Respond to React ..

Came Across this on FB :

Have you heard of the Cockroach Theory for Self
Development?
At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.
The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group.
Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to
continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.
In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.
Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?
If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?
He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.
I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that
disturbs me. It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me.
More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.
Lessons learnt from the story:
Do not react in life. Always respond. The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.
Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry.

Naqiyah's Jokes

Naqiyah likes to make up her own jokes now a days. A joke she just told me:

Why do poor people not use running jogging machine in the gym ?

Because they run to the gym  ( they don't have cars )

Hell on earth and minor other issues

So how many times have you been faced with an option... lose it or lose it.. sort of out of the fire into the frying pan style????

Well, for the hell inviting disbeliever in all major religions God finally invented a vision of hell on earth for me. Sorta to show me who's the boss you know kinda... Well so be it dear God.. I already told you I welcome Hell so why bother with this little old disbeliever and not carry on with your grander scheme of things???

So situation is as follows.. about 10 days or more have  not seen my beautiful darling soul and heart my daughter who makes my heart beat.. i'm proverbial genie whose soul lies in the parrot, so he cant be destroyed unless the parrot is destroyed so to speak as in fables... well... my parrot if any is certainly my darling gracious, smart and sweet  daughter who's the oxygen in every breath i take.. and without whose existence I have no meaning nor any wish to be!

So here's me having spent 2 glorious month almost every day in company of my daughter.. 2 months that I did not travel, 2 months that I did not even do much work... just her, me and our daily plan of activities.. activities designed to challenge, educate, thrill and enervate..

Swimming and diving for her body and soul.. confidence and achieving a goal
Arabic daily cause her shirking from this in school creates a whole lot of unhappiness in her educational life
Typing cause this will give her independence and freedom to think her thoughts and put them in electronic form without bothering about qwert.. while giving her heads up in life .. ofcourse also because I can touch type and if I can  so she should ..
Skating because she asked for it.. yes she got damn good at it, and i bought two not one pair of gear for her one for my place and one for her mothers home.. but it did hurt my ego to have her challenge me and lose EVERY time :).. but also did make me a very very proud parent ofcourse!
Cooking cause the food is essence of life, I recently proved to my friend who thought surviving on bread and butter was enough for a camping trip, I showed her that without my barbequing and cooking the trip would be a bunch of strangers who travelled together, now we are a group of close friends who care for each other.. cooking and food is basic ingredient that brings people together.. imagine any occasion, celebration or sad occasion, felicitation or memorial.. without food.. its not complete.. cooking touches all our senses, sense of smell touch taste and hearing, sight and sound..... sense of camaraderie, of accomplishment , fullfills our hunger and achieves fullfillment.... so cooking with me she bonded withme closer then I have had anyone bond with me before
She read, I read.. I created stories, even wrote down stories in anticipation of having to tell her one at night.. we discussed and chose books, stories and characters discussed facts and fictions and fallacies and greatness of characters within..it was an endeavor to transfer my ideas, my thoughts , my learning, my experiences to her...
She played games.. started with some arcade games on ipod touch and samsung note temple runs fruit ninja, some online kidzo games and girls go games , xbox iceage, ben tens etc designed for kids to while away their times trifling with nothings , hand and eye coordinations , reflexes, designed to keep them occupied.. but i introduced her to adventure of strategy gaming, of building empires and creating forces, the importance of resources and rock paper scissor nature of makup of earth's forces..then added warcraft a glorious mmorg.. massively multiplayer online game 10 million players online.. all competing and immersing themselves in the world of magic and mystry of honor and greatness.. world where your organisational skills, problem solving skills, your skills at cooperating with others, and garnering your resources to achieve goals mattered... and she was hooked.. hooked by the magic, by visuals, by the gameplay by the fun..

so she would negotiate.. 15 mins of typing should get her 1 hr of war craft or empire earth.. 1 hr of arabic should get her swimming and diving time from me... ofcourse i was happy to give in.. my child needed fun, games , liberty to thrive as much as she needed education

Then came a day.. after the first and second fast within a month.. one on 27th day Rajab understandable and another on 23rd day ramadan (because jagwani raat) my wife made her fast the 24th also... I questioned.. why why oh why should my child fast!!.. my lovely child is underweight.. her food is constant concern for both me and my wife.. my wife hardly fasts and does so arbitrarily.. if she does she still doesn't pray namaz.. and finally cannot even read Quran nor do many things which are mandatory if she really was an orthodox conservative extremist who'd make the children starve....

She retorted that her doings were her concern and I had no say in them... she knew what was best for her daughter and me a vagabound uncaring person had no idea what I was saying about , that her daughter was a bori muslim and would fit into the norm.. well so be it..  who am I to take away from my daughter's identity , her sense of belongling, after all I had told my wife to take a cheque from me , pay to the community their yearly charges for being the part of the bori community, just cause she and my daughter should have the choice..I gave it second thought.. told her.. ok, you make her fast if you want to , but only if my daughter agrees......

