Inspiring words

What a way to start the day by listening to the song “Speed of Sound” from coldplay’s X & Y album? Inspiring lyrics and beautiful music. You have to listen to the song before you enjoy the lyrics.

How long before I get in
Before it starts before I begin
How long before you decide or
Before I know what it feels like
Where to, where do I go?
If you never try then you'll never know
How long do I have to climb
Up on the side of this mountain of mine

Look up, I look up at night
Planets are moving at the speed of light,
Climb up, up in the trees
Every chance that you get is a chance you seize
How long am I gonna stand
With my head stuck under the sand
I'll start before I can stop or
Before I see things the right way up

All that noise and all that sound
All those places inside I got found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand

Ideas that you'll never find
All the inventors could never design
The buildings that you put up
Japan and China all lit up
The sign that I couldn't read
or a light, that I couldn't see
Some things you have to believe
While others are puzzles, puzzling me

All that noise and all that sound
All those places I have found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Oh, when you see it then you'll understand


All those signs I knew what they meant,
some things you can invent
Some get made and some get sent ooh

And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Oh, when you see it then you'll understand

Fresh Start

It didn’t take much time for me to regroup my wandering thoughts, demolish my pessimistic approach towards everything and return back to this blog with a new frame of mind towards my life. I have heard many people saying or preaching others to be optimistic, but right now I am experiencing immense happiness by my positive approach towards my life and work. One month back when something goes wrong on any specific day; I sit back and just worry about that for days, weeks or months. But now, the bad day vanishes before next day morning. I end my life every night and start freshly every morning.

It’s always better to be realist, where I could approach things positively and be prepared if something really worse happens. Who doesn’t have worries? Everyone has, but what’s the point in worrying about something and keep crying for things on which we don’t have control in our hands. All I have started doing is to be focused on what I need in life and set goals for what I need to achieve. There were times when I used to complain about if things go wrong, keep worrying when there is no work to do and dump all sought of unnecessary thoughts in my mind, mix them up and make them ineffectual. But now even though there is no work to do, I am keeping myself busy by reading and learning something which I never did in my life continuously for these many days. Every day morning my motivation level is so high that I just feel like pumping my fist in the air and I don’t know the reason why. And all these things happened just because of altering my orthodox views and correcting me without any guidance or help of anyone except books. Yes, reading books of great personalities can have huge impact on anyone’s life. Never read so many books in a short span of time and had made a habit of reading at least one hour per day. I have also started working towards my weaknesses and the transformation currently I am experiencing is my first victory.

Last one month has been really wonderful, just absolutely great and there are no words to explain. Planning to post regularly.

Pause.

I don't know if it would take few days, months or years for me to return back to this blog. For time being I have decided to stop blogging.

Thanks for reading.

Quite Different

I have seen so many ads in papers, but somehow liked the following very much which is as good as the company. The ad was published in "The Hindu" oppurtunities section along with the childhood picture of employee.

Google is looking for people with great aspirations. Take Arvind Jain for example. A soft spoken computer scientist with a jeweler’s focus and a nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic. Arvind manages Google’s R&D team in Bangalore.

Quite a change for someone whose boyhood dreams had oscillated between becoming a doctor and producing movies. Keen to leave his small town in Rajasthan province. Aravind had applied to IIT, alma matter of India’s engineering elite. Although he’d never been particularly studious as a teenager, Arvind faced a fiercely entrance exam, surprising himself – and dumbfounding his high school math teacher. Encouraged, Arvind began hitting the books in earnest, and graduated with flying colors.

Enchanted by a brochure showing a campus surrounded by snow-capped peaks – an image that brought to mind fond memories of challenging hikes he’d made in the Himalayan foothills – Arvind picked up the University of Washington to pursue his master’s degree. Following stints at Microsoft and Akamai Technologies, Arvind co-founded two startups. Then two years ago, he walked away from a successful company to become an individual contributor in Google. He wanted the opportunity to dream big and create products that can be used and enjoyed by millions of people.

It’s great to have Arvind at Google, but we need more engineers like him – people with passion and strong work ethic. (And for the record, a goldplated resume like Arvind’s, while it helps, is not an ironclad requirement for joining Google. We’ve been known to hire people whose career paths have taken some interesting twists).

Would you be happy at Google? The only way to find is to apply. Our engineers can use 20 percent of their time to pursue personal projects they are passionate about. The freedom to innovate has created Google News, Google Suggest, Adsense for content, and Orkut – products that might otherwise have taken entire startups to launch.

Visit www.google.co.in/engjobs to check out the opportunities at Google. See a job with your name written all over? Send us your resume. Cute childhood pictures optional.

