Hailing from a lower middle-class background, Kaushik grew up in the city of Kanpur, also known as the Leather City of the World. He grew up in the midst of a muslim community and celebrated their festivals more than his own.
Before getting married, his father had moved from Kolkata to Kanpur to work in a defense factory. His mother, although a Bengali, was a local resident of Kanpur. His parents lived their entire life in this beautiful city which was formerly known as Manchester of India.
Kaushik was good at sports as he represented his college cricket team as a middle order batsman and more than handy wicketkeeper. Football also fascinated his imagination to a great extent. He was also good at academics and got into prestigious BIT, Mesra engineering college.
During this time, he developed new interests like music, reading novels and dancing for the first time in his life. He got the first taste of erstwhile Bihar’s political scenario as the college had students from various political backgrounds. In late 90s, Bihar was known as a notorious state, but he found people of Bihar to be extremely talented, inquisitive and affable. He made some lifelong friends while studying there. He also met his soulmate Priyanka whom he later married.
While freedom allowed Kaushik to explore and learn new things, it also brought him under the influence of smoking and alcohol that affected him in many ways.
He started his career in the manufacturing industry. Soon he moved to sales and marketing given his penchant for building and nurturing relationships. However this role needed extensive traveling and his habit of smoking and drinking continued unabated. By 2009, at the age of 29, he weighed 90 kg and had lost touch with any kind of sports after passing out from his college. He quietly abhorred his lifestyle, but there was no easy way out.
By April 2011, he had crossed the century mark and weighed a whopping 104 kg.
In Oct 2011, he moved from Delhi to Bangalore. This change started to positively impact his life. He lived in HSR Layout which is still a prominent area where one can find plenty of runners during early morning hours. Seeing these runners, he could no longer stay in the confines of his home and started with slow runs in 2013. He had also drastically cut down on smoking.
He started to feel the difference in his body and mind as his weight came down to 90 kg. But his personal life went through a complete turmoil as he lost both his parents within a span of 14 months and his plans to expand his family beyond 2 also took a temporary beating.
His fitness took a back seat as he had plenty to deal with. Being a sports person since his childhood probably helped to keep his mind sane during those turbulent times.
Finally in 2017, things started to look brighter when he and his wife were blessed with twin daughters. He thought both his parents came back to his life in the form of his daughters.
A year later, looking at his daughters it dawned upon him that he could no longer match the energy of the toddlers. So he finally picked up his running shoes in 2018. He started with slow jogs and gradually moved to run longer distances.
He ran his first half marathon in Oct 2018. By the 16th kilometer he was so tired and cramped that it took him 1 hr 15 min to cover the remaining 5 KM. He completed the run in 3 hr 15 min.
In 2020 January as he turned 40, he vowed to himself to stay healthy and started running more consistently. COVID lockdown allowed him more time for running.
But it was a difficult period for him professionally as he was running a startup and his business struggled during the pandemic. However his focus on running kept him grounded. He met Vishwanath ji, Raju, Kailash and Pradeep from HRA (Happy Runners – Alive & Adventurous) Running Club that truly changed the course of his life. They were extremely passionate about running and cycling. Being in the company of these people helped Kaushik to stay consistent. He used to wake up by 5 AM and complete his run before anybody could see him during COVID lockdown.
His consistency paid off and on 5th Dec 2020, he completed his first ever Full Marathon with a timing of 4:05 hr. His weight had come down to 70 kg.
In the last 4 years, he has run 8 Marathons and 7 Ultra Marathons. He also has 81 half marathons to his credit. Earlier this year he ran a full marathon in Delhi within 4 hours.
In 2023, he raised the bar for himself by running four Full Marathons (in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore) and four Ultra Marathons (60 KM in Ooty and 50 KM in Yercaud, Malnad and Bangalore).
He has consistently built his endurance and clocked close to 8,000 KM of running till date.
He is also proud of the accomplishments of his wife Priyanka. She has recently completed a half marathon in Bangalore and one in the hilly terrain of Yercaud.
Kaushik had issues dealing with anger all through his life, but running helped him to gain composure. He started observing and introspecting a lot more in his life. He is a lot happier now. He wants to inspire people to take up running and bring a positive change in the society.
He sums up his experiences with these lines.
Life was going downhill fast but then running came to my rescue! Luckily, I started pounding the pavement just before COVID hit.
I’d always dreamed of running with my kids once they took up cycling. And guess what? I’m living that dream right now! Pure happiness.
Remember, you’re only as small as the things that bug you. So, why sweat the small stuff? Save your energy for the big-ticket items!
