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Dad was lying on the terrace, at peace watching the stars. The sky was the typical red because of the city lights diffusing into the sky. The clouds that night were moving very fast. There was a star - might be a planet - overhead, and this was giving an illusion that it was moving. The son and dad debated whether it is a plane or a planet. Then the son ran away. He had to go play with Sufi. Yes, Sufi 2.0 has joined their lives once again after 6 months [ Sufi 1.0 ] Sufi was on her night stroll on the terrace. The mom had her on a leash and newspaper in the other hand - running behind the energy ball - as Sufi finds the perfect place to pee and poo - after her night dinner. Sufi came back to smell Dad lying on the terrace, putting her wet muzzle on his face and hands and feet and went away to explore the terrace. Life for a moment is perfect once again. Might melt away someday, but for now will just enjoy these moments and live in the present - how this Sufi lives moment to ...

I was wrongly made to believe that we humans are superior and we have conquered this planet and we have dominion on the lesser animal species. We told lies to ourselves, oh we have the 6th sense which animals don't have. They just have the instinct - to procreate and survive. They do not have wishes or taste or wants or love. Put them in a cage, they will just sit there eating their food. How grossly wrong was I / we are. Animals are not just human, but more than human. In fact I don't think we should measure animals in the human yardstick. We have pillaged this planet and extinguished beautiful creations of God. We humans are not good. Animals are better than Humans. Animals are kinder than Humans. They do not destroy the environment. They enrich it.  They kill, but only for their survival - not for pleasure. I am sick of our race. You might wonder - why this sudden outrage Venkat? 3 news items in succession triggered this in me. 2 Beautiful Lions shot dead bec...

  That's 1000 Kms in a year. Crossed 1000 Kms in April 2015 Attempting my first full marathon for the 2nd time. Sep 18th is the D Day. Last year I started training for a full marathon, but midway had to give up.[ 2015 Kaveri Trail Marathon ]   Planning to run in the Kaveri Trail Marathon this year also. I use the Nike Running App ( Free on both iOS and Android ). There is a coach option, where you key in the race date and it will work out a training program. I am following it sincerely. 5 runs a week, the last one  a long run that keeps increasing till the race day.  Excited about what lies ahead - the training days as it will get harder and harder, and finally the day of the Marathon.. Set a goal which is humanely impossible ( to me certainly it is ) -  break it down, work hard, and achieve it.  Few days back when I was campaigning for more friends to join me in a a half or full marathon - got into a full fledged debate with a few friends in Whatzapp. Ther...

Mid-life Crisis The wife told everyone - "Midlife Crisis"  Sometimes there is no rational explanation why I do certain things - like this road trip on bike from Bangalore to Mumbai and back, in peak summer, through some of the drought stricken regions. So the wife had to term it my Mid life Crisis.  I don't analyse too much on these. Just go ahead and enjoy the experience.  The whole trip started with me fixing the EFI of my Thunderbird (  Comprehensive guide to owning a Royal Enfield bike  ) - sunk 13k to replace an important part so the bike will start. After fixing felt bad for the bike - here is a cruiser doing small errands and going in stop and go Bangalore traffic. It never runs full throttle. Time to let it run loose.  I found a co-conspirator - a developer in the team who owns an Avenger. And we started preparing for the big trip. Preparation On my earlier trip to Mumbai on bike, in 2014, I had Sangeeta escort me on a car. (If you are interested he...

They were sitting in the balcony on a cool Bangalore morning - all 3 of them. The kid, Mom and Dad. They had just lost their lovely puppy Sufi - to a canine virus - the previous night. She had entered their life just a week back. The dad who hadn't cried that night before was sobbing. The kid had got over it - weeping uncontrollably on that fateful night along with his mother - perhaps the first time he ever cried for a living being. The kid made jokes to cheer his dad. It has been 3 months. The dad still misses Sufi a lot. He gets sad when he remembers Sufi and along with him makes the kid sad. They both sit and mourn and curse God. Life.

Don't read this book - "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card,  if you haven't read - Ender's Game - which I highly recommend. This is my brief review from my 2014 Books Roundup. " Brilliant Book. If you dig Science Fictions you should definitely read this. After Dune by Frank Hebert - this book captured my imagination and kept me in Enders World for the period I was reading this book.  A movie based on this book also came out in November but I missed it. " After reading Red Rising I was looking for another Science Fiction and I picked up the 2nd part of Enders Game - and little did I expect what is in store for me. It is unlike any science fiction I have ever read. There is the usual fancy aliens, starship travel and relativity ageing ( our Ender turns 3000 years old in this book ) - but I was hit with a very human angle. How is to love animals as if they are human? Now how it is to love aliens as human? This book addresses this...