How to describe

Yesterday we won the cricket match played against NAVIS. It was a very hot day and I was quite tired by the time the match was over. We scored 196 runs with the loss of 9 wickets in 27 overs and the opponents were able to score only 151 runs. Karthik played superbly and scored a quick half-century. After losing the previous game last weekend, this win proved to be quite revitalizing for the team and personally too. I was little bit disappointed when my team did not opt to try with my bowling in the previous two games (they were fair from their part, but I was disappointed with my bad bowling). I enjoy to bowl than to bat. But in yesterdays match I got a chance to bowl and was fairly happy with my performance. I struggled for rhythm in the first couple of overs and found it little later at the end of my spell. After the match I came back home and watched the great Indian run chase against England. It’s nice to see the Indian side sweeping all the one-day match series with great dominance.

Weekends are proving to be very hard to pass my time. This is not a new problem, which has just sneaked into my life; I have been facing this since I moved to Chennai. Meantime my apartment is also getting ready at a pretty fast pace. I am not really very happy with the way it’s coming up, not up to the standards I have dreamt about. There is new construction coming up on one side of our building and it would block the light from entering my flat to a great extent. It’s definitely not my dream house. With the current state, I would just end up in considering it as a mere investment and nothing else, which in turn is somewhat saddening after shelling out so much of money.

In the recent time with laziness also joining the hands with my thoughts I have totally ignored to practice for the forthcoming Bangalore marathon. Good that it has been postponed to September and I have ample time for practicing. The funniest thing is that last week after my running sessions I have been practicing alone in the ground to get my run-up for the bowling correctly. This cricket fever seems to be catching up at this stage of my life.

Whatever it is, happy, sad and boring moments seems to be hitting my life quite frequently and I am in the process of learning how to handle those in a matured manner or rather just learning to swim against the tides. But nowadays I often feel that I am missing few important people in my life with which I could share my thoughts, having a cup of coffee or a mug of beer, muttering, jabbering about the discarded things in life,… not sure how to describe…


PS: “Sangamam” is a music show telecasted in vijay tv on Saturday evenings at 9PM (repeat telecast of Sunday morning program at 9:30 AM). If you are a music lover don’t miss to watch it on next week (journey of S.P. Balasubramaniam from 1960’s to till date covered in three episodes). I liked it very much.

The Blooker Awards: Blogs to Books

Not sure if this is an old news in the blog world.

The Lulu Blooker Prize announces its winner.

Blooks are the world’s fastest-growing new kind of book and an exciting new stage in the life cycle of content, if not a whole new category of content. The Lulu Blooker Prize is sponsored by Lulu, the world’s fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books, including an increasing number of blooks. However, the judges are independent of Lulu and no favor will be shown to blooks published on Lulu.

The first ever winner of The Blooker is Julie Powell.

Julie Powell is 30-years-old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that’s going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother’s dog-eared copy of Julia Child’s 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes. In the span of one year.

At first she thinks it will be easy. But she soon realizes there’s more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye. With Julia’s stern warble always in her ear, Julie haunts the local butcher, buying kidneys and sweetbreads. She sends her husband on late-night runs for yet more butter and rarely serves dinner before midnight. She discovered how to mold the perfect Orange Bavarian, the trick to extracting marrow from bone, and the intense pleasure of eating liver. Via The Blooker Prize

Courtesy: http://www.blogherald.com/

Weekend story

Is there a way to spend weekends without spending money? I personally think it’s quite difficult unless you have some hobby to keep yourself occupied. But somehow I managed to spend last weekend without shelling out single penny and also completed reading the book “Life of Pi”. It’s an interesting book on the adventurous journey of a small boy in a lifeboat with a Royal Bengal Tiger.

On Saturday after heavy lunch, unknowingly I fell asleep and by the time I woke up it was 6PM. The sun was bidding adieu for the day and darkness was bracing all the rooms in my house. Sipping the trademark tasty tea prepared by my mother, I was browsing through the TV channels and halted at raj tv. They were telecasting the movie 5 star. The movie is very youthful, colorful and doesn’t make me feel bored even after watching it for the nth time. Within 15mins of watching I was drowned in nostalgic thoughts and just felt like meeting all my childhood and college friends. I went to the beach and sat few feet away from the shore and kept watching the tides kissing the shore and stars twinkling in the horizon. I also felt quite satisfied and happy after speaking with couple of my old friends over phone.

Is it quite normal for everyone to think about the sweet past memories at late twenties or am I supposed to think at late sixties? Until it is sweet, there is nothing wrong in remembering your old thoughts or my thoughts. I also took sometime to think about the areas of interests and it worked out to be a very long list, but not sure how to prioritize.