My wife in her classic way retorted.. Fuck you.. you are the one making my daughter swim against her wishes.. her body hurts.. you make her play warcraft against her wishes.. she has nightmares.. so fuck off... I was shocked.. whether I thought so or not, according to mother of my child I was a bad bad bad father.. an insult to fatherhood and a danger to my daughters well being..

weekdays I would keep my daughter.. according to my wife's dictat I could not leave her alone with my maid of 4 years keeping even for few hours.. so be it.. past 2 and half years i've survived that way.. sacrifised work and meetings to be home home and always home... past 2 months always home, no way to go out of my house alone without my daughter in tow, and believe me never once taken my daughter to a biz meeting where she would be bored... but even so, its my wife's decision.. "give her to me" she calls me an hour prior to her sudden arrival, and I have to handover my precious gem to her, "take her tomm afternoon" she commands and I oblige a faithful fool turning up at her doorsteps to collect my precious...

So it happens that after my wife tells me that I am a bad influence for my daughter never a word comes to take her.. never a word to see my daughter.. never even my daughter who'z used to living sleeping, being with me tells me on phone she wants to see me.....!!

And my wife tells the world on facebook how some atheists ( namely me ) are violent bastards ... I can't take it and block her id but still.. violent ... me... bad for my daughter.. me.... I am reeling in shock...

and so have passed more then 10 days.. me without my daughter.. my daughter without me.. and so I am prepared to pass a life time..

Cause who's the fucking man.. to decide whats good or not for a child, when mother of the child knows whats the best for her.. who am I to involve my child in a tug of war.. when mother of my child would happily show me down.. who am i to listen to my child's plea.. when she tells me she misses my cat not me...

Wikipedia

My first edit on Wikipedia today : Updated a page on Sahara Pariwar... 

Another lazy but awesome summer friday

Spent last night playing empire earth.. slept at 7:30 PM in morn, woke about 1 PM, nice :)

However some real firsts added to today which have me satisfied with this day.

Configured Empire Earth on laptop and on my PC. So that I and Naqiyah could play as a team.  To say that she's caught on to Strategy gaming is to put it mildly. Awesome fun. We played till 6 with just a break for lunch.  So I guess network gaming in our house is going to be one of popular way of spending weekends ( My bro will join in via internet on the new PC that I bought for gaming for him.. he's been surviving on 2-3 hrs of sleep a day since last week as he's been going through the backlog of all strategy games he's missed out on in past years. You can say he's bigger fan then I am )

I was planning to take Naqiyah to Cocktail as she doesn't watch hindi movies, nor does she see much TV so really she needs help to keep brushed up on Hindi. I've decided to force her to watch hindi movies with me, however it being the first day of release and a weekend,  Cocktail tickets were all sold out for evening show, so I canxed the movie plan, and was considering how to plan the evening. Amy messaged that the couchsurfing live music get together was tonight and offered for me to join her. Basically bunch of surfers get together and play various musical instruments (mostly indians) and add nice company, drinks and conversation could be a fun and memorable evening. I've never been but its at Manish's place where Aneta was staying for a while, and Amy is a regular, so joining in would be easy for me. However Naqiyah did not really want to go and hence I was about two minds whether to go or not, when i got a brilliant idea.

 I took out the roller skates that I'd bought for Naqiyah from ages, and we decided to practice skating. She has had some practice on ice skating but she'd never tried roller skating before. It was awesome fun and within 30 mins she was skating along quite smoothly. She skated for around 45 mins and its gonna be another one of those things which she will hopefully learn this summer ( She's already covered 35% of keyboard and is well on the way to becoming a good touch typist).  It was another first for us.

I also promised to take her to the pool for a swim at night as we had never done it before (swimming at night). Water was just right, although light was a bit low with just a single tubelight. However today was another day for many firsts in the pool. Yesterday as Christy didn't know freestyle and was asking me how to do it, Naqiyah saw this. I showed her but she managed just few splashes. However today she did whole horizontal laps with crawl ( free style) including breathing technique ( means u breath out in the water and turn ur face up to breath in, and back to breathing out under water).. That was awesome first, as I was always worried when she would learn free style and if I could ever get her to do it. Next seems she'd picked today to amaze me... Yesterday to make her jump into the pool I had to cajole her and pressurize (involves me shouting a bit at her) her.. However today suddenly she said she wanted to try to dive... Although immediately after bending down to dive, she jumped. After lot of guiding, cajoling and appealing to her braver side, she finally managed an awkward dive.. But after that there was no stopping her.. She kept going back up for dive after dive.. until I had to stop her firmly. The problem was that after diving water being a little dark, I had difficulty seeing her under water.. and I was always worrying about if she had held her breath properly.. So another first for her was a diving..

More to come though... as soon as she started diving, she also got more confident under water, and started doing flips and rolls underwater... Also for the first time she swam under water and touch the floor of the pool.  If you ever try you will feel that sensation of water pressure building inside ur nostril when you try to swim straight down... seems it does not stop her at all! She was an absolute water baby under water today.

And then she usually likes to swim backwards a bit and asks me to hold her from bottom so that she can float or 'sleep' on the water to relax.. today I left her while she was sleeping and she floated on. Now she can absolutely comfortably float around in the water on her back without moving her arms or legs, something I can never do in the pool ( I always blamed lack of fat , but if she can do it.. I have no excuses)

Then we came down and finally she got her wish to make a muffin and , even as I write this I can smell freshly baked muffin right out of the oven...

