database management, weight loss and fitness and cleaning your room

whats common between these three. he he he. kafi mushkil sawal hai yeh. aap phone a friend use kar sakte hain.

i was thinking about databases. you maintain one. clean one. there is an administrator who looks after the database. you fine tune it. what for? so that you can reap the benefits of maintaining a database in shape. taking out a report becomes easy when its in shape.

same goes for a clean room. specially in a hostel. i have a friend whose keeps his room in such a complex format that it requires some sort of effort every time he tries to find his glasses or a book or something. to the extent that he doesnt dare even touch his room (database) lest he screws it up and things get lost. so a passport will stay on the floor. its not lying there. its kept there.

if he could somehow spend a little time everyday, things would be a bit simple. but then without any situations or emergencies what is there in life. haan.

lets talk about health. its a long term thing. i am happy that i see many new faces at IIM Calcutta's gym. good. but is it too late. may be may be not. but a good start nonetheless. see here also you keep investing in your fitness. with your time, money ( on a good gym. where those table flat tummy girls turn up. they are quite an inspiration i tell you. try running on a treadmill next to a beautiful and slim model types girl and you will see your own stamina and endurance go up in a day) more time you invest maintaining it, less money and time you will spend in future repairing it.

by the way

anand raj anand has recently become my favorite singer. some of the gems which have come out from his music studio:

1. ishq samundar dil ke andar ( kaante)
2. pyaar aaya pyaar aaya saj dhaj ke mera yaar aaya (plan)
3. tera sarapa aisa hai jaanam (welcome)

all these songs are amazing. daaru peekar jitna mast dance in par hota hai aur kisi par nahi hota.
try it next time.

supply chain - the next level

it just came to my mind. is it possible in the near future that citizens (say a block of 20 houses, even more feasible in apartments, even more number of houses) start ordering their household consumer goods in bulk. what with the fuel prices rising, more and more parking fee, I mean i know i use close-up or colgate. i dont need to go shopping for that.

so here it is. a group of 100 houses order their goods together. they can find out what common stuff they need day after day in a month of two. and then we have goods from a cross-dock delivered to them together. everyone saves money. and the big retail which is the middlemen here gets eliminated. you go shopping only for stuff that you dont need on a regular basis.

though seems highly unlikely that such a thing can happen sometime soon but who knows what rising fuel prices and busy lifestyles in the future can lead to.

i would like to invite comments here. just found this interesting.

Eating diary

After much hard work, I have analyzed my diet. Finally. Here is the link.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pkCtfbJ-0Q4v8w-m3xnOUPg

This sheet explains what i have been having for last couple of days. You will be able to see the difference when i stayed at home and when i am in campus ( hostel). And once sheets lists the recommended daily diet. Earlier I was thinking of counting calories but that is futile. Something which takes so much time and energy can not be sustained. Specially when you are cutting down on food already. Now from this it looks like if i start following the recommended diet, i will look like a concentration camp resident. I noticed that on days when i though i had too little, i was close to the recommended diet. The recommended diet is from a widely acclaimed book (pretty expensive also) and can be generally followed by a normal person. Forget the calories.

Now this concentration camp diet + n number of crunches and other ab exercises + cardio (to take care of the past eating mistakes. we have been having too much ghee and junk)= 6 pack abs * % probability (some people can never get it, its tough for girls to get them and some can blame the genetics)

Is it worth it? Ask shahrukh khan. I guess credit for OM SHANTI OM can be safely given to SRK. The song was the publicity vehicle for the movie to start with. And the 6 pack made SRK an item in the song.

Which one would you choose?

I came across this in a class of one of the subjects i am going through in term6 at IIM Calcutta. Management through enlightenment.

The question was ?
which one would you choose? A happy but anxious and uncertain life or a dark but hopeful life? Its easy to say that fuck it and take on uncertainty and things will fall in place but its quite another thing when you actually set out to do it. Sometimes it takes an event big and shocking enough to jolt you into accepting uncertainty and get on with it. I mean in most of these uncertain events or eventualities, no one dies right.

