From the Mountain to the Ocean — the journey of Roshni Rai

Writes Namita Gupta

Running has easily become a way of life for this legal executive. Despite being a busy lawyer, Roshni Rai from Kalimpong, Darjeeling felt that running is like an investment in oneself. She’s the force behind the campaign Run with Roshni and is working on empowering Gorkhas. She has not only supported Gorkha runners to run Olympic marathons representing India, but has also penned a book.
From the Mountain to the Ocean — Run with Roshni is the journey of a girl from a small village, Pedong. She will be in Bengaluru on November 8 to launch her book and also participate in the Bangalore Ultra Run. We ask Roshni, who is referred to as Chinki Minki (Chinese doll) by her friends, why she moved from being a lawyer (she has done Masters in Law (LLM) from Mumbai) to a runner and she shares, “I studied law and the shift took place after I did Landmark Forum from Landmark Worldwide. While running marathons, I felt it was the best way to express myself fully and that’s when I started doing things connected with long distance running.”
Roshni also keeps coming to Bengaluru, besides travelling the world over, “I have participated in Bangalore Ultra marathon (50km), Bangalore Ultra Marathon (75km), Prague International Marathon (42km), Maidenhead half marathon (21km) in UK and London Run To The Beat (10km). I  will be running Bangalore Ultra Marathon 2015 (100km) on November 7 and I will be launching my book the next day in Koramangala. Bengaluru has a growing running culture, which is very nice. This book is about my journey from a small village in Darjeeling to Mumbai and how I started running marathons and about Run with Roshni, through which we are supporting the underprivileged Gorkha runners to run marathons. I want to create a team of Gorkha runners who will bring gold medals from the Olympic marathon to India.”

Running related injuries set her back, but only temporarily as she came back with a vengeance and ran over 40 long distance races. “After my heart break, I was sinking into depression and one early morning, I went out to run because I was tired of crying alone in my room. Initially, I was crying and running but after sometime, I stopped crying and was only running. I felt fresh and hungry and after that day, running in the morning became a habit. I ran a 21 km Mumbai marathon without much practice after that, I joined Colgate as a legal executive, where I met my running coach Daniel Vaz. After training I ran more than 40 races, including half marathon (21km), Marathon (42 km), Ultra marathon of 50 km, 75 km and the Comrades marathon of 89 km in South Africa. I dedicated my Comrades Marathon as a tribute to all the Gorkha soldiers, who have sacrificed their lives to protect India. Before the finish line, they gave me the Indian flag and I ran with it,” says the woman of steel. 

Deccan Chronicle

Share this: