Vijay's Ramblings

Riding the wildcat!

2009-06-08T18:50:00.006-05:00

In March of 09 a bunch of my friends and I, went for a skiing trip to New Hampshire. Going from dreading the frigid days in Wisconsin to waking up at 6.00 on a Saturday morning to go skiing was a transformation that I never expected. Anyway here is a small video of my skiing escapade from last season at the Wildcat Mountains. Credits for shooting and editing this video should go to a friend of mine, Karthik, who happens to be a proud snow boarder. As I clearly stated to him, the purpose of bugging him to upload the video online, was to show-off! Haha! Enjoy!

- Vijayasarathy-

The Real Slumdogs

2009-02-21T14:17:00.008-06:00

No one can deny the sad state of Indian slums and the despicable conditions under which women and children have to lead their lives. I remember going to school on rainy days through the low lying areas of G.N.Chetty Street in Chennai and witnessing the slum dwellings half submerged under water. I would envy these kids because they were playing in the rain while I had to go to school. Whereas if you assess the situation as a grownup it makes you cringe in disgust of the appalling truth, that this inequality has permeated our society like an epidemic, a society that boasts of equal opportunity for everyone (or does it?). It is so blatantly visible, but either no one notices or no one cares. When someone who recently saw ‘the slumdog millionaire’ enquired if India really was infested with slums as depicted in the movie, my instinctive reaction was to deny that and talk about the tall buildings, the economic boom, the city life, our rich culture, our moon probe and the other what not’s. (I am truly proud of what we have achieved in 60 years of independence.) But when I think of the real situation, I am reminded of the animal farm where ‘All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others’. And the napoleons of our country, equated to the power hungry monsters called politicians, have let us down in every possible way. To fix a system that is not working we have to identify what is broken. The question is where do you start?

I would start with blaming the lack of empathy among the great citizens of India. If we drive through slums we not only close our nose and eyes but also our minds and hearts. I don’t know about God, but beggars surely are omnipresent, in front of temples and mosques, in bus stops, train stations, beaches, movie theatres, you name it. Sometimes we shoo them away, other times we give them a buck but we don’t stop to think how to elevate these lives out of misery. The practice of giving seems to be lacking although one often hears of it in films and political meetings. The aathichuvadi’s and thirukural’s have plenty of words of wisdom urging people to give to the less fortunate, but those just remain words we ‘mug up’ for school exams. The idea of looking out for one another probably took a walk years ago and never came back.

When I say people don’t give, it is not completely true. In India, people have to ‘give’ to get even the simplest of things done. We have to ‘give’ the mail man to get our mails delivered properly, ‘give’ the electricity board officer to keep power in our homes on rainy days, ‘give’ the water board personnel to keep water running in the taps, ‘give’ the metropolitan building authority to get the land certified, ‘give’ the police man every other week to make it to work on time, the list is endless. I feel that our economy is fuelled more by these unreported ‘givings’ than by our paychecks. Everyone knows bribes are illegal, but no one cares because we believe nothing can be done since it is prevalent at all levels of office. Almost everyone in public office is a scam artist and it is sadly an open secret. We give so much to the greedy that we don’t have anything left for the needy.

Following this lead will ultimately bring you to the root of all evil, the blood drinking hounds of our society, the real slum dogs of free India, our own home grown politicians. These are probably the most corrupt lot on the face of this earth. Statistics suggest that out of the funds allocated for any public project less than 15% actually goes towards the project. The rest is spent bribing these “public servants” and their loyal bureaucratic counterparts in office. To make things worse, the steps one needs to go through to implicate these criminals are so complicated that you would grow old trying to initiate any action against anyone. More recently the media seems to be undertaking sting operations to shine some light on the bribery problem, but the attempts are few and far between. I know that no country is perfect but to be one of the worst 5 in terms of bribery is not something to be proud of. I believe this nonchalantly immoral way of conducting business at the highest levels of public office does trickle down. Ultimately the laws remain only as effective as those who enforce them.

In spite of all these challenges we will continue our growth because of our hard working middleclass. However, in order to see the end of slums and poverty as only we know it, the attitude of entitlement paraded by politicians and government officials need to go. Who ties the bell around the cat’s neck and how seem to be the open questions. Only time will tell!

-Vijayasarathy-

Just panning it out!

2009-01-26T20:33:00.013-06:00

There have been times when we put on a thinking hat, gazed dreamily into emptiness in a dimly lit room for hours together and delved into a train of thoughts only to have rejected them as disillusioned or just not having had the motivation or time or energy to pursue the answer. This is a reflection of one of those times.

........