A nice nice day this :)

Boobs Pasta

Tasneem / Bindi gifted me boobs pasta when they came to dubai.. I had no idea at the time how to make them.. (basically Pasta boob shaped..  :) ) ... but  2 days back, just before sitting to paint Parveen suggested making the pasta.. as she periodically does, getting the box to me and asking me to tell her how to make it...

I decided to make it myself.. happy to say it was finger licking awesome..

Pasta... Boil in water with some oil and salt.. rinse with hot water

Sauce... 1 part stock (Chicken or Vegetable, Parveen had some Chicken stock which I used) , 2 part creame ( I used nestle) , heat and reduce... mix butter , after some time mix cheese ( i used cheddar at the time .. ), add herbs ( oregano and mixed herbs , spring onions, mint leaves and parsely  is what i used) , salt and pepper..... mix all and heat...


Result was one godawesome pasta dish... yummmmmm!

Thnx B - T .. although honestly me being me, i'm sure it is one of you who gave this to me, and i'm sure i dont remember which one of u did :)

Advanced Open Water

Started my advanced open water dive today... Saved due to Naqiyah... Have not dived more then a year and a half. Had essentially forgotten most of the stuff.  When my dive center suggested direct deep dive 30 meters as the first dive I'd rejected as I was scared that I did not have enough experiance.

However when I reached Dive center today with Naqiyah, Christy and Parveen in tow they insisted I do deep dive first and then come back and we all go for shallower dive while these girls do snorkling... Their idea was that since wreck dive is also a deep dive and deep dive needs to be first dive of the day, there was no other option if I was to do multiple dives in one day. Fujera being quite far I would also liked to finish multiple dives.. But after considering that Naqiyah was quite quite excited about snorkling, I canxed deep dive and told Rosy ( the cute phillipino dive center gal, who manages to sell me expensive equipment and courses at supposedly discounted pricing) that I'd prefer to do shallow peak performance boyancy dive first, so that Naqiyah could snorkle at the same time. First time I also took anti nausea medicines ( helped... non of us felt even a hint of nausea, this was good.. both Pam and Lee Peng had fallen extermely sick on the boat ride to the island)...

Anyway I dived as expected ( Huge butterflies in stomach before doing back role with cylinder off the boat into the sea.. hight daunting and weight even more so) ... went down to 10 meters.. got huge pain in ears.. kept trying to equalise using rapid swallowing actions and trying to pop the ears.. but wasnt working.. so tried to carry on without equalisation.. Equalisation is process of making pressure in ears equal to pressure outside the ear otherwise ears hurt.. remember the fast elavator rides or plane takeoffs, and landings.. however since water has huge pressure difference every meter, equalisation is more urgently required every few meters and extremely neccesary...


Anyway i continued with the pain, and after about 20 mins realised / remembered that i was to hold my nostrils shut and breath into them to equalise... Which I promptly did and was fine...

But remember this was 10 meter dive.. if I'd done a deep dive 30 meters.. this same would have ended extremely differently.. My friend hashim on his first open water dive in jumera beach had equalisation problem in 10 meters, and tore his ear drum.. no diving for him henceforth... ! 10 meters is different from 30 meters.. I don't know what could have gone wrong if Naqiyah was not there.. just glad she was.. :)

Unfortunately my mask new one with custom made lens for my power of spectacle has a leak... Kept flooding .. however being able to see the fishes clearly was an absolutte treate... have to solve mask problem though.. removing water from flooded mask is not a pleasent task.. flooded mask itself makes u feel as if u r drowning even if u r breathing through the mouth...


Nyway seems i'm back to diving after a long interval.. hoping to finish advanced open water and Nitrox dives quickly ( I decided to go enriched oxygen route even though considrably more expensive, for deep dives.. pressure sickness and narcosis is not something i'm willing to even give a go at .. call me pansy if you wish)... then to my real interest.. in August wanna do free diving.. go deeper then deep without anything.. no oxygen no tanks no bcd no nothing.. just me , my body and the deeps... thats more like my kind of thing i've decided.. there's a girl called sara lise who's supposed to do this course in dubai in August.. only one around who does it.. me so so looking forward to it :)

Parveen's Cock

My late night conversation with Parveen -

Pehli Nazar ne aisa jaadu kar diya going on in tv...

Suddenly she pipes up.. you know my cock used to love this song... ( my incredulous expression later she carries on) ... suto hoi to uthi jai... ena expressions to jova jeva.... ( I look on, still trying to digest this unsolicited info about her cock... then she says... becharane mummy ye kapavi karo... !! ( I'm speechless )

But more to come... khabar che bav naughty hato.. desh ma lai gayeli to badha ne kat to to... finally itlo famous thai gayo ke hamara gam ma koi bacchu naughty thai to ena mummy kai, ke bombay wala cock ne bulavis !!! :)

Some day you’ll walk away

With not a backwards glance

And I will look on,

In a dazed trance…

Nary a word escapes

My pursed and silent lips,

I always knew this sorrow,

To be mine to keep..