• Become a computer geek.
• Learn Swimming.
• Participate and finish atleast in 50 marathon races.
• Attend a bartending course and work as a part-time bartender.
• Become guitarist, pianist and violinist.
• Compose Music.
• Start a multi cuisine restaurant.
• Participate in triathlon.
• Open a gym and become physical trainer and train only obese people.
• Buy couple of old 70’s-80’s bungalows in TNagar.
• Become a motivational speaker.
• Become a Mountain climber.
• Learn Dancing.
• Help the old and handicapped people.
• Read atleast 50 books per year.

Am I missing it

After seeing the vodkathon promos, I have started feeling that I am missing something very interesting.

I was listening to "tubthumping" song since morning.

We'll be singing
When we're winning
We'll be singing
I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down
Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away
He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the better times:
........
........

Reminded something

I received this forward from my colleague..

On a flight James bond was sitting next to a Teluguguy.

Telugu Guy: "Hello, May I know your name please?"
James Bond:"My name is Bond"

Continuing in his inimitable style,"......James Bond."

Then Bond asks: "And you?"

Telugu Guy: "My name is Rao...
Siva Rao...
Samba Siva Rao...
Venkata Samba Siva Rao...
Yarlagadda Venkata Samba Siva Rao...
Rajasekhara Yarlagadda Venkata Samba Siva Rao...
Sitaramanjaneyula Rajasekhara Yarlagadda Venkata Samba Siva Rao...
Vijayawada Sitaramanjaneyula Rajasekhara Yarlagadda Venkata Samba Siva Rao..

Since then when someone asks Bond his name he simply says "James Bond".

The above joke just reminded my name (not official). Infact it took couple of days for me to memorize my name "Mohan Venkata Naga Udaya Gowri Shankar"

The Legend

One of the supernatural talents any human possess in this world is “the art of criticism”. We criticize on everything and anything we see and hear. Now it’s the turn to criticize the legend, the master “Sachin Tendulkar”. Do you think we really have any rights to criticize him? Till today is there any sports person in this country who touched the peaks as he did. Becoming a sports person is not like eating an ice cream; to become a legend you need sheer talent, dedication and hell a lot of hard work. Well now almost every cricket fan along with the media had started criiticizing about the bad patch sachin is facing. Its not now, we have been doing this since he stepped into the international arena. I have been a great fan of him for years and still I am a great fan of the master blaster. He broke almost all the records and he is not going to end it so soon. We have been backing him till he climbed the Everest and touched the peak, now when he is slipping down lets try to give a hand and pull him back to the peak; let’s not kill him by pushing down from the top of the mountain. We should feel shameful if we do that. Let’s at least try to respect for his 16 long years of service to his country and the people.


I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two... high compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel!

-Don Bradman, the greatest batsman cricket has ever seen

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.

--BBC Sports, on Sachin Tendulkar.

His life seems to be a stillness in a frantic world... [When he goes out to bat], it is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man. The people see him as a God...

--Mathew Hayden, Australian Cricketer on Sachin Tendulkar.

I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone , apart from Don Bradman , is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player.

--Shane Warne, after Australia's tour of India and Coca-Cola Cup in Sharjah.

You might pitch a ball on the off stump and think you have bowled a good ball and he walks across and hits it for two behind midwicket. His bat looks so heavy but he just waves it around like it's a toothpick.

--Brett Lee, on Sachin Tendulkar's batting, 1999

Whenever I see Sachin play I am reminded of the Greame Pollock quote of Cricket being a 'see the ball, hit the ball game.' He hits the ball if the it's there to be hit.

--Ian Chappell

He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back."

--Ravi Shastri

Never ending search

Every person in this world thinks that his or her thoughts are unique and no one else would experience the same feelings or understand them completely. Why to talk about others, I myself have experienced this many times and thought people don’t see things from my perspective. How do we conclude that we think differently from others? We would come to know only if we express our thoughts to others and understand what others think on what we think.

One of the greatest and toughest argument with most of the current generation people fighting and questioning within themselves is “Does god exists”. That too if you are a strong believer in science, this question takes the top priority in your list. I was going thorough one of the blog site and found a posting on the belief in god. The posting and the comments made me think there are many other creatures in this world who are thinking the way I think.

In the recent times, I am also stuck in the battle between the minds of a theist and atheist, should I or shouldn’t I? My parents are strong believers in spirituality/religion and there are many things which they follow blindly. There might be many good hidden reasons for their beliefs but with the current state of mind, I end up in asking various reasons and questions about their acts and in the end adding more worries to their list. So, does that mean I am an atheist? Well I don’t have an answer for that. I read theories on big bangs and black holes and start ridiculing the views toward superstitions and redundant beliefs. But everyday morning like many other people in this part of the world I also go to the pooja room and start praying “Suklam baratharam vishnum sasivarnam”. This might not be the case with me alone; the count would be in millions. Why should you or I pray? Does god really exist? If he exists, why doesn’t he come in front of us? Or am I or you praying just because someone has directed and molded us to do that? Has someone introduced the concept of god just for the sake of having a control over what we do? Is everyone praying seeking to have peace in their lives or expecting something else to happen in their lives? You do this to me; I will return you back with something else. If he is god, why should he behave like a human, always expecting something from us? Have we made him to follow the bad practice of accepting bribes by sacrificing innocent lives or punishing ourselves? Who is right and who is not?

