kvrlogs

This is a chest thumping post. I am warning you. I have unlocked a new level in my life. I have run 1,000 KMs.   This was done over the last 2.5 years starting Nov 2012, averaging 6 Kms per run at a nice middle aged man's pace of 6.5 ( pace is the number of minutes it takes to cover 1km ).  I can hear you saying - nothing big to crow about - but hey - this is me I am competing against - not Usain Bolt - and as a competitor I am tougher! I am not a consistent runner. During monsoon I stop running and eat lot of onion pakodas. Also just a few months back my shoe was stolen, or for any lame excuse the devil in my brain will throw at - I will agree immediately, and I will declare an off-day. It has been a constant battle between the Angel and Devil in my brain. And no clear winner has emerged of far. But I want to show this devil - inspite of you I have accomplished something really big. I have so much to tell - but will tell one thing I found in this journey of 1000...

Appraisals, Tax, Meetings, Interviews, More Tax, Property Tax, License Renewal, Passport Renewal constable interview, EMI, Aadhar card... You think your life is tough? Just look at a couple of Celebrity's kids. It is tougher for them. Way too tougher. One whose names starts with R and has a famous freedom fighter's name as last name. Another starts with A and his entire family - except him of course - wife, dad, mom - are all Padmashri winners. Now meditate this. They are not concerned about Taxes, or License Renewal or any of the mundane things you and I have to deal with on a daily basis. They have a bigger fish to fry. It is the dreaded word called 'Expectation'. Or filling up the big shoe their father wears or once wore. It is the genes - we all say - and rightfully so - being ruled well by the Kings and their princes and their descendants all these years till the mighty British came and made a mess of our country. The genes should bring out the next bet...

I finished reading Jupiter Travels by Ted Simons. This crazy British journalist went around the world in 1975 - in a Triumph motorcycle, took 4 years and lived to tell the tale through his book. Each of us are sent to this world to experience life. It is all programmed before we are planted on earth. Some of us let the soul's true purpose come out - some of us let the ego, self-imposed chains to prevent the soul from going in its journey. Ted Simons let his soul a free run and did this brave journey - all alone in 1975. He entered and left Egypt before the war, reached Cape of Good hope at the bottom tip, took a ship to Brazil, got arrested and let off and explored Argentina and via Mexico got into USA, found his love. Again took a ship to Australia, then rode across the continent, took a ship to Singapore - rode a bit there, came to Madras ( as it was called then ), rode to Bangalore to see Sai Baba in the now Whitefield ( and was disappointed not to see any magic ), wen...

India is in a growth phase like how the US economy was in the 80s. The US parents during the boom were called baby boomers.  The Indian parents who are in their 35s to 45s of today are the equivalent of the baby boomer generation. Thankfully the school admission process is so competitive - it has scared them into not making a boom of the baby kind.  Let me coin these parents the "Facebook parents" as they are all chained to their smartphones and Facebook. Of late whatsapp has become quite popular but whatsapp is owned by Facebook - so this term can still stand a scrutiny by future historians.  They are economically successful and better off than their parent's generation. Most would have started their career drawing a salary their parents would have retired at.  Would have visited a few countries for work or for pleasure. Would have a car or two or an unnecessarily powerful bike which they use for grocery errands. Would have a heavy EMI too.  ...

Ahemm..first my apologies for tying a camel's tail to a pony's tail - this post is akin to that. Totally 2 unrelated disciplines being compared :) Agile  - as you know is what we use to create kickass products. Spiritualism is to me the exploration of the Why? - Why are we happy, or sad. Why did we come on earth, why we die? I practise Agile at work, and explore Spiritualism constantly in all things. During one of my meditations it hit me - A developer practising Agile, and what Spirituality teaches us are so common. The Now Our mind is like a pendulum. It either swings to the past - oh I did this, said this, he spoke rudely to me that day, I missed giving a good repartee .. or swings to the future - oh what will happen if I don't file my tax returns, what if I confront my colleague tomorrow.. it goes on and on - swinging back and forth. And when the pendulum hits the Now - it is where happiness is - pure unblemished joy. It stays for a fleeting second.. and then goes on t...

This post is a 101 Introduction to Raspberry Pi.  I will show you how to use a Raspberry Pi to create an Apple TV, Chromecast equivalent, and also read and push your home temperature to a server. It is the best time to be a geek! There is 3G everywhere and 8MB Bandwidth at home and office. Geeks everywhere carry a super computer in their pocket now! TBs of storage are now available for a dime. Everything is backed up realtime to the cloud. Even if you lose your device or hard drive crashes, it can all be downloaded back. Maps and GPS Accuracy is spot on. The stuff geeks have now makes James Bond look like a kid showing off in a School Science project. And we need not deal with Windows or IE anymore. It is either Android or iOS or Ubuntu or OS X. And then comes this Raspberry Pi to the party - from the open source hardware movement - a cute little computer - the size of a palm - which costs just Rs. 2,500 and can do a hell lot of things. How to procure a Raspberry Pi I got mine from...

