Metrics in Life, a confused thought!

What is metrics?

It became one of my habits now to start any conversation with a question. Many are finding it annoying or seem to be bossy to them. I totally get it. But I firmly believe that questioning makes me to understand a concept well. It helps me to self-evaluate my level of knowledge on particular topics so that I could invest time and energy accordingly to learn more. That’s exactly the concept of metrics. It is a tool to gauge any process to monitor and evaluate to reach the desired mission.

So metrics is good. It is essential and largely acceptable when it comes to business. Metrics are discovered mainly to monitor and drive a business in a uniform way across the globe. There are many metrics out there to measure various activities and I am not going to bore you all by listing all those. This post is about, will such metrics are needed to measure success of an individual?

I am done with discussing or debating about worldly topics or politics which as an individual we don’t have even slightest impact by doing so. By seeing the current affairs, at times I doubt the concept of democracy too. So it is practically we need to think and discuss about the topics which we have control to build better individual, family and society rather than whining about larger than life stories. So let’s discuss about few Metrics which are famous, agreed across the globe and followed but I have problem with those. Thanks to Prof. Yuval for the insights and helping me to think over these topics.

Life is once and we need to make use of it at most to lead happy, comfortable and meaningful life. There is no right or wrong, having said this we are bound to live with few parameters, laws, ethics and virtues. These are all man made and subject to change constantly.

Grades/ Marks in education:

I am not going to bore you with history/ evolution of Grade system in education. But it is widely accepted metric to evaluate one’s academic/ intellectual proficiency. I still remember the list of students who were celebrated as top performer in school & colleges and also list of students who were depreciated as low performer. Throughout my academia right from KG till Engineering, this culture of Gradeism prevailed. Seriously I call it as Gradeism. How different it is from Casteism? Continuous discrimination based on marks/ grades from few gifted students who may be good at grasping concepts well or memorizing the contents or privileged to study without any trouble at home. There are many aspects to be considered when a student is performing low in studies. Do schools are equipped with proper infrastructure? Have qualified teachers who know concepts as well as student’s psychology? Do they have counsellor to understand student’s problem to guide them in right path? Do government making policy with right set of wise people? The common answer is NO.

So as I told at the start, we as an individual don’t have say in this matter. We are bound to live with this metrics of Grade system. One needs Good marks in school to get into prestigious institute. One need good marks to get into prestigious firm for employment. One need good marks to be recognised as top performer. There is no proper system to evaluate the real potential of an individual and with this gap we as parents imposing enormous pressure over our kids and pushing them to run in a rat race blindly without understanding the goal. Goal is to live happily. Goal is to learn in school/ college not memorizing the predefined content. We should be clear with our goal and need to have practical way of parenting to reach the same in unfair environment. Though it is true that good marks yield better life but we should remember that this is not the only way to achieve success. Just think of those people who were belittled by the above said discrimination. All would have been in different sectors and many would be doing well with their jobs. So MARK is not the end. Let’s stop putting pressure on our kids and I hope that this grade system may be eradicated in future. What’s the alternative? Let’s discuss.

GDP (Gross Domestic Product):

Don’t be worried that I am going to explain what is GDP and formula to arrive the numbers. Frankly, I too don’t know the exact math behind this. On high level, GDP is the metric to evaluate the economic growth of any country. With this one liner, we shall discuss about my problem with this metric. GDP is very powerful tool that all policies of a country would be in a way linked with this metric. It is the widely accepted metric to showcase the success of a country in global arena. More the GDP, more the growth of a country. But who is the real beneficiary of this metric is the problem. Personally, when India was doing well with GDP earlier I didn’t feel any improvement or benefit but on contrary, I am facing the heat when India’s GDP is abysmally low now. Strange isn’t it? As a tax payer (Both direct and indirect), I don’t enjoy any cushion right now. I may be naïve, please enlighten me in comment section if I am wrong, I would happily learn from you.

GDP is clearly missing the real goal here. If a country is doing well (High GDP), people should be happy living in the country. If a policy is framed to achieve good GDP, then people should embrace those policies which in turn are going to make them happy. But is that case? I could see protest in all sectors and misery in major portion of country. So what should be the alternate metrics to gauge the success of country? One most talked metric is GNH (Gross National Happiness). It is the tool to evaluate well-being of country’s citizen. With this metric, where do you see India in the world map? Just imagine the policies and attitude of politician if such metric is in place to measure the success of a country?

Financial Status (Loan and EMI):

Consumerism is the most successful religion in the world, according to Prof Yuval. Capitalism and consumerism go hand in hand. Capitalism produces goods and Consumerism helps in selling those goods. One cannot survive without other. Why consumerism is most successful religion? Why it is termed as religion. The only agenda of consumerism is to make others buy things even if it is totally unnecessary which is exactly what people are doing religiously. We often fell for advertisement, tag lines and social pressure to buy things without necessity. Banking helped for this success hugely. Credit cards, Loans and EMI are the honey trap devised for us and many got trapped.

