Work Matrix ...

why, mr. Vijay, why? why, why do you do it? why, why get up? why keep meeting? do you believe you're meeting for something, for more than your appraisal? can you tell me what it is, do you even know? is it higher pay or promotion, perhaps learning - could it be for impression? illusions, mr. Vijay , vagaries of perception. temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an execution that is without meaning or purpose. and all of them as artificial as consulting itself. although, only the super boss could get something as stupid as this project. you must be able to see it, mr. Vijay you must know it by now! you can't win, it's pointless to keep meeting! why, mr. Vijay, why, why do you persist?

-agent Ramu

this is one of the mails a frustrated Ramu sent to his immediate boss. It has been inspired from the movie Matrix Revolutions

Existence ...

I found this interesting dialogue from the movie 'Dead Poets Society' .....

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

What will your verse be ...
What will your verse be ...
the dialogue has so much of passion built in the words... even the ppl who havnt seen the movie nor the clip can get the feel of it ... amazingly well composed ...

Collections ...

I am not sure since when i got interested in quotes... i had my share of likings for cool quotes, motivational quotes, inspirational ones and so on ...

i started searchin for books on quotes in bookstores, on google... i wuld be subjected to plenty of them... few of them appealing ... but the problem was i couldnt remember quite a lot of them
and i culdnt go back and have a look at them too.. since i wuld hav forgotten the source too... i wuld just know the jist of it or what it related to ... but not the quote

then... i started collecting qu0tes so that i culd go back and look at them and try memorizing them... i have collected a good no. since my MBA days .... but the usage has been limited as of now... the collections are not just quotes... any sentence or a statement which i feel is appealing at that point of time ....

with time i guess will keep posting few of them...

Ships ....

Ships are safe at the harbour... but thats not what they are built for

Marathon

After i posted my 'Om Shanti Om' post... i realised that i havent updated my Marathon post....
i did run the marathon on Oct 28th in Delhi .... takin my marathon tally to 3 in 3 diff indian cities...

i managed to finish the 21.092 km run in 2h 16min ...

managed becoz.. had sprained my leg on friday, 2 days before the marathon, durin a practise run...
yes .. u can call me a psycho... since i ran...things were fine ... till i hit the seventeen km mark... then the leg gave away... the last 4 km was more than a walk and less than a jog ... and finally i was able to clear the finish line ....

Om Shanti Om

Saw the movie just an hour back in one of the very old theaters of Delhi... the movie is pretty decent ...
movie is watchable once
but Deepika any no. of times....
she looks absolutely gorgeous in the movie ...
SRK is still giving fabulous performances year after year, movie after movie...

the movie spoofs few of the old actors in the first half...
second half has most of the new actors .....

the story line is a bit let down...
but given the powerful performances of the actors, one is always captivated to whtevr tht is happening on the screen....

if u havnt watched it yet... its time for u to go thru the experience ....

A city life ...

As some people know, i have moved from one small city to another big city. In the small city i used to be an hitech engineer for a large organization, travelling 22 km daily. In the big city i am a consultant for a small organization, travelling for 22 min daily. Both distances are one - way.

What makes me wonder is in both places, i get frustrated during the journey. Vehicles are everywhere, too much of smoke, everyone keeps honking, no one cares for the rules, the list goes on and on... but by the time u reach ur office or home, u will be completely drained.


What i fail to understand is, why do we have to put up with all that, the kind of work what i was doing before and now, are different but they have one thing in common. Given the telecommunication network we have, 80% of the work can be done from any location. If thats the case, why do we have to put up with all this. Why cant we work in a place where we have some peace, where the mere thought of going to the office or home, doesnt make the hair raise, where the decibel and pollution levels are low.

For my current job, i have to travel a bit, when i have to meet up with clients but in a IT setting u dont have to do that. I am not suggesting u sit at home and work, but we can leave the hustle and bustle of the city and move to quite and peaceful sub urbs and work from there. Since majority of the people working in these kind of companies migrate from different places, relocation should not be a problem as long as basic amenities are present. This way there will be less irritation and frustration among the employees. What a nice thing to happen to all of us.

