Raagaas to Running - 1/2 marathon 'notes'

Absolutelyzilch, my text blog has been silent for more than a year now, and finally decided to resurrect it.

I managed to finish my 2nd 1/2 marathon last Sunday. You can read the article here

Ubiquitous poverty

There are moments where I get these sudden enlightening thoughts, atleast, that’s how I would like to view it… One such thought came to my mind today. What if majority of the people in the world are poorer? Think about it… Like the way it was as I grew up. We couldn’t afford a car or the likes of a motor bike. Almost, everyone had to commute through public transportation for long distances. For shorter distances, it was mostly a walk. Even bicycle was a luxury. No need for an expensive gym or a treadmill… No threat of fuel consumption exploding….

All papers and plastics (milk covers) were exchanged for money. A great way to recycle plastics, papers and old utensils. Since there was money involved, no one threw their stuff away. Throwing garbage was not a weekly chore as it is now. Even the stuff that came out of cooking, like egg shells, tea and coffee powder, drumstick fibers etc were all thrown in the garden to enrich soil.

If people had less money, eating habits definitely change. You eat what you need, than whatever you can. To cut down costs, everybody will start farming plants and vegetables in their own backyard, which means that eating fresh vegetables becomes a day to day affair. Organic too… Buying new clothes is a calendered event. One doesn’t buy what what one doesn’t need. Since there is always an uncertainty around job losses, the solution will depend on community. People living together, as a family or otherwise and support each other through their tough times…Ring a bell..;)

While the capitalistic world would scornfully ignore my thoughts as being stupid, may be even rightfully so, I like to think that I am just quoting history and not proposing something idealistic. When the whole world revolves around policies that should make people richer, my point is that, the world is probably better off if majority of people are poorer. There is always a question of who would these people work for and what will be the balance of wealth between different people, which, in turn, would again stir the conversation of imbalance. But, just the thought of poverty as a solution of the current conditions of global problems seemed interesting to me. Oh well, feel like going for a drive… May be, eat out and on the way back, have my preferred pearl tea. Oh, did I forget shopping for my supply of bottled water and canned soda… I can then catch up on the interesting discussions of global climate change that came up in the recent summit….:)

Identity crisis....

This blog is inspired by shoba's two earlier related but unrelated blogs. The scene here is shoba/suresh and sriks are chatting with Mano.. but its some other Mano. I had posted this earlier with different characters in my college's forum, In our college, Horlicks was the code word for Saarayam.

Mano is just out of college. He has been sacked from work and is a little low on cash. His Maama Ayush is elderly and has loads of cash and jewels. So Mano is taking care of his Maama to put some ice.

Sriks: Machaan Mano, eppadi keera?

Mano: who are you people? where did you people come from?

Sriks/Shoba/Suresh think that maybe Mano is in mabbu and so is in Sachin Tendulkar mode. Mein kaun hoon.. Mein Kahaan hoon

Shoba: Ayush eppadi irrukaan?

Mano: How do you know about ayush? plus avan sollare? Avaru thoongaraaru.

Suresh: As usual Benadryl kuduthu thoonga pannitiya?

Mano: Ungallukku eppadi theriyum? Avarau coughing too much today, he has aged no? So gave him some cough syrup and horlicks to let him sleep in the afternoon.

Sris: Paavi.. don't give him horlicks at this age itself. He might get addicted to it.

Mano: ... scratches his head... unnum puriyala

Shoba: How is Meera doing?

In her hurry, Shoba types Heera instead of Meera. Mano wonders how these people know that his uncle Ayush has Heera (diamonds). He is not sure if these are jewel thieves.

Mano: How do you know about Heera?

Sriks: Heera was very nice and glittery in Sathi Leelavathi.

Now Mano is sure they stole Heera from Sathi Leelavathi's house.

Shoba: Naan Heera sonnadhu was meant for Meera.

Mano's ex-girlfriend was Meera, but now he has his eyes only for another girl called Neena Pillai.

Mano: No no, the heera was meant for Pillai.

Suresh: Enna pa sollara, isn't ayush too young to see Heera? Is this the age to introduce him to item girls?

Mano: scratches his head violently... . But continues. "No no, Ayush has seen many girls in his young days. So no problems."

Suresh/Shoba/Sriks think that mano is in full mabbu.

Shoba: So you are playing with pillai all the time eh? (she means thamizh pillai-- son)

Mano: No no its not like that. blushes.

Suresh: Paathiyaa, pillai vandhadhuku apparam, you are ignoring Meera.

Mano: How can I be with both of them at the same time. After you get one you have to let go of the other, illa kudumbathala rombha kozhapam varum

Ellaarum rombha confused now...

Suresh: So how is Fremont?

Mano: FullMonty padam was nice, what is this Fremonty? Part two va?

At this stage Sriks/Shoba/Suresh decide that Mano tholla thaanga mudiyala and let his mabbu clear and they Escape...... .........

My first`1/2 marathon

I finished my first marathon - I've gloated all about it in

http://nourish-n-cherish.blogspot.com/2009/07/running-does-that-to-you-my-first-12.html

My RNR-Seattle Marathon Experience

When I signed up for Seattle rock-n-roll couple of months back, my only goal was to make sure that I do a mid year marathon to keep myself in shape for the sacramento marathon that I intend to run this year end... However, after my relay, when I really started doing my training runs, I thought that I could do a 3:25 type marathon if I pushed myself. However, I ended up doing a 3:53 marathon... Obviously, there are reasons... Most reasons were psychological than physical...I did 3:53:37... Much slower than I wanted it to be..:)... The highlight of the marathon was that I met Shoba and her relatives Ramesh/Mala and Aakaash at mile 16 and 22... It was very vital to keep my momentum going at the critical portions of the race...

Anyway, many take aways from the marathon itself:

1) As my friend Soochoo had predicted, the first time marathons (rnr seattle is the biggest marathon in northwest US by far) are typically not planned very well. It showed up in the critical aspects of this marathon. The freeway leading to the starting point got really clogged. After 45 minutes of slow down in the freeway, I finally decided to run about 2 miles to get to the starting point. I started 15 minutes after the race start. I heard from the paper that some people started as late as 1 hr after start time.... With 25000 runners (15,000 half-marathoners and ~6000 full marathoners, the race committee didnt think it through)....

2) That said about the starting point, the course as such was very well organized and had enough drinks/banana/ aid-stations etc., With the rock-bands playing all along and with a lot of crowd along the way, it was a pretty good race atmosphere

3) Never count on weather... I chose Seattle in hopes of a good weather. But, as luck would have it, I started at temp of 59F and it went to 75 F at finish line... The sun was shining all along without any cloud covers. A big no-no for me. In retrospective, San Diego could've been an ideal race for me... But then, last year, it was apparently very hot in San Diego....

4) I started out with a lot of frustration for having run 2 miles and in missing the pacer groups whom I had hoped to follow. With the weather being warm, I just lost my interest in running... As I started out, I decided to throw my timing goal and do a conservative effort. As time went by, I did slow down, to a point where I thought I was willing to either quit half way or do a 4:30 type marathon... Since I had slowed down in the middle, I had enough energy left during the last 6 miles... So, I finished strong...;). .. There were more hills than I had expected. No major ones, the maximum being 2 hills of about 250-300 feet at mile 16/17... But, in general, it was rolling hills all the way along, with a hill of about 100 feet at the 25th mile...

