Feet on Street!

Running was never my cup of tea, some of the running that I am used to was the one to bathroom early morning, scramble to the counter for movie tickets, run past defenders while playing football back in college and the most frantic running would be when a fight broke out in engineering college and I would inadvertently find myself in the epicentre of it and suddenly my legs would take shape of wings, pooof I would disappear. That was running to me till now, unscrupulous and disoriented.

After years of mindless eating and an unhealthy life style, I must say that I have developed a big pack on my abs, well not six or eight pack's but a ridiculous family pack a rotund tummy! I was aghast, all my pants and tees were slowly refusing to embrace my body. Actions stations!!! red alert, panic buttons all sort of screaming alarms constantly bogged me down all the while. It was high time that I did something, or I would reach that stage wherein it would be a point of no return.
Dieting, gym, weight loss programmes, yoga, aerobics etc etc all these were some of the suggestions that were being poured in from all directions. I was at crossroads at what to do?

All the above mentioned options might be effective, but would create a dent in your pocket as these programmes are expensive. Also with the economic crisis looming overhead I needed to find an alternative, and thats how I decided to take up running, an inexpensive and effective cardiovascular exercise.

I must say that its a very good way to stay fit and loose weight. Around half an hour of mild jogging combined with some control over our own gluttony would work wonders on our body. Initially I used to run only on the treadmill, but I was introduced to the marvel of running around on the street by a colleague at office.

That's how I started training for the first event of running on street, called feet on street which was a 5 KM run on an early Sunday morning in Cubbon Park. I was skeptical of whether I would be able to run that distance at a single stretch, I was not too keen to get myself in an embarrassing spot,where I would huff, puff and chug along when all the others would just zip past me to the finish line. All this concern was put to rest as Maitreyee a regular runner assured that there is no need to get concerned as we just need to finish it and it really doesn't matter if we waltzed or walked our way to the finish. Even after reassurances, I was not convinced so I started training, running on treadmill and I managed to run on it for 5 KM. Although I was not able to run continuously, but still I was able to manage the 5K distance with an average time of 38 minutes on the treadmill.

So the big day arrived and i reached the venue at around 6.45 am. It was not much of a surprise that Graham and Ambrose were also present for the event as they are avid runners themselves. I was pretty confident that I would finish the event without much issues as I had been running the same distance for the past week without any hassles and I was also sure that I would finish well before Graham. The event started at the stroke of seven and around 200 of us started with a brisk run ( it was an event that supported charity as the revenue generated from this would be handed over to an NGO), I had plugged my i-pod with my fave music playing and as expected I overtook Graham, Ambrose and Maitreyee and was going at a steady pace with a small grin playing around the corner of my face. After around 15 minutes I started to loose momentum and pace , I was puffing, breathing hard and then I saw that things were in slow motion for me, Graham went past and so did Ambrose and I saw the trail of dust that they left behind them, within a couple of minutes they were past my eyesight. I still chugged along and managed to reach the finish in 40 minutes since the start of the event. That was a real eye opener, after asking Graham the secret behind keeping the pace and momentum I decided that it was time to go back and start again from scratch. Well, I must say that I have manged to improve, I can now run continuously for 5 KM in just under 35 minutes also I have lost around 6 Kilos in just less than 2 months and I plan to keep it going and improve. Also I might beat Graham to the finish the next time. So if you are keen to join , dont wait, as the popular saying goes the biggest step is from your bed to the floor. Start running!

Food for thought!

I usually enjoy having a beer during the weekend, along with some nice food. That's the only time of the week that i indulge in some good, the rest of the week its dieting to loose some stones that had been accumulated over the course of years as a result of overeating and squandering money over junk food and beverages. This weekend also would have been the same if i had not come across this article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/asia/13malnutrition.html?hp. Its not that i was not aware of this, but the magnitude of the calamity (yes its a calamity); the calamity called hunger is way beyond any comprehensible limits . The thing that i have never known, for me hunger is a phenomenon that occurs while dieting. While in my neighbouring states children are malnourished and deprived of the basic amenities. Its an alarming statistics, a 42.5% of children below 5 are always going hungry, that's not acceptable, in fact its something that i cant even fathom, almost half the countries children go hungry to bed each day. The irony of the entire situation is that , we will never accept this fact, at least the government is oblivious of the fact. If they had been, then how come the system has failed to approach this nagging issue, which has been coyly put forward but our prime minister as a national shame. I hope that something can be done to help, apart from us paying our taxes, voting, not wasting food etc, which is so much cliched. I guess its more of a social responsibility! There is no point in me lamenting about this, i just felt very very bad about it, so thought of venting my feelings, coz i though that none in my floor will find this topic interesting and it probably hamper their spirits and weekend plans, the worst case scenario i might be ridiculed for discussing this, as they might say that the news is false. As for the beer that i had planned, well i must say its still beckoning!

