Reflections

I just wrapped up an incredibly well-organized trip with Routed India , and while I’m still buzzing from the experience, I wanted to jot down a few observations. This isn’t your standard "here is a photo of me in front of a temple" travelogue—you can find the glossy details on Routed’s website. These are just the random, unfiltered thoughts of a traveller who realized that Bhutan is basically the "quiet kid" of Asia who has their life totally figured out. 1. The Magic Portal (and the Lack of People) Bhutan is sparsely populated, which I’m convinced is the "secret sauce" for everything else on this list. Crossing the border feels less like a drive and more like a magic trick. One minute you’re in the bustling chaos of Jaigaon, West Bengal ; you walk through a slightly grimy alley into the immigration office, and you pop out the other door into Phuentsholing . It’s like Narnia , but with better tea. Suddenly, the volume knob of the world is turned down. Few...

I'd like to think running's been my bread and butter (or idly and sambar) for ages – my first half marathon was way back in 2005, and I took the full marathon plunge in 2008. With 33 full marathons and 3 ultramarathons under my belt, running isn't just a hobby; it's my cardio-vascular calling! My social life? Mostly a marathon of meet-ups with fellow running fanatics. So, I've often pondered this existential question: what would bring me more happiness – climbing the corporate ladder, or qualifying for Boston? Ambition's great, but deep down, I knew a BQ would be the real marathon of my dreams – the holy grail, the ultimate running reward, the race of my life! I did write about this earlier.  Until 2020, I was a perfectly happy, albeit slow, 4-hour marathoner. A BQ time of 3:20 felt like running a marathon in reverse – impossible! More "wishful thinking" than a serious plan. But around 2021, things shifted. Intermittent fasting became my secret we...

 The Apollo Tyres New Delhi Marathon was held on Feb 23, 2025. It was my 34th marathon and special in more than one way. This was the race where I had prepared meticulously with a structured training program for close to 20 weeks. Additionally, I was aspiring to finish the race within the BQ (Boston Qualification) cut off time of 3:20 for my age category. So, there was a lot to look up to on this 'run-derful' weekend! I had the good fortune of having my good friend Chandra help me with the BQ preparation. He not only worked with me on the training plan but also enlisted other runners from our group to join me in this journey. The team rallied behind us and joined for all the different training sessions that I hardly did any workout alone. Chandra was so involved himself in this BQ effort that our running group heard nothing but BQ plans, options and possibilities in the days and weeks leading to the weekend. There were 10 of us who were travelling and staying together, 5 (me,...

 Imagine this setting. You have just won back to back Olympic Gold medals. Only three people in history have achieved that feat in your event. You are being anointed as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in your field. The whole world is tweeting about your feat, congratulatory messages are flowing from all directions. You also have about two hours in the airport lounge waiting for your next flight. What would you do? Will you relish the accolades, respond to those wishes and calls, read those great articles being written about you? After all, you have spent months and years toiling for this very moment. Or will you just sit still and be with your thoughts? Most of us, by default, will fall in the first category. Unless you are Eliud Kipchoge. After he won the Men's marathon event in the 2021 Olympics at Sapporo (venue was changed from Tokyo because of extreme heat concerns), Kipchoge had to fly back to Tokyo for the medal ceremony. As he was waiting for his flight, a journalist who a...

One long term goal of mine is to qualify for the Boston marathon. BQ is the holy grail for most amateur runners. The  qualifying times  are fairly challenging and will need some dedicated training effort for someone to have any realistic chance of making it.  The most important component of this training schedule is the weekly running mileage. One needs to clock close to 80 - 90Km/week to be marathon ready.  Since running is one dimensional, it is also advisable to incorporate some kind of cross training, like swimming and cycling as well. The third component is super important -  strength training. As one gets older, the musculoskeletal system is no longer in a great shape to take the pounding and needs to be reinforced.  Is that all? Unfortunately no. We also need to do throw in stretching and mobility exercises (like Yoga) into the mix. One might argue that we do not necessarily need to spend the same amount of time across all of these, but we do ne...