5) I thought the run-less, run-faster program was kind of aggressive. I used to train 40-50 miles for the sacramento marathon. I cut it down to 3 days of running (1 interval, 1 tempo and 1 long run with 2 days of intense cross-training (biking), averaging not more than 33 miles in any given week). I saw big benefits in my speed. I could hold 7:55 type pace for a 21 miler ( my longest run before the marathon). Obviously, that didn't translate in my marathon performance. But, on the positive side, I did not get any cramps throughout. I recovered very quickly. The day of the marathon, I was already playing with my friend's kid in the evening, running around... I felt strong... I think, the 3 days of running puts a lot of focus on running performance every time I went out to run, which could be good/bad..:) ... It also gave enough time to recover after each run. I will definitely try it for my next marathon too... May be, I will add in a slow recovery run apart from the 3 aggressive days...

That, in nutshell is what happened. Checkout my finish line video in the following link. My bib-number is 5048.

http://www.rnrseattle.com

Riches to Rags

I was browsing through a newsletter from Schwab and found certain things about retirement and investing that I found rather interesting. I just wanted to capture it in some place. Where else would it be ? Though any of these may not have a significant impact to most of us, it is a good thing to know.

Firstly, about tax implications due to President Obama's budget. The tax is going to increase from 33% to 36% and from 35% to 39.6% for the top 2 brackets of income from Jan 1, 2011. For all other tax-brackets, it will be the same as before ( single earning less than $171,550 or married filing jointly with an earning of less than $208,850). If you think your income may exceed just a tad bit more than the 3rd bracket, it might put you in a higher tax-bracket. In that case, it is a good idea to invest extra money towards 401K if you are not making full contribution to 401K already. You not only save on your taxes, but have that money grow tax deferred in your 401K. Remember that the 401K contribution will be excluded from your income for tax calculations.

The capital gains will be taxed at 20% from the 15% that exists today (if the family joint income is greater than $250,000), again from Jan 1, 2011. If you have long term investments that you plan to sell, it is a good idea to sell it off before Jan 1, 2011 so that you don't have to pay the extra 5%. This applies only if you intend to sell of your investments anyway.

I was surprised by a couple of facts that I read about retirement. If you file for bankruptcy, apparently, the creditors cannot come after your retirement accounts. So, point being, if you are already in heavy debt, looks like filing bankruptcy and protecting the retirement account is a good choice than liquidating your retirement account to pay off the debtors. Sounds a bit unethical... But hey, that's the law..:)... Also, if you have loan from your 401K account (remember the 401K sayings that the interest on a loan towards 401K goes to your account and hence you don't lose money) and if you lose your job, there is a 60 day grace period after which the loan will be considered a distribution with the penalty deducted. In other words, your loan should be repaid if you quit your job (within 60 days). One of the best alternatives to getting a 401K loan is to get a Home Equity line of credit (HELOC). Not only you can move some of your higher interest credit card debts to this low interest alternative, it also gives tax exemption on the interest paid. Remember that, if you are in the verge of losing a job, it is a good idea to get a HELOC while you still have a job (otherwise, you wouldn't qualify for a HELOC). If worst comes to it and if you file bankruptcy, your 401K will still be intact... That's all folks!

Height of religulous

http://suroba.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/height-of-religulous/

Vazhga Tamil

The week-end was spent in California Tamil Academy. Sat was graduation day - completion of a school year. California Tamil Academy is an amazing organization - run entirely by volunteers, they teach Tamil to over 3000 children in Bay Area. I really like the setup and the dedication. It gives a sense of belonging in more ways than one. People felt at home - at times, they behaved just as badly as they would in a political rally in India without the lathi-armed police.
For example, the secretary was pleading, shouting, cajoling anything to get people to settle down so the ceremony could start to no avail. It was so disheartening to see people (most of them with professional careers no doubt!) standing around without the least bit of consideration for the Secretary's increasingly hoarse voice. I wonder why we embarrass ourselves thus when we congregate.

Finally, the program started, and the children trooped on stage to receive their certificates. As usual, they first sent the pre-schoolers onto the stage. They got them to stand on stage, and there was a slight delay before the certificates were given. The children were left standing on stage looking around at the crowd! One of them sat down on the stage (Guilty as charged: that clown was my child!) I was visible in the audience wringing my hands with an upward swing movement ("You can't sit like that on stage K!" I said to her multiple times after the ceremony quite horrified)

http://www.hashwinphotography.com/cta/index.php?album=cta-fremont-graudation-day-2009

The day after, was the annual day program. It was a grand mela - a LARGE congregation of people belonging to a similar demographic (all Tamilians with one or more children studying Tamil). The day long program started with the preschoolers. We had to drop them off after taking them to the restroom!

The cuteness index to quality of the program was inversely proportional.

In the preschool lot, there was one who decided to admire the chain she was wearing in the middle of HER program (this time, thankfully, it wasn't my daughter!), one of them wanted to talk to his friends on the stage and another decided to just run to his mother halfway through the performance!

As the day wore on, the children definitely performed better! All in all, I laud the academy's efforts.
Vazhga Tamizh!

If Vanaja had abstained from sex

http://suroba.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/if-vanaja-had-abstained-from-sex/

Big Sur 2009... Soul Searching Results

I had a goal of finishing this race in 4:30. I didn't come anywhere close. I finished in 4:59. For about a week I went through many 'what if' scenarios, and I think I have got it.

I am reading Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture'. One of the things he does at the beginning of his lecture is acknowledge the elephant in the room. It got me thinking....

I know by nature that I'm very competitive. Like any other trait, there are situations where it works for me and there are times when it works against me. So to start with, I think I need to acknowledge the elephant in the room. As far as I'm concerned, both Suresh and Sriks are awesome runner's in my mind. So my competitive self is always competing against them. My goals are based on their improvements-- not really my own improvement. I wanted a quantum of improvement that Suresh had when he ran Big Sur. I pushed hard during my training to achieve that. When I didn't... I was devastated. With the elephant in the room out of the way. This is what I really achieved...

I ran Big Sur 16 minutes faster than my previous marathon. I really enjoy running. I hardly ever regret running a marathon, irrespective of the pain I go through in the end. Sure I wish I don't have to go through pain-- but if I must trade pain against finishing, I will any day pick pain. I made that choice for Big Sur and I finished it.

As long as I'm competing with myself, I really enjoy my runs. I have learnt the hard way that competing against myself is the only real way to enjoy what I do and continue enjoying what I do. I have thought long and hard and have vowed to myself to not fall into the pitfall of comparing my performance or my gains against somebody else's. Its foolish-- I will always meet runner's who have improved better and ran/run better than me.

So with renewed vigor, I will now run the San Francisco half marathon and the Sacramento International marathon- with a simple goal. I will run against myself and only myself. I will continue to enjoy the journey and learn along the way. I will of course enjoy and appreciate the run's of my friends and revel in their improvements without mirroring myself into that. I will learn from their wisdom too.

