ADD Thoughts

The colon cancer 15k

2011-03-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that I have become blase enough to consider a 15k race as just another race and not really prepare for it! This was my first race for the year and, to restate a cliche, I loved every minute of it. I was slower than my fastest pace, but it was fun. I had run a training run with the bloomberg team (no one else showed up -- it was just me and another guy from the group) on Friday and my calves still hurt from that. The other concern was that I had not really run anything longer than 5-6 miles and did not want to injure myself again (like last year about this time!). Things ended up fine in the end. It was a bit nippy -- ~30F with a stiff breeze. The race started 15 minutes late. I walked into my corral and started off slower than I expected to be going for a while. The thing that stuck to my mind was this image of a lady stretching in the corral and her legs getting goose bumps as soon as the klaxon sounded. I guess it was a race filled with adrenaline junkies!
The first loop in the park was pretty good. I was feeling strong, except for the calves hurting from time to time. I pushed through the stuff and finished really strong -- I felt like I could not do a single metre more of running -- what with the calves almost mutinying and the lungs at the limit of blowing up. In fact, I gave up about half a mile from the end of the race and started walking towards the finish line. That is when this guy pushing a kid in a pram cheered me on with the words, "Come on! You cannot walk now! The finish line is right there!" Reminded me of this beautiful hindi poem from high school and I powered on. Was happy with my finishing time at the end -- so that was icing on the cake! See this link for a result (not really sure it will work, but its worth a try!).
Oh and after the race, I realized that the big red walk through thing that a stall had was supposed to be a giant human colon. I cannot believe I walked through that -- I guess that is why I felt like shit at the end ;) Also, I do not think I will be using the shirt I got from this race that much..

What a day!

2011-03-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

It was so warm outside that I hardly felt like sitting and doing any work today. Finally made it out of the office for a group run with the folks at work. Got my ass kicked at running (5 miles) again -- even though I beat my own pace. Was planning to wind down for the day when another friend called out of the blue and we made impromptu plans. Ate at this turkish place (nothing to write home about except the turkish coffee which felt heavenly). Decided to walk down to the train station to give this friend company. Hilarity ensued. Here are a few snippets of conversation I heard on the way to and fro.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Guy running past us: This cocaine is really good!
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Guy in cab to lady trying to flag down one: You have really nice hair!
Girl: Go fuck yourself!

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Finally made it back home for a grand total of 13 miles today. Lets hope I can keep this up for the rest of the weekend (its supposed to be decently warm again!)

Happy St. Patrick's day!

2011-03-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

Was picking up a passport for a friend and chanced by the cathedral at around 10 AM. Took this picture then. Life has been quite busy -- I am not really sure things would be sane otherwise. But then again, thats what work is for. I have been following the news in Japan quite single-mindedly. I have a lot of respect for the Japanese culture and its people from my interactions with them. The sheer scale of the disaster is unimaginable. It is saddening to see the loss and agony that people are having to deal with -- this is something that would be unimaginable even in a Jerry Bruckheimer summer blockbuster. There is something to be said about the social fabric that keeps the Japanese together though. I cannot imagine any other country running its stock exchange and any other facilities with a strict business as usual attitude. If something of this magnitude happened in India, people would be catatonic.
This article talks about and addresses some of the recent stories that have come up about how this cataclysm is a *good* thing for Japan and will herald in the next boom in the region. It reminds one of the broken pane economics and the fallacy inherent in the argument. But then again, its human nature to look for the good in every news one gets. So, the slip-up might be minor.
The media has been whipped up into a frenzy about the nuclear situation developing in Japan. However, the major story should be the humanitarian nightmare a few more hundred miles to the north. The cold, coupled with not much food/communication channels and the aging population is a deadly trifecta of tragedy. Lets hope the resourceful Japanese can come up with something to avert the issue. My thoughts are and have been with them. Lets pray for them to get the strength to do the best they can.

ps: If you end up getting drunk tonight, lets hope your hair does not hurt tomorrow (mal aux cheveux -- learnt this cute phrase today!)

:-)

2011-03-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hmm. The previous post sounds quite melodramatic. I guess I just cannot live without drama in my life! So, anyway, as Barney from HIMYM would say, I decided to be awesome instead of morose and while away time and did a lot of interesting stuff over the weekend. First, I had my first run to herald in the spring season. I have half a mind to go to DC to catch the cherry blossom festival . Lets see if I can manage to find some company for that trip. I have also been informed that I have a vacation day that I need to take before the end of March. So, cue the planning for a nice trip.
Back to the weekend, got my ass kicked at running (ran with the team from work -- man these guys are good!). Recovered on Saturday by walking around the city (taking in the breathtaking weather) with a friend and then met up other friends for dinner and drinks at this unimaginably cool bar -- yes, I did feel quite out of place there. Topped off the day with a 2 hour walk back through the heart of the city. I really like NYC in spring and summer. Sunday only got better -- once I recovered from Saturday, I made it out to Jersey to wish a friend good luck for a crucial interview. Here is sending good thoughts his way -- it will be so incredibly awesome if he manages to land this job and move to the area!
The good news spilled over to this week too. I and my partner seem to have gotten better at bridge. We scored our first master points. Cheers to making it on the board finally! On the way back home from bridge, I snapped this picture of times square (at around midnight!)

The rain

2011-03-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

reminded me of this:

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am in a thousand winds that blow,

I am the softly falling snow.

I am the gentle showers of rain,

I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush,

I am in the graceful rush

Of beautiful birds in circling flight,

I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,

I am in a quiet room.

I am in the birds that sing,

I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave bereft

I am not there.

I have not left.

-Mary Elizabeth Frye

...to the scotch bottle!

ps: Got this off this reddit. It is quite something to be faced with your own mortality. I highly recommend reading the whole post.

Too soon

2011-03-02T20:09:00.000-08:00

I think I gushed about squash a bit prematurely in the previous post. See? The problem is squash butt or DOMS (read more about this here). I have created this post just for future reference for when I cannot sit at my desk for more than 30 minutes at a stretch. Even climbing stairs is quite an ordeal and needs some planning to get done without wincing.

Squash

2011-03-01T17:45:00.001-08:00

I played squash today again after about 3 years. It was beautiful! I got creamed. Royally. I did manage to win the first set (while my opponent was still adjusting to my playing style). Once partner figured out my style, it was quite downhill. It was fun. However, its not much use if I do not learn from my mistakes and improve. So here are a few things I should work on improving:
1) Get to the center of the court more often.
2) Take services further up in the court to kill the advantage that a good service creates.
3) Build stamina! I was panting around like a dog before the third game which does not bode well for playing someone for an hour.

New year

2011-02-13T11:59:00.000-08:00

The new year has brought a lot of new things. I have started playing bridge again -- it is a lot of fun even if I am the youngest guy in a room full of 30-50 people! I am finally thinking about getting to use all the cold weather running gear I bought and the bike I purchased on a whim. Spring is around the corner and things seems good. It is true, the hair is a lot thinner on the head, the pants seem to have shrunk and mysteriously tightened around the waist. There are things happening. If anything, I seem to have become even more experimental about things. I think a smartphone encourages exploration (while the battery lives!). I had a couple of startup ideas that I have carefully filed away for future use. Things are still the same though. Still single. Still thinking about how things could have been different. Still thinking about how to *make* things different. Still thinking.

Time

2010-11-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted anything here -- about time to amend that. We are officially now into the cold season and the resolve to run through the winter is already wavering. No matter the fact that I know that I have enough stuff to see me safely through most of winter and no matter the fact that I set my alarm everyday for 5am, I still manage to convince myself that venturing out in this cold is crazy and for the really stupid and go right back to sleep.
I have been having a more productive time at work because of all the sleep though. In other news, I finally gave in and got me a smartphone. My earlier phone would keep turning off since there was some loose connection between the battery and the phone. This phone is really awesome! It shows me my email, news and facebook feeds and any other darn thing I might be interested in and also has a ton of games. It is quite similar to the earlier phone in that it is off come midday though -- because the battery is drained.
Last weekend was also quite a lot of fun -- went to see the Colbert/Stewart rally and ran into some great company along the way. There were some really amazing signs at the rally that have made their imprint in my mind. Here is a sampling -- "This is a good sign", "Boehner killed my boner", "[citation needed]" among others. Still recovering from the weekend. Lets hope the coming few weekends are as much fun!

Biking

2010-10-26T04:54:00.000-07:00

I just bought a road bike. Just in the sense that its been ~a month. However, I just took it for its first spin in the park. I did not realize the sheer amount of crap that one needs to purchase before getting in the saddle and riding. Since this bike comes with clip-on pedals, I needed to purchase cleats. Since it is a road bike, I would need a whole set of stuff from a air pump to a patch kit. Plus, given that I bike in the dark most of the time, I would need lights for the bike. All this makes you realize how relatively pain and purchase free running is. After all the purchases were made and I started to question the whole idea of owning a bike, I finally rode the bike today.
It was fun! I was not too fast and my quads and hamstrings killed me through the ride (central park is waaay hillier on a bike than on foot!), it was quite a lot of fun to have wind in the face and to realize that what would take me the better part of an hour on foot takes a little less than half that on the bike. I still need to improve my stamina on the bike, but I am guessing that will come with practice and time spent in the saddle. For now, I am enjoying it.

Form

2010-10-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

It is good to learn how to do something in good form before even doing it. This applies to everything in life, but, case in point is running. I have always been the jump into things and figure out as you go along-kind of guy. I started running because I was too lazy to swim and could not find people with enough free time to play squash with. It was just exercise, something to get my mind off work in grad school and as distractions go, it started to grow. A lot. I ran like crazy in grad school (which I realize now, looking back) and all the running helped me coast through the last calendar year when I did some crazy things. For example, I used to run really long runs over the weekend with little to no running over the weekdays.
This year, things are a bit different. For example, I ran a half-marathon from a cold start to begin my running season. That was not that good an idea -- I tweaked my ITB. I have been building speed and stamina since then though. As I run now (post-injury), I realize that form matters a lot. I have been doing a fair bit of reading and researching on this and find that the pose method seems the most scientific way to go about things. This is because it is result oriented and objective as opposed to some other schemes based off of postulates and assumptions. Google the phrase to get an introduction to the ideas behind the process. Here is a link to the book about the process, the interesting part is Chapter 10 onwards (the book is free to read through chapter 15). There are also multiple videos on youtube which back up the process -- look for videos with Romanov in them -- when other people present the method, they seem to resort to formulaic ways of thinking about it -- Romanov makes it objective and scientific and I think that helps. For example, here is his analysis of Haile's sweet running stroke.
Let us hope this post is useful to some of the reader(s?) of the blog.

Readership

2010-10-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

Going through the readership logs for this blog, I was quite surprised to see the huge uptick in the number of people visiting it. As I dug in, I realized that most of the hits were from people scanning all blogs (using the next blog button that blogger provides) to find good recipients of their spam. That is oddly reassuring. That this corner of the web is still safe enough to air my views on.