Why cant the people who take a call on the location see what most of us see.

Demanding Sport

This discussion happnd in the winter of 2006, when we were practicing for the marathon. It was about what was the most grueling sport. After you have run for some 27 km, the first thing that comes to one's mind is the marathon. We moved to Decathlon and Triathlon. We agreed upon triathlon as the most demanding sport. But what we missed out that day was Tour de France. Arguably, the most demanding, most challenging sport in the world today.

Here is an excerpt of an amateur cyclist who cycled only a single stretch of the tour. He has expressed his experience in a wonderful way. After running the marathon, i couldn;t agree with him more.

Marathon time !!

yup...
i am running the marathon again.. but only half this time.... as far as runnin is concerned ... this year has been a fruitful year for me .... starting with StanC mumbai marathon in Jan and Bangalore midnight marathon in May .. it has been a wonderful experience. Going on the same note i am planning to take on the gruelling delhi circuit this time around... the marathon is scheduled on 28th of October and i have barely moved out of my 8 month slumber .... its been 3 days since i have started to wear the running shoes again .... lets c how things go on from here.....

My personal times of the marathon

Stan C full marathon - 42.195 km ... 4h 40min
Blore half marathon - 21.097 km .... 2h 30min

well as u can see there is an aberration in the times here.... for StanC marathon .. i had put in 4 months of practise ... for the blore one .. not even 4 hrs ...

hopefully will improve on my half marathon timing this time around ....

running is one thing that keeps me going ... atleast i found something to pursue in Delhi...

-Raghu

Another Links URL

Sergey Brin's page on Stanford....
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~sergey/

Larry Page's page
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~page/

Technical paper on Google search engine
http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf

Stanford technical reports
http://infolab.stanford.edu/TR/

Elements of Style
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strunk_and_White

Back again !!!

Think there are more posts abt me cumin back than actual posts ...

some update...

did my first international travel last fortnight..
was in 4 different countries in 4 consecutive days .. :) ...

it has brought in some difference in the way is see things in India..
wht exactly i am not sure...

one thing is for sure... w.r.t some countries we are not just 1000 kms far but 1000 yrs far... with the rest we are still behind ...

have a vague idea about certain things... will pen down when the vagueness vanishes but not the idea ...

Coming back after a long time !!!

Not that i was too busy or something ..
not that i didnt have any thoughts to pen...

thoughts were plenty...
time was at hand ...
but what i lacked was the enthu ..

Its been a long time since i hav worked with enthu...
i cant remember when was the last time i had enthu...
may be my TI days... never durin my MBA days...

but yesterday i worked with enthu...
the long lost enthu.... not to the true potential...
but there was passion in what i was doing...

An Irony ....

Our country is driven by monsoons, but when ever monsoons hit the country, everything comes to a standstill.

The economy slows down if there is a slight delay in the monsoons, once the monsoons hit the cities slow down.

Strange are the way things are !!

Dimension

All these while, i have been thinking about lots of stuff to a great deal. All this thought have contributed something to my life. But where it takes a back seat is when it comes to work. I have been thinking specifically about general things and generally about specific things, well when it comes to work a general thought will not do any good. I think its time for me to reduce my indulgence is thinking about things that are way too general and start thinking more about the work i have.
Atleast, it pays.

Motivation !!

This week i had a discussion with the CEO of the company. The interaction was to know and understand what was happening with us, what we were up to, are our expectation being met, so on and so forth. As expected, the discussion revolved around our current assignments, how r v faring, what are the expectations, etc. Then there was a bit of management gyan. Well, if u interact with the top mgmt, you cannot escape the gyan sessions. I don't know whether it makes sense or not, but as i see it now, it doesn't.

Then came the topic, which is the inspiration for this post, well it was about self inspiration and self motivation. The CEO wanted to us to be self motivated and not try to imitate any of the existing employees. If one is interested in the project and he/she sees it as his/her own brainchild, then the inspiration and the motivation comes to get up everyday in the morning and go and give it your best for the work. There will be no boredom. One has to look "inward" for all the inspiration and the enthu.