Here is to a year of good and safe running!!

Trivia -7

Here comes Trivia - 7.

1. What planet is named after the Greek god who personified the sky?
2. What planet is the brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon?
3. Which planet is the hottest?
4. Which planet has the most moons?
5. What is a parsec?

Answers for Trivia-6
1.None. The nectarine is a smooth skinned variety of the peach.
2.The water buffalo
3.Little tongues.
4.Honey
5.Red Bell Peppers. Broccoli is second followed by Orange.

Big Sur 2009.. Finally around the corner

With today's run, I will have completed my training for Big Sur 2009 (April 26th), my first spring marathon and my first marathon in about 2 years. My last one was at San Francisco in 2007 about 30 days after Ayush was born, with a finish time of 5:15 -- So anything faster than that will make me happy.

Things that went well:

1. All my runs were in the morning. Though I'm not a morning person, I think morning runs are way better than noon or evening ones. For one, there are fewer reasons (fewer! But not zero) to ditch the run.

2. All my runs were on the road. Though I'm not sure if this really is an advantage.

3. Three runs a week program is really working for me. The key is to make all 3 runs hard ones. My first 19 mile run on this program was a resounding success. Rowing as cross training is also fabulous.

4. Spring = Pollen. Asthma abound, kept an inhaler ready. Nipped the asthma in the bud.

5. Having Suresh as my pacer for my 20 mile runs. For a 3:30 marathoner, running 20 miles at 9:30 min/mile pace is a breeze and that enthusiasm rubs off on you.

6. Got my weekly mileage high pretty early on. This really helped. Although my initial goal was to touch 40 miles a week, I came close at 36 miles a week.

Things that are causing me concern:

1. I haven't run that many hills. Plus my longest hill run was only 12 miles. Big Sur has rolling hills near mile 20.

2. My left knee is behaving like a jerk (knee jerk.. get it?).

On race day, my plan is simple. I will hang out with the 4:30 pace group as long as is possible and if anything unexpected pops up, I will just wing it from there. Bottom line, I really enjoyed this training schedule and I'm really really looking forward to running along the jagged edge of the western world.

Trivia-6

Here comes Food Trivia

1.What fruits were crossed to produce the nectarine?
2.What animals milk is used to make authentic Italian mozzarella cheese?
3.What is the literal meaning of the Italian word linguine?
4.What sticky sweetener was traditionally used as an antiseptic ointment for cuts and burns?
5.Among Broccoli, Orange and Red Bell Pepper.Which has the most Vitamin C content?

Here are the answers to Trivia-5

1.Switzerland
2.Mexico
3.Jamaica
4.Iran
5.Brazil

Unused mind got all of them right. Mindframes got 3/5, Brainwaves 2/5,Madmax 3/5.
Kudos to Unused mind !! . Actually,I realised that if you just move the cursor on those images, it gives out the names...

Trivia-5

This week's trivia is all about flags. Very simple. Just identify the country to which these flags belong to.


















Answers for last week Trivia

1.
Japan and China were already engaged in a war before the outbreak of World War II. China was also involved in a civil war and spent most of World War II dealing with internal conflicts and repelling the advances of the Japanese.

2.The Battle of Okinawa, which lasted from April 1, 1945 through June 21, 1945, was the last major battle of World War II. Fought on the island of Okinawa, it was part of an offensive leading up to the invasion of the main islands of Japan which was aborted when the Japanese surrendered in August, 1945. Counting civilians, more than 200,000 Japanese died during the Battle of Okinawa. About 15,900 U.S. soldiers were killed.

3. The Yalta Conference, a wartime meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin from February 4 to 11, 1945, is considered by many experts to mark the beginning of the Cold War. Among the issues discussed at the Yalta Conference were German war reparations, the division of Germany into zones of occupation, and the repatriation of all Soviet soldiers who had joined American and
British troops whether they were willing to return or not. It is believed that many of these soldiers were put to death upon their return to Soviet control.

4. Hitler was a vegetarian, teetotaler and non-smoker.

5. There were two Siegfried lines, both situated on border between France and Germany.They were lines of defensive forts and tank defences built by the Germans.
The first was built in 1916-1917, during the First World War. The second was built during the 1930s, opposite the French Maginot Line, which served the same purpose.

MADMAX GOT ALL OF THEM RIGHT 5/5 ...PRETTY GOOD !! You must be a real history buff...

Trivia-4

Do you know your history? This week's trivia is for the history buffs, especially about the WWII.

1.What two countries were already at war before the beginning of World War II?
2.What was the last major battle of World War II?
3.What meeting of world powers near the end of World War II is often said to mark the beginning of the Cold War?
4.Hitler was a vegetarian, teetotaler and non-smoker
Which of the above is true?
5.What was the siegfried line?

Answers to Trivia-3

1. The 9 avatars so far are Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (boar), Narasimha (half-man, half-lion), Vamana (dwarf man), Parshurama (man with an axe), Rama (moral man), Krishna (philosophical man) and Buddha (spiritual man) respectively. The tenth avatar, Kalki is yet to manifest. From the sequence of the avatars itself, it is obvious that it represents the sequence of the origin of life.
Saumya & Madmax got all of them right.Kudos!


2. Traditionally, the authorship of the Maha-bha-rata is attributed to Vyasa. And there are versions , which say that Ganesha is supposed to have literally written it as dictated by Vyasa.
I guess both Vyasa & Ganesha can be right. Saumya, Madmax ,Brainwaves,Sdpal & Mano can be given credit for this. Mindframes , you almost got it right .


3.There are 7 Kandas

* Bala Kanda – Book of the Childhood (birth and training of the princes and marriage of the princes)
* Ayodhya Kanda – Book of Ayodhya (life in Ayodhya as a prince after marriage to Sita)
* Aranya Kanda – Book of the Forest (life in exile in the forest)
* Kishkindha Kanda – Book of Kishkindha (life in the kingdom of monkeys - on their search for the captured Seetha)[9]
* Sundara Kanda – Book of Auspiciousness (Hanumaan's journey to Lanka and his meeting with Seetha)
* Yuddha Kanda – Book of the War (battle between Raama's armies and Raavana's armies)
* Uttara Kanda – Book of the Afterword (Epilogue: Raama's life after returning to Ayodhya and Sita's second exile)
Mindframes scores this one.

4. Four Vedas

1. Rig-Veda (RV)
2. Yajur-Veda (YV, with the main division TS vs. VS)
3. Sama-Veda (SV)
4. Atharva-Veda (AV)
Everyone got it right.


5. Advaita is about realising the self, i.e. the Atman, as the Brahman itself which is apparently manifested eternally and simultaneously into animate or inanimate.

In contrast with advaita (non-dualist), the most influential and widely followed philosophy expounded by Shankara, Madhva (who is also known as Madhvacharya) maintains that there is an eternal distinction between the individual self and the absolute.

I had written a blog about Advaita long back for your reference.
http://am-kicking.blogspot.com/2006/01/advaita.html

Credits go to Mano, Saumya,Mindframes though Sdpal was almost right ;-)

How to eat a sandwich?

