there’s a word that begins with this
letter in the English language that’s
not really accepted in the adult world
they don’t want to do it they don’t want
to take part in it you can’t really be
laughing you can’t be clicking your
heels you can’t be you know making fun
of things in the middle of a day running
on the beach laughing your head off
what in heaven’s name is all that right
so I’m just an ordinary woman just an
ordinary person I’m here to tell my
story of how an ordinary person can rise
above the mundane above societal
expectations and perhaps achieve dreams
that she hadn’t ever even had the
strength to dream the relevant part of
my life this is me at 18 yeah a
happy-go-lucky young kid like most kids
are and I think this was taken in
Jabalpur and you know I was going about
my life very happily eating ice creams
and doing whatever it is at 18 year olds
did way back when in Bombay and suddenly
somebody said to me one day hey do you
want to have a cigarette
and I said sure why not it’s cool let me
have a cigarette and I had that one
cigarette made me sick in the beginning
how many people here know somebody who
smokes I know nobody here smokes but how
many people here know somebody who
smokes a lot of us do right ask that
smoker ask that smoker how did you feel
when you had your first puff I bet you
they’re gonna say that person felt quite
sick and nauseated that’s the body
rejecting it but you still go on okay
because it’s cool and for a variety of
other reasons that we look into in a bit
but you know going forward from that one
cigarette just every now and then you
know off and on it goes on to like you
know maybe one or two a day and as you
grow older it’s one or two when you go
out with friends to the restaurant you
know on a Friday night and so at that
time smoking was not quality
incorrect you could smoke in restaurants
you could smoke on airplanes you could
smoke in taxis you could smoke wherever
you wanted and life went on and from
that one or two I suddenly found myself
having a pack of cigarettes in my
handbag and I got into the corporate
world I was working I was doing my own
thing and smoking because cigarettes
were my best friend right happy sad
angry hungry hangry you name it
victorious defeated everything the
cigarette was the first thing that I
went to when I had any surge of emotion
or even when I was just bored and I
wanted to quit I really really wanted to
quit but somehow the other I just
couldn’t somehow cigarettes have this
habit of getting into your brain you
know they put their fingers into your
brain and grab onto it and then it’s
just so difficult to get out of that
clutch and so I would make promises to
myself if I don’t smoke all day today
tomorrow I will give myself something
really very nice that maybe an ice cream
or something only what would happen is I
wouldn’t smoke that whole day and the
next years that reward I would give
myself a cigarette because I didn’t
smoke all of yesterday so I would crush
the packet and not too hard and throw it
in the dustbin and say I’m never going
to smoke again and next morning I’d go
back there rummage and pill it poke I
would pick out the cigarettes and smoke
them again so this went on I wanted to
quit I really did but I just couldn’t
became an expert at quitting and then
one day suddenly somebody said to me hey
do you want to go for a run I’m training
for Mumbai marathon do you want to come
for a run with me and I said okay that
sounds like fun
and I’ve been saying a lot of okay in my
life I guess so
I said okay I will come for a run and I
did I ran one and a half kilometers and
then I never stopped because I was so
excited that you know I felt so strong
so powerful so empowered I felt so good
I just didn’t want to stop and I didn’t
I learn more and more and more I ran
wherever I could whenever I could you
know morning noon night go ah Delhi
Bombay wherever I could I ran and with
all this running a very interesting
thing happened to me in addition to
losing a little bit of weight and all of
that
I also one day suddenly found that I did
not anymore have the urge to smoke the
urge to smoke suddenly vanished and one
day I just threw the pack away this time
for good I never looked back and it was
just so unbelievable I’m married to a
smoker and I just never even looked back
I didn’t even feel the temptation
anymore and I was wondering what what in
heaven’s name happened so I googled it I
researched it ok and if you just google
running and quitting smoking the answers
are all there ok it was because you see
when you first have a puff of cigarette
and you have the next one and the next
one in the next one the thing that
happens is every time you take a puff of
that cigarette a powerful cocktail of
chemicals is released in your brain this
contains serotonin dopamine endorphin so
many chemicals painkillers so many
things are released in your brain every
time you have a puff of a cigarette and
that’s why you feel calm you feel you
know in control you feel centered now
here’s the kicker every time you go for
a long run every time you go for a long
run the same chemicals are released in
your brain but in a much larger quantity
so you see that you know if you don’t
it’s people who work out regularly who
exercise regularly if they don’t do it
for a few days they start feeling antsy
they start feeling crabby because they
want that serotonin back in their body
and my body began to understand and
internalize that it was receiving the
same high but from a healthier source
and so it didn’t need the cigarettes
anymore it was as simple as that and so
