Sunday, January 13, 2008

"Snow Skiing" is the best medicine!


This weekend was quite good - the right combo of excitement and rest. Yesterday, myself and venky set off and tried our hands(or rather legs) at Skiing here. It was a pretty good experience I should say. I have done Ice-skating once before, but this was many times nicer and easier. I knew we aren't experts and this is nothing like driving, to start straight without lessons(yaa, for all of you out there, it's me bragging in a silly fashion that I started to drive myself - like Elakaivan..err....Ekalaivan!). So we started our skiing experience with one-hour lesson. The first thing we did was to rent the ski-equipments, which included the shoes, the ski and the poles. The shoes, once wore made my legs look nothing less than an adult elephants legs. A stature like mine standing on elephant legs - wow! that would have been a "delight-to-ridicule" for many on-lookers! And as I tried to walk, every step made me feel, as if somebody was holding my legs from behind and begging me not to go skiing. (Yaa, I should accept that those shoes were a little heavy!). And the second thing was to get onto the ice and wear the ski. Yup! now, my legs has grown 3 to 4 feet in length from front to behind. With those things on, I couldn't even stand - let alone skiing. But my instructor taught us easy ways to start balancing, moving, stopping, turning and even manoeuvring. And I tried. And fell once. And twice. And thrice. Though it was a little embarassing to keep falling that way(like a "Always-falling-out-of-balance-yet-to-walk-kid"), I looked around and noticed that I wasn't the only one who was falling. Since we were in the learner's trail, every soul there was learning and invariably falling. Wow! isn't that a nice sight to watch? It was more like a live and a personal episode of "Laughs:just for gags" or "The planet's funniest videos" being telecast for me.

After our lessons and saying "bye" to our instructor, I took refuge onto the bench and relaxed, as "Mr. Cant-control-himself" Venky continued on his try to ski. I should admit he skii'ed decently well, except for that "first-time-big-fall", where looking at the way he fell, I thought he had his specs shattered, arms broken and ankles twisted. But nothing happened to him and that fall didn't stop him either. As he kept skiing to downhill and taking the 'rope-tow' to go uphill and again skiing to downhill, I was watching the rest of the people. They were trying and hoping desparately that they would one day ski with ease. And most of them fell down atleast twice in my sight. Have you ever sat down in a relaxed manner and watched somebody keep falling(that too in "repeat" mode)? That was what I got to see yesterday. Wow! That made me laugh. And at times, I laughed my heart out with my eyes drenched. Everybody was having fun. And since it doesn't hurt to fall there, those who fall down would invariably laugh embarrassingly before they get up. And that made me laugh all the more. And if there was something called the "best-fall" award, some deserved that for sure. You simply can't imagine that! And with the ski shoes on, they find it difficult to get up and that gives us the extra-understanding of how they fell and the after-effects! I was on the "laugh-roll" for almost 20 mins!

I almost decided that if I go skiing regularly, l would be the happiest person in life and in turn end up an healthy person. As they say "Laughter is the best medicine", which triggered the post of this title too!

16 comments:

unfuel the planet said...

where were u practicing sking?

Arun Sundar said...

It was just my first time skiing. Just wanted to have "Been there, Done that" feeling - I dont think I'll go regularly to practice.

Neways, the place is Blue Mountains, PA.

Guru said...

I should learn to ski someday, btu then i've never even seen snow yet. So lets see..

BTW why hasn't this post come to my feed reader yet ?

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...chumma ukkaandu sirichittu vandathukkae perumaya oru posta......

Anyway got to agree,first time skiiing is an experience on it's own (esp. for people who haven't seen so much snow before)......i(along with another indian girl) did not take any courses though just tagged along with one of my colleague and her friend....it was really fun....most of the time we both were trying to stand up and hang onto the vertical position....when my german friend pulled me up and made me stand straight and then ran to pick up the other indian girl into standing position, i would already be in the horizontal position...

If not lying down looking at the sky, my ski had such an affection towards the surrounding trees and plants, i always got tangled into one of the bushes.....i did manage to ski(?!) a little bit, most of the time it was `jill tumbling down the hill` with my german friend collecting all my accessories and sometimes me all along the way but i did reach the bottom...only when i saw a man carried by a medical team i realise it could have been easily me....

But lucky u, u saw people falling down....the place i went every body looked so proffessional, even i saw small kids who went past the struggling me so elegantly on their skis and just looked over their shoulder with such an expression on their face....i really wanted to bury my face in the snow at times....

A year later though i discovered that i have an innate ability to be the mistress of sledging (although slightly less than my sister!!!)

Anonymous said...

ayayyoooo....romba romba sorry....for such an long comment....

Arun Sundar said...

Guru,
Come into the corporate world. You can see more than snow ;)

Ela,
Complete'a chumma ukkaandhein'nu solla mudiyaathu. But I spent more time sitting and ridiculing than I tried skiing :)

"innate ability to be the mistress of sledging"?? Adhula "slightly less than my sister" vera??
Hmmmm...Family'ey "Ski and Sled Family' polarikku!!

I said...

Try not going out of the apartment and just being. That is the bestu.

Ponnarasi Kothandaraman said...

Ur post on Dec 30 and this post are too good! :) Nice blog

Emotional Knapsack said...

skiing sure sounds fun but like someone mentioned in their comment before, let me first see snow :)

Arun Sundar said...

I,
It indeed is the bestu. But i woudn't get that desi feeling of "Been there, Done that" :)

Ponnarasi kothandaraman,
Thank you.

Rose,
Seeing snow for the first time is indeed fun, but after that it gets so murky/messy, we would wish for snow-less roads. Experts say because of global warning, there would be no snow in our planet in a few thousand years. You better see once before that ;)

Anonymous said...

Arun.....naanga enga thaatha voda thaatha voda thaatha kalathil irundu paramparaya imaya malayilae oru chinna piece a kuthakaikku eduthu, romba romba kauravama " skiing and sledging" pannikittu irukira family....chumma engala paathu nakkal panna kudathu!

Arun Sundar said...

lol...reminds me of vivek's dialogue in one movie with his counter-part Vadivelu.

Anonymous said...

really?!!! which one?

Arun Sundar said...

Movie is called Middle Class Madhavan. Sadly, I cudnt find that particular scene in youtube.

Anonymous said...

appa ankeyum You tube thaana!!

Arun Sundar said...

Where there is internet, there is youtube.