When is the last time you ate a sandwich or a burrito or a wrap gracefully? By sandwich, I don't mean the bread/butter variety, but the variety where the first layer contains sprouts, followed by a layer of large leaves and twigs, and then a tree of something. A thin layer of cheese and the forest again on the other side! I am not one to comment on the taste, since I seem to reach out to this variety quite readily. But I do want to write about is the eating.


One bite into the infernal thing sends the taste buds reeling, and then when I pull away, a large leaf the size of 3 plates will want to get pulled out from between, and the flora above shifts sending the incumbents of the sandwich to scramble for safety. Something like a tectonic plate movement-earthquake-sort of thing. On my end, I can't let the stuff loose and in a moment of reining in the chaos will try to rearrange the thing.

Just when I get it to resembling a sandwich again, I find that another bite makes the soggy stuff to start levitating towards the opposite end. You get the pictiure. The mouth on the southern end, the contents shifting and spilling out through the northern end. Almost like it wants to get away from being eaten. You see, when one is holding a largish object, gravitation exerts its influence as always, and the thing slopes downwards (around 12 degree incline is usual)

So, I rearrange the elements again and try a third time holding it at a perfect 180 degree angle, only to have the thing leaking on the sides and messing my arms.

The next item on my list is the height. I shall talk in term of units because I haven't yet reached the stage of measuring the thickness of bread. Let us assume we are making a sandwich - the bread on either side is 2 units each, making a height of 4 units. Then the stuffing adds another 8 units, making it a grand 12 units high.

Sometimes, I feel like a crocodile. I open my mouth so wide, I can feel the bones make a cracking noise. I then have to adjust the cheek bones, give them a loving pat, assure them that what I am putting them through is actually good for them in the long run and start afresh with renewed vigour and fraying enthusiasm.

By this time, I don't care about graceful eating anymore - in fact most times, I care neither about grace nor eating! I just let nature take its course. I pull and let the contents shift freely. I allow the sprouts to mingle and socialize with the tomato, while the pickles boss the mushrooms around as they spill onto the plate below. I eat whatever cares to remain within the sandwich - this is called wolfing down the sandwich. This activity is followed by cleaning up the spilled adventures with a spoon!

I feel full, and tell myself to go for soup the next time around.

BarberShop

As a sequel to Banian-Vs-Bunion and Sudoku-Vs-Soduku , here comes the BarberShop.

On hearing Barber Shop,most of us would imagine a shop where barbers work and one that you would be visiting every now and then. Did you know a Capella music style is called Barber Shop music. According to Wiki, here is the definition for that.

"Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era (1940s-present), is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture. Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completes the chord, usually below the lead."
You might have seen it in the sitcom "SCRUBS" where the legal adviser sings it with three more guys.

One of our neighbors,Mark, does that. Here is my version of his visit to our house and his discussion with Mindframes, with Mano in a cameo role.

Mark: Hi, How are you doing?
Mindframes: Fine. Thank you.
Mark: Just coming back after a barber shop reunion.
Mindframes: (Wondering if he needs the insight into Mark’s hairy trends) Must have been fun. What do you guys do there?
Mark: oh! We sing. It is amazing.
Mindframes: ( With a nervous laugh) Hmmm..I go to Mimi’s. We don’t sing there.
Mark: Really.. Never heard of them. If you don’t sing, what do you do there??
Mindframes: We just sit in a chair and maybe, read a magazine.
Mark: Wow!! I have never heard of people doing that in a reunion. Which society do you belong to?
Mindframes:No, I don’t belong to any society. But, I suspect they have some strong societies in India. In fact, their association even rebelled against a movie recently.

In walks Mano, who automatically assumes that these two are talking about the movie BarberShop

Mano: Which movie are u guys talking about? The 2002 one or the sequel?
Mindframes: I was talking about Billu Barber.
Mark: So, is that movie a musical. I have heard all Indian movies are musical.
Mindframes: No, it was originally a Malayalam movie, now remade in Hindi. I can understand Malayalam very well, you know,since I was born in Trivandrum.
Mano: No, it is a comedy movie. Though I would have preferred someone other than IceCube in the lead role. The sequel was even worse.
Mindframes:Yes, even I think Rajini was better than Shahurkh Khan.
Mano being the designated OPD, exits the scene , getting worried on seeing a slight change in Ayush’s expression.

Mark: ( Puzzled) Coming back to my original question, why don’t you guys sing ?
Mindframes: Well..atleast in Mimi’s , we have a strict rule of not singing as it results in head movement which might injure you.
Mark: How can anybody sing without moving their head? I think you should stop going to Mimi’s .You can join our group.
Mindframes: No, I am very personal about this. I like to do it alone.
Mark leaves the room in frustration…and Mindframes proceeds to Mimi’s to have a haircut leaving Survivor ROFL.

Trivia-3

Here comes this week's trivia. Testing your knowledge in Hindu epics & philosophy?


1. What are the ten Avatars of Vishnu,aka Dashavatar?
2. Who wrote Mahabharatha?
3. How many "Kandas" is Ramayana split into?
4. What are the four different hindu scriptures or Vedas?
5. What does Advaita and Dvaita mean?

Trivia-2 answers

1. Hydrogen, Helium and Oxygen. Madmax scores on this one.

Here are the top ten. Nitrogen , which most of us would assume is actually the seventh most common element.
1 Hydrogen
2 Helium
3 Oxygen
4 Carbon
5 Neon
6 Iron
7 Nitrogen
8 Silicon
9 Magnesium
10 Sulfur


2.The Van Allen Radiation Belt is a torus of energetic charged particles (plasma) around Earth,trapped by Earth's magnetic field. Mano hit it right. Sdpal, that was a good one..:-)

3.The name `India’ is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.

Update: The name Indus Valley Civilization also referred to the Indus river, as Brainwaves,Saumya & Madmax rightfully assumed ..with special reference to Brainwaves:-)

4.When "Gandhi" won the Oscar. Madmax & Sdpal got it right.

5.That image is actually a volcano eruption under the sea. This happened very recently , couple of weeks back ,off the coast of Tonga in the south pacific ocean.
If you observe the image closely, you can see the water in the sea. Kudos to Sdpal & Mindframes.

Trivia-2

Kudos to Mano, Brainwaves and Mindframes for getting atleast one answer right. Collectively, the team got 3 answers right..Cool...Now , for trivia-2.

Questions for Trivia-2

1. What are the three most common elements in the Universe?
2. What is the Van Allen belt?
3. Where was the name India derived from?
4. What 1982 movie had critic Janet Maslin carp: "The Oscar seemed to have been mistaken for the Nobel Peace Prize"?
5. What do you think this image represents?



Answers for Trivia-1

1. Mindframes scores one on this. Yes, comets were referred to as "hairy stars", derived from the Greek.

2.Shoelace was invented in the eighteenth century. Fairly, a new one..Tying the shoelaces right might have been found in the last century..:-)

3. Mano hits it right. Haemophilia is called the royal disease as it was featured prominently among the European royals in history...

4. 1941,December 7 : The navy was playing the "Star Spangled Banner" when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Mindframes, Wish they had been playing "Nakka mukka"..The Japs would have run away instead of attacking..:-)

5. Washington!! Both Sri and Mindframes got it right.

Christian, the lion

Watch this movie...It is really moving..