Right from the adolescent age we start digging our lives in search of happiness. But while in the process of digging we never know if we would see the light at the end of the tunnel. But keeping our hopes alive we keep digging and in the end we never know if we have come across the light in the process of digging. We keep doing things for the sake of future, but when are we going to take care of the present and when will the future becomes present? Or are we in the search of some place where the sea and sky meets at the horizon?

Listening to –
Yaar yaar sivam? Nee naan sivam,
Vaalvae dhavam, anbae sivam,

Home Alone

It has been nearly 1 ½ years since I moved back to Chennai and I don’t even remember single day staying alone at my home. At least one person would be always present and I get everything on time without waiting for anything. As soon as I come back from my morning workouts, I have a big mug of tea waiting. I like the way my mother prepares tea especially for me (bit stronger. Tea tastes awesome with Marie biscuits). Breakfast would be waiting by the time I get ready to the office and all I have to do is to eat and crib about eating heavy breakfast. Day before yesterday everyone has left to Bhilai to attend my cousin’s house warming ceremony and I had to stay back here due to few security reasons and doing a watchman’s job :( . It’s been long time since I met my cousins and even I was quite desperate to go along with my family. Had I been there, I would also have celebrated holi along with my cousins. Heard that they celebrate holi in a very grand fashion. Hmmm…I should plan to go there sometime later. Even though my presence might not make much difference to the others surrounding me (just sitting mum), I always like to be surrounded by people jabbering about something and hate loneliness.

Listening to – Sweet Child of mine (GNR)

Aftermath.. Part II

Second set..

MGR and Anna Samadhi (Memorial)



Journey back from Marina to Gandhi Statue

Newly opened Chennai Citi Centre. Great architecture.

Aftermath.. Part I

After the discussion with my PM, I was quite puzzled that evening and was also not in a mood to sit at home. I took my camera and went to the beach, questioning my future and thinking whats next. I parked my bike near the gandhi statue and walked slowly towards Marina beach and gave some work to my camera too . We often talk about the famous tourist spots and forget about the place we are living. For the first time in my life I viewed chennai with tourist's eyes and enjoyed to my extremes. I didn't realize how I spent nearly 90 mins. alone.


Kids in Skating ring

Designed for Water falls

Tasty Chips.

Want to Shake hands with Superstar ?

Rejuvenated

Hazy sky, sun hidden behind the dark clouds and wet streets didn’t clutter my mood to reach the somasundaram play ground today. Yes, I went to play cricket after a long time. Infosys has completed 10yrs after setting up their office in Chennai and are celebrating this milestone by conducting Inter Corporate Competitions on sports, business quiz, cultural festivals etc. Since they have also invited our company to participate, guys have started preparing for the competitions quite seriously. Being fortunate to impress ;-) few guys with my bowling and batting (wish they don’t read this blog, or else they might not call me for the forthcoming practice sessions) I am still intact with the team.

I reached the ground around six’ish and was first to be there except few joggers and the cops march pasting. I waited eagerly till everyone came and grabbed the bat for opening the innings. I felt really rejuvenated when I was holding the bat and was thinking to send every ball over the boundary line. Even though I didn’t last long and scored only 6 runs, I was immensely satisfied and happiness started mounting deep within my heart. Childhood memories started rolling in front of me and I was enjoying each and every moment in the ground.

Just like becoming a guitarist, becoming a good pace bowler was also one of my childhood dreams. Anyhow, becoming a cricketer will ever remain as a dream for my entire life, but just getting few thoughts on learning the guitar again. I have a very bad habit of starting things enthusiastically and discontinue in the middle. So, there is lot of thinking to be done before I start learning guitar again. Now let me not divert the topic from cricket to music.

After hitting the gym quite regularly, I have built some muscles and struggled little bit while bowling my second over, I wasn’t able to swing my arms freely. Moreover since the inter-corporate cricket tournament has to be played with soft ball, i had difficulties in generating pace and controlling the line with the soft ball. But the most important thing is I got first wicket of my first ball in first over. Wow, what a great feeling. Last couple of weeks went on quite tough and I had to do lot of talking to myself and it took sometime to regain my composure. It’s a nice way to start my fresh innings with cricket and looking forward to spend my days happily.

