The First Juggling Performance of My LIFE

There was some technical function in my office this week (16 and 17 December) and all the new joinees were busy in volunteering and looking after the arrangements under the guidance of our seniors. The event helped to break the monotony of regular office work. At the end there was a small dinner party was arranged for us (Volunteers) by office. There were few batchmates performing musicals and also planning for few games. I thought of putting up my juggling show but quickly turned it down, since it would be too immature a show.

This idea pops into my mind before 5 pm and we had show at 8pm. Some Solid encouragement from friends and I finally decided to give it a try. Dropping balls in front of the crowd was the least of my concern. I was worried about the time slot, I didn't had enough tricks to go for more than 3 mins. Juggling show - a lot is expected than just 3 ball basic cascade. You also need to be a performer and I was assuming that I would be busy focusing on juggling and no crowd contact.

Office, Home and Party venue were in close proximity and so I was able to go home after the office and practice for 30 mins and have a dress change too. I wanted to time my practice but the change over time between office and party was late and just warmed up with few tricks. There was one more trick I practiced a lot, picking a fallen club by kick. It worked at times in practice and times it didn't.

Finally the party started and first performance was a musical. They just rocked, Guitarist, the Singers - super Awesome. A perfect start for a perfect evening. My roomies were next to me and kept telling them - 'This is the first time I am nervous about performing on stage' I remember there was a time I told to myself - 'Ok, you are nervous, but you will be soon performing on stage. A property of performers is to hide the anxiety and fears inside and put up a good face. Moments later I was like who cares, I am nervous and I can't get over it.' They calmed me down and at the same time motivated me.

Finally the time came and Juggling balls first. I spoke that I am a beginner and I am nervous too and it was visible since I dropped in first few seconds performing basic trick. After few deep breaths and claps I got in the rhythm. 3 ball tricks and under the leg throws. Before going for the actual under the leg throws, I tried to copy one of the juggler's show trick that I saw. In that you pretend to throw the ball under the leg but don't actually do it and then ask audience if they saw it. Then you follow it up saying that you will do it in slow motion and then you actually throw it under the leg, that really generated some laughs among the friends. Then 4 balls, something that I am not good at, but still few throws here and there and the trick was done. Then the rings, three rings. There is a way in which you end the trick by putting all the three rings around your neck, I tried that trick and it worked, although bit clumsy.

Finally, the new props, Juggling clubs. Again, three club cascade. I tried the kick pick up and wow, It was perfectly executed and ended perfectly too. For the show stopper I tried one of each, a ball, a club and a ring, one of the toughest of all the remaining tricks that I performed that evening. !0 to 15 throws got executed nicely and I was done. A final Bow at the end- felt majestic.

Finally all the participation and fun-games-winner got some Smiley balls and it was majestic. Finally the nervousness was over-shadowed, not in an ideal manner. Thanks a TON for my friends and roomies for motivating me.

I registered my First Juggling Show. I started somewhere in mid-jan after running the half-marathon and was able to have my first show within a year of my training. The main concern that show will end within 2 mins was a highly inaccurate judgement, It lasted for almost 5 mins. Signing Off for now - Keep JUGGLING :)

New 30-day challenge

Blogging after a real long time. Its been three weeks since I came back to Chennai after a wonderful and sleepful Diwali vacation at home. Too many emotions in varying intensities surround me daily. I miss my home and parents for sure. I keep thinking of present and future and not to forget the past. This is all that I can say as of now about what is going on deep inside my head and Heart.

Moving onto some lighter and also adventurous topics- Running. 40 months to go for the Marathon and I am in good shape if not great or bad. Started my current training season a week ago. 6 months ago I planned of running couple of 50 kms in December, all that now appears a distant dream. It is for sure that in practice I won't be running more than 30km before the marathon. Race day is going to be a hell of a challenge. Point to be noted, I never ran a half marathon before the actual race day (which was January 2015). I had a plan to avoid that mistake, but all went for a toss. Anyway can't and won't back off. Tickets are booked and shoes polished and carbs loaded. Stay tuned for more race updates.

Juggling - torrential rains brought life to standstill in Chennai. Lucky for me that I am about 50kms from main City and not much of flooding issues here. The rains called in for 3 4 days office holiday and things back home went all gloomy. Not too much to do, plus I was in no mood of reading any new books. Juggling came in for rescue for few hours each day. TV was another pass time. Roomies and friends and monopoly helped in too. Instead of being thankful to God for saving me from the pains of floods, I was busy in my own thought process and making the things more gloomy around me.

So why the section is titled as Juggling? I am planning on learning 5 ball juggling since months now. I finally got serious now and for next 30 days I will consistently work on 5 ball cascade for minimum of 45 mins a day. 15 mins will be for warm up and clubs and at times rings just to freshen up. Hope I learn atleast a flash of 5 balls. Flash of 5 balls - throwing and catching 5 balls in a 5 ball cascade pattern. It takes months and at times years to learn the basic 5 ball cascade and months more to perfect it.

Lunch time about to end,need to share this on facebook too.

See you later :)

MIX Story Post

A collection of short paragraphs of all the topics that I wished to write about in the previous week. Sunrise is a perfect moment to Rise and Shine. Its been a month into my training in Kandivali, same route since long time and still a new perspective came in today. So far mornings have always been associated with my runs and school buses and kids that I encounter on my way. I am talking about 6am to 8am time. I take three short train journeys to complete my real long journey to my work place. I mentioned a few post ago that I generally walk to office from station at around 8.30 am. Sun doesn't come up much but the entire place is well light up and fresh. Today I saw the shops being opened. Few closed and many already set and waiting for their first customer. Some are busy, cleaning and arranging the counters and food packets. Some shops like dairy and stalls like newspaper are meant to be opened early. What I see is hardware shops, foot wares and even gift shops. May be this is one of the way in which these guys do hard work. No conclusion to be drawn here as such, abrupt end it is to be for all the thoughts.

