White Light

Happy Birthday Shadowfax!

2012-02-06T02:36:00.000-08:00

So the Shadowfax turns 1 in March 2012. Its been a fabulous one year with the brave heart! I have already clocked 28,000 KM on the Odometer, and I still love to drive it, I still like to take it on open roads, you have to drive it to find out how much it loves the open roads.

I almost nearly booked a Vento petrol, thinking that Diesel Vento is too expensive for me, but then Ankita asked me to go for the diesel one, the difference in cost was 1.25 Lacs (ex showroom) but I guess I have recover that amount already. Here is some maths how

Diesel

KM reading : 28,000 KM

Average mileage received: 15 kmpl

Total Diesel burnt: 28,000/15= 1867 litres

Price of diesel per litre: Rs 46.16/-

Total damages: 1867 x 46.16= Rs 85,882/-

First servicing: Rs 8,800/-

Total: 85882+8800= Rs 94,682/-

Cost per KM: 94,682/28000= Rs 3.3/-

Now assuming if I would have bought a Petrol version:

KM reading : 28,000 KM

Average mileage received: 12 kmpl

Total Diesel burnt: 28,000/12= 2334 litres

Price of diesel per litre: Rs 75/-

Total damages: 1867 x 46.16= Rs 1,75,050/-

First servicing: Rs 8,800/-

Total: 1,75,050+8800= Rs 1,83,850/-

Cost per KM: 1,83,850/28000= Rs 6.6/-

So finally it seems like a good deal. Plus I recovered the price difference between the Diesel and petrol version as well!

Bonus: pics of Shadowfax

Photographs Courtesy: Nilesh

These pics were taken as a Vento owners meet, mine is the white one!

Getting Ready!

2011-12-08T07:26:00.000-08:00

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

RIP Dev Sahab

2011-12-07T00:54:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-09T22:54:00.000-08:00

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 2012 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

2011-10-03T03:05:00.001-07:00

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.....

2011-09-20T02:19:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-27T03:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

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 :(

kissa seat ka.....

2011-02-17T21:16:00.000-08:00

प्रिय सॉफ्टवेर अभियंता,

मैं इस बात को भली भाँती जानता हूँ की आप हमारे राष्ट्र के लिए कितना अच्छा काम कर रहे हैं, मैं यह सत्य भी जानता हूँ की आप नियमित रूप से अपना आयकर भर रहे हैं . जो भी बसें और ट्रेन हमारे राष्ट्र मैं चल रही हैं वह आप जैसे दानवीरों की वजह से ही हैं. पर क्या हम इस सब मैं अपने समाज के कुछ नियम भूल गए हैं, वह नियम जो कहीं लिखे हुए नहीं हैं, जो बस हमारे माता पिता ने हमें बताएं हैं.

मैं पिछले कुछ माह से सावर्जनिक परिवहन सेवा का उपयोग कर रहा हूँ, क्यूं कर रहा हूँ वह एक लम्बा अध्याय है, वह मैं कभी बाद मैं बताऊँगा. आज सुबह बस काफी भरी हुई थी, पर मुझे भाग्य से सीट मिल गयी, थोड़ी ही देर पश्चात् एक वृद्ध दम्पति बस मैं चढ़े, पर किसी ने भी इस चीज़ को आँख न दी. मैं काफी पीछे बैठा था, पर जब थोड़ी देर पश्चात् भी उस वृद्ध दम्पति को सीट न मिली तो मैंने सोचा की मैं अपनी सीट उन्हें दे देता हूँ. मैं उठ कर उन तक गया, वह थोड़ी दूर खड़े थे, मैंने उनसे कहा की आप मेरी सीट पर बैठ सकते हैं, और उन्हें अपनी सीट पर लाया, पर जब हम वापिस पहुंचे तो वह एक महानुभाव विराजमान थे, जब मैंने उनसे निवेदन किया की यह मेरी सीट थी और मैं इसे इस वृद्ध महिला को बैठने के लिए देना चाहता हूँ, तब वह बड़े अभिमान मैं मुझसे बोला की उसे बहुत दूर जाना है. मैंने उस नासमझ बालक को समझाया की मुझे भी दूर जाना है पर अगर अपनी सीट इनको दे देंगे तो कोई हर्ज़ नहीं है. मेरे काफी समझाने के पश्चात और आवाज़ मैं थोड़ी कठोरता लाने के पश्चात् ही वह उठा तब वह उठा और वह सीट उस वृद्ध महिला को दी. पर वह वृद्ध पुरुष अगले चालीस मिनट तक खड़ा होकर गया.

क्या हम इस दौड़ मैं कुछ महत्त्वपूर्ण चीज़ भूल रहे हैं? क्या हम अपनी समाज की तरफ के कर्त्तव्य से भाग रहे हैं? यह किस्सा एक सामाजिक धारणा बयां करता है, जिसके लिए हम सब ज़िम्मेदार हैं

And life moves on......

2011-02-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-23T21:35:00.000-08:00

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

Rekha Bharadwaj

2011-01-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-20T21:35:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-09T22:43:00.001-08:00

Good movie, class act by Vidya Balan

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

Chasing a dream

2011-01-06T03:00:00.001-08:00

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

Race Report: Bangalore Ultra 2010

2011-01-04T02:14:00.001-08:00

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 :)

R.I.P. Tank

2010-11-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

You were always enthu about everything, an awesome photographer. One of my favorite running photographs came via your eyes. Awesome cook, simply used to be a fan of your pepper chicken and all those chilly dishes, was always full of life. Fan of your line "chal karte hain yaar". You have always given me surprises and shocks, your decision to move to Delhi and then today. It is shocking, disturbing.

Somethings would never be the same again......... running is one of them.......

Make a difference - Donate and help fight Cancer

2010-11-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

This year Ankita and me are 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 following events this year:

1) Kaveri Trail Marathon - 42.2 KM (Marathon):

2) Bangalore Ultra 2010 - 50 KM:

3) Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon - 42.2 KM (Marathon):

4) Auroville Marathon, Pondicherry - 21 KM

I have been training hard for all these events 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 pick up any of the above events (one or more) and donate Rs 10 for every Kilometre (or more!) that I run, this would make a huge difference.

Also if you wish to donate please reply to this mail indicating the event you picked up for donation. 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.

KTM 2010

2010-09-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the last long run before the KTM (Kaveri Trail Marathon). With this long run, the first part of our training ends. The training is divided into three parts, KTM, Bangalore Ultra and then the final showdown in Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon 2011. Till now it was a good training, I guess I stuck to the schedule and hence ended up running 867 KM in the entire training schedule which started on 1^st of June 2010. The special part about this marathon is we are treating this as another long run for the preparation for the Bangalore Ultra 2010, where I am attempting a 50KM, this would be my 4^th 50KM at the Bangalore Ultra, but this time I have a time target.

The training so far has been very good, apart from one week where I was down with viral fever, the fever took a lot away from me, it left me weak, still recovering from the cough. But I guess the training in the muscles is still there. I have been concentrating on the nutrition value a lot during my tapering period, and I hope to recover completely by KTM.

Pretty excited about this marathon, first run after I embarked on a journey of endurance training and runs after my 30^th Birthday this July. Lets see how I do. Keeping my finders crossed!

the training so far......

2010-08-30T21:37:00.001-07:00

Independece day and Deshbhakti

2010-08-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

Gone are those days when people used to respect the national anthem, the latest version of National Anthem played by MTV on the television is the latest inclusion in the saga. It can start at any given moment, you might be lazing around in your bed, eating your meals, talking on phone etc… and as soon as you hear it, well I stand in respect of it. I agree that’s my personal opinion but then why give such an opportunity, and to top it all they call themselves “Asli Indian” after doing this act. And lastly, they came out with a bad version in terms of music.

This reminds me of the enthu that we used to have on the morning of Independence / Republic day, when we were back in school. All the nukkads and crossings in the city would be playing patriotic songs from Old Hindi movies. There would be a national flag in the hands of every child going to school for the parade, in his bus / riksha / trolley. The excitement of getting a “laddoo” at the end of a parade, and then come back from school and see the parade / hear the prime minister’s speech on TV. This is all getting lost somewhere….

So inspired from such series of events, here goes the list of my favorite patriotic songs from hindi movies, why has Bollywood stopped coming up with them now? (This is not in order of preference. But a general list)

1) Kar Chale hum fida – Haqeeqat (1965) (Mohd. Rafi): "zinda rehne ke mausam bahut hain magar, jaan dene ki rut roz aati nahi...."

2) Mera Rang de basanti chola - Shaheed (1965) (Mukesh, Mahendra Kapoor, Rajendra Mehta): “Jis chole ko pehen shivaji khele apni jaan pe, jise pehen jhaansi ki raani mit gayi apni aan pe”

3) Taqat watan ki humse hai – Prem Pujari (Manna Dey): “dekar apna khoon, seechte desh ki hum phulwari, bansi se bandook bana dein hum wo prem pujari”

4) Ae mere pyare watan – Kabuliwala (Manna Dey): “ maa ka dil ban ke kabhi seene se lag jaata hai tu, aur kabhi nanhi si beti ban ke yaad aata hai tu”

5) Hoton pe sachai rehti hai - Jis desh main ganga behti hai (Mukesh) "mehmaan jo humara hota hai wo jaan se pyaara hota hai"

6) Ye Desh hai veer jawano ka - Naya Daur (1957): dont miss the dashing Ajit in the video

7) Chhodo kal ki batein - Hum Hindustani (Mukesh) : "Aao mehnat ko apna imaan banaaye, Apne haathon ko apna bhagwaan banaaye"

JAI HIND!

