Thursday, October 16, 2008

Eating like a pig

its been some time. Not enough exercise and still enough time on my hands. What it does to me is that I eat like a pig. on top of that, i have been running only on weekends. Its time to take out my benchmark trouser and to see if I need to cut down my weight or my diet.

by the way exciting times these are. With so many interesting happenings going around the world and so much discussions
around the same a couple of things which caught my attention:

1. The power shift from customers to global phenomenon

Friedman has once again pointed it out. Though I have not gone through his latest book yet still the logic is kind of good. The world has to change its consumption patter. The americans wanted heated pools, big cards bigger houses so theyve been overspending for last 25 years and thus leading to so many things. not only them but also the europeans.

So now we have the financial crisis which has wiped off so much wealth from our planet. Add to it the problems of weather change, global warming, plastic pollution, oil issues (i dont whats gonna happen when the middle east would no longer earn all those petro dollers. Those guys dont work. Expats work for them. Once they leave is middle east going to turn into another pakistan

so the point is that so far CONSUMER was the king but is he any longer? More and more attention is directed towards issues like global warming and other such phenomenon. It is predicted that companies who can work along these lines will be the ones who will make millions.

2. They say that the race of men was born with a hole in his heart - from Hell Boy 2.

How true. There can be no limit to a man's desire, his ambitions. He would always want a bigger better deal. When I say man I mean women as well. May be they have bigger. So when people these days talk about end of capitalism they are wrong may be. Come whatever may we will still be greedy.

May be thats the reason why all our ancient literature says that "karm karo fal ki wish nahi" or that "turn away from material things" etc etc. A rather futile attempt to stop us from destroying the planet.

3. Jet airways sacked 1900 pretty girls and smart boys

Now that old guy Mallaya wants a bail out. Bail out! what for? Hes been blowing money to get F1 glamour. His yachts are some of the most expensive in the world. And he wants a bail out for the shareholders.

Not very long back the government bailed out farmers and there were articles in ET and BS over how it is so harmful. Well I understand Airline industry goes bankrupt every few years and then it needs a bailout. See if no aviation then so much less productivity so its in interest of Govt to bail it out.

But then its also the duty of the Govt. to bail out farmers. Then some will say that only rich farmers get bailed out. Well then only rich Ibankers and rich shareholders like Mallaya gets bailed out

4. There are only two kind of political positions: I WIN and I LOOSE. Same pretty girls and smart boys 10 days back were calling MNS and Raj thakrey names. After theyve been sacked (poor guys no doubt) they want his help and how!

Thats how kingship came into being. I may be a bad guy but i will protect you and even otherwise you have no option. So there was the king. And since he owned the historians they wrote all goods things about him.

Exciting times these are indeed.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Stok Kangri

It was 1:00 am. at 4900 meters it was freezing cold. I got up after 3 hours of sleep in the oxygen depraved dry heights of the Laddakh himalayas. It took me some time to get out of the bag and put on my trekking shoes. I had already packed my bag with the essentials i thought i would need on the summit attempt. headlamp, a water bottle, extra socks and gloves and some chocolates.

air outside was as dry and cold as it could get. I could see some movement around the base camp. There were two groups of trekkers with their head lamps on and moving around the camp site. I moved to our kitchen tent and had a cup of tea. didnt feel like eating much at the odd hour. Norbu and mutuk, our guide and helper were ready with their backpacks.

it was pitch dark and i could only see the next few feets of the trail which was as steep as 30-4o degrees in places. the first part of the trail was only about 500 meters in distance but it took trekkers about 40 minutes to ascent. After 40 minutes on the trail, I was at around 5100 meters. I looked at the sky and could see countless stars. The pole star was as bright as a head lamp. Infact for sometime i confused it with a trekker standing on the ridge. I felt the lack of oxygen and had to stop after every 2 minutes. When i stopped, it got cold. it turned my fingers blue and toes numb. I took off my gloves and had a look at fingers. they were in pretty bad shape. the nails had turned purple and i could hardly move my fingers. I had borrowed some cool looking gloves from our trekking agency but they werent working. I tried my 300 rs mitts i had bought for Goecha La and they didnt work either. It felt like shit. The guide told me that the advanced base camp was about 1.5 hours away. I started moving again but only to stop every two minutes to get some air.

At that point of time, I could think of nothing else but the trail in front of me and my ears which were paining from cold. I wanted to touch my nose tip and my ears to reassure myself that they were still there. It must have been below -10 degrees. Last i experienced such extreme weather was in Narkanada but then i was in my hotel room. under a blanket and multi layer clothing. Here it was 3 in the morning and i was on an exposed section of the ridge. I was pretty confident of my Nike ACG shoes but soon I realized that they wernt meant for this temperature. I couldnt feel my toes. The advance base camp was visible now and so was the glacier which was to be crossed to start the final summit push. Howver when i reached the base camp, I had given up. I tried asking the guide if I could get some tea in the advanced base camp but guess what....I had frozen lips. Couldnt speak properly. I guess that was it. I thought may be next time with better and warmer gear. Once i was inside a kitchen camp, it was then difficult to get up and walk again. That was the end of my summit push.