Times we spent together

Laughter in our hearts

Kisses and the warmth

How memories tear me apart…

But since this was to be

The end was known to me

I would just rather smile,

Lest pain the world sees..

liang zhi qing lu, liang zhi qing lu

pao3 de kuai4, pao3 de kuai

yi zhi meiyou gan3qing

yi zhi meiyou zhi4li4

zhen qi guai, zhen qi guai

Back finally

After more than a year's enforced break, i'm finally back on my blog. The break was a stupid sentimental resolution to have the next blog putup about my life long dream coming true - namely my own apartment in Mumbai. It seemed all was set, the payments had been made, the building was ready and I'd have got it in few days. However as it turns out, it took more then a year to get the place after all.  On hindsight ofcourse it seems a bad idea to stop blogging since I lost a year full of memories/musings which I could have saved for posterity, however at the time it did seem like I would get the apartment in no time at all.

Now that mandarins at Cidco and MSEB have cleared the row between them, the building has been granted the final OC and I hope we can have possession beginning next year and
Flat no. 601, Yash Apartments in Kharghar shall be all mine. All 1435 sq ft of it, although it is ofcourse bloated up figure as is case in Mumbai. The real amount of usable space, namely carpet area should be some measly portion of the above.

Hope to put up some pics of the place in this space soon :)

I wont let you go - by Rabindranath Tagore

I travel.. and I hate to travel, leaving the town a sad melancholy feel pervades my soul. I wonder at it. How do others do it? So, again a coincidence, that the first poem that I read from Tagore's compilation was this touching, sad one. The start is of him preparing to leave. I am noting down from the mid part:

Beside the door, wrapped in her thoughts, there sat
My daughter, four years old.  On other days
She'd have had her bath before this, and her eyes,
Before she'd swallowed scarce two mouthfuls of
Her mid-day rice, been shut in sleep. Today
Her mother had not seen to her: even now
She had not bathed or eaten, but like a shadow
Hugged my steps all this time, watching each move
With mute unblinking eyes. Worn out at last,
She now sat silently beside the door
With who knows what intent: and when I said
'I'm leaving,little mother,' with sad eyes
And pale look answered, 'I won't let you go.'
She sat where she was, neither clutched my hand
Norshut the door; only declared the right
Born of her heart's love: 'I won't let you go.'
Yet the time came to an end, and she, alas,
Could not but let me
                             O my foolish girl,
Who are you? Where could you have drawn such strength
To say so boldly, 'I won't let you go'?
Whom in this universe, O arrogant one,
Will you hold back with two small arms, with whom
Grapple, sitting beside the homestead door
With that tired tiny body, ony the store
Of that little love-filled breast? Here on this earth
It  befits the wounded spirit, with fear and shame,
Only to utter it's heart's prayer to say
'I do not want to let you go.' Who'll say
'I will not'? Hearing from your infant lips
Your love's proud vaunt, the world, taken with mirth,
Snatched me away; only you, vanquished, sat
Like a painted figure tearfully by the door.
I saw and left, dabbing at my own eyes.

OTT

I have avoided directly blogging about any thing to do with my business and technologies so far. But today I believe I'm at the vortex of technology that shall soon change the way world perceives and enjoys entertainment/information. Borderless news, information and programming. Finally a reality. So this entry is necciated. For posterities sake. To say ~ I was here :)

OTT -~ Over the TOP. It basically means Video/Audio stream carried over the top of the Internet. Sort of unassuming term we'd say. But it is important.

Consider this - In Iran Satellite dishes are illegal. You can't put up a dish to get programming. Only government sponsored bullshit over Terrestrial networks. In Dubai I can't setup dish in my building. Only can get signals from dish setup and allowed by the building. So I can't get Dishtv~ Tatasky, nor can I get porn channels on hotbird ( yucks!!!)

In India situation is even worse..all content is heavily sensored, and aside from political sensorship, there is huge cultural sensorship. Fashion tv buffs know how it was forced to go off air for certain 'mid night hot videos'

Be it political or cultural or any other sort. Good or bad. I'm not a judge here. All I can say is OTT will change the way content is delivered. Internet knows no geographical boundries. And my new OTT box which Vishal from Nextbit developed at my suggestion so magnificiently and with amazing technological perceptivity that it makes me proud to finally be working with Indian company for a change.

Some of the things we shall enable:
Setup ur own TV channel from your house in few mins.. play music videos - create your reality TV soap opera or just give news and views your own style!
Watch any content anywhere. In US watch asianet or malyali channels. In New Zealand watch Pinoy content. Go anywhere watch anything!
Settop box is finally your media center.. Internet surfing, Video Phone, Youtube, TV, Pictures and others.. everything in between.. Even remote PC client so you can access ur office from home TV!

