It will take me a day to tell you about my ad campaign,’’ he grins. Fauja Singh, the 93-year-old marathon runner, shows no signs of jetlag as he treats you to an account of his shoot for Adidas last year. ‘‘You know they hired a non-smoking make-up artist for me, and one of the girls winked at me to make me laugh.’’The man who was declared ‘Britain’s most popular Sikh’ after he was splashed all over the billboards in London, is a trifle disappointed that no one recognised him at Amritsar’s Rajasansi airport yesterday. ‘‘Back in London, everyone knows me.’’Till a year ago, very few people did. Fauja was just another lonely old widower from Beas village in Jalandhar, who used to get so homesick at his son’s Ilford home that he would fly back home on the sly.Life changed pace when he took to running. ‘‘I just wanted to be happy, and running made me thought-free,’’ he strokes his Santa Claus beard. Five years ago, he took part in his first-ever marathon. Last year, he shot to fame by setting the world’s best time in the over-90 age group in the prestigious London Marathon, clocking 5.40 hours.‘‘It’s thanks to God and my coach Harmandar Singh,’’ he beams, telling you about the pain the 44-year-old council worker takes to coach him. Then there’s Jackie, ‘‘a very good gori kudi’’ who works for BLISS, the charity for premature babies to which he donates his prize money.The fame has given him a new zest for life. The father of four children, 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, says he feels he was born yesterday. ‘‘I live by Gurdas Mann’s song, ‘Umraan nu ki karna, dil jawaan hona chahida’,’’ he laughs.That explains his passion for keds and clothes. Adidas gifted him several pairs of shoes but he didn’t like any. ‘‘My favourite pair is one my coach bought me for £112. It’s light and fits me like a glove,’’ he says.Fauja didn’t try to drive a hard bargain with Adidas. ‘‘I told them I give all my prize money to charity, so they gave £9,000 to three different charities.’’ Of late, his left leg has begun to bother him, but he is determined to carry on running. Next month, he will be in Pakistan. ‘‘You see, he wants to better the record of a 98-year-old who ran a Marathon in nine hours,’’ explains his nephew Paramjit Singh.
