Josh main Hosh

Whenever we aim for something beyond the normal, beyond our comfort zones, we always seek motivation. Sometimes we want to break the monotony, sometimes make a new start, sometimes we want to reach a goal, sometimes we want to prove a point to ourselves or sometimes we want to impress others. Whatever be the challenge, there is always a deep-down reason or a subconscious purpose. But having the purpose is not always enough, we need momentum, we need the timing, and we need that final push that one day we just get up and go for it. That is what is called “Josh” in Hindi. “josh” in hindi literally translates to “enthusiasm”, passion or Zeal.

Like it happens with many people, last Sunday, 16th October, I too got the “josh”. The question in my mind for a long time was if I could run till the popular mall in Whitefield, Bangalore called “Phoenix Mall” from my home, some day. Usually, it’s a 15 min drive with no traffic and a 45 min drive with traffic but it looked like reaching the moon for a normal runner like me, to cover this distance running. So it stayed in my mind for almost months, never reaching the point of execution.

But somehow this sunday, I pushed myself..the purpose being many of the ones mentioned earlier above. I thought it was worth the try and go for it. The Josh was “high”, and so with a light dinner the previous night, a sip of warm water at 5:00am in the morning. I set out around 530 am. A Little warm up and off I went with KK in my playlist for that day and Nike run Club app capturing the distance and the time.

After running for almost 5 kms, I started getting the doubts. While I complete a 5k run comfortably and with little effort of 6.5/ 10 , I do the 10k.. thinking about a 13 k run which I had never tried before was looking difficult. But seeing the Mall is the distant and thinking of the beautiful pub at its grand entrance pushed me ahead. I reached the mall exactly in 43 minutes of running, exhausted but thrilled that I had made it to this point, finally. Ofcourse the challenge was half done as I had to complete the 13 k challenge by running back home too. But the Josh helped and the purpose helped. For my return, I took a longer but a clearer route of the Whitefield metro lines and started my steady return running back towards home. At one point after 10 k, I felt I was about to give up but the playlist started playing KK’s amazing song “aashayein” from the movie “Iqbal”. I really felt the motivation to complete what had started, it literally pushed me. I slowed down but did not stop and finally after 1 hour 35 minutes completed the 13k run to and from my home to phoenix mall.

This picture below clicked as I paused momentarily to take a selfie in front of the mall.

This was the “Josh” part of the Story. Here is the “Hosh” Part which is often overlooked. “Hosh” in english literally translates to “conciousness” or awareness. So while I made it to the Target, clicked the selfies, updated on social media, got the likes, I got the aches and pains too. My feet were sore for 3 days and for the first time in my 3+ years of running I got “ Plantar fasciitis“. sounded like the biological name of a beautiful flower, but no. this one hurts, it pains and its not a flower. So while the Josh” is good, we must not forget the “Hosh”.

But as humans we always try to do the impossible. Call it our stubbornness or our passion, we tend to chase the next big target. Yes, we mature, we grow older, we slow down. But who can keep the human spirit down for a prolonged time. Its like the mall’s name “Phoenix”, which I ran to chase down. It’s a call to rise from the ashes, to try again. While we keep the “hosh” it’s the “josh” that makes our life worth living.