But then again its easy to say when the time comes for it lets see who takes the road less traveled. and yeah once again "soch gehri ho to irada kamjor ho jata hai" - ankur pruthi (nsit/ice/98)

where are all the beautiful girls???

*disclaimer: This post is a result of a recent discourse on the same which i had with my sidey (person living next to my room). Since I respect privacy and never take names I will not name him here.

I used to find them on trains, in buses (voh bhi public transport system wali, even haryana roadways), in sector 14's market in gurgaon but suddenly most of them have disappeared. Well sometimes I do find them in pubs and malls (just before the movie show starts or when they are about to turn a corner) but I fail to understand where do they stay.

I even changed my gtalk status (where are all the beautiful girls) and some female friends of mine did ask me that what does that mean. Well i didnt mean that. Its a beautiful world and all of us are God's own children but I was talking about the beauty that is skin-deep. Is it getting very sexist now? Tell me and I will say sorry also. But still where are all of you?

possible reasons: ( have more to do with growing indian economy)
1. they dont travel in trains. they fly now. many of them have become air hostesses now.
2. they drive around town in their own cars.
3. may be I am here in Calcutta (Joka, 20 km away from city) for the past 1.5 years.
4. i need to start going to the malls once again. I hated visiting malls. see thats how the retail revolution is gonna take off.

sorry again girls haan.

a free friday after a long time and a bad movie to end the day

I dont remember when was the last time i didnt have anything to do on a friday here at IIM Calcutta. Not that i wasted the midnight oil over the books ( voh maine kabhi bachpan se nahi kia). Today was a good day. I had so much time to myself that I even managed to sleep in the evening, I rarely do that. Weather in calcutta is good these days. Its not like the tarpaye tarsaye wali dilli ki sardi. Just right types. Good sunny days and cool nights.

I decided to watch WELCOME late night show with a couple of friends. Akshay Kumar has been churning some decent movies off late so I thought welcome should be no different. But if there is one word to describe the movie - Disaster. Thats what it was. for 230 bucks a ticket and another 100 for taxi one side, it wasnt worth it. Akshay kumar has been wasted. And so is almost everyone else. Anil kapoor steals the show with his trademark mawali style and dialog delivery. But there are already so many film critics all around us and I dont want to be another one. All of us are so different and so are the movies that we like or dislike. Dont listen to critics.
I dont know how many of them get paid for favorable reviews. But yeah the movie is a waste. And if one of you likes this movie then you can infer that me and you have different tastes when it comes to humor.

Its good to spend time with good friends in these last two months of campus. If you read the papers there was an article on Indian Institutes of LIVIN Management in Hindustan Times recently. Yeah thats true but I didnt understand why they put it on print. Its not very important. But yeah makes for good read cause whenever there is something about the IIMs, people read that stuff. Most of which is junk* (will put disclaimer later) But yes in IIMs its one of the things that you notice when you first join as a fresher. For some its almost a culture shock with all that booze, smoke and parties flowing freely. Off lately I have even been hearing some titillating sounds in the hostel late in the night but I have not tried to find the source of it. Must be one of those "rangeen" movies :-)

Well its a free world. But so am I. Free to write about it. And feel free to read it too. 4 in night it is and here it ends. Bbye

Turmoil in pakistan and its impact on the cricket team

Could be one reason why the pakistan team is not doing too well these days. that country's people have gone crazy killing each other. Bhagwaan sabko shanti de (aur mujhe shanti priya - matlab someone like deepika padukone hi hi ha ha ha)

220 + 220 km of dreams

My good friend Dhamija Deepak asked me to join him for a bicycle trip somewhere. I said yeah lets do it. Though it was another thing that he wanted to go to Digha Beach on a cycle. Thats like 220 km one side and the possible hurdles midway could be:

1. its winter time in kolkata and there is fog sometimes
2. diamond harbor road is notorious for fast driving trucks and buses
3. last time some one from college attempted it, he had to take a hitch from mid way

We ve given ourselves a time of aroubd 20-30 days to prepare for the trip. So we will be spending some time in the gym from today onwards mostly working on the lower body fitness. Though given my past experience with too ambitious endeavors, I am not too hopeful about the entire thing but ek shot maarne me kya jata hai.