Update

2010-07-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since I have blabbered on this blog. So as you all might have guessed the blabbering starts with my training plan.

Training

The training for the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2011 is coming along well, as updated in the previous post, my mileage for the week is already hovering around 75-80 km. When I jumped into this kind of high mileage training plan, I was almost sure that my body is going to give up in the middle of it. But I am pleasantly surprised that it’s reacting well or much more than well. I am loving the training, in a matter of 1.5 months I have already lost 2.5 KGs of weight, this is in parallel hogging on to the food….The only side effect of this training is that my shoes are going to wear out much earlier. I am clocking close to 300 Km a month, going by that rate I think the shoes would only be good for some three months. So if any of you guys are travelling back from US, please let me know.

In the meanwhile I am really proud of Ankita for taking up running so positively and with dedication, she has been running very strong and already her 16 – 18 km long runs have started. Though she doesn’t trust me, but I can see a definite improvement in her running. I think after this training schedule she can be on her own!

Movies:

Watched Inception, it’s a good movie, though I didn’t find it “great” I liked the concept and the innovation part of it! Apart from this, the movies to watch out for:

Paan Singh Tomar: I loved the poster of this movie, and also the story, looking forward to it

Sad news: Ravi Baswani died of a massive heart attack. He was a legendary actor.

Read a tribute to him here, nice post

Mumbai here we come!!!!

2010-07-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

Ankita and me registered for Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon 2011 today.

The training is going pretty well and my body is accepting it well also, my mileage for the week is already hovery around 74-80 KM

Mumbai here we come!

Shin Splints, my take

2010-07-08T04:11:00.001-07:00

So this is my own analysis on what, how and why of Shin Splints

Shin Splints:

As Wikipedia describes it: Shin splints is a general medical term denoting medial tibial stress syndrome, a painful condition in the shins, often caused by the stresses of running, jumping, dancing, and sprinting, and usually heals slowly.

Runners World: Shin splints, the catch-all term for lower leg pain that occurs below the knee either on the front outside part of the leg (anterior shin splints) or the inside of the leg (medial shin splints), are the bane of many athletes, runners, tennis players, even dancers. They often plague beginning runners who do not build their mileage gradually enough or seasoned runners who abruptly change their workout regimen, suddenly adding too much mileage, for example, or switching from running on flat surfaces to hills.

Reason:

1) The biggest reason for shin splints is the sudden increase in mileage

2) Also you might be wearing wrong shoes, most probably worn out shoes

3) Too much running on road / hard surfaces

4) Landing on the HEEL while running

The above facts can be found everywhere over the internet and the runners magazine. Now here’s my take on this.

I jumped into a tough marathon and Ultra marathon training in the beginning of June 2010, I did a ramp up of my mileage, increasing it by 10% every week, but I still ended up having shin splints, which were pretty painful. This has always been my problem, I start getting shin splints once the weekly mileage starts hovering around 65+ KM . so here is the analysis of what was wrong with me. Have a look at these, maybe a lot of you guys are also doing it….

1) My running shoes were worn out.

2) The shoes that I wear to work were in a terrible shape, imagine this, you are in your running shoes only for about 1-2 hours on an average weekday. But you spend a lot more time in your work shoes. Do give it a thought, don’t get carried away by fashion. Just answer this question, what is more important to you, looking hep in office or the race that’s 5 months down the line. A friend of mine used to wear heels to work, she ended up injuring her ankle and learnt the lesson the hard way

3) If you are driving to work, and spending hours doing that, please take off your shoes and then drive. This helped me a lot, apparently pressing that clutch in stop and go traffic (specially applicable for Bangalore), and in an uncomfortable leather shoes might do the damage as well

4) Stop keeping the wallet in your rear pocket. I have been doing this since a long time and then realized that you a lot prone to ITB pain if you do that, start keeping it in the front pocket or in the laptop bag. Because if you are keeping it in the back pocket and then sitting on a chair for the entire day, you are actually sitting in a wrong posture…..

5) Now the biggest problem, that I discovered: when you are running don’t try and land on your heels, try and land on the midfoot. This was the biggest problem with me and its been some time now that I have started avoiding landing on the heel and this is showing up in my training. The shin pain has disappeared. See this video , how an elite marathoner lands:

6) For the above point what Dr Rajat advised me was, wear the Bata PT shoe (keds) in your shorter runs, since it has bare minimum cushioning, landing on the heel would be a little painful and hence you would automatically land on the midfoot, and then this would become a habit. But if you could manage this with your cool running shoes, then its more convenient. Actually the best would be to try barefoot running for some days….

When I had shin splints this time. I just wasn’t in a mood to drop my weekly mileage and let this pain screw up my training plan. So here’s what I did:

1) Ice it 6-7 times a day

2) When you are sitting in office / in the bus / stuck in traffic, stretch it

- Sit tall in a chair with knees bent 90 degrees, feet flat on the ground. Keeping your right heel on the ground, gently raise your right forefoot up and back toward your shin until you reach a point of slight discomfort. Return it to the ground. Repeat 10 times with each foot.

- From the same position, lift your right forefoot up, and trace the letter "J" in the air with your foot. Return it back to the ground. Repeat 10 times with each foot

- Sit tall in a chair with your right leg extended and an ankle weight on your foot. Slowly draw your toes back until you reach a point of slight discomfort. Then extend your toes forward until you feel tension. Repeat 10 times with each foot

Doing this actually gave me relief from the shin pain in ONE DAY, and my weekly mileage was intact! Try it!

Happy running

What's on your desktop

2010-07-07T03:55:00.000-07:00

Yeah Runners, we are different

My training schedule as my desktop wallpaper....

Mile Markers-III

2010-06-28T22:15:00.001-07:00

Phooh phooh oooph, yeah this is just the warmup, the road ahead will be better. On a weekday, 14K is a long distance, that’s why I woke up at 5:00 am and…. Oh wait I am running at 5:55 pace already, so Shantanu you see it is not that bad!

Hmmm boyfriends seeing off their girlfriends at the bus stop, Dads / Moms holding their child’s hand and seeing them off at the bus stop, and here I go my hands clinched, strides significantly improved in the last three weeks, but the road ahead is long very long till Mumbai Marathon. I look into my Garmin and fall in love with the gadget yet again! I have reason this time. The Garmin shows 10K @ 5:43 pace. Wow Shantanu, if the music keeps playing this way the Goal for this year looks achievable!!!!!

Breathing check: Normal, Shin pain ? mmmmmm no I don’t think so, hamstrings and calves ? feels good! Heart ….. LOVES IT!!!!!!!! Wait wasn’t this supposed to be a progression run? Yeah it was, let me try carrying this pace for about 4 more Kilometres. I can’t wait to message it to my buddies!!!! So I have to reach home earlier than before, I want to tell this to all… lets carry on!

Wait who is this? He is trying to lap me! Not today dude, today is my day….. run Forrest run!!!!!

Phhhhhhhh I guess after an awesome run, when the Garmin shows you 14K @ 5:44 pace you need to cool down, and stretch… let me do that……

This run made my day, the best part was I wasn’t even feeling that I was cruising at 5:44 pace. How easy it is for a runner to start a happy day!!!!!!!!

Mile markers - II

2010-06-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

For the first part of this series read here

Oh God! Please don’t stop this music, I am loving it. Another good week for me, ran a total of 66 KM and that too at a decent pace. As my weekday mileage increases so are the techniques to prevent injuries, now I find myself doing a lot of stretches and drills before and after the run. I never saw the importance of doing it, or maybe I was just too lazy to do it. But I guess whenever you are doing great mileages or speed runs or the hill training a good stretch, especially after the run becomes very important. I realized this the hard way, after being down with so many injuries last year, I am not going to make the same foolish mistakes this year.

The coming weekend I will be 30 years old. So I am running a 30 KM on that day to celebrate my birthday, also just saw the training plan and realized that at the end of July I would end up running 300 KM, and happily included that in the celebration plan as well. So the fight still continues, staying injury free is the key part in this training, if I can do that my goal for this year looks achievable.

Like a lot of long distance runners I have stopped enjoying the music during my long runs now, it suddenly has become pretty irritating, instead the long run this weekend (27 KM at 6min 31 sec a kilometer pace) was done without the music, in the first leg we discussed some case studies with Pankaj, and in the last leg of the run a general chit chat with Anjana.

Apart from this I have included a 32 KM run on 24^th July to pace with Anjana on her 32^nd birthday, yes all July babies!!!

Definitely marathon training is more fun than running the actual marathon!

Mile markers - I

2010-06-21T03:32:00.000-07:00

The title of this series is shamelessly copied from Kirsten Armstrong’s blog name.

I have been doing some good training over the last 3-4 weeks. Thanks to Meher, she has taken the pains of putting a torturous plan in place, which concentrates on hill workouts and loooots of mileage for our muscles. The key during this training is getting fast in the marathons, the first test would be in Kaveri Trail marathon which will be on 19^th Sept 2010 in Srirangapatnam. Well I would agree that this is not one of the ideal places to test, as it is very hot during that time and since we would be running alongside a canal it gets pretty humid as well. But I guess that would be stress testing

So coming back to the runs, I have been covering an average distance of 40K on the weekend and some 15K on the weekdays, now that is some serious running, I am quite happy with my performance till now, and still keeping my fingers crossed because this torturous plan takes up to a whooping 96Km week. I think the key here would be to stay in good shape and not do anything stupid and get injured. So as an action plan I am not cycling to work these days, but still controlling my carbon footprint with the use of Public Transport (Volvo City buses).

