Woaaah!

Came across this somewhere

"Nothing's better than the wind to your back, the sun in front of you, and your friends beside you."

YES :) !! It's never been better in a long time. ( touch wood )

Team Hoyt

Woah.. haven't seen something like this for a while.

Dad & son team running the triathlons / Marathons. Nothing uncommon. Just that the son suffers from cerebral palsy!

Truly awesome.

( Via Dragon )

Discovery!

'When was the last time you did something for the first time? Keep Discovering' goes Emirates tagline...

Today, is my answer

And yours ?

20 years in 20 years

Thats the improvement to the new house buyer's profile in India. In the last 20 years, the average age of a new house buyer has reduced from 50-58 years to 30-38 years ( According to a report published in Business Line 2 days ago ) - A clear indication of spending power in the 30-40 year age group. The spending power is just going to penetrate even lower ( 25 year olds, depth ) and to a larger group ( more people in the age group, breadth) in the coming years.

As for me, i have managed to resist the pressure from mom ( who else!! ) and despite the tempting offers she threw in ( offering a small part of the money required!! ).

This step will have to wait for a while..

Illayaraja - At his best !!

My carnatic-music trained brother sent me the link to this song by Illayaraja. The song is composed by 3 notes SA-RE-GA in carnatic & C,D,E in western. Its a tough one to compose , given the limitations ( to be sung only in the rising note ).

I should admit i couldn't figure out the nuances.

I liked the rhythm , nevertheless.

BITS Pilani, Gym Grounds, Marathon

Mahesh Krishnamoorthy ran the recently held marathon (42.2 km ) in Columbus, Ohio in 4:26:30.

Something about him...

He and I went to college together and on most days, we were the only ones running on the 400 m oval at the BITS, Pilani grounds in the evenings ( some days, we were the only ones in the ground !! ). And i used to comfortably out run him, every single time !!!

With this reality , both of us decided to enter into a bet ( before we left BITS in 2004). We decided that we will return to the same 400 m oval to do a 50 lap race 28 years later, at 50! ( I was so confident, that i really upped the stakes :) )

Now i realise that the only time i was better, was when we ran during our college days. Last year, when he was down in Chennai, he kicked my back... while i was huffing and puffing to complete the 20 km run, he was cooling off at the end point with the shoes off and waiting for me to finish ( prly 25 mins slower ??? )

and i ran my first marathon and i finished ( ok ok, that talks about my timing ... 5:59 ). And Mahesh ran his first half ( 1:42 !!! ) and just did his first full ( 4:26 !!! ) ( and i say, i ran in INDIA and he in the US !! difficult conditions, i've run in !, my excuse )

I still have 25 years to improve though ... ( am just hoping someone ties him up inside his house in Cincinnati).

This aside - the reason for the improvement. He was extremely dedicated to running. He never misses his run ( lesson for me !! ) . Runs 10k on most days. When i speak to our common pals in Cincinnati, they tell me that if anyone wants to meet with Mahesh, they have to either go to the grounds or to the research lab !! oh yes, the other thing - he just doesn't stop at running. He has been awarded a fellowship to do more research in fluid dynamics ( not sure of specifics ). He won a few awards at a national conference for his work,recently !!

And he says, his running made him more focussed on his research !!

Sooper stuff Yogi! Hope to learn from you :)

Sky high !

I finally have access to a number of TV Channels - Specifically looking forward to watching a lot of sports ( yaaay ) and Discovery & Nat Geo channels. Been almost 7 years since i watched TV on a regular basis. Thanks to some nice and sooper generous pals - I finally have a TATA SKY satellite TV connection at home.

This is a b'day gift from the bunch ! And i was mighty surprised. Thanks a ton guys and girls!

Ennem Maa Thozhi..

Sometimes ( very rarely , though ), we end up listening to just one song in a day. Nopes, not just once - One song ALL DAY. With the REPEAT ON, i listened to the folk song by Vedanth Bharadwaj, the whole of yesterday. A bunch of us went for a story telling session on Sunday ( despite the heavy rains) where Vedanth performed. He had us in a trance, to say the least. Was worth wading through the waters... definitely!

This song ( Ennem maa thozhi ) can be found towards the latter part of the You tube video below. Thanks Vedanth for sharing this one.

Video , btw, is made by Vedanth's pal Bindu Malini. Awesome creativity.

Enjoy!

Btw, i have the mp3 of "Ennem maa thozhi...". Mail me if you want this one.

A week and a Weekend

One 20 hour work day
two 18 hour work days
Packed work week
My Cricket team chasing 189 in 22 overs and winning, on saturday
Meet passionate entrepreneurs on saturday night over drink and fun
Garba and dancing ( ok ok trying to !!) with pals 11 pm to 3 am on saturday midnight
Head home for more fun at my house party with pals , till 5 am ( sorry i slept at 4 !! )
Head out to play ultimate frisbee at 5:30 am ( dark red eyes!! )
Burn lung at the frisbee game
Work on Sunday afternoon
Watch McLaren lose ( :( ) over dinner
Write this post at 12 midnight, Sunday

Love my work and play ( the orders change but the intensity remains!! )

P.S Missed running with ChennaiRunners :( . Damn...

In or Out ?

Are the In and Out stores found in the petrol pumps - In or Out ?

While filling up diesel at the petrol pump yesterday, the sight of the well stocked "In & Out " store made me think. "In & Out" stores are the retail outlets in most Bharat Petroleum fuel stations.

Am thinking aloud here - Do let me know what you think.

If " In & Out " has to make money, the store has to bring people in. Obviously, the biggest target customers are the people who come to fill fuel. In the western nations, in the absence of a fuel pump attendant, the car drivers / owners fill fuel in their cars on their own and are forced to go into the petrol station office ( in all cases, a retail outlet is a part of the office ).

If we look at the Indian scenario, the petrol pump attendant fills fuel and the car drivers/owners pay cash near the pump and leave away from the station. Also, the space constraints limit the drivers from parking the cars and getting into these retail outlets.

The only time i went into the retail outlet was when a bunch of us were driving around at 2 am and were hunting for a non-alcoholic drink.

Unless customers are drawn into this store, this model may not work.

Would love to hear what you think about this .