Well, i would have brushed this off as yet another gyaan, but what stopped me from doing so was the imitating part. It didn't seem to be logical, hence an objection was raised by yours truly.

My ideas and thoughts about motivation are different. To start with, most of us do not have much clarity in what we need to do or want to do. Without this clarity, one falling in love with the project or the work is not possible; if it is possible, it is not sustainable. Therefore this route towards self motivation doesnot work with us.

Years back, i had seen a movie called "Enemy at the Gates", yes, this is the Jude Law one. In this movie, the reporter says to the general that if you need civilians to fight for you, you cannot do so by pushing them on to the battle field. We need heroes who will inspire them to go and fight. Thats what i am talking about here.

What we need in an organisation are heroes. People who are excellent at what they do, people whom others want to imitate. By looking at these people, one gets the desire to be one among them. Once the desire sets in, it will give rise to rest of the things. Others start looking at the qualities the heroes possess. They look inward and assess the qualities they have. They see the difference and try to cultivate what they lack and fine tune what they already have. Through this process, they know more about themselves, they will be aware of their limitations and their talents. Then the rest will be history.

Essentially the point being, one needs heroes for inspiration, with this inspiration, motivation follows. Once you start looking inward, slowly self motivation will follow suit.

I dont hav much clarity about lots of things, but here and there i hav a bit of clarity on the rest.

Thats' Success

I came across this beautiful poem today through mail. Thought it will be good to have it on my blog since i intend to post my thoughts on success and our pursuit of excellence.

That's Success!
By Berton Braley

It's doing your job the best you can,
And being just to your fellow man;
It's making money - but holding friends,
And being true to your aims and ends.
It's figuring how and learning why,
And looking forward and thinking high;
And dreaming a little and doing much,
It's keeping always in closest touch.
With what is finest in word and deed,
It's being thorough, yet making speed;
It's daring blithely the field of chance,
While making labour a brave romance.
It's going onward despite defeat,
And fighting staunchly, but keeping sweet;
It's being clean and it's playing fair,
It's laughing lightly at Dame Despair.
It's looking up at ! the stars above ,
And drinking deeply of life and love;
It's struggling on with the will to win,
But taking loss with a cheerful grin.
It's sharing sorrow and work and mirth,
And making better this good old earth;
It's serving, striving through strain and stress,
It's doing your noblest - that's success

The below post ...

The below post on Dehradun was written when i was too sleepy. I noticed myself dozzing off while writing the post. Don't know why i pushed myself to complete the post. I haven't read it again to check whether it makes any sense. Whtevr it is let it be the way it is.

I had plans of writing few blogs during the weekend. But was caught up in shopping and setting up home on saturday and British GP , Wimbledon on sunday. I tried to make a list of it but i feel it is better to post when one is in the flow.

Yet another Dehradun trip !!

Yup, I had been to Dehradun yet again. This time around i was fortunate enough to visit Mussoorie too. I tried to convince three of my friends to take sick leave to accompany me to Mussoorie, and i was successful with one of them !, but as fate would have it i had to travel alone. Well, during the journey i became friends with the driver and we had a nice conversation through out and he narrated some of his experiences to him. It was different but it was interesting.

This time around the journed was awesome. It had rained the previous night. Early in the morning, dew drops had settled on the grass and it was reflecting the golden rays of the sun. It was a wonderful treat to the eyes. Then came the pine trees, with their long brown tree trunks and the dark green leaves and the lush green carpet around them, it was a sight worth watching. I was very much ecstatic looking at the very sight in front of my eyes. I was happy that i came to this place at the right time.

I set out in the morning at around 2:30 in a Innova. The driver was good, the road was clear and we were in Dehradun by 7 types. Then our little hunt for our little place started and instead of doing the southern leg i ended up doing the northern leg first. Well Mussoorie at 8 in the morning is a wonder by itself. At around 7000 ft above sea level, one can look at the clouds below. The mist on the green tops of the mist will play hide and seek, simply exaggerating the beauty the mountains hold.