you know I was just so happy and I went
on running my marywade this was taken at
the 50k Bangalore ultra race and it was
just so happy but then one day while I
was running I was thinking about the
fact that just two days before had had
this news that I lost to people who were
really really dear to me and I lost them
both to lung disease and unhealthy
working you know conditions and
excessive smoking and I thought to
myself I said why did they go and why
did I survive one of these two I’ve had
any number of
cigarettes with okay and I said why did
they go why did I live and then I
thought I don’t know an epiphany
somebody talking to me I don’t know but
I thought to myself I said maybe I’ve
been given this chance to live and to
run and to you know be alive simply so I
can tell people not that they shouldn’t
smoke because I think everybody knows
that just too well
including those friends those people
here who have friends that smoke you
know I think just to tell people that if
you want to quit here is a fun way to do
it it’s not easy but it’s fun it’s loads
of fun and so I kicked off this campaign
I conceptualized it I spoke to my coach
and he said yes it can be done and I ran
one marathon every month nowadays you
hear of an 8k marathon under 10k
marathon but a marathon by definition is
forty two point two kilometers and I ran
that distance for around 12 months I
think I ran one marathon every month in
you know different states of the country
to publicize this message that quitting
smoking can be fun if you start to run
and the idea was that people would see
me you know a typical Indian woman
overweight you know middle-aged
all these things in love as much with
then as the next guy with aloo parathas
and you know pizza and burger and
chocolate if I can do it anybody can so
I covered around 14 states of India
running the you know the marathon
distance and the campaign is still
underway I’ve had to take a break for a
variety of reasons but yeah so this is
about the campaign I’ve run in so many
different places and it’s been a
difficult journey because you know every
time I’ve had to call up people and tell
them that you know can you please tell
me help me with giving me a place to
stay or a car or something you know give
me some some help and people who have
never known but I had a lot of
confidence that came to me simply
because I was you know running because I
was a runner because I had faith in my
body because I could and yeah so this is
about my campaign and after all this
effort
one person one day sent me an e-mail one
lady sent me an email from Bhopal and
she said ma’am
after you came and you went I heard your
story we never met but I kid I was in
the audience when you spoke at one of
the colleges and since that time I
haven’t smoked and now it’s been a whole
year and I thought I would share that
with you so I was just so happy and
touched to see that and you know that I
made a difference in one person’s life
at least and you know cancer is not a
poor person’s illness it’s it’s a very
expensive illness so it’s so happy to
have made that difference in that one
life another thing I do is that along
the way I make this bunch of kids that
was you know had a huge amount of
potential as athletes okay but there was
nobody to give them guidance or anything
and being an endurance athlete myself I
ran and you know cycle and swim long
distance so I thought I would you know
become their sports coach and these are
my kids
I coach them and yes they come from
underprivileged backgrounds and but
that’s not about that’s not who they are
you know that they are far more than
that and in fact one story I’d like to
share is that you know when you talk
about making a difference one story I’d
like to share is that when I first met
these kids I asked one of the kids I
said you know I mean I asked them all I
said you know here are my ambitions I
want to you know do this I want to do
that I want to do triathlon I want to
climb Mount Everest before I’m 60 I want
to start my own sport school there’s so
many things I want to do what about you
guys what do you want to do and this one
kid said he’s a teacher I want to be a
dawn map hibernate ow and I said why so
you know you have to understand they
live in extremely deprived conditions
but that’s not what this is about
so it makes a difference right the pie
has the money he has
he has the bike he has everything right
so he says teacher my vibe and Machado I
said I take a ballet I came how coolly
come and run with me
he says teacher I’ll be faster than you
I said no you won’t he said yes I will
and of course he was but that isn’t the
point the first time he ran with me and
then he overtook me and zoomed off and
he’s probably become one of the most
diligent students that I have that never
misses a single training session comes
up every time even if I call him at two
o’clock in the afternoon if he’s not had
food to eat anything and after one such
session when they were like you know it
was a hot summer’s afternoon and after
training we were eating pineapples and a
lot of them were eating them for the
first time and this was such a juicy
fruit and I was just eating it in his
little licking my fingers and saying my
goodness this pineapple is delicious and
the same boy that wanted to be the dawn
he says teacher when I go to the
Olympics wearing the India jacket that
day I will buy you a truck full of
pineapples
it was a very meaningful moment for me
because I felt in some small way I’d
made a difference in somebody’s life I
don’t know whether he’s actually going
