Stay Fit! Stay Inspired!
With less than 10 days to go before we conclude the year 2008 and settle our accounts with the merchant called Time, it makes all the more sense to spend some time to take a retrospective view this year.Successes and Failures are two sides of a sinusoidal waveform that generates the energy to power the engine called Life. What really matters is how adaptive and resilient we are to this thing called Change. The quicker we react to Change, the faster we move!
Remember one thing - Life is a marathon...just run it! There are times when we slow down and there are times when we sprint. Slowing down does not mean that you will lose the race (unlike a short distance run).
The slower periods in life are like pit stops in the F1 circuit - As long as you use them wisely (to refuel), you are assured of a strong finish!
The final 500meters was the most memorable part of the run. It was like getting closer to the brighter side of a dark tunnel. It was like a big ball of highly positive energy pulling us towards it. It was like a thousand magnets pulling a hairpin. I could feel tremendous energy fill my body from all sides. I could feel the strength of a thousand horses in me. I started to pound the asphalt at an average of 13-14kmph. Before I actually embarked on such a speed, I wanted to get rid of the small mineral water bottle in my hand. I kept it in one cornerstone and started off on my final lap.
It was next morning (about less than two hours from when I hit the sack) when I went to take a quick wash, and I realized that my whole body was swollen with redness. I thought that it was some weird Singaporean Mosquitoes that did the damn job. I was getting ready that my sister (who slept next to me) woke up with an alarming voice – “Look, my palm is bloodied and I see these 6-7 dead insects here”. This was when I realized that I had just killed one such insect (thinking it was some sort of a cockroach) that was crawling on my sport jerkin a few minutes back. Immediately I realized – “They are those goddamn bedbugs!!!”
I'm splitting my First Marathon experiences to three different parts for the sake of readability. Should you want to download the full article in a PDF format, please click here. This is Part 1 of the three part series. Would love to hear from you!
Who is greater - An Olympian or an Indian Army martyr? I'm not trying to put down my own conclusions here, but to put certain facts in black and white and make the world think, realize and elicit public opinion.The only difference is that Abhinav Bindra is an Olympian while Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan was with the Indian Army. Infact, the latter did save the lives of many Indians and foreign visitors. When both have done India proud, shouldn't the compensation be 'atleast' comparable?
With hundreds of people dead and a large number injured, the Mumbai terror attack has been, by far, the most gruesome terror incidents the world has ever faced. With battalions of Police, National Security Guards (NSG), Indian Navy, Indian Airforce and Indian Army fighting in total unity, India's soldiers have been the real saviors of the country. They have made India proud and given the much needed confidence, that a country would need in times of such acute crisis.Here is what, I think, can bring about the much needed CHANGE-
- We citizens need to STOP getting lazy and should STOP finding shortcuts to processes laid down by the government
- The media (television, newspaper and radio) should become more "people-centric" and not fall into the clasps of the political parties or politicians
- It's high time that the politicians STARTED TO BE LEADERS and STOPPED BEING BUSINESSMEN
- The government should INCREASE the salary (and other perks) for military forces personnel. The military forces SHOULD be paid NO LESS THAN any IT (Information Technology) personnel.
- The entire security framework SHOULD BE REDRAWN by taking the advancements in technology and defense tactics into consideration. Lessons from the United States Department of Homeland Security is a good place to start with!
- The nation's coastline (including all the major and minor ports) needs to be completely handed over to the Indian Navy to guard
With just 5 days to go before I hit the asphalt to embark my first full-marathon in Singapore, the anxiety is increasing more than ever. It's been raining in my city for the whole of last week which eventually flooded the roads with atleast knee-deep water. This fluffed my training and now, even worse, I've been struck with cold and wheezing.You can run if you don't have a problem below the neck. BUT, you can run even if you have a mild respiratory infection if you have a marathon in less than 15 days time. Just don't overstrain!
Change is the only thing that is Permanent. Change is the Rule of Nature
In the context of Information Technology, IT Leaders are often presented with such situations of having to make a choice between multiple solutions. This is when a leader needs to look through the telescope and see the solution from a long term perspective. An IT architecture that will scale up faster with minimal change with high utilization of existing investment and legacy systems is the basic need.
When many young minds in India were enjoying the Children's Day celebrations, ISRO and the nation had another reason to celebrate - The successful placing of our Tricolor flag on the Moon! Yes, from now on, India has two reasons to remember November 14th. We are the 4th country in the world (after US, Japan and Russia) to have implanted the national flag on the Moon!... a series of automatic operations that began with the firing of its spin up rockets after achieving a safe distance of separation from Chandrayaan-1. Later, the probe slowed down with the firing of its retro rocket and started its rapid descent towards the moon’s surface. Information from the its instruments was radioed to Chandrayaan-1 by MIP. The spacecraft recorded this in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning.