Financial status is the metric which measures an individual financial success. The common question that we get when we attend any function or party from others is where do you live? How did you reach here? Car or bike? If car, what model it is? We are judged by our attire, jewels, perfume, watch, smartphone, car model, size of home and many more. It is endless, seriously endless. So in order to achieve this success we again fell into trap of HARD WORK, extending our work time, working away from family ignoring health. The modern morning wishes which we get daily in our Whatsapp are also product of Consumerism. ‘Life is short, live your life’, ‘Go chase your dream’, ‘Life is once, enjoy to fullest’ and many more. These quotes may look legit and sensible but it is also trap laid by monsters. What is Goal here? Goal is to live happy and comfortable life. Are we happy by getting loan? By Paying EMI for 20+ years? By adding liabilities? Ask yourselves and decide. Are we spending quality time with our family? Are we guiding our kids? Are we pursing our passion? Are we learning daily? Let’s ponder.

TRP (Television Rating Point):

TRP is a metric to measure a television program success based on viewers count. Higher the viewers, higher the TRP, higher the success. Television is the most used device for entertainment and informational purposes. With this metrics, the content of programs/ NEWS are of low quality and mostly in line with mood of the viewers. They are all playing with human psychology rather than airing quality or trustable information. Fake news, third graded/ gossip contents, spreading hatred and fixed sports are all by-product of TRP. But unfortunately we (many) choose this stupid box for our entertainment as well as information gathering purpose which were thoroughly been exploited by politicians and businessmen.

Conclusion:

If you are reading this line, big Thanks from my side for patiently reading my long perspective. Having said this, I am not against any of these metrics. I am confused. Are these metrics meeting the desired Goal? Are we happy and successful? It is definitely subjective. We cannot measure ourselves using a single metric. We are not a product or mechanism to monitor using these metrics. But sadly we are bound to follow these. The agenda of this post it to do self-introspect about these metrics. We need not to fall for these traps and social pressure. Let’s analyse well and live our life meaningful. Let me know your thoughts.  

Thirumurai Thirumanam - A complete wedding

Tamil wedding is unique function filled with tradition, embracing rituals and practices mentioned in sacred ancient Tamil literature (roughly 2500+ years ago). Rituals vary from community to community but base remains same. Having said this, many started adding fun events in their wedding now with tinges of the modern era.

This post is about my wedding which I truly & thoroughly enjoyed and I wanted to freeze those moments in words on account of my third wedding anniversary. How different it is from rest of the Tamil wedding? I promise you that I am not going to bore you by explaining Tamil tradition and rituals. Join me and I will take you further.

My dream about my dreamy wedding:

Wedding is the most important event in one’s lifetime. Getting married is the huge phase of anyone’s life and wedding is the celebration of commitment between bride & groom and union of two families. Everyone would have dreamt about their own wedding. How bride/ groom would be, list of events, arrangements, music, dress to the big occasion, food menu and so on. So I too had wishes.

Before revealing those wishes, i would like to remind viewers that I used to do wedding photography (BestFrame Factory- BFF). I had done this passionately for 5 years and covered close to 60 weddings. I had been to different varieties of Tamil weddings, few Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi (Delhi) wedding. So I had seen enough to choose the best from those weddings that suits my interest to have in my D-Day.

To list few of my wishes:

• Reception dress of both Bride and Groom. And I exactly selected what I had in my mind.
• Food menu. I am not a big fan of Buffet and multiple variety dishes. Again this too happened as I wished and food was super hit in my wedding.
• Music at reception event. I even prioritized list of Musical bands and was particular about choice of songs. I will talk about this wish later in the post.
• Honeymoon spots and obviously booked where I wanted to be.
• Fifth, the most important wish. I wanted to have mantras to be translated in Tamil.

The most important wish:

While doing Wedding photography, I would be the first person to enter the function and last to leave. So I follow and capture all nuances of the rituals. Mantras are the most important aspect in any Hindu wedding and all the practices are performed after chanting Mantras in Sanskrit. I never understood meaning of those and none of the family (Bridge & Groom side) tried to ask Priests who conducted wedding. This is not the case with Christian wedding where one can understand the proceedings happening in the church. Once I causally opened conversation with a priest regarding this and he replied me that none asked for it and also time won’t be sufficient to translate each and every mantra in Tamil.

I always wanted to understand idea behind any activity before I do. But this is individual characteristics of mine and I cannot implement this in mega event like wedding according to my whims and fancies where it is union of two families. Even I talked with my school buddy who learnt Vedas in Kanchipuram and now conducting functions with his own team. He was ready to conduct my wedding in both Sanskrit and Tamil (Translation), if I get permission from all family members and allocate time accordingly. He sarcastically replied and it was way before my family started bride search. So that’s the summary of my important wish to translate Mantras in Tamil so that I get the meaning of those rituals before blindly imitating the priest.

Wish comes true:

Quickly fast forwarding scenes to get to the point. Now Bride search got over and fixed the engagement date. I came to know from my MIL that they are planning to have Odhuvar instead of priest to conduct our wedding and it would be on the principle of Thirumurai. That was the first time I heard such words “Odhuvar” and “Thirumurai”. And she added that they are planning to have Thirumurai Katcheri in reception evening by Odhuvar’s musical team. So bride’s family needs our confirmation to go ahead with their plan. This was huge and I was skeptical at beginning that it is not going to work out.