One has to be totally Irrational to own a Royal Enfield bike. If you are those Rational types - who just require a vehicle to go to from A to B with the minimal fuss - I strongly recommend buying a Japanese Bike. Also close this tab you are reading in your browser, quit the browser, close your laptop, switch off the fan and light, get out of the house, go find a lake or park, sit on the park bench and think Rational Thoughts.  -- Now - my dear Irrational Friends,   Royal Enfield Friends ( if you are a RE fan you will not be reading my blog - but riding your bike now - but if you are reading this then your bike is in the workshop - for which I am sorry ) and future Royal Enfield riders.. Hello and a warm welcome to the Irrational world we all live. You - Rational Thought guy - out of my blog. Why are you still reading my post? Anyway - back to my advise column. The title - if you have landed here because of a Google Search - it is because I know a thing or two about ...

Greetings fellow Plingians. I am hovering around Earth right now - in our newly built LightSpeed Space Ship.  Earth as you know is in a far far corner of the universe - in Milky Way Galaxy, in Solar System, revolving around a tiny star they call the Sun. Earth is a tiny planet - much smaller than our smallest moon of our Beautiful planet - but is stunning to look at and is mysterious.  What impressed me were the Humans who inhabit Earth in large numbers. They have won the battle with all the other animals and are currently ruling the world. We took a 25 Earth Years sample Human Being for analysis in our Space Ship and ran him through our Biomedical Decoder machine. The results were fascinating. They have the usual sensory objects - for vision, for sound, for feeling etc - as expected in any aliens. However what fascinated me was somethings hidden deep in them. There is a big bone like structure that runs from the middle half of their body and is connected ...

Here is the post everyone was waiting for - list of books I crunched in 2015 - and here is the list for  2010 , 2011 , 2012 ,  2013  and 2014 . 2015 began well with The Martian . Saw the movie on October 2nd, 2015 too - well made and did not disappoint. I will recommend the book any day - brilliantly written and well researched. Once a Runner Then one day I took a decision - lets run a marathon. So to inspire myself picked up this classic. This is a fun read and has some hilarious moments in the hero's college days. Has lot of philosophy on running. Seven Years in Tibet I had seen this movie before - Brad Pitt is the hero. In this case I recommend the movie. The book is  an autobiography of a German Mountaineer who is imprisoned in British India and how he escapes and reaches Tibet. This could very well be the first book to ever be written about Tibet - as Tibet is very secretive and does not allow outsiders in. The first half was very interesting - our Her...

Had Julius Ceasar decided to go on a hunt - Jan 1 might be actually Jan 15. These days, new years really does not make sense in the large scheme of things - a speck going around a little brighter speck in a  random corner of the Universe. However - it does matter in the personal progress. Am I wiser, stronger, smarter compared to last year? What am I going to accomplish this year, that I did not do last year? It does serve as a mile stone. In no particular order - my goals for 2016 - where I return to Bangalore for the 2nd time in my life. Running In 2012 December, I ran a half marathon (21.6 KM) in a little over 4 hours. In 2015 September, I ran a half marathon in a little under 3 hours ( 2 hours, 53 minutes ) In 2016, perhaps I will run the half in under 2 hours? Or should I aim to run a full marathon ( 42.2). I have at my disposal 2 lakes at walkable   runnable distance from my home. Today I did a 5k in 32 minutes.. will see if I can extend it to 10k in 64 minu...

After I got busy with my marathon preparation - since June -  I stopped going Sudarshan Kriya by myself. Every Sunday at 7:00 AM, there is a refresher course - where an Art of Living teacher guides us in doing Suriya Namaskar, and a few Asanas, Pranayama and finally Sudarshan Kriya in Guruji's voice -  in our Apartment Complex party hall.  I used to attend them occasionally before, and after signing up for the Marathon - I stopped going. On Sep 20th evening, after I finished the Half Marathon and was cooling my heels in the hotel room reading a book I picked up at Blossoms on Church Street - I get a WhatsApp message from Aditiji - she was my teacher when I attended the Art of Living Course in August, 2014. "Where are you, don't see you nowadays?". I was in such a good mood ( runners high ), and I immediately replied, "I was training for the Marathon. It is done. See you next Sunday". After sending the message I wondered - Man is this sheer coinci...