Way back in 2000, I first heard about man purse in a Seinfeld episode and had a good laugh. Little more than a decade later,  I find myself using one. Here is me defending in the court on why I use a man purse. Your Honour, Men needed just a few essentials those days. A purse/wallet + keys, a mobile phone + a hand kerchief and a comb on the back pocket. Real men don't need to carry a pocket note book. They write stuff and lose it behind credit card acknowledgements. If you were a metrosexual male then you will need a deo, a face wash, a mouth freshner, a hair gel, a hair spray, a hand sanitizer, a hand moisturiser, a sunscreen etc. - you would have dragged all these in a suitcase - and guys like you would have been husbanded soon and you will still be dragging that suitcase but with the kids diaper or the missus's stuff. I am digressing. Back to the defence. Some men carry a book to impress women but then it is best carried in hand - otherwise what is the point. ...

Too many books to read...too short a life. Here are my books roundup of 2010 , 2011 , 2012 and 2013 . After my 2013 post an ex-colleague of mine in TW, Apoorv, suggested some of his favourites. Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman! by Richard P.Feynman Feynman is this famous Theoretical Physicist who was involved in the top secret Atomic bomb project that brought World War II to an end. He also won the Nobel Prize for his work in Quantum Physics. Theoretical Physicists should be boring guys right? Wrong! He is one hell of a guy. The book is full of  pranks he played on others, observations of how ants march around and the experiments he did with them, how he mastered the drums in Brazil, how he learnt Portuguese, experienced astral projection on salt tanks.. it is an endless list. I am writing this post almost after a year and still Feynman's jaunts are fresh in my memory. Thanks to you Apoorv, 2014 got to a brilliant start. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies...

Got back from an exhilarating trip to Chennai. I was filled with nostalgia - partly because of the campus, partly my old friends - and laughed my heart out like good old days. However there were times when was discussing the not so happy moments. Will eat the frog first and get it out of the way. Old Age and Cancer We are all peeking into middle age, and our parents are peeking into old age. With it brings its own challenges. We are still building our careers and with both husband and wife working nowadays  it is difficult to provide round the clock care to our parents who need total care. A few of us are going through this phase now. For San and I - after having relocated to Mumbai - we have no family / friend support system like we had in Bangalore - it is quite a challenge. Luckily there is a Startup in this area - Portea Medicals  and they supply trained nursing attendants to come home and look after the patient. This might sound as a plug for Portea, but truth i...

2014 is coming to a close. It has been a very interesting time for Startups. A Government change, with it expectations, a rising economy - which in turn will benefit startups. Billions of VC money flowing into the ecosystem. Traditional investors become Angels. Here is my wishlist for Startups - new and old for 2015 - to Fight the Good Fight. Gain Customers, not Facebook Likes No Short Cuts please. Gaining traction, gaining customers is not easy. This is the most important metric for any Startup. Not the Facebook likes, Alexa ranking, Twitter Followers - these will come automatically once customers start signing up. To gain customers - you need to have a kickass product. Not a 80% almost there product, but a 200% going beyond the wildest customer expectation product. To reach there, it takes lot of hard work, lot of iterations - there is no short cut.  Do not start a clone  There are so many problems waiting to be solved. If you have 2 ideas - one which is never tried before ...

After the Vibram law suit, I got disillusioned with Bare foot running. Also running on Mumbai Roads, bare foot is not practical - it is dangerous. I ran barefoot for about 6 months ( on Sports Authority of India's track in Kandivali), then switched to Bata shoe... which got worn out pretty quickly. Then I switched to Nike Free Run 3, and for the last 2 years this has been my running shoe. I have clocked close to 930Kms on this and the soles have worn off pretty well. I enquired about Nike Run 5, and it was close to 9k. I literally stopped on my tracks - this is crazy. Couple of weeks back, San pointed to a Sale in the Puma shop next to our office. I looked around, and found this interesting shoe - the Puma Mobium. The sales guy knew about running and said this is not a heels strikers shoe, but more of a front to mid foot runner's. This is the ideal way to run from what I have researched. This was also 9k, but they had 40% off. Did a few trial runs in the store an...

It has been 4 months since I started practising Sudarshan Kriya - I learnt in Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Guruji's Art of Living course. I do some deep, slow, fast, medium paced breathing.. as per the instructions - for some half an hour - almost on a daily basis. And have got some wonderful effects. Anger It is a goner. I don't outrage anymore - like I used to. I do feel I am a little slow when I am confronted.  But it gives me time to think and react - instead of just shooting from the hip and later feeling bad for having reacted the wrong way. I can think back how I was 4 months back - where I was stressed and frustrated most of the time - and how I am today - a world of difference. I don't know if people around me can see it, but internally I feel I am more in control, patient and at peace. Clarity in Thought If you are a full time wearer of corrective glasses, and once in a while when you wipe it clean the whole world looks sharper. It is a similar feeling. The wo...