Oh my $Deity!

2010-09-29T16:33:00.000-07:00

This is the grossest thing I have seen in a long time. People who eat meat, please refrain from clicking on the link. In the meanwhile, India gets set up for one of the biggest days in its history of being a secular state. The whole mandir-masjid fight has gone on for way too long and it is good that the Supreme court feels that we should just make a decision and stick with it. Given the evidence, I seriously feel that the Sunni group should get the site and be allowed to erect a masjid (or whatever they want). Claiming that there was a temple at the same location a long time ago and so there should be a temple at that location now seems too weak to hold up in a court of law. Let us see how things go.
Against this backdrop, the whole commonwealth games fiasco seems puny. It does shame the Indian bureaucracy though -- at a global stage no less. Note that while the stadiums and the athletes village got put together is an eminently half-assed fashion, the gleaming new terminal built by GMR in a public-private partnership was a resounding success. This points to how America, India and China differ. (Most of) America is place that values private enterprise and believes that the government should be small. China is the other end of the spectrum -- everything is public and so, things are ruthlessly efficient. India tries to emulate the commies, however, the way forward in desh is really the middle-ground. Where the government enables private companies to do what is best for the whole country.

Strange things

2010-09-27T05:33:00.000-07:00

I am a photography nut -- which is why I lug around a huge camera. Of late, however, I have not taken any pictures at all. In fact, the last photograph I took was of myself for a visa. As an aside, did you know that you can take your own photographs for US visa's now? No need to go and pay someone good money for the deed -- take the picture, crop it to the specifications on the website, get it printed out at CVS and you are golden. My sister, got her photograph taken by a studio in Vizag and was sent out to get fresh photographs taken since the studio was not aware of the latest requirements! End aside. I still notice good pictures as I walk about from time to time. But strangely, the urge to carry the camera around is just not there. I just feel happy at having noticed whatever it was and then feel sad that I cannot share it with anyone and then move on to other things.

Stupidity

2010-09-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

While there is some credence to the claim that people were aware of the Sept 11 attacks before they happened (see the various reports about the CIA knowing about something and this, which in spite of the biased commentary presents true data), it is easier to attribute the shortcomings to stupidity than to malicious far-sighted planning a la what the Iranian premier talked about in my hood today. It is good that America has the first amendment. If someone had made similar statements about the Ayatollah in Iran, I would be taking out put options on him.

Interesting

2010-09-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

They have these lectures that people dedicated to exercise come and give at my workplace as part of the program to get us off our ass once in a while. Today, there was an MD who runs multiple triathlons on the side speaking about exercise and how it stresses the body. In the middle of the talk, he started talking about how he dates his shoes. He mentioned this like it was the most normal thing to do. I started thinking that he meant that he is obsessive and worries a lot about the type of shoes he invests in. Turns out, he writes the date that he first wears the shoes so that he can throw them away when he is through.

Gamechangers

2010-09-15T03:26:00.000-07:00

Life meanders along the flat plain turning and twisting on a whim. Till it meets the one hill that shapes the rest of its path. My life met one such hill over the weekend. My friend and I were walking along at ~2 am trying to get home and get some sleep. We passed a quartet of drunk girls no doubt scurrying along to their respective beds too. A second after they passed however, one of these girls turned around and threw something at us. That something caught my friend right in the temple. Turns out, it was a chicken bone and the girl was aiming for the dustbin and we just happened to be in the way. Either way, it was quite a traumatizing and strange experience. I am sure that going forward, I will make it a point to be more guarded with my wanderings about town that I currently go about in such uninhibited a fashion right now.

The US Open

2010-09-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

I went to the US open this weekend for the mens semis. This is a package deal and is the best offer that the USTA has for this event (in my opinion). We get to watch both the mens semis on the same ticket. Normally, one is assured of a good level of tennis at these games just because they are the semis. I really enjoy the tennis, but its the other stuff that you cannot watch on TV that make the experience worth the effort, time and money.
   The grounds are decked up -- the area looks desolate during the rest of the year, but for these two/three weeks, it looks awesome. They have multiple amusements about the park and these themselves can end up taking up a fair bit of time. Saturday was a beautiful day -- clear skies and about 70F. We showed up early for the event and walked about the park just taking in the atmosphere for a while before getting a bite to eat. We then made our way to Arthur Ashe, which is the largest tennis stadium in the world. I am sure that the USTA has problems with putting up a movable roof for this exact reason -- the stadium is huge! We got to our seats and realized that we had pretty good ones -- in the shade and with a straight-on view of the action. We were in the highest section though, so the game would be a bit far, but it was still pretty good.
   The first game was Nadal vs. Youzhny. It was expected to be a bust and it was. It was a revelation to see how much power Nadal puts behind the ball -- while a part of it comes across on TV, I think that watching it live makes it real. However, there were a few things that I carried away which make me hate Nadal. Small things like practicing service even after the umpire calls time and the other player has stopped, always being the last one to make the way to the court from the seat and other small stuff makes me lose respect for this guy. Anyway, he did away with his opponent almost on autopilot and breezed through the game. It was a nice touch that he mentioned 9/11 and the victims -- but its been 9 years! I think it can be given a rest now.
   Once this game was over, we got to the real one. But we were feeling really hungry by this time. So we went out and got something to eat (I got some panini which was quite bad) and consequently missed the player practise part of the game. As we settled into our seats, I noticed that Djokovic looked quite fit. My friend thought that Federer would lose, but we never thought that it would be from a lack of will. It was sad to see him miss all the forehand winners. It was sadder to see him not tweak his service when he was landing 40% of his first serves. It was saddest to see him apathetic to losing and not go for his shots on the big points. I might have built up Federer the player in my mind, but I thought that his defining characteristic was that he played sublime right when the moment called for it. Timing is something that is impossible to learn and Federer seemed to have it. Not for this game though.

Today

2010-09-08T04:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know what happened to me today. I woke up reasonably early -- still in good time for the morning run. Did not go out the door though. Told myself that it is too cold to go running even though it is nice and balmy out. Told myself that there are too many things to take care of even though I have not gone about taking care of any of the stuff.
I tend to do this. I waffle and do nothing when I am supposed to be doing things. Not that running or doing laundry or doing all the other stuff I have queued up is going to help with anything in the longer run. This does two things. Makes the stuff I have to do even more pressing. And, it makes me feel like I am setting myself up for cupping. Not good. Either one. So, its back to the grindstone for a while with me then.

Rakhi

2010-09-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

Living close to my sister has been a blessing. It is great to have family around -- especially for those days when one feels lonely and down. I was talking with my sister and mentioned to her that I don't know how fast/slow I run since I only own one watch. That watch is perfect, but it has a leather strap and that gets messed up if I sweat on it as leather is expected to. So, my sister bought me a throwback timex to help me keep time for my runs. The new watch works amazing though I have not had the chance to try it out as yet -- still resting the toe!

Vegetarian

2010-08-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

I am an ovo-lacto-vegetarian. It is hard keeping it that way. For example, I went to this sushi place yesterday. When asked what I wanted to eat, I asked for my options and told the server that I am vegetarian. She asked me, "No fish?" This is quite typical. Most east asian places consider fish a vegetable. Actually, even some bengalis do this. My advisor in grad school was on of these bengalis. While I am vegetarian, it is hard to put into words why I am vegetarian. It is not out of a deep seated sense of religion for sure. Most people I know would laugh at me if I told them that I was religious. It is not because I think eating meat is evil since cattle are reared in horrible circumstances for their meat. If so, I would have stopped eating eggs too. It is certainly not out of an aversion or an allergy for eating meat. I am sure I must have ingested some meat at some restaurant at some point in time. And I never blew up to twice my size or had a rash after a meal. So that is not it. Plus, I can certainly use the protein and the B-12. In fact, I have been diagnosed with (severe) B-12 deficiency multiple times in the past. It is not nice to be B-12 deficient -- B-12 is a "feel good" vitamin and having less of it obviously makes you fee bad. Couple that with all the crap that goes on from day to day and you have a recipe for sustained periods of moroseness or even full-blown depression. Not that I was depressed. But you get the idea.
I try not to eat meat for one simple reason alone. It makes me feel better as a person. I think thats the underlying reason people do the things they do. It makes the person happy or feel satisfied or gives a feeling of achievement. I have found that setting goals based on objective reasons is a great idea, but this often never works out since I will just go through the motions instead of internalizing the objective and linking my feeling of well-being with it. Sooner or later, I will crave exactly what I have cut out of my life and the goal will fail. Internalizing the goal is the only real way around this problem. Of course, one cannot do this with everything in life, but the big things merit the attention they deserve. So, if I feel better when I turn away that portion of boti kabab even though it looks pretty good and probably tastes yummy to boot, who is to stop me?

ps: Here is a link I found interesting.

Fun

2010-08-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

Work has been fun of late. We have been working on some models that are industry leading (not that the other stuff we do is not) and should make a big impact in the way things are priced going forward. Lets hope they are received nicely and people do not laugh them off! The days are getting shorter and cooler. It is almost perfect weather to be running. But I am not. The toe is sitting on my mind a lot nowadays. I have been reading about this stuff like a maniac. Turns out that cooling down properly is one thing that is critical to avoid bruises of this sort. This is because the heart is pumping blood like a firehose at your muscles when you exercise. When you suddenly stop, this blood has a propensity to pool up in your extremities and be reticent about getting back in the loop. This leads to bad things and should be avoided as much as possible. So cooling down will be on the menu going forward!

Picture and video

2010-08-25T17:25:00.001-07:00

http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?81707803

The mystery of the black toe

2010-08-25T04:57:00.000-07:00

Went to a doctor to get the toe checked on. I did some reading online about it too. Apparently, black toes are a badge of honor among runners. Who would have thunk? Sometimes, I think that these runner types are quite nuts. Since I was going to a doctor anyway, I decided to get my annual physical at the same time. Nice doctor -- was quite thorough. The best part of the doctor visit was that he took appointments starting at 5:30am! I was happy to get in and out by 7 and then headed to work like normal. I loved that part.

The strange part was that I had blood drawn again (for the annual physical part) and fainted again :) This can't be a coincidence anymore. Asked the doctor and he said its psychological. That I am scared of the thought of losing blood. That sounds strange since I have donated blood before -- and not fainted. Anyway, got some food and everything was back to normal in no time.

Turns out that I hurt myself on the toe while running and since circulation there is bad to start with, it has taken time to clear out. The doctor also said that I should start on aspirin as soon as possible since that is one drug that helps lengthen life.

Black

2010-08-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

In the name of the rose, one of the victims had a black tongue and this was considered to be the mark of the devil at the monastery. I have a black toe from the run. How is this to be interpreted? My sister (my private medical counsel) tells me that this is because of a clot that has congealed under the skin. It is quite painless. I have been icing the toe and babying it with no runs (short or long) for the past week. However, today, I was through with all that and ventured out for a run (more like a walk). Toe did not appreciate that. Things are back to black again.

