Jagannath's Juggernaut

When browsing Facebook, we get these reel suggestions and often I get songs from the show Zee Saregama (Tamil). I happened to stumble across one such reel where a guy was singing "Kaadu pottal kaadu" from Karuththamma. This song was rendered amazingly by this young singer with all sincerity that it brought a tear in my eye. I have listened to this song earlier and liked it but it was not in my "favorite songs" list ever. But after hearing that boy's voice and the clear lyrics, wanted to revisit the song as I was not sure if the rendition bought a tear in me or the lyrics literally tore me up. Thought I should spend some time writing about this (ok ok, sooriyanukke torch dhaan but still let me try)! We are transported to the milieu in the first two lines of the song itself காடு பொட்டல் காடு செங்காத்து வீசும் காடு வீடு கீத்து வீடு எலியோடு  எங்க  பாடு Imagine a barren forest where even the wind is red - there are no trees (roots) to bind the red soil, the top laye...

  The Buildup:  People who know me know that I am very selective when choosing running events. What do I as a runner look for when signing up for an "event"? Firstly the event should be conducted/managed by runners who know what it takes to conduct such an event. Event management companies who conduct races eventually end up ruining the experience. Secondly, I would want the season to be good for running, weather wise (not too hot, not in the middle of the monsoon and such). Thirdly, the route. As much as the route avoids looping around the same place and as much as a route has lesser traffic interferences, the better it is. Also, whether the route is barefoot friendly matters to me. I don't bother about the elevation profile and such. On top of all this, of course, I never travel outside Chennai for anything less than a marathon distance (42.2 km). Erode marathon ticked all the boxes above (other than the distance) and since there was wonderful word of mouth about the la...