Tl;dr : After preparing for a Full Marathon, I complete the Half Marathon - in just under 3 hours. This reminds me of a tweet I read "Woman completes marathon without talking about it" - and thought about myself. Here I am chronicling each week of my Marathon training![ Starting  here ] Anyway - here is a brief write up of my running the Kaveri Trial Marathon 2015. I had booked a cheap room near MG road, one of the fancy startups of 2015 - parallel to Church Street - where all the pubs are there. Woke up at 1:00 AM, freshened up and walked to the bus pick up point near Queen Victoria Statue. This is near the Chinnaswamy stadium - and till I reached I was not sure if the bus will be there - and was wondering what will the plan B be if the bus had already left or didn't show up. Thankfully 2 buses were there - and a volunteer cross checked my name and let me in. I got in and immediately dozed off. Took more than 2 hours to reach the race venue. It was still dark....

I think Week 11 Sunday I ran 26kms. I felt some weird pain in my foot so stopped. Had set a target of 32kms. Then as the day went I found my left mid foot hurt really bad. Yaay - new pain. Started research and read all about pronation. Perhaps I was not running right. Saw a youtube video too to prove myself. Read about the correction shoes and got even more confused. Then I read a post - saying - this is how humans run - no point correcting it. So I came back to my starting point - thanks and no thanks internet. My running is fine. Perhaps my legs gave up after too much of running on hard surfaces. I took the tough decision and downgraded from full to half marathon. Waited for a couple of days, and went for a run. Stopped after 1.5kms as the pain was back. I stopped running for the next 4 days or so. Should I just quit and live to fight another marathon or give it a shot. While the debate was raging in my mind - I noticed the pain ease a bit. Did a few runs and even thoug...

Monday I went shopping in Godrej Nature Basket. Picked up Sofit - Soymilk the plain version ( not adulterated with sugar - which is hard to get ), Tofu and Gooseberry. Went for runs according to plan on Wednesday,Thursday and Saturday and did the knee exercises. Sunday morning I was delayed - partly because of the rain and partly because I was lazy. I started the run at 8am. Set 29kms as target. My legs felt tired right from the go. I checked out the park but it was fully soggy and unrunnable. Came back to the concrete parking lot + the inside asphalt road. It is going to be a boring 29 loop run. Was debating whether next time I will go to Aarey colony road - but the slopes will kill my confidence. Crossed 10.5k and took a recharge break. I now switched on the audio book - Wizard of Earthsea. The headphone's right side had stopped working. This keeps getting better. Ged gets good advise from his master. He starts chasing the shadow. The hunted becomes the hunter. They m...

Week 9  And Monday we had a team outing at Thungareshwar. It was a 4km climb on a gently rolling hill - for a temple and a waterfall near Vasai. I went up and back without any fuss. Patted myself on the back - couple of months back I could not have pulled this feat. The body adapts itself really well. The next 3 runs I kept myself to less than half an hour - so I could spend more time doing the knee strengthening exercises. Sunday morning it was raining heavily. I was worried about the park. As expected I found the track very muddy and un-runnable. I left the park and came to my parking lot. However this time I did only 25% of a run in it. Rest I did it on the tar road. As expected after 5 kms, behind my knee I started feeling the pain. Don't know it was the mind playing tricks on me, or it was really hurting. Choose to ignore and continued listening to the book - which was quite engrossing. Our hero puts a spell - in a duel with the Malfoy character - which brings out ...

Since I was shifting my long run from Monday to Sunday - it was a short week. Only 3 runs in total. I was bringing 7 years in Tibet to a close. The interactions between the young Dalai Llama and Heinrich is beautiful. China invades Tibet in 1951 and the book ends on a very sad note - with an appeal for help to keep Tibet free. This time for the long run I did not go to Aarey colony. Was back in the park behind my apartment complex. I set 26km as goal and started running. It was drizzling and the rain clouds went away. Did a 9km non stop run, before getting back to my Apartment Complex security where I had kept 2 water bottles and 2 bananas. After downing a liter and a banana, continued on the 2nd round. At 18kms, I again got back to my pitstop and downed the 2nd water bottle and another banana. My legs were quite heavy and tired by now. Sat for quite some time, and pulled myself up and started running gingerly I saw a long brownish black snake swiftly go into a few rocks ne...