Group 5- refer the following article to know the background of the coming paragraph - Group - 5. So we are 4 member team. It is human tendency (or just mine) to find similarities as well as differences and just try to co-relate each and every event that takes place. On this lines, let me take you through few chatchy links between the members. NEWS- North East West South, that is what our team is. They may not be leaving there, but belong from there. Covering the entire region. Rohit (Pahadi) - Northie, Shraddha (Goblin) - East, Myself (let it be a secret) - West and Kartik (KG) - South. All of us are Chasmis O_O . Last but not the least for now -- all are 'O+'. O+ is not so rare, but not so common too and so is worth noting that all four ended being in one team.

It being 11th October today and 11.10 pm, just 1 week to go before my Chennai Mail flags off.. Yes, I'll be on board it and going Chennai (Kanchipuram), my new work place and my first out of the fortress (Mumbai) expedition. I want those filmy style Long Good Byes which ain't gonna happen. What so ever worst case scenarios I thought off are turning out to be true. The timing is so late that it so not so possible for the near and dear ones to reach out. Secondly, train starts from CST but out boarding is from Dadar. So, once in there is hardly any chance to be out of the train again for the last time, Phew !!

Yesterday there were too many things to cheer about. Was back to stuff that I like the most, experimenting on real stuffs. There is some machine in plant which happen to be relatively noisy than others and our team was working on different solutions. So far all our suggestions were on paper, yesterday we finally touched and modified some set up, although the set up failed but atleast we made a start. The assembly always keeps moving and cars keep coming in and so cant make any changes in between. We get just one opportunity in the entire day to make big change and that is during the lunch break. 25 to mins is what we get and also we need to hope that out modifications don't hamper the core purpose of the machine.

The day ended on an even higher level of Awesomeness. Meeting my Bestie (Boxer), Ms MBiAn and Salman. Before that, a small incident happened. My dad keeps coming to Kandivali (my office is in Kandivali) and Malad, but very occasionally. I was on my way to Kandivali to catch a train for lower parela dn out of no where I see my dad suddenly appear and talking on call and it was my Mom. That moment and all the connection simply blew me off :). Back to friends meet -We roamed and talked and discussed. Work places issues to film talks to marriage proposals. Had Gol Gappe after Eons, I had stop eating them except for hostels. All credit to Boxer for the delicious dish. We went to a sports shop there and tried out Big Ball Juggling and boy did I succeed, I should have recorded it. There were skateboards too and I just couldn't stay away from it. Tried it once or twice and Bang, I was down. That was the ended, I just walked off the store before it was too late :)


Let me not make it any more bigger. I am very hopeful that there will a charging point in our compartment. If things go as planned I'll be writing a blog on my way with some attempt to make readers interactive. Stay tuned for a week more and do contribute to the next post.

Weekday S01E03 - Torturous Tuesday

Happy realisation to me. May be afterall it wasn't a good idea to go for this week long post series. I am too tired and no new thoughts flowing in. I had lot of stuff to write for Friday and Saturday and may be Wednesday too, for other days I would just be beating the bush. Being a dedicated blogger requires much more and this very instant I am not upto mark.

Just like so many of my other activities, I will leave this here, incomplete.

Good bye fellow readers and a Big sorry in the end to have disappoint you..


Sleep and Let Sleep ;)

Weekday S01E02 - Miraculous Monday

Was able to finish off work a bit early and thus an opportunity was created for a short run that I grabbed with my welcoming arms. Around 6 kms with high intensity sprints. Something went wrong today leaving me dead exhausted for the day and as a result I am writing this second post of the series using an Android phone ;)

I would visit Shiv temple on Monday mornings and then leave for IIT. There used to be a lecture at 9.30 am, 1 hour bus travel, temple visit etc forcing me to wake up at 6 am and thus I always started the day on a torturous note. Recently the temple visits have been reduced. Today I visited a temple inside the plant and coincidently it turned out to be a Shiv temple.

Many a times Mondays would be spend thinking about the Sunday party or just relaxing to recover from Sunday funday. Nothing much happening about this day, just a warm up for fourmore days of work.

My mind is shutoff n no more ideas poring in.. Good night Readers. . .

Weekday S01E01 - Sunday Funday

Week starts on Sunday for me and it has been an Awesome one. Woke up a bit late and then went for a usual 5 mile warm up run with mid intensity. Then some chilling out moments and juggling practice. Finally I recorded my first proper juggling video consisting of very basic tricks just for starters and link for it is - 3 ball juggling basics

Sunday, also called as Ravivar in Hindu and considered Sun God's day (I consider Sun as star as well as God). Colour of the day being White, but what makes this day special is the holiday associated with it. I read few books and for some it also Sunday Church day. Sunday's are considered to be weekly off for majority of offices, colleges, governments departments and banks and what not. In school days it was a good day to wake up late but you easily get bored since majority of school mates don't meet each other.

Most of Sunday special stuffs have been associated with childhood. Now-a-days they ain't as exciting. Dad used to be home on Sundays. Horse rides and garden trip with dad and my bro used to be the best part. Also there used to be few Sunday special comedy shows on Sony television (I don't remember the name though) which made sure that each Sunday begins with a roll on the floor laughter :) Playing cricket for years on Sunday became a ritual. This is the only day when all would be free. You work 5-6 days a week and still gather tremendous amount of energy required for sports on Sunday and that is what makes it more awesome. Mothers day, Fathers day, Friendship and what not, all are celebrated on Sunday and making it more happening.