Once in a while, I go back and read my previous blog posts. More often that not, I feel good reading them. It gives me a peek into what was some of my "top of mind" thoughts at that time. Ideally, if I have been writing often, at least say once a month, this exercise would have been even more useful. Nevertheless, today was one of those days when I revisited my blog. The one that caught my eye today was one of my recent ones - Creation Vs Consumption . As I read that post, I took a step back to see if I have made any progress at all in this dimension over the last year. Coincidentally, that post was written exactly a year back (So much for this being a recent one). And I have to report that the answer is zero; absolutely no progress. I am still consuming way more than what I am producing. This is even after I include my physical activities and the time that I spend doing seemingly productive things at work (which itself is highly questionable) in the productivity list. Which ...

 Ours is a fairly close knit family, with similar values, morals and ethics. So, our outlook on most things in life are quite similar and we tend to agree on nearly everything. The operative word is 'nearly'. The one thing that we do not is - "When do we celebrate Krishna Jayanthi?" In my living memory, I do not remember a single instance where all of us, including my uncles and aunts, on even one of paternal or maternal side, have celebrated this festival on the same day. And if you include friends and neighbors, Krishna is born several times over a few days (or even weeks sometimes) in the same year.  One might wonder why all this confusion. As the name clearly indicates, Janmashtami or Gokulashtami, should be celebrated on the Ashtami thithi, no? To be precise, the Krishna Paksha Ashtami in the month of Shravana. But alas, as with most things in life, nothing is as simple as it sounds. This thithi business is confusing. They do not align nicely with midnight or sun...

In a given day or even a week, how much time does one spend consuming vs creating? This is a question that has intrigued me for some time now. Before we answer that question, of course, we need to define what creation and consumption are. There are no universally accepted definitions, so I will state mine.  Creation involves making something new or doing something that creates value, ideally for others, but at least for oneself. Writing new code or a new blog post, cooking a dish, milking a cow, sketching that wonderful cartoon, taking that wonderful picture of a bird all make it to this list. I would also like to add things like singing a song, going for a run or working out, meditation to the creation list. Consumption is reading a book or a FB/Instagram/WhatsApp post, watching movies and serials and the ilk. One can of course claim that scrolling social media messages is adding value to themselves as they become more informed. That is why this is a gray area and everyone should ...

December 2022 -- Life was as joyous and peaceful as it could be. Work was going well. I had just clocked my personal best for a Half Marathon. If one had peeked through my window, it would not have been out of place to see me humming the merriest of tunes. But then, the dark storm clouds were just around the corner. As PG Wodehouse puts it eloquently,  "it's always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping" "it has been well said that it is precisely these moments when we are feeling that ours is the world and everything that's in it that Fate selects for sneaking up on us with the rock in the stocking" First, I got injured while running. My left knee just gave up, putting a full stop to all running. I missed Mumbai Marathon for the first time in 12 years (discounting the Covid years). All the preparation towards getting to a sub 3:30 marathon just vanished in no time. ...

Last week was the annual day in my daughter's dance school. Dance students, of various skill levels and of different ages, performed for over two hours. It was enthralling. I am sure many folks did not understand the nuances and intricacies of Bharatanatyam, but that did not stop them from enjoying the spectacle. There is something in dance and music that captivates people. Albus Dumbledore remarked "Ah, Music, a Magic Beyond All We Do Here!" Einstein had said that he often thinks in Music. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister exclaimed about one of India's finest singers, M.S. Subbulakshmi - "Who am I, a mere Prime Minister before a Queen, a Queen of Music”.  When I was young, music and dance were limited to film songs coming on Radio and the occasional TV. My parents would play Vividh Bharati's (A radio channel of All India Radio)  நேயர் விருப்பம்  (Listeners choice) every weekday from 8AM to 9AM, not necessarily for the songs, but more import...

