Getting Ready!

We are getting ready for the new phase!!!!
I am so excited! :-)... its close now.....

RIP Dev Sahab

On Sunday, when Dev Anand left us, an entire era of romance and melody left bollywood. I have been listening to the songs starring Dev Anand since then, I am a great fan of him, and then realized my Dev Anand favorites.

RIP Dev sahab.

The songs are in no particular order....

1) Kala Bazaar - Apni To Har Aah Ek Toofaan
Aawesome picturization of this song, sung beautifully by Mohd Rafi. My favorite part: "Dil hi to hai isne shayad bhool ki hai, Zindagi hai bhool kar hi rah miltui hai....." starts at 3:12 in this video




2) Kala Pani - Hum Bekhudi Mein Tumko Pukare
Another Gem by Mohd Rafi. I was listening to this song yesterday in car, and was trying to sing along with Rafi sahab, realized that its a very tough song. My favorite part: "Dekha kiye tumhe hum banke diwana, utara jo nasha to...."



There is a very lovely line before the song starts "Zindagi bhi ajeeb nasha hai dost, jab chadta hai to sar chad kar bolta hai

3) Prem Pujari - Shokhiyon Mein Ghola Jaye
I am not a great fan of Kishore Kumar, apart from the RD burman songs he has sung, but I am a worshipper of SD Burman's music.



4) Guide-Din Dhal Jaaye Haye
This is from one of my all time favorite movies. There is a very lovely line before the song starts "Zindagi bhi ajeeb nasha hai dost, jab chadta hai to sar chad kar bolta hai. Again a very beautiful and tough song (try singing "badnaam" and "dil ko thaam" in the first stanza) sung by Mohd Rafi. My favorite part: "Dil ke mere paas ho itne fir bhi ho....." "



5) Patita - Yaad kiya dil ne kahan ho tum
lovely movie and beautiful song

Make a difference - Donate and help fight Cancer

This year I am supporting the Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation, this trust is started by a freind and I have closely seen the kind of work they are doing. The money received from the donation is used to buy Cancer medicines for the poor and needy. A lot of people in our country cannot afford the Cancer treatment, this charity works with them and provides help to them

I am planning to run the Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon 2013 in this season                              

I have been training hard for this event and hope to achieve my goal this year.

If you want to support the idea of running for a cause, then I would request you to please donate Rs 50 for every Kilometre (or more!) that I run, this would make a huge difference. 

Also if you wish to donate please reply to this. So that I am able to track the donations and send you the receipts.

Since it is a new trust, so the payment gateway still needs to be incorporated. However you can initiate a wire transfer or deposit in the bank account or handover the cheque to me.

All Donations are tax exempted, I will mail you the reciept for the donation made.

Please mail / call me if you wish to donate, would send a mail with the donation procedure. 

SCMM 2012

So, with the 1 mile time trial today I started training for SCMM 2012. This is going to be a lot more fierce as compared to last year. Butyeah I am excited about it. The Mumbai Marathon would be a special one for me, the people close to me know the reason for it being special one!

The fight that began 4 years back, still holds, to do my personal best in Mumbai.

here I come, putting my best effort ever.....

Hatheli main hain kayi garmiyan... junoon sakht hai.....

You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can’t know what’s coming

~Frank Shorter~ American Olympic gold medalist for marathon

Kaveri Trail Marathon got over last Sunday, and I was there to witness the event. This was the first KTM where I didnt run, but was there to cheer up my buddies! Prateek did fantastically and tamed the trail finally, I guess he is at peace with KTM now, it has been bothering him for some time :-) Congrats champ!!!

Pankaj, Priyankar, Nari, Vasu, Rishi, Partha did well as usual, how effortlessly they run the marathon, wish I could do that someday.

1st October 2011, starts my training for Mumbai marathon 2012, yes I did my PB last year, which wasnt that great timing, but here I am again standing at the start line of a new training program, with new hopes, new promises and new goals for this running year. To top it all I have a new coach this year!!! Introducing Dharam, he is back from US and did some kick ass training there, and now he is here to kick our asses :-)

Looking forward to the training, like last year, my pardner Meher is sailing with me on the same "sinking" boat!! :-)

This song has been playing in my head since some days now, and this is a perfect song for the start of the training season!

specially the lines:

"Hatheli main hain kayi garmiyan......."

Wish List

The thing which is on top of my wish list is a DSLR camera.
wanted to try my hands on it since a long time.....

Bel ka Sharbat

This post is inspired from Bel Juice

Oh the smell of Bel reminds me of all those summer holidays...
How much I miss bel juice, the smell of that yellow bel juice, with 3-4 ice cubes floating in it. I miss the North Indian summers, the smell of the desert cooler, the deafening noise of the summer cooler, Kahrbooja in breakfast, bel juice in supper and cricket in the evenings.....

