can't see you, but I can see your legs. I can see the door we are approaching right now, but I can't see the bolt on the door nor the room number. The only way I can look straight is by moving my head up. My vision is slanted and it sucks man.", Pg spoke hastily with desperation reflected in his speech.
Safari replied nonchalantly, "So you want to play cricket right now?".
"Ob, aren't we headed over there right now", remarked Pg with a touch of annoyance.
'Yeah, but then your vision is screwed up right', continued Safari.
"So what do I do?" replied Manoj clearly uncomfortable and wanting a way out of this seemingly preplexing problem.
'Why don't you look up and force your eyes to look straight, what's preventing you from forcing your eyes open?', replied Safari.
"Hmm..yeah my eyes seem to be half-closed. Let me try opening them to their full functionality". It was as if he was unaware that the solution to his current problem might be to just open his eyes.
Now, Pg found a stiff resistance to this exercise of opening his eyes. His eyes seemed to have conspired into being partially functional...for some reason.

Pg didn't give up. He pressed harder in an effort to attain clarity of sight. His eyes couldn't take the strain anymore, and he found himself opening his eyes into the waking state. That was a beautiful dream he thought, a dream that had a physical connection with reality.