MSF

2010-08-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

So, in the course of things, I sat through a 1 hour presentation on what MSF is, was and aspires to be. It was a colored narrative however, since the speaker is a practicing doctor (he is actually flying to Niger soon). The simple presentation of facts coupled with the economical and often, ingenious ways these people come up with solutions to some problems is worth applauding. Case in point is plumpy-nut. This apparently, is one of the most popular programs at MSF and is now used as a preventive rather than as a medicine for malnourished children.
What I will carry with me is the doctors story about how he delivered triplets on new year's eve and two of the three did not make it because the hospital did not have adequate man power to care for all three at the same time. Life is not fair.

Bronx

2010-08-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

Ran the half in Bronx today. The major target was to test out how the knee felt after so much of a break. Also wanted to see if the training helped at all or was I better off with my untrained self as earlier. Turns out that training helps on both counts -- the knee felt much stronger than before and I did not feel as wiped out as before. I did not really improve my time this time around, but it was a major confidence building measure.
  As confidence building measures go, it was a hard one for me. I did not realize that the course would be as hilly as it turned out to be. I think every long stretch was either climbing or getting off the hills. The out-and-back format was also quite sapping strangely. The water stations were quite well maintained though I would have liked more of them. I took some advise and downed my gels in the middle of the race and then at the three-quarters part. This helped counter the fatigue parts of the race. Though I felt a couple of twinges in the muscle that gave out the last time around, it seemed quite better this time around.
   At some point though, the race is just a matter of putting one foot before the other. All the other stuff is to ensure that one can keep doing this at a good enough pace with as little damage. So, if you do not really enjoy this activity, distance running is a bad choice. I have learnt to enjoy this activity since it suits me quite well. I am quite partial to repetitive, monotonous activity -- in fact, I revel in it. It gives life a steady metronome (or cadence if you like) to work off of.
   The interesting parts of life are the unexpected happenings though and here are a couple that I remember:
1) At the last mile, I was shadowing a lady in neon-green sneakers and a bright green shirt -- she seemed to have her pace set and I was hoping to "ride" her to the finish. All of a sudden, she stopped and I was puzzled. She seemed strong enough to finish another half-marathon if needed. But then, she started talking with this other lady, saying, "I have been trying to catch you for half the race. It does not count if you start walking. We have one mile left. Lets run." She then paced this lady for the rest of the race.
2) There is a hill at the start that I ran up very enthusiastically and consequently, lost most of my initial store of energy on. I then saw a guy run up with one of those cheetah prosthetic feet. That gave me enough energy till about half the race.

The movie

2010-08-12T17:52:00.000-07:00

The movie from this post is titled Arthur. The movie seems big-budget enough and generic enough to be a million other movies though!

Reading

2010-08-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a book by Murakami (strangely, the first by him that I am reading), because I had to buy something to meet the $25 limit to get free shipping. I had heard good things about him, but could never bring myself to read his books -- I always thought it would be over my head (most new fiction is too dense for me). This book however, is incredibly readable. That is my best characterization of the piece. It is not about anything major, but mostly, just a lifetime of reflections of things that are tangentially related to running sewn together by a coherent narrative. It almost feels like one is in conversation with the author's soul. Quite an interesting read.

Recaps

2010-08-10T05:18:00.000-07:00

Have transitioned the runnery posts to attackpoint (a website someone recommended to me to keep track of my training). This blog was never meant to be an archive of that stuff, so its better to put it there than here. However, given that running is about the most interesting stuff going on in life, most of the stories are linked to it too.
   Like how Sunday was a perfect day and I ended up in the park for about 6 hours during which I covered a lazy 12 miles. It was extreme amounts of fun -- and I have resolved to do this again. Especially the part where I took a long break between runs and dozed off for a bit while listening to some heavenly violin. I strongly recommend clicking on that link -- I have always been amazed to hear such good play in the park everytime I pass her.
   Or like how Thursday was so humid that it seemed like I was running with a sweat drenched blanked draped on my shoulders.
   Or how today I saw a huge line outside the apple store on 5th avenue on the way into the park. I was quite surprised since I am not aware of any new releases from the company. I thought about it on the run and could not figure it out. So, on the way back, I asked an old stooping man at the head of the line. He listened to my question with attention really trying to understand what I said. But, sadly he failed. I felt a bit sorry for him since the disappointment showed in his face. He then asked one of his companions to answer my question and she said in a halting voice, "To buy the iphone." Man! If I want one, I should get one soon! A few more hordes of Japanese tourist shoppers and all the iphones will be gone!

ps: I am not sure if I should feel happy or sad that someone visited this blog from farmville.

Hummus

2010-08-07T14:24:00.001-07:00

..as I have said multiple times, I love the stuff. However, I have had it way too often of late. Over the last week, I had it for a meal ~6 times. Just got back from another hummus and falafel meal. Not getting sick of it yet though.

More running

2010-08-07T06:02:00.000-07:00

If you guys have not noticed it yet, I have been on a tear about running of late. In a fit of the moment, I signed up for yet another half-marathon. The kicker is that it is next weekend. Which sucks. Since it means that I will miss one weekend of the summer streets festival. Lets hope I don't hurt my leg again!
We have a lot of free food at work. Most of it is crap like chips and soda, but often they have nice stuff like protein bars and other fitness stuff. I have started hoarding this stuff at work -- it tastes good and is heavy enough to satisfy for a long time -- thats a win-win for me.
Yesterday was the first time I ran with the small group that trains every Friday. Man! That was hard. Parts of my legs are still stiff from the run. Lets see if I can run tomorrow at all!

Not bad

2010-08-05T05:14:00.000-07:00

Given the lack of enough hours in the day, I have decided to start running early for the last week. So long, things are good. The first day I realized that it is best to run even earlier because otherwise, I run into traffic on the way back home -- mostly suits and they do not seem to appreciate the sweat stink I give out at the end of the run. So, made that change the second day (yesterday) and realized that one needs to be hydrated for a decent run.
The first sign that today might be decent was even before I realized it. I woke up and saw that it was getting light out -- so checked the time and saw that it was 4:44am. I normally set my alarm for 4:45am so I can be out of the house by 5 - 5:15 and back before 7:30am and then get off to work. Felt happy at having beaten the alarm for the first time in a long while. Got ready and headed out to a light drizzle. On a warm day, this felt heavenly. Got to the park to find it deserted since the drizzle had gathered strength to become a full-fledged T-storm. Ran anyway and got back at 7:45am. On the way back, met to colleagues from work -- gave them the totally wrong impression that I care about my fitness, got back home and am writing this up. So thats that.

Pain

2010-08-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

Trying to remove contact lenses after eating incredibly spicy hummus laced dinner = fail. I wish I could take my corneas out and wash them to stop them from burning.

Optimization

2010-08-03T17:20:00.000-07:00

Daily intake of gelato = 1 pint@500 calories per pint

Daily intake of hummus = 10 oz @ hazaar calories per oz

Daily intake of carbs = Lots of bread, sugar and cookies

Find min amount of exercise to keep current form. This is truly the best example of running fast to stay in place.

Why we blog

2010-08-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Amit Verma opines on why we blog. While I agree with his views, for the most part, there are other reasons for me:
1) It is a place to record the random and idiosyncratic that I come across. Everyone remembers the big things in their lives, but its the small stuff that make the lives worth living (in my opinion). Plus, since I am blessed with especially execrable memory, yeah, it helps.
2) It is an avenue to communicate. Most friends know me as quite reserved. Strangely, most of my friends know very little about me. It is just how I am built, I guess. However, this blog is where things are more open and available.

Conversations

2010-08-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

Missing summer in NY is sad. Actually, missing early mornings in NY is worse. This is when you see the city still recovering from the night and getting ready for the new day at the same time. Like the partyers I passed early today: Party guy 1, "Dude what time is it?", Party Guy 2, "6:30am.", Party Guy 1,"We really need to get to sleep!". Or the vocalist I heard going through his scales as I passed him. I am sure he was on his way to making some good money on Broadway today given how good his voice sounded even as he practiced.
It has been a while since I had time over which I had run consistently. I am trying to amend that, but work is playing spoilsport. Lets see how well I fare. As I took yet another break during my run, I sat on a bench next to a couple of middle aged ladies making conversation. We were right where the queue to get free tickets to Shakespeare in the park ends and as expected they started talking about this:
Lady 1: It has been a while since I saw this. Maybe we should join the line
Lady 2: I went last year and it was wonderful (editors note: I don't think I can convey how wonderful was said -- there was more stress on the w and f). There was a forest elf in the play and they had a small man, what do you call those?
Lady 1: Dwarves?
Lady 2: Yeah. They got him dressed as a magician to play the role. I didn't like that.
Lady 1: Why? That sounds nice.
Lady 2: Well, we all know magicians only do fake magic!
That was all the pretentious snobbery I could take for the day and started running from them. At the end of the run, I was psyched to see signs for the Summer Streets event this year. I loved it last year when it was in July and thought I had missed it this year around because of my long stay in India.

Summery stuff

2010-07-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

I like summer. Especially when it is nice and not muggy and hot. I have always been an experimental person when it comes to most stuff. So its not surprising that when I saw gelato with a chocolate jalapeno flavor, I bought it right away! It tastes surprisingly good! Also, frozen watermelon chunks work as a really good as an ice-cream substitute.

Sightings

2010-07-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

Living in a place like New York has its advantages. Especially, if you live around the midtown area. Like the time when I brushed past Sean Penn when he was in my office building trying to publicize something. Or like today when my whole office block was closed down for a film shooting. Looks like a big budget movie to boot. I refuse to take pictures of such occasions anymore and so, what I remember from memory will have to do for now. I do not remember the movie name or the names of the heroes/heroines, but here are somethings that I remember:
1) An office building that is named "Burt Johnson 9"
2) A storyline involving a rich guy who spends all his money buying up random stuff like the batmobile and the delorean from back to the future (I actually thought the delorean was awesome -- yeah -- I saw it first hand and actually saw it getting used as a prop). He then goes bust and does other stuff that I do not remember.
3) A black roof on lots of things -- though this might not be used in the final movie since it might have been just for getting the right lighting.
4) Plenty of pissed off movie folks when it started to pour midway through the day.
All in all, an interesting day.

Cleaning up

2010-07-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

Oh God no! Not the apartment. But the plate. See? I believe in finishing all the food put in front of me -- it is something I was taught as a kid (and ergo, I was a plump one) and have carried with me, since I think its good advice. It can sometimes be a problem at buffets, but those are special cases -- after three plates of food, I am normally too stuffed to look at another gulab jamun. Lately, however, this has been a bigger problem. Especially since my stomach seems to have decided that it wants to hit the ground first when I do push-ups. Not nice. And depressing to boot. Something has to change!