The box in question arrived just 2 days back, after having gone through CID checks and passed them, in Dubai. Was delayed and hence ended up delaying my India trip as well. However it surpassed my expectations. Google TV, Apple TV and others are now buz words for the next generation of content delivery. Its nice to know we Indians finally moved from being workers for MNCs and developed our own product right in time. I'm International Marketing Director for Nextbit. It is my job to ensure that this box finds its right place in the world market. But associated with Nextbit or not.. I'm firedup with the idea of OTT. I love the concept. Its liberating experiance. And I'm bang in middle of the action :)

Enjoying the work and the challenge once more :) Though this is not all that I've done this week.. Also new is new L band project which will enable palm sized dish to receive TV content... Some action happening on tech transfer for some Chinese companies.. Turkey heating up.. Europe becoming interesting finally :) Lots lots happening !!!! Fun Fun Fun

Run like a dog, if you eat like a hog !

Thats what I tell myself when pushing myself to keep jogging... 'Run like a dog, if you eat like a hog' , helps! Also another one is 'You lose or I die' .. both are pep talks to myself. Keep me going, when my body protests and threatens to shutdown on me. Considering that I do eat like a hog and am in danger of beginning to look like one too helps :)

Physical sports or activities were never something I was ever exceptionally good at. However the need for putting in some physical stress to my lazy bums is obvious - if i'm to get through my thirties looking like  anything more than a lump of lard!

So here goes the written record of my progress in 1 - 1/2 weeks.. its not much but I hope to cringe at how little I accomplished if I give up in between and go right back at it - hence putting it in writing!

started at 1.5 KM per 20 mins on machine.. went onto 2.5KM in 25 mins again on machine and today did 4.2 KM free run in 30 mins

Yes far cry from 45mins 10KM which is my dream.. and 60mins 10KM which is the least I feel I should do... So this blog shall be my nemisis.. remind me that this is one thing that is on my wishlist thats yet to be done... its an update blog entry.. will keep updating in due course... hopefully

--------------------------------------
6 Oct 2010

5.380 KM in 55 Mins today basically 4 rounds of 1.345 KM track... I do the rounds without stop at steady pace. Wonder if I should be increasing the pace and taking breaks inbetween... Needs experimenting with I guess

-------------------------------------
Zero Dignity, little Pride!

7th Oct 2010

So I find myself back the next day in the park on the track. Today sans Naqiyah, as she is back at Umaima's house.

It seems not a good day for running (is it ever?), warm , humid ~ about 8:25 PM

I've had a redbull and imagine adernaline coursing through my viens. Start of with a bang.. thump thump thump.. I'm the cheetah, I'm the bird.. hell I'm the wind! I start pounding the track rubber. Nice.

About half way into the track ~ 600 meters mark, I'm panting... Cheetah's dying.. the bird's crying.. need a breather... slowing down I continue.. but not much.. seems strange I'm tired already..wasn't I the one who did more than 4KM yesterday. 55mins? what's it been just now.. just 4~5 mins! tired.. impossible.. My legs say otherwise.. my gasping breath says otherwise.. but I refuse to believe. I go on, complete the round .. 1345 meters.. about 8 mins I guess.. panting, I slow down this time. Time to get back on earth. Redbull doesn't work as advertised..want desperately to stop, take a breather.. but find myself going on.. across the short no mans land, between 1345meter Finish mark, and about 10 meters later a - 0 Start line... Once I cross the start line there is no stopping. Thats the rule!

Second round is worse.. my body is groaning.. seems jogging doesn't appeal to it.. unfortunately my body leaves a lot wanting in terms of appeal to me.. so pushed it shall be ~ let it groan! I continue

Somehow get through the second round, huffing and puffing all the way.. Need to stop. I stop! Mercifully I think to myself. Couldn't have gone on. There's always another day to come back to track and all.. take a small walk to the pond in middle of the track. Think I'll let my heart settle and then head off to the car. Few sips of warm tepid water from my bottle.. Look around.

Then, find myself off..third round it is.. cursing myself.. but after yesterday's 4 rounds, it seems i simply can't accept being defeated by only 2 ! have to go on.

Third one is uneventful, by uneventful, I mean I don't remember any event of the round. How I got through it I don't know.. promised myself several times I'd stop at that one. My legs are killing me.. I've suddenly discovered that some tiny muscle connects front of my knees to my shin bone.. That muscle was never noticed before.. Didn't know it existed.. Now its crying out for attention.. most important muscle in my body it seems to me currently.. or atleast the most annoying.. ah well, every dog has its day, as they say. Also the little toe between my littlest toe and the middle toe. For some reason the middle toe seems to be squeezing it into pulp. Its resenting this treatment, and relentless pounding I'm giving it. Third round is lost contemplating misery of my various parts of body.. Pathetic guys cummon! my head says.. my legs ask it to take over the job of running, and get down from its high horse.. head smartly demurs, but promises that its the absolute last round. No more.. until tommorow. Today's deed is done.. well done and all that.

Finish line approaches.. with relief I almost limp over the line.. look at the time, its a little less than 30 mins...I sigh, thats ok for the day I guess.. Need a break, rest between runs and all. After all I'm not a professional runner.. not even an ameture.. wonder, even wether would fit in the definition of runner at all, I checked.. over 12 mins a mile doesn't qualify as running.. I'm did 16 mins a mile yesterday.. wonder if its even jogging.. they should have another category - slogging... thts what it feels like!

