42

No, no, I am not giving the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. It is just that I finished another full marathon and a marathon is 42 kilometers...

The Bangalore Midnight Marathon was held last weekend. This event was supposed to happen in December 2008 but got postponed and then at the very last minute they rescheduled it and probably that is why the participation was very low. The half marathon still had decent participation but the full marathon participation was extremely low, probably less than 100 people ran the full marathon.

Anyway, I had been preparing for the half marathon and targeting 1 hour 45 minutes but a week before the run decided to do the full thing. Did a 16k run the weekend before in 1 hour 23 minutes and felt that the 4 hour mark for the full was definitely attainable.

During the race, [as expected] since I had prepared for the half marathon, the first half went off quite well. I was at the halfway mark at about 1 hour 50 minutes and the 4 hour target was still in sight. But then the decline set in. And it set in at a much faster rate than expected. I was able to get to 31-32 kilometers only by about 3 hours, about 10 minutes behind schedule. The last 10K saw further decline and I finished the whole thing by only about 4 hours 18 minutes...

The race organization was definitely flawed. We were running loops of about a 10km route and the water stations in the second section were just too less and later in the run whatever few water stations were there they also had wrapped up and disappeared. Luckily friends who had earlier finished the half marathon helped out and provided electrolyte water and some energy bars.

Since the participation was less and the professionals hadn't showed up, I finished 5th in the men's section and 6th overall. The first two spots went to professionals, an Ethiopian and an Indian. The fifth overall spot and first in the women's section went to my friend who finished in 4 hours 16 minutes...

So the race was good for me, I was really sore after the run, had to pop an Advil but overall I was quite satisfied. There was a nagging suspicion that the route had not been measured accurately and later we confirmed from a friend who had run with a GPS watch that the organizers did actually blunder with the measurement and in fact the total distance covered was 43.2kms. One kilometer more than the official distance, so based on that I probably would have finished the full distance in about 4 hours 9 or 10 minutes. That puts me below 4:10 so that gives a little more satisfaction...

Satisfied but not sated. Missed the 4:00 mark...

I plan to run more races this year than last year. Probably shorter distances for now, a 10k and a half marathon before taking a shot at the 4 hour mark once more towards the end of the year...

More about BIAL...

The article by RK Misra (Winner of the Times of India Lead India initiative) is a real eye-opener on how the government is just trying to wash its hands off the BIAL controversy...

How govt hoodwinked the public - By RK Misra
Its quite a short article but it will really open your eyes to the fact that how nobody is caring about the needs of the public...

The moment the first round of polls (including in Bangalore) was over, negotiations were concluded the next day at a meeting, without any minutes, and the government announced the closure of HAL airport.

The opening date was conveniently slotted for May 23, which is just after the polls (to avoid the Election Commission’s wrath) and two days before the high court opens after the summer recess. This denies the public an opportunity to expose the negotiation drama and request the HC for an interim stay order.

Surprisingly, no leader is available for comment now. This is our democracy, where the public is being duped by seasoned politicians playing a well-orchestrated drama.

Taking people for a royal ride - BIAL

The people behind the new Bangalore International Airport are taking the public for a royal ride and the city/state administration is doing nothing about it. The new airport opens tomorrow...

Just as a simple example, the cost of the flights I usually take from Bangalore to Bombay will go now up by nearly 65% from tomorrow. There is an user development fee of 650Rs charged to the passenger every time the airport is used, second, the god forsaken airport is 45 kilometers from where I live and apart from the 3 hours it is going to take me to get to the airport its going to cost me about 800Rs to take a taxi each way. So a Bangalore-Bombay to and fro ticket that used to cost me about 4.5 thousand before is now going to cost me around 7.5 thousand rupees. And what do I as a passenger get out of this? Absolutely nothing! Zilch! In fact I pay more and suffer more, on an average, commute time for everyone triples, the airline congestion problem doesn't get solved because this new airport is not equipped to handle even the total passengers that flew from Bangalore last year let alone the 25% increase in the number of people flying forecast for this year...

Seriously all I have to say is WTF!!! Actually scream out WTF...this makes absolutely no sense. The roads to the airport don't finish for 2 more years, the airport still won't save me pain of standing in huge lines and the delay in flights and all it does is increase my commute/flying time and rips me off another 2-3 thousand rupees...