American and European options

2010-07-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

I know. Its geeky. But, I have always puzzled over the origins of the names of these options styles. I mean, why would the folks in Europe call the European option European? It seemed quite strange and all attempts I made to discover the "true" reasons for the names were quite futile. Till recently. I met a salty old veteran of the trade and he filled me in on one reason he thought the names were justified. See, the trains in Europe always run on time while the ones in America...

Donating

2010-07-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

Of late, there has been a force 5 hurricane level record number of people hitting on one common bright idea. Either, person is motivated by their girth fueled by eating as much food as said person can lay her/his hands on, or, person is motivated by the sad slowing down of metabolism as the years progress. Anyway, the basic effect is that more and more people are running. Not just running, there is this social organization that I thought was quite good (and still do -- just that my perception is a bit more jaundiced), Asha. It actually encourages people to run. It provides them training, which I think is critical if you intend to run any distance over a few miles, and motivation -- I personally believe that it is easier to run as a group than individually.
The only caveat is that Asha requires you to pay (forgive me, "contribute for a good cause") for this privilege. The amounts of money they charge range from $50 to $100 for each mile that you run in the race that you are enrolled for. The interesting part is that they actually ask the folks running to get their friends to donate to raise this money. This is the only part that I have a problem with. I can understand someone paying for their own personal benefit, but let us look at the cost-benefit analysis for the runner here:
Pro:
1) Start running, ergo better health and higher metabolism.
2) Sense of achievement at having run a race of some shape or form.
3) Enhanced social standing as people perceive that said jack(or jill)-ass is doing something good.
4) Further sense of achievement at having "raised" a decent amount of money for Asha.
5) Good training for the runs and company for the runs.
Cons:
1) Higher chances of getting hurt -- now that one is doing something more active than stare at a computer screen all day.
2) More time taken up by running and so, possible neglect for other stuff.

Here are the pros and cons for the folks who donate like me -- anonymous with anonymous amounts:
Pros:
1) Fleeting feelings of having done something good for the world.
Cons:
1) Lost money.
2) Perception as a cribbo when I type out this sort of a post.
3) Feelings of bitterness towards the actual runner for having twisted my arm into donating.

Really, how is this scheme better than something like amway where all one is buying is "rainbows and moonbeams" for the kids? I had to put this down so I can redirect future runners who ask me for money towards this page and then refuse. As an added plus, you kind reader, also have a place you can redirect people to subtly signal your opinion on the matter.

Privacy

2010-07-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

This is a sticky issue in most situations. Most folks I know know that I am quite an advocate of sharing stuff freely and making everything available to most. However, there can be problems with that. Recently, a friend of mine asked me to "hide" some of his photos that I have. A fair request. I thought a bit more about it and realized that most photos I have are public and most of these are of people (I sometimes shoot landscapes and other pretty stuff, but the people shots are far and away, the larger fraction of my photos) and that I have not gotten permission to share these photos from the subjects. So, I just made most of my photos on picasa private. I just could not bring myself to make photos from my undergrad alma-mater private -- after all, the photographers had asked me to put them up online in the first place! Anyway, all I am saying is that if you need access to particular albums, let me know and I will make it happen.

Old friends

2010-07-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

It can be quite awkward to run across old friends. One is often not at the same stage in life as the other person and the views and thoughts can be quite different too. The only thing one can really do in such situations is reminisce -- it is quite some extra effort to fully understand what the other person has been up to. While this is a big enough reason (in most situations) to renew old acquaintances, it is not really enough to carry the friendship forward. So, things fade from memory and we become non-communicating friends -- each person is aware of the other's existence and what the other person is up to, but there is not much motivation to reconnect and talk.

However, once in a while, one runs across friends that one was quite close to and the feeling is mutual. These are the situations when both parties feel that the extra effort is justified. These are exactly the friendships that last a bit longer -- that are renewed. I met an old school friend off facebook recently. We were in the same class in Kalimpong for about two-thirds of class IX (my family then moved to Hyderabad). We instantly hit it off. It is worth renewing a lot of acquaintances just because such things happen too.

This is so sad its funny!

2010-07-19T18:37:00.001-07:00

http://i.imgur.com/VG2cb.jpg

Rust

2010-07-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how soon you lose stamina and conditioning (not that I had much of either!). I ran a few miles yesterday and was panting like a dog after the first and was almost dead after another half a mile. I pushed through for about 4 total miles and then felt it throughout my body. My ankles hurt, shoulders ached and my abs and butt were killing me. I decided that this called for more conditioning and ran again today. Maybe I *am* a masochist.

The real story

2010-07-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

So, the story about the parrot flying away was always suspect. Especially, because it had clipped wings and could not fly for any distance -- it could only glide. Today, while chatting with my mother, I asked her if she had seen the parrot around since it certainly could not have flown far. That is when the full story came tumbling out.
Right after the neighbors told mom that the bird had flown away, their kid felt sad that they could not take care of the bird even for two days. The neighbors went away after that and mom started pining for the bird and started to feel morose in general and missed the bird a great deal. A while later, the neighbor-aunty came back and told my mom that the bird had flown off the veranda onto the ground floor where it had been snatched by one of the stray dogs in the neighborhood. She was mortified and very sorry -- but sadly, nothing could really be done.
When I heard the story, I felt really sad and empty for a bit. It was nice to see my mom indulge her maternal instinct and nurse the parrot back to health. They shared a bond and the parrot would, apparently, sit and have long "chats" with my mom. I feel really sorry for both the bird and my mom.

An escapade

2010-07-18T04:01:00.000-07:00

The parrot has left the building. Not from our house though. My parents were in Tirupati for the past 3 days and they entrusted the parrot to our neighbors with some food for it. Apparently, the bird did not like the neighbors house much. They *do* have a smaller place and lots of stuff and so its quite cramped in the flat. So, one fine afternoon, it flew out a window. The neighbors were mortified when they passed this information on to my mom. My mother now feels sad that the bird left. She keeps telling herself that this was eventually going to happen -- but it still makes her sad. I guess she will get used to it in a few days.

The Lakers

2010-07-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

The Lakers have been somewhat busy of late. Nowhere close to the manic deal-making the Heat have been up to -- but still, they have managed to go about their business. They recently signed the Fish back and managed to land Steve Blake. But this is probably not that good news for Shannon Brown. See, Shannon has a good heart. He, however, was getting scared of getting jilted by the Lakers seeing as he would be a free agent next season going by his regular contract. He had a player option, this year and with all the crazy names getting thrown around, you would think that Shannon could have done well for himself by exercising the option. So, Shannon did exercise his option. Strangely, he also made it quite clear that the only reason he was exercising the option was because he wanted to reach a longer term deal with the Lakers. But now, the Lakers have two (reasonably ok) guards and little need for him. Shannon seems to be screwed here. Thoughts?

New York

2010-07-14T04:59:00.000-07:00

I have lived in this town for 13 months now and I just realized that I have my zip code wrong. All my mail still gets to me and so I never realized the problem. It was only when I was looking up directions that I realized the problem.

ps: Pretzel bits and belgian beer make for an amazing dinner!

Memories

2010-07-13T04:25:00.000-07:00

It is my mother's birthday today. And I forgot about it till she reminded me. I suck. Bigtime.

Work

2010-07-12T17:06:00.000-07:00

It has been quite busy at work since I came back from India. Seeing as I spend quite a bit of time there, I have developed a few habits that keep me from going off the deep end from time to time. One of these, is reading quirky news. I have always had a fascination for the strange nuggets of news one sees. I guess it reaffirms my faith in humanity and gets me ready to face the next deluge of work. One good source of such news is here. This always seems to work at cheering me up whenever I feel a bit blue.
Other news I follow is sports related. Most mainstream news is more passing whimsy than something that I actively try and pay attention to. After all, I rationalize, I will come to know of this stuff eventually, learning about the other stuff is more work!

ps: Snyder's of Hanover has a surefire hit on their hands with the Jalapeno flavored pretzel pieces they have in stores right now! Can't. Stop. Eating.

...

2010-07-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

an additional addendum. Turns out that Mithu (the name my mom has bestowed on the parrot visiting our house in Vizag) loves almonds and atukulu in addition to his regular fare or samosas. Apparently, the other day, he gave my parents quite a scare. It is a habit in our house to take a good siesta after the afternoon meal and my dad is the biggest follower of this habit. So, my parents were happily snoozing away when something was scratching my dad's leg. He got up with a start only to realize that it was Mithu scratching his leg with his beak. My dad had used a bedsheet to cover himself as he slept and a part of it was hanging on the ground. Needless to say, my parents have been closing the bedroom door as they sleep since. Oh andhere are some pictures of Mithu that my mother took recently. Let me subtitle some of these pictures for you:

Wachulookinat punk? Come any closer and I will clock you in the nose!

Turn Down the darn AC!

Stop with these pictures or I will call pest control on you!

Back!

2010-07-08T04:16:00.000-07:00

As an addendum to the last post, I decided to actually go and open an NRE account too! Turns out that the two accounts have different benefits. Basically, if you will have someone paying you and want the tax etc. to be taken care of for you, open an NRO account. If you would rather deal in foreign currency and would like to transfer close relatives money tax-free (so that there is no double taxation), open an NRE account. It is all quite confusing.
   Thankfully, the lady at the bank recognized me the second time I went in (for the NRE) and waived most of the documents required. That was really nice of her and thats one thing in personalized banking's favor in my book.
   Got back to New York and damn! This place is hotter than India right now! It is raining back in India and things are nice and cool (if a bit humid). But this is horrible -- I am sweating in my clothes as I write this and its 7 AM! Maybe I should turn on the darn AC.
   In other news, my parents have a new pet. The day after I flew out, something small feathered its way into the house. A parrot. Poor thing was weak and could not fly. My parents fed it some fruit and other stuff, but apparently, it likes samosas better than uncooked food. Thats quite a cosmopolitan parrot! Now its regained its strength, but it still cannot fly. We suspect that the bird escaped from a chilakajyotisham guy (sorry, that does not translate) who clipped its wings to prevent it from escaping (ha!). It seems to be quite curious about stuff in the house and loves to climb up grills by pulling itself up by its beak and legs. Overall, my parents seem to be keeping occupied and are having some fun with it. Lets hope the bird gets strong enough to fly eventually.

Busy

2010-06-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

I have been busy as the proverbial bee of late. Work stuff always piles up when you least expect it! Anyway, the news is that I am on my way back to New York. My visa got issued and I just booked tickets back and expect to be at my place over the long weekend. It will be nice to reacquaint myself with the place and all the stuff that comes with it, though I will be sad to miss all the home-cooked food and yummy stuff from outside that I have so gotten used to over the past month and a half.
I finally opened an Indian banking account. Its quite confusing actually since there are three choices you have:
1) A "regular" account: Credit/debit in rupees. Needs proof of residence, a photograph and a PAN* card. Is easiest to open of the three here and the least hassle of the three to maintain.
2) An NRO (non-resident ordinary) account: Credit/debit in rupees. Needs proof of residence in your "home" country, photograph, local proof of residence (your father's proof works just fine if the address on your passport is different from the one you want to associate the account with) and a copy of your passport/visa. Is a bit of a pain to open.
3) An NRE (non-resident external) account: Credit/debit in home currency. Needs the same proofs as an NRO account.
The finer points are explained on the net -- here is a sample. I opened an NRO account with SBI. I am quite pleasantly surprised by my experience at the bank. It was not as painful a process -- the workers there actually went out of their way to make it smooth and convenient. In addition, I have internet and mobile banking associated with the account for free and find it quite convenient to use. Score one for smooth banking in India!