Then there used to be Formula 1 races which I used to follow so much once upon a time. Alternate weeks and at 4.30 pm star sports. If there was any other sport finals, it would be played on Sunday too. There were and still are too many reasons to be Happy about Sunday. The new dimension running along with job has made Sunday a LONG SLOW RUN/distance (LSD is what they call it). You go out at 9 am and still streets would be empty and air would be fresh and full of oxygen. One section of my running passes through a playground and you can see small and big boys playing cricket or football and some just chilling out with their buddies.

Don't know what happens to body and stomach since on Sunday there is simple no mood and hunger for dinner. So it is generally light and some variety, like idli/dosa or some new biryani type recipe by Mom. Ice cream to end the day, what more should I ask for ? There is other side of it too, a small one. You can't find a top without a bottom. Likewise at ties Sunday becomes the day for house cleaning and so the rest part is gone. Going to religious function or marriages on Sunday may take a toll on your body if its for too long duration. Being in Mumbai you just can't ignore the locals (railway). There is mega block and less trains running which don't stop on all stations. If you think commuters face the problem think of the maintenance workers or officials who look after the entire stuff. They really miss out a whole of Sunday and lot of crucial family time. It is for the bigger cause for the safety of travelers and for their money too. Recent derailments have forced me to rethink on the sincerity by which the work on Sunday is done and also a big question arises on the quality of new materials coming in.

Heard today is going to be some Big moon day and Moon being my favorite I am just not gonna miss it. Signing off for today and getting ready for Monday Morning Blues :)

7- Post Blog Series (Trailer)

VIBGYOR - That is how we used to remember the rainbow colours in order. Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green,Yellow, Orange, Red. Each colour has its own frequency and a group of people who consider it as their favorite. There are so many different set of colours out there, but this is what we can distinctively obtain by passing sunlight through a water droplet or simple put, on a sunny rainy day. Black and White, absence and presence of all colours respectively, complete the set. In some culture white is auspicious and black is gloomy and in others it exactly the other way round.

Then we have seven wonders of the world. 10 years down the line we may have a completely different set of wonders. Each has its different meaning and made in different decades and even centuries. There seem to be no connection between them like the colours. Above set of colours are part of something what we  know as white light or sunlight. Why only seven wonders of the world? I am yet to find out, but that is not what I am currently interested in.

Just two examples of set of 7, one is nature's gift and other is man made structures grouped in one. There is one example which is combination of man-made classifications and forces of nature. One large mass of land existed and through thousands and lakhs of years of evolution we now have 6 distinguishable huge land masses but classified into 7 continents. Then there is religion coming in, 'Shaadi k saat pheere'. The less I speak about it the better. There are other examples which could be listed. Someone may come up with any other number too, but my main focus is SEVEN.

It took me 7 years after my 12th to finish off my graduation and plus the post graduation. What's more, my name SANDEEP is a 7 letter word, a perfect coincidence. Above paragraphs is just an example of random stuffs bonded together by 7. I will be writing 7 posts for next seven days (one post a day). It will be based on seven days of week. Colour of the day, some 2-3 more lines about it. I may or may not discuss my present day events, but I will be describing in detail about what each day means for me. A childhood memory or teenage years or college project days.. Just me and that particular day :)

! ! ! 7 days of week coming soon ! ! !

Last Month in the Fortress

Finally I am writing just a night before my record breaking long run tomorrow. Fortress here means Mumbai, where I was born and nurtured and brought up etc etc. . . Last month? Thanks to globalization and what not, I will be moving to Chennai for my new (first) job as a researcher. More on that later, but I will surely share my side of story of the training I so far went through. A paragraph on my running update and next target. Finally I'll try to peek inside and see what I feel about the precious Last Month.

Let me start with the job. I started training from 7th September 2015 and a brief summary of day can be found in my previous post titled - Day 1 for an Igniter. Next few days were bit hectic and few, very few, chilled ones. I got used to travelling for 90 mins one way to get used to office. Then long hours in the office and cafe 4X4 and lectures. 23 of new GETs/PGETs (henceforth when GET used for group will include PGET also, unless stated otherwise) are stationed in Kandivali for training purpose. We were divided into 6 groups of 4 each except one. Each group would visit a particular system (transmission, engine, assemble, etc) for 3 4 days and learn as much as one can. Lunch session suddenly got more interesting since all the 6 teams would come together and share their experiences.

A good time to introduce my team, Shraddha - our leader, Rohit and Kartik and myself. Rohit is MTech from IIT in Mechanical and guitarist. Kartik, Mechanical Engineering and MS from London in automobile engineering. I clarify most of my silly doubts with his help. The two guys are so chilled and relaxed so unlike me. Chilled here doesn't refer to training and enthusiasm for learning. Chilled here means not getting entangled into any unnecessary or unwanted tensions at all. Both will be moving to MRV Chennai with me after training season. Finally the leader comes in Shraddha, GET in Industrial engineering. Very eager to learn all auto terminologies. Reminds me of my GET days, when I used to get overwhelmed just by the sight of a pneumatic wrench. Shraddha - you just need to hear her laugh to know all about her. Ask her anything about MOST or ergonomics and, and I won't describe what happens next. You better experience it yourself. Not all group secrets are to be made secret :P. I failed in Japanese proficiency test few months back, but I am learning Bengali from our BONG leader.

I change three trains to get to my office and after few days, I found a good window of reading books. Metro and western railways are less crowded in the direction that I travel and I get more than 25 mins of reading time one way. That is 50+ mins of reading daily. I wake up just in time in morning and so no stretching or yoga but then again there is way to compensate it. I generally walk from Kandivali station to office, around 20 to 25 mins of walking. In a day it accounts for 1 hour of walking, which is better than zero workout. The attitude of what I was few years ago and what I am is reflected in the way I look at the things that just happen. I feared and never wanted to travel from home to Kandivali daily, but company policy made sure the worst thought scenarios become a reality. Result is, now I am very much happy about the way things are placed. Maa k hath ka khana mil jata hai yaar :)

Runing, last week got early leave one of the day, I came home, ate and slept. But something inside me kicked up and ended up running 6+ kms starting 6pm. Then came Sunday and I planned 15 miles, but ended up running 10 miles, not bad, but a surely there is a scope for improvement. I wasn't tired after run, even though I ran just once a week. I assumed I was in good fitness, but the the recovery period between your runs is another parameter of fitness. I took 2 days to fully recover from the calf pain. Yesterday was 5 mile run, like a walk in a park. Again i'll aim for the stars tomorrow (25 kms, just over 15 miles) and I am determined to atleast touch the nearest one.