All of us have been through epochs in time when things didn't go as planned. Depending on how short or long these periods were, the experience may have varied from being an interesting twist to the plot, a challenge to address, a hurdle to overcome, a gloomy day in the season, a series of unfortunate events or perhaps stormy weather prolonging the days of agony. While we relished the smaller challenges, we tended to suffer as we plowed through the longer trials. The initial enthusiasm at the opportunity presented by a challenging situation may have deteriorated into days when you just didn't care anymore.

During some of these longer periods of testy days (in recent memory) some random but frequent thoughts on topics that otherwise evade my everyday ritualistic world, like spirituality, meditation, prayer, philosophy and God would fill the void during the evening walks with friends (going through similar phases). These thoughts were the result of a day when you did all you could to make it count, but nothing happened. A string of these days would suggest that you were not in control of your life, while the quintessential truth as you had known it, suggested otherwise. The process of reconciling this cognitive dissonance created a platform that brought together the elements of spirituality, meditation and God. These were ways to balance an equation that was out of whack, add order to randomness and inject sense into events that seemed to have gone awry. I had thought of God frequently before but there was less questioning. Spirituality was just a tool for achieving control of the mind and not the righteous way to true happiness. As these days prolonged, I wondered if our way of life, where everyone did the same thing, in some form, way or shape, where we all spent our time running after pieces of man-made paper inherently accepting a vicious cycle, was really the way to be. I questioned if I was being rational or if I was just rationalizing. Was I looking at the world through a prism?

Finally, when the days of toil came to a happy ending and the solution to the dissonance was finally discovered (that it existed in the first place because I was not running with the rest of the crowd) the spin on it was that the hard work combined with an element of luck had paid off. Quickly, as I adapted to the way of life which I was just questioning earlier, everything seemed to be just fine. The thoughts instantly disappeared as I began to savor the taste of success. The new vigor injected by the turn of events drowned out those questions (although they remained unanswered).

Did we, during the process of evolving to the place we are at now, discover this to be the best approach to achieving fulfillment in one's lifetime? Or was the potential of the less traveled paths just dismissed because they weren’t just as appealing? Is the ignominy of our indulgence rather a blessing in disguise? The questions linger on.

-Vijayasarathy-

The white stuff must have got me high

2009-01-15T02:25:00.003-06:00

Just after falling down a few times, my blue jeans was completely wet. I was having cold feet because of the wet socks. My fingers were frigid since the 10 dollar gloves were no good either. I lost my skis many times. I thought I had twisted my ankle. I just wanted to make it down hill back to the renting place. I just wanted to live.

Almost 5 years ago, I was having morbid thoughts on the slopes of Beaver hills in the mountains of Utah. All I could do to prevent crashing into trees or taking a 10ft dive was to stop abruptly by hitting the ground sideways. Five year old kids zipping past me made the situation seem worse for me. I didn’t know how to slow down, stop, turn or recover from a fall. And fall I did, many a time. Sympathetic passersby stopped by to ask if I was OK. Some told me to try the pizza wedge. Others told me to zigzag my way down. I did, to no avail. I fell and tumbled at every turn. After about 50 falls, I had mastered the art of getting up. About a hundred falls later I figured out I could use my already aching butt to make my way down. I sat on it through the bumps and troughs, determined to make it, no matter what. After an agonizing 2 hours I could finally see the rental office. I tumbled through the last of the many steep slopes and 20 minutes later I was where I had started.

Back at the rental place, I was trying to revive my fingers. I couldn’t feel them anymore. I ran warm water on them. I didn’t feel anything for a few minutes. Finally when the blood rushed back into the fingers, it was so unbelievably painful. I hadn’t experience anything like that before. I was still not sure about the ankle although the pain was much lesser than I had expected earlier.

As I was limping to the car, I began to recollect the events that took me to the top of the summit. Barely 10 minutes after I put the skis on and only after going down a small slope a couple of times I had impulsively hopped on to the lift. Only I didn’t know that the lift dropped you at the summit. As the seemingly endless ascent to the top began, the implications of this blunder began to sink in. I even considered taking the lift back to bottom of the summit but it looked equally dangerous. I had never worn a pair of skis, never been to a skiing place, never watched anyone ski, never skied down a slope until that morning. How did I ever think I was ready for it?

In spite of all the self inflicted torture, by the time I made it back to the rental place, I began to get a feel for skiing. I had tried the pizza wedge a few times. (It seemed to work when I was in no danger of crashing into a tree or hitting the ground!) I had learnt how to fall without hurting myself too much and to get up from the fall. And I was still alive. So I decided then that the next time I tried skiing, I would learn at least the basics before hopping on a lift.