No fear!

2010-06-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

My sister left for New York yesterday. It was really nice to spend time together after such a long time -- who knows when we will be able to do this again. Since Vizag is such a small town and since its airport is submerged whenever it rains and since this is the rainy season, we decided to play it safe and take a train to Hyderabad from where she boarded her flight. However, since I am supposed to be working from home, I could not make the trip and said my goodbyes from Vizag itself. My dad chartered a car to drop them off at the railway station and I went along for the ride and for any additional help they needed in lugging the two huge suitcases my sister was carrying with her. We stuffed all the luggage in the car and started off to the station. The driver was seemingly from another planet -- he zipped and jumped lanes like he was born on the streets and got us to the railway station in a matter of minutes.
After unloading the luggage, making sure everyone was seated in the train and saying my goodbyes, I started on my return journey back home. Again, the driver zigged and zagged like there was not tomorrow. I asked him how and where he learnt to drive the way he was driving. He said, "Sir, to drive in these streets, its hard to keep worrying about accidents and feeling scared. I have learnt that the only way to drive in Vizag is to drive with no fear." I fell silent for a while as I pondered his deep words.

It is time

2010-06-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

I think it is time. I have waited for so long in my life for this. Early on, I used to crave and miss its influence in my life. I used to think that people with it were somehow happier, more complete and fuller, that it would be nice to join this select group. I used to read up about it, think about it and weigh the pros and cons of joining this group. Agreed, I would have always been a late-comer to the group -- membership is hard to pay for on a students stipend -- but I still felt that joining this group would be a good thing.
But then all the other stuff happened. I was too tied up to move. Everyone around me joined the group and it ceased to be as select anymore. And finally, the horror stories started. Of overload, strain and things blowing up. People started to look at people in the group like they were sheep -- just following the trend.
Now, I am finally ready to join this group. I think I have found the best partner to help me enter this group. And now, I am conflicted. Should I get the iPhone 4 or should I wait for a better Android based phone?

The mango post

2010-06-13T18:22:00.001-07:00

It has been raining every single day here. As most of us know, that means bad things for the mango season. So, with a heavy heart, I will try and summarize my mango eating season here for posterity.

Total Number = Lets call it about 50 -- averages out to about 2-3 mangoes every single day I have been here.
Best Mango Had = The big juicy rasalu I had yesterday. The mangoes are getting bigger and sweeter by the day.
Worst Mango Had = In retrospect, the first few were a bit sour. I still really liked them since they were the first few!
Highest Count in a Single Day = 4.
Lowest Count in a Single Day = 1 (when I was traveling).

Fainting

2010-06-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

So I fainted today! Since I am stuck in India, I decided to get my blood tested seeing as I keep deciding to get this done but never do it stateside (even though it is totally free!). So we (my dad came with me -- we both got tested together) ate early and headed out bright and early for the test at ~7am. I gave blood and as I was giving it, noticed something strange. There was very little pressure -- normally blood is supposed to spurt out as soon as the syringe is poked into the vein -- but that was not the case this time. The guy had to really suck the blood out. I thought this strange. As soon as the guy was done and handed me a blob of cotton to press down on the incision, I stood up and walked out to the reception area to wait for my dad to give his blood too. While I sat there, I noticed things getting bright, really bright and then starting to go dimmer and darker. I thought it was because of the hunger and steeled myself against it. The next thing I remember is thinking that there was something strange going on -- something not feeling right. As I opened my eyes, I noticed a couple of people around me -- apparently, I had fainted for about 30 seconds there!
The tests were all normal and we now write it off to standing up and walking right after the blood taking operation. However, this is not the first time I have fainted -- I fainted the last time I gave blood in India too! So maybe its the sight of blood that does it for me? My sister's other hypothesis is that the smell of ether makes me nauseous. That is possible -- however, I don't think I want to test that hypothesis anytime soon!

Heat

2010-06-11T03:59:00.000-07:00

I have been in India for the past few weeks courtesy a delay by the consulate folks. The hope is that things get sorted out soon. In the meanwhile, I have been trying to make the most of the time I have here (who knows when I am going to have the time to come here for so much time again!). Visited a whole bunch of temples, relatives and all other sort of folks, have been eating a *huge* quantity of home-made food and have been having a lot of fun in general. Tomorrow, my father and I plan to get our blood tested. Let us see how the body withstands the load that I have put it under this past month!
The heat here has toned down to a slow simmer. That does not mean that you stop sweating. Just that it takes you till about 30 minutes after you have showered to get drenched in sweat as opposed to the instantaneous thing earlier.
Have been religiously thulping mangoes. In fact, the mango seller actually recognized me the last time I was there. Food in Vizag is not bad. There is this awesomely named place called Venkatadri Vantillu next to our place which has one of the truly novel new south-indian foods I have tasted in a while -- they serve a sponge dosa. It is a light and fluffy pancake type thing which soaks up sambar like a sponge. I think I know a few people who will appreciate this :)

The eagle has landed

2010-05-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

So here I am in trusty old Vizag typing this up in the death of night (2am) since I cannot sleep and for want of something better to do than to toss and turn around in the bed all night. The flight over was interesting. To mix things up, I picked a different meal option on each flight of my trip and of the ones I have had till date, I like the lacto-ovo veg meal most (even better than the Hindu veg etc). This is mostly for their desserts -- having the ability to work with milk and eggs and not to be confined to Indian cuisine, opens the floor up to stuff like chocolate mousse etc which is quite welcome when you are on a 13 hour hop with 4 bawling infants in an epsilon-neighborhood of you.
One of the mothers to said infants got so pissed off at the poor kid that she screamed and beat him up -- right there -- in the cabin! Needless to say, most of the passengers and the cabin crew were mortified and did not know what to say or do. It was quite funny in retrospect. Emirates has good service -- it was nice, painfree and smooth for the most part. Except for the part where they have a 23kg restriction on each bag checked in and some stupid checking in crew. I was only carrying one bag to check in -- however, in anticipation of carrying back stuff for my sister, I had stowed another full check in bag inside the first. When the staff started to make a fuss about my bag being overweight and all that, I just unpacked the other bag, transferred over some stuff and checked in. Needless to say, the staff was quite surprised at the developments!
It is hot here! However, the mangoes are real nice and juicy right now -- so I guess that makes up for things. Lets see how things go..

Weather

2010-05-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

I believe we appreciate good weather more when we are older. I remember countless days just whiled away while I was younger. Maybe it was just that it took more than just good weather to cheer me up back then. I was a demanding child to say the least -- that I was the oldest boy child on either of my parents sides probably added to that. However, as I get older, it takes lesser and lesser to get me in good spirits.

Good books, a good run, meeting friends, watching a good movie or just watching random people play baseball (or was it softball?) in the park -- any of these are good enough. Lately, good food has been slipping off that list. However, the upcoming trip to India should fix that!

ps: Its gelato season!

Connections

2010-05-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

Last year about this time, I was really looking for a job. Things were bleak. My thesis needed finishing. My advisor was riding me for that last new result, the final paper for the thesis. The economy was amazingly screwed up. There were no jobs. In the midst of all this, I found seemingly the perfect position for myself. This was a job at a small startup/hedge fund which did weather derivatives and was based out of SF. I needed an "in" to get started with a firm like this and after some research, reached out to this guy, Kittu. He was a senior at IITM (Mech) and is now at NEA. He also seemed to be on the board at the weather firm and graciously helped me out by forwarding my resume on to the firm. Later, I got an interview, however, was not deemed to be a "fit". Eventually, I got offers from other places, but I always remembered Kittu for how he helped me out.

Lately, I have been going through a reading phase and the latest book I have been reading is "The New New Thing" by Michael Lewis. It is about this one guy who founded Netscape and then went on to found a few other interesting startups. Apparently, one of the people this guy respected most for his software skills is Krishna "Kittu" Kolluri. As I read the book, I remembered the name and dug through my email, looked on linkedin and reached the conclusion that these guys are one and the same.

Interesting..

Chocolate

2010-05-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Most people I know know that I like chocolate. Not totally love it, but really like it. I might even have written about this earlier on this blog. In fact, I should qualify that. I like dark chocolate -- I cannot stand the sweet versions though, if my life depended on it, I would eat it.

So, traditionally, I always get chocolates in the 60-85% range. This, I have found out, is the kind of chocolate I like. Yesterday, on a whim, I bought some 99%. I was skeptical about it for a while, but when I ate it I still expected to like it. Unfortunately, it was not to be. It tasted like crap. Dog crap. I do not understand how people can eat it and appreciate it for the taste. I really do not know how I am going to work through the rest of the bar. Maybe it is going to give company to the sake flavored ice-cream that has been sitting in my fridge for ages now.

On the flip side, I had some amazingly awesome rainbow cookies the other day and believe that I have found the best bakery for these after some extensive hunting around the island.

Interesting

2010-04-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

Have been having an interesting few days. Professionally, things are looking good. All the hard work that I have been putting in has started to get noticed and I am happy to get to work on some quite interesting problems. Some interesting opportunities have also popped up and I have been looking though quite disinterestedly.

Finally finished up with the tax thing. It was not as bad as I expected it to be given the two state thing etc. Finally ended up owing one state and getting refunds from the remaining. Have had a strange money issue though. I recently wired some money to my parents in India. This is something I have done without any complications earlier. However, this time around, things are just frozen. BofA has debited the money from my account, but it has not arrived in India yet. This has been ~3 weeks in the process and I have lost hope of the money getting to India now. Lets hope they are able to figure this thing out and fix the messed up system they have.

On another front, have not been exercising lately. However, that message has not reached my appetite as yet. I am voraciously devouring snacks at work. Maybe there is some truth to that NYT article that recently came about.

I have also had some fun with the whole Goldman thing and all the stories that people are spinning around it. It seems quite juicy and seems like a good reason to stay away from any financial stocks for a while.

Oh! I am eagerly awaiting the announcement of the iPhone 4G -- I would buy the phone in a heartbeat -- it looks quite good judging by the snaps on gizmodo.

That will be the end of this long, rambling, unconnected mess of a post.

Popcorn

2010-04-10T10:42:00.001-07:00

I don't know why people throw away their unpopped corn (if you pop yours at home that is). It tastes awesome to me and is the part of the bag of popcorn that I look forward to most!

Hectic

2010-04-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted anything here. The major reason has been that I have been too busy to do much posting. The NY Times did this study that concludes that people blog lesser when the weather out is nice and I would agree. But its not just the weather that has been nice. I have also been meeting friends, doing interesting things and having fun in general. Overall, it has been nice.