I attended a 4 day Art of Silence course - conducted by Art of Living foundation. It was mind blowing. Day 1  I was one of the very few newbies. 95% of the participants were repeating the course - some even for the 14th time. This course happens every week in Bangalore Ashram. In Mumbai it is conducted twice a year - it is like a special program for the busy bodies we Mumbaikars are. We do some mini games, some gyan, getting to chat up with the fellow participants ( 58 were there in total ) - bank executives, marketing specialists, students, young professionals, retired gentlemen, elderly ladies - what a mix! Then slowly gradually Sangeeta Didi ( she is one of the earliest disciples / teachers with Guruji Sri Sri Ravishankar ) introduced us to the concept of silence and gave a practical suggestion to call home and inform before hand - that when I come home I will not communicate - not even a nod of the head, or SMS, or email or chit of paper. Also was not supposed to read a...

I was reading Madras Day celebrations everywhere and was feeling nostalgic on Chennai. There are so many memories in that hottest city on the planet. I remember bike rides - on those long beautiful stretches between Guindy and Mount Road via Kotturpuram bridge. And the nice shady stretches at TTK Road. And the curvy road at Beasant Nagar  ( last I visited they had bumpers on the curve - bummer ). And the last few years before I left in 2000 - the Velachery to Shollinganallur stretch via Medavakkam and the god awesome crash I had on Mahabalipuram road trying to see how far the needle goes in a Splendour. ( It did not go beyond 85kmph ) And food. The Ponnuswamy's and Anjappar's - alas - I might not be able to indulge there anymore having turned a meeto-taller ( like teeto-taller - you will see it in oxford dictionary next year :D ). The   bread omlette at High Look bar - next to IIT - at night 2am. The kotthu porrotta at Mangudi mess. The Fried rice at the Road side Chinese ...

Here is my journey so far - how I have been hacking spirituality - still not knowing fully what I want or what I am doing. 1995 - I learn TM Good grades the flyer said. I did not know the word hack that time - but now when I think about it - that was what I tried to do. Hack my way to good grades to earn a BE in EEE - while studying less and having a good time  at CEG. I learnt the techqniue - from a ThermoDynamics prof. But I did not practise after that. Perhaps my grades would have been better.  Later - even today - whenever my stress level shoots up - I would get into my TM mode to soothe my nerves. It works pretty well. 2000 to 2006   I would rate this stay in USA as a spiritual void. Was living the materalistic life. Was I happy in this period? When I look back - nope. Perhaps I never fitted in with that world. Perhaps it was because I was made to feel like an alien with a number and a ticking clock - this is how long you can stay here. Perhaps I did not ge...

This is the concluding and final part of this road trip. If you haven't you should read and Part 1 [  http://kvrlogs.blogspot.in/2014/06/bangalore-to-mumbai-on-thunderbird.html  ] and Part 2 [  http://kvrlogs.blogspot.in/2014/06/bangalore-to-mumbai-on-thunderbird_6.html  ] I woke up to a cloudy sky. There was a shower in the night. I dont enjoy riding in rains and I still had another 500 Kms to cover and the last stretch will be quite tough - had to pass through Pune and  Mumbai evening / night traffic. While having breakfast was reading about the death of new Minister in Modi's cabinet - Mr. Gopinath Munde in a car accident. We checked out and hit the road around 9am - peak hour traffic in Belgaum - there were a few vehicles on the road - what a blessing to live in a small town.  The nice Belgaum stretch continued for sometime and suddenly the road started becoming little bumpy and potholish. The temperature was increasing. When I was riding the bike ...

Continuing from where I left off - [  Bangalore to Mumbai on a Thunderbird 500cc - Part 1  ] I was exhausted and sleep deprived - and the moment the head hit the pillow I dozed off. It felt as if just a minute had passed when I woke up the next day morning. I got excited thinking about the ride ahead. A journey of 1000+ Kms awaited me. Bangalore was Bangalore that morning - the night rain had cooled it considerably and it was just perfect. We packed stuff and hit the road around 9AM. This time we were heading to Nice road away from the peak hour madness and the traffic was light. I stopped at a Puncture shop to check the tyre pressure. The mechanic asked me to put center stand since he could not reach the back wheel's inlet. I just couldn't do it. I tried the standing on the stand technique but the bike wouldn't budge. He helped me put the center stand.  Even though the bike weights 200Kgs, I did not feel the heaviness - till this instance. We then entered the Nice ...