Husain Journal

"The person who starts the race is not the same person who finishes the race." Marathon spectator sign I’m not a sportsperson, nor a fitness freak. So my contacts view me with surprise on learning about my sudden fascination with running marathons, despite doctors’ claims that I’m visually impaired. (Note: I run with volunteers provided by Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation. ABBF team takes care of specific needs of blind participants.) January 2025, I'm embarking on an exciting journey to participate in the Tata Mumbai Marathon. While I’m looking forward to the experience and the joy of the event, I’m also approaching this trip with a deeper purpose: to learn, grow, and connect. I’m determined to take bold steps toward personal development, and I want to take a moment to outline the key areas I’ll focus on during this adventure. As I brace myself up for the occasion, I...

For quite some time, and especially after my mother whispered goodbye to this fleeting world, I’m having difficulty waking up fresh and energetic. Yes, you might say that waking up with that cloggy feeling in mornings is pretty general, but if due to them your normal work is skidding off the rails? The alarm bells begin to ring, bang, pound. And if you snooze, you lose. You have to wake up. Well, first joining a gym and racking my bones to the point of cracking appeared clever. I reasoned that this way I’ll fall asleep as I threw myself on the bed. Good idea? But this required a heck lot of time and effort. Going to and from gym, managing office and personal work – all this appeared a little beyond the time and energy at my disposal. (Additionally, I hate sad and crappy music played in these places. Isn’t it true that all that we expose ourselves to – knowingly or unknowingly – has a bearing on our thinking?) Second I thought of purchasing some physical exercising ma...

Even in prison Nelson Mandela stuck to his physical exercise as he revealed in many interviews. We, on the other hand, spin up excuses to skip exercising: There’re no tools The environment is unsuitable Stress already fills our hours And you know you can add. But if we compare our circumstances with that which stood against Mandela in that prison? Our excuses aren't even flimsy. Turns out, all our excuses for not exercising are due mainly to our laziness, our lack of commitment. Yeah, I know it hits you on your face. But nothing can be truer than this statement: 9 times out of 10, we forge unreal excuses to run away from physical workouts. You might say that Mandela took to exercise because in the prison one hardly has a hectic to-do list to go about. Even if this was true for Mandela, then the emotional trauma heaped upon him quite outweighed the ease of free time. If we know that exercise is of prime consequence, then we have to make space for it. This m...