At the Champions dinner last night, hosted for the winners of the Tata Mumbai marathon, we had a surprise guest. N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of the Tata Group and Tata Sons. Chandra Sir, as he is fondly known or called, has always been an active supporter of participative sport. In fact, at his behest, the Tata Group is currently the biggest supporter of distance running events across India.
Mr. Chandrasekaran had missed the marathon in the morning and had another flight to catch late at night. And yet he decided to make it to the evening and catch up with Mo Farah and interact with the audience. In his words, “I wanted to show support for the event in its 20th anniversary, for it has made a tangible contribution to improving our society and making us healthier people”.
He went on to give his own example and that was the high point of the event for many. “I was diagnosed with Diabetes in 2007 and my doctor said to me, you are a successful person and an intelligent man. How can you be someone who is foolish enough to neglect his health?”
That’s when he took to running. “I was very shy and did not want to run in public. As an amateur, I wanted to do it away from people’s eyes. As a result, I started running between 4am and 430am for half an hour every day. In 2008, I participated for the first time in the Tata Mumbai marathon and completed it. The very next year, I participated in the New York Marathon and my running journey had started.”
Since then, the Tata Group has started to sponsor the New York Marathon, not to mention the Tata Mumbai marathon.
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The best, however, was reserved for the last. “If there is anyone in this audience who doesn’t run, my request and advice will be to start now. There is no age for running. You can run anytime and trust me, you will be better for it and feel good”, said Chandra Sir.
All of a sudden, we could sense the power of true participative sport. It was not about the elite athletes. We had running royalty in the room – Mo Farah and the winners of the TMM. But it wasn’t about them. It was about all of us. Each one who is a stakeholder in the movement to become a better and healthier India. It is the only sport where we don’t cheer for stars. Rather we cheer for ourselves. It was Mo Farah who was cheering for each of the 62000 participants running the TMM. That’s the beauty of it all and that’s what makes the event unique.
As I said ‘bye’ to Chandra Sir and resumed my hosting duties on stage, I had my takeaway from the evening. It is time to make a change and make a small contribution. And do it for ourselves and our families. It is not about winning or losing. Not about medals or money. Rather, it is about standing in front of the mirror and asking a simple question – are we feeling good about ourselves? If we run the 30 minutes that Chandra Sir spoke about, the answer could well be yes. Who cares for anything beyond that.
And for the Tata Group, exactly a 100 years earlier, Sir Dorab Tata had taken the lead to send India’s first three participants to the 1924 Olympic Games. A century later, the group is continuing to steer and support Indian sport in the right direction. That’s what real legacy is all about.
Also Read: ‘India is on the move’: Mo Farah on 62,000 running the streets of Mumbai
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