will keep updating about the progress. Even if the initial enthusiasm fizzles out after some time, will still post.

na haar mein na jeet mein kinchit nahi bhabheet main sangharsh path par jo chala yeh bhi sahi voh bhi sahi

placements bhi are just round the corner. lets see what happens.

random thought

na haar mein na jeet me, kinchit nahi bhayabheet main, sangharsh path par jo chala, yeh bhi sahi voh bhi sahi. Kashyap chanchani , an old friend from NSIT once told me this.

harivansh rai bacchan said this. Nice line.

spelling mistakes

since i was drunk last night i made some spelling mistakes while writing or may be the dictionary didnt work (long iceland ice tea).

any way it proves the point that dont drink and drive. so all those who drink dont drive when you are drunk.

thanks murali for corrections :-)

another F

I made the biggest mistake of my life when i opted for this course called marketing in practice. I slept throughout and now I am threatened with the second F of my life. The report doesnt meet the standard (minimum required) and man at 12 in night after i am down with two long iceland ice teas (my ex introduced me to that :-) so even more down he he) i am thinking that I should take an F. How does it matter anyway? One should take risks in life. I want to do business but if i can not take this small risk how will i do business. See I am in control. Totally. So lets see ki jor kitna bajue katil mein hai. Fukka milta hai ya nahi.

And it takes hell lot of discipline to quit drinking again and again. Even one time its tough and Its the third time that I am doing it. he he. Ab lagta life sahi track par hai. Kuch excitement aaya hai life mein.

And three of my group partners were french who hardly cared for the report and who wouldnt care now. these french i tell you $£"$%$. 90% of them do not work. Thats why their gdp is growing at snails pace.

Anyway its time to sleep now. already 12:13. nice sleep aayegi. late and drunk. kya combination hai.

Slice of italy. made in india

I am no agent of this pizza chain but I had one of theirs today. Go check them out (by the way i am in gurgaon these days so i dont know if they are present elsewhere) . They make some really nice ones. Better than dominos. Dominos remind me of the days when they launched in India and me and my old bachpan ka dost anant were hooked onto dominos so we would save pocket money and had a pizza almost every other day. Once we had 4 large 10 inch veggie margaritas between the two of us. Those were the days.

I just noticed that this is my third post in two days. He He. A busy man has time for everything. Note kar lo. Meri hi original line hai. Jaakar book padhta hoon koi.

plane to train

Suddenly air tickets have become expensive. I had assumed that since now I am in one of the IIMs I will see trains only in museums as current expenditure is driven by future anticipated income. But suddenly with frequent trips back home ( there are so many holidays in second year i tell you, its hardly any studying in second year. in fact a friend of mine even gave a proposal to profs that he will pay half of the fees of second year if they let him go with a degree after first year ) I am finding it hard to pay my bills from the educational loan that I have taken.

So its back to rajdhani again. When i was a kid and traveled in trains I often spotted nice girls :-) who were quite elder to me but I dont find them anymore. May be they ve graduated to flying. I guess most of the middle class has graduated to flying. And thats the reason why I dont get to see pretty girls in trains. Not that all the pretty girls come from middle class family.

Vaise I just found that no more tickets are available on rajdhani from Delhi to Calcutta for the dates i was planning and I have already started to look around for the alternate cheapest travel option. placement season is just round the corner and there is loads of work to be done. I better start doing something about it.

Kya action packed month hai

So many things are happening. I have become a chacha :-) . my elder brother has been blessed with a baby girl. My sis is coming to India after a long time. She stays in South Africa. I was even imagining my two bhanjaas to do some jhinga-lala dance with bushes as dress in a fancy dress competition.

Thats the good part. Now the interesting one. I was recently infected by this virus jo Harpees ke naam se jaana jaata hai. I read on the internet that its a fairly common one and even in US of A 5 lac citizens are affected by this every year. However internet is a dangerous thing. Everyone knows everything or at least can find out about everything. One of the ways in which you can get this virus is through close bodily interaction with someone whos already infected. Now nothing of that sort happened but yeah allegations were made by all and sundry. In public interest I rushed back to home from my hostel and on reaching here I was told that my strong immune system and positive thinking has rendered the virus dormant. Though the medicine has to be taken 5 times a day after meal. So that has made short work of my two months of diet control and cardio training in the gym. But alls well that end well. However given the presence of lots of people at home I decided to quarantine myself for another two days and I was even expecting the food being pushed inside the room from below the door but nothing of that sort happened. By god Norton Antivirus ki yaad aa gayi.