I miss them, that also makes me realize, I am old now :( 

And life moves on......

So I guess the high from the Mumbai marathon is gone now, thanks to the couple of kilos I have gained after the marathon in the last 15 days. I weigh a little more, and that has helped me in keeping me grounded.

But the good news is we (Meher and I) have got back to our 55-60 km weekly mileages. The plan going forward is staying marathon fit and doing a good timing in the sunfeast 10K. I have been thinking of what marathons to run this year as well. I am not at all motivated to do a full marathon at KTM or a 50 Km or more at the Bangalore Ultra, having run 50 km in all the previous editions of the bangalore Ultra, I am not at all motivated to run on that trail again. I would like to bring the marathon numbers to just 2 per year.

So this year it looks like that I would be doing a half in KTM 2011, maybe a 25 km in The Bangalore Ultra 2011, and then bike with Meher, if she plans to do a 50 there!

"Zindagi bhi kya nasha hai dost, jab chadhta hai to pooch mat kya aalam hota hai "

Dhobi Ghat

Brilliant movie!
Go catch it. I am watching it again on the Republic day

Rekha Bharadwaj

So lately I am in love with Rekha Bhardwaj's voice.

The way Vishal Bhardwaj uses her voice, she has an amazing voice, which very less music directors seems to understand.

See how beautifully her voice is used in "Darling" from 7 khoon maaf, or "namak ishq ka" from Omkara. So here is the list of my favorite Rekha Bhardwaj songs, in no specific order :)

1) Ab Mujhe Koyi - Ishqiya
2) Ghenda Phool - Delhi-6
3) Namak Ishq ka - Omkara
4) Phoonk De - No Smoking

SCMM Update

Did my PB in Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2011, with a time of 4hrs 48 min for 42.2 km
Not might be one of the best timings if seen relatively, but this is my personal best.

Will aim for a sub 4:30 next year. The dream just got bigger!

Whats on your mind: Aitbaar

Good movie, class act by Vidya Balan

AWESOME music by Amit Trivedi.... here is one of the awesome songs

Chasing a dream

I have been chasing a dream, will it come true this year ?

Race Report: Bangalore Ultra 2010

On 14th Nov 2010, I again found myself standing at the starting line
of the Bangalore Ultra, India’s first Ultra marathon. This was the 4th
edition of the Ultra, and my 4th attempt at 50 KM. It all started in
2007 as an impulsive decision to register for a 50 KM race, surely at
that time I wasn’t trained for it, but I was happy to have completed
it (obviously with injuries). This has always been a special race to
me, talk about the trail, the awesome fellow runners. Overall a great
event organized by RFL.

On Saturday everything went according to the plan, had a good (to be
read as heavy) breakfast with Ankita (obviously), Pankaj, Vinod,
Prateek, Priyanka and Meher. Then did nothing the entire day, read a
book, lazed around in the house and drank a lot of water. Had an early
dinner and slept at 9:00 pm. Woke up at 3:00 am and started for ONV
(the venue) at 4:00 am, like always we were the logistics experts for
the Ultra 2010, with Pankaj, Nagraj and me driving our respective
vehicles.

Reached the ONV a little late, thanks to RFL for missing the most
important sign board, but still managed to reach the start line before
the official start of the race, Meher helped me tie the timing chip,
while I pinned the bib, and so runner 5020 was all set to run the
Ultra 2010.

After some regular race related information by A1 (Arvind Krishnan),
the race was flagged off. I found myself running a little fast in the
first loop, I was running at an average pace of 6:05 min/km well
doesn’t sound a very fast pace if we talk of veterans whom I was
running with, but it was definitely a little fast for me if I was
running for 50 km, so decided to slow down a little, the weather was
perfect and the runners enthusiastic, met Sabine on the trail, she was
completing her first loop (she was running 75km, and started at 5:00
am), was greeted by typical Sabine cheer , which anybody in a 1km
radius would hear easily. Also met Praveen Singh with his infectious
smile, lansnayak Dharam and observed that he has become size zero now,
Chandra was happily pacing Athreya, who looked strong as ever,
identified Bhasker when he was 500m away, thanks to his stride, and
there came Nari just behind him!

I kept Meher in sight all this while, and then recalled that Meghana
arrived a little late at the start line, anyways I thought that she
has a timing chip and this is not going to make much of a difference.
She was running her first 50 km at the Bangalore Ultra, on her
husband’s (Sudarshan’s) birthday, and so was my training and running
buddy Meher.

Damn! The laces fell apart in the second kilometer, and I had to stop
to tie them, thanks to the laces Meher got a little more far from me,
anyways decided to stick on to a steady pace and not screw up things
at this early a stage. Reached the U-Turn mark and popped in an
edurolyte tablet, turned back and started again, met Pankaj Jathar,
Partha, and Honda San.