18th of October, Sunday is the day I will be moving south of India. Finally a time for proper good bye will come. I don't know what and how will it be. I can't imagine or predict the scene of platform and parents and near and dear ones. Let us just keep the topic changing here itself for a month more. One thing is for sure, actually realisation of moving into other territory will seep in after December 2015.


I'll end by quoting a dialogue from the movie 'Men of Honor' by Master Chief Billy Sunday

The Navy Diver is not a fighting man, he is a salvage expert. If it is lost underwater, he finds it. If it's sunk, he brings it up. If it's in the way, he moves it. If he's lucky, he will die young, 200 feet beneath the waves, for that is the closest he'll ever get to being a hero.

Day 1 for an Igniter

Day 1 of  ?? Day 1 of shop floor training. Although I officially became a Mahindra employee on 31st August. But it was induction for few days. Hotel stays and lectures and outdoor runs. As a n engineer you by default have many plant visits, few as long as a week and few as short as 2 hours. Today I was touring and scanning the facilities as an Igniter. Igniter- a name given to Mahindra Rise GETs and PGETs, I am not sure if we would still be an Igniter after confirmation??

Our shopfloor training is 45 days long and I am posted in Kandivali plant for training, later on I will be moving to MRV Chennai (more on that later). I was to reach the plant at 8.45am, being a localite, I wasn't given any accommodation. Kandivali plant from my place is more than 20kms, after lot brain storming and going through pros and cons of all options, I decided to take the rails. Central railways from Mulund to Ghatkopar. Then metro from Ghatkopar to Andheri and then western railways from Andheri to Kandivali. Man, the metro, it was my second metro trip, simply awesome. It was about 7.20am, so no crowd as such and Sun just trying to RISE over the clouds. Reminds me of Mahindra Rise :P . I reached Kandivali in about an hour.

It was suppose to be a great day. All throughout the Engineering and specially the last three years of MTech, I have being waiting to get a chance to go out and prove myself. Climb up the ladder of corporate hierarchy,bring in new innovation and what not. I didn't have any dream company as such, but I wanted an Indian based group.Its a different story about placement, but Mahindra Automotive and Farm Equipment Division. Having visited tractor plant 4 years ago, Nashik plant a year ago and a BAJA member for a short time, it all came together. Finally I am in and a start of new climb. I don't know how far is the summit, what's the climb percentage (slope) and what is required to reach there( this climb analogy comes in due to Tour de France that finished last month).

Its not uncertain if after climb there is a flat or a decent. Slow or fast decent? how many trick corners might be present, who knows. For time being, lets just enjoy the climb and support of the spectators. In Mahindra they have a nice word - 'VUCA' - Volatile, Uncertain, Challenging and Ambiguous world. Let us come back to present. First of all, the routines, like exercise or run helps to start the big day just a regular one. Indeed the day started like any other day, no different. I get down at Kandivali and take an auto. Pretty normal, then bang. An accident, although no major damage done, but a crash went down in the record books. Auto driver had an excellent reason for the reason, his leg wasn't on brake pedal or it slipped off. Finally he dropped off in middle of nowhere and that too wrong street. Thank god for buffer time, things ended well and I reached on time.

Then the welcoming session, lunch etc etc.. We got our safety shoes, almost 30 mins were taken to select the shoe size. It was three pm and no substantial work output was achieved by us. Bang - another major event to end the day. 23 of us were divided in 6 groups to visit different plant units. Ours was transmission unit and a small 15 20 mins session was for gearbox and transmission basics. Currently for some reason or other, I want use name of any Sir or our senior Mahindra Buddies. We were assigned one senior buddy to help us through the basics, phew, the energy level of the buddy and passion to teach left us shocked. We saw the entire transmission assembly step by step. That's not all, after each step we would interrupt and see the importance of previous step. No matter how big or small the step was. Was a particular gear shift fork is designed the way it is and why not the other way was understood. Pokayoke (fool proofing) was seen live in action. Some funny incidents and some serious flaws which exited in previous designs was discussed and how new designs were incorporated. Small but a crucial part was the transmission test bed, less than 2 mins to fully test the transmission. 2 wheel drive or four wheel, it doesn't matter. Overall it was a first deep practical lab session I can say. This was just in 3 hours, more 40 days, each of 8 hours minimum yet to go.

Signing off for now, need to be up and awake early for tomorrow.

Dreams Did came TRUE

An unusual Sunday long run !!

M so excited, writing about running. A quick fitness level update. August just three four 8 km runs, few hill repeats 4 km and few small runs. My year end resolution was to reduce yo 65kg from 70kg, instead I reached 75kg.. Phew, lots of fat.. I am in pune for a week and today was third day. Its full if sweets n carbs n sleep n so 75kg. In august I reached a stage where I had overcame the pain of regrets and so skipping my runs was a cake walk..

I just happy realised that only way to get out is to wake up n go running, sliw but long runsss.. Today was that day, Sunday  - famous for long runs.. There was fuel and fire to run n finally the spark was ignited by new location. Instead if outdirrs I ran indoors in treadmill. Hotel gym :).. Have heard that its easy to run in treadmill n its true. New shoes n natures natural view, I ran 10.5km in an hour. I thought I'll be tired, but no, I was refreshed n hardly exhausted.