to go to the Olympics or not I hope as
hell he is going to but I don’t know
whether he will or not and I don’t know
whether he’ll buy me that truck of
pineapples or not but I do know that for
some time I changed his focus and showed
him something the way he could be more
than you know up high or adorned so you
know so what basically am I saying
really you know all I’m saying is you
know follow your heart if there’s
something that you like something that
seems nice to you go ahead and do more
of it but you know obviously it’s I’m
not talking about you know drinking or
smoking or things like that because I
mean you know please don’t do more of
that but don’t be afraid to follow your
heart and see how you know following
your heart can translate into doing
something for somebody else because that
can be actually the greatest joy of all
don’t be afraid to fail okay don’t be
afraid to fail because I mean if you
fail then that means that you’re trying
if you don’t fail at all then
you know you’re not even moving okay so
it’s quite all right to fail like they
say in the Rocky movie no it’s not about
how many times you get hit knocked down
it’s how many times you get up after
being knocked down right there will
always be people who will tell you it
can’t be done there will always be
people and people told me also look at
you so fat so way through middle age
this is that what you’re gonna run one
marathon every month you can’t do it
listen at home I said no I will do it
and I did it I said run slowly some
marathons I have taken seven and a half
hours but I did it I created that hype i
created that message i did it okay so
money isn’t the only thing it may sound
a little entitled it may sound like yeah
okay you have enough food in your belly
and you know you’re comfortably often so
you can say this but the amount of joy
that you can get from doing something
for somebody else
i swear to you you can’t get it from
owning as much I don’t even know what
number to put there as much as you can
imagine I can’t think that the two of
them are even in any way sort of
measurable together on the same scale
give a little live a little you know
give something back it’s it’s just again
probably one of the most beautiful
feelings in the world
and no matter how stressed I am I get up
at 4:30 in the morning I do my own
workout I go to office I come back and
then I go to meet my kids and we trained
together and I think that those two
hours when I’m with my kids is probably
the best time of my day knowing that I’m
making a little bit of a difference in
somebody’s life and adding a little bit
of be outdoors into you know their
day-to-day routine and being so don’t
forget to have fun follow your heart and
let’s give let’s take a breath of fresh
air thank you so much for this
you
you
letter in the English language that’s
not really accepted in the adult world
they don’t want to do it they don’t want
to take part in it you can’t really be
laughing you can’t be clicking your
heels you can’t be you know making fun
of things in the middle of a day running
on the beach laughing your head off
what in heaven’s name is all that right
so I’m just an ordinary woman just an
ordinary person I’m here to tell my
story of how an ordinary person can rise
above the mundane above societal
expectations and perhaps achieve dreams
that she hadn’t ever even had the
strength to dream the relevant part of
my life this is me at 18 yeah a
happy-go-lucky young kid like most kids
are and I think this was taken in
Jabalpur and you know I was going about
my life very happily eating ice creams
and doing whatever it is at 18 year olds
did way back when in Bombay and suddenly
somebody said to me one day hey do you
want to have a cigarette
and I said sure why not it’s cool let me
have a cigarette and I had that one
cigarette made me sick in the beginning
how many people here know somebody who
smokes I know nobody here smokes but how
many people here know somebody who
smokes a lot of us do right ask that
smoker ask that smoker how did you feel
when you had your first puff I bet you
they’re gonna say that person felt quite
sick and nauseated that’s the body
rejecting it but you still go on okay
because it’s cool and for a variety of
other reasons that we look into in a bit
but you know going forward from that one
cigarette just every now and then you
know off and on it goes on to like you
know maybe one or two a day and as you
grow older it’s one or two when you go
out with friends to the restaurant you
know on a Friday night and so at that
time smoking was not quality
incorrect you could smoke in restaurants
you could smoke on airplanes you could
smoke in taxis you could smoke wherever
you wanted and life went on and from
that one or two I suddenly found myself
having a pack of cigarettes in my
handbag and I got into the corporate
world I was working I was doing my own
thing and smoking because cigarettes
were my best friend right happy sad
angry hungry hangry you name it
victorious defeated everything the
cigarette was the first thing that I
went to when I had any surge of emotion
or even when I was just bored and I
wanted to quit I really really wanted to
quit but somehow the other I just
couldn’t somehow cigarettes have this
habit of getting into your brain you
know they put their fingers into your
brain and grab onto it and then it’s
just so difficult to get out of that
clutch and so I would make promises to
myself if I don’t smoke all day today
tomorrow I will give myself something
really very nice that maybe an ice cream
or something only what would happen is I
