The fitness freaky logistician!
Sharing the birthday with the Father of Nation is one thing. But obliging his son’s wishes — unlike Mahatma Gandhi — and taking up swimming to give him company is another trait. Arvind Mittal is a proud dad; he jumped into the pool and thus began his tryst with a fitness regimen.
Diving into the water in the unbearable summer of Delhi is fine, but what about the equally unmerciful biting cold of the North? That’s when this commerce graduate from the backwaters of Haryana embraced cycling and running to keep fit.
Running? Not yours or mine style of a few kilometers! He ran 120km in two days pre-Covid to Dharmashala, Himachal Pradesh. Not alone, but in the company of ten runners. Do you know who his running companion was? Milind Soman!
With a commerce degree and diploma in Exim, he straddled the corporate world. He landed in Varun Roadlines (the same Varun Integrated logistics giant) to spend eight formative years learning the ropes of administration and legal compliance in a logistics environment. Does he have a legal degree? Need to ask him. (Never too late, right Arvind? Respond, please!)
“Both of us grew: I mean the company and me, too. They gave full freedom to explore all areas of running the company,” reminiscences the Bengaluru-based logistician of late.
From Varuna, he hopped onto a mining enterprise in Uttarakhand and a few more — including a start-up. Covid came and threw him off balance. A runner with several half-marathons, full marathons, and, hold your breath, an ultra marathon (google to find what this ultra thing is all about!) to his credit, he packed his bags for the southern climes of Bengaluru to administer a big logistics outfit. A runner never gives up.
Thrice I “darshaned” him in the past seven years. Each one was unforgettable. The first time, he came to check what we mean by “Dhaba Adoption,” conceptualized by my ex-colleague Selvan Dasaraj in Sonepat, Haryana.
The second meeting was unique. Following the Sonepat inspection, he invited us to his corporate office in Gurgaon.
“I have a surprise for you,” he foxes me. What?
He escorts me to the first floor of his office, and whom I see there? Soman Nambiar, a well-wisher and a veteran logistician whom I have known since 2010. He was one of the key influencers in my not abandoning the truck tripping and the truck driver’s focus.
How did it happen? Simple. On his visit to Sonepat, he bought my first book, 10,000KM on Indian Highways, and somewhere in the book are a few paragraphs about Nambiar. Unless one had read the book, my connection with Nambiar would not have surfaced. Arvind did that: I mean, read my book cover to cover. A rare feat! Who reads a book these days? Shankar Kuppuswamy is an exception. But for Arvind, I could not have imagined meeting Nambiar. Thanks, Arvind!
A few days ago, I bumped into him in Bengaluru. Literally on the roadside. No, the smiling assassin was not on one of his running gear or cycle. He just walked inside the BPCL fuel pumps, owned by another well-wisher and acquaintance, where I was parked for a while.
What did we talk about? Watch out soon. “Watch” is the keyword.