Also while running all these Kilometres I again did a dissection of the Mumbai disaster this year and found out and made some more corrections:

1) Never forget a cap in Mumbai marathon

2) If possible wear sunglasses as well

The above two points are very very important, specially having a good cap, I underestimated both of them and then the bright sun hit me at the 27^th KM, which further made the things worse

3) Always carry your own fuel bottles

4) Carry common salt

Apart from all these things I am not going to carry my iPod during the marathon this year, it get a little irritating after some time. Will try to listen to Mumbai this year!

Lo Chala main!

2010-05-31T23:20:00.000-07:00

कल तो बस इन्तहा ही हो गयी, में एक जगह कोरमंगला में चालीस मिनट तक खड़ा रहा जी हाँ में कार से था , इतना जादा में कभी नहीं झल्लाया. कार में बैठे बैठे मैंने सोचा की इस से अच्छा तो में साइकिल पर रहता हूँ, हस्ता खेलता जल्दी घर तो पहुँच जाता हूँ, और व्यायाम भी हो जाता है , तो आज सुबह उसी योजना के तहत मैंने बीवी को कार ले जाने को बोला, मुझे लगता है की अगर बंगलोर में कहीं कार ले जाने का फायदा है तो वो इलेक्ट्रोनिक सिटी है क्यूंकि पिछले ४ साल से उसकी बंद बजी पड़ी थी, पर हाँ अब उच्च राज्य-पथ के आ जाने के बाद कोई भी शख्स मात्र २० मिनट में वहां पहुँच सकता है !

तो बीवी गयी कार से और में आज हस्ता खेलता आया साइकिल से, बड़ी ही आनंदमय सवारी रही और में कार से जल्दी भी पहुँच गया. मुझे तो लगता है की आजकल पूरा बंगलोर ही खुदा पड़ा है, पर यह नगर निगम वाले भी मुझे हर बार अचंभित कर देते हैं, यह पूरे शहर में एकसाथ इतने सारे निर्माण कार्य कैसे शुरू कर सकते हैं..... खैर मुझे क्या करना में तो चला अपनी साइकिल पर!!!!

Running Log

2010-05-30T22:50:00.001-07:00

The first week of training for the Mumbai marathon 2011 and the Bangalore Ultra 2010 has been good. I managed 55 km of running and apart from this biked to work and managed around 42 km on the saddle. Ran 20K with Vishy, Prateek and Bhasker on saturday. It was an awesome effortless run, I loved it. Also Vishy made his awesome comeback, the longest he ran after February and, did a 20K at 6:38 pace! wow !!! I think you are already in great shape! Congrats Vishy.

Did a fun run with Rohit on Sunday, followed by a breakfast at egg factory though missed the BHUKMP gang on both the days

I am pretty excited about the training this time. Meher is burning the midnight oil in putting the right plan in place.... I think we will freeze it by the end of the week and hit the trail!

In India, Hitching Hopes on a Subway

2010-05-25T03:31:00.000-07:00

Article worth reading, via Pheonix

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/asia/14delhi.html

Moving on

2010-05-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

So the sunfeast 10K 2010 is over now. And hence starts my training for the Ultra 2010 and Mumbai marathon 2011 again!

Ran Sunfeast 10K with Ankita, where she got her PB. Very happy for her, and it was a very good idea to run with her, I gave her the much needed push after 8^th KM

Congrats BIWI!

Congrats Priyanka, Meghana (who is running stronger than ever) & Anjana for your PBs

Congrats Rajaram for a good timing!

Bangalore Ultra 2010

2010-05-10T03:52:00.001-07:00

Yes I am attempting a 75 KM at the Bangalore Ultra 2010

Capital punishment

2010-05-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

So finally the entire nation is overjoyed and rejoicing, the reason, well Kasab has been given a capital punishment. Well to be very frank I don’t think that this is anything great, it really doesn’t matter, you have granted him whatever he was praying to god all this while. Moreover he came to India to die, his bosses just don’t care whether he lives or he dies.

He is a very minute particle in this dust of terrorism, I think we should have kept him alive and tried extracting more secrets / type of trainings he has undergone etc. Even if he is of no use in all those terms, we should have kept him alive and let him die on his own, in a dark cell….. alone……. I think spending on Kasab makes more sense rather than a clown like Raja (the telecom minister) eating all the tax payer’s money

Ideal running weight

2010-04-27T04:51:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired from Bhasker’s post

I have been trying to reduce my weight since a long time, have been trying a lot of hard training different type of Diets etc but for some reason it is more or less constant on 75KG, might be ideal for me, but its definitely not ideal for the runner in me.

The main reason for that I guess is after a long run I tend to eat a lot, then as Bhasker says I often succumb to temptation, but since a last few days with cycling to work and running both being in place my weight decreased, for the first time in 2 years I saw the needle go below 74KG, but then the ITB surfaced up and its back to 75 (Damn!!!). But I have got the mantra now, since I didn’t experience any ITB pain after the run this weekend, so I have again started biking to work, and hope to shed a couple of pounds before the sunfeast 10K

Interesting articles on Ideal weight for running:

1) Whats your ideal weight

2) An article on weight an performance

Running / Cycling and more....

2010-04-26T02:37:00.000-07:00

The Kanakpura Road trail / Track never lets me down. I remember this was the place where I did my comeback run after the injury / ghar / grahasti / travelling etc . Since the last three weeks ITB was troubling me a lot, was infact grounded for full 2 weeks because of the irritating ITB pain, now the bad part about these type of pains is that, it doesn't surface up in 5-7 KM, you would start experiencing it only after 10-12 KM. So even if I would have done my weekday short runs I wouldn't have known that the ITB is still there or gone, but in that process I would have made it worse by still exerting and stressing out. Took a lot of advices, and finally decided to stay indoors / grounded and continue with the stretching and icing.

So the scene was this sunday biwi was running at the Kanakpura Road location, and she was doing a 10+ KM run and that too at 8 am in the morning, in order to be ready of the killing heat that is going to hit you in the Sunfeast 10K. Me and Prateek decided to support them and run with them, the previous day I did a 20Km long run in cubbon and there was a little discomfort in the hips and hamstring. I was very tensed , I have seen how ITB damages the tempo of good runners, but to my surprise and happiness I did a smooth 12K at Kanakpura road on Sunday, now I must tell you that this is one of the toughest tracks in Bangalore, and that too in the heat. After the run I took a cold water bath, but I guess the mistake I did was I drank less water, I can see the after effects of the run the entire day.

*************************

More Updates

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Changed my Company, but the work loaction is still the same, i.e. Manyata Tech Park, so I still have a lot of scope for serious cross training.

Meanwhile I am missing my Italian lady, whith the regular hectic office schedules and the Bangalore rains I wasn't commuting to work on my bike, but I guess I am starting it from tomorrow, probably I will keep a polyethene bag for the laptop, baaki sab oopar waale par hai!

I also bought this awesome Hockey T-Shirt designed by Topi, please check it out here:

http://www.toubebas.com/content/1936-berlin-magicians

Also concentrating on some core strenghtening now.

Biwi is running very strong and is targetting her personal best in Sunfest 10K! keeping my fingers crossed, already planned a gift for her after she finishes the Sunfest 10K

The 65K week

2010-03-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

After a loooooong time I crossed the 65K weekly mileage. YAY!!!!!

Thanks to the Ugadi holiday, I did around 15K that day which really helped in the high mileage week. The best part was my fitness level. I am pretty impressed with myself, no painful shins, no irritating back!

Would like to carry on with this kind of mileage in the coming weeks, since I am running the Great tibetan marathon this year, and this would help me in mission Mumbai!!!

running update

2010-02-17T21:57:00.000-08:00

This weekend it is 30+ according to my plan.

I have been more or less following the weekend run plans, need to be more regular with the weekday runs......

contemplating about doing a 75 KM at the Bangalore Ultra...... lets see, still thinking about it

Strides of Hope

2010-02-16T21:08:00.000-08:00

I have always been a believer that if we need to change the society we need to educate the children. Asha is one such organization which has done a lot in this direction and is still fighting illiteracy. Santhosh Padmanabhan is doing something really great in this direction. He is running for 48 hours non stop !!!!! Please support his run in whatever way you can.

The donations will be of great help, I would be running with him for 3 hrs.

more information can be found on www.stridesofhope.com

The retrospective week

2010-01-22T03:20:00.000-08:00

Spent the entire week looking back on 17th January, what happened, room for improvements. Took a lot of advices from Rajaram, Roxtar, Vishy, Meher, Meghana, Manoj, Prateek.

And finally I have a training plan in place. I have tried to accommodate the holidays and weekend getaway plans as well in this plan. This one is a lot fierce and goes a long way, until August, and then it starts again.....

Yeah it still hurts, you know what ....... and will probably hurt the entire year. But for now I will be happy, "Yeah I am a finisher!'

And the plan for the rest of the year:

A detailed report would follow, now that I have a plan in place.

and life moves on......

2010-01-19T01:50:00.000-08:00

Recovered after the Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon, both physically and emotinally.

and the running starts next week.

14th Feb Auroville marathon

Marathon update

2010-01-18T00:51:00.000-08:00

Missed my target timing :(

Training ends

2010-01-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

So today is the final day of training for Mumbai marathon. A fight that started way back in August 2009, tried to revive it after the holidays, caught in the grihasti several times, came back with a bang after doing a 25 KM run in Pune from the Pune University campus to the airport and back. I specially remember the Pune run, I was a little depressed after my poor performance in the long runs during my vacations in Allahabad, but this 25K was a breath of fresh air which revived my hopes for the Bangalore Ultra 2009 (where I completed a strong 50 KM).