….. and so I did. I went to the Wachusett ski resort a few weeks ago, took a lesson and have been skiing almost every weekend since. Not a pro yet, but one day I will try to make it to the Winter Olympics for the disabled (a twisted ankle or a broken knee!! All bets are open). I guess I’m just high on Boston lager and the Boston life!

Leaning left

2008-02-14T23:31:00.007-06:00

Yes that is the direction I have been heading during the past year politically, left. I wouldn't like to think of this as a dramatic shift in ideology. Although my folks have generally been conservative I grew up somewhat a centrist, often refusing to accept what I was being passively forced to accept.

The first time I heard the sensational speech of Barack Obama at the democratic national convention in 2004, I was just blown away by the eloquence, pragmatism and inclusiveness of the senator from Illinois. When he called the people to rise above the divides of red states and blue states and unite for a common purpose, I saw a man who had the right vision. Another year went by before I caught him on senate floor (while flipping channels on my idiot box), this time speaking on the ethics reform bill he had passed along with the senator from Wisconsin, Russ Fiengold.

I even managed to sit through the entire 30 minutes on C-Span! Already pretty impressed by the senators' ability to inspire through words and also see him pass a reform bill that was apparently the toughest in 25 years I realized he was unique and not more of the same Washington politicians. Another year later when I heard Barack Obama was running to be democratic nominee for president, I got pretty excited. It is probably fair to conclude that, I began leaning left because of the message of unity, hope and common good that Barack Obama wrapped it with in a stylishly eloquent and inspiring manner.

I have an entire set of views on why Barack Obama is the last best hope for his country. After witnessing politics being converted to sewage by incompetent, corrupt, divisive, cynical, backward politicians of my state and my country, I had myself become very cynical about it. Today I know that Barack Obama stands apart from the rest of the dirty, mud slinging politicians. He speaks of hope not cynicism, of bringing all people together to get things done not dividing them. He disagrees without being disagreeable. He rises above politics among a bunch of others who have forgotten what that even means.

How I wish I could vote in this country so that I could do just that little bit instead of being a passive observer of the process. I urge people who haven't heard this man to get onto youtube and hear some of his speeches. Here are the links to some of his speeches.

1. opposition to Iraq war from the beginning
2. Barack Obama's Speech at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner
3. Story behind "Fired up - Ready to go".... (last 5 minutes of the speech!!)
4. Barack Obama - Iowa Victory Speech
5. Obama taking a dig at the Clinton Standards (rather lack thereof).. This one is really funny
I am sure after seeing these videos anyone would be intrigued to hear more . So please look for more videos on youtube or www.youbama.com. Visit www.barackobama.com to learn more about the issues.

Barack Obama 08 all the way!!!

-Vijayasarathy-

Travelling and Self Discovery!

2007-12-17T20:19:00.000-06:00

One of my dreams has been to venture into and survive the wildest of wilderness. The drive or inspiration or idea or motivation or what-ever-you-want-to-call-it came from a discovery channel program where a regular guy braves and tries to survive in the wild just like the primitive man would have. What this pointed out to me was how many things we take for granted in life. For eg, the roof on our heads, the stove, fire, canned food, microwave, TV, world news at our living rooms and so on! These things have become so commonplace that we don't stop to give them a thought or appreciate the benefits we obtain from them!

What would you do if one day you woke up and found yourself in the middle of amazon just by yourself? Are your survival skills good enough to keep you alive? The very thought of it sends shivers down my spine. Honestly I wouldn't know what to eat and what not to! Would you run as fast as you can or stay put when you see a coyote in the wild? Where would you sleep? Where would you get drinking water? What would you do for food?

Delve a little deeper into the thoughts and the philosophical head pops up. It is hard to understand how we became so removed and distant from nature. Are we too busy sucking up everything this material world throws at us? Sometimes all this looks like a cruel illusion created to keep us from being where we belong and what we ought to be. Every time I slip down the rabbit hole, the hot babe on TV pulls me right back to reality!

I strongly believe one week of wilderness travelling will lead to more self discovery than all the years I have roamed this earth. Testing the limits of endurance under extreme conditions not only helps understand oneself better, but also builds a strong character (Ofcourse, assuming you survive to tell the tale!!). I plan to make travelling a part of my life in the months and years to come. Wilderness... here I come!!

---Vijayasarathy---

2007-12-15T23:59:00.000-06:00

Listen to the renditions of this thillana below by Rama Varma and Bala Murali Krishna! As a kid, I used to think of Balamurali Krishna as the guy who sang when someone important died. I clearly remember he was on DD when president Zail singh died... and then some others too!!

