Penalizing Budding Talent

One fine morning upon arriving at my desk, I found something lying on my table with a note, that seemed to pose a grave threat to one of my most valued congenital faculties- my Punning Humour! A cuboidal pink coloured piggy bank secured with a lock, which has been in the pipeline for weeks now, has finally been materialized by Aicha.  Not just me, it endangers Peter and Kim, who  also suffer the obsessive compulsive disorder of playing with the words. The audience comprises Aicha, Joy and CS mostly, and sometimes rest of my lab members.

The final rules and regulations of this deal were attempted to reach a consensus, with the welfare of all the people around in mind. According to the implemented laws, someone who makes a bad/lame/poor joke/pun is liable to a penalty of S$1/bad joke, which happily makes its way to the fancy piggy bank. How to judge whether the joke is good/bad -- if at least half the audience ends up smiling/laughing, the person is waived from the fine, otherwise you know the fate... Aicha has been generous enough to introduce special discount schemes to encourage us during peak hours (like coffee time) called "Jokes Happy Hours", wherein we will be charged $1/2jokes. With all the honour and privilege, I inaugurated the PB because of a joke which was considered unacceptable without a second thought. Depending on the rate at which the money is collected, we plan to have a small party with the small money.

This PB is taken for every lunch/coffee break, group meetings/events, and is surprisingly proving to be an effective preventive measure. The number of poor joke incidents have drastically fallen with having people to watch their words, in order to save their precious $1 coins (normally preserved for laundry machines!).. Courtesy Peter, one of the inflicted victims, has been able to persuade the committee to reduce the penalty to $0.5, effective from today. The only unreasonable part of this deal is even if someone makes a good joke, there is no $1 reward. The PB is by the people, for the people and of the people- so let’s hope amendments to this law happen soon, in the favour of doers...  

Great Eastern Women Run 2013

After spending an anxious night tossing and turning on the bed, I woke up to a dark lousy Sunday morning for the much awaited run. The sky veiled with pregnant clouds made me wonder if the event would be interrupted by the rain showers. I was lazier and less prepared for this run than my first NUSrun, ran only when Aicha called for a practice and reminded me about it. Fortunately now my body is better conditioned to run continuously than it was a few months ago..

Priyanka and I took an MRT, surprisingly cramped (many GEW runners!), for as early as 6 am on a Sunday morning. We were informed that the run would commence as per  schedule since Marina bay didn’t experience major rains, luckily the roads were dry and not slippery too. For a run with 60k runners, the event seemed well planned and organized, with ample baggage counters, affable volunteers answering the questions being shot, guiding and cheering people through.The start line spreading over around 300m with thousands of red sleeveless ladies ahead of me was a sight unbelievable and slightly daunting. Entertaining commentators in the background, with banging fast beat music to tap our legs was just perfect for waking up the sleepy souls to warm up. Priyanka and I enjoyed dancing to the music, stretching our bodies in rhythm to the songs, further building up to the excitement of the run in such an amazing location.

                                          

We started running near the Singapore flyer overlooking the towering Marina Bay Sands and numerous other adjoining skyscrapers along the Singapore river. I ran the first kilometer fast to evade the cumbersome jam in the beginning, and cooled down to my normal pace thereafter. The first two kilometers, followed by a downslope near Nicoll Highway was effortless owing to the initial energy and enthusiasm. It was annoying to see people walking right after a few hundred metres and obstructing the run path in the middle, inspite of legit instructions for slow runners and walkers to stay on the left throughout. I sometimes went out of the periphery (longer yet faster) covered with damp grass, to overtake the people blocking the way out.

The hydration counters midway were inundated with thirsty runners, swooping down to have a sip of water and 100+ quickly, providing a much needed relief to their dehydrated throats and bodies. During the second half, there were boards reading “smile ahead”, following photographers taking pictures on the way, where people even posed with props. The last kilometer seemed eternal with countless curves and turns, with more of the dispersed crowd condensing, and the finish line to be seen nowhere. The energy levels were still high, thanks to the runner friendly weather, mild drizzling wetting the sweat and chilling the body. After covering a significant distance, I could see a light flashing “Finish”, with cheer leaders on either side bucking up people to run the last length faster.

There I went to cross the finish line Yayyy-ing and cooling down to let some oxygen fill my lungs in. Grabbing some electrolyte drinks and refreshments, I crashed down the floor in front of the stage with people performing on victory songs like “Jai Ho” and “Waka Waka”, and lay there still for a while.  I then queued in endlessly for having a picture with my finisher medal, and posed under- “I conquered the race!”- with a background of  tall buildings shrouded in mist.. I have dared myself to a longer distance (10k) to improve my running potential and endurance, and thus registered with my lab friends- Joy and Aicha-Peter, Kiran (21.2k) for the run coming up in Feb. The strategy and training is still in the planning, looking forward to the exciting group runs and practices!