The whole city just needs to stand up and say WTF! Yes we will be dishonouring a contract but so what, the public didn't sign it, some idiot politician signed it and the public was not even aware of these conditions. The Supreme Court itself directed that the airport is monopolistic and unfair on the public and the contract should be re-negotiated, but what happened? The government and BIAL met behind closed doors, the details of the meeting were not made public just the decision to close the old airport completely and open the new one was made. No explanation was given other than the fact that the talks failed. To this I say F you and also show you 1 particular finger of mine. Guess which finger, you dumb a-holes from BIAL and the administration...

Rain! Rain!

In the past few days we, here in Bangalore, have had weather which has been quite unusual for the month of March. Due to a depression in the Bay of Bengal we have been getting thunder storms. See below, the sky changed colours so fast before it opened up and the deluge came...

6:19PM


6:29PM


6:37PM

Back in Black!

It's been exactly 3 months of idleness...so to start off again, first, a new template...

Then...that's it there is nothing else ;-)
Well, not really...there have been the usual splurge of movie watching (BTW, all the movies from the Oscars this time are great, have liked them all), then there have been the treks (Kumaraparvath in a day while having fever and a bad stomach, couldn't have done it without S & D tho!), then the running goes on (apart from that crazy back pull at the end of a 3 week travel which kept me away from running for about 4 weeks) and then there is the, you know, drinking. Does that sound too drunkard? ;-) So the regular things have been, you know, regular!

Recently went to this really nice Chinese and Thai, basically oriental food, restaurant called Shiok. I had heard about the owner and chef from another friend's blog, so as soon as we saw the guy who runs the place, Madhu 'Madman', I introduced myself we talked for about 5 minutes. One statement by him stood out. "People think running a restaurant is all glamorous and fun, it is not!". He spoke about how much corruption drains the money from the business and it is really difficult to run a restaurant if you want to run it right. Madhu is friends with Manjit who runs another nice restaurant called "Herbs and Spice". Both Madhu and Manjit seem to put in a lot of hard work and run their places with a lot of passion. I personally like both the restaurants and feel both the places are getting it right. Hope they stay around for a long time...

Another 21.1kms...

1 hour 51 minutes and 24 seconds...1:51:24. This number brings an immediate smile to my face...it is the time for the half marathon (HM) I ran in the Bangalore International Marathon 2007 that happened this past Sunday.
It was my best running performance till date. I sprinted the last 400 meters inside the stadium, quite a contrast to the dead horse like finish last time.
After training quite hard and setting the target of doing a sub 2 hour HM, I was still in doubt about doing a sub 2 hour race. Before the race I had calculated that I'll probably finish in 1 hour 57 minutes. That was too close for comfort. A single race day incident or delay or problem would push me over 2 hours. But nothing of that sort happened ;-)

The race for me was an amazing one. The weather was perfect...no Sun, cool breeze and good supply of nutrition by Mr. D during the run. D, sadly could not run but was sort of the hero of the day, handing out Electral and nutrition bars to S and me...Salaam to you D!
The split timings I was getting on my watch were just too good. I was at 5kms in about 24 minutes, then halfway (10.5kms) in about 52 minutes, ahead by nearly 3-4 minutes of my target. But there were still questions about losing time near the end and just running out of steam. But when I crossed the 16km mark I was about 6 minutes ahead of my previous best performance and at that point I knew I was having a good day. I paid attention to my strides and found that they were still decent. I was running with good 'form' and even my mind was fresh. It hadn't dulled down or anything. Finally when I entered the stadium I looked at the 400 meter track and just went for it.
Later I realized I ran the whole race and unlike previous races and practice runs, at no point did I feel like walking or did actually walk. I stopped twice to drink water that D was handing out and that total may have taken 25-30 seconds...

In the end my average speed for the whole 21.1kms was 11.4 kms/hour...
That's all... :-)

Bangalore Habba

...or should I say Bengalooru Habba! What the heck I still call Mumbai Bombay, anyway, the habba (meaning festival) is a really nice event that happens in Bangalore every year in December. It is usually about 10 days long and happens during the chilly December month which really reminds me of the Mood Indigo days from IIT...
This year’s Habba started on 30th November, you can check out the details on their web site. Click Here...
Some really good plays are there this time and the usual thriving mix of Carnatic, Hindustani, Jazz and Rock music concerts are there. The arts and crafts display that used to be put up on M G Road has been shifted to somewhere near Cubbon park...