Although the nuances of carnatic music are beyond my comprehension I feel that by letting yourself to absorb the music and more importantly the music abosrb you, your mind transcends to a whole another plane, where it is so beautifully peaceful and consumate with knowlegde only defined by the virtue of the ubiquitous melody. I will never be able to express in words this obscure sensation the exact way I feel it. I am not sure if anyone can get to that place by learning music and practicing it with passion like these musicians. Or does it just feel magical to me because it is an unexplored place?

Whatever it is I sure got to give it a shot, if not for anything else to fulfill my long time dream of learning carnatic music.

Thillana by Student (Rama Varma)

Thillana by Guru (Bala Murali Krishna)

--Vijayasarathy--

Jon Stewart Destroys Chris Matthews!

2007-12-08T20:55:00.001-06:00

This is old stuff to many people. But the more I see this video of Jon Stewart destroying Chris Matthews, the more I enjoy it. I have seen Hardball a few time over the last year and a half, not because I like his show or agree with him but the other news channels are just as trampy as MSNBC. CNN has seriously credibility problems when it comes to their political news. Remember how Jon Stewart single handedly destroyed CNN's crossfire show? At the end of the show one was left with the thought 'Enough of CNN already!!, Just get over your pathetic lies and spins'!!. At the other end in an abyss is the loudest of all, Fox news. If you consider O'Reilly and fox as "news" providers, then good luck with that. I sometimes watch the Factor because it is funny. You should think of it as serious parody to enjoy it.

Now back to Jon Stewart destroying Chris Matthew over his book which he calls "A recipe for sadness". Jon Stewart does to Chris Matthews what he does to his guests on Hardball, 'Dont let them complete what they started'. When Jon gives Chris a taste of his own medicine it is hilarious. Jon Stewart is the best fake news guy out there but he so much more smarter than the real ones.

Enjoy the video here!

What was Chris Matthews thinking when he wrote the book? Jon summarized it superbly..

"It strikes me as fundamentally wrong, It is a self hurt book, if you will!"

Simply brilliant!

How bad can flight delays be? Really?

2007-11-16T02:46:00.000-06:00

Last week there was a segment on MSNBC about the increasing delays in flight arrivals and departures and the loud mouthed host went on yapping about the inconvenience caused by these delays. Although I don't recall clearly, I think the statistics pointed out that 30% of the flights were delayed last year in the United States. (Statistics are like mini skirts however, Siddhu would say, they hide more than they reveal!!!)... Then there was the infamous Jet blue airlines delay in which the flight was stuck in the run way for 8 hours with the passengers onboard! Late night shows had a ball trashing Jet Blue for well over a week. Moreover the security lines and special check line have grown steadily over the years adding to frustration and delays. Prime time news channels have a time of their life denouncing the airline industry and delays.

However it is quite a miracle that my personal experiences tell a very different tale. I flew twice in recent memory. Both times my flight got delayed. In the first case, I had to travel from Milwaukee airport to O'hare International Airport in Chicago by bus because the connecting flight was cancelled. American Airlines paid for the bus ride to Chicago and also compensated for the inconvenience by providing a gift voucher valid for one year! This was the best deal ever. The fact that I really find it ridiculous flying from Milwaukee to Chicago didn't have any bearing on it.

My latest rendezvous with a delayed flight turned out even more interesting. I was in DC and the flight (this time it was United airlines) was scheduled to leave at 7.00 pm. The chain of events leading upto my arrival at the airport may be described as 'a comedy of errors' at best. In a haste to get into the last train that would take me to the airport on time, I boarded the wrong train. Only when I reached the final destination did I realize that something had gone wrong! I ended up so far off from the airport that it took a $80 cab ride back. And hey! While you're out there why don't you throw in some nasty peak hour traffic to the mess, just for the heck of it? Let's see.. what other spice could the curry possibly take?

And when I finally reached the airport it was 10 minutes after 7.00. Luckily though, the flight was delayed by an hour and I happily taxied the same flight back home. There is saying.. 'One man's misery is another man's ecstacy!!'. Except my case was many to one! But God bless delayed flights, for making my journey cheaper, safer and last but not the least, possible!

Are you addicted to coffee??

2007-11-15T10:47:00.000-06:00

I just realized how addicted I am to coffee. Well its not exactly an addiction in that, I don't have to drink coffee at a certain time of the day to avoid having a headache. But when I smell or see or am around someone having coffee I blindly walk up to the counter and get me one. Sometimes I feel like a computer program that does things without stopping to ask "why"?

If (see_coffee || smell_coffee || think_coffee)
{
drink coffee;
}

In the last fortnight alone, I must have averaged 3 - 5 cups of coffee per day. That is a LOT of coffee even by the generous standards of my people back home in Chennai (South India in general is known for its addiction to coffee). One wise investment that I made was the coffee maker. At least I don't buy "all" of that coffee from starbucks (OK don't get me started on starbucks... maybe I gotta write on the insanity of paying $4.50 for a mocha.. althought that was kinda due to the exorbitance of my sister)!!