 Bennet, Sriram, Siddharth and I come from different walks of life. But last Sunday (30-Oct-2022), we had the walk of our life. A 70K walk for absolutely no reason. This was neither an organised event nor was there any prize to be won. Which makes makes us wonder if there was any reason other than to inflict pain on ourselves and give in to our masochistic tendencies. Or we are just plain crazy people. Most likely, both. The whole idea was floated by Bennet during one our morning runs - should we do a multi-day walk to Chennai, about 350K from Bengaluru. It sounded so exciting that we all said we should definitely do it one day. The safety catch was "one day". This is the easiest way for all of us, humans, to not say "no". Yes, but some other time. And just hope that the "some day" just does not come at all. So, it was all good. However, Bennet is one perseverant individual. He kept reminding and I opined that we should downscale this. Maybe a trip to Myso...

 Life is all about decisions. Should I take this new opportunity or not? Should we relocate to a new location for better job prospects? Should I do the long run or heed to the imaginary injury? Should I join a class to learn something new or am I already stretched too thin? Should I stay away from that delicious cake on the table? Some of these have high impact, life changing in some sense. Some of these do not have that high impact. Some of those affect only you as an individual; others affect your family and friends as well. Some of them are easy, the others pretty hard. However, they have one thing in common - the only way to avoid status quo and move forward is to make those decisions.  All decisions should be consistent with your values, morals and ethics. So, if an option violates your core principles, it is a much easier decision to ignore it and identify the right choice. Such decisions are taken by default and without much cognitive overload. Unfortunately, a lot of d...

 2021 has been a year unlike any other before. The year started with a lot of hope and optimism with the vaccines around the corner and a hopeful end to the pandemic. As the vaccine administration and coverage increased over time, the hope could only increase. And then came the second wave in April/May. I have never experienced such an horrific time in my entire life. People were desperately crying for help in all directions and ambulance sirens were screaming non-stop for two months.  The second wave was even more numbing because it hit people in our immediate circle. It was a stark reminder that human life is just too fragile. I personally lost a fine and young colleague, full of life and enthusiasm, leaving a 4 year old daughter fatherless. Nothing could be more tragic. Lots of other friends and family members needed hospitalisation. Covid after-effects traumatised even after people returned back home. And finally when things started to look up again, Omicron quickly put us...

Deepavali is upon us. Traditionally, we have celebrated Deepavali with new dresses, fire crackers and lots of sweets and savories. For a while, I have been hearing about Microplastics  and how synthetic apparels keep shedding them around. But given that more than 60% of all apparels in the market is made from synthetic, I decided to just research around this a bit. Microplastics, as the name indicates are plastic fragments less than 5mm in size. A substantial source of primary microplastics that pollute are from clothing. As per Story-of-stuff  (watch the video in this article, clearly educational), a single fleece jacket could possibly shed around 250,000 plastic fibers. Additionally the story-of-stuff article goes on to say that a single load of washing machine releases 1900 to 200,000 fibers. These are small enough that are not caught inside the washing machine and are often discharged to the home waste water system, eventually making it to the rivers and oceans. A...

We are all familiar with the famous proverb - "Little drops make the mighty ocean". Or its variants.  சிறு துளி பெரு வெள்ளம்.  Mountains are climbed one step at a time and marathons run one K at a time. Of course, the marathon version is a little close to my heart and I have really lived through this. At the 25th Kilometer marker of a marathon, one often does not feel the exhilaration of having run 25K, one feels the dread of having to run another 17K. More often than not, runners just employ the "take one K at a time" attitude and finish the race. I personally keep going back to this every time I encounter a problem that appears fairly formidable to begin with. Recently, I read this nice article where the author gives tips on how one can  read more . The answer is simple -- just keep reading a small number of pages, for example 20, every day. I just employed this technique to finish a 1100 page novel in less than a month. I set a goal of reading 25 pages every day...