Friend's Wedding

The marriage rituals of south Indian Brahmins are quite interesting and tedious. It is interesting for the guests to watch but should be quite tiring for the girl and boy getting married. It was my friend sri’s wedding with vin which took place in Chennai on 17th. I didn’t get a chance to attend the whole wedding ceremony, but was present during the important rituals of the ceremony. Most of my meetings with friends happen only in virtual world, but we make a point to get together at least during the occasions like these. “Khoob Jamega rang, Jab mil baithenge hum yaar ” (modified slogan of bagpiper).

The first ritual during the marriage process is "Nischayartham" which took place on the day before marriage. It is in the form of a promise made by both the parents concerned, to conduct the marriage, under the will of god with their entire mind and spirit. This ritual went on for nearly 1 – 1.5 hrs. During Nischayartham not everyone from our group of friends was present. After the ritual we relished the wonderful delicious dinner served in banyan leaves. My friend being the mapillai, we got a very special treatment in the dinner hall.

Main ritual (Muhurtham) was on 17th and we all gathered in the marriage hall early morning. After having heavy breakfast, we became busy taking pictures of the wedding ceremony. With few of my friends being ready to get married and in the process of looking for a match, they were also busy watching birds. The thread of marriage (Mangalya dharam) is tied around the neck of the girl and the couple was blessed by the priests, elders and the assembled guests. We all wished the couples and later dispersed in different directions.

These are some of the pictures taken during the wedding ceremony.

My New Camera

I bought a new digital camera Canon powershot A520 and upgraded myself from analog to digital world. I have already missed to capture few of my friends wedding and with others lining up; I didn’t want to miss any of those unforgettable moments. Many times I really missed to capture good moments in my life and felt bad for not owning a proper camera. If I had an option of going back to my past and enjoy those events (like a rewind option when we watch a movie), I wouldn’t have thought to buy, but that’s not possible is real life. Time cannot be rolled back. Moreover it’s really a painful job to scan the printed photos and share with others. After reading quite a few reviews on point-n-shoot cameras, I decided to go for canon A520. Even though it falls under the beginner’s category it worked out to be pretty costly for me. But anyhow I hope it is worth investing on something which gives me happiness at later stages of my life when I browse through my past.

Playtime

Guys in my project have been planning to go out somewhere during the weekend and after many suggestions and discussions we decided to visit Queensland. I haven’t been to any theme park before and there was lot of excitement flowing through my blood stream. When we reached there at around 10:30 AM there were around 20 TCS buses and 10 school buses. The crowd was too heavy and we thought it won’t be possible for us to enjoy any ride, but managed to get our turns after waiting for short period. I was very particular about not missing any ride in spite of however scary it looks and feel the adrenalin flowing for the whole day. It is quite difficult for me to explain my experience in words, so added few pictures below. It is worth to spend money in queensland instead of shelling out at places like mayajal.


"Crazy Horse" rode me crazy.
























"Swing" was the scariest
of all rides.

The race day.

Planning to sleep early on Saturday (4th Feb) night, I told my mother to have dinner ready by 8PM. I finished my dinner and went to bed by 9PM. Thrilled and filled with nervousness I found very hard to sleep, moving from one end of the bed to the other end it was already 11PM, but not able to sleep. Without realizing, I suddenly woke up thinking that it was already time and checked my watch. It was just 12:50AM, I closed my eyes again. Beep Beep…Beep Beep…the alarm rang and it’s finally 4 AM. Assuming that I will take at least four hours to complete the marathon, I ate curd rice and banana to have a constant supply of glycogen while running. I picked up my cousin from his home and reached the venue at around 5:15 AM. Once I reached the venue all my excitement suddenly turned to anxiety and my bladder started getting filled with water like some flood water filling the dam. It was still dark and didn’t find any difficulty to empty my bladder.

Vaada maama, one of my cousin’s friends greeted him. Still in his college days, my cousin introduced me to his friend with embarrassment. Another guy was telling him “Edhar ladki log bi zyada hai na”. My cousin pinched him and said that I am his brother. I just laughed and thought its time for me to leave them alone and let them continue with their discussion. I gave my bag to him and moved to the starting point of the race. Everyone looked like professional runners and spotted very few amateur runners.

