Dreams Do Come True

Diwali time - time for another flight to Mumbai and time for another airport post too. 3rd November 2018 - Saturday - Flight is at 6:10 am. I came a bit early to catch up with my office colleague and so I have a bit extra time to write. It was a very sleepless yesterday and no sleep at night too. I took a shot of Black coffee to help me be awake. I have been thinking about this post for a very long time and finally I write it and hopefully I'll finish and publish it too.

What was once a Dream - this is about the things and/or events which were once upon a time a dream (wish) for me and which materialised.

- - PASSPORT - -

As a kid I used to say I'll just stay in India and won't go abroad at all. There used to be pressure sometimes that I should keep my passport ready since one never knows when the chance to go abroad comes up. Anyway, I dodged and delayed making a passport. I used to say that if a company wants to send me abroad then let the company make my passport, I won't do it myself. I kept saying this till I finished engineering. Finally I went through the process of making my passport in IIT, since the process to get one was made easy now. So where is my dream getting fulfilled here.

The company might not have helped me get a passport but it surely helped me in getting my first Visa and sponsored my trip too. A big thanks to Kartik - because of whom we won the Mahindra Auto-Quotient Quiz competition. The prize was a paid trip to Malaysia to witness Mahindra and other teams participate in Moto GP Race. So that's it - Company played a crucial role in my first foreign trip.

- - FLIGHT TRAVEL - -

As a child most of my long trips used to be to Gujarat and occasionally to Jammu and Kashmir. I used to travel to these places in train. I still travel to Gujarat in train - it is more convenient. I never used to dream about travelling to Gujarat or Jammu in train but I used to wish to travel in flight. I saw all the episodes of Air-Craft investigation on Discovery and that fueled my desire to fly high.

My First Flight and Airport Visit (Mumbai) - April/May 2015

My first flight experience was from Bombay to Kolkata for MTech admission interview. I had to book the ticket at very last moment since the shortlist for interview came late. I traveled with dad and it was a good amount of money that went into the ticket. I created self pressure to make sure I qualify so the the investment didn't go waste. Luckily I cleared the interview but didn't go there. Instead I went to IIT Bombay for Masters. Now a days I travel by plane whenever I want to go to Bombay. I pay a visit to home minimum 5 times a year. I have been privilege to make some abroad trips too. Now it's very very normal feeling for me whenever I travel by Air. Time to board ;)

- - RUNNING - -

I was never an athlete in childhood. I used to struggle in street cricket too. I could never play games that involved running fast or long. I used to catch cold and cough quite easily. It was only in engineering when I was around 21 yrs old that I had some sort of Asthma. Suddenly everything fell in place. I got the answer for my poor performance in sports.

After the First Full Marathon -  Jan 2016 - 5:15 hours

Marathons mostly take place on Sunday. Once I randomly stumbled upon a live stream of Mumbai marathon and I saw the happy and tired faces of runners. The sense of accomplishment of those who finished can be easily seen on their faces. 42 kms hahaha - running 42 metres used to be an impossible task for me. I always had a special respect for people involved in any sport, irrespective of the level that they played at.

So the turning point came when I realised I'll had to take Asthma pump for my entire life. Hell no, I was not at all ready for that. Slow and steady I started. I never had a clear picture that I'll be finishing the marathon in this lifetime. I can write a book about how I managed to dump the Asthma pump forever and do a sub 5 hour marathon, bit it is out of scope of this post. Long story short - I can proudly say I am a marathon runner. Ran first in 5:15 hours, next in sub 5 hours and third did not finish. It took time to get over physical and emotional damage that unfinished marathon did to me. At the end of the day, I have become a marathon runner.

- - CYCLE - -

Again going back to childhood days, may be when I was in 4th - 5th standard, I used to dream about getting a gear cycle. Those days there very few gear cycles available and damn costly. I lived in a flat terrain and so gear cycle was not actually required. Anyway, i had a very good cycle in school days and then I went to college. In college I hardly used cycle. Fast forward and then there is MTech in IITB. Having a cycle in IITB is very normal and I bought one as soon as I got into IITB. That was my first gear cycle. 18 speed. IITB has many ups and downs and so having a geared cycle made sense.

My First Road Bike - Fuji Sportif 2.3

After IITB I moved to Chennai for job and sold my old cycle. Here in Chennai and office is less than 4kms from my apartment and so I bought a basic cycle for commute. After year I started planning for Triathlon and started searching for good road bikes. It took another 6 months and so key turning points in my course of life and I finally bought one Road Bike. Almost 40% lighter than old cycle, 8 Speed, with Drop bars and so many things. I made many 80 km cycle rides using it and it doesn't feel a big deal now to own such a road bike.

- - INTERVAL - -

I wrote the above blocks on 3rd November from Airport but didn't publish the post. It is 24th November and i am adding few blocks which I feel is applicable here.

- - CAR - -

Again - another book can be written on it. To know more about my Car adventures you can go through - car-drives-so-far. Owning a car has always been a dream. Some of the details are in the last post and I am skipping that. Post that I hired a car with my friends and went to Pondicherry - road-trip-to-pondicherry. Then I drove in Mumbai - inch-by-inch. Then came a big break and I went to Euro and UK trip. There I hired and Drove Volkswagen Golf - One of the costliest car that I drove till date and also the first 6 speed manual car. In a nutshell - I drove many cars owned by my friends. I actually learnt on many of those cars - and my friends were patient enough to teach me good driving.

First Car - Alto 800 - Chennai

In the past para I told that I used to go to office on cycle and at times I dream of having a car and go to office in that. Cars used to go past by me and I used to be on cycle. I used to wonder when will I get a car and when will I enter the office in that. Finally it happened yesterday I bought my first car and took it to office too. Again there was a big role played by my office colleagues in various stages of my car purchase. A Dream Come True.

- - END - -

I'll end my post here. I assure you that there many more dreams of mine that came true and there was no particular reason to not include them. It is just that I these items are on top of mind and have been very close to my heart. What I expect now is you to click on the comment box and write few lines on your Dream Coming True. Lets get this post going on. Thanks for Reading and Stay tune for many more posts.