झंडा ऊँचा रहे हमारा विजयी विश्व तिरंगा प्यारा ....
Oh, we are going through tough times...while some of my customers are more resistant to new initiatives, some have declared really negative earnings for this quarter. I believe we need to wait and just let this period pass through...but again, the pressure build's up from my bosses!
Since the past few years, one would have noticed the change in way businesses across the world starting looking at the market. We've seen a number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and joint ventures (JVs) happening across the different businesses. The resulting IT complexity has always been a challenging task for CIOs and other IT leaders of these businesses. What better news can IT vendors get? There is a CIO who is crying "It's a mess - HELP ME OUT!"
I've dated injuries related to running for over three months now. Recently when I consulted Dr.Rajat, he diagnosed the problem to be due to ITB (Iliotibial band) in my left knee. Having said that, he had suggested me to buy a shoe that had a good support for over-pronation. He also suggested me the Adidas Nova Control ones or the Nike 
Bowerman series ones.
With this list in my mind, I decided to visit the Adidas store in my city (Chennai, India) to spend some time and buy the right shoe.
On Saturday (8th Nov), I visited the Adidas store in Chennai. Apparently, its Asia's second largest Adidas store (with the first one in Bangalore). There, I got my feet scanned with Adidas' very own Footscan™. The adidas footscan™ process is simple and it was a 5minute process. The footscan™ pad records the pressures created through your foot strike, and the software interprets this data to provide an accurate, graphic representation of your footstrike. My foot scan looked like the one on your right.
Michael Crichton, one of my favorite sci-fi authors bid adieu to the world yesterday (Nov 4th) at Los Angeles. Known to have been battling with cancer for a long time, his battle with life finally has ended. He had just completed 66. I've been a great fan of his books like Congo, Jurassic Park, The Lost World and the State of Fear (though I didn't completely read this one).
Having had my share of injuries due to running, I finally decided to seek the expert's help. That reminded me of Dr.Rajat, a doctor who runs! Though I've heard a lot about Rajat, little did I know that he was practicing in Bangalore until Shahid told me. I got his clinic number from Shumit and managed to get an appointment for 1st Nov.
Early this year (on Feb 21st) I'd expressed my desire to watch this movie Spirit of the Marathon. I had to wait for 8 long months to get this opportunity. And, a BIG Thanks to my running pal Shahid for having shared the DVD that he recently got his hands on.
I foung the Spirit in the movie title to be the key. The movie brilliantly exemplifies the capacity of a group of people to pull together persistently and consistently in pursuit of a common purpose - Run a marathon (specifically the Chicago one). This brings out the "Spirit" (as in Esprit de corps) of the marathon.
To me, the Spirit in the movie title is like the "Spirit" (sometimes used interchangeably with the word soul). The movie infused a powershot of super-high inspiration and energy into my body and mind, that I felt like I was possessed!
The movie is a very comprehensive one. The Telly Award winner and marathon runner Jon Dunham has covered every single aspect of running a marathon in this movie. From training, to injuries, to family management, to diet, the director has very nicely brought out the nuances from every perspective. He has also covered the pre-race-day preparation! (what to pack before you leave to the starting point).When you cross the finish line, it will change your life forever
You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink
With the whole world looking to invest in India, and with a slew of automotive biggies launching newer automobiles and two-wheelers for the Indian sub-continent, the 'road infrastructure' problem is getting more highlighted than ever. While the governments work (in tandem with private companies) to address the need for 'better and innovative' road infrastructure, here is a bunch of people from Mapunity who've developed this really useful solution - to 'monitor' the city traffic situation LIVE!
The Bangalore City traffic can be viewed at www.btis.in. This provides near-real-time (with a sub-2 minute lag). Go here to watch the live traffic status across Bangalore City.
While Deepavali is popularly known as the "festival of lights", a more appropriate significance is "the new year of luck and wealth".
Central to Hindu philosophy is the assertion that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the Atman. Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Deepavali is the celebration of this Inner Light, in particular the knowing of which outshines all darkness (removes all obstacles and dispels all ignorance), awakening the individual to one's true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality. With the realization of the Atman comes universal compassion, love, and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher knowledge). This brings Ananda (Inner Joy or Peace).
Diwali celebrates this through festive fireworks, lights, flowers, sharing of sweets, and worship. While the story behind Deepavali varies from region to region, the essence is the same - to rejoice in the Inner Light (Atman) or the underlying reality of all things (Brahman).