Wanted to go on top of those hill, a small one n finally found a company to help me on my way. Man, just 100m n the exhaustion due to previous run swept in. Slow n steady we made it. Perfect beginning for Sunday. Then it was fun filled day all the way. I was expecting to be in kandivali for September n October n new location for training but that is not suppose to be.

Small tough time, almost 4 hour travelling it will be n need to fit my training schedule. More challenging is to get the fitness level back and an unlimited enthu for learning new technology.. Its gonna be Awesome !! I hope I write for next three days the same way as today. My company induction starting tomorrow..

Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do

End of Two Crucial Months

Yesterday was the best day to write this post. The second best day is today. The two crucial months I am referring to is the vacation period just before joining. It was supposed to be filled with running, reading, juggling n self discovery. Well I pretty much scored average in all and didn't clear Japanese language proficiency test N5 (basic level). Currently I am waiting for document verification n joining process of my first full fledged job. It was all exciting yesterday n the emotions would have been visible in the post. But at this moment I am waiting, and I wonder if waiting will ever be exciting. Just amused at how many yeaes in all do we spend waiting. . .So the mood of the blog might be OK OK and to the point.

Let's us brush through the summary of previous 2 months. By July end I was running 10 miles easily n regularly and then came august. Hardly ran for 7 8 days in all and the longest run was just 5 miles. I never was worried about my tummy till today, all thanks to August andmy laziness. Its not just laziness.. Running with mind of meditation explainswhy we loose track of our goalsand how to make a come back. By reading that book I realised I was bring over ambitious and also lost track of my goal and motivation. Will talk about my revised goals latter. Juggling - didn't work a bit and so no improvements. Reading - I finally finished Nelson Mandela's book about long walk to freedom. Ordered half a dozen new books and read a couple of them. Self discovery - I discovered my hidden love for sleep , just joking..

Waiting - that is what this post was all about to be. While travelling too we are waiting for our destination but we call it as travelling time. May whenever or wherever we queue up, we easily classify it as waiting. Its like I am ready to eat but waiting for food to arrive. I am all set and ready to go, but waiting for bus. Had to take a break to get some prints, but still waiting.

One aspect about writing on mobile is that I feel the post is big n too much is written n on seeing it on web it seems small. Hope this is small too..

See you all in post induction post..

Critical Last Month

I am late by 2 3 days, but that is it. Last 4 weeks to go before I go on my first full time professional duty. Another title of this post would have been 'Changes in New Year Resolutions' or 'New Short Term Goals'. Before going further you may read - Start of 2 crucial Months.

12 hours of sleep minimum per day, that is how I can describe best my last month. Made a visit to Pune to meet some of MTech classmates and met my Sister too. Travelling is fun with your Bestie, no matter how short or long it is. So, back to Pune. Wasn't a well planned, rather not a planned one at all. Made some of friends awake till mid night and my Sister too. About Pune, well the homes I visited were Breezy. Climate Cool and shops remain close in noon. For me that was little tough, also public transportation, well it is rarely used by localities. 2 Wheeler dominate the streets. I learnt Bike riding too, better late than never..

Remaining time of the week was spent reading some books, hardly 30 pages a day. At this slow rate I was able to finish just 3 to 4 books, some half, some full. Read couple of books on kindle and sometimes getting a comfortable hold becomes difficult due to the touch screen. Anyway, I read a book 'Power of Habits', it consists of some case studies, some experiments with lots of people and tries to link the theories with real world events like a boycott movement at national level. Have heard a lot that - if you repeat something for 21 days continuously, then it becomes a habit. If you too believe the same, then please read the above book to find out the truth.

Running- there is a book by Bill Hudson (an Olympic athletes coach), Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach, and he talks about adaptive coaching. It consists of 6 7 different types of running drills to be performed for a better performance. It doesn't talk about cross training, nor about gym, it just supports and advise high volume workouts.One simple logic - marathon world record pace is just less than 21 kmph and we all can run faster than that, so why aren't we world record holders. We definitely have speed, but the endurance to carry that speed over longer distance is missing and book talks in depth about the building up that endurance. Additionally it suggests 8 to 10 secs of steep hill sprints to avoid injury and its working for me so far. Finally it talks about self assessment and how to how to plan your workouts.

Currently I am back on canvas shoes, and hope each pair at least lasts for a month or 500 kms, whichever is late. I ran some 10 milers in July. At the end of July, laziness again caught me and I skipped many days of exercise. I hope to go upto 15 miles this month. Then 20 in September and 25 (26.2 miles is Marathon) in October. Although my speed is 10 to 11 mins per mile, very slow, but I wanna focus more on mileage building. Also read about Milind Soman and few others competing in Ironman. Triathlon or Ironman was always on my list, but main focus was ultrathons. So, I searched for triathlons in India and realised that, like marathons, here too there are varying duration and distances and each have its own qualification criteria. I can run and cycle, but not swim (not yet). So the short long term plan is as follows

Jan 2016- Full marathon (already registered)
Till mid- 2017 - run at least one ultrathon (more than 75km run)
2018- One basic or entry level or Olympic distance triathlon.

In 2016, I will be starting and focusing more on swimming and occasional running. Hope the 2016 Marathon goes well. Also I was worried about post marathon depressions, but now I have few targets for next 2 3 years to help me be focused on strength and stamina build up.

To finish off, let me talk about few secondary activities. Gave up on Guitar learning. Lost the motivation and too difficult to start off. Language, I am not sure I will go any ahead with any of them for next few months. Juggling, after 4 ball, I am just not able to go ahead. Five ball juggling seems a long long dream to accomplish. There are 5 to 6 steps to reach upto 5 ball juggling and I am currently struggling with 1st. It is just 15 to 20 mins of practice per day.

Signing off, hope to catch up with you readers once more before the month goes by !!!

