Chronicles of an Epistemophiliac

Back Again!

2009-05-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

So after a long hiatus.. I'm back again.. while I was away, I found the love of my life.. Meghana.. I will fill you in on all that has happend over the last year.. update my runner's blog (I'm up to 23 half marathons now! :).. and other interesting things that transpired in my life during that time.. so stay tuned!..

p.s. I act like I'm broadcasting to the world, but the truth is that this is my way of documenting whats going on with me.. at least it will be an interesting read for ME years for now.. so each post is my way of saying.. "stop and smell the roses ;) "

Project 12 in 12 : A Final Note

2007-11-20T00:34:00.000-08:00

Project 12 in 12 is done, and although I have mentioned this multiple times in my previous posts, I really would not have been able to do this without the great group I have here in Austin, and each one deserves a special mention.

Salil : Ran 6 of the 12 races with me and was present at all but 2 of the races; With your constant ecouragement, advice and participation you made this otherwise overwhelming undertaking a memorable one. Thank you for your support. :)

Kumar : Ran 7 of the 12 races and was present for 1 more; Your enthusiasm to run races (even in far away places) and your upbeat attitude helped keep my tempo up at times when I needed it the most. OK City again next year ? :)

Bharath and Anita: Ran 2 of the 12 races and accompanied us on a couple more; Bharath, You set the standard on what consistency can do to running races, and I am still trying to reach there. Your warm words of encouragement and timely warnings kept me motivated and healthy during this experience. Anita, your reassuring smile and constant support was key to my completing this task. Thanks to the both of you :)

Chirag : Ran 3 races and accompanied me of many more; Chirag, kiddo, your assistance during the races at Seabrook was instrumental in my getting through the races. This really would not have been possible without your support. Thank you (and work on getting that sub 1:50 next year ;)

Dwarak and Divya: Ran 3 races with me and accompanied us on a couple more; The star couple of the group, Always fun to run with you both. Divya, your inimitable style and cheer were standouts in the races we've run. Dwarak though, I've only seen your vapour trails during all our runs. Will try and catch up with you sometime next year;). Thank you both for your support.

Meghana : Ran 2 races with me; The SoS run will stand out as one of my better runs not because of the time/weather, but because of the company (and the course :). Thank you.

Vinod (guruji): Ran 2 races but could not meet during the Surfside or SFO runs. I have learnt quite a bit from just watching how you carry yourself in life, and of course the unmistakably original pieces of advice :) Thanks!

Arun : Ran 2 races with me; Your support during the San Antonio run was enlivening :). Thanks

Sumit, Nishit, Gaurav, Ganesh. Geeta, Sridhar, and the rest of the Asha team : Thanks for all your help and support.

Last but by no means least..

Santhosh : Ran my first race with me and a few more after that. In all honesty I would not have done this if not for the spark that you had ignited a year ago. The goals that you set for yourself and the achievements that you've attained keep me grounded and humble. The enthusiasm with which you approach running and Asha is an inspiration to all of us. Whether you accept it or not, you will always be my Dronacharya (Just don't ask me for the big toe on my right leg as dakshina ;). Again, thank you for the Awakening :)

...Everyone... Thanks for Everything!!

Project 12 in 12 : Route 66 Tulsa HM

2007-11-20T00:22:00.001-08:00

The last three race reports will be coming soon. Sorry and thanks for visiting..

Project 12 in 12 : San Antonio HM

2007-11-20T00:21:00.000-08:00

The last three race reports will be coming soon. Sorry and thanks for visiting..

Project 12 in 12 : Waco Half Marathon

2007-11-20T00:20:00.000-08:00

The last three race reports will be coming soon. Sorry and thanks for visiting..

Project 12 in 12 : Spirit of Survival HM

2007-10-13T00:23:00.000-07:00

This was my ninth race of the year and was also the start of the final stretch. This was one of the 4 half marathons I intended to run in 5 weeks before my trip home to India. So, in other words this was the first race in the final segment of the season.

