I would like to run, just because I like to run. When I run, I like it to be quiet. If there are 17,000 people running with me, that's fine. There will be chatter, deep breathing, feet thudding. There will be cheering from the assembled crowd. That's also fine.
But when I run, I don't need inspiration in the form of playback music. I don't need patriotic songs blaring out hum hain Hindustani... I don't need to feel "one" with the Indians running with me. Partly because many different nationalities, Russians, Kenyans etc, were also running.
There were causes we were running for. Animals, autism awareness, blind people and so on. But this occasional burst of "nationalistic" music appropriated the act of running into a "greater cause" - running for our country.
I would have preferred to just run. Quietly. Past the Purana Qila, past Sujan Singh Park, past Lodhi Road, into the JN stadium. Celebrating the city and the act of running. Not my Indian-ness.