Years ago when the "coffee culture" started spreading like wildfire in Chennai, I had visited them high-end-coffee-pubs a few times (like coffee day, there was one in the residency towers on GN Chetty road). I remember 5 - 6 of us had gone to coffee day in Nungambakkam once. The prices were so ridiculously high (50 bucks for 1 coffee, whereas coffee in a regular hotel was like 3 bucks!!) that we ordered one cappuccino and split the cost by 6. Imagine the waiter walking up to us, a table of 6 people, and we ordered 5 waters and 1 coffee!! hahaha... must have been hilarious! The funda for visiting these joints though was to catch a glimpse of the broads, so it really did not matter how many coffees we bought. But if I went back today, I would rather prefer to quietly enjoy my coffee!

My bragging rights for a marathon!

2007-10-08T13:08:00.000-05:00

October 7th 2007

The sun was out and shining brightly as I warmed up to head south from Grafton high school towards Milwaukee's lakefront in what has now become the most painful yet incredibly satisfying 5.5 hours of structured madness, that I have taken a liking to - running a marathon.

The gun went off sharp at 8.00am following a short address by the race organizers. I lined up with the 6hr finish group although I was aiming to complete under 5 hrs. The humor of the organizers was evident in the finish time groups they had set up which read 3 hrs, 4 hrs, 5 hrs, 6 hrs, same day and sometime in the future.

Since the forecast for the day was an 86 degree high and 90% humidity, I decided to start slower than what I had planned. My friend Praveen, who teaches at Marquette and his colleague were running along side me at the start. It took us about 2 minutes to reach the start line from where we were lined up. I felt a rush of excitement as we got out on the road but did well to keep it slow and steady. There were a few people on the side walks to cheer the crowd. I was prancing along as I approached the 1 mile marker and the timer read 12:30. It was slower than what I expected and decided to run the next mile faster. (By this time I had lost Praveen and his colleague). From here on I walked for a minute after completing each mile (or the 10:1 run/walk). I was clocking 11 minute miles or less per mile after the rather slow first mile.

I had driven the entire marathon course about a month ago but running it was totally different. When I drove, I was only looking to gauge the elevation and downhills along the route so that I could prepare myself for running the course. But when I actually was running it, the elevations and downhills were things I did not want to notice. Rather I enjoyed the scenery through my newly bought cheap pair of sunglasses which I fancied for a while. As I passed along the water stations which were so well placed and well manned by volunteers I fuelled with gatorade and water as needed and remembered to thank the wonderful volunteers all along the way. Also I got some energy from thanking them. (or so I thought, since I ran faster for a while after thanking them.) Some people who lived on the marathon route had made water sprinklers out of their garden hoses to cool down the runners, while others played music or just cheered us as we passed them.

The funny thing was these people on the road would shout "way to go John" or "you're doing good Julia".. but when they tried to read my name (on the BIB sheet pinned on my shirt) they went "way to go"......"eh!!,,,, I can't read your name"... I would just chuckle and say, "yeah, my name is just as long as the marathon! "

I could tell that the heat and humidity were affecting some of the runners as they slowed down or looked uncomfortable. I didn't really feel the heat much since I didn't think about it. (what a reason!!). Most of the first 15 miles were through the farmlands and went by pretty fast because I just enjoyed the scenery and the beautiful farm houses, the support of the few people who were there at major intersections and so on.

At one point, I heard sirens from a distance. Since these roads were pretty deserted but for the runners I guessed that someone was in trouble. A few minutes later a cop car flew by with sirens blasting. As I remarked "what the hell was that?" not specifically to anybody, one gentleman who was running besides me said "I hope everyone is fine". "Are you running the entire distance?" he went on. As I nodded affirmatively he said "I admire you guys, I'm running the relay. My 2 kids are running the marathon and got me to do this!!!". Certainly blown away by his kind remarks, I said "well!! you are doing just as great as anyone else here". We chatted about the weather, running and the lakefront marathon for a while before it was time to take my walk break.

Somewhere along the next few miles I saw the ambulance that I only had heard earlier and a runner passed out on the side of the road. The medical emergency team was attending to him and I noticed electrodes all over his body. All I could do was feel bad for the chap and at the same time tell myself that he was taken care of! The nature of the human mind to associate and understand the suffering of someone we don't even know while perplexes me, also tells me that there is always hope for a better tomorrow!