As I said, I covered multiple weddings during my photography days and even in our family side all conducted wedding with Sanskrit Vedic Mantras. It seemed tough to accept this idea and go different from usual route. Then I asked my MIL to brief about Thirumurai and Odhuvar. Thirumurai is bundle of 12 volumes of songs/ hymns penned & composed by various Saivite poets back in 6^th to 11^th century. Odhuvars are trained professional who sings sacred Thirumurai hymns (Predominantly Thevaram hymns) as musical offerings to the lord Shiva. MIL said rituals would be same but without priest and Sanskrit mantras. I thought it would be like reformist wedding and I was completely taken aback with this wonderful idea.

This is exactly my wish which I longed to have in my wedding. I wished for Sanskrit translation but I was given the choice of Thirumurai Mantras. How could I reject this offer? I explained my family and made sure that they nod positive for this idea. I just remembered Rhonda Byrne’s “The secret” which preached that thinking about certain things without negative thoughts would make them achievable in one's life. I thought of convincing both families to have priest of my choice who can translate mantras in Tamil but surprisingly I came to know about Thirumurai Mantras written exclusively in Tamil and my wedding happened following the same.

And regarding the other wish of mine related to musical band, I was not okay with Katcheri. I was so naïve that time and pleaded my wife many times to drop the plan. I used to mock friends who had Katcheri in their wedding and I couldn’t accept the fact of having one in my own wedding. After multiple requests, I couldn’t do much about it and half-heartedly went with the flow as wedding was organised by bride’s side. To my surprise, Thirumurai Katcheri was super hit and I got calls from many well-wishers about this idea of having Thirumurai recital along with Thirukural explaining various gyan about wedding and back stories related to marital life. Unfortunate that we couldn’t enjoy the Katcheri as we were busy on stage and audio recording of this event also got corrupted.

The D-Day:
Here comes the D-Day. The most awaited event of my life and was so excited to experience a complete Thirumurai Tamil wedding first time that too in my own event. I must say, the experience is surreal. Usually marriage scene would be like this. Priest will chant mantras in unknown Sanskrit language and couples would be copying whatever he asked them to do. People around couple would be hysterically doing their activities known only to them and guests will mind their own business till the main event of tying knot, just to bless them with Akshathai. Then few more rituals will be conducted with empty hall as guests would have gone for breakfast.

But in my wedding, guests were glued to their seats to experience the gyan. Wireless microphones were arranged to broadcast the Thirumurai padhigam (song), Thirukural, its explanations and back story if any. The very first time, all rituals made sense. Wedding started off with Prayer, then gyan about importance of holy fire, water in pots, coconuts, mirror, Navadhanyam (nine sacred grains), lamp, lotus, paddy, Thaali, Valmpuri Sangu and Arasan Kol (bamboo stick).

Thirumurai Mantras were recited to invite various gods for specific reasons to follow certain rituals like the one performed with sumangalis, 7 ladies and followed by offerings to parents (Paadha poojai). Then we both took oath to lead healthy marital life following virtue in the presence of gods, parents and well-wishers. Have you ever seen oath taking rituals in a Tamil wedding? Cool, isn’t it? This followed by the much awaited event of tying the holy knot, Ammi medhithal, Metti and other common rituals. Every ritual performed with Thirumurai Mandhiram and Odhuvar explained each and every nuance of the practices and even he explained why bride should sit left to the groom after becoming wife. It was totally informative and thought provoking event.

The End:
Personally, this was dream come true wedding. Thirumurai principles can be followed in any life events right from birth till death. Isn’t it good to learn practices that our ancestors followed since Sangam era and following it in our life time with understandings rather than mimicking unknown practices in unknown language for the sake of doing it? And if you visit Shiva temples in TN, do not forget to meet Odhuvar to learn history about the temple and hymns sung in those temples by Nayanmargal to make your wish come true. Thanks for reading!

Kural of the day – 100

Jack of all trades:

Honestly, I never had been this much consistent in my entire life. I was only consistent in my inconsistency. I treat myself as Jack of all trades. That’s my track record. But here with this “Kural of the day” series, I can pat myself on the back for keeping up my words thus far. I am writing this post to highlight the 100^th Kural in my series, a little milestone of the long journey and it would be more of personal journal about how I started this. So hop in!

Failed attempts:

I always wanted to learn all Thirukural since my school days. I tried thrice and left halfway through over many reasons. In School days, I desired to memorize all Kural but couldn’t continue due to lack of zeal. Later in college days, I tried with pocket sized book and failed again. Then I attempted with an app and was unsuccessful as I couldn’t connect with author’s explanation. Then out of the blue, during a debate over FB post, the idea of this “Kural of the day” series had born.

Authors I follow:

This time I tried a different strategy. I didn’t attempt to memorize couplets and started following seven different authors (Mu Va, Kalaignar, Solomon Pappaiah, Sivayogi Sivakumar, Parimelazhagar, Ashok Subramaniam and G.U. Pope) explanation. Understanding a Kural is all about one’s perspective. So it is ideal to follow as many authors as possible to get complete meaning of a couplet. This I experienced in the very first Adhigaram (கடவுள் வாழ்த்து / The Praise of God). Start should be perfect for any new activity to feel good about it and build confidence from there to continue the same.