After October 2009, inspired from Anjana we started running from HSR Layout to cubbon park, in order to save time and get some carbon credits. Vishy named it the "DANDI" run and that proved to be very beneficial in the training, as it was 11 KM stretch from HSR to cubbon, and I guess this was the period when my body started getting used to running more than 10 km at a stretch. The biggest disadvantage with the cubbon park 5 KM loop was that our body started demanding a break of 2 minutes after every 5 KM. Thanks to Prateek and Chandra who pointed out this problem and we encountered it pretty well.

Come mid Nov 2009 and I got my eyes on the Italian Lady (my Binachi) and I bought it, one of the best decisions of my life, though it was a little expensive but I don't regret it at all. Since a long time my shins were giving me a lot of problems, after every long run I needed to ice them, to get rid of that silly pain, ever since I have started biking to work, surprisingly that problem just vanished. and I love the Italian lady for this. Thanks Bianchi!

Biwi has been a pillar of support for me, whether it was coping with my irritable mood after a bad weekday run or helping me ice my back and calves, or cooking rice at odd hours on Friday after the late night movie for the carb loading or about being the support girl for our Dandi runs, she always understood the point, the cause and the passion behind it. Couldnt have completed this training schedule without you. Love you! Proud of you for taking up running (she is running a half at Mumbai marathon this year)

The BHUKMP runners were a great support to me: Pankaj, Prateek, Meher, Vishy, Siraj, Rishi, Amrita, Chandra, Praveen, Prasad Sir, Dharam, Rajaram, Khadke, Roxtar, Kaushal, Vasu, Nari, Strang, Rakhi, Manoj, Meghana, Anajana and the entire Gang at Cubbon for kicking my butt every time I was slack, for motivating me at different points in time, thank you for raising the roof, so I can run faster , better and stronger. I love you all!!! Specially Pankaj, Prateek and Anjana, for shifting your long run plans for me so many times. Meghana for motivating me every time, be it the 50 at Ultra or the 30+ runs....I hate that thief who broke my car glass in cubbon, he just didn't break the glass but also broke our one of the best long runs, Prateek and Anjana didn't run after that incident on that day.....

Sometimes I wonder, whether its the long runs that take me to cubbon, or the loud and fun filled breakfast after that ... well this is a tough question to answer

This weekend is my last easy run / walk before the marathon. I had an awesome training, could have been better, but I would leave the better part for 2010, will see it in 2011 Mumbai. I think I am satisfied. Lets see how I do in Mumbai, I am confident. I have a target in my mind, I just hope that I am able to meet that.......

Wishing all the Mumbai marathon runners Good Luck!

Resolution Time

2010-01-05T00:20:00.000-08:00

New Year, new hopes new resolutions. The very first resolution is to make practical resolutions. So here goes the list

- Recover the cost of the cycle: The new Italian Lady in my life was pretty costly, it all started with cross training, and now since I am biking to work, I thought of recovering the cost of my bike. With some basic mathematics, I need to cycle to work for 20 weeks to recover that cost, now that doesn't look tough.... Now consider that there are 52 weeks in a year, so this means I need to bike to work for approximately six months.

- Do the TFN: Since I would be cycling to work for 6 months to recover the cost of the Italian Lady, there would be a decent amount of training going into the muscles, apart from using this training in running I plan to do the Tour Of Nigiris.

- Register for Great Tibetan Marathon: I have been planning of doing this race since the last 2 years, and because of some reason it is getting postponed every year. So this year in April I am going to register for the race, to ensure that I train for it and do it.... GTM Website

- Istanbul: this one is more of a wish than a resolution, have always been in love with Turkey, and recently came to know about the fact that there is a marathon that happens in Istanbul. Would see if I can attend it..... Istanbul Marathon Website

Celebrating Bhupinder....

2009-12-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

The morning drive started today as usual with shuffling between the various good for nothing FM channels. I don't know for some reason I was too bored with the self obsessed Prithvi (whom I hate) on Radio One (94.3 FM). Radio Indigo plays mostly new Hip Hops in the morning which I haven't heard and cant relate to, however their night Patrol is good, where they play some good classic Rock of our time!

So I was too bored with all the FM channels that we get here in Bangalore as usual, as I have cribbed enough number of times already. then I found this old CD in my dashboard, which had old songs. The CD started with "ek hi khwaab" from the movie Kinaara , music by RD Burman and lyrics by Gulzar, sung by Bhupinder Singh. and I loved it, was listening to it after ages, the lyrics are very simple and but Bhupinder has sung in wonderfully, specially the start "trng tring tring" with guitar in the back ground, and "tikku ki bachhi". After the song was over I realized that this is one CD which I burned sometime back which had Bhupinder's songs. and after that I just loved the one hour drive to work (yeah today I drove)

I just decided to listen to Bhupinder's songs today. Some Trivia on Bhupinder as Wikipedia telles it is here
the other songs which made my day:

Kisi Nazar Ko Tera Intezar Aaj Bhi Hai
Dil Dhoondta Hai - mausam
Huzoor Is Kadar bhi na Itra ke Chaliye

and here is the video of ek hi khwaab:

Movies to watch out for: Ishqiya

2009-12-21T21:54:00.000-08:00

Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Producer: Vishal Bharadwaj , Mansi Maroo , Raman Maroo
Written by: Vishal Bharadwaj , Sabrina Dhawan , Abhishek Chaubey
MUSIC DIRECTOR: Vishal Bharadwaj

Sunday

2009-12-21T00:21:00.000-08:00

Had an awesome Sunday. I already did my long run on saturday (which was around 28 KM) so preferred not to go running on Sunday morning. Woke up late, and then suddenly we (Ankita and Me) decided to go cycling, and on the way back we had our breakfast. This was the first time I went cycling with her, and we loved it. I am excited about her new found love for cycling!

Came back and then went for some book shopping, guess which book she picked up ?
"Its not about the Bike by Lance Armstrong" !!!! I am so proud of her for taking up running and cycling :))))))))

things one notices while "biking" to work

2009-12-08T20:54:00.000-08:00

I saw this written on the back of an SUV, the owner was trying to ooze out a lot of "Dude-apa" but all in vain

"If you think that nobody notices you, or appreciates you, or if you are lonely. BUY AN SUV"

well this doesn't look true at all, I guess if we replace SUV, by a cycle, this definitely is true!

biked to work

2009-12-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

Started biking to work from today, and coincidentally today the world met in Copenhagen to save the earth. Loved the ride in the morning, though it was a little difficult in the evening. But I took it as a strong cross training and would continue to do it.

Also got my share of attention on the road. With a couple (who were driving to office in their Elantra) pulling off the road and asking me how much did the bike cost me.....

Cyclogy

2009-12-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

Saw a girl cycling to office on the Koramangla 80 FT Road. Tried to get ahead of her to see who she was, but in vain, talk about catching a cyclist in Bangalore, it seems to be an impossible task. It took me 4 KM to get ahead of her :)

So starting to cycle to work from Monday!

Interesting read on Manoj's Blog: http://visorview.blogspot.com/2009/08/office-commute-5-days-5-ways.html

Bianchi

2009-11-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

Yeah I own this Italian Beauty now!

Future of Congress on a cycle ?

2009-11-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

Some weeks back there was this news all over the news channels, "Rahul Gandhi spotted cycling in New Delhi". Well to be very frank I was pretty impressed with the dude. If you try googling about it, then you would find a lot of criticism on the biker forums, everybody is free to give opinions , and so am I. The only thing that I didn't like about this entire "PR Stunt" was the future of Congress party (to be read as Rahul Gandhi) wasn't wearing a helmet. Apparently there was a Z grade security SUV right behind him all the while but there can be some scenarios when only a bike helmet can protect him.

Apparently he was riding a Cannondale. TI Cycles who are marketing the Cannondales and Bianchi in India gifted the AICC general secretary a couple of road bikes. So this can very well be a Congress - TI Cycles joint PR exercise. But seriously whats the harm in it, however I again agree that he SHOULD have been wearing a HELMET. But I believe that these are some of the ways we can promote biking in India, lets say that if 20 guys find thsi entire video cool, then they might want to bike like him, absolutely no harm in it.

BTW feast your eyes on these Tour De France photographs: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/2008_tour_de_france_conclusion.html

Runners, yeah we are different.

2009-11-25T23:42:00.000-08:00

Lately with all the new changes in my life, it has become really tough to find time for running on a weekday. Gone are those days when I used to go out for a run everyday.... so as a result of all these changes and no time for running, I have been running on the treadmill on weekdays, and I hate it, I get bored to death in a 7K run, but this is the only option left now.. I generally carry my running shoes to office, run in the Gym and then take a shower and start working.

After the Ultra my old shoes are retired now, so like any runner, who doesnt have a dress code in office they have become my office shoes!!! :) But these are not the shoes that I would be running Mumbai marathon in. I use the Asics Gel Nimbus 10, so the retired shoes are Asics gel nimbus (blue color) and the ones which I use for running are Asics Gel Nimbus 10 (blue color). To a non runner this might look a little odd, imagine I am standing in the office lift, Wearing a pair of running shoes, with a similar looking running shoes in my hand. For those who don't know I am very very possessive about my running shoes, and for some strange reason known to me and my "biwi" I dont like to keep them in a polythene bag.

I enter the changing room, take off my running shoes and step into a similar looking pair of shoes, and go for a run. Well I was doing this since monday and finally one of my coworkers asked me that why do you change your shoe when you can very well run in the pair which you are already wearing, mmmmmm I tried explaining it to him, but he wasn't convinced, must have thought of me as a fool..... anyways, Runners... Yeah we are different!

**********************************************************************************
I guess this thread needs a little updation....