As the day grew long the temperature soared higher. I believed that it must have reached close to the day's high (86-88) 3:10 hours after the start (somewhere after mile 17). My head started to hurt as it felt like being heated on a stove. So at the next water stop I poured water over my head and ran through all the water hoses generously provided by the people watching us run!

One of things that made this marathon more than special was the goodwill associated with it. For instance, an elderly lady was sitting in her wheel chair in the smoldering heat and the scorching sun with a garden hose trying to help cool us down. I was truly touched and thanked her on my way! At other places there were school kids who were helping at the water stations, some of them filling out the water cups, some handing them out as the runners passed the water stations, while others picking up the cups dispensed by the runners and stashing them in the trash. To me these kids were the unsung heroes of the marathon, among others. Without these guys the event wouldn't have been possible!

I was on my way to a 4:40 marathon finish and was feeling great! Just when I though "so far so good!" I developed a serious cramp in my right hamstring. The excruciating pain brought me to a screeching halt. I sat down on the side walk for a minute, then stretched for another minute and slowly began to walk. It must have been after mile 21. Every time I tried to run, the pain kicked back! I just kept saying "one foot in front of the other" and tried to move forward!

During this time, I had all sorts of questions in my mind. "Why did I decide to be a part of this madness?", "Will I finish the race?", "What about 4:40 finish?", "At least sub 5?", "How could this problem just be in your head when your body is hurting this much?". As all these negative thoughts started creeping up, I decided I could not let it happen and began to jog. I kept saying "just run to the next tree" and ran it in a continuous loop! I didn't want to give up. I dragged myself slowly to mile 23 water stop where a lady gave me couple of electrolyte tablets to help with the cramps. She said "you are doing something 99% of the rest haven't done" or something to that effect! I was feeling dizzy in the heat but smiled and thanked her.

The next 2 miles were downhill and I would have run it in 16 minutes under normal circumstances. But it took me a whole lot more than that! Must have taken around 35 minutes! Mostly, I walked it feeling miserable at not being able to run the distance. All the others in the vicinity seemed to be walking as well, but at least they were walking fast! My mind was urging me to run but my legs were going to crumble anytime!!

Way before getting to the start line that day, I had decided that the finish was the most important part of the race. That is why I started slowly today. "So what if your leg is cramped? Just run this last mile as fast as possible and finish in style", but my legs weren't listening. I got to the water stop at mile 25 and drank some gatorade.

In the midst of the desperation, I was gonna have some fun. Out of nowhere I got a burst of energy to breeze through the last mile. It was easily the fastest of the entire 26.2. I just kept chanting "almost there" and sprinted along. It was awesome as people came out and started clapping and cheering. I could hear names and finish times being announced on the loud speakers as runners finished, but could not see the finish line. I was running past some of them who had walked past me earlier. The path turned right, then left, then right again and veered left again but no sight of the finish line. Then I saw the clock at a distance. It was showing 5:29:09 and there was some distance to cover. I wanted to finish before 5:30 and stepped it up. I must have run the last leg @11-12 mph. The best part was I could smile for the finish line photo for having gutted it out! The medal was just a bonus! :-)

Praveen finished just a few minutes later and we congratulated each other before heading back home with a gleam from ear to ear and a medal to back it up. I have now decided to come back to run Milwaukee's lakefront marathon next year too, as I hope to run faster and smarter the next time!

However the first time is always special for anything worth doing (or otherwise). The first time you put kadalai with a gal, the first time your family seriously considered your opinion, the first time you won a competition, the first time you made someone's day... this subjective list could be endless. Now I have one of those firsts that make me incredibly proud. Conquering the 26.2! Just in the nick of time. Just before I turned 26!

But let me not forget to thank those who put up with me during this saga, my friends in India, friends in Milwaukee and the rest of the states, my family and most importantly muks who had the privilege of repeatedly listening to my accounts of foot pain, broken nails, chaffing, heat, dehydration, boredom and lot of other interesting stuff related to running! Thank you all!

-Vijayasarathy-

PS: What did you think? The entry about my first marathon would be 2 paragraphs long? haha!

Drifting away!

2007-09-26T19:52:00.000-05:00

The other day I was bored at work (yeah... in the miniscule amount that I do do everyday!!... or is that because I am a fast worker??... I think I have to stick with a believable storyline for the sake of credibility!!) and decided to pick a spring marathon (I figured.. if I like running as much as I think I do, then there could be no harm!). So I went on to ask my best friend, who has answers for any and every question there is (well!!... almost) - google.