wouldn’t smoke that whole day and the
next years that reward I would give
myself a cigarette because I didn’t
smoke all of yesterday so I would crush
the packet and not too hard and throw it
in the dustbin and say I’m never going
to smoke again and next morning I’d go
back there rummage and pill it poke I
would pick out the cigarettes and smoke
them again so this went on I wanted to
quit I really did but I just couldn’t
became an expert at quitting and then
one day suddenly somebody said to me hey
do you want to go for a run I’m training
for Mumbai marathon do you want to come
for a run with me and I said okay that
sounds like fun
and I’ve been saying a lot of okay in my
life I guess so
I said okay I will come for a run and I
did I ran one and a half kilometers and
then I never stopped because I was so
excited that you know I felt so strong
so powerful so empowered I felt so good
I just didn’t want to stop and I didn’t
I learn more and more and more I ran
wherever I could whenever I could you
know morning noon night go ah Delhi
Bombay wherever I could I ran and with
all this running a very interesting
thing happened to me in addition to
losing a little bit of weight and all of
that
I also one day suddenly found that I did
not anymore have the urge to smoke the
urge to smoke suddenly vanished and one
day I just threw the pack away this time
for good I never looked back and it was
just so unbelievable I’m married to a
smoker and I just never even looked back
I didn’t even feel the temptation
anymore and I was wondering what what in
heaven’s name happened so I googled it I
researched it ok and if you just google
running and quitting smoking the answers
are all there ok it was because you see
when you first have a puff of cigarette
and you have the next one and the next
one in the next one the thing that
happens is every time you take a puff of
that cigarette a powerful cocktail of
chemicals is released in your brain this
contains serotonin dopamine endorphin so
many chemicals painkillers so many
things are released in your brain every
time you have a puff of a cigarette and
that’s why you feel calm you feel you
know in control you feel centered now
here’s the kicker every time you go for
a long run every time you go for a long
run the same chemicals are released in
your brain but in a much larger quantity
so you see that you know if you don’t
it’s people who work out regularly who
exercise regularly if they don’t do it
for a few days they start feeling antsy
they start feeling crabby because they
want that serotonin back in their body
and my body began to understand and
internalize that it was receiving the
same high but from a healthier source
and so it didn’t need the cigarettes
anymore it was as simple as that and so
you know I was just so happy and I went
on running my marywade this was taken at
the 50k Bangalore ultra race and it was
just so happy but then one day while I
was running I was thinking about the
fact that just two days before had had
this news that I lost to people who were
really really dear to me and I lost them
both to lung disease and unhealthy
working you know conditions and
excessive smoking and I thought to
myself I said why did they go and why
did I survive one of these two I’ve had
any number of
cigarettes with okay and I said why did
they go why did I live and then I
thought I don’t know an epiphany
somebody talking to me I don’t know but
I thought to myself I said maybe I’ve
been given this chance to live and to
run and to you know be alive simply so I
can tell people not that they shouldn’t
smoke because I think everybody knows
that just too well
including those friends those people
here who have friends that smoke you
know I think just to tell people that if
you want to quit here is a fun way to do
it it’s not easy but it’s fun it’s loads
of fun and so I kicked off this campaign
I conceptualized it I spoke to my coach
and he said yes it can be done and I ran
one marathon every month nowadays you
hear of an 8k marathon under 10k
marathon but a marathon by definition is
forty two point two kilometers and I ran
that distance for around 12 months I
think I ran one marathon every month in
you know different states of the country
to publicize this message that quitting
smoking can be fun if you start to run
and the idea was that people would see
me you know a typical Indian woman
overweight you know middle-aged
all these things in love as much with
then as the next guy with aloo parathas
and you know pizza and burger and
chocolate if I can do it anybody can so
I covered around 14 states of India
running the you know the marathon
distance and the campaign is still
underway I’ve had to take a break for a
variety of reasons but yeah so this is
about the campaign I’ve run in so many
different places and it’s been a
difficult journey because you know every
time I’ve had to call up people and tell
them that you know can you please tell
me help me with giving me a place to
stay or a car or something you know give
me some some help and people who have
never known but I had a lot of
confidence that came to me simply
because I was you know running because I
was a runner because I had faith in my
body because I could and yeah so this is
about my campaign and after all this
effort
one person one day sent me an e-mail one
lady sent me an email from Bhopal and
she said ma’am
after you came and you went I heard your
story we never met but I kid I was in
the audience when you spoke at one of
the colleges and since that time I
haven’t smoked and now it’s been a whole
year and I thought I would share that