However once i was down to the base camp i did think if i could have pushed a little more. may be another 2 hours and there would be sun and the temperature will be fine. buts whats the point. when i turned back all i could think was that i cant speak and its so fu*****g cold. never mind i have started finding authentic mountain gear and next time next season i hope to finish what we couldnt do this time.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The last road trip - part 3

it was around 3 pm when we stopped for lunch. With me and Bansal at the dhaba, babbar and cheeta j went off to find some service station to get the brake shoe repaired. I have done my last few trips in great discomfort. Goecha La, trip to sangla ....But the best part abt that was that I didnt get much to eat. And I tell you, it keeps you good. You eat less and everything goes ok including the natures call. right time everytime. However on this last road trip, with some excellent company, I found it difficult to avoid . So we had our good heavy lunch and by that time it was already 4 pm. We were to reach manali only by night around 9. Didnt matter much as anyways towns like manali and shimla are overcrowded during day time.

John by this time was feeling itchy and wanted to drive. However the leader of the group Mr. Aditya Babbar told him clearly that before he was to drive he was to do the other important things like cleaning the windscreen and refilling water bottles on the way. We crossed Kullu and it was getting dark around that time. We didnt stop in Kullu otherwise if its daytime, there are some nice riverside eating joints where you can dip your feet in water and have stuff to eat. Even otherwise I found Kullu more scenic than Manali. And yes did I mention the mandi to kullu 3km long tunnel. Theyve built this recently and i dont know how much distance is shortened by this piece of art but it surely is good. The long hollows amplify vehicle noise and make even 100cc hero hondas sound like the 1000cc monsters. There are stopover spaces along the road in the tunnel and though we didnt stop i think one should and be there for some time. The air though is loaded with exhaust fumes.














Its always easy to drive on hills at night. Easy to see the incoming light beams. But yeah you miss out on the route. Drive after that was nothing great good roads again and nothing interesting or exciting really. Bansal was experimenting with his sunglasses and found that it actually is better wearing them at night as they reduce glare and somehow improve visibility. How and why nobody could explain...

We reached manali at around 9:00 that meant we were on road for almost 15 hours which included some stops for food and drinks. But a good long day one and soon we were looking for a hotel to stay overnight. we planned to leave early at around 6:00.

I have always failed to understand that why is there a mall road in every hill station. Its plain junk I feel and a place for fat kids to have ice creams with their moms and papas shopping around. I mean why would you want to go to manali and shop. Kharab aadat jaati nahi logon ki.

We went out for food at around 10:30 after moving everything in the hotel room. And I was surprised to see people taking a stroll on mall road even at that time. We tried to have dinner at one of the many shere - shane - jashne punjab dhabas which are everywhere but to our bad luck none of them were willing to offer 4 highest level intellectuals a place to eat. Everytime we found an empty table, it was promptly given to someone else. Feeling rejected and dejected we searched for another restaurant and had out dinner.

John is happy that he got dinner that day. Babbar had told him at the start of the trip that we may not have get good food during the entire trip as he wouldnt want to stop driving. Here in this pic you can see that someone looks tired. The blue baniyan is no more.














Manali's Mall road at night. Though we couldnt see too much of mall ;-) I dont why do they call it Mall then





























By the time we had dinner and went back to the hotel it was already 12:00 we decided to get up early at around 5 which meant I had to get up at around 4:30. Though we didnt get to sleep much but it was my soundest sleep after ages. I slept like a log and felt fresh in the morning.

Its always a pain to put everything back into the vehicle after each night. But the entusiastic Cheeta John came to our rescue again and to get into the good books of the leader of the group... he did all that and sundry. Ready to go, our next stop was sarchu at 4200 mts. Around midway between leh and manali. First stop for us was going to be the Rohtang pass. At around 4000 mts I had heard a lot about Rohtang and we were kinda looking forward to our first high pass.

Yes about the weather, it was raining and the roads were mud and water enroute. This and earlier was usual stuff. However we were to see mountains which were rock and gravel in the days to come and we were quite looking forward to all that............

To be contd.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The last road trip - part 2

It was around 6 in the morning when we started from Delhi. I caught up with the rest of the group at Rajghat and was pleasantly surprised to see a gypsy packed hexagonally with stuff and people. I was given the King size back seat which was luxury in the beginning but turned nightmarish towards end of the trip. How and why? We were to find out soon.

Well I dont really think that I should be writing about what stuff we packed for our trip. there are so many other places on internet and I am dead sure that when someone is seriously planning a leh trip he will find that information. so no point in reinventing the wheel and helping people with information doesnt really excite me. I realize i am not really one of the connectors from 'BLINK'. And besides that I feel that if you want all cooked information you are one lazy ass.

No hardships mean no fun. Simple. Something wrong should happen. Something unexpected unanticipated. I was just reading about death of 11 climbers on K2 and thinking what would I think or do or miss or remember if I am somewhere where there is a 50:50 chance of being on the right side of the mountain or the wrong. Life and death. Sure that would be exciting. At least from a distance :-) And I am sure if I keep on making the 10s of plans which i usually do I will end up in that kinda situation some day.

I was really impressed with John. First impressions. Never wrong :-).