Near the 8th KM mark saw Meghana coming, with the Phone in her hand
and earplugs in the ears, was relieved to see her smiling and was
happy to find out that she wasn’t tensed at all. Anjana was pacing
her, she wanted to do her birthday long run, and also just wanted to
beat the Ultra trail, so here she was kicking some fine dust on the
trail. In the last leg of the first lap, saw a lot of 25 km runners,
cheered loudly for Ankita, Priyanka, Nitin and Deepti. All of them
responded back with the same enthusiasm

It was a good first lap, turned around and found Prateek just ahead of
me, caught up with him and then ran the next 6 km with him, it was a
good 6 km, well we didn’t speak much to each other, but it was good
pacing with him. Reached the U-turn mark and stopped to pop up the
endurolyte again, and Prateek got ahead, now I started running with a
couple of Pune and Mumbai runners. You have to adopt these strategies
on the trail while running, of chatting with different people you
meet, otherwise the trail would be very boring. So ran the next loop
with them and discussed about the trail, Pune city, love for Mumbai
and of course the awesome Bangalore weather which was not that awesome
by this time.

The sun started getting really bad after the second lap, but I think I
was doing good. Meher was scorching the trail as usual, and so were
Pankaj and Priyankar who were right behind her. This was a tough lap,
the sun got from bad to worse, but that didn’t affect Praveen Singh’s
smile, he was looking strong , completing his 37.5 Km and so were
Dharam, Athreya, Chandra, Bhasker and Nari. I must mention about the
water and aid stations here, they were awesome
accent>. Talk about sandwiches, oranges, peanuts, salt and sugar, they
had everything! They were like the Jeanie on the trail, they even had
ice!!!! Was pleasantly surprised find cold water in all the aid
stations, trust me there is no other luxury than having chilled water
in a marathon!!

By the time I finished my 37.5 km I started feeling dizzy, to make the
matters worse I threw up at the 35th KM mark, guess it was the heat,
immediately after throwing up I had a lot of oranges with salt on it
and a lot of Lucozade,  to prevent the dehydration. Met Prateek at the
36th KM mark and he wasn’t looking in a good shape either, it seems
that the sun was bothering him as well. So here I completed my 3rd
loop and was greeted at the U-turn mark by Atul, and thus started for
my last loop, in not a good shape, by now I started cramping up ,
guess it had something to do with throwing. Finally saw Ankita
completing her first loop, she was looking okish, bogged down with the
heat and humidity. Finally saw Meher, she was in her 49th KM!!!!!!!!!!
:) Wow! She is going to beat her target timing by 20 minutes, I was so
happy for her, and yet another podium finish by her, gave her a hug
and carried on my journey. Met Praveen, and Priyankar who were right
behind her, saw Amrita, she was walking guess she started cramping as
well.

This was the loop that screwed up things for me. I threw up again at
the 40th KM mark and by this time was in serious trouble. I started
contemplating if I should really carry on with the remaining 10 KM or
should give up and take a ride back with one of the crew members. Well
decided otherwise and decided to walk the rest of the 10 Km, maybe the
strength was given by Sudha Mehta Cancer foundation, there were people
who were supporting my runs,  well I just cant leave the trail and
take a ride back. The 10 KM of walk was a very emotional experience. I
was all alone in this stretch, and in a lot of pain, still was
managing to do a run walk. Finally the pain and crawling ended and I
completed my 4th Bangalore Ultra in 7 hrs and 14 min, yes I took about
2 hours for the last loop. It was very emotional to see Meher and
Ankita waiting for me in the sun just before the finish line and so
were Pankaj, Vinod, Rishi, Amrita, Prateek and Priyanka.

Random Moments:

1) Every time me and Nischal met on the trail, apart from discussing
that we are the members of the thunder thighs club :-P, we just stood
there touching our toes, and relaxing our back muscles. I think
Manjula has taken our photograph in that position

2) Santhosh Padmanabhan is an inspiration for all of us in the running
community, he ran for 24 hours and all his loops had near consistent
splits of 1 hr 30 min – 1 hr 45 min. He was looking so focused that I
found it inappropriate to disturb him by cheering him up. He was
looking oike a running monk

3) Chandra Gopalan and Preeti are rock stars, the completed 75 KM! Way to go!!!

3) There were 3 other iron ladies attempting a 100 km: Cathy (finished
in 11 hrs and 03 min), Emma and Aparna Chaudhary

4) Nishchal running 100 km got married three days back! I gave her a
congratulatory hug on the trail and we laughed, that only a runner can
congratulate other runner on the trail :)