After much publicity (read coaxing and pleading), I was pleased to find seven of us waiting to get into the van for the road trip to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, the site of the second running of the Spirit of Survival Half Marathon. All of Salil, Kumar, Dwarak, Divya, Chirag and Meghana were far from being new to running half marathons, so I would say the mood in the van was nervous excitement with more emphasis on excitement :). The drive was fairly smooth and we reached the Medicine Park area where we had to pick up our packets.

The town was really charming with cobblestone buildings, a lot of native indian art, a bubbly spring, a couple of old bridges and warm, friendly people. After getting all the information regarding raceday, we spent some time by the lake, took some pictures and then, headed for the hotel for a nice day's rest. The card gods shone on me that night when we picked cards to decide who was to wake up earliest. A good day's progress and it promised to be a good night's sleep as well. So far, so good.

Raceday. The weather turned out to be nothing short of perfect. I felt that it was a little overcast and might take the beauty of the run away as we progress (remember San Fran HM ?). But within the first two miles I realized this was going to be a special race. The open plains and the high grass dancing in the gentle breeze, long horns and bison lazing in the green pastures, the mountains all painted a landscape that an artist would've feasted on. Without doubt, the spectacles I saw during this run were the best I've seen during any run!. The turn-around point was at the Holy City. That was a sight to see as well. All the while, the good weather held and before we knew it, we were on the home stretch.

Salil did an amazing hjob of taking pictures during his run, D&D finished really close to their PRs; Kumar finished the race in such a way that people still talk about it (curious ?, ask him the next time you see him ;) Chirag ran was the fastest amongst us in the last half of the race and finished strong. Meghana and I brought the rear of what turned out to be an amazing race. After we posed for a few pictures and had some refreshments, we headed back and then a short 5.5 hour drive back home.

For people looking for their first out of state race, I would strongly suggest looking into running the SoS HM next year. A nice town, a great course and a well organized race. Will definitely try to do this again next year (if I have the same gang, without whom this would not have been this memorable). So, this one's for the gang. :)

Mythologies : Who is Trivia ?

2007-10-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

Ancient and Modern mythologies were always topics of keen interest to me growing up. My strong interest stems from my early influences, like my grandmother telling me stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharatha and the tons of comic books that my parents got us detailing more stories from these epics. As a kid, I truly believed these events happened and the characters actually existed. But ultimately, they served their purpose; moral beacons guiding us in the right direction in life, empowering us in choosing right from wrong.

As an intellectual in the modern world its tough to believe these stories literally, but you realize that although these events might not have transpired exactly the way they are described, their intent is to highlight a moral, an ideal and maybe in the process glorify individuals. Once I realized this, I developed interest in other mythologies as well and tried to see what the story would've meant in a particular context, at a particular time. So, I ventured into other mythologies; Greek, Norse, Roman etc.

Anyways. here are some random facts about our modern day to day world which were derived from Ancient Mythologies.

Wednesday actually came from 'Odin's day'; Odin is a chief God in Norse Mythology.
Thursday, is 'Thor's day', and Thor is the Norse God of Thunder and war.
Trivia; a word we use very commonly is actually the Greek Goddess of Magic.

In short, I think Ancient Mythologies are the bees knees.. (get it ?.. I used an ancient usage to described something ancient ;)..

Change of title

2007-10-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

I've officially changed the title of my blog. I've always wanted to change it, but never got around to doing it. I think I took the easy route while naming the blog. I've always been a reasonably good story teller, and so I figured if I were to have a blog title, I'd have the word chronicles in it. I wanted to fill it with stories, memories, wild adventures.. you get the picture. But I've always thought that I chickened out when I had to fill the blank 'Chronicles of _____'. If I were not to use my name, I'd have to describe myself in one word. That was a tall order, and like I said before, I never got around to spending the time to try to answer this question.