There was a wishing well on my path. I stopped the car and looked into the well. At 6500 ft, how can one expect the well to have water within 50 ft. Guess there is some sort of an imbalance in the table.

Whtevr it was, this was one of the most wonderful short trips i had.

Pirates of Caribbean ...

Its 2 in the morning of July the 5th and i came back to my room just now. I had been to Noida to watch the third in the series of Pirates of Caribbean. I have not watched the first two parts, and the people who understand the movie would have confidently guessed by now that i wouldn'y hav understood a thing about the movie. Well their guess is bullz eye. Even though my friend had watched the earlier parts, he had difficulties in understanding the storyline of the movie. The action scenes are competing with our bollywood ones. It had been a long time since i had seen a movie with miserable and disgusting action scenes. Johnny Depp brings in some fun into a boring ordeal and Ms. Knightley breathes life into the dead souls. :) ...

Overall a movie worth avoiding.

Business in India links

http://www.ibef.org/
http://www.indiaeverywhere.com/
http://www.investmentcommission.in/
http://www.ciionline.org/ - Confederation of Indian Industry
http://www.incredibleindia.org/ - Official Tourism Website
http://www.pppinindia.com/ - Public Private Partnership
http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/
http://infochangeindia.org/

http://www.india.gov.in/ - National Portal of India
http://www.indiaimage.nic.in/
http://dipp.gov.in/ - Dept. of Commerce and Industry
http://finmin.nic.in/ - Ministry of Finance
http://www.fundoodata.com/ - Directory listing of Indian Companies

-Raghu

Brand India ...

In the 2006 Davos meet, Indians launched 'India Everywhere' Campaign. It was carried out to bring in awareness about India, the expertise of Indians to the world. The campaign was well accepted and appreciated by the people. There was indianess all around the place, with people wearing indian dresses, eating indian cuisine and dancing for indian numbers. Does this mean, the campaign was a success. Well, once could not say anything for sure. The campaing started ripples in the world, but the strength of the ripples depends on how we fare from now on.

Here is a list of few websites which are inline with the 'India Everywhere' phenomenon.

http://www.ibef.org/ - Indian Brand Equity Foundation
http://www.indiaeverywhere.com/




Check this, to find out how brand India was built in Davos.

Another week ...

The week ending today was my third week at office. I have not written much about my office in the blog. Guess its time to do so.

I work in a consulting company in Delhi. We consult for both government and private parties on infrastructure. The division i work primarily consists of people from my campus. Its kind of new in the campus with seniors from batch of 2005 and 2006 before us. I work in vertical which deals with real estate and SEZs.

My first two days in the office had gyaan sessions or induction , in office parlance. The third day i was introduced to the project. Fourth day i did some work and the next day i had the client presentation. Yes, within the first week i had a client presentation.

From then on i have been working on the same thing. Had a site visit too. Have got most of the information that i require. But it seems there is a lack of direction for me to proceed. My boss is sick and my super boss is too busy with other demanding assignments. So that leaves me all alone in a project that i don't have much idea about.

But everything said and done, the experience has been good. Yup, So far so good.

Thomas L. Friedman ...

Excerpts from Friedmans' commencement speech at Rensselaer. Check the below post.

First, What you learned in college really matters.
Second, what you learned to imagine in college matters even more.
Third, how you implement, how you implement what you imagine is going to matter most of all.

In the future, the most important competition is the one between you and your own imagination.

If it’s not happenin’, it’s because you’re not doin’ it.

“Always work like you don’t need the money, always fall in love like you’ve never been hurt, always sing like nobody’s listening and always, always live like it’s heaven on earth.”
- Mark Twain

“Tom, I know why you’re an optimist. It’s because you’re short and you can only see that part of the glass that’s half full.”

Commencement Speech

Following are few of the good commencement speeches in recent times. My friend suggested me to go through this.

The first one is by Thomas L Friedman at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.

http://www.rpi.edu/academics/commencement/address07.html

http://www.charityfocus.org/blog/view.php?id=1514

The above link is Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayan Murthy's commencement speech at the New York University ( Stern School of Business ) on May 9, 2007.