Slumdog Millionaire

A lot has been said of this film, the comments and claim range from awe to awful! Why has this film been so successful, so much so that the Oscars has come beckoning to the film. I presume that neither Danny Boyle nor the cast & crew might have dreamt in their wildest imagination of the film having such a dream run. People in the film circles , especially in India will argue that the film has got undue credit and it has got so much attention just because a westerner is behind the making of the film. Indian film industry churns out more films than any other in the world, and till now none of them have been given much attention until now. Why this sudden shift in focus towards SM? It seems that our talented artists, directors and other film crew members were in total oblivion until this film. What is so remarkable in this rags to riches story?, which is in itself a cliche topic and has been experimented with, in all possible angles by various directors spread across the Indian diaspora.

I think much of this has got to do with the so called preconceived notion that the west has about India. I think that most of the westerners have visualised India as the land of snake charmers,poverty ,malnourished children and off late call centre and software professionals. For most of them its a land of mysticism mixed with some amounts of exoticism. From their point of view, they will be appalled to find that any Indian can go to college in a ferrari or they can go home which apparently is sprawling mansion in a private chopper as portrayed in some Bollywood movies. For them its pseudo-India, and they might have great difficulty in digesting that. Now when we look SM as an Indian, we will argue that what the film portrays is overtly over exaggerated. Now this is where I tend to differ from the populist opinion. When i saw the film, i never felt that things were exaggerated. What the director had shown was the real brutal India. Don't we have the poverty that is depicted in the movie ? Don't we have rude policemen? Don't we have corrupt officials? Don't we have reports of repeated attack and molestation of foreign nationals visiting India? Don't we have red light areas? Isn't it true that there is large scale child trafficking? Isn't it true that child sexual abuse is rampant? Isn't it true that murder, rape and extortion are quite rampant and the frequency of occurrence is quite high? Isn't it a fact that we have a very sensitive issues ranging from communal, regional, son of the soil theory etc ? which constantly flare up and when it does it takes a huge toll on the society. So these all were depicted in the movie, and a bit of masala was sprinkled in the form of love, the game show and nice background score. The result is a very peppy and nice to feel film of the year. The argumentative Indian as quoted by Amartya Sen, find this as an insult, we feel that we are not plagued by some of the social issues portrayed in the film, we feel that its something that is not true, whereas its a hard cold authentic fact, we do face the issues and this is happening in India.

Recently, when David Miliband a British politician who is the current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs had toured India, he did not visit the swanky new IT offices, or the infrastructure growth of India or even if he did it was not highlighted. The only thing that was portrayed was his stay in rural village in Amethi, that too he spent in a cow shed! Well its an absolute humbug, i can vouch for that, i happened to read an article in The Telegraph by Peter Foster about this taradiddle and its heading is something like this "David Miliband's Indian village visit: 'What a *&^%ing joke!' Its no exaggeration, you can access this article by clicking on this link http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/peter_foster/blog/2009/01/15/david_milibands_indian_village_visit_what_a_%5Eing_jokefor further reading.
Well things don't end there, we also have Prince Charles lecturing on the environment friendly Dharavi slum, and how this can be adopted to other structure's in the world to reduce the carbon footprint thereby reducing the global warming. So these are the major things that catches the western eye.

So as mentioned by me earlier a majority of the westerners probably go ga ga over the poverty stricken, undernourished, and underdeveloped India, rather than accept the fact that things are changing. The western world have not reached their present status overnight, it took them a long long time. Compared to that, we are flourishing at an enormous rate, its just less than a two decades since we have moved from a very strict conservative pseudo-socialist era to a more constructive capitalist era. If we can achieve so much in such a small span of time, then we have stand a very good chance of having a bright future i.e. if we can manage to sustain this growth. Even when the current recession is playing a spoilsport to all the major economies around the world, India is the least affected by this downturn as per the world bank report.

Coming back to the hype surrounding the movie SM, will the dream run continue at the Oscars? Well i guess it will, and it will be a clean sweep. We will have them dancing to the tune of Chaiyya Chaiyya at the Oscars!

The Axe Looms........