Lots of thoughts,lost in them, I see myself off to one more round! This time I must be a pathetic sight indeed. Drenched in sweat, my feet trying to keep up with my body. Suddenly weight of the 250ml small sized half full bottle of water is all important. My right hand pushes it to the left. Its been carrying it too long. Some guy passing in opposite direction says some encouraging words in my direction. Must have noticed me going to pieces. Suddenly I don't remember if its the 3rd round or the 4rth, or heavens help me the 2nd one. My body is retaliating against the brain. Shutting down the blood supply I guess. Dizzy wizzy I go on, 300mtrs, 400mtrs, 500mtrs.. each line both a hope for distance already travelled and curse of the distance yet to be achieved.. Trugged on, without any Dignity I guess, but with a little pride, I was on my 4th round finally doesn't matter how I look, how I feel!

Meanwhile there are walkers, some of them quite brisk.. seems like it takes ages for me to overtake them. Sometimes some real runners.. 2 young guys.. teenagers maybe.. wizz by me.. fast..I wonder at their age, their innocence.. sure enough at 700mark , there they are loitering along, stopped.. When jogging you can't start running, odds are you'll have to stop.

Not so for the black guy. Not just any black guys.. although, there are always a few. This one somehow caught my attention during second or the first round. Not very tall. Wearing white and bright orange leotard. Strange angle to his body, chest and stomach jutting forward, ass pushed back... like a duckling..but running! At a smooth pace as if it was easiest thing in the world. At that time I marvelled at the sight. However again, during this, my ultimate round, when I was almost trashed, he wizzed by me. Thump, thump, thump, thump.. like an engine, unstoppable.

No wonder Indian's cannot be great atheletes I thought. Look at the guy go! And look at me! The thought angered me. Firstly I'm no athlete, and shouldn't be commenting on Indian athletes, atleast not comparing their endeavors with my pathetic performance. However my pride was hurt.. 900 mtr mark, I started running. He was already 50 meters ahead of me.. My body had almost shut down, resigned to thrudge accross to 1345 meters mark and stop. But here I was.. a burst of adernaline. Deep whooping breaths and running! I began following the guy. Began closing the distance. Step by step by step. Thump, thump, thump... Now my lungs were protesting. Not enough oxygen it seemed. I was close to collasping. Throwing up. Could feel the stomach lurching.. But I wanted it bad. I wanted to catchup to that guy!

200 meters to go, I'd was closing the gap! Now it was almost 25meters between us. His pace was relentless, I was at the end of my energy level. But I kept on trying. At 1345 meters, I was still 25 meters behind him.. Had not overtaken him, surely I didn't have that in me.. but there was something else that struck me... I'd kept up with him, almost closed in on him! It was great!!!!! And I finished my fourth round. Equalled up to my day before's performance. 43 mins... Much faster than the last time. Hurray.. Time to go home with pride.

Nd then I saw myself passing the start line again! A min break later I was off! Can't ever do 10KM if I stop at 5KM everytime can I? So here I was, ready to see if I'd finally break the rule. Once off the start line cannot stop, thats the rule. I thought, it was gonna break. But Last round is always the best one. Specially if you're breaking new ground. I was passing 5KM limit for the first time. Was tired but happy.. Finished off the 5th one rather uneventfully. 6.725KM in 55mins... 1.345 KM more then the day before, in the same time! Actually wanted to try the 6th one. But didn't wanna do permanent damage to my poor legs. Need them for another day and all. Remember reading about joint problems et al that do the athletes in. Stopped. Off to the gym for some recreational weightlifting. Gym seems almost like play area after the JOG :)

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9-10-2010

Hip Hip Hurray ~ Here we have a 10K

So here goes the cribbing.. heat , humidity, sore throat, slight fever and lack of sleep. Was at hospital with Naqiyah last night and reached home at 5:30.. then some irritating emails kept me awake setting things right with my chinese collegues. Sleepless morn due to sore throat that I myself had, and was surprised to not be hungry the whole day. Could hardly eat inspite of my gymming..

Well so cribbing aside... I had a big big day. I made a breakthrough in work ~ engaged with a company that many can only dream working with. An enigma, a giant in its category.. Met the big Boss via a cold call, had a great meeting and things off to a great start :)

Back home, wanted to not jog tonight. Too hot, too humid, too tired, too ill.. But have decided to leave for India at the earliest. Probably tommorrow. Means a huge break from Jogging. If I didn't do it tonight I may never achieve 10 KM run... I know myself.. breaks are bad for this sort of things.

Something helped. It was Naqiyah's IPOD touch. Umaima had given it to me to download some applications to it. On a hunch I took it along.

Then it started - a constant thump thump thump at relaxed pace for 7 and a half rounds ~ 85 min. Last 500 meters on a free run of my life.. full throttle. No stops, no breaks no walks!!!! I had 10.115 KM under my belt. First time I laxed the rule. Stopped at 700 meters on 8th Round.. No way to carry on!

But a dream achieved.. now to work on the timing.. 10KM I have you tamed!!!