On Thursday, I and a friend visiting from out of the city went to the taping of the Colbert report. It was a lot of fun. Part of it was the great weather -- which is the reason we ended up going early and getting really good seats. My friend got picked on in by a comic before the show and we had an awesome question and answer session with Colbert (with the t!) before the actual taping. He was out of character in the Q&A and came across as a smart and well put together guy. I also ended up doing my first night run. That was yesterday. The weather was really warm and I got home late from work (as usual!). I felt like doing something and went for it. It was strange but interesting. I might do it again soon -- lets see.

Oh and belated Birthday wishes to the most regular reader of this blog! Without you, I would probably have stopped this thing a loooong time ago Naveen! Hope you had a good time and talk to you over the weekend.

Oh, and finally, here are photos from the weekend.

Yesterday

2010-03-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an interesting day -- it was one of those days that can only happen in a place like New York which is why I am happy to be here as compared to most other places in the world. I started off with a nice long run in the brisk weather followed by a lot of walking about in a museum. This lead to a hankering for a ton of food (this has been happening a lot lately -- maybe I am pregnant??). This hankering was satiated by a nice dinner with friends who showed up at just the right time for the dinner to happen and then vanished from the scene. Then met up with a few other friends, hung out for a bit, tasted a couple of interesting single malt scotches, and decided to head out and listen to some good music. Landed up in a jazz place with a few other friends and as the set went on, we heard an interesting medley of trumpet and sitar with the tabla. It worked quite interestingly. All this hanging out and jazz made us hungry again and we ended up destroying amazing falafels and tasty kati-rolls on the way back home to sleep.

Beer

2010-03-27T06:07:00.000-07:00

Am having some beer after a very very long time and it is totally worth it. Trappist ales are really God's gift to man after a long day at work! Oh and before I forget and before the folks at brightroom take this link down, here I am looking wimpy at the end of a long run..

Before I forget..

2010-03-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

let me jot down my thoughts from the marathon. I was too out of it yesterday to objectively think about the various things going through my head and write them down -- so here goes.

I started the day off bright and early. I was slightly scared and quite full of myself even two days before the run, but as the day approached, I started double guessing everything. Maybe buying new running shoes was not the best idea right before a run? Maybe I should have run more in the rain -- especially given the forecast? etc etc. All these thoughts left me with little sleep. I "woke up" (which means that I got off the bed since I couldn't sleep much) at ~5:30 am and as usually happens in such situations fell into the deepest of slumbers right as I had to really wake up. Finally dragged myself off the bed at ~6:30am for a 7:30am run. The rest of the morning is a blur till I found myself in a cab on a surreal journey. Madison avenue was packed with cabs at 7am. Each of these cabs was packed with mortified runners scared of missing the singular event that had shaped the last few days of their existence.
   De-taxied, walked through the maze of port-a-potties to the actual start line. This was the moment I first regretted not carrying along a light jacket since things were really quite chilly. Given the time that I expected to finish in, I was (quite-rightly) placed at the very end of the pack. In fact, there were no people behind where I was standing.
   It was strange to see people of all shapes and sizes try and stretch out every single muscle, sinew and tendon in their body as if in a grotesque opera to extract every last ounce of performance out of their body. As the time ticked closer to 7:30 am (the official start of the race), people started to clump together. Finally, 7:30 am came around. Nothing really happened. Our group started the long slow amble towards the start line and finally got there at about 7:50am (I remember the race clock reading 18:03 minutes from the "start" of the race). I was stuck between a cute girl with wiry hair who alternated between walking like a duck and hopping along on her toes and a group of boisterous moms who were shouting out encouragement to any and every person who crossed their path. There is nothing wrong with cheering people on, but somehow this one particular lady started to get on my nerves toward the end of the ordeal though.
   And we were off! Rather, we stopped ambling along and started a lazy jog since there was no real place to run. The whole road was a solid mass of humanity. It was hard finding the zone since you could never stop thinking and just run. I had to keep looking for openings in front of me and look out for people behind me. The whole run in the park was quite jampacked.
   Just as we were getting used to the crowd, we were asked by the officials to bunch up even closer together. I really wondered why. Soon, I saw a van with two guys with cameras hanging off of it taping a couple of guys in a flat out sprint. Turns out that these guys were done with 6 miles in ~25 minutes. Thats faster than I can bike on most days! The hills in the park rolled around finally and I overtook a fair bit of the crowd that I started with. I was starting to feel good (the nice feeling one gets from running, the one I have missed since last year) started to suffuse back. The amazing intensity in the crowd kept me on my toes. I have always been used to taking breaks between my runs -- I run about 2-3 miles tops between short walking breaks. I totally did away with these and noticed that I was keeping a good 10 min/mile pace for about the first 3-4 miles of the route. I later realized that the park was the hardest part of the run -- the rest of the route is quite flat and switched gears to conserve as much energy as possible for the second half of the run.
   About mile 7, I started to feel my knee acting up. I slipped the brace on. This helped things for a bit. I also got my mind off it and thought about other things -- like the sun that was starting to burn down. Keeping this in mind, I started to gulp down gatorade and water like no one's business. This might have helped me avoid a sunstroke later in the day when we were running without shade in the sun.
   At mile 8, we got out of the park and started our way down 7th Avenue towards Time Square. This was one of the best sights I had seen. Amazing! Everyone was cheering people along -- I was offered a bite of a pretzel, a ton of drinks etc, but the best part was the gels. These worked wonders -- especially given the starved (un-breakfasted) state that I was in. About 5 minutes after thulping the gel (around mile 10), I could feel a chill down my spine and caught a second wind. This is pretty much what drove me to the finish.
   Just as I saw the finish line however, my leg started to cramp up. Luckily, I could slow down just enough to make it across the finish line with no major incidents, but the twinge kept coming back through the last few steps. Like a good newyorker, I took the subway home, showered, ate and crashed the rest of the day away. It is ~36 hours since the run and I can say that most of the effects of the run are finally behind me. My knee feels functional again. In fact, how about a run once the rain stops?

The big run

2010-03-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

It was almost anti-climactic. Like any good blockbuster, there was some drama towards the end but on the whole, not the horrible experience I expected. I will have to wait a bit for official results, but by my seat of the pants reckoning, I was in the 2:20 range which is really quite good given that once I stopped running, I had trouble even flexing my left knee! Here are somethings I should remember to do the next time around:
1) Eat breakfast. I woke up late and dashed to the start line with no food inside me. It was all fine and dandy for the first few miles, but towards the end, I started cramping up a little bit. It was pure adrenaline that carried me over the finish line.
2) Run this half-marathon again. It was great! 8 miles in the park followed by a run through times square. It was really awesome -- except for the running part.
3) Start slow. It being my first timed run, I was quite psyched up and consequently, even though I was telling myself to go slow, ended up going quite a bit faster than I intended to.
4) Prepare more. Maybe then these niggles and other smaller issues will not be that much of a problem.
5) Always pee before the run starts. This one is obvious.
6) Take ipod. I thought it would be nice to listen to the crowd around me. Towards the end of the run, I realized that this is actually quite distracting -- I kept turning my head to see some random people cheer someone else. All this wasted time adds up.
7) Volunteer to work for the NY Road Runners. All the food/fluid stations were immensely helpful! I cannot thank the good folks who took time out of their day to help out enough.
8) Dont try out new shoes for a race. This was not that much of a problem since my legs are quite screwed already. However, I could have avoided the additional uncertainty that this entails.

Overall, I feel quite fine. As I said, the knee is a bit sore, I have chafing behind the knee (from the brace) and at other assorted places. The strangest thing though, is that my biceps hurt! Maybe I was really swinging the arms too much?

Edit: The results are out!

Runner	Bib	10K	15K	20K	Finish
Vedantam, Satish	15076	1:03:22.45	1:33:40.99	2:06:46.33	2:13:16

Unprepared

2010-03-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

There have been way too many instances in my life that have left me feeling like I was totally unprepared or underprepared for how situations unfolded. Today presents the latest of these. I am scheduled to run a half marathon in the city tomorrow and my longest run of late has been about 3 miles. Plus my knee is acting up. I still plan to run with a brace that I have had forever for the knee. Lets see how things go.
I have also been reading the Lehman report that recently came out. The sheer vastness of the information that the auditor had to plumb and the prehistoric screening techniques he employed leaves me feeling strangely uncomfortable with trusting the report itself. It does have some gems like the famous "Repo 105/108" and its borderline legalness and how Lehman moved from the moving business to the storing business. The best part of the report is the claim that there is a case against JP Morgan and Citi for how they aggressively withdrew credit lines and demanded more collateral to do business with Lehman. The new few months should be interesting to say the least.

It is a beautiful day

2010-03-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

and we had a lot of fun. Of course, most of the fun was of a kind that is too geeky. Like trying to figure out what is wrong with an old laptop that had a bad hard disk and trying to boot it off a flash drive with Linux on it. Almost made me want to rename it to lunix since it drives you loony when things fail. This is one of the reasons I like apple products. Its not that I dislike linux, I really like the functionality it gives you and the sense of empowerment. But, the whole fix things and figure them out for yourselves is fine when you are in school and have all the time you want (or are willing to take away from work) -- this becomes a problem as soon as you start working though.

Finally

2010-03-02T17:41:00.001-08:00

I have new running shoes! I just realized that running shoes are actually supposed to help you and make you feel comfortable -- these shoes feel like I am running on a cloud! So much better than the last pair I had. Strongly recommend new balance (the brand) to everyone!

Weather

2010-03-02T03:48:00.001-08:00

It has been crazy lately. Towards the end of last week, it snowed like there was no tomorrow and today it is sunny and warm like a May dawn. It is also supposed to rain tomorrow and snow day after. Great! Flu, here I come!

Shipping update on the shoes

2010-02-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

It looks like I am destined to get these shoes late!

Number:------------- Status: Exception
See description below
Shipped To: NEW YORK, NY, US
Shipped/Billed On:02/25/2010
Type:Package
Service:GROUND
Weight:2.60 Lbs
Location Date Local Time Description
MASPETH, NY, US 02/26/2010 11:00 P.M. EMERGENCY CONDITIONS BEYOND UPS' CONTROL

Best burger in NY

2010-02-26T20:29:00.000-08:00

The veggie one of course! Today I had it -- at Hillstones. It was so awesome that I almost forgot the one I had at Universal's next to Cherma's in Secunderabad. Almost.

Good service

2010-02-25T02:43:00.000-08:00

So, I mentioned that I had ordered new running shoes earlier right? I read up reviews on the shoes I ordered online (the MR993's) and realized that they run true to size. By default, when I order running shoes, I always order a half size up since that seems to be how the shoes are designed. Also, when you have ~200 pounds of force pounding your foot into the pavement, it is bound to give a bit. Apparently, these shoes run true to size. So, I sent the guys at road runner an email asking them to step my order down to 12D's instead of the 12.5D's I ordered. All this happened on Sunday. By Monday, I had an email telling me that my order was cancelled and that I should order a fresh pair if I wanted a new size. That is good service!
So now, I went and ordered a new pair online and it looks like the shoes will be here just in time for me to wear them around the house and enjoy the blizzard outside. Great!