What does one expect out of life! Its quite an absurd thought, and that has been pestering my mind for quite some time. Well i am at crossroads if i think about what i expect from my life! I had not given much thought about it, although i do have ambitions to make it large in life but still that link , the proper angle is still missing. There is a weak link , a missing piece of jigsaw that requires to be filled in to complete the puzzle of my life. Having said all this i also secretly wish that i never find it. If that hypothetical missing link is found then i might probably be at peace and i might cease to exist.

Why this thought and why this scrawl about some fictitious missing link? Well i guess its fueled from a sense of insecurity, maybe these insecure times has evoked a sense of uncertainty within me of whether i am sailing in the right direction. Uncertain times , well yes that's what this recession is all about. Each morning you wake up and think not about breakfast but whether there will be that chair in office waiting for you or will it be a thing of past. The recent economic downturn has had a multifarious effect on each and every individual, that can be traced down to the grass root level. I am not a big economic pundit, but still after reading various articles and newspaper reports i could only come up to one conclusion that can be the underlying factor for all this economic menace called recession, and that's GREED. Big banks going bust, business's going bust well what not and a some one has said that its all AIG , American Innocence and Greed. Then since man is a social animal and since the attribute called greed is present in all human beings it easily got cascaded into other economies and soon we have the entire world reeling under recession of which the majority , including me and you might have had no role at all. I would not like to elaborate much on the facts and figures or any other economical jargon. The only evident thing is that we are facing a crisis of which the end is no where near in sight. Some of us might be affected and some of might have been spared. I was lucky enough to miss the axe, but still it looms and swings overhead, it is exactly this uncertainty that's made me think of what i should expect from life.

While having a chat with a friend, he mentioned that we should all be satisfied with the simple pleasures of life and be happy with what we have. We should change and modify our lifestyle according to the need of the hour. I somehow found that unconvincing, its again a matter of perspective, because if a person is satisfied with his life it means that he has either achieved what he had wanted or then he might have changed his mental framework to adapt to what he has and accept it. I cannot accept the fact that a person can be satisfied for ever. Happiness, satisfaction, success, sadness etc all these emotions are a temporary state of mind. It reaches a peak stays like that for some time then fades and lingers into some dark corner of our memory, and at times there is a huge amount of probability that we might reminisce about it. I believe that we are all in an eternal pursuit of happiness. When we face situations that need strength and courage then we should rise to the occasion. If we buckle under pressure and give up hope that we cannot make it and rise to occasion, then probably we will go into a different mind frame , a mind frame which will make us think that, this is my future and i should try and adapt to this and wait for better times to come my way. No, that is definitely not me, i will not accept any downturns in my life as my destiny of my fate and sulk over it for a very long time , i will face them and work a way out. The tunnel is long and dark, but there is light at the end and we will find it if we keep walking, sorry i had to borrow this phrase from my good old friend Roshan.

Recession can take away your job, not your future. It cannot snatch away the love from your loved ones, although you might have to fight the social stigma surrounding a job loss. As long as you have the support of your loved ones and your desire to make more out of life, as long as you have hope you will not be a victim forever. These uncertain times are an eyeopener, let us all rise like a phoenix bird from the ashes to a new future so bright that we might find that missing link of puzzle in life. I don't care about the looming axe any longer, let it loom and soon it will tire itself.

A trip down the memory lane!

A trip down the memory lane, well its something that we all wish if it is worth to revisit the past. Some memories are worth cherishing and some are not even worth a glance. Ask anyone and they might probably say that they had a helluva of a time while in school, college, childhood etc.
Ask me and I would say, heck yes! How can one forget those days, when you lived each day as a king without even a penny in your pocket! It’s all part of the game, of a life wherein you live in a la la land , a land where dreams are ignited, passion marked with strong emotions, imagination has no boundaries, talent can be found at every nook and corner, trouble is the middle name and an unmatched fervency that can often land one in a tight spot.

It all started in the November of 2000 at NSS Engineering College; I still remember that chill down my spine when I walked into the campus for the very first time. I don’t mind revealing the fact that I was a nervous wreck, and I wasn’t surprised when I saw many more faces which were far worse than mine. The rest is history; pretty soon the dream run came to an end. Those four wonderful mesmerizing years if penned down would make a good reading.

Having said so at lengths about the college and the past, I got the opportunity to visit the campus after four years (although I must admit that I had been a regular visitor at campus for a year even after the course was over just to complete what I had started, back papers!!!) because Mocha was marrying Fiji his neighbour (we pity her!!) .His marriage was at Malappuram near to Palakkad and our college. So we decided that we will have a rendezvous at college just to get the essence of how we were a couple of years ago. Boy! We had a blast. We were a handful of people from Bangalore, Trivandrum, Cochin etc. Gireesh, Jojy, Ragesh, Josephettan, Anjana, Sinu, Vivek, Vijay no sorry Kozhi, Litty, Atul our juniour, Litty, Nilby, Arjun and Madhu.

