Food & Exercise

I’ve never understood the concept of foodie. Who is a foodie exactly? And what is with this statement that most skinny girls, & all the three generations of the Raj Kapoor family, are wont to say, “Oh, I am a complete foodie!”

The only time I have craved for food, with as much desperation as a beggar craving for a rotten morsel was, during & post my pregnancy. All I wanted to do was eat. I was so starved. I didn’t have my mother to cook a hot meal for me. I was forever famished. Throughout my pregnancy, for the office lunch, I survived on the parcel meals from Hallimane Hotel in Malleshwaram. I think, it cost only around Rs 18/-. But for me, it was truly “mrushtanna bhojana”. At nights, I have slept with only an apple & a glass of milk. No wonder then that I even dreamt of food on many nights. Food was a recurrent theme.

I’ve known people who find the very sight of food stimulating; the really affluent, w ell-to do people at that. How’s that possible? It’s just food. I don’t go “crazy” at the sight of food. I know a few who eat like it is their last day & last meal. The amount they heap on their plates & the variety – just about everything would be heaped onto it. Even if it’s a buffet, I eat almost the same amount & prefer the combination of rice-gravy-sabzi. I do indulge in the dessert, & might try an item on the menu I’ve never seen or tried before, if there ever is one. And of course, puddings & mousse are things I risk only in a buffet.

For Sathya, food is an intoxicant. And if it’s a buffet, it’s complete paisa vasool time. I tease him saying, what we spend on two person’s buffet charges; he manages to recover it alone. Once in Hyderabad, he over ate so much that, he couldn’t lift his ass off the couch for the rest of the afternoon. And I brought the house down, saying, “We are on a holiday, damn it. We are supposed to go sight-seeing & not eat like pigs & sleep like logs”. And he went, “So what? Am I supposed to starve on holidays?”

Ab yeh haalat ho gayi hai ki he is 112 kg for a height of 6’3”; which is almost 30 kg overweight. No wonder, people say, “apni biwi ki SUNO.”

Over a decade of smoking & drinking & bad lifestyle choices having taken a toll on his health, & at 112 kg & after two warnings from his doctor, he is now trying hard to control himself at the table & not go overboard. He has finally started exercising - running/jogging/walking. For all the time he spent stuffing his body, he now has to spend twice the time to get it off. If only, it would come off so easily!!

In 33 years, there were only two occasions when I have moved my limbs in semblance to exercise. Once, in Dec 2004 I enrolled for yoga classes near Spice Garden in Marathahalli; twice a week for a month. It was in a room with mirrors at the front, & the yoga movements felt more like a slow, sensual dance than exercise.


The second time was when, for 2 months, I went for weekend 1 hour salsa classes in Indiranagar’s dance school called Swingers Club. The stretching & warm-ups & the dance moves – yeah those were the only times my body was exposed to some form of fitness.

I believe, any form of exercise is detrimental to my health. I might shrink. Or lose so much weight I might need to take Body Mass.