Interesting articles. Worth every second you spend on it.

Topics of interest

Currently, i am pursuing certain subjects / topics because of the interest i have in them or just to satiate my curiosity. Here they are :

Indian Emergency
History of the nation and the world
Private equity
Consultancy
Entrepreneurship
Relationship
Expectations
Sports

As you must have noticed i hav a wide range of interests. I feel that the variety just helps in shifting my thoughts and to remain sane :).
The first two are out of sheer curiosity. I got interested in emergency after i read the book 'The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, it describes what people go through and the trauma they experience in the hands of absolute anarchy. I was very much moved by what i had heard. The next day i saw 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi", a hindi movie which touches upon Indian emergency, the movie forced me do start diggin about the subject. The more i dug, the more i wanted. I wanted to know everything about it, thats the way i caught the interest.

The next three are entirely due to the education i have had and to facilitate me to make most of my life.

The next two have kept me busy when i am all alone, in the last two-three years. I still don't know how to handle , to react, to respond to these. I guess i am better now than what i was.. but it is still not up to the mark. Whats the mark, i don;t know that too.

Sports are my passion... they were before.. they will still be for a long time to come... i have to start playin squash and find a track to run... i want to take part in the marathon again... i like swimmin a lot.. with the current weather.. it will be awesome to swim in the mornin... got to find a place to play and to swim .. to relive the best days again.. :) ..

Heaven of Freedom

I came across this master piece from Rabindranath Tagore in the book "IT happened in India" by Kishore Biyani, the pantaloon chief. This verse has so much of meaning and it is still apt in todays life too. Once you go through the verse , you just cant help but ponder .

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free..
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

My 50th Post

Well after 3 yrs of on and off flirting with my blog... i have reached a milestone ... as the subject says this is my 50th post... i wanted to publish something else but i happened to notice that i had made 49 posts till date... i think this week has got something to do with numbers... this week is supposed to be the 25th week of the year ( well it happens once every yr too ).. and "The Week" magazine had published some 25 unsolved mysteries of india in the past 25 yrs ... and "India Today" had a cover story on the nation in the past 60 yrs.. so with me readin all this stugg.. i culdn't resist the temptation to contribute one from my side to the number game... and here it goes my 50th post .... :)

Dehradun Trip

Yup, I had been to dehradun on Thursday... well it was a one day trip and i could not go to mussoorie. It was not a leisure trip but a business trip. As a consultant one has to visit very good places for totally different reasons.

I always Dehradun was a hill station, somewhere in northern India. For me all the hill stations shimla, nainital, darjeeling, mussoorie etc.. is a pack of places which are up there in some part of north india, which is a night journey from Delhi. Before i moved to Delhi, i had made plans to visit all these places during my stay along with my friends. But i did not the opportunity is going to come so soon. Here i went to Dehradun, to get a relief from the scorching heat of Delhi.

The drive was good, since the roads are much better, with hardly any traffic at 4 in the morning. Its a straight road that goes on and on. It had rained in Delhi few days back, as a result of which, the land on either side of the road were covered with lush green grass. Early morning, when you are driving towards the east, u see the orange sun in ur eyes and the light is somewhat different. One can see the rays passing through the fully grown trees with the dew drops reflecting whatever light that falls on them, on a long black road with green grass on either side... thats a scene worth watchin and one cannot help if one's mind drifts away and appreciate the beauty of nature.

As we stopped for a tea break, i read the address of the hotel and behold i was on the grand trunk road. The road which i had read about in my history books. Suddenly the name Sher Shah Suri came to my mind, then Akbar, my history lesson, the teacher who taught me history and the friends i had during that time. All of sudden, i became nostalgic. Its a interesting phenomenon.. when minor things trigger a chain of thoughts and those thoughts touch upon one's feelings.

Reached Dehradun at 9. It is not the place i expected to be. The weather is more or less similar to Delhi. It is highly crowded. Narrow roads and it is too commercialised. Guess, capitalhood has harmed the place. After a day in Dehradun, i felt my hometown Bangalore is much much better. Alas i left the garden city and came to delhi for work. When rest of India moves towards Bangalore, i moved away from it. People say it helps to swim against the tide, well i am sure that they didn't have this in mind when they said that.

