Run Milind, Run

The road to success is on the footpaths. To run is to breathe. That's Milind Soman for you. India's poster boy of good health and fitness, with good looks thrown in for good measure 

- Farzana Contractor

Now here is a man who is totally clear-cut in his thinking. He knows his mind, he understands his body. He has evolved. From the days he smoked 30 cigarettes a day and devoured a quarter kg of solid chocolate in one go. When he partied all night long and did everything that went with the premise of partying hard. When days were short and ...- the nights, endless. When he along with the beauteous Madhu Sapre was hauled in a court of law for obscenity. The crime? The two posing, in a light clinch, for a camera. Wearing nothing but shoes, with an equally :11 good looking python wrapped around them, in what can be termed nothing but an advertising coup, shot so asthetically. It was an ad for Tuff Shoes and the case went on for 12 years.

"I really can't believe we, I, could be so reckless. Though I am not denying it was so much fun. But that was like 20 years ago. Smoking happened no thanks to all those ad films and movie shoots. When you are hanging around the sets, waiting for the lights to come on, cameras to roll and the art director to finally signal that the shot is ready. It's boredom that made me smoke. 

Though mind you, in all the years I smoked I never bought a single cigarette — they were all bummed off friends and colleagues!" laughs Milind, going down memory lane.

Cut to the present, the story line has changed. Drastically, wonderfully. A non-smoking Milind who is the epitome of fitness. A disciplined road runner who has just finished his Ahmedabad to Bombay run, a distance of 570 kms, covered in 14 days. How can his skin not glow? And impish eyes not sparkle! The "curie" (as many women describe him) is not a product of any high-end beauty salon. The glow, the sparkle comes from within. From living life with clarity and purpose, for Milind Soman knows exactly who he is, where he is coming from, where he is going to.