Cheeta J (on way to delhi karnal bypass): Hi hitesh? How are you yaar?Main John. Kya karta hai?
Hitesh: Kuch nahi karta yaar
Cheeta J: Sahi hai. Aur kya karta hai

anyways thats how we started. I think after about two hours someone asked ki kitni der ho gayi hai and we couldnt help saying "bhai aaraam se raho abhi bahut hai bahut gari chalani hai"

One thing which was central to the trip was driving. Since it was supposed to be a driving trip essentially and Cheeta J and B forced Babbar on the trip they wanted the lions share of the driving pleasures. After multiple repeated assurances by both me and babbar they finally agreed to drive when its the toughest. While coming back and on the mountains so both of us had to share the boring task of driving through 250km of tarmac on a humid cloudy summer day with a constant verbal attack from behind our seats. John was at it. and bansal watched :-). All kind of permutations and combinatorial calculations were going on in Cheeta B's mind. Of the total trip length how much will he drive? We again assured everyone that on such a long drive....its not a question of if but that of a when.

Till chandigarh it is plain jane boring and just a drive and even thats not tough. You keep the steering and the speed at 90 and thats it. well yeah our gypsy had a special feature. it couldnt cross 90. but its not meant for that. we were to appreciate its ruggedness high on the mountains and through streams and rocks.

first stop came at karnal where we had some paranthas and butter. The moment we parked the gypsy out came john and out came his camera. John is quite natural at photography. And he handles his camera with care. It is carefully wrapped in a yellow sheet of polythene and then again in a poly bag and then nicely snugged in the camera case with a velcro hold to secure it. (actually reminds me of the scrap book vinay has in the movie Bheja fry. wrapped in the yellow polythene bag). After making an effort to get the camera out in minutes when finally you see the pic.....aha ah aha its worth it.

Hes even got a filter and a protective cover on the camera which makes it look like a mini canon.

Babbar: Abe itne bare camera se to yahin se dikh jayega leh laddakh
Cheeta J: Nahi yaar aaj clouds bahut hain

We started off after a decently heavy breakfast and by this time John had shot what not! fan, water bottle, all the singh kings around and what not. Give him a camera and he will miss boarding a plane to shoot. Marvelous.

Nothing not routine happened till we crossed chandigarh and even after we crossed chandigarh nothing non routine happened. We took a short break once we crossed chandigarh and decided to have some snacks (fried, oily stuff) and beer besides a lush green yellow summer field. Yeh Beer mujhe kabhi pasand nahi aayi. I always drink it to confirm that I still dont like it.

Below you can see john shooting something. Hes got an eye for even a non-existing detail. The time john spent on shooting bags and sundry...I could have done a photoshoot of Katerina Kaif in the same time.














Cheeta J and B and countryside

































Babbar, me and John after a beer each. Not that we looked different before the beer but mind it there was going to be a difference soon. It always begins like this. Enthu, smiles, beers and jokes and then there is panting, cribbing, hunger pangs but no good food, and more and more endless driving. Thats actually the fun part. Notice the BLUE BANIYAN here.

Next few hours were non descript boring kms just 100kms short of manali. The hill driving part starts with bilaspur. the roads in this part of the himalayas are better than the higways. you can drive at 90 with a power steering. that was when Babbar woke up from his sleep and took the wheels. Now Babbar is not one of your ordinary drivers. He is gonna take part in the Tour De Himalayas sometime in september and guess who will be the navigator and the cleaner and the parking boy......the award goes to Cheeta J. So goes without saying Babbar likes to give a tough time to his gypsy at times and that exactly what he did for about 15 minutes.

What we had after 15 minutes was smell of burning brake shoe,john hanging from the door handle and all the non-drivers looking at each other with relief. Not that babbar was not going to drive slow because the rest 3 of us didnt appreciate it that much but because we had a break shoe problem (potential) even before our real trip started and babbar couldnt drive fast now.

to be contd.......

Monday, August 11, 2008

The last road trip

4 guys of highest possible intellectual level group together and plan a gypsy safari to Leh and laddakh. I knew from the beginning (i cant believe i didnt know that there is a nn in beginning. i havnt checked the dictionary still. trust mozilla. that tells me why i got those exceptional scores in english during school) that it was not going to be a picnic. none of my last few trips have been picnic style. A normal trip is much harder. I mean frankly i dont know what to do on a normal trip. see things? that hardly takes a look. what else. See all the four intellectuals are single these days so the trip had to has its share of unexpected turn of events to keep them busy which it had and now it looks like that we liked it too.

Star Cast:

John "nny gaddar" (Cheeta J): 'saale haramjaade beh****** maa******, teri m********'. Thats john for you. When he is normal, he can be found asking for paracetamole in a hardware paints shop. Seen doing his early morning Tandav here below. To get his temper right for the day.














Babbar (Sher. Babbar Sher): ' itne mein hi thak gaya cheete.....abhi to september mein rally mein bhi jaana hai. udhar road bhi nahi hogi. Aur itni jaldi jaldi mat su-su kar...der ho rahi hai gaari chalani hai'















Bansal (Cheeta B): Sab dekh daalo















Myself (John says write Boris 'chaddi' Becker)















John and Bansal were pestering Babbar with requests to set up a road trip to leh for sometime. Babbar told me *off the record that the requests were slowly turning into threats of kidnapping (i know its the wrong word but it kind of fits) babbar in his own gypsy and making him drive all the way to leh and laddakh. Babbar relented when he was told that he will taken to Shimla and manali and will be forced to spend a day and night each on the mall roads eating Rs 7/- softies. I know he hates those kind of tours. Thats how Babbar was forced to take a holiday from work and made to research possible trip plans.