However I am fine now and cant wait to get out of home tomorrow to go around town in gurgaon. On a slightly different note, I watched Dus Kahaniyan and its a decent movie. Had to watch it alone. But you get the feeling that almost every part of the movie is from some other movie. But good time pass still.

Alternative to Road Running

A posterior compartment injury has been keeping me from running for a long time now. Almost two years. Its as frustrating as it gets. But off lately things seem to be going better. Recently I went to this physiotherapist who recommended total no to any kind of impact exercise like running or skipping and start with lower body strength training in the gym. I have been following the program for like three weeks now. Around 40 min to an hour of cardio each day and 4 days of weight training which basically includes 4-5 exercises like squat, lunges, good morning, and back push lunges and calf exercises like neutral, inversion and eversion calf raises.

I tried running a couple of days back and could very easily do around 8k at a decent speed. I recently went through an article on runnersworld.com where an athlete said she hardly does any running practice and improves cardio strength by cycling, cross trainer + weight training for lower body and goes straight for marathons. Interesting.

I have also decided to give it a try. May be after another 2-3 weeks of weight training I will go for a 12k or something like that. I guess it will be great if I can do something like 8 - 12 - 15 - 17 - 21 and wow you have a half marathon. That would involve increasing the cardio workout significantly along with increasing distances.

WOW

I dont know much about copyright but this is something I am copying and pasting from internet. Thanks Stani and Sorry as well.

Stani's 2004 Wisconsin Ironman Triathlon

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An Ironman Triathlon is an extreme endurance event. It consists of a 2.4 mile open-water mass-start swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile (marathon) run.

Ironman events have become so popular that athletes must sign up one year in advance to obtain a slot in one of the 5 races held in North America. In 2004 there were 17 Ironman races throughout the world plus the world championships in Kona, Hawaii.

To prepare for the Madison Wisconsin Ironman, I trained for 9 months, gradually progressing from 4 to 20 hours of cardiovascular exercise per week. One month before the race, a typical training week would include 5 miles of swimming, 200 miles of biking and 25 miles of running. Then I tapered for two weeks before the race to build up the energy reserves required to finish the race.

When the cannon went off at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday September 12th, 2188 athletes simultaneously began the swim to the buoy marking the first corner of the swim course in Lake Monona. I made sure to take a very wide path around the first buoys to avoid the "washing machine" of arms, legs and bodies swimming over and under each other near the buoys. I managed to stay out of trouble and felt great finishing the 2.4 mile swim in 1:23. Not being a good swimmer, I was very happy with this time and my position of 1550/2188 at this point in the race.

After a scramble out of the water, a run up the parking garage helix of Monona Terrace and a quick change from swimming to biking gear, I began the 112 mile bike ride over beautiful rolling hills of the Wisconsin countryside and picturesque dairy farms. Being more of a biker than a swimmer, I was able to pass many people on the bike while eating and drinking the large amounts required to refuel from the swim, power the bike and save up for the run (when eating and drinking are usually difficult). Despite all of the eating, drinking and saving some strength for the run, I was able to complete the 112 miles in 6:10.

After dropping off the bike and putting on my running shoes at Monona Terrace, I began the marathon run through downtown Madison and the campus of the University of Wisconsin. The temperature had risen to 85 degrees without a cloud in the sky so it was essential that I continued to drink as much as my stomach would allow. After 14 miles my stomach had had just about enough and would only accept a sip of water and an orange slice at each aid station, positioned one mile apart. But the 4000 volunteers and nearly 50,000 spectators (including my family and several friends) were simply amazing. Thousands of people cheering your name and bombarding you with encouragement and positive energy does wonders at this point. While I was not running fast, I was able to run the entire distance and continued to pass people, finishing the marathon in 4:33 for a total time, including transitions, of 12:23 and an overall place of 616/2188. Not only had I finished, but I finished in a far better time than my most optimistic hopes.

