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...

Life and Living

All of us will die. Until then, we can live. Here is a man who has lived fully - Read this , this , this and this.

I Can't Believe...

+ I can't believe that we are world champions in T20 ( still it hasn't sunk in )

- I can't believe that Joginder Sharma is in the same league as Shane Warne, Glen McGrath , Wasim Akram , Joel Garner, Kapil Dev , Muttiah Muralitharan and a few others ( all are bowlers in cricket world cup winning teams !! ). Wish he proves me wrong, given his domestic cricket credentials.

+ I can't believe that Chennairunners has grown to 280 members and makes a real impact on people's lives every day ( if you don't get what am talking about, join the club )

+ I can't believe the rate at which India and importantly the smaller cities are growing . Clearly, a new India is emerging and suddenly, middle/lower class is seeing and taking advantage of the opportunties to grow big (Real estate prices in Coimbatore has grown some 600-1000% in the suburbs in the last 2-3 years )

+ I can't believe that Frisbee can be a gripping , lung burning , addictive team game ( if you want to experience this, land at Besant Nagar beach at 5:15 am on weekends )

( + positive wonder and - ( you know what i mean !! ) )

Update : Thanks Absdoobs. I believe i got the spelling right now!!

Winning or Losing!

Have had more than a few discussions with pals on a lazy evening, during "night outs" and during drink sessions on this : which is better - winning or losing?

Ofcourse, everyone likes to win. After these discussions, i firmly beleive that winning a lot takes away the real "understanding" of people and life. But, losing has resurrected many many lives. That doesn't mean, we lose all our lives. If someone is genuinely trying hard, losing teaches more lessons than winning.

Andre Agassi - His marriage failed and his ranking dropped below 100. He returned to win the crown and marry the princess Steffi. I heard from a tennis player pal (ATP ranked) that during this phase Agassi used to run early mornings/late nights up a hill and run on and on till he hit complete exhaustion and puke.

Steven Waugh - Enough and more said in his book " Out of my Comfort Zone". I have a copy and i read some pages atleast once every week :). He isn't a genuius by any standard of batting, except his own - the "fighting" style.

Rahul Dravid - Dropped early in his career in the one day squad. He fought back in, fought all his critics. And he is an ordinary human being and the best guy to lead the Indian cricket team, at the moment.

Sachin - The reason why he failed as a captain - The man won all his life. He could never understand the mortals. He is a genius and he gives some 150% all the time. He can never understand failure and its difficult for him to get a person out of a slump ( Dravid is a genius here). But there is hope. He has had a bit of tough time oflate and there is hope that Sachin can learn captaincy by the recent "failures". Think if he captains the team now, he can get the team to perform much better than his earlier stint.

Lance Armstrong - Am a big big big fan of his. Lived a "easy" life till cancer. Cancer and possibility of death woke him up. 6 tour de France after cancer - that says it all.

What do you think?

Love and Hate!

Type "love" in orkut community search, like i did http://www.orkut.com/UniversalSearch.aspx?q=love&pno=1&searchFor=A . You get over a 1000 results!

Type "Hate" and you are in for a surprise! http://www.orkut.com/UniversalSearch.aspx?q=hate&pno=1&searchFor=A

A similar number turns up and each of the "hate" communities can match up "love" communities in the numbers game!

Hatred unites people as much as love!! Typing that made me feel sad.

Sports and Sportspersons in India

After a break in running schedule for about 3-4 weeks, i restarted running on 4th dec, monday. Met with an eager running enthusiast at 6 am at Marina. A big thanks to his patience [he waited for 15 mins for me to arrive] and his drive to run [ we missed the runs together after planning 2-3 times in the last week], i finally got to run. Somehow, i just don't feel the same about running in the past 6-7 weeks and been skipping daily runs and weekend practise with my running group.

We started slowly and i quickly realised how much i've been missing by skipping the runs. It was exhilarating to run close to the sea, the wind hitting the face and peaceful thoughts running through the mind. We ran for an hour and ended the run near Gandhi statue. While we were coolling down the body and stretching ourselves, we met this man who must be in his 40's.

He looked strong, muscular, athletic and extremely fit. He was going through his regular stretching routine. He was doing a number of different routines and it looked very impressive. All of us in the vicinity had our eyes on him and his tricks. I was extremely impressed with his array of activities and my eyes lit up when i saw front of his singlet - it read "India". Surely he has represented India in some sport.

My friend and I continued our cooling down routine. In a short while, to our surprise, the impressive sportsman walked up to us. He introduced himself and we confirmed our thoughts - he did represent India. He has participated in international athletics and weightlifting!!!

His belongings were minimal. He brought with him a torn bag in which he had the skipping rope and water bottle. When i looked at the bag, it brought a tinge of sadness within me. It reinforced my thoughts that Indian sportsperson are the most lonely lot except of couse, the cricketers and the tennis stars. The guy could've carried on his stretching routine in a quiet corner on the marina, but he chose to do it right in front of Gandhi statue and with his India singlet on. He must have been neglected by his sports federation. He must be going through a lean patch, trying to make his ends meet.... and my thoughts went on....

When we told the man that we were practising for long distance runs, he was impressed with us. In his own words " please keep practising and am very proud of you". These are the words from a man who knows the meaning of commitment to sports in India. I was thinking to myself - if i had even some part of the commitment he shows, i would really make him proud.

We then said our "byes", promising him that we will meet again in a couple of days and started our walk back to our lives. A few steps later, i mused about the state of sports in India. My friend had the answer to my question - Its in our culture. Indians as such are very poor spectators. We hardly have anyone follwing the domestic leagues, except for the football leagues in Kerala and Bengal. Our domestic games are watched only by the eager parents and relatives of the players performing at the games. Unless, we follow the sports, the money wont flow in and the sports and sportspersons in India will remain the way they are right now....