So we had a 18 day plan, a 15 day plan, a 12 day plan and a 9 day plan. Cheetas (John and Bansal will be known as Cheetas from here on). Cheeta J and Cheeta B were of the opinion that Cheetas can always do a 12 day plan in 9 days. How? Simple. No sleep. Looked like a decent one to me.

So this is how our plan looked like on paper:

Day 1 Delhi - Manali (570 Kms)
Day 2 Manali - Sarchu (230 Kms)
Day 3 Sarchu - Leh (260 Kms)
Day 4 Leh ----------------------------- Get permits + Local sightseeing

Day 5 Leh - Khardung La - Panamik (Nubra Valley) - Siachen Base Camp (get permission) - Leh (185 + 185 + 40 + 40 = 450 Kms !!!) (Overly Optimistic. If we get permission for Siachen Base Camp, then on the way back might have to stay at Diskit/Hunder, that adds 118 Kms for next day. Screw it.)

Day 6 Leh - Pangong Tso - Leh (170 + 170 = 340 Kms) (Add another 80Kms if one wants to go to the 'actual' highest motorable pass Marsmik-La) (This place deserves 2 days actually)

Day 7 Tso Moriri (Korzok) (210 Kms) (Carry extra fuel)
Day 8 Tso Moriri - Tso Kar - Sarchu - Keylong (342 Kms)
Day 9 Keylong - Manali - Delhi (118 + 570 = Kms)

I have been to earlier road trips with babbar and hes one of the few drivers I can totally trust. I mean I dont hang on to the door handles and press my feet againts the floor. Its hard for me to sleep in a moving thing (trains are ok. the reference frame takes care of the moving problem. thanks albert. einstein for those who dont know albert on a first name basis. Haaiinn) but with babbar i generally i manage to get some sleep.

Babbar was training his gypsy hard for the road trip ahead. He made a few trips to Gurgaon in the gypsy to get the feel. We also got the feel. The bums didnt really feel right after those short drives to convergys to eat paranthas. but one of the Cheetas was happy doing these regular sorties to Convergys to eat paranthas. There is so much to see there :-) . Must be. Even we had feelings but some of us are more honest and daring. No?

So once we had decided on the duration, rest was easy. We packed our bags with whatever we could think of would be required during the safari and off we went. The bags remind me of something now. Have you seen someone carrying a suitcase on a trekking trip. Total disregard for backpacks. Backpacks suck. While I was loading my sucking backpack in the gypsy I came across a suitcase nicely packed and placed at the back.

To be contd.......

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Saturday, June 28, 2008

7 years countless blisters 3 trips to the hospital and finally the first milestone

I did my first half marathon yesterday. 2 hours of road running and pain and joy. This is something I have been wanting to do for I do not know how long. But something always stopped me. At times it was my own motivation which was not high enough, and sometimes my shin injury which would surface again and again.

But while I was attempting it, i realized the role weather and ones own state of mind can play. I tried doing this 4 days back and made the mistake of attempting in 35 degree c and 95% relative humidity. I almost got fried after 10k and was afraid that I would faint.

Yesterday I had some nice weather, cloudy and cool. State of mind was not peaceful but then the same thing helped.

Well to be frank....now tht its over I do not feel motivated enough to go out and run again today. Want to give it a break for a week and will continue then.

Next is 42k. And I am not expecting and I am not anticipating. Let things be.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Looking for the bottom

Just when I thought up is the only way from here something else happened. Things have never been this bad. Now it looks like up is the only way from this point on. Lets see.

Yesterday I tried Babbar's 4 wheel maruti gypsy which will take us on the Leh trip. Humm .... say its gonna be one hell of a tour. and its not going to be a picnic again. I am already thinking how many pillows to stuff under my ass to go through dont know how many miles of bad roads and bumps. But looks exciting. This is going to be another test.

Younger bro came from France yesterday. Talked to him yesterday for some time and watched TV along. Nice.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Why is prakash karat not letting the deal happen

I was just thinking that prakash karat is an intelligent man. what could be the reason hes not letting it go through. china vina theek hai but hes an indian. kuch samajh mein nahi aa raha

Monday, June 23, 2008

Adds by google

I was on my orkut account and saw this. Check out the google sponsored add. Just shows a girl in a picture. Quite a way to generate interest. I mean what all can you think of when you see an ad showing just a girl (that too on the internet). And the pic looks suggestive. Not quite google. Of course I clicked on it and it took me to a yahoo site for movies and gossips. I dont remember if I have seen a picture add on google search pages but then its orkut and its much more open to these experiments.

Friday, June 20, 2008

what do you want

i called up a friend. hes married and seems to be happy with the scheme of things. though its nothing of a mid life crisis for him but he said life has stagnated. i asked him what does he want from it now. he asked me in return what do you? and when i started thinking abt it i thought that its been ok so far. but at this point in time, i want pretty simple and cheap things. a good music system for my room, a good nice study chair and a good wood table, a couple of pairs of good running shoes and something to kill time. thats not much is it. and yeah a membership to an expensive gym where two hot chiks run on one side and two on another :-). thats not much is it. and he said well i already have all these and he just doesnt consider them as things of desire. so is it. different for all of us and its keeps changing.

a friend told about arthur ash yesterday. that when he was asked how did it feel when he found out he had aids. he said that he could have yelled at god that why him, but then he thought that he never asked god why him for all the good things in life he got so why ask now. if you stop thinking too much and just get on with life then a lot of things can be managed. may be its like resigning to situations but may be it works.