I watched their interview this morning on the View.They were apparently very happy and Christian shooed away other lions when they tried to ambush the guys. If you search further in You Tube, there are related videos which shows a reunion between the lion's family and them. Just AMAZING!!

Trivia Time - 1

I have decided to post some trivia questions every week . No cheating or googling. Give your answers in the comment section.

1. What celestial objects were once referred to as "hairy stars"?
2. What century saw the invention of the shoelace?
3. What hereditary blood defect is known as "the royal disease"?
4. What song was the Navy band playing at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked?
5. Which northwestern state in U.S borders only two other states?

Answers will be posted next week along with Trivia-2.

Outliers

My takeout after reading the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is that no one is born a genius. Hardwork & training , from an young age is the key factor , added with a dose of luck by being at the right place at the right time. The magic number is 10,000 hours of practice at whatever one is good at, which makes them an outlier. I liked that concept as now I have an excuse of not being at the right place, not being born in a different household, not being in very conducive environment to further my talents etc..Well, you get the gist …

Last night, I was watching Chopped, followed by American Idol as they cater to my interests in cooking and music. And, obviously I was judging the contestants and my thoughts were echoed by the Idol and Chopped judges. That’s when I had an epiphany and I knew what I was an outlier at. Eureka!! I was very good at Judging. What contributed to my success at judging? As the book says, it involved lot of hard work and training, right from when I was a kid. I started judging my peers and made friends with a selected few. Being a virgo helped me to be a good/bad critic, depending on the perspective.Born into a society where every Tom, Dick and Harry judges others irrespective of his stature and skills, my judging skills have been refined over the years. My ethnicity of being an Indian, a culture imbibed with competitiveness and loose talk has honed it even further. 10,000 hours...Pphhtt..I am sure I have put more than that in judging/misjudging people.

I participated in Galaata Idol last weekend. I should have known better. No, I didn’t make it to the next round, in case you are wondering. To my friends’ amusement, who had judged me right as not being a good participant, I decided to test my singing skills in front of a limited audience and three judges. The first judge was an upcoming singer (according to reliable sources) and so was enthusiastic about being a judge. It was obvious that she wanted to contribute for the betterment of the singing society in the bay area and so was very liberal with her comments. We can call her the Paula Abdul of Galaata Idol. The second judge was another lady who had an amused expression on her face which said, “Whatever!! You guys are not that great, but I will anyway give my comments. I am here just because these fans asked me to”. The third judge, apparently has Sangeetham Gnyanam , though not a great singer himself. ( Again, the reliable source at task). He had a bored expression of “Been there, done that. Lets get it over with and select a few.” As you can see, I was sitting in a corner, too busy judging the judges’ comments as well as the participants. Here are some snippets for you..”Shruti konjam missing here and there…otherwise its OK.”, “ You got all the notes right, but you emoted a bit too much” resulting in a puzzled expression from a participant and a firm head shake from me. For the question ” In all the years that you have judged so far, have you met the ideal Idol yet?” Pat came the reply from the Gnyani, “No.” As I said, me being the outlier judge and all, I was thinking, "That’s not the right answer. If some one is that good, why would he or she be participating in Galaata idol". Following the book, if some one is very good, talented and had the right opportunities, he/she would have made it big in India by now.
Now, start thinking and find out your talent in which you have put atleast 10,000 hours...I am sure we can all be outliers...Just need to bring it out..:-)

Amazon's Kindle a minor report

After nearly 1.5 years since the original Kindle was released, version 2 came out late last month and I plunged and got myself one of those. The device like its predecessor uses E-Ink -- A technology that is radically different from current LCD or CRT displays. Basically the display is a dull plastic like surface that has embedded in it millions of spherical bubbles. Each bubble has some colored particles (black and white to make this easy) and the two particles have opposite charges. The top and bottom of the plastic has circuitry that can induce a charge. So if you want to make the sphere look a certain color, you charge the circuit with a charge that will attract the color particles you want to the top. By doing this to each sphere (each represents a pixel), you have a page typeset with what you want. Also unlike regular displays, this display is not a light source... the reason your eyes smart at the end of a long work day in front of your computer.

There are a handful of different e-ink readers in the market and some precede the first generation Kindle. What sets them apart from the Kindle is mainly the content and access to it. Amazon setup the Kindle with a Sprint 3G chip built into the device. So you can pretty much buy an e-book from anywhere (without a computer) as long as you have Sprint coverage in your area. The cellular charge is hidden from you and as far as you are concerned you don't deal with Sprint. You bought the device from Amazon and you buy books from Amazon. Thats pretty much it-- Bingo! the first set of devices were sold out in 4 hours and took many months to come back in stock. One cannot be sure if this is due to the huge success of the device or because Amazon created an artificial shortage of Kindles. Either way, the orignal Kindle evoked a lot of passion among a lot of book readers. Almost everybody loved the e-ink display and almost everybody hated the 80s retro look that the Kindle sported. But function usurped form and people kept buying. Oprah endorsed the Kindle in own of her shows sometime late 2008 and sales practically exploded.

There were several things that were still problematic with the E-Ink technology. For one the display was slow, as a matter of fact it was so slow that the Kindle could not give you a cursor that could be moved by you across the screen to position on a word (for dictionary lookup or menu selection). Instead they had to create a LCD strip to the right of the e-ink display and you rolled a roller to move a highlight on the strip to correspond to the line on the e-ink display. Menu's worked the same way, selection was on the off-e-ink screen LCD. The original kindle also had long buttons on the edge of the device for the next/prev page, which made accidental page turns too frequent for the reader's comfort. As a matter of fact, many people complained that you couldn't pick up the kindle without turning the page.

With the Kindle 2 release last month, Amazon has pretty much addressed the most severe of the prior Kindle's shortcomings. The e-ink display is about 20% faster, so now you can move a curson on the display with a 5 way joystick thingy. Refresh is still slow, when moving the cursor fast, there are times the cursor shows up under 3 consecutive words (the prev two have still not refreshed out). but works okay enough for you to get the cursor where you want. The ergonomics are fabulous now, the buttons have been made smaller and they now click inwards. Accidental clicks- Ta Ta. Battery life has increased and internal memory increased to 2GB. With that comes the good old Apple strategy of non-removable batteries. You need to send the device to Amazon if you want the battery replaced (Boo hoo). The display also can now feature 16 shades of grey as opposed to 4.

These details apart, what does it actually feel to read from the Kindle? According to Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, the device should melt away in your hands only to leave you and the Author's words with you. I must say after finishing about two books on the device-- Yes. It certainly delivers a very pleasing reading experience and then some.

Some of the problems it solves for me are definitely peculiar to me and some of the problems are universal to books. Right from childhood, I have suffered from dust allergy- not just any dust, more specifically house dust. Of which the worst offenders are the fine particles that disintegrated paper leaves behind. The kind that most people would hardly sneeze at- would leave me doubled over. This pretty much ruled out most library books and the only books that I could reasonably read were new ones. If I wanted to read books from a library, a pretty elaborate setup was needed to filter the air between the book and my nose :)

The next problem is something we have learnt to work around-- holding a rather heavy paperback. Most of us have managed to convert this into an art that in itself would require a separate blog to ink out. Two handed grip is common too- but not for long bouts. You can all breathe easy- the Kindle is a joy to hold and its light. Its got enough heft to feel solid without bogging your hands down. When I first saw the Kindle (2), I wondered why there were thick plastic areas around the display. Now I know... to hold it. It works beautifully.