To answer this, I had to ask myself some questions and answer them honestly. After some thought I think I've figured out what is behind almost all of my likes. Be it what I do at work, what I do with my spare time, what drives me most is probably learning new things, the thirst for knowledge. I think what excites me most about life is that there is so much to know about so many things and knowing that each day you can learn something new. I know I might be bordering on philosophy here, but I think a lot more of us are Epistemophiliacs, to some degree, even if we admit it or not. So, for now, I think I've found the answer for the blank in the statement, "I am a/an ______". Hence the title change. Alright, I think I need to call my shrink now, I think I've made a breakthrough here ;)

Project 12 in 12 - The San Francisco Half Marathon

2007-07-27T00:45:00.000-07:00

San Francisco.. there is something about these cities in Califirnia. This is the first city I went to for a vacation after I came to the US. The first city I saw after Minneapolis. At that time I was visiting my brother, and this time its not very different. I was visiting Salil's sisters who are practically family to me by now :).

Saturday, the day before race day was fairly eventful. The weather was nothing short of spectacular. We went for our packet pickup, went to this farmer's market and grabbed a bite. Then we decided to visit Sausalito. Honestly, I did not expect much from this place and thought the ride across the golden gate bridge would be the highlight ofour trip there. The traffic too was not helping. But I must say, the little city of Sausalito was really charming. A little seaside town bustling with poeple, expensive shops, art galleries, ice cream shops and of course restaurants. After we had our share of ice creams we stopped at an Indian restaurant where we had a sumptuous meal. We retired early expecting delays due to traffic on raceday.

Sunday, race day, the traffic was suprisingly less on our way to the start of the race. The weather was pleasant, but there were signs that indicated a fair possibility of showers. The race was organized to be run in waves and we were in middle of the pack. The course was beautiful as expected, as we ran all the way through Embarcadero and onto the Golden Gate Bridge. The disappointing thing here was that the skies had failed to clear up and we had to run across the bridge under heavy fog. I could not see the entire bridge or even the top of the bridge. So the we were deprived of the wonderful views we could've seen from the bridge. Anyways, the rest of the race was uneventful. Met a few Asha runners from CA during the run (our bright red shorts never fail to gain attention :). The race ended in a park where the atmosphere was fairly festive. Met Guruji (Vinod) and his better half and we took the bus back to where our cars were parked. By the time we got back home the skies had cleared and we were treated to a typical California summer day.

Monday, The day after raceday, we decieded to indulge in some wine tasting. :). The trip to Napa Valley was extraodinary. Of course for a movie buff like me, I started thinking of the cool movies I saw that featured this venue. 'Sideways' was the most prominent of them. We took two tours (at Robert Mondavi and Chandon). The first tour was really good as we got to take a walk in the vineyards and actually see the grapes at various stages of maturity. The walk through the factory also was pretty cool.

And just like that the trip to San Fran was done. If I get recharged from running a half marathon, it was nothing compared to the re-charding I got from visiting family and running a half marathon. My next race will be only in October, but I think my memories from this trip will help tide me over the long wait.. *Sighs*

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-07-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

Book report... and my experiences on book release weekend.. coming soon...

Project 12 in 12 - North Trails Half Marathon

2007-07-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

It had been close to month since I ran a race and I was kind of getting jittery.. thats when the North Trails Half Marathon caught my eye. My initial plans were to finish 6 races by June and tackle the rest in the second half. But, I was in the groove and a race so close in Dallas would be a pity to miss. It seemed like none of the gang wanted any part of this.. :).. It was just another trail race and to their credit they have been more than supportive in accompanying me in all of my previous runs.. And suddenly it occured to me that if my love for running was that big, then I should have no qualms in going alone to a city and run.. I've done a few before.. I should know the drill.. So, I set upon to run my seventh of the year and my first one running alone..

For some reason, I woke up on Saturday really excited and all set for the raceday weekend.. I have been reading the Wheel of Time series and work had kept me away from making some good progress on that book.. I really needed a quiet weekend on my own.. no strings attached.. I almost left my laptop at home with my secureid.. er.. but somehow found myself packing them both into the car before leaving.. I had my car completely checked by the local mechanic.. packed a few snacks.. and started my trip towards Dallas.. Reached a bit earlier than I thought I would.. collected my packet.. found out that the race was not going to be chip-timed.. collected my gu packets and headed to my hotel. It was a reasonble place, but the fun part was that it was just 2.5 miles away from the park where the race was going to take place. On my way in, I had spotted a Thai restaurant and thats all I needed to know where i was having lunch and dinner. A good pad-thai later I was settled in my cozy hotel room with my book.. a fruitful two hours later I dozed off for some sound sleep. Woke up at 9 and got some Thai-spicy-fried-rice.. a timed drive to the race location.. a customary call to the friends back at home .. and it was time to hit the sack..