B2B - Back to Basics

Back to blogging with mobile. Few things just happen and you get a tppic to discuss about. You just love to write when its related to your new passion. Yhis is a real short account of my running shoes.

It was evening of 16 th December 2013 a day after tour de India cycling event. I was determined to participate in half marathon in Jan 2014 n on 16 DEC I was out shopping for shoes. Like most I wanted to buy a highly cushioned shoes. Bought a good pair n continued with it for a week or two before going for new pair.

This new pair was just an extra addition that I wanted and this new shoes felt good. It was like spring n yet soft and I set good new records. Things were good n I was running about 2 3 kms a day and then came by birthday. My Bestie gifted me a book Born to Run and it is famous for turning half of running population to barefoot running and I was no exception. Going direct barefoot ain't good given the condition of roads. So I went for canvas shoes that has minimum cushioning and wears off quickly and making your running close to barefoot.

I ran my 10.5km qualifying in June 2014 with same shoes. Bought a couple of more n used then in my first half marathon. Training continued with the 2 new sets. I increased my running volume last month. Thanks to few books, apart from volume, I have mixed up different running speeds in my cycle. Things were and still are good. After shoes I finalised few shorts to be used. Now I no more run in cotton t-shirts. Normal water is what serves up my purpose of hydration. ( used glucon D in summers n doesn't make much difference). Was planning to go more modern on running and then my shoes called me back to basics. Around 30 to 40 miles of week was enough to wear off my shoes till the end. I started with canvas since it has thin sole and wears off quickly. This is precisely the reason now I will be moving away from them.

Old shoes are back on and next few weeks I'll finalise my pair. Right pair is necessary for smooth transition. 10miles a day and new shoes could easily derail me. Just 6 months to go for full marathon and so can't reduce my mileage. Just hope for the best. Also thanks to Mahindra n Mahindra for keeping me in Mumbai till October. By October I wish to build up stamina to take me all the way to 42 kms within 4 hours. Then the so called sharpening period will start where I would like to increase my speed n build up a aerobic and mental support system to carry me upto 50 kms minimum.

Start of 2 Crucial Months

     It is already passed midnight, meaning it is 18th of June today. I am having my final MTech Project presentation and couple of hour of work yet to be done on the PPT. Culmination of thoughts since a month, watching past marathon races on youtube and finally TVF - Pitchers - 'Tu Beer Hai' gave me the push required to write down this post.


Three Categories

1. What I wanted/wished for myself (3/5 years ago)
2. What I really want for myself to get to my post ten year future image
3. What is being forced on to me due to reading books and peer pressure

     Need to fill in the contents in the above three categories. Never really thought of breaking down my bigger Image or goal into small steps. Next two months is the Perfect Time. Okay, so what's with this next two months, when do they exactly start from. Calculations are based on slight assumption that I will have my Job joining post 19th August. As mentioned earlier, my MTech Presentation will be over today and then only small work remains to be done. So, I won't be having any major academic work to be undertaken. So from this weekend to mid August I have approx two months of stay in Mumbai. My first of many overseas (outside Mumbai) assignment will be starting at the end of this period. My visits to college will be reduced to once or twice a week. In short, I am free free free !!!

     It will be good if I can figure out my role in the company much early and equally important to identify its role in my life. I'll be reading loads (minimum 6) of books and writing quite a few blog posts too. I wanted to write something else too but somehow I don't recall it. Anyway, let me ended it here. One of my rear posts since December of 2013 that I am not mentioning my favorite activity !!!

Rise or Perish 

Reflecting on First Half of 2015

     Finally I gather some time and courage and energy to put down some facts and experimentation stuff that's going on. They say Well begun is Half done, and 2015 for me is one such entity. Half marathon, Goa trip and three ball basic juggling pattern, all well.. The highs need to be compensated by some lows and in this case it was project. Japanese classes started off great for a week and soon i was lagging. At the end its all about priorities and Juggling and Running topped my list. Two approaches possible, one is to go month by month or consider activity by activity, I chose activity detailing.

Project

     Since the placement season in December I have been slow in project work. The project is basically signal processing and in the later half it was about regression and predicting future results. I learnt how to work with neural networks and different forms in which they can be used. Thanks to huge support from my sir who gave an assurance that its okay if things don't work out, at least I tried something and it didn't work. So, no big deal. This eased off the pressure a lot and some good amount of work was finished up by the beginning of May. That's all for project, will be having final presentation in next week and then wrap it up asap. This will also mean end to IIT hostel life, it will be missed once the college ends, currently I am just going with the flow and enjoying the Campus !

Japanese

     As soon as the class started for second module we had a test consisting of previous module. Result was too bad, made small small comebacks in small class tests. I never really built up on the vocab and grammar part wasn't great too. The final test was one of the best ones and then again I stopped studying. Its full of up and down and up and down again. Current scene - JLPT (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test) is on 5th July and have started very slow and very steady progress for it. Thanks to one of my Japanese classmate, Nidhi, I am now learning more and faster. Memrise can also be credited, its an Android base app for languages and covers more than 30 languages..

Reading

     Reading too took a back step in the initial months. Just ordered couple of new books or so. I tried reading a book on juggling and reading more about Israel and ISIS and all. The enthusiasm lasted for a week or two and I was off. But I am back now, reading books like - 'My Life My Rules', 'The Winning Way by Harsha Bhogle', '5pm to 9am Entrepreneur', etc. One thing is for sure, now I am no longer attached to just sports or biographies. I will reading few books on running and about mind in the coming months.