Georgia marathon, Big sur (CA), New Jersey, Green Bay were a few that caught my eye. Also I wanted to use the marathon as a pretext to travel to some place new. I heard from a friend (this time it is a person) that the Green Bay marathon follows a very scenic course. Also it had the cheapest entry fee among others. But I had been to Green Bay before and wanted to venture out of Wisconsin! (so GB marathon, I'm sorry... may be later!). New Jersey was a double loop and somehow I was not thrilled about it (I don't know why and guess what.... google didn't know either!!!... OK seriously, get over google!!). More over I have been to Jersey a couple of times.

Down to 2, out of which Georgia Marathon in Atlanta was so easy to pick, simply because my cousin lives there and that saves a bunch of money on lodging. But then the Big Sur in California was hands down favorite on the internet for its scenic route. I read a few articles and blogs on Big Sur, that took me along highway 1..... starting with the down hill... then a few ups and downs.... the big hill at mile 9...... the beautiful panoramic view of the pacific below... waves lapping up on the rocks... the mystic fog.... the bands on the side of the road..... and I wasn't at work anymore... I was running sub 7 minute miles.... (and what a surreal transformation that was!!)... If I maintained the pace, I would qualify for Boston easily...... I was running past other runners... those poor souls... hahahaha...

Let's see... what happened next?? yeah! that's right.... reality struck back! Like a booming echo from the sky... 'First finish this flat course Milwaukee lakefront marathon before sunset!'

I am your quintessiantial day dreamer, so adept at drifting away from reality! (What was I doing now? Whatever it was I better get back to it!!).

I am Vijay Govindarajan and I approve this message!

-Vijayasarathy-

The running philosophy!

2007-09-23T12:21:00.001-05:00

It is anyone's guess why most of my profound babbling's tangent off of one activity!

Yesterday I ran 14miles ... nothing great about it. Infact it was between bad and average! The week leading upto the run was miserable... I fell sick after eating out! I figured running is just like life. There are good days and bad days. And then some promising days that turn out to be not-so-good, just like yesterday!!

When you run 14 miles you have a lot of time to ponder over such things. So I did...........

I had 1 bad long run in the recent past (2 weeks earlier), the 20 miler and then this current predicament. But the 16 mile run a week before was great, arguably the best run I've had to date. For the 20 miler 2 weeks earlier, I ran with someone much faster than I was and ended up with a hamstring pull and had to limp to the finish 20 minutes short of my goal time. This one, I was running with someone slower than me. Still not feeling so good.

But why was the 16 miler so great? I ran alone with a group of 70-80 runners! That was the key! Running alone in a group! I paced myself according to my needs, goals, pains and strengths. I drew just enough inspiration from the others around me but didn't let the competition dictate the terms of my run.

That's it! You have to try and improve with reference to your previous performance, not based on some Mr.X. You can still draw inspiration from someone in a better place than you and reevaluate your goals from time to time!

Is this applicable to life? If it does it makes things so much more simpler. And you can still relish every step you take in difficult times. I'm going to try this philosophy in the coming days and try to do things better today than what I did yesterday. It's not like Einstien just discovered e = mc2 right? All of us must have thought of such "brilliant" things before! However this might just be what the doctor recommended. I think, I just rediscovered a pragmatic solution to my everyday rubik's cube.

And then the water stop interruped my thought.

-Vijayasarathy-

no pain no gain!!

2007-09-19T15:30:00.001-05:00

It was the 16 mile taper run for the lakefront marathon on 9/16/07 (a day after my Al's run 8k@41:59) with the badgerland striders group at 8.00am. I neither felt like waking up nor running 16miles that day, but that is the advantage of committing oneself to a group run. I did go.

The congregation of about 70-80 runners had assembled by the time I reached. After a few minutes Dr. Meuller enthusiastically climbed up the park bench and gave away some free inspiration, instructions, enlightened us with the route and the location of the water stops and atleast got me psyched about the next 3 hours.

We began the run around 8:15am and I started at the back of the group since I didn't want to get caught up in the initial rush. Not withstanding the pep up talk by Dr. Mueller (the one man organizing guru!), I wasn't really warmed up for the run physically and mentally. So I started out pretty slow, I would guess around (11-11:30 minute mile). Luckily there were runners of all sizes, age and more importantly speed. Although a majority of them took off ahead of me, there were quite a few along side and behind me. Not bad I thought!

After about a mile the pain started. I was worried because it was the shin. I did not want to injure myself just 3 weeks before the marathon. But I just kept running. Then the left foot started hurting. Everytime I landed my foot it felt like a hard slap which was getting increasingly painful. It felt as though I wasn't landing my foot right. But I was not doing anything new. So I decided to overrun the pain. It lasted for another 3 miles. I tried not to think about it. I did try some goofy things to distract my thought from the shin and the feet that were'nt cooperating..... like experiment with hip extension during running to see if the swing got any better....... tried to push harder with soleus for speed..... experimented with different stride lengths..... looking at other runners and bikers on the trail...... looking up and down like the character in the song pon malai pozhudhu.... yeah!! whatever it took!!

