A bit of a stretch

It was 2001 when a 55 year old co-worker then, sowed the first seeds of running long distances in my mind. He was a regular Marathon runner back then. My inspiration at that time, he, when I got to know him, had already run 4 or 5 marathons. During the one year I shared my office space with him, I can’t recall a single day, where he didn’t get to work at 7:30 AM without having gone out for a 5 mile run in the morning. Never during the next few months did I believe that I could run a marathon although I did fancy running more than 5 miles at a stretch. Once I moved out of that work place, I never got to work with someone who was so passionate about running with so much consistency and hence my fancy remained – well just fancy.
10 years later – after I picked up running a little more seriously towards the end of this past winter season in 2010-11, I suddenly felt an urge to run a half marathon, thanks largely to some friends on Facebook.
Then in August, I decided I would start training for the Detroit Half Marathon (scheduled for Oct 16, 2011) seriously. But since I never ran more than 3 miles at a stretch, I did not register for the event till the middle of September. As my fortunes would have it, by the time I decided to register they were sold out.

May be that was an ego blow. So in exactly 3 weeks time – without much training, I decided to run the Concord, MI marathon on Oct 9. I was running 3 miles, then 5, then 7, then 10 and then 11 as part of training, before finally running the 13.1 mile stretch on the event day for the first time. My timing was 2 hours 28 minutes.

The satisfaction I got right as I crossed the finish line couldn’t be expressed.
Looking back, I got to say that the Concord marathon was a better choice for me. About 10 miles in the 13.1 mile stretch was on a nature trail and I don’t think running on the Detroit streets would actually have been any better or easier.  A bit a stretch that would have been manageable nevertheless.

புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள் (Tamil New year Wishes..)

தை பொங்கல் பொங்கலே…சித்திரை முதல் நாள் தமிழ் புத்தாண்டே..
மாற்றுவது மடமையென்றால்..மாற்றச்சொல்லி வற்புறுத்துவது…??

Wishes

Well..what can I say – A crazy 12 day vacation – worth every minute – Kinda forced me to stay away from my blog.
But hey, I don’t get to go to Egypt every year! Will write more about it later.
For now, let us do the customary toast and wish each other a Happy New Year!
Cheers wherever you are…and Let Peace be wherever you are!

Twitterdom and Twitterdee

I think it is more of a thrill than any real purpose at this point. But as you can see to your right – I have decided to collect my mumbo jumbo thoughts even more on a regular basis…It is worth only my ego and nothing more – at least for now.

The Difference….

I peer through my window. I see a well designed parapet wall that is approximately 2 ft. tall made with red bricks. The grass is still green, at least right outside my window. It is certainly green for the temperature we are having here (80+)..May be the tall trees and the heavy trunks of the trees around the building are ensuring that there is enough shade. Like they are protective and possessive of the grass that are beneath them. Like they feel they can do that because they are the only ones who are responsible. The protective big brothers who are physically stronger than their younger siblings. They always want the best for the younger ones in the family. Or so do they think..!

Talking about thinking (ha..the vagaries of the language), we had an interesting discussion in one of our team meetings, today – “Issue based thinking” was a topic that was thrown at a bunch of sales guys, who have had no consulting experience or any scientific experience for that matter. Needless to say, the meeting was mostly a one way street – as the person who proposed the topic, ended up explaining what the topic meant and that pretty much took care of the time we had..

The time difference between Phelps and his fellow swimmer Cavic, who wore a silver medal instead of a gold, which he thought he had it, till about the last 2 seconds, before the giant arms of Phelps touched the timing pad sooner than his did, was 1/100th of a second. That was absolutely incredible and absolutely out of the world. A feat that can only be matched by another remarkable athlete who may not be born yet.

As random thoughts are born in my head, my blogging mind starts itching, but my other minds hold me from giving in, because I certainly have other tasks of higher priority during the course of the day – like driving to work. Of late, I get the best topics to blog about when I am on the road. Unfortunately, by the time I make it to work, they are lost.

Lost indeed the average American voter still is and that is why the 800 year old Republican Presidential nominee still has hopes of pulling a surprise. It is totally bizarre to notice how simple an average American voter’s mind is – It cannot process complicated pieces of information and analyze them together in the context, before making a judgment. And when it comes to military, it is fascinatingly annoying to see how easily that mind can get carried away.
An ex-military man is always better to be a President of the country than anyone else? Go Figure….