Guitar

     First of all thanks to Preeti (my childhood friend) for lending me her Guitar to practice on. Equal thanks to Ajinkya Joshi (My IIT batchmate), for guiding me through. Now my own journey, start was Awesome, learnt few songs in a month. I focused mainly on Leads, my personal preference. In the initial months, Nidhi was my Guitar partner and so that kept me motivated. I continued for a month after she left but couldn't find enough motivation to keep me going. In running, I could and still go for miles and miles without a training partner. I won't say its my passion, but there is something I need to prove to myself and world and everybody that I can and so I run. Running for the right reasons. Guitaring, I am yet to find one. Last month I started to learn the chords basic and let me tell you, its tough. May be it is this difficulty that has kept me away from playing since couple of weeks. Expect me to be back soon..

Juggling

     Started of with tennis balls and three ball basic cascade. Took me a week or so to learn it and couple of months more to master it. Between that I also started making different types of juggling balls by reading online guides. Ordered a set of bean bag balls (used by beginners) and learnt few three ball tricks. Then the allergies and cold and cough kicked in and I was forced to be away from juggling for a month. You may like to read my previous post - Weird Allergies.. Then I ordered few costly stage juggling balls from US, thanks to my BRO Pratik for making the purchase and shipment possible and quick. Meanwhile I also started with ring juggling and learnt few tricks. Things were getting bored up with three balls and arrival of five identical balls, I started with 4 balls basic pattern. Next uphill task is 5 balls which may take 1 to 6 months to learn. I hope I learn it quick. Also by July end I may get my juggling clubs shipped too.

     Meanwhile, I contacted Yoshi Chladny, a juggler from Montreal. He performed in IIT in Mood Indigo and I happened to have first hand experience to learn club juggling. He was here for his show, but somehow I found a chance to learn to hold and toss clubs. Although it was for 5 mins, but I guess it was one major and final push I needed to start to learn juggling. I used online tutorials and let me tell you, there are so many good and great jugglers out there and so many are willing to share so many of their tricks and secrets. One of such juggler is Niels Duinker, a world record holder for juggling three clubs blindfolded. He recently made a new record by juggling 12 shaker cups simultaneously. I can go on and on about him, I sent him a mail and then reply came and we have been facebook friends from then. Well, it may seem a trivial and so small thing, being a facebook friend may be like no big deal, but for me it was and still is. Feels great to be in touch with Greats in their own field. Another connect I have with Niels is that we both are Mechanical Engineers :)

Running

     I would talk for hours and days and even months about running and my experiments and experiences. Post the half marathon in January I didn't run much in the coming months. I wanted increase speed and focused on changing the running technique. More precisely, I have now learnt to land on the area between toes and the balls of foot. I started small and quick distances and with ample of rest. Then the allergies came in and have been off for an entire month. Making a comeback was tough but necessary.

     I started with few yoga asans specifically to beat the asthma and in a week I had gained my running posture and form back. Next task was stamina, and till today i am having difficulty in it. I can run 8 or say even push further till 10k with ease, but when you say that you need to compete in full marathon, then 10k runs are nothing but a warm up. Everyday I plan that I will go 16k but things don't just go as plan. Speed has increased marginally but not substantial enough.

     I saw few inspiring videos on youtube which helped me to be a early riser regularly. Included few routines in exercise to strengthen the core and abs muscle. I go once a month for strength training ie up and down the flyover. The main concern is still the endurance and then the speed. May end was good, waking up early and going for early run. Purchased new shorts for running to make me feel more like a marathoner. There used to be early morning talk inside me.

A- Sleep off its too early..

B- No, I have to train, I want to be a champion..

A- You ran yesterday and you will go tomorrow, take a day off now..

B- Past is past, I need to run today and build up my endurance..

A- But you slept late yesterday. Its okay to take a day off..

B- So what, I will sleep after my run. Anyway I sleep a total of 9 to 10 hours a day. Also, you need to make sacrifices if you need to succeed.

A- Okay - Go Ahead.

The problem is I don't which is heart and which is Mind. Either A is heart and B is mind or vice-a-versa. Anyway, I stop dwelling on it as long as I was up and running 5 days a week minimum. In the coming months I plan to focus on endurance and then the speed. Rainy days make it bit tougher to run but it gets compensated with cool climate and less dehydration. July is so much important, a month in Mumbai before I move onto so called professional world.

     There is an element of training which came as a big surprise from me to myself. I always had a belief eat what you like and how you like. Chocolates formed the core of it and eating up Amul's sandwiches in hostel. I had started eating Salad and sometimes fruit a year back but also had my share of sweets and rice and everything.

     I have now started following some mildly strict diet regime, simply put, I am dieting or I am on a healthy diet. Bye bye to Sweets and Sugar and Breads. Replace it with Sprouts, Fruits, more salad, some hydrating drinks, Brown Rice, Dal etc. This is to ensure that I don't put up extra weight (which is difficult to carry for 42k) and have an efficient working body. Whenever I see corn, the first thing that pops up in my mind is - Proteins and second word is corn. Such is the connection I wish to establish with all foodstuffs and foodgrains.

     It is only yesterday that I realised how big a decision I made in spur of moment. Like no sweets, no chocolates. For how long? I don't know. A year, two or a life time. Will there be any occasional exceptions, I don't want to make one and haven't made one since a week. That doing any activity regularly will be difficult and its okay to do it even say at 80% regularity will suffice. Something is better than nothing. That is changing now, I want to do it regularly.

     Recently the core and asthma fighting asans were taking a mental toll on me. Wake up at 5am and still you leave for running no early than 6.30am, just because of the other exercise is not good. So, I have decided to cut down at all major exercise and focus on stretching and running for a month so that I build up at least half marathon endurance. Once the office life starts, it will be a great struggle to find out time for running and exercise and that is when the fun starts. Will be making changes to my routine such that I focus more on strength and speed and so endurance work out just twice a week. Long way to go, 'Mada Mada Desu' - as they say in Japanese.

! Let Your Dreams Come True !

Weird Allergies !!!