yesterday i did 16.2km on road. felt like god :-) its paining a lot today but its less than last time. i hope that this time i can fulfill my little dream. its on of the many. touchwood.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Magic in misery

There is a guy who did 50 marathons in 50 days. and he also did 350 miles in three days without sleep. and he says that there is magic in misery. when he has blisters, he pours super-glue over it and keeps on going. check out his website at ultramarathonman.com

i can kind of relate. may be not. but interesting philosophy that is. magic in misery. anyways i will not be keeping track of my training here at hitesh79.blogspot.com. have decided to move that away to www.ihealthstation.blogspot.com

Friday, June 13, 2008

the happening 13th june

i went for a long road run today. felt real good after a long time. it was humid as never before. but felt nice and warm. could do 10k easily today. leh trip is on the cards and excitements building up.

watched m nights The Happening today. if i could i would stand in front of the movie ticket counter and help save people their 150 bucks by not watching the movie. If you ve seen the trailer then thats it. thats all that is thre in the movie. saala what a shitty time waste movie. kuch bhi nahi tha. romance, action, drama, sex ...........nothing at all. time and money waste. ab kabhi nahi dekhoonga iski movies unless 10 people come and say that yeah nice movie...

feeling sleepy

Thursday, June 12, 2008

runningandliving.com , i am missing my wingies from IIMC

runningandliving.com is an indian website which promotes running. the founders are people with great credentials with numerous marathons to their credit. 14th jun they are organizing a 5k run in leisure valley, gurgaon. be there. morning mein hai. 6:30.

I am missing iimcal. and the good and bad times i spent with my wingies. all of us in the wing got names. ones which we never had. They started calling me Chaddi Singh cause of my extra short running shorts. they are actually very small. but then it was a boys wing. I remember Bhau standing in the wing at odd hours with a smoke in one hand and economic times in the other. Bhau was a legend in college. His now famous outbursts of ethics and morality are stories now.

anyways.....

went to the gym after a gap of 3 days. felt good to be back. i was thinking aise kaise chalega. i am sure there will be a time when going to gym will be not be possible or at least lifting weights and running long will not be possible. Now its like two days without gym and i get itchy.

did shoulder weight training today. forearms also. ran 3 km on treadmill. it was hot and humid today though the ac was on. but felt good. its not the same thing if you dont sweat.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

i am tired today 8 june 2008

having a bad day so far. first of all its a sunday. so not much to do. stomach is still not ok. went for a lil run today. could do only 4k. it was very hot and humid today. just couldnt do. was on ORS after the run. tried lifting weights. but felt out of energy. lets get fit again. gym will continue then. have realized something big. an answer to a lot of questions. but its still not there. irony is that do not even feel like making efforts for that now.

anyways....looks like need some tinkering with my diet. stomach has been upset for some days now.

Friday, June 06, 2008

stirred not shaken.....6 june 2008

watched sarkar raj today. found it ok. but there was nothing like a sequel movie. it could very well have been the first part. didnt go to the gym today. felt lethargic. had little loose motions today. something has happened to my appetite off lately. well for a couple of years now. I cant eat much these days. Mumbai visit is on the cards. Strategic Business Development visit. thats what i would have called it if i was on a job. :-)

saw her in the mall today. she looked pretty. life goes on.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

5 june 2008

didnt run today. i know i have to go slow. Every i overdo it and then nurse an injury for months. This time I have decided to run only once a week. In between I can do my strength training.

Did shoulders again today. Realized form is very very important. Will try to use low weights initially but good form. Did some biceps also today. 3-4 sets. felt good. frog stand planche comes naturally now. Feels good. I dont remember when was the last time I was on my hands only. Did gymnastic classes very long back. Was in 4th std then. I remember we used to be very happy if we could do a perfect cartwheel. Though I have always been hooked on to running I guess I am starting to like it. :-) and yes hot chicks around are inspiration :-) I wonder if its doping :-) performance enhancing.



Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Running Route in Gurgaon

Here is the link to a road running route that I follow.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=28.466956,77.076302&spn=0.017166,0.040169&t=h&z=15&msid=101776233868943643604.00044ed8e21c26b6316f8

Here is the image. Its a 5.4km circuit. the one marked in red avoids the traffic patch. This is for road running. For those who want a grass surface may use leisure valley.

4 june 2008

20 sec 20 sec 20sec frog stand planche. I am getting better at it everyday. I will try now to be comfortable with this position. so much so that i can do it anywhere and for a much longer time.

3 sets front push lunges. 12 reps each. 3 sets back push lunges. 10 reps each. 3 sets hamstrings. 10 reps fast . lil bit of stretching. pretty relaxes day today. little stiffness in calves cause of yesterdays running but otherwise alls well.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

3 june 2008

another good day today. did loads of cardio. frog stand planche 15 sec 15 sec 20 sec. am getting better at it. tried tuck planche today where knees are not supported by elbows. incredibly hard. today i was thinking how can anyone do it. anyways. will cross the bridge when we reach there.

3 km of treadmill running today. i had started going to the gym at 5:30 in the hope that tms will be free but suddenly people have become figure conscious. went out for a lil run on the road. Did 11km of road running. thighs were paining a lot. cause of the lunges i did a couple of days back. but pain is good. overcomes lots of stuff. good bad ugly. almost everything. shoulders are also paining a lot. so are the arms. I am loving it.