We visited all the spots that we used to frequent; we literally took a trip down the memory lane. Personally, I enjoyed a lot. I had a lot of experience both bitter and sweet, and it was like a mixed bag of emotions. The joy that I had knew know boundary, when I left college I was in a very bad shape and after going through many rough patches I finally got some long lost solace. As I had mentioned earlier, some memories are not worth cherishing and some are worth nurturing. I happened to be lucky enough, because I had a good time. I must say that when you also have your life partner from the same college then the memories will last longer. Well it was a pleasure to walk down the campus roads with Anjana who is now my wife, but a couple of years earlier just someone whom I had envisaged to make my life partner. When dreams turn into reality, and when you revisit the places where you had exchanged vows with the same person, it is definitely a moment that makes you a bit emotional, in a good way. Things are not always rosy for all, that’s why we all have a different view at things. That’s the beauty of life; all have a different view of their past, present or future because each on of us looks at it with a different perspective.

The hostel life, well it is undoubtedly the jewel in the crown. The life that we had in hostel is worth more than any exotic vacation that we might have. As soon as I entered the hostel I could see many students in the common T.V room, but after a couple of seconds these faces started to change and suddenly I found my self in midst of my friends, there was sallu, then eajaz, binu, unnikuttan, unda, KK, thotti, gireesh, katta ravi, mocha, jetty prasanth, dineshan,Vava etc what was the occasion, oh!! Euro Cup matches was going on and a game between England and France was being aired. There was jeering, booing and it was a hell inside, a thick waft of scissor filter smoke was filled in the room, a single cigarette and any people, that’s the normal equation. The tension was palpable, no one could escape the high tension atmosphere as England was leading with a goal and Binu was furious over this, a fight was literally lurking around the corner if France lost and amidst this only one guy was cool and he was chimbroo as he was sleeping amongst this chaos ,as usual. Luckily France won, England supporters which includes me ran for their life for fear of Binu unleashing his wrath. I was suddenly bought back from my past as we went to visit the Underworld, the wing where we used to stay. The remains of the graffiti that we had drawn is still there, although underworld had changed to study world nothing else changed. When we were there it was mischief and complete chaos, but now it looked tamed, I could see laptops in each room, with Wireless connectivity among fellow hostel mates, tech talks, and future was their top priority. For us a typical day involved a K-Thals, hmmm I hope the guys still remember this. Then we had visits from a very hungry, no ever hungry shabbu whom we call as ‘maadu’ coz he opens his mouth to eat and to talk nonsense, no offense shabbu. But again those days are gone; it’s true that people evolve because I found that the young students are very much concerned about their future, their jobs even during the first semesters which is a good thing because most of us were not even aware of what or where we will end up even during our final semesters.

Finally on a parting note after meeting all the people in our mess and other surrounding area where I was a part of we left to shabbu’s house, which was a favourite hangout for me. Whenever I had a craving for homely food, Shabbu’s mom was there to rescue, its no wonder that shabbu is a glutton coz aunty makes some fantabulous chicken curry. The evening was spent at his home, the food along with shabbu’s fathers stories made the day even merrier.

Even though I cherished each and every moment at hostel and college I know that now I can never be a part of that life. I can only rejoice those moments and have a laugh at the lighter side of life. I guess the only other visit to college with a good gathering of close friends will be when we attend shabbu’s marriage. I hope he obliges, unless he turns into a gay or something! Looking forward to that marriage and the gala gathering.

Carnage by the castrated lot.

Mumbai the majestic and glorious city that has been the subject of many traumatic events, be it a natural calamity like the flooding in recent past or terrorist bombing, the city has seen it all and silently borne the brunt of all these incidents with great resilience. But all this would never sum up to the magnanimity of what the city faced recently, another vicious and probably the worst terrorist attack in recent history in Indian soil. The entire south of Mumbai was paralysed due to the act of a couple of terrorist, they literally made the entire country come to a standstill. While we may praise the NSG, MARCO'S, the local police, the fire fighters ET AL, but the fact that still remains is that these gun trotting fundamentalist bastards, wreaked havoc of such a magnitude that leaves gaping holes in our countries intelligence and ability to cope with such situation in future.

