The Commonwealth Games workout…

This week it’s been slight athletic…

In October, Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games and the city is in mass meltdown/preparation. The roads and pavements are currently being neatened and ripped up to squeeze in facilities that are slightly less third world. This means for the average Delhite, trying to get around the city is an absolute nightmare. With my new fitness regime of walking to work in place, I’ve started to realise you don’t need to be a world class athlete to have your own Commonewealth Games workout…

The first event I embrace are the hurdles. Pavements are a complete luxury in Delhi. I don’t know whether the pavement union went on strike several years ago or they are just so last century, but if you attempt to walk anywhere you have to be prepared for some serious off roading. There are a number of things to leap over if you are lucky enough to find a pavement. Sleeping dogs, building materials, piles of rubbish and pavement fires by slum dwellings all make for a various height of hurdle perfect for toning calves and ankles.

It’s then on to the 100m sprint. Your likely route to work is going to cover crossing some type of flyover/ring road but I’m quite lucky as I only have a 10 lane mega crossroads to traverse. Crossing the road is an event in itself. You have to be prepared to regress to your school days and think of that game British Bulldog. It involved running at a wall of children to avoid beng ‘it’, but this time it’s an assortment of motorbikes, cyclists, rickshaws, horses and carts and cars. There are traffic lights and pedestrian crossings but they tend to get ignored by any two wheeled vehicles. Having being stranded for 10 minutes spectating the scene like a Wimbledon final, the traffic police noticed my shyness to cross the road. By Day 2 of my fitness plan I had my own police escort across the zebra crossing. I now just tag behind a local following in a relay/lemming fashion.

Surely there’s a more scenic route you ask? Well I found what seemed to be a more ‘rustic’ path down the side of a dual carriageway until I realised this was actually Ammonia Alley. Men kept pulling up, jumping off their motorbikes to, um, relieve themselves in the bushes. At first I was slightly alarmed but then realised I could do some excellent ayurvedic yoga breathing through my mouth to avoid the smell and weaving between leaping relievers is a great way to tone those thighs.

What of the spectators? Well you’re never lonely on your walk. Apart from fellow commuters or families living on the side of the road, they tend to be mainly male who like to cheer you on and say hello. It’s best to avoid eye contact and concentrate on your athletic exurcision. So far there has only been one incident of ABG (Attempted Bum Groping) which I avoided by an excellent leap into a pile of rubbish burning at least another 100 calories I think.

Highlights: Apart from attempting to get fitter and burn off my ghee reserves, it’s nice to be out and about and see the world from street level in the morning like a local, rather than zipping past in a rickshaw, discovering 200 rupee a litre gin that doesn’t make you go blind (but regretting having too many gins then playing tennis the next morning, least it was on the only day of sunshine we’ve had in 3 weeks), discovering a shop that sells bacon (yet to be tried, but it’s so lovely to see it sitting in the fridge and know there are bacon sandwiches when it all get’s too much) experiencing my first Bollywood film in Hindi realising I really need to improve my Hindi to get any jokes in India, planning a weekend away and a temporary escape from the madness of Delhi (Jaipur’s Literature Festival awaits and time to be a tourist this weekend).