Monday, June 02, 2008

2 june 2008

good day again in the gym. no hot chick. gym full of fat people walking on the treadmills. i fail to understand why do people walk on treadmills??? hai koi jawab?

i did a good 30 second frog stand planche today. total time exceeded 60 seconds. yippiee. did shoulder strength training today. 6 set of back and front shoulder presses. 3 sets of two more exercises ..dont know their names. 1 km of treadmill running for warm up. slight shoulder pain again. had a double egg roll. cant make those at home. brahmin family we are. so have to eat outside.

tomorrow feel like running some real long distance. lets see.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

1 June 2008

random stuff first:

check out this website:

www.broadbandindia.com

It gives some nice info on the mobile industry. i havnt checked the sources of data but good detailed data.

this one was recommended by my friend. if we had known this earlier , may be we could have been better engineers. anyways. here it is. videos from IIT profs. I havnt gone through the videos though. jab time tha tab to study nahi kiya abhi kaise hoga.....

http://nptel.iitm.ac.in

now the usual predictable stuff

Good day at the gym. Could do the Frog stand planche for 15 seconds today. total time around 30 seconds. looks as if with a lil more practice this one is easily doable for around 60 seconds which will be when I can move on to the next more advanced position. Front push lunges 3 sets 10 reps each. squats 3 sets 12 reps each. two set quads and then 10 minutes medium intensity bicycling.

shoulder was paining today...may be cause of yesterdays push ups . may be i hurried them up. next time gym trainer says go slow.

last three four days were lazy didnt do much. but yesterday and today..have been able to keep myself busy. talked to a couple of friends from IIMCAL. some of them are looking for job changes. time to exercise the brand power boys. good luck.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

31 may 2008

5k treadmill running. 20 push ups :-) pehle lagte nahi the.......3 second Frog stand planche position (see previous post) . 2 sets of forward lunges. 10 and 12 reps. ok day so far. its just 7:13 pm

planches

a friend told me about these. bodyweight training which does wonders for your abs and core strength. All the stuff is taken off from dragondoor.com and the link to the article is

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/229/

Frog Stand
Begin this position by a
ssuming a full squat and placing your hands on the ground directly in front of your feet. By directly, I mean right next to your toes. Arrange yourself so that your knees are resting against your bent elbows. Now gradually lean forward taking your weight both unto your hands and also unto your knees by leaning them on your elbows. Using your knees on your elbows will allow your legs to help your shoulders bear the load of your bodyweight. As you continue leaning forward you will eventually be able to remove your feet completely from the floor and hold yourself up with only your hands on the floor and your knees on your elbows for support.

Balance is also a key to this exercise. As you first begin to learn how to lean forward in this position, you will often probably overextend and fall forward. Don’t worry have fun with it and enjoy some new training. Some pillows placed in front of you will help to cushion any crash landings.

Notice that this is the only static position in our progressions with bent elbows. Continue holding sets of this position until you have reached your one minute total time.












aaj try karoonga gym mein. kafi cool rahega

Friday, May 30, 2008

Tequila and Scotch

No Gym today. Didnt feel like. Had Raajma and Chaawal late in evening. Met old friends from college. Had a couple of drinks today. Mom and dad are worried these days when I come home late. I told them that its ok. I am not doping or anything but then they are worried. Dont feel good when Dad cant sleep when he feels I may be going through some tough times. But how do I tell him that I am ok. He just doesnt take it. Cmom dad I am 28 and very ok. So sleep well. I am a lil drunk. But good wala drunk. Not the talli types. Anyways......

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Cold Steel

Have recently finished this book. Its abt the takeover batter over arcelor by mittal. Must say I am impressed, by LNM and his son. Well yeah the book is about the winning side so may be a lil exaggerated but then winners write history. Guy dolle is not gonna write a book on why he couldnt save arcelor going mittal way. But the book is amazing. Like a thriller. Must read hai.....

29 may 2008

12 k treadmill running. hot chick on one treadmill. post run 4 slices bread with jam and butter. some wafers, kurkure, old monk with diet coke with friends (khirbat, sidhu, lolly), chocolate ice cream. random net surfing.

man i do have so much free time. i cant believe i am writing all this shit.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

may 28, 2008

6k on treadmill. 1 degree incline. Fat uncle and hot chick on the other two treadmills. 0 sum game.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

I quit

Aaj khus to bahut hoon main. Aaj na mere paas gaari hai na bangla hai aur na hi maa ka aashirwaad. bank balance bhi kam hai.

But finally i have resigned from job and have decided to get going on my own. I am hopeful that it turns out well for me. This decision. huuuuh. Thora nervous to hoon but its ok. I guess abhi I can take chances. Its easier now than later. Baad mein biwi bacche boodhe maa baap :-) and all.

