Arre but how do you do it?

My hostess places an appreciative arm around my waist. I’m back in town after a couple of months and she thinks I’m looking terrific.

I smile affectionately back at her. It’s a happy lunch party. Everyone is tucking into salad, kababs and a really well made basket of laccha parathas. One of the girls joins our conversation. Tell us your secret, T!

I am just about to earnestly begin (Discipline! Hard work! Anushaasan! ) when she turns away and signals to the waiter for another Tandoori Aloo. That moment is lost forever.

“Babe, I really want to lose weight.” She’s back. ” Tell me who your PT is na.”

What on earth is a PT?

She tosses her hair incredulously at me. “Personal Trainer.”, she explains very patiently. “You couldn’t have done this without a PT. How else do you stay motivated ya?”

If the Fraud were here, he would have exploded. I went running with the Fraud early one morning, when I was feeling utterly dejected. I had two injuries which would not stop haunting me, a horrible week – all I really wanted was a hug and a warm croissant. Instead, I had to keep up with a fit-as-a-fiddle and very unemotional Fraud. Halfway through, I was almost in tears. “I can’t do this.” I told him. I said it over and over again in varying sentences. He kept running. After ten more minutes, I almost screamed at him. “Fraud, please be sensitive. There is no way I can..” He stopped abruptly and looked at me.

“But you’re still running.”

The Fraud had pointed out, with childlike simplicity, the complete disconnect between what I was saying and what I was doing.

He explained to me later that he would have still stopped only if I did. I just stared at him. I could have been dehydrated. I could have had monster cramps. I could have dropped down and died. He was steadfast in his judgment. Say what you want, but you wouldn’t have given up, kiddo. I’ve only known him for a few months, but his shrewd Vaniya brain can read me inside out.

I started training a few days after I left Mumbai, and I think the one reason I stayed on for so long is this memory. A part of me cannot forget what the Fraud quietly told me that day – at the gym, on the beach and in life.