New shoes

2010-02-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

The training has started in earnest of late. Have been having regular 6-8 mile runs and have started to feel good about the process. The only part of my not feeling good about the process seem to be the feet which have started to kill me. I blame it on the shoes I currently trudge my runs on. I have had these shoes for a zillion years and they have seen about a thousand miles (conservatively speaking). There are big gaping holes in the front of the shoe (technically called the toe box) from my style of running, I guess. So today, I got new shoes. Can't wait for them to arrive and for me to begin the breaking in process. Hopefully, they are fully broken in before the run.

Resumes

2010-02-18T18:44:00.000-08:00

No. I am not hunting for another job (though if you are offering me one, we can talk). I have recently been put "in-charge" of screening resumes for a vacant position in my group at work. Originally, when I first got this responsibility tagged to all the stuff I already do (?), I was happy -- after all, having been on the other side for such a long time, it is nice to know that the fate of so many people now sort of depends on you. I was happy with this assignment an plowed into it at full speed.
That was about when I started to realize a few things about most of the applicants for most job postings. Let me summarize my findings here for you:
1) If the position is an internship, >66% of the applicants will be people who just got into school for their undergrad degree. After all, these are probably the most internet savvy of your applicants and God knows, they have the raw energy, the time and the motivation to go through the process of applying for every single avenue of money after having taken out that huge student loan.
2) About 20-30% of your applicants will be people who just enrolled in a post-graduate degree. The motivation here is quite similar 1) above. However, there is one small difference between applicants of type 2 and type 1. While applicants of type 1 know that they don't know anything and so will be employed for the menial tasks, applicants of type 2 do not. They actually think that just by virtue of enrolling in a program of study, they are entitled to claiming that they know and can hold a cohesive conversation in the subject.
3) You will be hounded to death (and then some) by glorified brokers who get a scalping fee for every single candidate they can get hired. These people can be quite persuasive in convincing you about the relative merits of a candidate even if he is totally unsuitable for the job.
4) The hiring system at the firm will always be the worst designed POS software ever written. You will still be expected to remember the details of every single candidate that you ever made a decision on and have total recall.

I have a ton of other stuff to vent about, but in the interest of keeping things short (and civil) I will stop now and pour myself a glass of good scotch.

People

2010-02-18T05:43:00.000-08:00

Historically, I have had a ton of people drift through my life. Each person drags (even if its temporary) my consciousness (woo! ISKON'y) in a different direction. When this happens about every six months to you, even if you are the most extroverted person in the world, you start to draw a bit into your shell. You get tired of getting dragged every which way. You get tired of the transience of your acquaintances. You get tired of the permanency of their imprint on your soul. You wisen up and choose your friends more carefully. You do not share everything about yourself with anyone, even your parents. It is fun to open up and be more frank about yourself with the people you have known for a while though -- they are the ones you count on for everything going forward. Let's hope I can get there from where I stand at now.
In other news, I still have to start preparing for a half marathon that is about a month from now. I look forward to the training kicking my ass.

New year

2010-02-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

So its finally a new year! It is finally sinking in that this is going to be the 30th year of my existence on this awesome awesome planet. Sometimes, I feel that I have not done justice to the whole lot of time I have spent here. Agreed, I have done well enough on the academic front, I have a reasonable education and a satisfying job. But then, thats not all there is to it. I have had plans to visit Machu Picchu for a loong long time for example. Over the weekend, there were mudslides on the train route connecting Agua Calientes with the location and it is estimated that this is going to be closed for a while. Maybe, its time to just make plans and go for them?

Over the past few days, I have been working really too hard -- in the hopes that these ghosts of failures past do not haunt me anymore. But that is not how it works is it? I still cannot get a good nights sleep and I am turning into an insomniac. One of my friends (highly educated) is thinking of moving fields to animation. I think that is a great idea! He is a very original and creative person and I think he will do well for himself. I have spent several agonizing hours about how I have wasted the many great opportunities I had in life. But then, its not about looking backward but about looking forward. So here is to a great new year!

In some respects, I have been the quintessential guy. I cannot believe that I have survived this long with two plates and two glasses for all the flatware I had. But then, since I never cooked, this was fine. However, lately, things are slightly different. Sometimes I do not feel like eating out. Sometimes I feel reclusive. Sometimes the best place in the world is with my back to the heater with a good book in my hands (The lost symbol of late). I feel like reading books again. Life is getting back to what it was.

January's post

2010-01-31T16:54:00.000-08:00

So I did something sort of stupid. I got too carried away with my running over last year (I stopped as soon as I had that experience in the cold and got my sneakers wet). I just started again last week and promptly got a cold and a very sore throat. I have sort of recovered and need to start running again to make up for this stupid thing I did. On a whim, I registered for this half-marathon lottery. Unlike regular lotteries, where you have a very small chance of "winning", this lottery apparently had a 100% acceptance rate. So, long story short, I am scheduled to run a half marathon on March 21 and am scared out of my skin for it. Let us see how this goes.

On other fronts, I have grown out my hair for a while now and its just about at the stage where it is annoying. Lets hope I live through it and dont decide to chop it off again. I am also in the process of deciding whether to get a 3G or a 3GS. Any suggestions?

Christmas

2009-12-30T05:39:00.000-08:00

Hope all (two) of you had a great christmas! I had a good time with friends -- also managed to catch a couple of decent movies over the long weekend -- so, it was a success! The next day (I am slow to check news), I heard about the Nigerian dude who tried to blow up a plane on christmas day. All I could think about right then was the "Christmas Tree Attack".
Allow me to explain. In an earlier life, when I was at USC getting a Masters' in Applied Math, I was working on schemes to detect network intrusions fast. Most of these were attacks on particular protocols. Each protocol (like TCP/IP for example) has a set of flags that are used to communicate information. Attackers would mess with these headers and try to trick the host computer into thinking that something bizarre was happening even when things were perfectly normal. One of these attacks was the christmas tree attack. This was when the attacker would set ("turn on") each of the flags in the header and send the packet to the host computer hoping to find some flaws in the implementation.
Why did I remember this particular nugget of personal history? Consider the facts. (I am cogging from Maureen Dowd's version of events here )

If we can’t catch a Nigerian with a powerful explosive powder in his oddly feminine-looking underpants and a syringe full of acid, a man whose own father had alerted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a traveler whose ticket was paid for in cash and who didn’t check bags, whose visa renewal had been denied by the British, who had studied Arabic in Al Qaeda sanctuary Yemen, whose name was on a counterterrorism watch list, who can we catch?

And the comparison should be apparent! The only difference between these terrorists and network attackers is that terrorists want people to think that things are perfectly normal and ok while network attackers want the host computer to think that the sky is falling!

Snowed in

2009-12-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

So I am snowed in. Have called everyone I care to talk with. Have done all that I need to do over the weekend -- I am finally getting "officially" connected. To the internet. Life has been quite interesting again. Went to a few nice holiday parties and a few not so nice ones. Had fun meeting old friends and making new ones. And now, its snowing. Like God is trying desperately hard to get all the dandruff out of his hair :) Work has been hectic as usual. I hardly can account for all the time that flies by when I am at the office. Have been given more responsibility of late and am trying to ensure that I do not disappoint. Will soon have a nice vacation coming up.
It is also my little sisters first wedding anniversary. Its already been one year since she has been with Amith and I am glad for them. Here's to a lot more!

Maybe.

2009-11-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

Its thanksgiving. It has also been a while since I posted here. Life has been quite good. Work has been interesting. Meeting friends and family and spending time with people you care for is always nice. But I keep slipping into this other phase. Where life seems like an endless necklace of boring days strung out like pearls to infinity. Maybe part of life is coming to terms with this. Maybe that is all there really is. Maybe I should take up something with more of a passion (other than work!). Maybe..

Random conversations

2009-10-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

I forgot to take my ipod along for yesterday's run. Ergo, I heard random snippets of conversations all through the while I was running. Here are a few I found interesting.

Middle Aged Woman 1: ..but how does she keep in shape with all that alcohol?
MAW 2: You don'e eat!
MAW 1: Wouldn't that show up somewhere? I am sure your skin should be horrible without good food. Alcohol alone is bad for the skin right?
MAW 2: You are right....
===
Woman 1 (addressing the rest of the group of 4): So how far are you going today?
Another woman: twelve.
W1: Wow! Isn't that a big ramp up. Plus it is cold!
===
Middle Aged Banker Type 1: ..and I asked him why he said that security was blue earlier. He said, "I never said that the security was blue earlier!". I wanted to ask him if he was taking crazy pills, but HR would kick my ass for that and so I kept quiet.

Happy Diwali!

2009-10-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Now that we have the required pleasantries out of the way, let us get on to more interesting things. In spite of the bitter cold (it was 42 F at the *end* of my run), I ventured out to run. As always, I got out of the apartment in t-shirt and shorts - the apparel du jour for runners around the world. A caveat is that things are different in the winter. One has to protect the body against the cold else interesting things happen as I found out first hand today. At first, you feel great -- the cold air has a rejuvenating effect and you dismiss the weaklings who cower in jackets and mufflers and woolen caps and gloves. Of course, they look at you like you are crazy (and maybe you are!), but who cares what they think? They are just a bunch of pussies after all! Then you start to feel a nip around the ears and start to run thinking that the warmth generated by all the exercise would exorcise the cold from your body (the idea of getting back home to grab a jacket presents itself at this point and you summarily dismiss it out of vanity and a false sense of bravado) . It is around this time that your hands start to freeze. No goose bumps and so, no warning from the body that this is going to happen -- it just does. As you bravely soldier on, the very same hands that were killing you with the cold start getting numb and the body settles into a rhythm. Things go well till you decide to slow down a bit to catch your breath.

That is when things get interesting. You can actually feel the warm blood flood to your hands and they start to burn -- almost like they are on fire. In fact, the thought of setting yourself on fire starts to seem like a good idea about this time. The skin starts to feel strangely taut and all the joints in your body start to stiffen up. You do well to start running again before things get really bad and stiff. You can then feel each of the muscles in your body exert themselves in synchrony as you run.