So its all rosy right? NO!

First obstacle is the rather high entry point. At $360, a price that can buy a lot of paper books, its not making it easy for people to jump into the Kindle band wagon. Second is DRM. DRM is a kludgy solution (in my opinion) to fight a real problem (piracy). The limits that E-Books you buy from Amazon has imposed upon it, border on being downright silly.

This is not a review of the Kindle, just a quick report about a device that uses a technology, which has the potential to be a rule changer. Now I look forward to rainy days, a cozy couch, a Kindle in hand and a hot cup of coffee in the other and a dust free reading experience.

Oscars

I watched Oscars like millions did. Some random points that came to mind: I did clap when Slumdog Millionaire reaped in the awards, but the logical side of me couldn't concede that the movie was worth 8 of them. I would call it a nice enough movie, but just that. Not great, not wonderful - tad better than mediocre. Another example of how right place at right time far outweighs merit.

And then, of course some "Body" comes along and does an illogical thing, and basks in the narrow glow of publicity it brings. They gifted the children a concrete house and claimed they are working for the upliftment of conditions in slums. My head reels - how?! By moving the children who already made some money to a concrete house? How does that equate to "working for upliftment of slums"?

I loved the way Danny Boyle jumped up and down like Tigger in Winnie The Pooh when he won his Oscar. It was a helpful reminder that we all have a child in us, and sometimes takes hard work finding it. I watched with amusement as the cameras rolled on the best dressed women. I couldn't help comparing the style to the women in South Indian villages who tie a hard knot with their "ull-paavadais" just covering their breasts and dropping down below their knees, as they took a bath in semi-privacy (a term used for not bathing in a closed bathroom - say at the well, or in the courtyard in their homes)"Ull-paavadai" is the inner skirt worn underneath a saree.

Almost all the dazzling clothes were of the same bathing-in-courtyard style, and most of the colours were the same tried and tested variety. But, speaking with a sense of negative fashion IQ , I am not the person most suited to make judgements I am afraid.

I scoured the crowd and found only 2 women wearing a pair of glasses, but the same was not true of Men. Are men more comfortable with glasses or are women more self-conscious about the bespectacled image?!

Transported

Whenever I got into a bus, I have been mostly shielded by the friendly faces of drivers and conductors. I think it is a very honorable profession, especially in India, where one has to cater to hundreds while making sure that they are all transported safely. I always felt safe traveling alone in a bus, even at night. During my 11th and 12th grade, just standing behind the driver near the hot engine made us feel secure from all the eve-teasers, who were a tad too many in Trichy. Even though the drivers were mostly poker faced, I used to be greeted with a slight nod of the head, which was enough to make me feel good. Be it a very young flirtatious conductor or the stern brother/father types, they will be there to guard you once you enter their domain.

When I was in college, I never minded breaking my journey just to get home as soon as possible instead of a direct route bus. And so, it was all the way from Erode-> Mettur-> Dharmapuri -> Krishnagiri -> Hosur-> Bangalore. Many a conductor has stopped the bus, with a bang followed by “Old..down” , on seeing me running towards the bus, to the annoyance of the passengers, who had to disperse their formations at the steps of the bus, just to let me inside. There have been times when the conductor has made sure that a drunkard or a shabby guy does not come and sit near me. No questions were asked; just a pleading look from me did the job. Sometimes, the fatherly conductors might look very stern but when it comes to protecting you, even the looks were not needed.

What prompted my thinking about the aforementioned souls, you may ask. Last night, on my walk, engrossed in “Masakali”, I didn’t realize that I was almost tripping towards a bus stop, and that on seeing me walking at a brisk pace, the driver of a Cisco shuttle assumed I was rushing to catch it. Now, these shuttles run every five minutes or so. He could have just gone on his way as another one was right behind. But, no sir!! He cannot carry the guilt of leaving a passenger unattended. Now, I was in a dilemma with thoughts reeling in my mind,…Is he really waiting for me? Oh!! Shit, all the junta is looking at me . Do I run? If I run, the misunderstanding might become more pronounced. What do I do?.. With all the apprehensions in my mind, I was walking with an almost imperceptible jog and reached the shuttle when he opened the door, with everyone waiting for me to get in. Thoughts and more thoughts… What do I do? Do I just ignore and continue walking or do I follow in my dad’s footsteps, get in the bus, talk to the driver for a couple of minutes and let him know that I was just out for a walk. I chose to be the friendly pedestrian, looked straight at him, smiled with a wave of my hand. He laughed and with a nod, closed the doors and zoomed past. I continued with “Rehna Tu” ,smiling to myself, slightly embarrassed, transported to my teens…

What do future anthropologists do?

Anthropologists are forever finding evidence on some tablet or inside some godforsaken cave, telling us all about life in the era. I mean when we see caves full of paintings showing tigers being strung with a sleek bow and arrow, we know that the cavemen weren't launching supersonic jets, followed by rockets to the moon and just dumbing themselves down in the paintings! They really were slaying tigers with sophisticated weapons of their time such as bows and arrows. Then, as time went on, people discovered the funny thing that starts with an 'h', that essentially is between drawing and script writing, and used that to depict what was going on. Mythology grew from a combination of bad paintings and imaginative minds. There was some record-keeping albeit one left more to imagination than to facts, but something!

The clay tablets yielded slowly to the tree bark, and the cryptic grew more descriptive. The three barks became parchment rolls and then the Chinese saved the day by coming up with paper. So far so good - you see paper, you can figure out what is written there. You see a tree bark with a sign engraved
Z *big heart sign* X, and can figure out that Z loves or loved X, and was daft enough to proclaim love on a tree bark, after probably getting his or her hand chiseled a couple of times with the rough stone used to engrave their undying love. But, we still know what happened, so long as the bark survives, we know that Z and X were in love at some point.

The printing press and full blown books were a blessing. Suddenly, everything you needed to know about any nook and corner of the world was available in some book somewhere. Great! Then, you did not even need books to get information, all you needed was access to the net. E-reading became cool. Now as we move on towards paperless functioning, a most disturbing thought just struck me, and I do not wish to be taken frivolously here. I am as serious as a rabbit running from a fox on a wintry night can be.

What if future historians are like me? It could very well happen that one gene triumphs in the coming generations and that gene is my technology retarded gene, couldn't it? It is not that I can't operate technology - I just can't keep pace. By the time, I figure out how to use the remote to change the setting on one contraption, the remote changes, or worse the contraption is gone! Let me think of some gramophone records that my father prided himself on - in fact, I reluctantly got him to get rid of the foghorn after decades, knowing that we could never listen to another gramophone record again, and the space is better used in conserving the tape recorder for the next 2 decades, before it too meets the same fate?!