What I think about myself

Just made a profile on some website. Asked me to describe myself... I tried to have a honest go at it:

Passionate about ideas. Not a funny guy... do get humor but unfortunately humor doesn't get me :) Would be a nerd, but am gregarious. Not really a rock and roll partyboy(love to read too much to party all the time and am passionate about my work).. But not quite a bookworm either ~  never have been one to pass up a chance to rock and roll when the music takes control.. treking, travelling, fun and adventures beckon my soul but am not a vagabound either, being a responsible father, brother, son, friend is important for me. Relaxed but get around. Do business but am not a blood hound. Absolutely average. Your basic down to earth Omega guy with all the cares in the world, who manages to find free time to live inspite of those cares ~ fully!

Death a taboo for 5 and half year old?

Some people misundertand me sometimes.. which is fine. But some do so all the time. I don't like voilence in cartoons, films. The kind that trivialises death. Good guys killing bad guys all the time. As if that is ok. Thats what I don't like.

I personally don't watch television. Atleast not if I can help it. Not because all TV is bad. But i think it extracts a price, in terms of my time. My time is pretty limited with all the things that call for my attention. Also I do think with TV it will be all too easy to park Naqiyah in front of TV and do my work. I think easy way is not always the right way.

However today on FM, while driving - News came up - 9 soldiers of NATO died in Afghanistan in Helicopter crash. 29 injured in Delhi in foot overbridge crash. Bridge being made in preparation for commonwealth etc etc.

Naqiyah was with me, asked me about it. I explained to her, that some good soldiers died in air crash. And some guys got injured when bridge collasped. She understood.. Asked me where Aghanistan was. What commonwealth games were etc etc. I explained the best I could. End of discussion.

Later at night, saw a missed call from Umaima's home. Was too late.. Found her online and asked her about it, since if Naqiyah calls, she ususally leaves a Voice Message. Umaima was upset. Said Naqiyah was talking about how 9 good soilders died. Some builders died etc.

I asked her if Naqiyah seemed traumatised? upset? sad? I was infact quite taken aback.Worried. But no, Naqiyah just was talking about it casually. Not upset, but definitely it was something she remembered. And made it a point to tell her mom.

Umaima feels I did wrong thing. To explain to her the news item. I should have changed the subject. Ignored it or something.

I think I did the right thing. Death is fact of life. It has not to be trivialised. But nither it has to be made a taboo. By hiding it, avoiding discussing it, u are leaving the child raw. Unprepared for it. But death can come at any time. Any instance, in any form.  Sure shoving it in her face is also wrong. I would want my daughter to have nice, innocent, happy childhood. Not a morbid one full of thoughts of death and dying.

So I did some searching. Found lots of resources on internet which address this very issue. Many people are concerned about their children's coping with, or questions about death. Some are unlucky. Their children have had someone near and dear who died. And they seem to not be able to know, how to help their children cope. Others just have children like my Child.. curious. Wanting to know more.

I was concerned. However lot of reading seemed to come up with unnanimous opinion. Hiding, changhing subject, avoiding or making it a taboo does not mean children don't know about death. They know it.. They just get mixed and wrong information about it. Get feeling that we are upset by talking about death and dying. Understand that this topic is bad.. a taboo. Hence get feeling that death is bad, to be feared. This will inevitably mean, they will be more obsessed and scared with death. Unable to deal with the issue.

On contrary if you discuss it in dispassionate manner. Explain the questions when they arise. You calm them. They take it as one more fact of life. Not something to rejoice in, but something which is true. Like fire burns or germs are bad for u. Facts of life. By hiding it we don't avoid the fact! Similarly by refusing to talk about death we don't avoid it.

Ofcourse Umaima feels I always find a way to make 'Internet' agree with me, and i'm wrong. She feels it quite strongly too. She thinks 5 1/2 is too young to answer Naqiyah's question about what it means that helicopter crashed and 9 soilders died. If you dear reader have got your two bits about it. I'm quite keen to know. Is there any right age for letting kids know that people do die ( by the way Naqiyah already is quite aware that people die, this news item was not the breaking of innocence in the matter)

Happenstances

Ladies, Gents and countrymen.... life is not about living. It is about experiencing. That is what I'm wont to do. I experience, indulge, inculcate, imbibe, aquaint, apply. Rather voluptuosly so. I immerse myself daily in the stream of happenstance.

Yes, happenstance, that's what I feel, my hour to next hour is guided by. A friend happens to call, we happen to meet, we happen to go to a mall, we happen to make a plan to setup some businesses and companies.. Plans present, plans for future. Read, write, plan, argue, think, play, cook, drink, chat, learn, earn,  love... life! That's today.

I go to dentist for Naqiyah, it happens to be in a new mall which I don't know about, I happen to visit Daiso ~ a Japanese chain super store, and happen to come across myriad thinga-ma-jigs and stuff which I didn't even know I ever wanted.. and buy, buy and buy.. indulge in orgy of consumer.. Happenstance. I use those things today.. create a case for why a canvas & and easel would make perfect gifting idea for BMW.. why Chinese style top, which is tossed in air rather than on ground, is perfect gift idea for banks and companies wanting to showcase excellence and performance  and create an impromptu presentation and case for corporate gifting  company that world is waiting for. Happenstance. From Japanese style kite, to solid steel soap, to train set that is my childhood dream come true. Possesed. Exhibited. Used. Applied. Happenstances all!