Woke up when the second of my three alarms went off (I was a little paranoid about missing the start..).. parking at the park was very easy.. (no pun intended).. From the start it looks like a good natured small town race.. there were about 1500 hundred people and I was there representing asha austin with my proud dare-you-to-not-stare-at-me-RED shirt. This was the second race that I decided to run without slowing at all. It was all through a cycling trail (cemented) in the park. We were during most times running alongside a road, under a road or over one.. so I never got the feeling of being out on a trail run in the wild (like seabrook).. but it was fun.. water stops were placed 3 miles apart.. but all in all it was a fun race.. met a whole lot of people and as usual questions about Asha.. it was a fun experience.

There were none prouder than me at the 9 mile marker as I officially completed 100 race-day miles for the year !!!

The feeling at the finish line as always was amazing. It was just 9 in the morning and I had completed a 13.1 mile jog in a park.. This was the most alive I had felt in month.. People need healing after running.. I think to me.. running is healing.. my own personal therapy.. the feeling I get after every race.. its really gratifying.. satisfying.. and pure..

the race was fun overall and it was kind of funny not trying to meet someone or wait for someone at the finish line. I was done and I was ready to go. In some ways I enjoyed being a lone wolf.. a strider.. a wanderer .. master of my own destiny.. er.. I digress.. but you get the picture.. A short drive home with the customary stop at the temple on my way back and I was ready, refreshed and recharged after the weekend.... another three 70 hour weeks at work ???... Bring it ON!

Project 12 in 12 - Oklahoma City Memorial

2007-07-26T23:56:00.000-07:00

Race 6 of this year.. half way mark of my project.. in the probably the best shape I've been all year.. I did not need more inspiration than that to come out a notch up a fast race.. but as Fate would have it, Basketball almost claimed its second victim in me.. the first being Chirag.. as an ankle twist kept him away from AT&T.. but to his credit he did come back and scorch his first race in Seabrook.. anyway the moral was learnt : never ever play basketball a week before any race ;).. my twist was not that bad, but still had a weak ankle going into the race weekend. Monu and I rented a car.. and drive down on Saturday towards Oklahoma.. The drive was pretty smooth, though we did see a large oil fire when we entered Oklahoma which made the news the next day.. so that was kinda cool.. (fyi.. nobody was hurt.. )... First stop was packet pickup.. the expo was fun.. got our stuff and eyed some upcoming races in the near future.. the Route 66 race was an eye catcher.. November 18th.. hmm.. Anyways.. moving on.. When we checked into our hotel the TV was flashing the NFL draft.. and the Vikes ended up with Oklahoma's star RB Adrian Peterson.. so, within my first hour of coming to OK she had already given me a good welcome gift.. :).. Anyways.. the room turned out to be nice and with wireless available I got straight into work.. I had a serious deadline regarding a new feature and though I would ferociously defend all allegations that I might be a workaholic.. I admit that working for 6 hours when you are out of town to run a race qualifies as pure madness.. Oh.. the World Cup finals got done that day and Monu with his varied skills was able to pull up a feed showing the highlights.. The trip even before the race was turning out to be a pretty eventful one..