So, some songs that were only there in the gramophone records no longer exists, same for some songs on tape too. You get the picture. Now, with the internet, and the blogosphere, most news and creative writing as moved to the e-medium. What if future generations are unable to retrieve these great gems of the era- voltages may change, servers change, the electronic medium destroys just as soon as it creates!

Well, I suppose the graffiti on the world heritage sites would still tell us who loves who, but what if future archaeologists only get the Harry Potter books, and believe life was that - they have no method of knowing it was a fantasy world?!

I haven't even started on the Modern Art phenomenon yet. If those were the paintings left for interpretation, I can barely imagine what it would come out as.
Pray tell me what you can make out of this?http://www.milesmodernart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/modern-art-41108-24x48-w.jpg

I can almost hear you sigh that if these are the kind of gems of writing the future is missing, they are better off without it! But I stand by my notion that 50 years from now, when there is no paper, record retrieval will be all the more difficult, and a blip in Earth's history - 500 years later, that era might well be a dark one

PS: Ahhhh..hieroglyphics that is the "h-word"
PS1: How curious it is that I typed this blog out, and then couldn't connect to the net to publish it, and had to snuggle up to the husband to help me?

See what I mean and what I fear for?

Generation "gap?"

The blog by Saumya on nourish-n-cherish got me thinking. Instead of expressing my thoughts as a mozha-neelam comment, I thought I will blog about it. It is a topic that has been in my mind for a while. The questions are simple and is centered around the current generation of people in comparison with our previous generation. By previous generation, I mean people who were born in 1940s-1950s. Are we, as a community more social and friendly? Are we more selfless in our deeds than them? Are we smarter? Are we flexible and adjusting?

Call me old fashioned. But, in my opinion, our previous generation (I will restrict this to Indians) seem genuinely friendlier and sociable than the current generation. While I can't miss the touch of hypocrisy and sarcasm sprayed all over in the previous generation, there is a special sense of caring, that is unequaled. I have seen numerous examples of cases where a relative of some kind would be taken care of through their college till they get to work. As I grew up, I've never found anyone considering the act of cooking for others to be a chore. Even when an uninvited guest shows up, people used to go crazy about cooking them good food...

My question is not whether the current generation will or will not do what the older generation did? But, I don't see that as commonly as I used to, before. There could obviously be more reasons... Is it because we are more independent (esp., financially)? Is it because, our importance to just our family has grown exponentially? Is it because, we are wrapped up in a more competitive and expensive world where everyone needs to work to take care of their own family that there is no time for "others"? We do adore Darwin's theory and tout ourselves as being smarter than the previous generation. Does it mean that, smartness is inversely proportional to being sociable? Is it because, the community has overgrown from being limited to villages or townships to global? Should there be a dilution factor applied as the community size increases? Or, is it just being rational? Can I say that, courteousness superseded rationality in our previous generation... Is it just that the more closer we get to rationality, certain "random acts of kindness" disappeared? All said and done, everyone likes to be treated with kindness and be considered special, at least by a few... If rationality or being smart is what stands in the way, I don't know if it is a good idea to be rational.... Oops, I have gotten into an infinite loop in analyzing rationality now...;)

Eternal discussions...

Time to time, when I talk to my parents or relatives in India, one topic that almost always surfaces is the criticism about the US institutions and government, not to mention the zillion others about the US way of life, divorce rates, etc., Every time the Indian stock market goes up, people go gungho on how India will outperform every other country in the world. At the same time, when the market goes down, the entire blame rests in the hands of US financial institutes and US representatives, aka, me...:) This is one of those arguments where my patriotic self is torn between rationality and the emotional counterpart. Half way into the discussion, I often get confused as to which side I am on. Is it about nationality or market dynamics? Recently, when the SIFY scandal broke out, I was in one of those "I told you so" moment. I do repent for the millions who have lost their money and millions more, who are yet to lose. But, as Greenspan puts it, the Indian market is flooded with irrational exuberance.

Consider the Indian IT market. Most of the big companies are service companies which cash in money for every resource they have. It is almost a direct mapping. So, on one hand, the company executives started seeing a surge of money. With corruption being a norm and getting away from corruption being very easy, it would be an anomaly to find corporate executives who don't make use of the "system". We all know how the food chain feeds itself in the political system, one that is supposed to overlook any mishaps. In my opinion, SIFY scandal just surfaced the tip of the iceberg and there will be a lot more to come. Is it because incompetency breeds incompetency?

During the past 10 years, the number of colleges in Tamilnadu alone has grown from about 50 to a whopping 500+. I went to a reasonably good engineering college. But, let me tell you, the quality of teaching was very mediocre, the exceptions being a couple of professors. The quality of engineers produced were again very mediocre (including me..:)). Now, I see the overwhelming number of colleges and guess who is teaching, the same mediocre people who left from colleges like ours. Not to point fingers or ridicule anyone, but, the students who are now lecturers and professors were below mediocre, in my scale. And, they've been teaching for over a decade now. The more I hear from people, the quality of engineers produced is definitely bad. But, the overriding question is, does it matter? And, that too to land up in an IT services job? A big NO. For the mundane work that most IT companies sign up for, the qualification that someone is an engineer is all it takes.

When I passed out engineering, getting into MNCs or big IT companies was nothing but a dream. It was plain difficult. Now, except for a handful of companies, who still go to elite institutes for their recruitment, the need for quantity has definitely killed quality. So, if we have an enormous collection of low quality workers riding one on top of another, how do you think it will evolve over a period of time. Coupled with the web of corruption, the situation will serve as a perfect recipe for disaster... I think, Indian system is it's own worst enemy... Only time will tell, what the consequences are going to be...If you ask me, it is nothing close to rosy is all I would say...

Copy cats or Imagineers?

Malcom Marshall with his side on leaned action was ready to bowl. His first shirt button was unbuttoned as usual and he ordered 3 fielders around with that sharp look.

Sreekanth, looked up at the sky and muttered something and took his crease with his drop down shoulder and unique stands ready to blast the ball out of the ground with his bat speed.

Marshall ran and bowled a perfect out-swinging delivery. Howzzzz that?, he appealed for LBW with his usual sitting pose.

The batsman responded, "Dei appave LBW kedayathu-unnu sonnana illaya?". (Didn't we agree to not have LBW for this match?)

Marshall act was forgotten, and the alter ego of 10 yr old took over angrily "Appo nee kalai stump-ikku munadi vaika kodathu" (Don't keep the legs in front of the stumps then)

This cricket ground was our terrace (40x10 ft).
The ball was plastic ball (out swingers and in-swingers are determined by the wind direction at the time of the day)
The 3 fielders don't have too many places to move around other than swapping their positions.

And last but not the least, Sreekanth was my brother and it was me who was doing the perfect(?) Malcom Marshall act.
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Watching my 4 yr old doing a pretty neat Penguin imitation (Gloria, in the movie Happy feet) took me back in memory lane of imitations we did as kids.
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There were unwritten rules of imitation. To start with, your social status, coolness factor, knowledge level (inversely proportional to coolness factor) are all at display by the personality you imitate.

- Geeks prefer to imitate players with good statistics & results.
Ex: Gavaskar, who other than wearing that hat does not have too much to imitate.