I was just moving my hands and legs trying to stretch and avoid cramps while running. There was an announcement made saying that the race is going to start in another five minutes. Suddenly the blood rushed to all parts of my body and my bladder was again filled up with water. The flag was waived and the race had started. Right from the beginning I was not trying to push hard and compete with any runner. I ran at a steady pace of around 11.4kmph. There were water points kept at every 2.5 kms and I just made a point to not consume water when I really don’t need. By the time I completed 8 or 9 Kms the pro runners had already completed 14 Kms. I didn’t try to bother about the pro runners and was running within my limits. I had a great time running the first 10.5 Kms and reached besant nagar in 54 mins. There were many people cheering us near the besant nagar beach. Heading towards anna square and after completing 14-15kms, I was desperately looking for water spots and hardly found any. My mouth was drying up and was asking for water whoever had worn the volunteer t-shirt. Weighing like two iron pillars I was finding hard to move my legs. Somehow managed to reach the starting point and completed half marathon in 2 hrs 2 mins. By this time the sun was bright and had already started to burn my skin. All these days I have been practicing my long runs during early mornings and didn’t realize that heat will play a major role. Strolling at a very slow pace, all of a sudden back at the start line I had to run another 21kms. To finish the marathon we had to complete 2 loops of 21kms. After completing half marathon, with huge physiological barrier, I am back again at the starting point of the race. There was a big fight going on between my mind, heart and my body (Mind and body fighting against my heart). Infact I picked up some speed and was heading towards besant nagar. I completed 25 Kms and there was a huge wall in front of me. I either had to break the wall and continue running or had to hit the wall. I lost my grip, hit the wall and my mind took control over my whole body and heart. I stopped my watch and my legs came to halt. I completed 25kms in 2hrs and 34 mins. Sick and tired with throat and mouth dried up, I came back walking 4 kms. I didn’t find my cousin, searched for him and had to borrow someone’s mobile to make a call and met him finally. Drank one liter of water and was not in a state to move my bike stand, I rode back home. My entire body was coated with a layer of salt and was stinking like a dirty pig. I didn’t bother to change my clothes and crashed for 2 hrs. In the end I am neither disappointed for not completing nor happy about participating. Later I came to know that the policemen opened the traffic after 3 hrs and didn’t allow many amateur runners like me to complete full marathon. As per the international norms, the traffic should be closed for atleast 6hrs. Even though the organizers claim this event to be a major success, from my perspective it’s really a pathetic show and I hope many would agree with me. Guess, chennai marathon is only meant for professional runners. I was quite happy to hear few of my friends and colleagues wishing me.

The following are my learning.

1. Mental toughness: Without the mental strength I can’t even run 1km. During my practice sessions there were many instances where I struggled to complete short distances. I should be mentally strong to complete 42kms.
2. Practice properly: I started walking even before I learned to crawl. I had to put more effort and practice in tougher conditions. I somehow totally ignored the heat factor.
3. Never give-up: I am not going to give-up so easily and looking forward to finish at least one full marathon in my life.

I am planning to participate in Bangalore marathon which is likely to happen in the month of May (mid summer).

Marathon before Marathon.

With full of excitement and thrill, I went to collect my chest number and the T-shirt for Chennai marathon. When I reached Nehru stadium there were already big queues being formed. It was very sunny and quite hot, but there was no shade to stand. There wasn’t any separate sign board for full marathon runners and I joined the queue standing for “Chennaites men” thinking that they are also issuing the numbers for marathon runners. The queue hardly moved and only one person received his chest number after standing for nearly 40 mins. The organizers were referring to a list of runners registered and the names in the list weren’t sorted in alphabetical order. For every person they have to run through all the 20-25 pages and then issue the chest numbers. Everyone was losing their patience and people started to join the queue from middle. Police constables started their job with lathis in their hand. It was utter chaos everywhere. Is this the way such a big event is organized? After waiting for nearly 1 ½ hrs my turn came to collect the chest number. When I showed the printout of my online registration, they said “Oh, its full marathon!! We are not issuing the chest numbers today, you have to come tomorrow”.

After waiting for nearly two hours, I was really furious and agitated to hear such a ridiculous response from them. Trying to keep myself cool, I called one of the organizers and spoke to her. She told that she will get back to me and vanished. Meanwhile instead of wasting more time, I thought to complete my medical checkup. Apollo hospitals have volunteered to do the medical check up and there were couple of doctors and nurses. One of the nurses checked my weight and height and made an entry in the Medical sheet. Weight 74.6 Kgs and height 163 cms. What the crap is this, how come its 163 cms? Last time I measured it was 178 cms and all of a sudden have I become short? I asked the nurse to tell my height in ft. She said it should be 5ft 5inches. I asked her “Do you think I am 5 ½ ft?”. “Well sir, that’s what its showing”. I didn’t take any effort to correct or argue with her. Then they checked my blood pressure. With all these happenings, I thought my blood would be boiling by now and the mercury is going to burst. But she made the entry as 130/90. I visited the doctor and he gave the clearance to participate in the race. Finally atleast something has gone through fine today. When I came out of the room, I found the lady who told me to wait. When I met her, she redirected me to some other person. I told him that I have been waiting here for nearly 2 ½ hours and I am yet to receive my chest number. He said “Sorry sir, we don’t have the chest numbers and the T-shirts to issue for the full marathon runners. You have to come tomorrow”. Well.. what else can I do, I came back to my office.