Onto the race.. parking was easy.. and even before the race began we had a feeling that the race was going to be a good one and OK did not disappoint. Well organized.. water stops at every mile marker.. and a running clock at every mile.. the people was warm and cheerful.. the course reminded me a lot of Austin.. ran close to a lake.. some parks.. and though some fancy neighbourhoods.. and finally ended up near the Memorial.. This was the first race that I ran without stopping at all.. Big -D had definitely strengthened me.. But my ankle hurt a little into mile 8 but sacrificed pace for consistency and finished close to my PR.. 2:34.. This was probably one of my most comfortable races ever.. We then visited the memorial.. had some refreshments and headed for the hotel.. a quick checkout later we started our drive home.. A stop at the temple on our way back and then home.. another completed race and a fulfilling weekend.. Would not have done this if Monu had not accompanied me.. so this ones for him.. :)

Project 12 in 12 - Big D Half Marathon

2007-04-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

Dallas Half Marathon (April 1st)

The Dallas Half Marathon was probably the first run that I've ever started 45 minutes late!!.. thanks to Santhosh.. ;).. The organization of this race was not up to expectations to be honest, but the gang that I went there with was fun. Monu and I drove down to Dallas in his flashy TSX for this one and stayed at his friend's place. I was reunited with my favorite game (Console) the Prince of Persia there where I spent a wee bit of time killing sand monsters.. er.. which is always enjoyable.. Woke up early for the race and we barely got to the start on time. Bharath, Anita joined us in 15 mins and we were finally joined by Santhosh 45 mins later.. The unfortunate thing was that we were not able to get an official time for this as they had removed all the equipment to measure the time.. Anyways, 2 miles into the race my strained ITB started hurting again and the next 3 miles was probably the most pain I've ever felt during a race. And those miles also really made my think why I was doing this in the first place.. I think mile 6 was a turning point in almost all my races so far as something snapped and I just felt really free.. I don't know how else to explain the feeling. I had settled into a good pace and I felt I could go on for as long as I wanted. The feeling stayed with me all thru the race and though I did not complete with the best of times, I felt that the race taught me something that I'd never forget. I think the races from here on till the end of the year are not going to be as tough, as I think I mind had become a lot stronger than my body.. Desire over Reason.. thats all I'll ever need.. So, despite the sub-par organization I will always look back on this race as one of my most important ones.. No longer was I amazed that I was able to complete races.. I believed any distance was conquerable.. whats next ?.. er.. to run a whole race without walking at all.. now that will be a first :).. Well thats all I had about this race.. it was followed by the post race festivites.. lunch at an Indian restaurant.. and then the drive back home (and oh the call to AAA after I accidentally locked biyer's car with his keys in :).. All in all, it was a fun trip and as always a fun way to spend a weekend..

Road Trip to Atlanta

2007-04-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

A week after the Seabrook Adventure found us in another journey, this time with a larger group and to a farther destination. Jinesh and Dhanu were having their wedding reception in Atlanta and what better way to go there than in a van with 4 of your friends and building up stories and quotes that we will be regurgitating for the next year ? :)

The trip to Atlanta was ..um..er.. fairly uneventful. The fact that the last movie we saw before heading out was '300' did influence some of our behaviour during the trip. Well, I for one am a big movie fan and I do display tendencies to act out scenes of movies that I've just seen just, which have left a lasting impression. And, anyone who has seen the movie (or the trailer many times) will recall the first scene where the hero tosses the persian messenger into the well with the words "This is Sparta" echoing in his ears. The abridged version of the story is that during one such enactment of this scene at a gas station a few hundred miles from Austin, I managed to kick a bottle of coffee from Salil's hand, break it, cause a minor scratch on his leg and create a ..er.. um.. small scene. The accounts of the event with full masala can be heard from Salil or Nishit where you might be confused if this scene is from Matrix/300 or a yet ot be released movie about a Demonic Bully ;)

The stay at Chirag's place was one of the highlights of the trip. It was understood that there will be great food, warm beds and the likes of that (not to undermine anything), but the best part I think was that his parents were .. how do you put it.. cool. :) They made us feel at home and at the same time did not feel the necessity to baby sit us (baby sit was probably too harsh a word for us 20-somethings ;). In one word, they were COOL. :) The wedding was a little more formal than we had imagined. We had Kumar join us there. A visit to Jaisudh at night gave a few of us a chance to polish our acting skills. A drive around ATL downtown and we were back to get some rest and head out the next day.