The whole point now is not to be morose over the fact that this happened, but it should be the time that the country starts to think about its inability to cope with terrors of such scale, what went wrong and where? If a layman like us can come to multiple conclusion as to why this all happened then obviously all the clever big wigs in the political ladder might be able to put on their thinking hats and list down more, or at least I hope they do. Something incomprehensible to the common man is to why all these fallibility from the government keep on occurring even after repeated attacks. To reiterate what I had said earlier, if I were to list down a series of questions and ponder over them for a while then probably I might feel sick on the fact that our politicians or the so called custodian of these department have failed miserably to get these things accounted for.

The questions are not at all complicated, in fact as I mentioned earlier it is something even a commoner might ask!!! like as follows,

1. Why was it that the elite commandos took so long to reach the site?
2. Why is it that the city's police are so ill equipped, given the fact that the city is prone and vulnerable to violent attacks? The police were seen trotting with old rusty rifles and these terrorist's were branding LMG and automatics?
3. Consider the fact that around 200 fire fighting personnel had only two bullet proof vests.
4. Why isn't the city put under the surveillance system? Like in most mega cities where the CCTV system has virtually all under the knowing eye, we should have the same foolproof system for cities such as Mumbai?
5. Why do the politicians want to resign? They should own up the responsibility and be tried and tested as to why they did not react to the intelligence report about the probability of an attack.
6. When the politicians are mulling over the fact of the alleged involvement of Dawood Ibrahim( this guy is supposedly the mastermind behind many of the terror attacks, and we have till now not captured him, so he has the audacity to challenge the country by taking part in such dastardly act for which he should be ostracised from the face of the world, as he deserves nothing less than death, the unworthy emasculated rotten pig) then why dont we just send a covert team and annihilate him then and there?

These are some of the very basic doubts and questions that I find quite intriguing and disturbing. Its time that the behemoth politicians start acting to the so called India's 9\11. The US were quick to act after their 9\11. There has not been a single act of terrorism in their soil after that act, which had been an eye opener for them. To us , its not so easy as it was for the US, but although not impossible. We live with fundamentals, extremists, jihad's, Hindu fanatic, naxalites and what not. All who are either a part of our nation or find ways to penetrate to our soil by hook or by crook. The so called resilience on the part of Indians is to be blamed, we are ready to adjust and go back to normalcy pretty soon. Lets hope that through this act we learn our lessons and hope that we wont have any martyrs from our soil, we will only have fundamental martyrs who are killed by our brave, fully equipped commandos who nip these insane fundamentalist right at the bud so that innocent civilians or the common fools like us are not affected, and that we can roam anywhere in our country without the fear of being bombed, or bullet ridden by any gun trotting, grenade hauling radical asshole who think that they can destroy the country at their will. No this is not the case, we will not bow or bend to these cowards, lets hope that the government acts and acts fast!!!!

Thoovanathumbikal

Love is in the air! Our dear friend is getting engaged this saturday, this blog has got nothing to do with him. Although he is the main source of inspiration behind this post. How long does it take to fall in love? Cant say, maybe years, maybe seconds, maybe many eons. The duration is very insignificant when compared to the impact that it creates. Time has no binding with the individual in love, the surroundings are extra bright, you feel light at heart. Is it just a chemical reaction in your brain, which stimulates you and keeps you in that state of excitment, or has it got to do more.

I have found out that the people who say that to love is to be weak, it makes you wobbly at heart; are the most gullible victims to fall in love. Even the most tough nuts, crack down, become soft and if there had been any opportunity, I am sure they would run around trees singing and dancing. I havent met a person till now in my life who has not yet been in love. It can be the love of anything, material or immaterial. Love is everywhere, in the eyes of a new couple, in the eyes of a mother, a child, a pet dog, it is omnipotent. We cant find a single film, be it any language devoid of a love or intimacy. If you find people who say that they love nothing, then its just a blatant lie, either they are scared to admit the truth, or they are the ones who love themselves the most.

Why these pompous, pretentious blog on love and that too titled Thoovanathumbikal. Well you can say,inspired form cognisable surrondings. How many of us might have missed out on that movie? I guess those who have missed out on that have missed out on a classic. The protagonist , Jayakrishnan, he is someone with whom we all can identify at some point of time. There is a jayakrishnan lurking within every one of us. I am not sure who amongst us has identified him.

No more incoherent raving on something which even the most blessed philoshophers and poets have failed to comphrehend. Lets savour the few finite moments of life in love and joy, and wish the soon to marry couples Gireesh and Soumya a very happy engagement.