Where are on earth can you find this belief so strongly etched to the voters minds other than certain dictatorial countries…? To me, it is not democratic at all – It is not democratic to throw seeds of fear in the minds of vulnerable voters, about your opponent’s capabilities, in order to prove your credentials to be the President.

It is plain exploitative and definitely dictatorial.

New Year Greetings..

For some strange reason, the new year’s eve simply has been another day, another evening and another night for me, the past 3 years. I was not with my family last December 31. But I had the pleasure of at least getting back to my hotel before mid night…to watch the clock tick past 12 all alone from my bed. And today has been a quiet day as well. Very laid back, reminiscing over the year that just went by and generally thinking about an exciting new year.

But the fact remains that a new year certainly marks a new beginning – how much ever symbolic it may be, how much ever virtual it may be..There is something in your mind that is excited to receive the new year while being sad to let go of the old one, at the same time.

Resolutions? – I don’t make any..Don’t know why. But just don’t believe in making resolutions on Jan 1!

Happy New year folks!

Roll over that judgement

A wintry morning, freezing rain, near death visibility and a car that wouldn’t be my first choice to drive under these conditions – all these were behind me, as I drove to work this morning. And I got to admit, I listened to one of the most disgusting & “unacceptable” news items in the recent past..

I cannot fathom and muster any kind of irrational courage, to even try to get on the same plane as this woman jude’s plane of thinking. How can a 10 year old girl, race and traditional values inconsequential here, agree to a gang rape? Let us say, the girl actually said yes – common you horny old men, let’s do it..do you actually consider that consensual? That too, In this day and age..?
Clearly white Australia lives in a different era and still that is not an excuse. Isn’t what they have done to the aboriginal race enough already?
What kind of gene makes one a racist? Or is it simply how one is honed to think??
You can read a version of this news item here.

At least the political white Australia has condemned the judgement, if it is any consolation. The new prime minister, whoever it is, has come out and said he felt disgusted too. Great! The prosecutor is not happy that he couldn’t win his case – well..may be, he is also an apologetic white Australian. Now, as I googled through Aboriginal rape, I found a whole disk load of news items talking about the prevailing lenient laws, particularly when it comes to aborigines who are underaged – in true earthly terms. I saw another judgment passed 5 years ago acquitting an old man for raping a 5 year old girl (for ozzies’ sake, 5 years…!!) and calling it a tradition. The agenda to slowly wipe out a race is still in the forefront of many Queenslanders’ political & social outlook, from what I read here and there. And to think, we are in the 21st century where the world has come into terms with certain inhumane acts, is plain stupidity. I have never been to Australia and barring some pictures and video clips, I have not seen any aborigines. But that just makes me feel really strong about this issue and how the rest of the white Australia should bull doze over the north Queensland judge’s home and make her feel for the rest of her life for what she had done. And to the say debate will continue, is not healthy – the debate should end right now and the prime minister of Australia, whoever it is, should weild his statesmanship power to pass a ruling that wouldn’t give exemptions to anyone – be it a blonde Victorian beach volleyball-ist or be it a north Queenslander, who lives in a remote village with no access to modernity.

Roll over the judgement Australia..Will you?

Views Round-up

** The parochial reactions to this 50 something teacher, who meant no harm to any religion in particular and a very similar outburst by Hindu Munnani, to an unintentional innocent act by Kushboo, are unfortunate and repugnant acts in today’s increasingly fanatical socio-political scenario. To make a judgment call on these is pretty easy if you are very objective about it. But if you are not, how can you see where the central point of view is?

** The ’08 US presidential elections seem long over – but the fact is, they are just getting started. What do they know about voter fatigue? The candidate fray on either side looks like a mini flea market. I am not as enthused about it as I was with the past 2 elections. May be I know better now, as to what I can expect of American politicians. And hence, the line-up on both sides to me look too artificial and their views look absolutely made up.

** I did pick up a few CDs and DVDs in Chennai and Hyderabad. The landmark store in the “Chennai City Center” needs a little bit of staff help, to arrange their CD and DVD collection in a categorical way. Nevertheless, their collection was decent with one complaint – There wasn’t much of what I call “Old music” collection.

Dream Life

So my friend and I have always talked about taking a sabbatical from the rotten pits of the daily corporate life. Well, not exactly – we do enjoy our corporate careers in a way. After all, it pays our bills. But the fact that there are complete fallacies in this incomplete career world, constantly make us sing the song of severance.

“What do you want to do?” I was as objective as could be.

“I think I just want to travel to Tierra Del Fuego and spend a few months there”, he said unassumingly.