This is one of Habba posters this time and I found it really funny. Gallate means creating trouble, sort of rioting or danga. I bet he won’t have that wide smile when you see him at the Habba ;-)

Don't give a damp!

How do you like my new blog template? :) It reflects the weather here these days...

The template needs a little tweaking 'cause as of now there are a few empty spaces around...need to utilize them.

Cheers!

21.1kms

After doing the full marathon, 42.2kms, at the Bangalore Marathon last year, I decided to do the half marathon, 21.1kms, in this year's marathon which happened to be a midnight one. This time the objective was to train right, perform strong and hit a target time.

The Bangalore Midnight Marathon was organized on 19th May. The organizers claimed that we were creating history by running the first ever midnight marathon. My main aim was to have a much stronger run this time and since it was a night marathon which meant much lower temperatures, really focus on getting a good time in. I set myself a target of at least 2 hours 30 minutes, otherwise I find myself a lake or something and go jump in it, and at the same time I was dreaming of a sub 2 hour run. Seriously I only dreamt of sub 2 hours, awake I knew it just wouldn't happen ;-). Anyway I finished the run in 2 hours 15 minutes. The official time is awaited but my stopwatch indicated 2:15. Wall Street and Dalal Street would have been so happy, I gave an outlook forecast of 2:30 to 2:00 and hit it bang in the middle :D

The course was fairly tough one, for me. It was a circuit of about 5 kilometers and you had to run around 4 times to complete the half marathon. It consisted of 5 uphill sections and about 3 flat and downhill sections each, making it a fairly tough course. Couple of the climbs were pretty treacherous, anyway loaded with carbs throughout the day and appropriately rested to remain fresh at the start, the race started. I made a mistake on the first round itself, in that I carried a full one liter water bottle with me, long story forget that but I shouldn't have done it. That took a lot out of me. In my practice runs I had usually covered the first 5kms in about 26 to 28 minutes and so while I was expecting to cover the first round in 28 minutes or so, this time round it took me nearly 32 minutes. I finally chucked the bottle and from then on the second round roughly took me another 32 minutes, the third round about 34 minutes and the fourth round about 37 minutes.

The fourth round, what can I say, "I" missed it! ;-)
My mind was there, my body was there but "I" wasn't! Those two kept arguing about they should stop and walk, no they shouldn't but in any case I was somewhere else. Don't know where, somewhere floating around I guess. So during the last round the mind kept winning and the body tagged along like that faithful Pug dog in that Hutch ad for quite a while but at the steepest climb of the course the mind finally relented to the body's demand to walk that section. But at the top of that climb as soon as the mind saw someone overtake them, the mind booted the body in the behind and they were both up and running. They immediately overtook the overtaker and from there on they ran all the way to the finish line including the last uphill finish. Thanks guys!!!

My spirit doesn't feel like sleeping tonite...

We have been having terrible weather in B'lore over the past month or so. It has been hot and stagnant...but it rained today and the mercury dipped south!

Now the curtains are fluttering in an ever so light cool breeze...the water has 'chilled'. There is that wet earth smell in the air...there is an invigorating pleasantness and freshness all around. I am sure B'loreans will revel in this weather tomorrow but spare a thought for the unfortunate and unlucky ones who have no or inadequate shelter...

Superman spins a web?!?

Could you take my picture...
Cause I won't remember...

It was a very strange coincidence that about a week back when lazy dude, geek guy and I were more than a little 'elevated' and this song (Take a Picture by Filter) was playing in the car. Coincidence because we were in a state where quite possibly the next day we wouldn't remember what all had happened ;-)

It was after quite a long time that the 'Tools Team' decided to de-stress, unwind and chill out. After a very disappointing stint at 'Legends of Rock' things went into high gear when we hit the '13th floor'. Once there we had an Intel strategy meeting, a team strategy meeting and many other strategy meetings. Believe me not all the strategy meetings revolved around work! I only wish someone had taken minutes, ha! It sounds boring cause it looks like we were discussing work but you had to be there to see what we were up to. Plus we were having a tough time keeping our concentration because of you know, the 'surroundings' ;-). Once we stumbled out of 13th floor, Lazy Dude in fact acted contrary to his name, put in some extra effort and went back to wave g'nite to someone! One more funny incident was when Lazy Dude in his 'elevated' state remarked "Ha! What does Superman do. He just shoots something from his wrist, what is that he does na?" That's Spiderman, man!