I started of this Kural series with below couplet which i posted in FB on Jan 27^th 2020. Meaning, “What use is in learning for who don’t surrender himself to God.” Being non believer of God, I felt disconnect with this book at the start itself. But the moment I read Kalaignar’s explanation, there’s no turning back. He is comparing learned/ wise to God and gave a different perspective altogether to this couplet. So to devote more time in learning from different authors, I stick to one Kural per day.

Translation and Meme:

In the first post itself, I got a funny feedback from my friend Yogesh about English explanation which i found online. He said he finds it easy to follow actual Kural than explanation. Which is in a way true and I couldn’t find a better English explanation other than this. So from day 2, I started writing English translation part which is in a way helping me to remember the content of Kural forever.

After a week, I got a sense that people are not following the series as they were at the beginning. It is quite natural that folks get bored of philosophy and written posts. Many people tried preaching Kural with small stories, songs, real events and so on. But none tried with meme which is currently in trend among youths. So I gave a try with below Kural and immediately got the feedback from my dear friend, well-wisher AK. Appreciation is the fuel to engine of excellence and getting it from close friend who could give genuine feedback about us meant a lot. Searching meme is the toughest part in my series and sometimes I take more than 30 minutes to think of an appropriate scene to relate with couplet.

Kural selection:

This is yet another hard part. Thirukural is also known as Ulaga Podhu Marai (Universal Scripture). I wanted to test this quality of the book. Is it really a universal scripture and stays relevant to current world? So I am choosing couplets randomly to sync with current affairs. And I am in awe of the great Thiru Valluvar and damn he is genius. How could one think of all life situations and provide possible solution to lead a peaceful and meaningful life. There are few couplets which are irrelevant to current digital world but again with our perspective we could turn them as meaningful. That’s the beauty of his work.

Feedbacks:

As I said, appreciations and feedbacks are very important to continue a task. Appreciation is a basic human need to carry on our effort and feedback helps us to improvise the same. I was watchful in keeping my posts short as I thought lengthy posts would be boring to read. But I got an interesting feedback from my close buddy Sambu for below couplet which is self-explanatory. I felt it was genuine criticism and later started adding more points to my content.

In another instance, i expected many comments for this particular couplet which I quoted as “One of the most controversial couplets”. Surprisingly i got only two feedbacks and this from my cousin brother was an eye opener which is again self-explanatory. I was cautious before posting this Kural and kept only Kalaignar’s explanation for the very reason. I felt other’s explanations may lead to unwanted comments and I added as much meaningful points to my own words. But I could have covered other side (Female) too as per his feedback.

And this response from my Junior Vishnu is special one. He being a non-Tamil, following Thirukural proves its quality of Ulaga Podhu Marai quality. I was motivated to learn that non-Tamil also following my work and post that we talked hours regarding the importance of Thirukural.

Thank You:

I must thank all who are boosting me in all possible ways to continue posting Kural. Thanks for feedbacks, appreciations, helping me with grammar, sharing my memes with others, reminding me when I was late in publishing post, reminding me when I post couplets from same topic back to back, hours of discussion over couplets, small argument when you oppose my view and finally FB likes.

I hope I will continue with same zeal and finish all 1330 couplets.

PS: Got permission from concerned to post private WA chats.

100^th Kural of the Day!

40. கல்வி..குறள் 391:

கற்க கசடறக் கற்பவை கற்றபின்
நிற்க அதற்குத் தக

Translation by Boopathi:

What to do: Everyone must learn

How to do: Learn the content without any faults

What to learn: Whatever is needed (Ethics, discipline and life lessons)

Then: Follow what you learned

In short, everyone must read Thirukural and lead your life accordingly.

மு.வ உரை:

கல்வி கற்க நல்ல நூல்களைக் குற்றமறக் கற்க வேண்டும், அவ்வாறு கற்ற பிறகு, கற்ற கல்விக்கு தக்கவாறு நெறியில் நிற்க வேண்டும்.

Happy Women's Day!!

March 8^th, a special occasion to celebrate the womanhood. To show our gratitude, we usually take social media to wish our acquaintances with Women’s day quotes or forward them memes or share articles about celebrities who excelled in their departments. We often fail to recognize ladies around us, their values and importance in our lives.

So instead of doing the routines, I decide to pen down about a super woman who is donning many hats now and plays all her roles to perfection. She is none other than, a hardworking research scholar in field of Chemistry, a wonderful mom to a super active mischievous kid, a god fearing religious daughter, a great home maker, personal nutritionist & chemist and my better half  Ms. ShanmugaPriya Vimalan. She likes to call her by her full name and I never do that in real world.

We both are two contrasting characters. She is organised and I am messy. She is slow but steady and I am fast paced & incomplete. She is religious and I am non believer of god.  She recites Thirumurai padhigam and I sleep hearing those verses. She is vegetarian and I breathe chicken. She is doing research in chemistry and I know only pipette & burette and at times confused which is what. She hates social media and I die without those. She doesn’t like Illayaraja and I adore him. She resists uploading pictures online and I love clicking & sharing pictures with all. Yet, she accepted and embraced me fully as I am. There were few heated arguments happened on our differences but never been bitter or resentful. 