Will keep posting on this.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Statement of the century

A friend of mine asked mom if there is a way to control his dominating wife (who i think is smarter, brighter and much more mature so its perfectly fine is she dominates him :-) ) of course it was all in good humor to which my mom said
"India got independence in 1947 and women have got it just 5-6 years back and its perfectly fine if they dominate"

Frankly I had not expected such statement from mom. But she was right I feel. At least till a couple of years back women had little place in decision making in the household. That seems to be changing now. I see so many smart women these days. In fact I feel that most of them are smarter than I am . Really. To this some of my friends will comment or may say that "yeh to kafi obvious tha. adhiktar log tujhse smart hi hain". I agree.
Random dialogue time from the movie Dil Chahta Hai: "Ret (sand) ko jitni jor se pakro utni hi haath se nikalti hai"

Friday, April 25, 2008

The road never leaves you

Thats why running is my first love. You can do it alone with the road as company and it never leaves you. If it does, or if it ends you can always come back to where you started from.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

doob ja mere pyaar mein ein ein ein

this new song from Jhonny gaddar. kafi mast latke jhatke wala dance hota hai is par...

Box that changed the world

Its only because of containers and boxes that world trade is today where it is today. Without containers you cant ship goods effectively. I have been in the business of selling boxes for about 2 years now and its been sheer fun. Really. No CEO or CXO of a company would know about boxes (corrugated or otherwise), essentially packaging stuff. They think its trivial. But they do when the production line stops. Why is that? Cause nothing moves in our world without packaging. Boxes are perhaps one of the few products which arnt shipped in boxes themselves. Everything else moves in cartons. I am in the same business.

and its my hypothesis that the perception of CEOs and CXOs is gonna change. Very soon. material handling industry is one area I am bullish about. Cheap manual labor will soon give way to pallet trucks and material handling tools. I am even looking for some companies to invest money. Its a broad call but I think its gonna work. Not big risk but I certainly see big returns.

About risk. It just occurred to me that Risk isnt only about risk but also about perception of risk. Ummm yeh thora deep ho gaya but mujhe aisa lagta hai. I don see any risk here but may be other people and even though I think that risk and return is a fundamental law but the perception of other people is what changes the law here in this case.


Sunday, April 13, 2008

whos stopping us

Tragedy of the commons. Its one of the many archetypes you can observe in the everyday world around us. If I look around I find this behavior quite rampant. Me first. this is the difference between a developing and a developed nation. Look at any queue, ticket counter we are in a hurry. Most traffic jams happen for the same reason. And so do the accidents I guess.

It results in a situation which is sub-optimal. If traffic could be cleared in X amount of time in a developed nation now it takes more than X here in a developing nation. I think now I know the difference between a developed and a developing nation. It is the tragedy of the commons. Better roads, infra, clean streets are the end result and not the starting point of a path towards becoming a developed nation.

a lil low

Was feeling a lil low today. First I am sick and tired of going to the Malls here in Gurgaon. Same old stuff, noise and chaos, consumerism (not that i am not one of those). Gets on to my nerves sometimes. Its only for the excellent company get that I frequent them. I have been a lil busy with work after college and havnt taken a break since. Job starts in another 15 days and then it will be even more busy. Really felt like going on a trek somewhere but just couldnt find enough time.

have been watching movies every weekend for quite some time and it seems now even they are becoming routine. movies have been the only source of Audio Visual entertainment given that its been some years that I watched any TV. Not even cricket. I quit that when I was in school. Seems like waste of time to me. and its not too much entertainment either.

Have been thinking of going for a long run today. Will see how much I can do today. Look its gonna be a depressing post today so leave now...Have been suffering from a posterior compartment injury for abt three years now which means I can not run long regularly. If I start doing more than 50K a week it surfaces again and I cant run for the next full month or so.

Vaise If I look at it this way, dont know why but running has been like meditation for me for abt 5 years now. After a long run, everything seems good and fine. I even lied to my GF when I had to go running and she wanted to catch a movie. Will go for a surgical treatment once I get on with the job and some money to get the treatment. They dont have good doctors here in India who deal with these injuries. So may be a trip to australia or south africa is on the cards :-).

Have been going through some finance books of late. Cost accounting specially. Got a c+ in college in CA but now find it interesting now that we need to come up with some ABC like accounting system for our business.

Mom has made some tea.....thats it for now

Saturday, April 05, 2008

LIFEINLINFES.COM Concocation day Explosive loose motions and I dont need no education any more hurray!!!!

lifeinlines.com check out this thing. a friend from college has started this new web based service where you can pen down your thoughts....emotions using a host of tools like sms, voice in, through the chat clients or through email. essentially your online diary. much more easy to maintain and easily accessible. they are adding on more features but have a look till then.

we had our convocation today , its a good feeling needless to say. mom and dad were there too. no one knows which way life takes a turn. I remember when I was sent to UK for a project for about 2 years. Donkey work....boring clients and an even boring city (bradford). One week into the project I heard boss talking to someone about sending one chap home. And I was at the corner office the next day demanding to be sent back home. Had I not come back from UK so many things wouldnt have happened. Family business, IIMCAL, BeatStreet Holdings. A couple of other life changing events as well but those are history and I really dont wanna talk or think about them.

I heard in a movie. "Life is pretty simple. You make choices and you dont look back". This thing can be life changing. Easy to say but I guess each of us takes his own time to learn this. Some may never.

And another thing happened today. Loose motions!! I counted and it was 17 times!!! By the end of it I was all drained out and had to drink several pouches of ORS (oral rehydrate) to just stand. I had to as I was in the convocation ceremony.

Now I understand why everyone is talking abt importance of water and its shortage :-). Delhi will have a water famine in 2020 someone calculated. I dont know how but if that happens .....phew....atal bihari vajpayee once said that the next war will be fought over water. not surprising.