Today morning I again went to the Nehru stadium to collect the chest number and T-shirt. I reached there at around 10:30 AM. The T-shirts arrived at around 11:15 AM. Gosh, they have got the chest numbers and T-shirts. I was the first person to stand in the queue and collect my chest number (number 138) and t-shirt. The worst part is its mandatory to wear the T-shirt provided by them. It’s a new T-shirt and more over its very ordinary cotton which just sticks to the body when it becomes wet. I have my own reebok dry fit T-shirt and I am not supposed to wear that. What a stupidity? When I asked the organizer, he said, it’s done to avoid brand advertisements (they don’t want to have logos in T-shirt). Till now everything was badly organized and the organizers are shameless to give harsh replies. I have to wait and see what happens on the race day tomorrow. It was really a marathon effort to register myself before the actual marathon.

Saucerful of Secrets

Loneliness dancing on my head, I desperately wanted to stop it banging from all sides. I have been trying to keep myself busy doing something or the other and found the easiest available source to pass my time with books. It was a difficult and hard fight for me to improve my reading habits. Initially I tried to read few novels and none of them interested me, I had to stop after reading 40-50 pages. With most of the time wondering about human life my interests towards scientific books has increased sharply and started to get drenched in buying. After reading some books I could really feel the stars in all different sizes circling my head. This made me wonder about the way these scientists think and had become very curious to know about their personal life styles. I went into a bookstore and started searching for some good biographies of great scientists. Suddenly I saw a section of books categorized under Music. Out of curiosity I started browsing few biographies of some great bands. I found one book named “Saucerful of Secrects” with bright orange cover. It’s a biography of my favorite band Pink Floyd. I don’t know why, but the songs composed by them really mesmerize me. They are not a band with great players and are not occult on the stage too, but their innovation in creating amazing sounds had really captivated me.

It all started with three architects (Bass player Roger waters, Drummer Nick mason & Keyboardist Rick Wright) forming a band named Tea set. A short time after their formation, they were joined by guitarist syd barrett (Painter by profession), who became the band's primary vocalist as well. They came up with an alternate name “Pink Floyd”. In a short span of time their psychedelic rock music became very famous in the underground clubs. The growing popularity made them to give few hits in the music world too. As the band started to gain popularity, the stresses of life on the road and a significant intake of acids took its toll on barrett. This lead to some pathetic stage perfomances. In one of the show the band members literally had to drag barret on to the stage and made him stand in front of the microphone and he strummed one chord during the entire duration of the concert. This made the band members recruit a new guitarist David gilmour. The band's live shows became increasingly shabby and eventually, the other band members simply stopped taking barrett to the concerts. After finding their feet in music world the real era of breakthrough came during 70s. Over 25 million copies of the album“Dark side of Moon” were sold all over the world and the album stayed in billboard charts for 741 weeks. Even though Roger waters moved out of the band, the remaining three did hold together and performed some wonderful live performances to capture the hearts of many music lovers like me.

As such this blog is not sufficient to narrate a story of around 350 pages of book in 350 words, I just made a point to type few words on what I have read. I would also try to breif on any book I read here onwards. I have spent nearly an hour typing this blog now and its time for me to go back home.

Few pictures of the band "then" and "now"


Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and
David Gilmour(sitting)

Syd Barrett (Then)

Syd Barrett (Now)

Pink Floyd with Roger Waters at the London Live 8 concert (left to right: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright).

Big Questions ?

Big questions in science

1. How did the universe begin?
2. Does god exist?
3. What is time?
4. What is consciousness?
5. What is a thought?
6. What is a dream?
7. What is intelligence?
8. How did language evolve?
9. Are we shaped by nature or by the environment?
10. How are men and women different?
11. What makes us fall in and out of love?
12. What causes aggression?
13. Is it right to interfere with nature?
14. Can we end disease?
15. Will pain be ever free?
16. Can we end hunger?
17. Are we still evolving?
18. Is there life on other planets?
19. How will the world end?
20. What is life about?

Interesting book to read.

P

“P - Passion, Perseverance, and Persistence” is the caption for Chennai marathon. With just 2 ½ weeks to go, tension started creeping to my head. When I haven’t yet touched the 30kms mark, how am I going to complete 42Kms? Every week it’s becoming a big struggle to keep increasing the distance beyond 25kms. Even though my mind says “keep going” my tired legs badly screams saying “stop punishing me now”.