From a day to the next.. from moment to next, I live by happenstance. I amuse myself wondering what I will be doing next. Because as things are at present, I actually don't usually know.

That's why I take Siesta from the blogging. Not because I've nothing to say. People who know me, know painfully all too well... I always have something to say!

So to give them all a break ~ and make the blog seem less like puke or garbage dump  of daily happenstances and incidences..I resist the urge...

Eat Love Pray

I  gave my copy of Eat Love Pray to   someone. I was reading it, and someone asked me for any good books for movie script, I suggested that this would make a great movie. This is about 1 and half years back. Had always nagged me that I never did read the last chapter.

Today grabbed a new copy again, to complete the last chapter which had been unfinished. Suddenly realised that now its indeed a movie - starring Juliet Roberts.

Wow!

Stuffed to my heart's content

I've loved Hotpot since Alvin a friend of my introduced me to Little Sheep Hotpot in Shenzhen on my first trip to China. Its my absolute favorite cusine ( as against the dish which happens to be Nian Yue - spicy cooked catfish).

Having authentic chinese hotpot available to me in Dubai is something I have always wished for , but Dubai hotpot restaurants somehow weren't the same flavor. Finally I got my wish fullfilled yesterday nd than again today.. here's how it came about.

I was damn happy with myself, having spent Eid night stuffing a 40foot container in oppressive heat, and gasping for breath at the lack of oxygen, pulling, pushing and shoving plastic gunny bags filled with clothes, to go to Pakistan for the flood victims. Lost my original bb hands free amongst the bags ( as against the duplicate one I  bought hence), got a cracking back ache... spoilt my favorite Sun'n Sand shirt.. but am extremely satisfied. This came about due to initiative by VolunteerinDubai website which I came accross via a Facebook 'Like' by a friend, who volunteers as a photographer for them. I shall be doing quite a lot more of volunteering in future I guess.. gives me a good feeling, and I hope to make like minded friends.

So, about 11 pm, when it was done, I was hot, drenched in sweat after 3 hours of manual labour, and hungry (no food whole day). These are the times, when I can't settle for next best thing. I wanted to try and find Sichuan Pepper, so that I could make Catfish (Nian Yue) as I mentioned above. Went to Dragon mart (cutting the story short, as one friend complained , my blogs are absolutely too long and boring), couldn't find what i was looking for, went to chinese cluster of international city, found some groceries but not what i wanted, finally found one grocery who did not have the pepper , but the owner became a friend (a chinese gentleman) and introduced me to lots of sauces and stuff to make HOTPOT at home. Rest as they say is History!!!!
Meanwhile also found URUMUQI restaurant ( My third best chinese chinese cuisine) although visit to it turned out to be dud as they did not have Kababs or Hand grab rice ( Pulao Xinjiang style) and I did not want to eat anything else.
So... almost 1 am... on the way back, was not satisfied that I did not have the actual hotpot, and just the ingrediants, still hungry and a lot more tired..went to mirdiff city center to try carefour. Entered at 1:30 almost at cuttoff time for entry, and 20 mins from the time they closed completely. Found the last remaining hotpot in their stock, and reached back home at 2:30 ( had parked at south entrace, carefour was at north entrace ---- bad GPS Bindi, u're right)

Went home and brewed an absolutely delicious hotpot by about 3:30 ( washed, put away the shopping, cutup the spring onions and toffu etc, setup the hotpot etc etc.. took time!!)....

Heat up the sauce (ready made satchet) in water, add raw meat and vegetables, remove and dip in soy sauce, eat! Fantastic

Yesterday the hotpot I cooked using the flame gel.. but wasn't very strong and took too long. Today decided to do it directly in Kitchen. Same thing, just better!! Bindi - My kitchen is spacious enough.. see I can even eat in it... if a kitchen can be used for dining, I can't complain!!

Welcome Mohammed & Zara

Just got two new additions to my Family. Mohammed & Zara  ( so christened by Naqiyah)

They are baby turtles I bought for Naqiyah as an Eid present. She's absolutely thrilled with them :) I'm glad.. she was jumping with joy at having her own pets. Nd they are just like her! Shy - kept trying to dig under each other, until i put up a shell in such a way that they could go under it and have a roof over their head sort of. Also as yet they don't eat! I don't know, since yesterday am intermittently trying to give them turtle food, some vegetables etc. Hope they start eating soon!

Also for turtles about 30 deg centigrade is preferred temp. Since my house is completely central AC, I'm worried they shall be cold.. Outside in Balcony, temp shall go upto 40 degrees by day.. have to keep them out in evenings, and inside by day or something...

I know, its a bit of a doing, but Naqiyah is thrilled and so am I. I just wish I could get a cat or a dog, but its not possible, given my travelling habit, no one to take care of them in my absense. Turtles, atleast, I can send over to Umaima's place ~ they are pretty good at making themselves scarce, wont scare her, or get in her way. Nway, Naqiyah will take care of them... I think!