That is when things get even more interesting as you feel the first big blob of rain that the weatherfolks had forecasted hit you right on the nose. It starts to drizzle. You lose it and start to go for broke and run at the fastest pace that you can sustain till you get back home and thank the lord for not getting wet. It is a diwali miracle!

ps: If your circulation is not back by the time you get home, the best advice I have for you is to not step into the shower right away. Not. A. Good. Idea.

carryover

2009-10-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is carried over from an earlier post -- the one where I talk about my walk to work. That is not to say that the walk back home is any less interesting. Its just that I normally am rushing back home to salvage what little time is left for some leisure. Sadly, nowadays, this translates to doing more work, but that is another issue. The homeless people are some of the most interesting characters in NY. Yesterday, on the way back from work, I came across this conversation (don't worry, I was not eavesdropping -- it was shouted out in the middle of the street).
Hobo (at one particular individual): Keep walking! If you agree with what I say. Just keep walking! Go on motherf**ker!
Said individual: F**k you you f**king motherf**ker! You better not piss me off before I come over and f**king f**k you!
Hobo: Relax man! No reason to get crazy on me!

That was interesting if only for the number of f bombs in that single conversation. As I came closer home and was waiting on a red light to rush across the street and get home, I noticed that I was almost as anxious to cross the road as another petite, cutish woman. She was fiddling with her ipod (iphone?) and inadvertently stepped right in the way of a speeding cab. The taxi driver honked and screeched his brakes in disapproval and craned his neck out of the window to utter some choice words at the lady. My jaw hit the pavement when this small, well dressed woman then started with the following sentence, before the taxi driver could get a word in edgewise, "Yeah, keep moving motherf**ker! Move on before I smash my shoe through your windshield!" She then turned her glare on the rest of us pedestrians and out jaws snapped shut.

I strongly believe, that all of NYC should be a giant R-rated zone.

That was good

2009-10-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

Can we have more weekends of brilliant weather please? The sister and BIL were here today and we had a great lunch at a nice new Indian place (after my regular weekend morning run of course!) We also found a public waterfall with a nice alcove for people to sit next to the waterfall and to think good thoughts. Was a nice place to head to after the humungous lunch. On another thought, why are most Indian lunches huge? Is it that we (read I) have no control and need to clean every last scrap of food off my plate? Somehow I do not think so -- I don't feel this full after a turkish meal, for example.

The subsequent, post meal meandering led us to an Express shop which is currently advertising a 30% sale. This is where I found out that I am now a size S in the US. I am sure my parents will get a kick out of hearing that bit of news -- we have always had trouble finding clothes for me -- I usually found the XL stuff a bit tight around the shoulders in India! On the way, I also picked up a bag of dark chocolate coated roasted coffee beans. Very awesome I must say! And now, its back to the grindstone. Ah, the pains of work carried over from grad school!

The walk

2009-10-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

While the world is enraptured by Obama, let me describe a regular day's walk to work. When you walk the same stretch of pavement every single day at about the same time, you are bound to see the same people again and again. I am going to describe a few of the folks I see regularly in this post.

There is the well dressed (in a pant suit, no less) African-American lady that I pass every day. She seems quite concentrated and resolute towards getting somewhere and we hardly ever make eye contact. I should note that this is probably the time when I am the happiest with the world -- for someone who has been through grad school (twice!), I strangely love the mornings. It shows. So there is the caucasian woman (of Irish descent probably) who wears the same pendant on a leather necklace every single day. On a day with beautiful weather, I blazed a 1000 watt smile (or the best approximation I could muster) when we made eye-contact. She has meticulously avoided even looking in my direction since even though we cross paths every day.

There is the guy handing out free AM New York newspapers. He is probably the most polite and friendly person I have seen in New York. He always says good morning and offers you the paper like he was your personal butler right in the middle of the street. If you say no, or just keep walking, he says thank you and does the whole thing again. I am just waiting for the day when he as a breakdown. That will be an amazing sight, I am convinced.

Of course, there are the taxi drivers who wait in queue outside the Mariott, the Waldorf and the W ( I pass these hotels on the way to work). They are almost always Indian and almost always on their cell phones and hardly pay you any attention. There are also the assorted suits and people trying to exercise and get a jog in before they really need to get to work. Although, I imagine, that Lexington Avenue at 8 in the morning is probably not the best place to jog unless you jog just to get attention. Hmm, before I ramble on into the next page, I guess I will stop here.

Yesterday

2009-10-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

..was a nice day. In all senses of the word. Beautiful weather (I sound like a broken record with the beautiful day, nice weather posts, but bear with me through winter here, I promise a lot of horrible weather posts and updates then :) ), and balmy temperatures. I decided to take the day off (as I feel pretty much every single day of late) and sat at home thinking about all the things I could. Sometimes it is nice to sit still and let life take you along at its own pace. As I gazed out the window, I saw a person dangling there and then realized that its the window cleaner that the building has contracted to clean the windows before winter.
But beyond that dude, there was an interesting sight. There was (yet another) street fair, like the folks with the shacks were determined to squeeze every last dollar of impulse spending people were capable of. But what interested me was beyond that. It was the steady stream of people making their way to Grand Central (and the various bus stops that take one to the airports around the city). They looked tired and their suitcases looked heavy. But, I imagine, they felt happy, otherwise they would not have planned a trip to such an expensive city in the midst of the biggest recession since forever. When a few fleeting moments in this city give visitors so much joy, I started to wonder what I was missing out on. What unknown secrets was the city spilling to these visitors that I was not paying attention to? But, by then, my ADD brain had already moved on to more frivolous things and all that is left of that moment is this recollection that I am penning (fingering?) down.

Self note

2009-10-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

If you run in the rain with a hole in your shoe, that pretty much puts paid to any plans of running for the rest of the weekend -- even if it is a glorious day afterwards.

Running in the rain

2009-10-04T04:41:00.000-07:00

It was glorious to start the day. Bright, sunny and slightly chilly. Perfect weather for a run. I first had to get some folks I knew into the Met and the delay that ensued ensured that the weather that I ran in was totally different from the weather I thought I was going to be running in. It was gloomy and cold by the time I started my ritual weekend run. About half an hour in, the skies started to open up and it started to drizzle. This was about when the race organized in the park dissolved and people left for drier environs. I found myself a nice leafy tree to wait the drizzle out. The rain however, had other plans. It got stronger gradually till we had a full blown downpour on our hands and I was faced with a decision to make. I could either get out of the park and hail a cab and get back home or I could finish my run, get soaked to the bone and get back home. I would get wet in the first choice too -- just not as much in the second one.
To get some more information, I decided to run a short while and then make the decision. It was quite amazing to run in the rain. It was not the cold rain that I had gotten so used to in Los Angeles. This was more the kind of rain one gets in India -- warm, almost preheated drops of water drizzling down on you and almost rejuvenating you every step of the way. I finished my run and had a smile on my face at the end. As expected, the waterworks stopped as soon as I got home, but I had no complaints.

Winter

2009-10-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

I feel eager and restless. Like I used to feel before coming to America. Like when you make a big decision and want to work hard to prove to yourself that you made the right one. Its been too long since I have felt this and it is nice to have it back. In the meantime, the days have grown short and evenings shorter. There is a nip in the air and it is mandatory to carry a jacket when you head out of the apartment. It is still not at the stage that you do not feel like getting out of the bed in the morning, but it is bad enough to make you think twice before sitting in a leather sofa. I am debating whether the weekly run should go into hibernation yet. Let us see how things go. Of late, there always seems to be too many things to do and too little time. One of the biggest casualty of this is that it has been a while since I have done something just for the heck of it. Things need to change -- lets see how much time that takes.

The last gasp

2009-09-27T09:10:00.001-07:00

It feels like this is going to be the last weekend of summer. It was quite sunny yesterday (but still quite chilly!) but things are back to their dull, dreary rainy self today. I think people cling to things when they are about to lose them. Yesterday, I saw way too many parties going on in the park. Way too many soccer and football games. Way too many couples just strolling around, taking it all in before the extended hibernation that winter imposes on you. The weather was good, but it was not *that* good. It was certainly better a couple of weeks ago. But, back then, everyone was too busy with other stuff to make time to take the beauty of the park in. I guess it is just human nature to value things that are available readily at a lower level than things you have to plan and work for. The very fact that you have worked for it is what makes it valuable to you -- notwithstanding its innate cost. This is where things go from being objective to getting subjective. I wonder when we will be able to develop models to put a price on these things.

Obama

2009-09-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

There is a general assembly meeting going on at the U.N (which I live next to). It is turning out to be quite a pain. Barricades, black limos and black suits with shades and earpieces are all that you can see on the street. Actually, that is not true. You can also see Obama once in a while on there. It was quite funny actually. I was walking home and Obama was going to wherever he crashed while he is in NY. Turns out that with the gridlock in Manhattan, I still beat the motorcade to my house from where I first saw the dude.

A crisp fall day

2009-09-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

I would say that today was the second day of fall. I awoke to a clear blue sky and opened my window expecting a blast of heat to hit me full in the face. Instead, there was the perfect mix of breeze and cool temperatures that can only lift your heart. It was quite chilly through the day and as such, I delayed my weekend run till it got warmer -- ergo running at noon. When I first came to America, I was bemused to see people running on the university footpaths and tracks at all hours of the day and night. I classified these folks as crazy in my dictionary. Well, today I proudly joined that crowd.
There were tons of people on the street at the late hour. On my way to the park, I was involved in an accident. Don't worry, I was not the central character involved. Here is the most detailed version I could find of what happened (there is also some videos of the incident on youtube that you can dig up with "central park accident"). This happened just as I got to the park -- I heard a loud crash and as I came across the street, a majestic black horse ran across it too. Another carriage man caught hold of the reins of Blackie (as the story says the horse was named) and shouted out to grab a hold of his horse. No one responded -- everyone seemed intent on taking pictures of the taxi through the wall and the totaled carriage. So, I stepped into the breach and grabbed a hold of the reins on the horse and hung on as it settled down from all the noise and people milling around. Later, I saw the carriage driver(?) on the road with a broad gash on his forehead even as people attended to him and tonnes of folk called 911.
After making sure that there was nothing I could do, I headed into the park for my regular run. It took me a while to settle down from all the adrenaline flowing and I eventually ran too fast to start. This is the killer of any long run and soon, I was too exhausted to run. So, I ended up finding a nice rock with lots of sun and just zoned out for a while. It was quite amazing. The way home was much less happening and that brings us to the end of this post.

You know..

2009-09-17T18:03:00.001-07:00

that you have a chocolate problem when the weekly bill for chocolate surpasses the one for groceries. Also, fishless sushi is awesome if done right!

People watching

2009-09-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

I have some work to do. It is stuff carried over from the PhD. It never gets over. Anyway. More work means only one more thing -- more of everything else. My apartment is spotless (well..by my standards atleast!), I have gone crazy posting stuff on here, I have been getting more stuff done at work and I have been doing a lot of people watching from my window. I have a good vantage point -- I have a view of anyone who leaves Grand Central and this is a sizable number of people. It is interesting to see so many people scurry to and from places they are late to get to. Sometimes, I inadvertently drop in on private moments. Like yesterday, when I saw this couple dressed in formals, kiss on the street as the light turned green.
The early morning crowd can be broadly split into two parts - the driven people who are raring to get to work (for whatever reason) and the broken folk who are plodding along for another day of ssdd. I wonder what class people seeing me on the street would place me in?