Content Source: Wikipedia.org
IBM Software Universe is the largest business and IT conclave in the country, which we host for our clients every year. Through this platform, we bring our entire ecosystem together to reinforce IBM's true leadership in driving innovation through middleware technologies, that has steered Indian IT landscape. This event is a 'must attend', and I urge you to sign-up for this event and experience innovation first hand. I'm going to be around and also doing sessions on 11th. Do feel free to get in touch with me for more information.
Some of the event highlights are -
Get yourself registered today!
For RSVP, call Priya on +91 98705 67425
Chandrayaan-1 was successfully launched this morning from ISRO SHAR (Shriharikota Range). This MOON mission is been closely observed by a zillion people across the world for various reasons. Some of the key aspects of the Chandrayaan-1 mission are -
The primary objective of MIP is to demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at the desired location on the moon. Through this probe, it is also intended to qualify some of the technologies related to future soft landing missions. This apart, scientific exploration of the moon at close distance is also intended using MIP. The Moon Impact Probe will be ejected from Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft at the earliest opportunity as the spacecraft gets closer to the Moon to hit the lunar surface in a chosen area.
morning at 5:50Hrs, India's dream is going to come true. Man's curiosity to know the Moon has for been growing ever since the days of the Ramayana and Mahabharatha and before.
It was in July 2007, when I decided to get 'marry' running to my life. Having said that, I decided to track my daily runs, and found Motionbased to be offering a nice platform. I had signed up for the Motionbased Standard account by paying $95/year. I had to face a lot of questions from my parents on my decision to pay an amount as steep as $95 per year to track my runs.Hello MotionBased Subscribers,
While we have posted the update on the release of Garmin Connect and MotionBased subscriptions to our MBlog, Forum and the MotionBased web site, we wanted to send you the information directly to you so you would know what is happening with your account as we come closer to the migration.
As you may know, we've been working on building Garmin Connect to replace MotionBased. We're making strides in improving performance and fixing bugs that we hope will enhance your experience. You've been a great customer and we wanted to thank you for making MotionBased the community that it is.
Unfortunately, our anticipated date to complete the migration of MotionBased to Garmin Connect is delayed. We're making sure that Garmin Connect is faster, more stable, and provides an even better user experience than MotionBased. As we ramp up toward migrating over 4.5 million activities that you've contributed to the TrailNetwork, we are making fixes and new improvements to Garmin Connect every 4 weeks. In the meantime, out of respect for your patronage and recognition for your patience, we've decided to grant additional privileges to paid MotionBased subscribers.
According to our records, you purchased an annual MotionBased Standard subscription before September 30, 2008. You will continue to have access to MotionBased Standard and be granted free access into Garmin Connect Plus for 2 years starting from your original expiration date. As a result, you will no longer receive any subscription charges from MotionBased and your account at Garmin Connect Plus will not auto-renew at the end of the free access period.
Again, we apologize for the delays and thank you for your support.
The MotionBased Team
$32 a year". Thats not bad at all...especially for the fact that I get to use all the features of Motionbased Standard for three years, an also get to enjoy Garmin Connect Plus for 2 years (this actually costs $40 per year). So, net-net, I've paid $95 and I get to enjoy services worth $175!!! Thats a deal!!
It was indeed a special moment for Chennai Runners yesterday. Though we've been on many printed media publications (from newspapers to magazines), it was the first time we were ON AIR! Yes, in light of the ECR8 that we are organizing tomorrow, Chennai Live 104.8 FM, a part of the Muthoot Group invited us to their studio in Egmore, Chennai, for a talk show.
Its been a very challenging period for me since August 21st this year. That was the fateful day (the details of the run, taken from my Garmin is on the right side) when I badly injured by left knee due to running with overconfidence. After a few physiotherapy sittings, I was asked to try out running a short 3 kilometer distance. But it was only then did I realize that the injury was pretty severe as I could hardly run after about 3 kilometers. This is when my confidence started to shatter.
It has actually been two days now, and I've started to properly run. When I say 'properly', I'm referring to a run that has not resulted in any pain on my left knee. This morning's run (details from my Garmin is on the left side picture) was the best after a very very long time. I was able to do a 6 kilometer run at a pace of 10:47! I feel like a free bird! The joy and happiness with which I finished today's run is something that's really unexplainable.
companies have been focusing on the innovation or the 'I' factor in every stage of their value chain - product inception, development, marketing, sales and support. In the technology space, organizations and companies have been focusing a lot to infuse innovative thinking into the minds of their employees. But still, we do see a lot of these technology initiatives failing to see the bright daylight!A 'Customer' to me, is like a Holy Cow. Just because I've invented a new shoe that uses the latest of technologies, does not mean that it would make the Holy Cow happy. I need to spend time and understand what this Holy Cow really needs. Technology is always secondary. It's the customer's need that actually drives my innovation