You know you are a runner when:

1) you see 21.1 Km in your car odometer and realize that you car has done a half marathon since you got your tank refilled
2) your car boot is filled with a pair of running shoes, some socks, a couple of running shorts and Goodie bags from your last marathon
3) you would find energy gel packs in your glove box
4) your office desk is filled with sippers you got as part of the goodie bags in marathons
5) when you argue with your coworkers that the nearby restaurant is not a kilometer away but its 700 mts, and no we don't need to drive there

Objects of Desire

2009-11-05T01:55:00.001-08:00

The latest is TREK 4300 2010 model. Here it is:

The specification are as follows:

Frame: Alpha Black Aluminum w/ semi integrated head tube, formed down tube w/integrated gusset, formed top tube, monostay seatstay, forged dropouts w/rack and fender mounts, replaceable derailleur hanger

Front Suspension: Spinner 300, 100mm

Wheels : Shimano HB-M65 F& FH-M65 R hub; Bontrager Ranger rims

Tires : Bontrager Jones XR 2.25 F, 2.20 R

Shifters : Shimano EF50, 8 speed

Woh ek gaana....

2009-10-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired from Topi's latest blog post

My favorite song would definitely be a Mohd Rafi track, and it is "Tumne Mujhe dekha" from Teesri Manzil. Released in the year 1966 it is another masterpiece by Nasir Hussain, and directed by Vijay Anand starring Shammi Kapoor (the Lover boy of that era), Asha Parekh (the chirpy Girl as Topi likes to call her), Premnath, Prem Chopra (who was graduating to be a full time villian) and legendry actor KN Singh.

The film was a musical thriller, with awesome music by RD Burman and mind blowing lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri. This is one song to which I can listen to again and again, and infact during my drive to office this is the first song I listen to.The cinematography, lyrics, and expressions are too good.

Just wondering that without Mohd Rafi's amazing voice would shammi kapoor have had the same image in Indian Cinema ? With songs like "Chahe koi mujhe Jungli kahe" which gave Shammi Kapoor his identity as a careless lover boy of the 1960s.

My favorite stanza from the song:

कहीं दर्द के सेहरा में, रुकते चलते होते,
इन होटों की हसरत में, तपते जलते होते,
मेहेरबान हो गयी, जुल्फ की बदलियाँ,
जानेमन जानेजां .......

video on Youtube:

Confused

2009-10-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

Scenario:
I went to SBI (State Bank of India) to open a PPF (Public Provident Fund) account.

Reality Check:

The Documents required for opening of this account are as follows:

1) Address Proof

-Yay, I have a lot of address proofs! Water Bill, electricity bill, Rent agreement, but all are in my flat owners name, since I am on rent here, they are not in my name, so what, they still would be valid. When the Election Commission of India accepts it, so should they, attached with a valid Identity proof, and nationality proof
Reality Check: No they are not valid, you need an address proof in YOUR Name. Now that seems a tough task, why don't these government authorities sync with each other, why do you require "n" number of documents for "n" different purposes.

-Oh okay, I have a Landline and Mobile Phone in my name, and on this address, and the good news is that they do accept these private suervice provider's bills. But since I wanted to be nature friendly, I have registered for e-bill, obviously in order to save paper. So I can take a printout from my online account (of the mobile pohone service provider) and that should work!
Reality check: No you need a bill which has been delivered to your address, but what happens to the nature, I have registered for the e-bill. Well then I cancel that, wait for a month, get the bill and will use that. Now I want to cancel the paper bill and want to revert back to the e-bill, but there is some error / miscommunication, I don't know what, and the paper bill still keeps coming, f*&k with nature....

- Can I use the company letter stating that I live on this address, since the Passport authority of India accepts this, so should SBI. Isn't Passport authority of India more concerned about frauds and security ?
Reality Check: No they don't accept this, my company needs to have all salary accounts with them......

2) Passport Copy

-Wow I have that !

3) PAN Card:

-I have that as well!

But this bloody address proof gives me frustration every time I go to these authorities. I just hope that after the unique UID assignment these problems wont creep up. But wait, isnt that a Govenrment authority as well ? Weren't there already enough number of identities available? I am confused

Chutti hai.....

2009-09-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

UP must be the only state in this country where we have so many leaves. Just spoke to Dad and found that they have 5 DAYS OF HOLIDAY. The breakup is as follows:
1) Vishwakarma Pooja
2) Jamat ul vida
3) maharaja agrasen jayanti
4) id-ul-fitr
2 and 4 I agree are regular festivals, but has anybody heard of "Maharaja Agrasen" ? Somebody save this state from Behenji....
A little googling gave me this info:
Maharaja Agrasena (also Agrasen) (Devanagari: अग्रसेन) was a legendary Indian king of Agroha, a city of traders, from whom the Agrawal and Agrahari clan traces its origin. He is credited with the establishment of a kingdom of traders in North India, and is known for his compassion in refusing to slaughter animals in yajnas
It seems that Behenji is out wooing the Baniya community now, she has anyways declared a State holiday for Parshuram Jayanti (in order to woo the Brahmins).

Wear an old coat, buy a new Book

2009-09-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some Shopper's stop gift vouchers. I pampered myself with some new books

1) A corner of foreign field - Ramchandra Guha
2) Witout Fear (Bhagat Singh's Biography_ - Kuldip Nayar
3) Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (wanted to buy this since a long time)
4) A thousand splendid Suns - Khalid Hosseini
5) Kafka on the shore - Haruki Murakami

And I am very happy now!

Running back

2009-07-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Manoj, I am thinking of running back from work. My home is about 11K from MG road, and Biwi can take care of the car while coming back. Guess we would reach in the same time with the crazy Bangalore traffic :)

Any suggestions ??

The Loneliness of Lalu Prasad Yadav

2009-06-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

Guys you have to read this:

Loneliness of Laloo Prasad Yadav

The Jazz run

2009-06-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

So with the Jazz run (ran 6.6K ) I kick started the training for the mumbai marathon! Yeah I know probably a little early, but I wasn't able to do it because of innumerable reasons last year and ended up running only a half. But this year I target a sub 4 hours marathon. For my non runner readers / friends, when I talk about marathon its strictly 42.195 KM. The idea to run that distance in a sub 4 is big enough..... imagine one who runs a sub four hour marathon (and there are a lot of fellow runners who do that every year) runs consistently at an average speed of more than 10.5 km/hr.

Now to the naming of this run, why did I call it "The Jazz run" well while running this evening I spotted a Honda Jazz being road tested, with all the logos removed. Now I waited 2 years for this car and they are launching it now, well I can say that probably the Jaz cannot have me as an owner, what a pity :-P. To all the other small car manufacturers: this kid is here to stay, so watch out for Honda Jazz!

And so it ends....... mark of a new begining

2009-05-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

As I said in a previous post, this would be a different elections, so was proved by the results. The Janta is not as dumb as it seems. Some of the good decisions:

1) In UP al the Criminals lost the elections, some of them to name: Akshay Pratp Singh, Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmed, Akbar Ahmed Dumpy
2) Mayawati's Dream of becoming the prime minister was shattered by 21 seats in the state where she is in majority in the Vidhan Sabha elections
3) Good bye to "Laal Salaam"
4) States like Kerala and West Bengal are in the process of giving a com[plete "U" turn to their political leadership, with the left parties losing pathetically.
5) Lalu will no longer Bark in the center
6) The Janta has told it clearly that the regional parties are truly regional and they should stick to making the roads and naalas and dare not eye the prime minister's chair
7) Amma finally cried "Amma" in Tamil Nadu, and not a word after the elections!
8) I think Karnataka's results have been disappointing, with places like Mangalore voting for BJP

I think this was a very important elections in the Indian politics. And definitely a welcome government at the center!

Bus Ride

2009-04-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

So the latest is my Car met with an accident, and now it is in the Body repai shop for the reapir work. And the bad part is that it will be there for about 30-40 days :(

I explored the option of Public transport today, and Bangalore has some really cool Volvo buses. I liked my ride today in the Bus, would be trying it out in the coming days as well, and for the days when I wont be able to catch the Bus I have my cycle! Lets get some carbon credits to my name!

Runners we are different....

2009-04-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

Awesome video

In dino.....

2009-04-02T02:57:00.000-07:00

Running songs in Dino...

1) Sweet Child on Mine: GnR
2) November Rain: GnR
3) Pardesi: Dev D
4) Yaara Maula: Gulaal
5) Emotional Athyachaar (Rock Version): Dev D
6) Downfall: Trust Company
7) Bandeh: Indian Ocean
8) Jhini: Indian Ocean
9) Time of your life: GreenDay

Change is here.....

2009-04-01T02:04:00.000-07:00

This is a different general elections. Sothing new is happening which I havent seen ever, the people for whom the voting day was just another holiday are taking the pains of getting their names included in the voter roles. I have three examples in my office, Software Engineers, used to sitting in nice cool AC offices, took Monday off and stood in a queue for approximately 3 hours to get their names included in the voter list.

This is definitely comendable. On Saturday me and Prateek also went to the Bommanhalli Revenue office and submitted our forms, I am not sure what would be the voter turnout this year, but I guess people are frustrated with the repeated terrorist attacks, Neta not doing anything, huge tax payer's money being used for changing curtains in Neta (like Mayawati's) house. Its high time we turn to our responsibilities.

Go out and vote, its not that tough, believe me. Just spare exactly 10 min to read the instructions on www.jaagore.com and you will end up realizing that it wont take much of your time.

Remember:
NO VOTE, NO SAY

Elections, Hatred, communal forces and Journalism

2009-03-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

Varun Gandhi's hate speech was unfortunate, a person contesting MP's election should be a little more dignified. Varun is an educated Indian and should have shown more respect towards the other communities.