Last Sunday (Jan 15th) I watched Mumbai marathon and was quite disappointed to see not even a single Indian runner in top 20 finishers, but was quite amazed to see 12 Kenyans in top 20. There was a huge 15 mins gap between the Indian runner (finished 28th) and the winner of the race. International runners would definitely improve the standards of competition to a great extent and this would happen only if the prize money of such an international event is increased. There were around 18000 people (which is quite huge in numbers for Mumbai roads to accomodate) participated in the dream run. But the figure is very small when compared to 45000 to 50000 people participating in New York full marathon every year.

Getting back to my limping long runs, I am concerned about completing the full marathon without stopping. I don’t want to break anywhere in the middle, walk for sometime and continue the run later. I desperately wanted to run the complete 42 Kms and it would only be possible if I could do couple of 30+Kms run in another week and a half. I want to keep my hopes alive and give it a shot during the race day.

Kindness

As usual, today morning I went for running near the beach. Depending on my schedule I usually run 3.5Kms segment multiple times. While I was covering my second segment an old man riding a cycle carrying a transistor radio playing some carnatic music came along with me pedaling at the same speed as my run. He could have very well ignored and gone past me, but he rode along to encourage my mood and speed of running. I was enjoying the run and was also overwhelmed with his behavior. After completing my second segment I thanked the old man for accompaning me and I saw his face brightened with smile and happiness. I thought he made my day and hope he would have also felt the same. While continuing my run, during my fourth segment I heard someone calling from behind “Hello…Hello..”. When I slowed down and turned back I saw a boy came running towards me. He said “Do you mind if I join you”. I replied back saying “with pleasure, please..”. I introduced myself and asked his whereabouts. He is a schoolboy from Santhome High School in Chennai and has been practicing to compete in state level athletic events along with his friends. When I told him that I am going to participate in Chennai marathon, he started giving me tips to improve my performance. Wow..whats happening today, I have come across two strangers with huge age differences, one being very old and other a school kid, both being kind enough to accompany me.. That’s really great. After running for hour and a half, I went to quench my thirst by drinking tender coconut. I paid 10Rs to the shopkeeper and he thanked me for paying. Man.. am I dreaming?? Why is everyone behaving so differently today? Is something wrong with everyone?

In this part of the world where the medicine for anger used to be “kindness”, the word “kindness” is slowly losing its charm from most of the human brains. It’s becoming difficult to notice people being gracious and courteous to strangers who are in need of something. People are becoming so mean in satisfying their endless needs and justify their deeds ignoring the feelings of others. The happiness and feeling we get in making others feel happy is something which cannot be measured in human terms. On the other side there are few people in this world spreading their kindness to others by all means feasible to them. There are many books published on kindness and dedicated websites too. One of the website I came across is www.actsofkindness.org . Kindness doesn’t have to be a helping hand for handicapped person, just saying “Hi” to a stranger will do wonders.

"I've found what's truly sacred in life's small things...Hopefully, the world can be changed through acts of kindness, acts of affection and love--the idea of doing normal, everyday things that actually have an effect down the line...Be kind. Because the opposite works as well. You can send your hatred to the future. And we all know the end result."
Author: Sting

Rewind

Where am I right now?? Handling a life with full of challenges and hurdles... What will I get at the end after jumping, missing all these hurdles except a 6 feet ditch.
How wonderful it would be if I could go back to yesterday and watch myself getting up from the bed and going to the office. How will I feel if I could see myself eating, walking..? Why cant I go back to my childhood days.

I still remember the red colored toy car my father bought for me in Tirupati when I was just 11 months old. There are so many happy moments I could think of and which could not be erased from my mind easily. Only preparing for the exams used to be a burden on those days. Everyday we used to wait eagerly to go back home from school and take our cricket bat/ball for playing. Even playing for 1 or 2hrs used be a great fun. We hardly sit at our home during the weekends. Cricket, hide and seek, watching action/ horror movies, chatting about movies/girls, sharing the adolescent thoughts with each other and so many other good things to recollect. We were the notorious gang in the entire street doing all sought of mischievous things. During one of my birthday (I think while I was in 8th grade) I batted for nearly 3-4 hrs continuously and scored 84 runs after hitting 7 sixes. My friends used to pull my legs saying that I am hitting the ball with full of “joy”. “Joy” was the nick name of the girl who used to stay in my opposite house and my first crush was also with the same girl. Hmmm.. how many unforgettable happy moments during my childhood days and now I am fighting everyday to jump over these hurdles and running to reach an unknown destination?

Beep.. Beep.. I received a SMS from my sister.

“Every New Day is A Challenge. A challenge is an opportunity. An opportunity is a way to success! Wishing you a challenging New Day. Good Morning……”

Oh gosh! I didn't follow the session for last 30 mins….What did I miss?