Since we finished the race, we were not disqualified. I don’t eat while I watch those exercise ads on Instagram.A couple of close friends and I, in our mid bronzing sofa fabrics to late 40s, signed up for an exercise regime. The third leg of the "house" team, if you will, and this carried on over three "houses" in three schools and two cities. Plus, we were undefeatable. I also had no actual talent as an athlete, but I was athletic enough to be made to run various races, jump over sandpits and poles and once, with luckily no major casualties, chuck a javelin. There was no time for dumbbells.At the end of the year, all we had to show for it were collapsed muscles, dodgy knees, sprained ankles and broken toes. I am not so callous nor so arrogant now. So having scoffed at middle-aged ladies in salwar kameezes and sneakers huffing and puffing in suburban Mumbai ’s parks, we joined a gym. In between I did walk up and down some hills around my parents ’ home, full of self-righteousness. It was brilliant and actually worked.Now when 60 stares at you in the face and the tyres cannot be dislodged and who the hell wants to carry those dumbbells, and the hills are so pretty to look at, technology comes to the rescue! You install some free fitness app on your phone. Instead, we sacrificed lunch and went straight from yoga to the gym. Heads, um, held high!The one thing I could not do was swim except for an ungainly life-saving dog paddle. We shuddered in self-righteous wrath as we finished all our exercises, and never went to an afternoon class again. Or some such nonsense. But the calisthenics and exercise sort. And by the time you realized that time and hormones were against you, the tyres on the cars on the roads had nothing on you and your stomach, arms, thighs, hips et cetera. You are happy. All that confidence was highly misplaced.As it turned out, the dumbbells were us.The zeal was such that we were horrified when we attended an afternoon "old ladies" class — all the old ladies were at least five years younger than us — and saw that they spent all their time lying on their mats flirting with the young male instructors. From refrigerator to chocolate cake to sofa to put the plate in the sink and at the end of the day, you have walked 5 km, used up 2,500 calories and done 9,622 steps. Don’t laugh. I tried a few gyms. Luckily then no one ever threw me into a swimming pool for some greater sporting glory.School finished and thus finished organised exercise.Once I was pushed into a race outside my training or comfort zone — 400 m, because there was no one else to make up the numbers.

You carry your phone everywhere. I just switch to the food pictures after 10 minutes of fit young people contorting into some rebel poses. After 300 metres, my heart burst out of my 13-year-old chest and I am not ashamed to say that a friend’s sister (in a similar situation for another house) and I, walked the last 100 m together, chatting. This is true. Why humans put themselves through this is one of life’s mysteries.Not the treadmill sort.When my sister and I were younger, teenagers, we used to watch Jane Fonda exercise videos and eat chips. And in I went. I did away with the "heart points" or whatever because I never collected any. Anyway, we mountain-walked and pulled long rubber bands and cross-trained and then hobbled out after an hour with not one part of our bodies working. The only worthwhile part of this exercise was the yoga. A friend found an excellent place in Ahmedabad where all you had to do was lie on a series of moving tables which exercised different parts of your body. We worked hard and played harder. For instance, when I was little, I was very thin.After you reach a certain age and size, in my case at least, your thoughts turn to another age and size, largely imaginary. I have photographic evidence. You may not believe it now but in the 1980s, hardly no one dedicated their lives to treadmills, yoga mats and smoothies. Plus, we walked all over suburban Mumbai scorning every hopeful passing auto. The school’s sports consultant, of whom we were in awe because he had been to the 1976 Montreal Olympics and watched Nadia Comaneci in person, said that my hamstring muscles were not long enough for my legs, so I had a funny stride

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