Good work CNN-IBN, you have highlighted this, now can we get back to serious reporting again ? News itesms like these are baseless, who is priyanka Gandhi ? is she a candidate in the coming elections ? Does she hold any office in the present government ? Then why place this news as the breaking news ?

There are much bigger issues to be covered and focussed on.... Lets get back to work Mr Sardesai

Tough Guys Dont Dance ?

2009-03-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

Originally seen this video here

I think this is one way these reality shows have helped, bringing out the real talent. I was totally speechless after watching this video.

Much more meaningful to produce shows like these than the celebrity Dance shows. Though I dont follow any of the reality shows on television, but yes there are some which are helping the upcoming artists.

Rathi's wedding and Delhi

2009-02-19T18:53:00.000-08:00

Was in delhi for two days, to attend Rathi's wedding. Well first about the wedding, it was a typical marwari wedding, where food is the biggest priority, and believe me the food was out of this world, and so we had all the justifications for eating like pigs, and we did exactly that.

Delhi:
I was really impressed to see the infrastructure of this city, whether the reason is commonweath games or whether its the national capital, but I guess the other cities in our country, including Mumbai has a lot to learn from them. After a long time I was spending twoi days in Delhi as now most of the time Delhi is a transit point for me, come out of the airport and run to catch the train, and vice versa. Gurgaon: is another concrete jungle, so may buildings that you will eventually get lost there, every road looks similar to me. And the biggest problem there is, if you don't have your own vehicle, then be prepared to walk anything between 5-10 KM.

Well I was not so impressed with the general Delhi culture, a lot of things have changed as far as the infrastructure is concerned, but nothing as far as the people of Delhi are concerned. I was being reminded of the Dialogues of "Oye Lucky Lucky oye" and "Khosla ka Ghosla" repeatedly, whenever I was talking to the localites. The Delhi "sirji" culture, I realized again, how much I hate it :( and realized yet again, how much I love Bangalore, and missed this city. Yes one good this was the FM channels in Delhi, the RJs have good sense of humor, and they talk in Hindi or English, which I can understand, and during nights they play old songs, all of them. I am pretty pissed off about the FM scene in Bangalore, there is only one channel which plays hindi music, and that too only new songs. So you end up listening to songs like "bin tere sanam" from "Race" some 20 times in a day. No wonder some months back I wrote this post. khair ummeed par duniya kayam hai, shayad radio fir se achhe gaane bajayega

Movies to Watch out for: GULAAL

2009-02-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

Seems like another masterpiece by Anurag Kashyap. According to him, this is his best work ever, his dream project.

Read more about the plot here

Hail Indian Judiciary

2009-02-13T06:26:00.000-08:00

Koli and Pandher awarded death sentence Read here

The lolz janta

2009-02-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

I have never been able to understand that why some people write "da" instead of "the" its only one more letter, or why they type "dere" instead of "there". Probably I am too old to understand this, or is this the new fashion ? You have to write in the "lolz" language to be cool. But dont they find it difficult to decode ? Try reading this:

"betta dan dat why don u sit at home n chill. jus rin me whn home"

This statement was actually taken from a converstaion I saw on facebook, this was a comment on somebody's status message. Aaaarrrgggh I wanted to bang my head against the wall after reading this, it took me good 15-20 seconds to decode this message.....

Dev D

2009-02-09T19:25:00.000-08:00

Anurag Kashyap has definitely taken Devdas to the next level. The original story by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was a brilliant one, but it doesnt look acceptable to me at some points in today's time. AK (Anurag Kashyap) has taken the flaws out of the story and what comes out is a refined product ,much more acceptable in the year 2009.

The key points to note here is that the story in Dev D is in a punjabi background unlike the Bengali background in the original Devdas. The lead character played by Abhay Deol is named Devraj Singh Dhillon, so its abbreviated at Dev D, son of the Sugar Baron in Punjab, Paro (Parminder) played by Mahie Gill, is the daughter of his father's manager. I really loved the way Punjab was picturised in the movie. When Dev lands in Chandigarh the movie begins with an awesome song " Dhol Yaara Dhol" showing Paro dancing, the event is Dev's brother's wedding. What follows after this cannot be exactly called love, its more of an infatuation which was triggered by Paro's "photograph" which Dev saw in London. The couple is always finding places to make out :-). Paro on the other hand has been shown as a girl who is madly in love with Dev, the point to note here is that Paro is madly in love with Dev, but Dev doesn't show any such signs.

AK has shown Dev's ego very well here, he always had this massive sized ego, right from his childhood. But the better part in the movie is Paro also has an ego. The scene to watch out for is when Dev insults Paro, she cries, observes her hairs, wipes her tears and decides to move on. I think this scene speaks a thousand words. Another thing that I lied in the movie was the way the characyters are introduced, infact the entire first half is used for the character buildup of Paro, Chanda and Dev. Showing their backgrounds, specially Chanda's character buildup. AK used one of the real life incident (The MMS Scandal) to build Chanda's character.

As soon as the movie starts after the interval, we find Dev in Delhi, and on the path of self destruction. in these sequences AK has done brilliant work with the camera, the scenes where they show Dev high are remarkable, they look so realistic, and Abhay Deol has done a fantastic job in the entire movie, I guess he is the only Deol child who can act! The soundtrack just compliments the movie at all the points, the best part is that the songs are playing in the background and the movie is moving on... this way you don't feel bored. I really loved the look and style of Dev D, I think this blog entry by AK on the look and style is worth a read

Look and Feel of Dev D

My favorite scenes:

1) When Paro cries and decides to move on
2) When Dev returns after his dad's death, he just stands infront of his mother and cries. This is probably the only incident when Dev cries in the entire movie. And believe me the scene is done brilliantly.
3) When Paro visits Dev in his hotel, Dev keeps telling her that he loves her. But she has moved on, and this is the point where you see that Paro also has a self respect and an Ego. The same scene when Paro is walking away, the song starts in the background, she starts crying and then just puts on the sunglasses and walks away from his room.

4) The scene where Dev hugs Chanda and says "Beta its ok"

Some good blogs on Dev D by Anurag Kashyap:

- Dev D look and Style
- Dev D -Genesis

Read other reviews of Dev D here

Must watch Asics Video

2009-01-19T00:15:00.001-08:00

Bad Start

2009-01-08T22:57:00.000-08:00

Hello all!! I am back, after about 1.5 months break. A lot of things happened in my life obviously for good. Most of you know about it, so not repeating it here.

So we have entered into 2009! But I would say not a very good start
1) Truckers on strike
2) Oil PSU employees on strike, petrol Pumps dry
3) Pkaistan still denying everything, I am not sure even if Pakistan agrees to all the allegations, what are we achieving ?
4) Satyam Chaos
5) 20,000 Satyam employees out in the market , searching new jobs
6) Noida Rape case, Shameful for us, we call ourselves civilized ? And above all the villagers are threatening to block the highways ? I think a shoot at sight order should be issued.

Not sure where we are heading towards

Anyways, a belated Happy New Year :-P

I salute

2008-11-30T18:32:00.000-08:00

Karkare
Salaskar
Kamte
Unnikrshnan
Gajendra Singh
and all true sons of India

We weep for you.....
you stood for us while we slept in out cosy homes.
You died for somebody you never saw....

I salute your fathers, mothers, wives and children for being as brave as you were

*I didnt want to abuse the politicians in the same post where I give these Martyrs their honorary place, that is why a second post

Remebering BR Chopra

2008-11-05T00:28:00.000-08:00

Today a legendary film maker BR Chopra passed away. He was 95 years old. He has made successful films like: Naya Daur, Gumrah, Waqt (which is one of my favorites) and Dhund (another favorite of mine). Most of his films showed the change that India was going throuh after independence. In Waqt the topic of Partition of India and Pakistan was very well depicted. And how can we forget one of the most successful TV Shows ever : Mahabharat. The streets were deserted at 9:00 am on Sundays. I still remember a small incident, I was a kid at that time. I was in Delhi with my eldest cousin for some work , and it was on a Sunday, we didn't want to miss Mahabharat like everybody. I guess it was Lajpat Nagar, my cousin knocked on one of the doors, and explained the person that we have come from Allahabad for some work and we don't want to miss Mahabharat. And guess what, in the next two minutes we were sitting in the living room with an unknown family and enjoying Mahabharat. Probably because that was the age when the Bomb scare, terror scares were not there, thats why he allowed us in. Such was TRP rating of Doordarshan when Mahabharat was being aired.

We will miss you BR sahab

Lost the battle , didnt lose the lesson

2008-10-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

Story:

Yesterday I ran the second Kaveri Trail Marathon, and I was running the full marathon. Start was good, even the weather in the morning looked good. My strategy was to maintain more or less a contsant speed in the first 21K and preserve a lot of energy and stamina for the second 21K when I would need it the most. I did exactly the same. I completed the first 21K in about 2:05 min wiyth an average speed of 9.4 km/hr had some electrals and water and went for another loop. I knew that the real marathon starts now, completed 26K pretty strong, and then suddenle something happened which screwed my entire run, my timing and above all my ego. I started cramping, and the cramps were bad. the worst part was I started getting cramps on my back and neck. As a runner you are still used to cramped legs / calf but atleast back and neck was the first time for me, and believe me it was bad, very very bad. There was a time when I though that I would give up, but then I met Prateek on the way back, who was running fantastically (he completed his full in 4:40). He saw me in bad state struggling with every step, and told me not to give up......