The return journey was terrible. I had a stomach upset due to the lunch i had. I slept through the return journey, no more thoughts, no reflections. It was a simple drive back home. Reached Delhi at 1.

Thats the end of my Dehradun trip. Fascinating and interesting. I will be visitin it again very soon.

Delhi !!

Yup... i am in Delhi now... after 2 wonderful months in Bangalore... i came to Delhi to start working after my MBA ... i am not of that types.. who keeps their fingers crossed, with butterflies in stomach before they embark on a new journey...

Well i knew that Delhi was hot... but i didn't expect wht i had to bear whn i landed at the IGI Airport... i boarded the flight in blore in the mornin of 9th June, the temp. read 22 C .. thanks to the showers the previous nite... i landed in Delhi.. and the thermometer was screamin at 49.5 C.. for someone who has spent their entire lifetime in Blore... 49.5C is like an oven... i felt i was fried... the hot blasts of air didn't ease the situation a bit.... i didnt know how i would survive in a place like this...

the newspapers next day made my life a bit bearable... as per them the previous day's temp. was the highest recorded in delhi in the past decade... it didn't mean nethin... but only respite was that i hav experienced the worst and whtevr will happen now will only be for the better...
did u call me an optimist?? ... well .. i dont hav ne options u c... :) ...

The pursuit ....

Today, I had a discussion with a very close friend of mine, Bhushan. It was about '****** is the end of the world'. It all started when i saw those tense faces with hands trembling, knucle breaking, sweaty palms.... ppl put in so much of fite for this particular thing.. and if things do not turn out the way they want it to.. they will not be able to accept the situation.
I am a strong believer in the process.. for me the means are important than the end... i will enjoy the pursuit more than the outcome of it... therefore i never get tensed under these conditions.... but what i learnt today was that... this attitude of mine has costed me dearly... i hav lost the passion , the drive to do achieve things... i get satisfied very easily... i never put major fite .. i think i used to do it once upon time... but recently never... the sense of satisfaction is absent.. even though in the long run it does not mean anything....

the point here is , it is just the means or the ends that matter... what matters the most is the combination of the two....

My LL story

I finally managed to find time to get my learner's license for a LMV. The last time i had been to the RTO they rejected my application since i didn't have the proper proofs about my residence. Well, they didn't accept my college id card as a proof for my DOB and my 2-wheeler license even though both of them had used the same proof.

This time the setting was different. It was not in the RTO, but in a place called WIAA, don't know what it stands for, but u can get licenses from here. I had all the required documents, i filled up the form and was waiting in the queue admiring the picture of the handsome man on my form :) . i got my number and sat in a corner waiting to take the test. I had a book with me and started reading it. The choice was bad, it was a heavy book. Since i had nothing else to do i continued reading. I could see others in the room mugging away to glory to clear the LL test. The criteria to clear the test is to score 11 right answers out of 15 questions. I felt 4 wrong answers on a traffic test is too liberal, and i felt passing criteria should be 15 on 15. Well, how difficult can a LL test be.

When my turn came, i walked in and paid the fee. Went into the biometrics sectio, got my photo clicked, gave my thumb impressions for the first time along with a digital signature. The system was smooth and well organised and automated. Then it was time for the test.

It was an objective test and one had to choose 1 out of 3 options. I sat in front of the comp with confidence sky high. The insrtuctor was explaining to me how to use the comp, i didn't listen to him and started taking the test. To my disbelief i got the first 2 questions wrong, one was on identifying a HTV through a license plate (?) and another one was punishment for blocking traffic ( ans is supposedly revoking the license ). I came back to all my senses, my 15 on 15 saga had vanished and i was trying hard to clear the test. The next ten Qs were a cake walk since i got all of them right. The thirteenth one i was hasty enough to choose hospital for a plus sign instead of a first aid box. The challenge had come down to the last 2 questions. The 14th Q was a blinder, what is the punishment for illegal parking, due to my experience with the second Q , i didn't click on " the driver will be fined" but i chose cancelling license and behold that was the right answer. All my miseries were put an end with Congratulations flashing on the screen. At last i was able to get my hands on my LL, i crosschecked and left the office as soon as possible. It was one hell of an experience.

