Reflections

Since the Phoenix Marathon in Jan 2008, I have not run a race and so when the opportunity came up for the 10K race organized by the IITB Alumni association, I did not want to miss it. Even though my running has been sort of erratic for the last few months, it was just a 10K run and I was confident that I would be able to manage it easily. I left home pretty early as I had to collect my running bib and reached the venue (EGL) at around 6:30AM. I was surprised that there was a reasonable crowd, about 60 people finally participated. It was organized and conducted by people like you and me, so it felt good. I did not know many people there, but luckily that changed as two of my colleagues, Amareshwari and Vinod turned up. They are not regular runners, I do not think they have run in the recent past at all, so it was really nice to see them muster up enthusiasm and show up where others would have just preferred to cuddle up and sleep on a Sunday morning. The race started pretty much on t...

Haile Gebrselassie is arguably the greatest distance runner of all time. With an amazing 26 world records to his credit, from 2 miles to the Marathon, he has done it all. Having been a sports buff myself and a long distance enthusiast in particular, I have followed his career with utmost interest and admiration. He recently bettered his own record in the race that he calls "the king of distance", the Marathon. And he bettered it by a whopping 26 seconds. If put to a layman, bettering 26 seconds in a 2 hour 4 minute race might not sound as a news that deserves the kind of excitement and admiration. But, like any other sport, one appreciates the nuances better if one plays or at least dabbles in it. Been into long distance running for quite sometime now, I can really appreciate the significance of this delta. To make up for that small difference, not only must the race be planned well beforehand, the plan needs to be executed to perfection as well. And given that the race span...

I just finished (for the second time) the book "Who will cry when you die"  by Robin Sharma. A really good read and thought provoking.  The topic obviously just asks you what your contribution to your family, friends, community, or in your area of interest has been? Will anybody feel the loss at all, should you hitch a hike in the next spaceship and disappear from the face of this planet?  A very interesting question. For those people like me, who are still wondering what their call in life is, those motley group who are still struggling to identify what their goals in life are, this is one quick reality check. It makes those people who take life as it comes, without any specific purpose or direction, sit up and take notice.  It is common sense that time, especially in this age,  just flies at such an amazing speed that before one realizes, one has lost all those vital years where one could have made that difference -- the difference of having actually done something to being...

Over the weekend, I gave a small talk in BarCamp7, Hyderabad . I had not heard of barcamps before, so it was really a revelation. I was surprised by the quantity and quality of the participation. The event was a mix of talks and demos and the participation was certainly not casual, rather treated with a serious intent of sharing and learning. I was lucky to be granted the first slot and had an attentive audience. I thought that my talk was fairly well received. Some blogs on the event Blog1 Blog2 One other new thing about the trip was that it was my first visit to the new Bangalore International Airport and the new Hyderabad Airport. I agree with the general public opinion that the Hyderabad airport appears to be a better planned and executed project than the Bangalore one. It is more spacious and has a more International look. One thing common to both is the distance from the city. Even then, I could see that the AP Government is building an elevated highway that directly connects ...

Have you ever wondered that sometimes it does take 100% effort to achieve something -- 70% or 80% would not do. For example, if you are dieting and want to reduce your weight in a given time frame, it is not possible to say "I will diet 5 days in a week and indulge myself the other two days" and still expect to achieve the desired outcome. You might be tempted to say "After all I have kept my deal 70% of the time". No, it does not work that way. Dieting 5 days would certainly help as compared to not dieting at all, but the difference between dieting all 7 days and 5 days is too wide. The pay off drop between a 100% effort and a 70% effort is not linear, rather exponential. This phenomenon is even more interesting when applied to the moral and ethical fronts. For example, can you say I would be honest 80% of the times? I would be truthful to myself and others 75% of the time? Is such a line of thought possible? Can person's character be evaluated by some averagin...

One of my friends forwarded me the link to this website http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html. I really liked the site, Annie Leonard makes a pretty powerful presentation. I would strongly recommend visiting this site if you have not already. This presentation certainly got me thinking. Is there something in that presentation that I did not know already? Not really. I might not have known the finer details, but I certainly knew the overall picture. Have I done anything about it except for occasionally feeling guilty about not doing anything? Not really again. Why? Am I too lazy? Probably yes. But I think the most important reason is that subconsciously I feel that it would take a huge effort to do something. Somehow I get into this mental framework where I convince myself that the only sensible thing to tackle the problem is to do something grand -- like gather people and organize rallies to raise awareness. Or something similar. Since I can easily convince myself that I do not have...

Experiences running the PF Chang RNR Arizona Marathon 2008 Last week, about the same time, I was sitting in the same couch as I am now, with paining knees and quads, but with a sense of achievement. I had just completed the PF Chang RockNRoll Arizona marathon, 2008 (http://www.rnraz.com). Running a marathon had been a life-time ambition and completing it was a really good feeling. The day (13 January, 2008) started with my cousin dropping me at the start area at around 6:30 AM. It was dark, cold and buzzing with activity. People were there all over the place, in stalls, in those temporary rest rooms, everywhere. Because I was hitchhiking a ride (I do not have a car), I was alone without any family or friends, but just being there at that point of time gave me a sense of exhilaration and excitement. I kept repeating to myself that I should take in as much of this atmosphere and ambience as I could and not let the nerves of running my first ever marathon overwhelm me. I had a banana an...