I reached the 10K mark, so I had run 30K overall, and by now I was dead, and to make the matters worse I threw up thrice. I sat down at the water station and kept sitting there for approximately 20 min. Manoj, who was completing his 30K at that time gave me some salt tablets and a massage on my back, I started feeling a little better, but still I wasn't in a state to carry on. Again kept sitting there for another 15 min, by now I lost around 35 min just sitting, but for me now the bigger challenge was to finish the marathon on foot, and I was fighting with myself not to take a ride back. So I got up, ran for a couple of kilometers, was pathetically cramped again, I walked, I again tried to run, this time it was stomach cramps, I walked again, and finally was able to finish this marathon.

Post Mortem:

It was a bad day for many, a lot of people cramped , a lot of people gave up. The reason: HEAT, it was way too hot and to make the matters worse I think the humidity levels were easily abpove 92%. As a result of these two factors the salt losses were huge, outcome of it I ended up cramping. I tried taking a lot of salts, but by that time I guess it was too late. The pain is gone, but the ego still hurts, it was a pathetic run by any standards, the heat etc cannot come as an excuse.....learnt the lesson

As Nischal said after the run "You are only as good as your last race" ... very true....

Got this link from Manoj's blog. Pretty informative. I knew it was the heat, but then I should have trained for it......

God is the highest run scorer now

2008-10-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

Khoon Ka Badla Khoon

2008-09-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

I think we all are well aware of the CEO lynching news story by now. I term it as a news "story" as it is just a story for all the news channels. This is what our educated Industry Minister Mr Oscar Fernandes has to say on the matter Read it here.

So after reading this news article, I was convinced that Congress is really missing the CPI and the left parties, so they themselves have taken up this task. And moreover correct me if I am wrong, isn't this a case where a person "DIED" it really doesn't matter to me if he / she was a CEO, or a laborer, how can Mr Oscar Fernandes explain the death of a father / son / husband this way, what lesson should his family learn from this incident, track down the main culprit who was behind provoking and kill him ? Are we living in a civilized society ? Is this the way a civilized society functions ?

I will buy that argument Mr Fernandes, biut then you have to buy a lot of my arguments:

1) If I kill you, and then come up with the funda that "this is a lesson for all the netas, to behave themselves or they would be shot naked"
2) You move around in a car, you stay in a lavish bunglow, your son / daughter goes to premier school / college, now if somebody kills you, and comes up with the funda " This is a lesson for all the people who are driving a car, living in a posh bunglow and whose children go to premier schools / colleges"

There can be n number of similar arguments. Congress is wooing people left right and center for getting votes in the next elections. But if they didn't knew something, I just want to make them realize that these are all petty issues, everybody would forget them, like everybody forgot the Arushi Murder case, but Terrorism, Inflation and Communal violence are some cases which is eating up the "aam janta" . However I know that a lot of things are responsible for inflation, but still UPA will have to bear the heat for it.

Mr Fernandes (AKA Loser): Please get some brains, and if you do not have the grey matter then please keep your mouth shut, or just read my argument number 1

Good Videos

2008-09-21T05:14:00.000-07:00

I saw the following video on this blog, its nice see it

2008-09-18T00:53:00.000-07:00

'Come in, 007' said M
'Its good to see you back'

Just started reading the new Bond Novel " Devil May Care" by Sebastian Faulks (writing as Ian Fleming). Heard that this is a good one, and me being a Die Hard fan of James bond cant miss it!

Also bought: Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong, Naxalite Movement in India by Prakash Singh, What I tak about when I talk about running by Murakami

Updates....

2008-09-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since I have posted something here, yes I have the same old excuses which everybody has. Work was keeping me busy, and when I was at home, I just wasnt in a mood to look at my laptop. I guess 9 hrs in office was more than enough.

So some updates: I have ordered new shoes (Yay!) this time they are Asics Gel Nimbus 10, and they are for Nuetral feet, lately I visited the doctor and I was told that my feet are no longer over pronating, maybe the styule of running has goit corrected over the period of time, and I was surprised that "I" was wearing the wrong shoes!!!

The second thing that I would be possessing soon is the Garmin ForeRunner 205, well its a gadget which looks like a watch, but actually is a GPS, which can really he;lp you in training for a marathon, as it gives you your speed, the distance you have run., the amount of calories burnt and other statistics. Would be getting both these things in the last week of this month, so I am pretty excited about them !!

The running aspect wasnt very great in the last couple of weeks, I have been getting this pain in my heel pretty often, and had a bad stomach infection, so my weekday runs were okay, but the weekend long runs were pretty screwed up. So this week I plan to rest most of the time, so that I am ready for a 35K on the weekend.

More after the runs!

Training Week-4

2008-08-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend my training schedule says I have to run 32K, never ran so much on a single day in training, I have run a 52K Ultra, but then that was on "the" marathon day, we have whole lot of different factors on that day, the enthu level, the Janta running around you. But this would be different, running 32K means that we would be running close to 3.5 hrs.

And with the uncertain Bangalore rains, I domnt know how it will turn out to be. So I am tensed for this week's 32K, but I am determined!

Running Log

2008-08-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a busy day in office, I came home, and wasn't in a mood to run, largely because, I had this weird pain in my heel and knee, so thought would take a day's break so I am ready for the weekend long run. But then I started to get bored, even Rathi had to go somewhere out to meet his old friends. Started seeing some running videos on Youtube (two of them are posted below). and in a matter of 20 minutes I was in my running shoes and shorts ready to go. I realized that running has become an integral part of my weekday evenings. This is my time, you think about a lot of things, sort out the hassles, at work, not at work and then chalk out the plans for the next day. And even if you are not doing any of these things it is a lot soothing. Talking about Weekends, those are generally the long runs with my runner friends, and man how much I love them, no matter what happens, even if I sleep at 2:30 am I am up at 5:15 to run.

Coming back to yesterday I completed around 4K and then the pain in the heel started to get worse, I wanted to run more, 4K is nothing when it comes to a decent time in Mumbai marathon, maybe I am not pushing my body to the limit. So I went on running for another 2K and then I thought that maybe I should stop, this pain in the heel can get me grounded for weeks. And this was the point when I realized , that what is my greatest fear? Yes you guessed it right, not able to run. I have met some of my friends in RFL, who were runners, I mean who used to run, mentally they are still runners, but some nasty injury got them grounded forever, what if that happens to me, what would I do ? Not being able to run would be something like not beimng able to breathe for me. I know I thought a little too hard yesterday, but then I wasn't wrong an injury could sabotage all my plans for the Mumbai marathon and Ultra. So I stopped, "walked" back home, switched on the TV and used an ice pack on my legs and my aching heel.

Surprisingly I didn't have any pain in my heel this morning, which I never expected ? Is it the magig of the ice pack ? or is my body just getting used to the new training levels, Well I wont dig much into it now, but I am happy that my legs are back to normal. Today is the rest day, have to run 21K tomorrow at GKVK.

I am a Runner.... and I am addicted.... Paula Radcliffe

2008-08-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

Good motivational video, forget the Nike+ Part

Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon: 9th November 2008

2008-08-18T02:59:00.000-07:00

Finally the mail from the organizers confirms that the Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon would be held on Sunday, 9th of November 2008. The Registrations for the same would open in end of august.

Dilli waalon... main aa raha hoon.

Rakshabandhan

2008-08-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, Rakhi is here. I earlier titled this post as "Rakhi" but then I wanted a good rakhi photograph and I googled it, and was pissed off to find out that the search results google gives on "Rakhi" are all "Rakhi Sawant" photographs.... what crap :-(

I am missing the Allahabd streets, where all you can see are the colorful rakhi shops on the roadside, the sweet shops which extend their counters and people who can kill each other for half KG of sweet, there are no such traces in Bangalore.... hmmmm we are too advanced now, this is the IT city :-(

Anyways this would be my 3rd Rakhi when I am not with my sister, yes I am missing her :-(. Today I recieved her Rakhi by courier, with a hand written letter!!! And more Rakhis continue to pour in with the haldi ke tika ki pudiya! What I really miss from my other sisters is the hand written letters, earlier each would take the pains of writing a customized "hand written" letter for each brother, but I guess now this is not the case. The worst feeling is when you recieve an e-rakhi. I never open that and do a SHIFT+DELETE, from my mailbox. I think that the internet is eating up these small festivals, the excitement of recieving a hand written letter and then reading it is totally different.

Now you recieve the Rakhi by courier and then an e-mail would follow.... It might have the same feelings from the sister's side, but surely is not conveyed with that warmth.

I am going to Munnar over the long weekend, so more on Munnar, and "Running in Munnar" on Monday!

Happy Rakhi & Vande Matram!!

Jane bhi do Yaaron

2008-08-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

I was going through my friend's blog, when I found the link to Mohalla. 12th of August Jane bhi Do yaaron turns 25. Yes its been 25 years since this masterpiece was created by Kundan Shah. The lead characters in the movie, Sudhir and Vinod are named after the famous directors Sudhir Misra and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. They were freshers from Pune school of direction at that time.

Its been almost three decades, much has changed in the film industry, the films are technicall much better, now the average budget of a movie is more than 20 crores, but yet as Dipti writes in her blog, we have missed out on something. The reality, the characters of Jane Bhi Do yaaron are so real, it shows the struggling face of India. There is a fire in Sudhir and Vinod, which targets the Real Estate industry of Mumbai, the corruption prevelant in it. This movie deals with Corruption and inefficiency in a very sarcastic way, I remeber the dialogue after Commissioner D'Mello's death, the new commisioner is giving a speech on the newly inaugerated D'Mello flyover:

"Commissioner D'Mello ki yaad main ek din ke liye sheher ke saare gatar band kiye jaayenge, aap log peene ka paani pahle se bhar lein"

This sentence speaks a lot, it takes on the inefficiency in Mumbai in a sutle sarcastic way, it tells what was the standard the Mumbai slum dwellers were pushed in, and now not much has changed, they still need to store their drinking water if the gatar's go on Hadtaal.