The trip back was fun, especially the stop at the shady Pizza place on the way back, where every gas station we stopped to ask for directions knew exactly where it was. We figured it was probably the best place to eat in the place or something, but found the place unexpectedly deserted. We swapped cliche scary movie scenarios at the table which was pretty amusing. By the time we got home we were in every sense 'dog tired'. It was a weekend where in a little under 2 and a half days we drove for over 30 hours. An uneventful weekend, this was NOT!... :)

Project 12 in 12 - Seabrook Lucky Trails

2007-04-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

Its been one of those months... one of those months where every weekend/weekday was a blur. Thankfully it was unlike the kind of blur that I hate.. the ones where you hardly did anything out of the ordinary and you have a tough time recalling what you did.. ;).. As a matter of fact it was exactly the opposite of that. (With that token excuse for inactivity in my blog, here goes.. )

Aah Seabrook.. To say that this was a lovely little seaside town would be the personification of aptness as far as description of a town goes. This was the kind of a place you read about in books and though existed only in the author's mind. With a population of a few thousands, friendly people, warm smiles, a festive feel at the local restaurants with the local bands playing.. Believe me when I say it indeed was a nice little seaside town. It was a nice getaway from the 'hustle and bustle' of our little city. (Yeah, thats right, Austin hustles and bustles... ;)

The course was amazing.. Ran thru the woods, by a park in the sea, by swamps (that had gator habitat warning), a natural bird sanctuary/park and back. It was all a trail run except for probably a mile on the road. So it was easy on the legs/knees. Chirag blazed the course on Saturday setting his PR (a little over 2:05 to complete the course).. I took it real easy on both days.. But the bottom line is.. No lasting injuries, we are all hale and hearty and back into work on Monday ! :)... Asha got recognized more than a few times there.. I think the town was not ready for the shocking-look-at-me red that we were wearing :).. A lot of people asked about it and a couple of them recognized the shirts from Surfside.. And a lot more from AT&T (though, they remembered the Asha supporters at AT&T more than the runners.. He said.. "There were a LOT of them right ?".. :).. So that was definitely a big upside.. And I'm sure the town will remember us as well, as Salil and Chirag were cheering for everyone as they passed by.. They were not ready for such enthusiastic supporters as well.. And then before long, Salil was starting to get known as.. "Hey.. You were the one cheering at mile marker x right ? ".. :)..

Anyways, this is definitely on my list of races to do next year, warm people, nice little seaside town, GRREEAT course... A stone's throw from Kemah and Galveston..In short.. A nice pleace to spend a relaxing weekend.. :)..

Project 12 in 12 - Seabrook bound..

2007-03-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

I'll be (hopefully ;) completing Chapters IV and V of my project this weekend. I will be running the Lucky Trails Double in Seabrook, TX. Chirag and Salil are also on board for this trip. I will update this post with my experiences when I'm back.

Project 12 in 12

2007-03-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

In all honestly, in my earlier years I had viewed long distance running with.. er.. how do I put it.. er.. with a moderate level of condescension. There I said it. I would not go as far as to say what I felt was contempt but it was something that I felt was easy to do if you had the time. I mean, its boring to sit in a car for two hours, who will try running for that long?.. Right?.. er.. right?. Wrong!.. This was truly a case where ignorance was not bliss. :).

I got into running as a part of Project Asha and it was probably in early October that I had decided to take part in the AT&T Half Marathon in Feb '07. There was an unfortunate injury that sidelined me for a month and I missed all my training. So, when that doctor said that I should be able to get back to normalcy in 6 weeks, and it coincided with the Motive Half Marathon here in Austin, it was part-defiance, part-recklessness, part-courage and part-foolishness that drove me to register for the event with one week of training. It was something that I had to do, to prove to myself more than anyone that everything is alright.

I will be lying if I said that it was by any means easy, but with my friends' support I was able to complete the event with dignity. I've heard crossing the finish line after 2-3 hours of running was a rush, but you never really know until you have actually done it. And when I did.. I was hooked. All that toiling was really worth it. The feeling that I experienced was indescribable. However best I try to describe it, it will not even come close to the real thing. I decided that I wanted to run many more, maybe even longer distances, but all in due time.