The toughest role to do in one’s life is pursuing Ph.D. in science and craziest would be pursuing Ph.D. with a toddler. We all know about the mood swings that could happen to a woman. Be it during puberty, premenstrual or pregnancy. In her case, I witnessed terrific mood swing happens when she prepares for DC (Doctoral Committee), while publishing paper and preparing for thesis. To people who don’t understand severity of doing research, one need to devote their life to a very narrow subject for at least three years with minimal help from guide or external. I was so naïve at beginning and compared it with my final semester project work which I bought from T. Nagar shop. She keeps murmur words like origin, graph, peaks, nano compound, elasticity, tensile strength, characterisation, adsorption in her sleep. At times she reads other’s articles for weeks just to conclude that it is irrelevant for her research. Such is the time consuming and daunting task.

 Despite going through such trauma in completing her research, she is doing commendable job in taking care of Aarav (our little naughty son). Babysitting Aarav itself is like doing Ph.D. Doing both in parallel is something which I couldn’t even think of. Having said this, there is another role which is even tougher than doing research. It is being life partner to a research scholar. I have to underplay many times to avoid the effect of catastrophic mood swings. Jokes apart, I often feel guilty that I couldn’t assist her much in her research. The only time I helped her was fixing the laptop hang issue just by killing the task and in turn she innocently thanked me by saying, ‘Idhukku dan software engineer, purusan ah irukanum nu’ (Grateful to have software engineer as husband). The only soul, who recognize me as engineer.

I never had seen such strong and multitasking lady in my life. On this special day, I wish you all success and i feel lucky to have you as my better half. Adding to this, I wish all women in my life, a very happy Women’s day. Keep rocking and keep inspiring us.

First Half Marathon - My experience in SPCM, Chennai 2020

My 2020 New Year's resolution is resuming blogging. It's been six years since i penned a blog post. Lot happened in this six years and to list few highlights, i am back to hometown in 2014, practiced photography, switched two companies, got married in 2017, became father in 2018 and took up running seriously in 2019 for fitness. All these years, I never stopped expressing my views through words but i switched the platform (FB) which i regret big time. I am not dogmatic here on medium that one should use blog. But I felt that FB is not ideal place to jot down our thoughts which will fade away or wont reach the target audience in the midst of attractive unwanted posts of mass. So here i am, my FIRST post of 2020.

FIRST is always special. Life is full of FIRSTs and they will linger in our mind forever. Personally they are like time machine, we can travel back to our vivid memory anytime and dwell in nostalgia for a while. Isn't it true? Our first kiss, our first day in college, our first love, our first job, our first salary and many more firsts. All my FIRSTs are gushing in to my memory now. This post is about such First. My first Half Marathon (HM) experience which i completed yesterday (05th Jan, 2020) in SPCM, Chennai. 

Marathon, arguably one of the toughest sports in the world considering its duration and intensity irrespective of climatic condition. I’m confused now where to begin as I have so many different emotions swirling around inside of me. It is now reality that i finished 21K which i once thought impossible. I feel sense of achievement, triumph, pride, happiness and price for hard-work & dedication . I have been updating training pics and progress constantly in stories of Whatsapp/ FB and now i wanted to immortalize all above said feelings and experience while i am still savoring it. 

I was a gym loving guy and passionately hit gym for 9 years till my wedding. After marriage, for all possible reasons i became lethargic and lazy which ended up in weight gain obviously. Then on one fine day, i came to know about "Chrompet Cheetahs" in my locality through Adaikappan fondly known as AK. Chrompet Cheetahs (CC), one of the running chapters in Chennai and i must dedicate a separate post about them who plays major role in my running activity.

Training: 

To sum things up, I have only been running for little over an year and participated in one 10K and 12K race officially prior to 2020 HM SPCM, Chennai. So i never ran beyond 12K and I was so skeptical to register for HM. Frankly, the thought of running 21K scared me and i waited till last day of registration to signup for the challenge.

Meanwhile i know i should hit the road hard and test my fitness level. So putting my fears and doubts aside, i started my preparation around October end. Here comes the role of CC who charted out well designed plan for each week according to the target timing. Since this is my debut race, i was not worried about the timing. Long Slow Distance (LSD) in weekends were challenging as my legs were not used to run beyond 12K. Looking back at the training mileage (215 KM in two months), it is incredible to know how far i have travelled.

It is so easy now to type that i have done 2 months of training before the race but every part of training was equally challenging. Training made me to gain confidence that i could complete the HM. Training was mixed bag for me. Experienced pain, dehydration, cramps, recovery, demotivated at times and was confident many times. Throughout the training, one thing that kept me disturbing was my shin. Mostly i ran through pain and i felt like self torment. Often i questioned myself, Does it worth it? Only at the fag end of training, i realized the fault in shoe lace pattern and that helped to overcome the shin pain. I should thank Thamarai for all those pep talks during LSD and selection of different routes and Sharmi for tagging me in all LSDs. Whenever i run in MIT track, many seniors helped me in correcting my running form and as i said earlier, i should write individual post about CC to thank them.