Now that was an option I never considered even in my wildest “Verne”-ian dreams.

“Well..may be I will start my one year world tour with a two week trip to Japan to absorb some of its ‘shijou’…and then move on to South Asia…you know..it will be kinda neat to be traveling with no plans. I do however want to end up in Tierra Del Fuego”, he continued as enthusiastic as an Apple fan who just got the first iPhone.

“Hmmm..yeah..that will be kinda neat..”, I muttered the best response I could gather in 2 seconds.

“Great”..

An unplanned silence filled the room which otherwise was reverberating with world travel jives.

“What about your sustenance?” I threw the question out there.

“I have saved for this trip for years…I knew what I would be getting into”, he said quietly.

I could see his eyes rolling over his bank balance in a sort of an imaginary way. He seemed satisfied…or may be his eyes swirled a bit to ensure that the numbers were still ok with the inflation.

In my mind, there were gazillion little thoughts that fluttered through. If I can be slapdash here and just type them as incoherently as my mind processed it…

“Wish I can do it”

“Oh..yeah”

“That’s what I want to do”

“Hmm..lucky guy”

“I am jealous”

“Tierra Del Fuego – Is it in Argentina or Chile..? Actually both”

“Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku and ????”

“How many direct flights are there from Detroit to Tokyo?”

“It is impossible for me to do it – Because If I have to do this, I have to do it with my wife and son”

“Mmmm..Wasabi”

“I wish I had learnt Spanish”

“Global warming – sucks – damn republicans!”

“Are you alright”? my friend interrupted my chain of thoughts.

“Absolutely, I was just going through the list of places I would like to visit.”

“Really, Can you share that with me?”

“Yeah..yeah..sure..sure..”, I was taking some time to collect my thoughts again knowing very well, the list is there but is not filled.

“Let’s see – Egypt, Greece, Spain, Eastern Europe, SE Asia, China, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Morocco, Congo, S Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and the whole Amazon belt..and may be central America – and…of course, Australia and New Zealand”, I paused.

“Wow..you know I have been to almost half of these places in your list”, he was clearly being boorish.

“Really”, once again..the best response I could gather in 2 seconds.

“That’s impressive”, I continued giving him the space to glow in pride and giving me the space to hide my disappointment.

“So when do you think you can take the sabbatical? Have you talked to your boss?” – at this point, I was hoping to get out of the conversation because I felt so low and so down.

“I am hoping I can take my flight to Tokyo next month”, he was confident.

“Great!”

“So what about you? You have always wanted to take a sabbatical too. What would you do?

“Hmm..you know I would have liked to do some travel like you..but now that I am thinking about it, with all the stuff I am in the middle of, I don’t think I can do it”

“What?” he was puzzled.

“I like the idea you see..I would love to have the freedom and not worry about my job everyday”, I confessed ..”but don’t think I will ever be able to do this at this point of my career”

“Hmmm”

There ended that conversation by the coffee kabana that day. The thought continues to linger.

“Trrring…Trring…” – the alarm goes off and I hit the snooze.

It was a frightening dream in some ways. A dream, that stretched my subconscious thoughts. But the friend in my dream is not fictional. Well, he may not exactly go to Antarctica but is definitely on his way out to live his dream life. And no, I am not jealous.

Filler nibblets

• Watched “The Order of the Phoenix” recently – a very good movie if you follow the story and know the context. Not so, if this is your first Harry Potter movie..Thought the emotional bridge between some key characters were missing – but again, if you know the story, then it becomes implicit. I agree it is a challenge. But I personally would have preferred a 3 hour movie (instead of 2:18) giving more reels for the director to nibble with…
• I don’t know why I am writing about Gordon Brown – but it turns out that he is playing it safe for now, when it comes to maintaining the “sucking up to the US” policy. Shamefully unglamorous and quite stooping…
• Bridges of the Country – It was last Wednesday and I heard the news on CNN – shock, lumps of sorrow and plain sympathy – those were all my emotions. I saw the two adopted Colombian daughters of the 60 year old mom, who was driving home early from work to help the daughters with the graduation party preparations, the evening before they confirmed her death. Hope in Despair – Alas!
• Test cricket – Didn’t quite follow the jelly bean incident till after the test match was over. I am glad the Indian boys are not taking such profane handling by white cricketers with their faces down – in fact, they are trying to give back in some sorts…
• Summer – It is August already and this only means, in the polar regions of Michigan, we have got about one more month of good summer weather…Hmm..What is plan B?