My Bombay trip ...

Ahd (20/01/07 - 5 am ) - CST - Bandra Reclaimation - Andheri (W) - Matunga - Wadala - Azad Maidan - Dombivali - Dadar - Andheri - Bandra - Bandstand - Borivali - Kandivali - Andheri (E) - Santa Cruz - Mulund - Vile Parle - Ahd (23/01/07 - 2 pm)

These are the places i visited in the last four days... started from Ahd on 20th Jan returned on 23 rd Jan... tasting the delicacies of Mumbai. Started off with Dinner at Matunga, followed Shell fish food in Dombivali then the chicken biryani at the Hersche bakery , Dosa from Andheri ,then the gujju food in Mulund... It has been one of the big time hogging long weekends i ever had... i hogged like crazy.. hogged like mad... hogged whtevr i culd lay my hands on... blurp !!!

Few more quotes on running ..

was browsing for some quotes on running, came across a few....

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." - Inspirational sign on a runner's office wall

"Out of the silver heat mirage he ran. The sky burned, and under him the paving was a black mirror reflecting sun-fire. Sweat sprayed his skin with each foot strike so that he ran in a hot mist of his own creation. With each slap on the softened asphalt, his soles absorbed heat that rose through his arches and ankles and the stems of his shins. It was acarnival of pain, but he loved each stride because running distilled him to his essence and the heat hastened this distillation." - James Tabor, from "The Runner," a short story

"I like running because it's a challenge. If you run hard, there's the pain - and you've got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is? Don't overdo it' and? Don't push yourself.' Well, I think that's a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond." - Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager, NHL Hall of Fame.

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys." - Emil Zatopek

"It's elevating and humbling at the same time. Running along a beach at sunrise with no other footprints in the sand, you realize the vastness of creation, your own insignificant space in the plan, how tiny you really are, your own creatureliness and how much you owe to the supreme body, the God that brought all this beauty and harmony into being." - Sister Marion Irvine, 2:51 PR and 1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going." - George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian

"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." - Steve Prefontaine

"Once you're beat mentally, you might was well not even go to the starting line." -Todd Williams

"Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when the awareness comes, it is excruciating." - John Farrington, Australian marathoner

The week has come .....

After a gruelling four month long practise session, we have arrived at the last week of our training schedule. Three days from now we will be running the StanC mumbai marathon. We followed the training schedule religously for the first 3 months, then came the term break and all hell broke lose. We had injuries with our runners, thank god me and Paro were spared from it. Then we hit on our busy schedule and couldn't find time to carry on with our training. Its not just lack of time, at times we were lazy too. I remember myself frauding one day, so that i could get a couple of hrs of sleep. Eventually i was christened FFG for my act.

With ppl coming back from injuiry we resumed our marathon practise only to realise that our body had relaxed a bit too much. We had lost our running ways - the stamina was gone, the pace was lost and so was the morale. Fighters we are, we pushed ourselves more and more till couple of them got injuired. It forced us to reduce our training schedule to such an extent that we couldn't run the 32 kms part of training.

The maximum i have done is 27 kms at a stretch as of now. I need to carry this to 42.2 kms. A mere thought of it makes my mind go bonkers. Will i feel i will be able to do it, atleast crawling the last few kms :) . Not sure about the weather though, most of our runs were late in the night at around 1 am - 4 am. In the actual run we have to bear the Mumbai afternoon sun and the hard surface of the road.

All i hope is that we go in one piece and come back in one peace, completing the marathon.

Runnin post ..

got a couple of quotes on runnin...


" I ran and ran every day, and I acquired a sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never, give up, no matter what else happened."- Wilma Rudolph


Run with me, Run for the year
Run for the laughter, Run for the tear
Run with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
- Adapted from "Dream On" - Aerosmith

India Poised

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