[jog-journal] Track Change

Four months, quintals of biriyani, and almost fainting inside the metro day before yesterday because I darted to catch it and came to a standstill immediately. It took me these to realize that I should take care of my health even if Bangalore isn’t as enticing as Mysore to go for morning jogs.

There is Jayaprakash Narayan Park near where we stay. It does have some water body inside it, but not a lake. There are brick lanes throughout the park and a sand lane that runs through the perimeter. So, today morning when I woke up at 5:40 after ten minutes of my alarm ringing, I decided that I shall resume jogging. Since I’m not a big fan of the calendar days I didn’t have to wait till new year for making a resolution.

There was a pup about 2 months old tied to the gate of my neighbour’s house. It jumped up and caught my calf with its tiny paws two days back when I saw it. But today it was sitting still, yet vigilant. The Rajapalayam which roamed third main road was sitting in front of its owner’s gate. The German Shepherd (also known as Alsatian, a fact I came to know now when I searched “difference between German Shepherd and Alsatian”) inside was not near the gate and so didn’t bark at me like it usually does. The obese dog at the corner was walking today, for a change. It usually is always sleeping. Maybe it too had a realization today morning.

By the time I came back even the two Indian Pariahs right next door were up. And the Pomeranian was walking behind the newspaper boy for getting its well deserved pat. The pup had broken its meditation, raised its paws and reached out as far as the leash would allow it to.

Did you notice one thing? There were no cats around. I’ve never seen a cat do morning walk. Neither one that actually eats cockroaches. Cats are everything that humans should not be – lazy, selfish, and enigmatic about what their thoughts are. And dogs? Dogs set the ultimate standard that humans should strive to reach – persistent, caring, and down to earth about their feelings. You now know why I love dogs more than cats.

The primary care fellowship and infectious diseases case based learning series are both set to start in January. I remembered it because just yesterday in JeevaRaksha JALS workshop at NATCON 2018, we met some wonderful young doctors with idealism not lost and that spark remaining in their eyes. Hopefully the day after we will meet again and discuss the heroism of incremental care, the wonderful life without “specializing” and the rat race, and a different style of learning and practising the art and science of medicine.