Tomorrow I leave for gurgaon again. I have never liked calcutta. To the extent that I now have preconceived notions about its residents also but thats ok I can live with those and hope that I dont get to come here again. May be after 25 years in the alumni reunion. I am already looking forward to that but 2033!!! too long and I am sure we are gonna see too many new things by then. Anyways our generation has seen the Internet, the oil wars, and we will see the water wars , india shining and rising and what not. Its been a mix so far. Someone was saying that the last 2 years have rather gone through quickly and I was thinking about the past 28. Rather fast. So life is short. And there are so many things to do or have.

It was only yesterday that I was thinking of writing one last article here on my blog. Aaj man kar raha tha so just ........

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Risks and in general

I have a job now from campus placements. And this event rendered me quite useless and lazy and good for nothing for the next few days as I could see no more utility in studying and attending classes. It was during this time that I have thought of something about risk. Some of my friends said that they ve already read this theory by some famous thinker :-) he he I was born a little late. Else may be mera naam bhi newton ya plato ya something hota.

Theory 1:

empirical evidence is there that backbenchers and people who come average in class generally do well in life. Better than toppers.
Well I think when a backbencher is not studying for the exam, or is caught sleeping he is taking a risk. Right. And going by the fundamental law that risk and return have a correlation, this risk taking appetite if what makes these backbenchers continue on their journey to break from the herd and do something worthwhile. High Risk High Return.

Theory 2:

Treat yourself and many others like stocks. Go for a bottom up stock picking approach. If you do your calculations well and research well you may end up picking one of the high return yielding human stock. Thats how focussed mutual funds beat market portfolio based mutual funds.

the point is simple, if as a professional you dont take enough risks, there is as much return you can expect as someone would expect on zero coupon long term government bonds. Its implications are profound:

If you are earning the risk free rate of increments in salary and you plan to buy a house which is appreciating in value and you plan to buy it after some time, by the time you reach that time event, the house would cost you more and stretch your cash flows which can force you to go for extra leverage. More risk.

See. No Risk. No Returns.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Air travel

remember? long time back when air travel was a luxury and air hostesses were all supposed to be former some kind of beauty queens. he he. I travel Indigo all the time and now I am at a stage where whenever i fly, i know some one on the plane. Someone from the crew. They have the best planes and the sweetest air hostesses i tell you. really nice. i remember so many of them. but as a personal policy i dont take names.

the first time i boarded a plane , i was in 9th std i guess and it was an indian airlines flight and i remember i was sitting in the tarmac bus waiting to be taken to the plane. Mind you, that was the first time ok. I thought we were getting late as per the ticket timings and i went to the bus driver and said "uncle hamara plane miss ho jayega. jaldi chalao". uncle just smiled. when i went again and said the same thing, uncle said "beta sabhi log usi plane mein jayenge". but the air hostess was nice.
after capt gopinath crashed the travel fares for airlines, it was easy to fly. from 12000 bucks for a delhi bangalore ticket they came down to 2500. in real terms it got even cheaper.

but not all of them are nice. i was coming back from london to delhi and the air hostess (she must have been somewhere around 35 or may be 40 without makeup) was thrashing the passengers with verbal assaults when ever they asked for something. Though I got my packet of potato wafers but when my sidey asked for an extra packet he was told to "pehle jo hai voh khatam kar lo fir aur le lena". ha ha. i couldnt stop laughing and the sidey was all sharam se pani pani.

then there was this young girl in indigo who came to have a chat. You know its good to know that these days people have so many options. many people do their degrees by correspondence and instead work along. good thing to do. what do you do in a degree college anyway (yeah they have most fun i agree). She was all burdened with work as she would believe. "You know these airlines, they pay you good but they make you work like dogs". I asked howcome. "We have to work for 7- hours a day. can you believe that". And all i could say was yeah yeah poor air hostesses. So much work (8 hours) for such a pay packet. I wish i could be an air host on a part time basis.

on my latest trip from calcutta to delhi i had a different experience altogether.
so what i had around was ....

two air hostesses. very nice. one from goa and another one from delhi. now how do i know this. there was one old (young at heart ) uncle who was as curious as a 5 year old kid. uncle was telling these three marketing guys about everything from india - australia match to finer aspects of marketing.

and these two shady kind of characters who were sitting besides me. the conversation went something like this:

uncle: hi. how are you. you know indigo is the best airlines.
airhostess1: big smile
airhostess2: big smile
marketing pro1: uncle is very happy haan
marketing pro2: he he
uncle: where are you from?
airhostess1: goa - mumbai
airhostess2: delhi
marketing pro1 reclines his seat to maximum
uncle: yeh kya kar rahe hain. humne bhi paise diye hain.
marketing pro2: to itna bhin bhinane ki jaroorat kya hai. hum kya koi happy hours mein baithe hain. ek ke saath ek free.
airhostess1 brings some water for uncle.
uncle: so nice of you young lady
my neighbor: saala tharky boodha


Quite a trip actually. Though its been some time since i boarded a public bus but i am sure i am not missing on any of the action

Thursday, January 10, 2008

tourists in danger

noticed something. now almost everyday there is a news abt some tourist being molested in some corner of india. i wonder why suddenly. or is it that media has become active in public interest. suckers they are. now when that they have an issue they will even pay people to molest women.

i know of one such incident where they paid some college student to rag juniors. what to do? but yeah a lot of things can be explained by thinking abt incentives.