After my body and stomach regained equilibrium the biggest treat for me was to cheer others to the finish. Athletes continued to finish until midnight, 17 hours after the race began, at which point the course is closed and the remaining athletes are brought to the finish line. I was truly inspired by so many of the finishers, both fast and slow. Some sprinted, some limped, some walked; the winner completed the race in 8:52:33; one finisher was 75 years old.

After some arithmetic, I determined that during the race I drank 23 pounds of fluids and used 32 pounds of water; I also consumed 4400 calories and burned 9000 calories. My times were:

2.4 mile (3.9 km) swim 1:23:09
transition 1 10:15
112 mile (180 km) bike 6:10:20
transition 2 6:16
26.2 mile (42 km) run 4:33:21
total 12:23:19

141/390 in category (male, 30-34)
616/2188 overall

Stages of Life

I was on training in Trivandrum a couple of years back when a soft skills trainer blurted out her theory on stages of life.

Life passes through these stages

Happily Single
Unhappily Single
Happily in a relationship
Unhappily in a relationship
Unhappily Single
Happily Single

She would say life comes a full circle

"Single" here is a frame of mind. Mind It.
And dont think too much. I am ok when I write this. Just happened to remember our soft skills trainer.

Fatalism

I have been reading about this. Can be a good thing during tough times. And can be a reason or excuse for inaction.

It says that you do what you have to do and what is to happen will happen. But yeah when you say that irrespective of what you do, what has to happen will happen, then its a problem. And a big one of top of that.

I dont know if God comes in the picture here. Whats he got to do with it? I would like to think that there is something which is running the show here. Somethings happening here. Something big. Which me and you can never understand.

My dad says that of 100 people 1 believes in god and rest are only afraid of him. I guess its that one person who does what he has to.

We have been going through this course in our MBA program. Management of Self. What basically the course does is make you analyze yourself. Now I say thats useless. The big computer inside you takes all the decisions. And for that you dont have to think much. I am not talking about the usual decisions (math, science etc). Those which are beyond these things. Have you thought about yourself consciously while making some decision or has it helped you in any way.

You think, introspect when something changes for good or bad. Life basically. And thats how you learn about yourself. Some much analysis makes jack a dull boy.

Like my old friend ankur pruthi used to say "soch gehri ho to irada kamjoor ho jata hai"

Happiness

I have been thinking so much in the last couple of days that I have lost 8 kg weight . he he . and i am happy about that. What hours on badminton court couldnt do, some exercise with the mind and heart did that.

I never thought about happiness earlier. Now when I did, one thing is clear. Its about you. No one else. Lets take this, you say you will be happy because your parents will be happy or your husband/wife will be happy or the other way round. Doesnt happen that way. Its an individual thing. Selfish but true. True but not sad (see i avoided the copyright infringe. metallica say thanks)

I am gonna do what keeps me happy. No morals, no society but be true to yourself. You have to be true to yourself cause if you are not, you will be the first person to know.

Weird post??? Ignore it.

The Sundarbans

Sundarbans is the world's largest delta and is worlds largest Mangrove Forest as well. Home to the royal bengal tiger, it is quite well known among wild-life lovers. On a recent trip to the place, I failed to understand why?

Now we were on these Boats going around the maze of streams and mangrove forests all the time. I thought that the boat driver could very well have made us going through the same route again and again. Everything looks so similar. And the humming engine noise of the boat along with the never changing landscape is perfect recipe for sleep induction.

In any wild life reserve, spotting the big cats isnt easy and depends on luck mostly. You may have to spend many nights to get that photo-op. However in Sundarbans, the mangrove cover is so bloody dense (yes i am frustrated) that I wonder how the tiger moves around them. Must be a tough job for the Big cats I am sure.

Basic underlying point that I am trying to make is that if someone, anyone offers you a trip to sundarbans, dont go. All you will see will be some lousy crabs and a monkey with her baby. Life mein cutting to hoti hi hai. Sabke saath hoti hai. Better pay a visit to the zoo if u want to spot a tiger. Will be easy , more fun and less expensive.