RUN 350

Surprised Myself! That’s how I can sum up my half marathon on the Earth Day apparently running for the Earth. I have been running my weekly runs but nothing suggested that my half marathon would be a breeze. Things didn’t help when I woke up at 4am on the race day. Still groggy from my sleep I pushed myself with much effort to the venue but at the same time equally excited to know how I would finish the race. After what felt like eons the race finally started.

The start was good. No laziness; tick, no spasms; tick, endorphins; tick. Everyone seemed to be rushing. I was covering good distance in good time. I should say I was running at a constant speed. Not strictly constant but clocking 5.5 min for every kilometer. That should do to finish my race in 2 Hours, my target time. As usual I am weary of my calf muscle and after so many races I learnt how to handle it. I reached 10K in 55 min sharp. So far so good. No sign of muscle contraction. Yet I didn’t want to wait until my calf muscle starts giving trouble in which case I can not finish in 2 hours. So I started stretching my calf muscle much in advance, every Km after 12Km. Energy levels are still high and by the 16^th Km mark I have been maintaining my speed. The target is still within the reach. When I reached the 20Km I knew target is just within few minutes.

With a wide grin on my face I crossed the finished line in 01.57.40 knowing how easy it was compared to my previous half marathons. It may the climate, may be route or may be I have just become good. I don’t know but it was a breeze running this half marathon. Off to another challenge. Midnight full marathon. Double excited. Target 4 and half hours. Let’s see how it turns out.

The Wedding

A trip to India will always be short no matter how long I stay there. And when there is a wedding in the family, consider it to be the shortest trip. Well but no regrets with regard to this short trip. This trip can easily top my exciting India trips list. Everything was near perfect. Near because so much to do in so less time. I needed to delete some of my to-do-lists.

Wedding shopping is by far the easiest and also the most difficult thing to do. Easiest when you see the number of clothes you need to purchase. One Suit and One Sherwani. That’s it. No Big deal. But the number of options available will bowl you over. Is this color good? Will I look special? Will it suit me? You keep asking countless questions for yourself for which there are answers right in front of you. Yet the amount of time spent on the perfect clothing is really well worth it. So after a day of checking all the best stores in Hyderabad Vinod, Vivek and I finally got our wedding dresses.

Things were running smooth and normal until the penultimate day. Suddenly it appeared as if all the things conspired to bombard us together. One work after the other kept on coming leaving us little space. Checkboxes got ticked until the last minute. In spite of that some tasks missed our radar resulting in deadlock situations.

Reception was by far the most wonderful event of the entire trip. It was delightful to see all my relatives dance on the stage. I didn’t expect all of them to get involved so much. Loved every moment in that company. Full credit to my little cousins. In fact no one anticipated that the event would shape into this. One thing led to the other and before everyone realized all of them were shaking their feet. Only regret is that I should have involved with more people on the stage and should have taken more pictures with them, especially with my vasavians. Thanks to them who graced the event.

After so much fun and happiness it was difficult to call it a night. It was impossible to catch some sleep and before I realized I need to sleep, it was time to wake up and get ready for the wedding. I can swear that I didn’t sleep that night. And there it was. The moment arrived. The months of planning and efforts finally culminated into this moment. And it happened.

I realized that being with relatives is more fun than what I thought. Some of them may not matter at all but as a group it is irresistible to be in their company. I can trade anything in exchange of those moments. Teasing the cousins, showing extra affection for one sister before the other cousins, buying chocolates for the little kids are few of the joyous moments.

It was a wonderful well deserved two-week break. It might take little more time for all of us to get together. But as it is cannot wait for the next wedding in the family. Hope I can make it to the next wedding event. Happy married life Vinu and Rika. Have amazing life together.

Big India Trip

The most exciting and the biggest event in my family is due soon. Flying to India today and as usual the excitement levels reached the peak well in advance. Last minutes changes in the schedule meant Vinod will be joining us. Waiting for the touch down, full loads of excitement and of course shopping!!

Happy New Year: 2012

Bye bye 2011. You were just OK. Most of the year was filled with my career ambitions and finally it turned out to be productive. On the downside relations took a beating. Here’s to the New Year and new beginnings. Spent my new year with the family filled with laughter and happiness. 2012 will turn out to be very important and turning point for me. More specifically, the first half and the second half of the year. Two big occasions are coming up and I can’t wait for that to happen. I want these two to go as smooth and memorable as they can be.

As always try to be happy and don’t dwell on your past. Earth is not crashing right? ;)

Bangkok

This was the most impromptu overseas trip I might have ever planned. There was some discussion about the long weekend and then one thing led to the other. Finally we decided we should go to Bangkok in 1 week if the tickets are not so costly. It’s the Christmas time and we didn't expect the tickets to be cheap. So ‘not so costly’ was all we could wish. As it turned out, our wish was granted and the tickets were booked by the next day. (Thanks to LCC!)

The moment we arrived in Bangkok we whisked straight away to Pattaya. The plan was to stay 3 nights in Pattaya and 1 night in Bangkok. It turned out to be just fine. Bangkok doesn't offer much and one night is what it takes to see most of the tourist spots in Bangkok.

For the beginners Pattaya layout may be little confusing. But one day is all you need to figure out the routes. It’s very easy to navigate through all the soi’s (lanes). We covered most of the Pattaya on foot and didn't even need to hire a taxi or tuk-tuk.

On the first day we went to the ‘Flight of the Gibbon’ which was quite different and I have never done that anywhere before. It was in the forest where we need to use the cables to move from one treetop to the other.

On the second, we went to Mini Siam. As the name says it has the size down versions of all the important monuments in the world. From there we headed to Tiger Zoo where we had tamed Tigers, Elephants and Crocs. We finished the day with the Tiffany show, a dance show by the transgenders (who look like women). The dance for the song in Devdas ‘doola re doola’ was simply awesome.

Pattaya is all about night life. There are some soi’s which are overindulged in calmness and some soi’s partying all night. And if that is not sufficient there is the ‘walking street’ which caters to all needs till the wee hours.

From Pattaya we headed back to Bangkok on the third day. We visited some temples such as Wat Po and Wat Arun. We took the Chao Praya boat line and did some street shopping. We could not visit the floating market as we ran out of money and time.

It could be quite a long time before I could go for an overseas holiday trip. All I can say is I covered most of the South East Asian countries. Time to change holiday zone :) Overall I recommend Pattaya but not Bangkok. Bangkok is not only expensive but also boring. Of course both Pattaya and Bangkok are no where near to Phuket. Go to Pattaya only if have seen Phuket.