Later at around 11 or 11:30 we were infact not even allowed to eat at one of the Coffee Day outlets. After looking at the 3 of us they politely made a lame excuse that they were only allowing to take away food. So we did take away the food and ate it on the bonnet of my car in total Bombay ishtyle...

More plays...

Been watching a lot of plays these days. Have watched 4 in the past two weeks and all of them have been at Rangashankara. Going for one today also, anyway here are the quick reviews of the ones till now...

Love Letters: This was performed by the troupe Evam and was a touching story about relationship between a man and woman told through letters, spanning about 40 years. The story starts when these two people are just kids and in school. Then it meanders through their lives in which somehow circumstances always keeps them apart. Through letters their whole life is told right until the end...which I won't tell here how it is. The acting was really good. People were saying that this play is the same as 'Tumhari Amrita' but I haven't seen 'Tumhari Amrita' so don't know for sure.

The Odd Couple: Again staged by the Evam troupe, this was a hilarious play about friends. The story is about a really weak and uptight just divorced man who comes to live with his friend who is also divorced. The other guy is very carefree and 'bindas' whereas the just divorced guy kind of the opposite. Surrounding them are another 3 friends. This play was a real laugh riot that I thoroughly enjoyed. Especially the part where they think the divorced guy is going to the bathroom and the rest think he will commit suicide in there which prompts one of them to callously say "What do you think he'll brush himself to death in there!" :D

Yayati: This play was based on the Girish Karnad's adapted screenplay about king Yayati. A good play with decent acting but definitely had flaws. It felt really stretched at various points but was still good. The story is about a king who is drunk on his youth and power and makes all the wrong choices. When only his son Puru who is considered to be a weakling comes through to take off Yayati's curse does he realize how wrong his choices have been and then he starts off to set things right.

The Anklet: The adaptation of a popular mythical story called 'Silappadigaram'. I didn't enjoy the play much at all because it was very stretched. There were parts where I felt like screaming 'get on with it!' Good acting though and good setup but overall the screenplay was just too slow and long. The climax was especially slow and painful. Definitely a flawed play that can improve quite a bit.

Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad...

Well...Russell Peters did not use this famous line of his in his show on Tuesday in Bangalore but he did use his other famous line 'Be a man!'

Tickets were tough to get but finally we were able to get them and go see this really funny guy. He in his usual style took people of all ethnicities on a ride and didn’t spare anyone. Like when he asked a sardarji in the front row what his name was the man replied in a very guttural voice so pat came the reply “Did you just burp or actually tell me your name!” Then he joked about the Gujarati people how they use ‘cho’ and ‘che’, even their swear words are all like cho#$, chu!!#@ etc. :)
He cracked that we Indians are so cheap that we invented the number ZERO! Its what we like to pay for everything :D I have seen so many mails claiming how India invented zero but this guy put a twist on that and surprisingly it made more sense :) Then he went on about George Bush about how he is the biggest moron. When Bush came to India he gave us nuclear secrets and we Indians being good at striking deals gave him mangoes (!) in return!

These were his clean jokes. He started clean but by the end he was on a roll and as explicitly dirty as you can get. There were several ROTFL moments and we had a ball of a time…

It is bandh time again here in Bangalore. This time some issue with Belgaum. Cable tv is blacked out including even English/Hindi news channels. So after sending the WFH (working from home) mail there was nothing much to do ;-) other than chat with folks and write a couple of blogs. No! Not this particular post but a couple that I'll post shortly. But for now the pace needs to seriously pick up so gonna toss a coin and choose between two Brad Pitt movies Fight Club or Snatch... ... ... ... ... ...Snatch it is! "Stealin' Stones and Breakin' Bones!!!"

The rates have gone up...

That is how the vegetable and fruit vendors in Bangalore "mourned" the death of their beloved actor Dr. Rajkumar.

Some of the other ways people mourned in Bangalore :
- Police beating up innocent bystanders
- Not so innocent bystanders beating up the police

- A news cameraman getting bitten!
- Burning buses and smashing car windscreens
- Auto rickshaw drivers in general charging 20Rs more
- All channels other than news channels on cable tv getting blacked out.

Saw lots of people generally frolicking and having fun on the roads burning tires and other misc things.

A few of us couldn't even properly say bye to a close friend who is leaving Bangalore tomorrow :(

I hate to think what might have happened to this city if by chance Dr. Rajkumar hadn't passed away due to natural causes...