- Cool kids ((don't argue imitation itself is for geeks!) on the other hand prefer character
Ex: Viv Richards , chewing gum with an attitude

Imitation of cricket players not only served the imagination purpose. But emphasized our cricketing knowledge and elite status. And it does not stop only with cricketers.

Here are some other characters I proudly enacted during my acting days...

- There was lot of competition over who will be "The Mc Enroe" during our tennis season.
Side note: Do you know that a fully soaked badminton ball bounces knee high? And can be used as your "tennis ball". Because of its bounce, the chances of it landing in neighbors roof is less.

- Tong Fu, chinese gymnist (floor exercise specialist), was toast of the town during one of the Olympics (Los Angeles, I found out later). All available pillows were stacked in line for our dare devil floor exercise. We learnt to do somersault without using hands thanks to Tong Fu.
In the hind sight, it is a minor miracle that we all have our spine intact in spite of mis-landing on the concrete floor.

- Seeds of my marathon running were sowed back then. We use to run around the 40x20 terrace 26.2 times. (conceived by none other than the author - what can I say, as my mother would like to say, he always gets 90+ in GK (general knowledge))
[Side Note: Imagine the plight of 6 different families which lived underneath that 40x20 terrace with a group of kids running round and round above their heads.]

- To make the running experience interesting and to simulate the hurdles of some sort, we choose to jump over the chimneys which were sticking out every 8 feet.

- The same chimneys were served as hide outs for Spark & Captain from star trek. Yes! even I cannot believe it that we were avid Star trek fans for the cool gadgets and the command hierarchy. It gave an opportunity for me to boss my friends around as the captain.

- Giant Robots were controlled by our virtual/imagined watches too.
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What strike me as I think about it is that the lack of tools/toys never stopped us as kids from imagining anything. We circumvented the problem with what was available and there I think I/we have a lesson to learn as adults.

P.S: Don't be shy. Share your best imagination stories in the comments section. (most of us need a blog, I am sure).

Powerless...

I've been reading a lot of news lately. Though I resent the fact that many people are killed in various fights and militant wars throughout the world, I find a strange curiosity to get the updates. I don't know why.

As people contend about what the futuristic world holds in terms of technology and what not, I couldn't stop thinking about the fate of innocent people. As militants get their covers under the civilian population, I see that innocent lives are starting to look "disposable". It has almost become a norm. Though, on one hand, it looks completely ridiculous, I don't know what solution stays with the countries that have to defend it's territories and people at large. Consider the terrorist incidents back in India. If one has to make a choice of getting rid of terrorists, is it worthwhile trying to protect a handful of innocent people? Doesn't it look very subjective? I do realize that, if I had any of my close friend, family or relatives anywhere close to where such incidents happen, I may have a different take on the subject. But, for a government, it looks like the choices are running out. Will such trend go towards a power shift of the so called "protectors"...Is it the real solution to curbing down the terrorists? I don't know. But, with growing list of terrorist organizations, I think, more and more innocent people are going to be terribly affected.

Another thing that bothers me is that I am getting totally confused with the responsibilities of organizations like UN. What is their real charter? Is it to just issue statements condemning organizations or countries? I think, as organizations like UN look biased and powerless, more and more countries will start doing things on their own. Why am I concerned with all of this? Honestly, I am not, well, may be a little. I realize that I don't have the faintest clue whatsoever on the realities surrounding people who go through such painful tragedies, and unless I do, my curiosity or concerns about the topic only stays in the confinement of a blog which is mostly based on what the media projects. And, thanks to technology, I am overwhelmed with more and more information that reaffirms how utterly powerless I am...

The Chilli Effect

Green chillies always bear the brunt of a sore person's temper at the food table and rightfully so in my opinion. There are certain cooks and cook's assistants who cut all the vegetables and the chillies in exactly the same dimensions. While I like to see vegetables cut a certain way, there are certain types, especially chillies that I like to see stick out! It is also for this reason, that I don't take endearingly to the chilli hidden in the omelet or the oothappam. That to me is guerilla warfare.
When I am having lunch, you can visualize a person who stuffs food in the opening where usually the mouth resides. One day if my nose were to shift downwards, I would be in a sorry state indeed. I gape at the computer screen, and immerse myself in the mundane-surfing routine that my lunch time allows me to do.
So, you can safely assume that I am not on a chilli-weeding routine while tackling my lunch. I might catch a peek of the dangerous thing if I were expecting it, but the hiding in batter/egg variety freaks me out. One minute, I am stuffing the faithful mouth, and the next I am shooting up from my seat with the green from the chilli and the red from the taste coursing through my veins and bursting forth in pink spurts on my face. My nose inexplicably starts watering and so does my mouth. When the nose and mouth do that, the eye feels the compelling need to keep them company and before you know it, you have liquid leaking from all the open pores in the face. I feel my ears turn beetroot, my tongue refusing to quiet down, my hand reaches for the tissue - one for the eyes and another for the nose, because obviously once can't do for both.
I once read somewhere that drinking hot water quietens your tongue quickly. Nope - now you have the hot water and the burning to deal with! Sugar doesn't help either. And no, I don't think honey with warm water would help. What would? Time perhaps!

PS: I attended my brother's wedding and have blogged some posts on the wedding in my personal blog if interested:

New Year !

As every year goes by, there is a part of me that scoffs on what the big deal is? Another part of me convinces that, new years are a great time to reflect on the past. It is like a water break in running. Especially given the shut downs that we've been having, it gave me extra time to think about what I did last year. Even less reason not to brood over the past.

Well, if I were to summarize on what I did last year (apart from the usual) in a nutshell is that, I did a lot of running. I ran about 1600 miles over the year, racing 4 half-marathons, 2 full maratons and the relay. I did improve with every event, which kind of fed back to itself making me run even more. Not sure if this trend can continue for long, especially, the coming year. But, I am happy with how it went last year. Shoba and I had a wonderful 3 week vacation, or should I say, hibernation... The start-up I worked for got acquired by Cisco. Not that it matters much to me except till next year. I was just running out of stuff to list...If it is less than 3 items, the word list sounded meaningless to me? Oh, and then, I did bungee jumping during our visit to New Zealand. I know I've bored most of you with these facts. But, I am going to repeat it again. My major revelation during our trip to NZ was that, they don't have any native mammals in the entire country. What it means is that, you can walk all over NZ evergreen forests and you will never see any other animal other than sheeps/deers/stoats and possums... No bears/tigers/lions...Interesting, isn't it?

As most people, I do have my list of stuff (aka resolutions) to do for the new year. One of them is to start blogging actively (atleast 1 every week). Blogging, in a way, keeps me tuned to information... As a disclaimer, this has nothing to do with me being part of Cisco... Believe me...:)

Anyway, to start with, I was going to blog something about economy. My inspiration came from an interview in NPR (Forum with Paul Saffo). As I started typing the blog, I went back to listen to the audio archive. As I figured, I wouldn't do any justice whatsoever to the content than the content itself. To give a sneak preview, it is about where we are heading, in terms of economic trends and how factors like global warming, internet revolution, etc., influence it. It was one of the most interesting talk I've heard in a long time. Savor it when you find time. I am sure most of you will love it...

Link to Audio Archive of the interview

Happy New Year Y'all !