Then, during my trip to India this year I thought about a way to keep things exciting this year, raise funds and kindle this new-found love of running. I decided to embark on a small project of mine where I would run 12 Half Marathons in 12 months. It seemed like a excuse to plan road-trips and vacations as well. Of course, this would absolutely not be possible if not for the great support structure that I have here with my friends and them, being avid runners also, did not hurt my cause. The drive, a cause and the support.. under these favourable conditions I've decided to embark on this little journey.

So stay tuned for more updates on the races that I will be running and the places that I will be visiting when I try to complete... Project '12 in 12' .. (coming soon to cities near you, check local listings for more information ;)

Project Asha

2007-03-12T00:31:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of things I see during my day-to-day life that has me going.. "Wow that is cool/wonderful/*add any adjective that would express a feeling of awe*/, I'll probably do that someday..", but most of them fade away with time, as something of a fancy, a momentary blimp in my wish-radar. But there was one thing that made an impact far more than any of the others.

This probably started with watching Santhosh, a friend of mine, training for endless hours running marathons and worked tirelessly towards raising money for Asha, a non-profit organization working towards the betterment of the underpriviledged in India. He had explained to me once about how the exhileration he felt while crossing the finish line was doubly sweet because of the purpose he was running for. Again, the oh-so-familiar feeling came back, I wanted to be a part of this, and I promised myself that I would do this someday.

Better late than never they said, and here I am four months later committed towards Team Asha, to raise funds for some really amazing projects that help the underpriviledged in India. Before I sound too much like patronizing myself, let me just say that I'm just one among a whole host of friends in my gang who have volunteered to do so. (Yeah, we have a great gang here ;). It was our litte way of giving back to the world for all the good fortune that we have been blessed with.

Honestly, I'm glad I did not pass up on this blip in my wish-radar as I believe this was one that I would've truly regretted missing. I've promised myself to do this every year, starting with this year. If not anything else, 2007 will be a year to remember just for this!

http://www.ashanet.org/austin/soh/runners/mahesh.html

Introduction

2007-03-04T22:41:00.000-08:00

Time; It flows surely and swiftly in one direction, and since time immemorial man has been fascinated by it. (Or so say the books I've read). But honestly I never really understood why. Time travel, a concept that launched a thousand stories made for good reading but it never got through to me as to why this was such a strong inspiration for many. Well, at 28 I'm this I'm finally getting a draft of the significance of Time, the past, present and the future. It was not a single individual event that brought about this awakening, but a gradual yet profound realization of what I really wanted to do with my life.

Until a few weeks ago, I was your normal average joe, with near-sighted goals that everyone has had. When in school, my goal was to get grades to make my parents happy. As I got to my senior year, I wanted to get through to a good Engineering school. While at my final year there, I wanted to get a good job to fund my desires for higher studies. Then, on to Graduate school and then a good job in my field. Then, came the material things in life that you worked the past 20 years for. Then, the monotony of life sets in. Work, some time with friends, talking to family, bills and all that all over again. You realize that the race you decided to run when you were at 5, to get to where you are now, where your parents are proud, where your material needs are satisfied, where you've acheieved what you set out to do, is over. You are there.

Then, it hit me, I was there a year ago. With lack of new goals, I've been coasting for the past year. I could narrate twenty different things that happend two years ago. (which I will add when I get the time), but could remember nothing over the last year. Don't get me wrong, I was content and happy. Great friends were a big part of that, a great work atmosphere, a wonderful family but there was a distinct lack of some unique activity I did that stood out in my memory. That scared the hell out of me. Suddenly I realized why time has been such a great fascination for man. Until now, I had very few events that would fit into the 'if I could do this again, I would do this differently' category (again, which will be added when I get the time). But all of a sudden I had a whole year I could rewind and not know about it.

So, I've decided to set out and do something this year (and hopefully the years to come) so that in the years to come I'll have a story to tell of these years. The time when the goals I set for me were done with and the time that I begin to look beyond the next work deadline. ;) This blog is meant to be what it states, a Chronicle of this time of my life.