with you so I was just so happy and
touched to see that and you know that I
made a difference in one person’s life
at least and you know cancer is not a
poor person’s illness it’s it’s a very
expensive illness so it’s so happy to
have made that difference in that one
life another thing I do is that along
the way I make this bunch of kids that
was you know had a huge amount of
potential as athletes okay but there was
nobody to give them guidance or anything
and being an endurance athlete myself I
ran and you know cycle and swim long
distance so I thought I would you know
become their sports coach and these are
my kids
I coach them and yes they come from
underprivileged backgrounds and but
that’s not about that’s not who they are
you know that they are far more than
that and in fact one story I’d like to
share is that you know when you talk
about making a difference one story I’d
like to share is that when I first met
these kids I asked one of the kids I
said you know I mean I asked them all I
said you know here are my ambitions I
want to you know do this I want to do
that I want to do triathlon I want to
climb Mount Everest before I’m 60 I want
to start my own sport school there’s so
many things I want to do what about you
guys what do you want to do and this one
kid said he’s a teacher I want to be a
dawn map hibernate ow and I said why so
you know you have to understand they
live in extremely deprived conditions
but that’s not what this is about
so it makes a difference right the pie
has the money he has
he has the bike he has everything right
so he says teacher my vibe and Machado I
said I take a ballet I came how coolly
come and run with me
he says teacher I’ll be faster than you
I said no you won’t he said yes I will
and of course he was but that isn’t the
point the first time he ran with me and
then he overtook me and zoomed off and
he’s probably become one of the most
diligent students that I have that never
misses a single training session comes
up every time even if I call him at two
o’clock in the afternoon if he’s not had
food to eat anything and after one such
session when they were like you know it
was a hot summer’s afternoon and after
training we were eating pineapples and a
lot of them were eating them for the
first time and this was such a juicy
fruit and I was just eating it in his
little licking my fingers and saying my
goodness this pineapple is delicious and
the same boy that wanted to be the dawn
he says teacher when I go to the
Olympics wearing the India jacket that
day I will buy you a truck full of
pineapples
it was a very meaningful moment for me
because I felt in some small way I’d
made a difference in somebody’s life I
don’t know whether he’s actually going
to go to the Olympics or not I hope as
hell he is going to but I don’t know
whether he will or not and I don’t know
whether he’ll buy me that truck of
pineapples or not but I do know that for
some time I changed his focus and showed
him something the way he could be more
than you know up high or adorned so you
know so what basically am I saying
really you know all I’m saying is you
know follow your heart if there’s
something that you like something that
seems nice to you go ahead and do more
of it but you know obviously it’s I’m
not talking about you know drinking or
smoking or things like that because I
mean you know please don’t do more of
that but don’t be afraid to follow your
heart and see how you know following
your heart can translate into doing
something for somebody else because that
can be actually the greatest joy of all
don’t be afraid to fail okay don’t be
afraid to fail because I mean if you
fail then that means that you’re trying
if you don’t fail at all then
you know you’re not even moving okay so
it’s quite all right to fail like they
say in the Rocky movie no it’s not about
how many times you get hit knocked down
it’s how many times you get up after
being knocked down right there will
always be people who will tell you it
can’t be done there will always be
people and people told me also look at
you so fat so way through middle age
this is that what you’re gonna run one
marathon every month you can’t do it
listen at home I said no I will do it
and I did it I said run slowly some
marathons I have taken seven and a half
hours but I did it I created that hype i
created that message i did it okay so
money isn’t the only thing it may sound
a little entitled it may sound like yeah
okay you have enough food in your belly
and you know you’re comfortably often so
you can say this but the amount of joy
that you can get from doing something
for somebody else
i swear to you you can’t get it from
owning as much I don’t even know what
number to put there as much as you can
imagine I can’t think that the two of
them are even in any way sort of
measurable together on the same scale
give a little live a little you know
give something back it’s it’s just again
probably one of the most beautiful
feelings in the world
and no matter how stressed I am I get up
at 4:30 in the morning I do my own
workout I go to office I come back and
then I go to meet my kids and we trained
together and I think that those two
hours when I’m with my kids is probably
the best time of my day knowing that I’m
making a little bit of a difference in
somebody’s life and adding a little bit
of be outdoors into you know their
day-to-day routine and being so don’t
forget to have fun follow your heart and
let’s give let’s take a breath of fresh
air thank you so much for this
you
you
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