But my favorite part of the film is the encounter between Commissioner D'Mello and Ahuja, when he is drunk out of his mind and is trying to help D'Mello in the coffin thinking that its a car!!!

Another popular dialogue from the movie "Thoda Khao thoda feko mazaa aata hai" this is again a sarcastic remark for people like Tarneja and D'Mello who gets the luxury of eating a swiss cake, and then throwing it, gives them a wierd kind of pleasure. Sarcasm apart, I really love the way this scene has been shot, and in the end Ravi Baswani's answer to the question "haan aaya!!"

Great movie, again one of my favorites after Chashme Buddoor

Ban on SIMI ?

2008-08-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Big chaos created by a Delhi court, thankfully Supreme Court is still active.
Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party apparently supports SIMI. Read it here. The key issue here is, who is a bigger threat to the country, SIMI or SP ? This is the cost that all of us have to pay to avoid early elections.

"Bhed ki Khaal main Bhediye"

Training Week - I

2008-08-03T22:36:00.000-07:00

"It hurts to a point and then it doesnt get any worse - Ann Trason"

The first week of my training is over. Ran a 40K week, I know this is less, my target was 50K, but since I was partying on the weekend, celebrating Nitin's Birthday, This was expected. I didn't run on Saturday and Sunday morning, which were supposed to be my Long runs, I was dying in guilt, then Meghana threw the Idea of Doing a Hash run, well just to give an idea about Hash House Harriers this is what wikipedia has to say. And I was at the Bangalore Hash House Harrier's Run number 473. Well did around 10K at the hash run, which nowhere comes under the "lo9ng" runs, but atleast something is better than nothing. I overcame the guilt of not running on the weekend. But I must admit that the run was fun, it was organized on Clover Fields, this was a resort off Sarjapur Road, and the trail, as all Hash trails was a superb one!

Coming back to the training discussion, I am pretty satisfied with the first week. Now the schedule for this week says: 16 miles or 25.6K till Saturday, an then a long run on Sunday, probably around 25K. Lets see, I am already on a marathon Diet (to be read as Eating like a pig). So I need to keep my running consistent! I have slight pain after my runs in the heels, but I have got the ice packs and I hope that the regular cold therapy should work, or else some weekend I need to see Dr Rajat.

So Far So Good :-) I am satisfied :-)

"To a runner a side stich is like a car alarm. It signifies something is wrong, but you ignore it until it goes away"

The Training Begins!

2008-07-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

So I have already registered for Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, this one would be my second Mumbai marathon, and the first full in Mumbai. I have been running since quite a while now, so its high time I graduate to the next level every year! Its fun, challenging your body each time, believe me nothing feels better when you break your own records! So what am I planning to do ? Well the plans are huge this year:

1) Kaveri Trail Marathon in mid Oct
2) Vodafone Delhi Half marathon in early Nov
3) Bangalore Ultra in mid Nov
4) Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon in mid Jan
4) and then maybe Standard Chartered Hong Kong marathon in mid Feb

Yeah I know that this is too much! But then I have started rigorous training for it. I am planning to run daily now, the idea is to run atleast 8K on weekdays and long run on the weekends (~25-30K). The only day when I plan to rest is Friday, in order to prepare for the weekend long runs.

Lets see where I land up, but I am determined !!!!

Will keep giving the training updates here

Running: In this religion, there are no holidays

2008-07-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

Calvin

2008-07-24T01:07:00.001-07:00

Of course we dont want Mayawati as PM

2008-07-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

Behenji has started cribbing again, read here. Of course behenji we don't want you as the Prime minister of India, whatever be the reason, and I just want to clarify that the Dalit lame excuse you are giving the entire nation is baseless. It is only you who is a "manuwaadi" nobody in my neighbourhood distinguishes between a Dalit and a non Dalit, stop playing this dirty game. You have wasted the clear mandate given to you by the janta of Uttar Pradesh. A majority in today's date is a biog power, a blessing, you could have changed the entire state, you had the power , and the means to do all the reforms which you have been blabbering your entire life. But alas you are more interested in the power politics, becoming a PM. Just take Narendra Modi and Gujrat for example, no I am not defending him for the Godhra kaand, but whatever he has done for the state needs to be appreciated. See the law and order situation there, see the number of NRIs willing to invest in Gujrat, see the electricity / water / Road / litracy rate there.

You should be ashamed of yourself that you have let your people down, they gave you a clear mandate, to make UP a batter state, and you in turn packed your bags, ready to flee???

OF COURSE WE DONT WANT YOU AS PRIME MINISTER.

Also Read Pheonix's entry on the Political Drama

A fool with a tool is a dangerous fool

2008-07-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Old saying, but seems true in case of the duo: Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh. Suddenly the two fools have shot to fame and importance because of the crisis created by the Left. Now these two are making proposals left, right and centre.

1) Today they asked to rename the Amausi Airport's (Lucknow Airport) name to Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport. Now who was Chaudhary Charan Singh ? What did he do for the state, apart from bringing his good for nothing som Ajith Singh into politics, who inturn is demanding a seperate state. Read it here

2) Some days back, Mr Amar Singh gave his formula of how to Solve inflation. Read it here. I don't even want to comment on it.

Sometime back Congress was busy screwing Amar Singh and Party, and Amar Singh in turn was busy abusing Ms Sonia Gandhi and party. I guess the entire nation knows about it! But still if you want to brush up your memory read here

I dont know where we are heading towards

Runners, yeah we are diffrent

2008-07-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

in 1999 Adidas ran an advertisement campaign for its supernova (running Shoe) line of shoes, well this is one of the best advertisements I have ever seen.

Saw it again on Prateek's Blog

I can relate to most of them as a runner, Enjoy!

http://www.chayden.net/Runs/Adidas/index.htm

Optimize iPhone Battery

2008-07-14T03:51:00.000-07:00

I have been using iPhone since two months now, and I have to admit that this is an amazing piece of gadget. However I faced some issues in the beginning with the battery life of this device. So here are some tips to improve the battery backup of your iPhone.

-Set the brightness of the display to the lowest level possible, and put the auto brightness feature on
-Turn off the graphic equalizer of your iPod
-Switch off WiFi when you don't need it, as the device keeps searching for WiFi even when you are on the move, and ends up eating a lot of battery
-Turn on the auto lock feature of your iPhone

Earlier I used to get a battery backup of half a day, and I needed to completely re-charge the iPhone every night, but these points has actually helped me improve the battery back up! Further I would recommend everybody to read about the Li-ion battery information: http://www.apple.com/batteries/

For those who doesnt want to go to the link, I am copying and pasting the important stuff there:

Lithium-ion batteries pack in a higher power density than nickel-based batteries. This gives you a longer battery life in a lighter package, as lithium is the lightest metal. You can also recharge a lithium-ion battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance.

Most lithium-ion batteries use a fast charge to charge your device to 80% battery capacity, then switch to trickle charging.

Most Important: Charge Cycle (Important for all Notebook / Mobile Phone users)

A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put notebook, iPod, and iPhone batteries through many charge cycles before they will only hold 80% of original battery capacity. As with other rechargeable batteries, you may eventually need to replace your battery.

Truth is stranger than fiction

2008-07-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

This is the only thing that comes to my mind when I read anything on the Arushi murder case, the investigation has been going on since ages, and now most of us are bored reading about it. Even the television channels are bored reporting the murder investigation. But I do empathize with CBI, all the evidences are gone, Noida police screwed up the case, and the case is not as simple as it looks. All the possible aspects have already been talked about, by the media, but I still believe that the "truth would be stranger than fiction".

Rajkumar, Krsihna, Rajesh Talwar, the suspect list is huge, and it only grows each week. The media is doing every possible act to misguide you on the investigation. Today two different channels reported two different stories:

NDTV reports that Rajesh Talwar is innocent and CBI is going to crack the case in the coming week, Read it here

CNN-IBN on the other hand has just reported whatever we are already aware of, the events in chronological order, and reports nothing as Rajesh Talwar is innocent or not

Somedays back the good for nothing news Channels India TV and Zee News again tried to assassinate the family's character by reporting that the Talwars were partying out in South Delhi when the murder took place. Read it here.

I think these news channels are only bombarding us with data, with no information value attached to it. The other day I was talking to a Retd IPS officer (whom I met somewhere), he was of the opinion that the media can never figure out the way CBI functions, probably there are multiple teams working on totally different aspects and scenarios, each team investigating one suspect seperately. And these news channels find out about some team someday and they report it, the very next week, they try to find out about the investigations of the other team ,and report it again, obviously with the statement "CBI sources say". Can these channels tell us who are these trustworthy sources, I think its high time that Janta demands this piece of information, they are assassinating a family's character. 15 news channels, 15 new theories.

And then this morning I see these set of pictures, I found these very offensive, the girl is gone, SHE IS DEAD, please for God's sake leave her alone, what connection does her childhood photographs have with the case? Why are they out in public ? Please have some moral values and let her soul rest in piece at least for a week ?

Rock on Website and Music Launched

2008-07-07T21:39:00.001-07:00

Website: http://rockon.bigadda.com/

Cast and Crew:
Farhan Akhtar: Aditya Shroff
Prachi Desai: Sakshi
Arjun Rampal: Joe Mascarenhas
Purab Kohli: Kb
Luke Kenny: Rob
Koel Purie: Devika
Shahana Goswami: Debbie
Nicolette Bird: Tanya