     Last year I start off well with running. Mileage and speed improved each day. May be it was just good form which didn't last too long. There came a phase in August or so where I actually thought of quitting running completely. I came back to my senses and out of frustration in about a week and restarted it and rest is as they say History.

    History, well, not completely. From November to mid December I was out of practice due to numerous excuses. I was out of practice and not in the shell of quitters. I made a reasonably good come back by finishing the half marathon in mid January. That's it, again stopped running and with that all the exercises and yoga and routine was lost. Trying to change the running technique gave a good reason to reduce my running frequency twice a day.

     Juggling, that occupied the remaining time along with Guitar classes. Couple of days back the reason for my 2 month past of ill health became clear. It is as equally dreadful as funny it may sound. I had plastic allergy. Never paid attention to it till now. In school days I used to solve Rubik's cube and was really good at it. It was my dad who first thought that I had plastic allergy and so I was kept away from cube and my health back then improved (Remember, it was only 4 years ago that I realised I had Asthma). So, after improvement I was back to cubic and again ill health then again away from cube. Cycle continued. I seriously didn't pay attention to my dad's diagnosis and ignored it.

     With 2015, the new year resolution of juggling came and since 2 months I may having this cold and cough issues. This time mom thought that dad is correct and I do have plastic allergy. Juggling props are mainly plastic that I used and PVC. I still ignored, but just for fun googled it and saw few articles. Such allergies do exist. That was it, end of my Juggling Dream/Career. It is said that we learn through our experience and Running again came in for rescue.

     Running is not advisable for Asthmatic persons and more so without doctor's approval. I slowly build up stamina, resting heart beat began to drop, indicating that Heart is being more efficient. Also, Salads, Dry fruits became an integral part of my diet. Its combination of all these factors that I could say that I overcame asthma and actually knocked it down. Now, its plastics giving me a hard time. Even climbing up the stairs can be so painful and tiring that I really wonder was I really fit few months ago? Sprinting and running 15 kms easily and daily. Answer is Yes, I was fit, its just this PVCs and Plastics trying to punch me out.

     So, the reason I mentioned running in last para is this - If I can overcome asthma and pursue my dream of running a marathon, I can surely do it again, this time for the sake of Juggling. Mind you, I also have a very stiff target of Marathon for 2016. This year I missed my target by 1 hour :P .. In 2016 I will aim to finish Full marathon in under 3 hours. As the running went for a toss so did reading and also less of Blogging I do. Just a real bad patch, bad form, forces of nature, lack of determination, so many reasons to point out. One thing is for sure, when I will be on the winning side, It will be due to shear discipline, patience and faith that no hurdle is big enough to stop you from moving ahead.


All the Best to My Reader's who are fighting their own battle and chasing their Sweet Dreams :) See you all at the finish line . . . .

First Half Marathon + 2015 Resolutions

Apart from pics and fb posts, Marathon gives you a new topic to write on.. You can talk about your practice, technique, goals, diet change and what not. Then about the pre race day butterflies in the stomach, finally the race and then the post race targets..

I Ran in Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2015 (SCMM 2015) half marathon in 2 hours, 13 mins and 30 seconds..

I am just gone keep this very short and won't go into the marathon details much.. Only one incident I would like to narrate it. I saw movie Unbroken few days before the race and it had nice quote  'Moment of Pain is worth life time of Glory'.. It really helped me to get through couple of pre marathon long run practice sessions. It was about 17km somewhere and a km away from Marine Drive. I was just out and felt that suddenly something sucked out all the energy and I was not moving. Technically I was still moving at good pace, but mentally it felt as if I had stalled. So I decided to recall that quote.

I said to myself - 'Moment of Pain is worth life time of ---'.. I just couldn't complete it. Forgot the word glory. I repeated the incomplete quote several times before making a guess that the word may be Glory. I wasn't confident about the missing word, but I completed the quote with the word 'GLory' which happened to be true. So yeah, I never anticipated this kind of situation to arise. A year ago I planned for 75 min for Half marathon, by the race day I thought under 2 hours would be fine. I missed entire November and half December due to various excuses. So my pace was about 2 hour 10 mins and I thought that I may go for 2 hour mark. It turned that I finally completed in 2:13:30..

I was bit disappointed post race but still happy that I did it. A year ago I couldn't run 2.4 kms properly, now I completed 21 and was still unhappy.. It is then that I realised the meaning of - 'Yeh Dil Maange More''. ie you just want more and more. I thought I'll brake into tears once I cross the line, ie the emotions would be hard to control, on the race day nothing such happened. A bit of haphazard post race arrangement cut short the celebration. That is all.


Now for some 2015 resolutions, this is the first time I am making such resolution and announcing it publicly.

1. The short term is 800 m PG Sports. I need to complete 800 m in about 2 mins 30 seconds to stand a chance to win. Today's short run made it look like impossible.. Lets see how close I can go. So its pure speed training till Feb end.

2. March - I read a story of 30 day 30 marathons and few other 30 day challenges. I will be doing minimum 15 kms run everyday on each day of March. So a 450 km will be covered in a month. This will be like stamina building and improving running form. Experimenting with different drinks and chocolates during the run. Pre and Post stretching and warm up and everything will be tested.

3. April  I plan to restart swimming.

4. The Bigger aim is SCMM 2016 - here I plan to run Full marathon in less than 3 hours..

5. Guitar - This will be my third attempt in learning Guitar. Gave up in a month the last two time when I tried.

6. Japanese needs to be looked after, just 3 months left in the course and I am still not sure what I am doing with it.

7. Project needs to be restarted in full swing.

8. There is small surprise skill that I am currently learning. One may expect a small glimpsy video of it by March end, stay tuned for it.. I just hope that I make it a big success.

9. Can't remember anything else. Sleeping less, meditation, breathing exercises and what not. I always plan for them and still can't hold on much to them..


Finally I am back to blogging !!!