D-Day:

We collected the BIB on 4th Jan 2020, previous day of race. Doctor Rads and Master Daya arranged van for the race as start and end points are in different location, we avoided taking own vehicle to the venue. On Race day, I woke up @2.15 AM to get ready for 4.45AM start time. Bus started at 3.30AM from MIT with 22 co-runners and we reached the spot well before reporting time. San Chan helped me with little warm up session and we geared up for the real challenge.

With my training experience, i set reasonable self target of 3KM 8 pace as warm up, 12KM 7.30 pace and push last 6KM with stored energy. I was so naive here, missing the climate part totally. Usually on December and early January, winter should peak in Chennai. It is the dream period to run comfortably in city. But to my dismay, climate was so horrible on race day. It was an anxious start and i stick with my own plan of 8 pace till first aid station. I already drenched completely, thanks to the weather. Then i picked up my pace to 7.30 and carried the same till 10KM. If it was other normal day, i would have happily quit the race.

 I felt tired legs and started pondering how to cover other part of the race? Still 11KM to go. The same thought beats me down and lowered confidence. I have a strange mindset that once i start walking, i could not run further. So no matter how hard it is, i try to push myself to run rather than walk at least @8 pace. Hence the walk + run methodology won't suit me. Post 10KM, i started running @8 pace and covered another 6KM. 16KM done around 2 hours. By this time, I would have gulped truck load of salt and electrolyte. There comes the back stiffness. All my shortfall in training started staring back at me with evil laugh.

Every step post 16K is blur and i couldn't pick up pace beyond 8.30. I was so stubborn not to stop running and didn't want to succumb to the relief until reaching the finish point. But my mind lost to the body fatigue. I tried last possible strategy. Yes, i hate to try the walk + run. Epic fail in the attempt and i managed to cover another 2KM with this method. Still 3KM to reach the destination and with no other go i started walking @11 pace. Aim is to reach the destination and i consciously crawled which brought me close to the ultimate goal that i had been painstakingly working towards over two months. There i spotted Master Daya and AK. I got sudden gush of energy due to Alppa santhosam watching them walking and joined both for the climax. I badly wanted to see the finish point arch and pushed last attempt of running with whatever energy left. I told AK and Daya to finish at same time and we executed at least this as planned. It was a dream moment for me. 

It was a tough race. As the cliche goes, it was more of mind game. Finally i completed the race of 21K in 3 hours 6 minutes. I planned for 2 hours 45 minutes, i was in such confidence at start of race. Nevertheless, i am proud of myself that i completed the race without any injury in testing weather and not so pleasant running atmosphere. It is a never ending process. Every run is a new run, new opportunity to learn about myself and improve on the shortfalls. I have learnt more about myself as a runner on my bad days than i do on my best ones. There is no open secret behind this success. Set a goal, no matter how hard it is. Work religiously with dedication, be with like minded people to guide and you will get there!! With this philosophy, i finish my post. Hope to run more in coming days.

Thanks for reading!!

En Route to Gavi, Kerala

Finally I am forced to come back to blog space to freeze my invaluable memories that I gained in Western Ghats, Kerala. I almost forget that I own a personal blog and I renewed it for another two years. To my dismay, this is my second post of this year and I am writing this after eight months hiatus.

It was not a pre-planned trip. Before I headed to Gavi (Kerala), so many people came up with their own stories about this place. Few told me it was blocked due to SABARIMALA season. Few told Kerala forest department permission is must to explore this region. And few cooked up a story that Gavi is blocked as Tiger Sensex is going on. I googled, mailed and tried calling few officials regarding the feasibility of visiting the forest but everything ended in vain. Finally believing my gut feeling headed straight to Gavi beating all odds.

Day 1:

I boarded KSRTC bus (only bus to Kumuli through GAVI) from Pathanamthita bus stand @6.45 AM. Within 2 hours of travel, thick forest with green smell beckoned us which were way ahead of my imagination. Moment i entered jungle, the sense of calmness is palpable. I have been to forest region before but this is huge and dense. Almost four hours we traveled through thick jungle. Awesomematic bumpy ride ended at 12.15PM and went to Green mansion (only lodge to stay) for room stay with bum numbness. Luckily I got the room there to stay and they charged me 2200Rs (includes Jeep jungle safari, boating, trekking, three times food, room to stay and a guide to assist you in jungle). But if you have idea to visit this place, get pre-booking done in this lodge.

First thing I did after reaching Gavi was having lunch. They serve both Kerala and Tamil Nadu style food for all three times. Then after taking a nap in room, I started clicking flowers and humming birds located nearby to the lodge. Clicking humming bird is difficult and challenging task for me. They are too small and constantly switching places. I was having 70-200mm lens and I can’t click them from far. I spent more than 2 hours and painstakingly clicked around 50 pics to get one in motion sucking honey from the flower. After satisfied with my humming bird photo, I got into the boat with my guide in a silent artificial lake situated near to the lodge. Nature has endowed Kerala with great scenic beauty. I had a pleasant two hours of boating where I saw Darter (Snakebird) for the first time and enjoyed bathing few minutes in waterfall at the other end of lake alone. The day 1 ended with dinner (provided chicken gravy) and unusual sleep with too many unique sounds produced by various nocturnal habitats. After 8 years, I spent a whole day without touching cell phone (No network available). This was one of the strange things that I did after quite a while.

Day 2:

I woke up at 5 o’clock with uncontrollable shivering due to chill weather. Still I can hear those mystery sounds from various insects and birds. I was getting ready for the much awaited jungle safari through the thick jungle to site few wild animals. After having black coffee, I boarded one jeep along with a wildlife analyst who was having Nikon 80-400mm lens. The day started with wild bison which was far away from us where my 70-200 couldn’t reach. Then we traveled around 30KM and unluckily we couldn’t see any wild animals nearby us. We spotted Sambar deer too far, few black langur and Malabar giant squirrel. I was disappointed that I couldn’t spot any wild animals like tiger, elephant, leopard and wild dogs. But the fellow tourist was having fun clicking various birds which I couldn’t even spot at my first sight.

Here I realized that in jungle we need to look for birds too rather than waiting only for wild animals. Our guide and wildlife analyst were having debate on various birds that we spotted which I am totally unaware of. I was so naive that in one instance, guide was showing us Bull Bull bird and I was desperately looking for a monkey. This is my knowledge about the birds. In another instance, I was hysterically screaming to stop the jeep as I spotted parrot (only bird I was aware of). Around 20 kinds of birds we covered and none of the bird I couldn’t take a proper pic with my 70-200mm. Entire journey I was using my camera as mini-binocular. Then coming back from safari, we had breakfast and I headed for trekking to try my luck again to catch few wild animals. I almost climbed top of the mountain where I can clearly see SABARIMALA which is just 30KM away from Gavi. I covered around 15KM by walk frantically looking for beast but nothing I noticed other than green wiper and blood sucking leaches.

Return journey:

After having lunch on day 2, I was waiting for the KSRTC bus (only bus) back to Pathanamthita. This was the best part of the entire journey. I saw around 15 wild elephants, so many black langur, bison and deer in close range which I ultimately missed in jungle safari and trekking. Driver was kind enough to stop the bus whenever we spotted animal. But sadly I didn’t take any photo since I dismantled my Canon gear and packed inside the camera bag. Here I badly missed my old companion Lumix FZ-38. After 5 long hour of splendid travel, just before reaching the destination I was appalled to see heavy smoke coming out from the bus engine. It is very difficult to maintain buses on these kinds of routes and luckily it stopped just few kilometers away from the destination. Otherwise we would have stranded in middle of jungle haplessly. Then I caught one auto and reached Pathanamthita. From there I headed to Trivandrum to catch my flight to Madras.

So if you are planning to Gavi, things to take care are

• Pre-book the room in Green Mansion cottage (under Kerala forest department)
• Don’t miss to look around while travelling from Pathanamthita to Gavi (if you start from Kerala) / Kumuli to Gavi (if you start from TN)
• If you want to use mobile then carry BSNL sim.
• For people who has penchant towards the wildlife Photography, carry long range lens (400mm or 500mm) or long zoom bridge cam to click the birds and animals
• Have patience and maintain silent to enjoy wildlife.

This is the first time I traveled alone to a forest and started doing wildlife photography. I have learnt basics and looking forward to have blast in future by rectifying it.

RIP mama!!!

Until Wednesday (NOV 14, 2012), this year is such a fruitful and sweetest year in my personal life. My brother got married, my sister got engaged, did 60th marriage for my parents, successfully switched my working stream in office and took my photography passion to the next level recently.

On Tuesday, we celebrated the DIWALI in much much joyful manner with neighbor kids. Decibel level of our laughter was more than that of bursting crackers. Next day, around 4 o’clock we got the terrible news which just swiped away all our previous day’s happiness and turned 2012 as a terrible year of my life. My dearest maternal uncle has passed away who fell down from third floor while checking the water tank.

He was the epitome of love and kindness. He was altruistic and greeted all with his trademark smile. He never said NO to anyone. He was my YES MAN. If you read my old posts with tag “parents”, I always stress about taking good care of parents. He was the man who injected this idea deep into me. He single handedly took care of my grandma who suffered from complete paralysis for 6 years.

“Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift, which is why it is called the present.”

Everyone cried and all talked about his kindness and greatness. But nothing is going to get back him. We never know what will happen next minute. So I repeat, let’s break our silence. No more vengeance and no more stupid ego. Make peace with all and live the present.

RIP mama. You will always be remembered. You will never be forgotten. You will be celebrated forever. I will try my best to live like you. Thanks for everything. Finishing this post with heavy heart and wet eyes. Love you :’(

The End meets the Beginning (Life is a circle)

“Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age”. How true it is??

Recent happenings in my home made me to realize the power of this old saying and this is the reason behind this post.

Going by this old saying, my mom just entered into her teenage and dad crossed his teenage in their old age. Recently my mom started losing her teeth due to gum disease which is quiet common at her age similar to infant having no teeth. Both my mom and dad’s muscles and bones become weak as with the child whose bones are weak in their forming and strengthening process.

In childhood, we were totally dependent on our parents for everything. They helped us monetarily to get education, to get good clothes, medicine to cure from illness, took us to movies and outings. Now after my dad’s retirement, I am doing the same to them.

I still remember, how my mom screamed when I asked her permission for taking bike to attend a function at the age of17. Now I am commanding my dad not to take his bike for longer distance to attend one. He became old enough to tackle the city’s traffic and rash driving by others.

These prove the popular saying “Old age is second childhood”. Except the fact that, kids grow stronger but older people don’t. As they grow old, their childishness also grows with them. Their bodies and minds start degenerating into what we once were, helpless children. They need a lot of care, affection and attention. They cry and become so dependent.

You are growing old every day, so am I. I do agree we tie youth close to our mind by keeping ourselves young and happy. So let us pour love and affection to them who already did altruistically on us.

Homemaker, the toughest job in planet

I remember, back in my school days when teacher asked me to brief about my family. I started off briskly with my dad, then about my siblings and finally ended up with my mom as housewife (homemaker) in dull tone. I thought being a housewife is easy & cool and that’s the reason behind dip in my decibel level. They can stay at home, watch TV all times, no home work, no exams and no pressure. But now I realized that being a homemaker is the toughest job in world. [I am writing this post by having my mom (South indian) in my mind].

So what is homemaker means? When I searched in google, I got this.

“a wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income”

So simple, isn’t it? But it is not. Let me brief about the nature of job.

• Wake up at early morning. Clean the entrance and put KOLAM (rangoli)
• Prepare hot tea/coffee for all your family members and wake them up from their bed
• Run behind your kids and help them in bathing and get them dressed for school
• Prepare breakfast and help the partner and children to get ready for work and school (if you have 2/3 kids then prioritizes which one to feed first. Fights may come and be prepared to tackle).
• If you have small kids, take them to school and wave your hands till they disappear from your vision
• Back from school, quickly have breakfast and start thinking for lunch.
• Wash all the vessels and utensils which you used while preparing last day’s meal
• While washing, simultaneously have chat with neighbors and give them free advice to sort out their family problems
• Come back to kitchen and start preparing lunch
• If you have small kids, take the lunch box to school and feed them
• Watch noon serials and yell at the lady villain who tortures heroine and sob with her
• While watching serial have your lunch
• Take a nap
• Get ready to wash all your family member’s clothes (my mom didn’t use washing machine). Get one for sure.
• Again if you have small kid, bring them from school
• Prepare snacks for them and undress their uniform
• Take them to coaching classes, if any (Bring them back later)
• Play with them, have a little chat about their day and help them in finishing home work
• Start preparing dinner for all (if one don’t like particular dish then prepare different dish for them)
• Again watch serials and cry with them and have dinner
• Prepare milk and serve it to all before they go to bed
• Put rice in grinder, if at all you planned to prepare idly/ dosa for next day’s breakfast
• Clean the grinder and go to bed
• Don’t forget to switch on mosquito repellent before going to bed

Till now, I told about the daily routine of a homemaker. Apart from this,

• You need to take care of finance of your family. You should be smart and frugal. You will be getting your partner’s full salary or part of it (depends on situation). In that, you need to get groceries, pay school fees, rent and other expenses.
• Plan for savings (Very important)
• Take care of anyone who is falling sick and take them to hospital
• Do first aid, if anyone get hurt
• Console crying baby and comfort demoralized partner
• Remember all the things that others mentioned you and remind them of that event
• Decorate home, take good care of garden and pets
• Attend all school functions and help your kid to prepare for all competition and encourage them
• The most difficult and important task is to try and stop fighting. You should not lose your temper and carefully take wise decision while stopping fight

If you fail in any above mentioned points then it will directly or indirectly affect the growth and moral of your family. Being a homemaker is like ruling a nation. Single handedly they should take care of all the departments and wisely should take the decision. My mom did this job without any complaints and still continuing to do so.

Slam book- My crush

“Live your life fully in the school”, this is the most repeatedly chanted statement by my teacher in school days. But I never realized the importance of this statement. Now I regret it.

There are so many means (photos, videos, letter and more) by which you can recollect all sweet memories of your school days. Among these, slam book plays a vital role in driving those memories and through this post I am going to relish my first slam book experience.

Slam book, is a notebook with full of questions which will be circulated among your friends to fill in their own answers to those questions. This book is the remembrance of your old buddies and you can post any kind of questions to them. After a long time, if you happened to read those slam posts, it will definitely bring cute smile on your face.

Let me go back to my school days. Before my final exam, one of my friends circulated her slam book to us and asked to fill it before end of the day. Everyone started filling one by one and I was eagerly waiting for my turn. My turn came and I was casually looking at the questions that were put forth before me. I was stuck by a question and I really didn’t have a clue to answer it. The question is “Who do you have a crush on”?

I was frantically thinking how to answer. Cold war started between my mind and heart. Both knew that was her. But my mind stopped me to reveal the truth. The confusion in my mind was palpable and eventually my mind won the battle. I wrote as “None” with heavy heart. It happened again in high school and I blindly did the same.

Suddenly I have been reminiscing about my school life and now felt like dumb. Gone are those days along with innocence.