Finally after what was quite a painful run, I got to the first water stop and there was Dr. Mueller with encouraging words, water, gatorade and gu gel. Four and a half miles in good time he announced. This time he had some espresso flavor gu gels, a welcome respite from the exaggerated sweetness of raspberry flavor last week. I fueled myself.

As I headed out, there was no more pain. It felt like someone had cleaned the slate in my head that screamed "PAIN". And I didn't feel no pain until the finish. I picked up speed and just kept running. I went past many other runners who I didn't see after the start line. The rest of this 16 miles was a cake walk. The pain during the first 4.5 miles was a lot to take. But I was happy that I did not give in to it. I ran through it. I fought the battle at a higher level - the mental battle. I successfully dissed the dis-comfort and finished strongly. 2:30 for 16miles... with gas left to go for more!

-Vijayasarathy-

Al's Run

2007-09-10T13:22:00.000-05:00

Last year around the same time, when I saw an ad for Al's run on one of the boards at the alumni memorial union at Marquette, I said to myself that one had to be an elite runner to run a 5 mile race. But I had nothing to do with running then.

Times have changed since and so has my perception. In the past few months running has become THE mainstay of any conversation with my family and friends. To me it is not just a void-filler in a conversation. It has become the fulcrum that keeps my days and weeks in balance. It is like my warehouse of motivation to go on with the school work and job search which otherwise have the potential to drive me nuts.

This year Al's run is on a saturday (15th september 07). I am bifurcated between running an all out 5mile race or doing it at an easy pace to save myself for the 16mile long run on sunday with the badgerland striders running group. (am I lucky to have found them or what!!!) Whatever it is I believe it will be a great experience to share with 16000 other runners, unlike anything I have done before.

On a different front, I am trying to help raise funds for the Children's hospital of wisconsin. This is again one of the firsts for me!!! Honestly, I was afraid that I might end up being the only contributor on my fund raising page. But at the end of day 1 the pledges from friends went upto $25. I was truly elated!! I crowned myself for a grand success at my first effort!!! Even though this is not the reason for writing the blog, my fundraising page is still up and open for contributions :-D..... so feel free to take a look!!! I thank all of those who have pledged and all those who are going to in future!!

-Vijayasarathy-

My favorite interview from my favorite star!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-10T09:53:00.000-05:00

This is the honest truth of God...... I hate star worship in cinema.... the only exception I have made and will ever make is Rajini.

I was born at a time and place where Rajini was beginning to cast a spell, a spell that would continue to grow and transform his stature from a bus conductor to a phenomenon worshipped by millions. Without delving into the making of Rajini I will say that I am one of those millions who have pledged their allegiance to him.

Why? He is the quintessential form of inspiration and hope. Let me explain!
Have you ever thought, why so many people go to the casinos every day? What does the casino offer people? It gives them hope, however insignificantly small, hope to make it big. But the casinos have a bad spin, because the probabilities are heavily tilted in their favor. To use the hope that the casino provides, you have to gamble with your money. Now imagine you get the same kind of hope for free, with more intensity and huge positive spin on it. Just looking at a person is all the inspiration you need. That is what Rajni symbolises for millions - Hope.

As someone who was commonplace, a bus conductor, and worked his way up to the highest paid actor in India, Rajini personifies success to everyone with a dream. He has a very special gift - the ability to connect with people. Every kid thinks of himself to be Rajni. Every kid mimicks his on-screen style and repeats his line.

And remember, 'once a Rajini fan, always a Rajini fan'. One summer while vacationing in the US, he shaved his head and a hundred Rajini fanatics shaved their heads the same day in South India. I know!! Until I heard that I thought I was the craziest Rajini fan. But these people defined new levels of craziness in Rajini worship.

Anyhoo, what I like about Rajini, other than his onscreen style is his offscreen humility. If ever I were to become .001% as famous as he is now, I would go berserk. But this man's humility and modesty are beyond anything I can fathom at this point.

This is my favorite interview of the one and only Thalaivar!!! It's hard not to smile everytime I see this!!!!!!

For the incessant runner!

2007-03-24T23:43:00.000-05:00

If you happen to fall in the above category, here's a cool website just for ya!!

..and don't forget to enjoy the weather while you're at it ;-)

-Vijay machi-

cul-de-sac??

2007-03-18T14:30:00.000-05:00

After the colossal defeat of the "men in blue" following the collapse of its celebrated batting lineup against a so-called minnow, Bangladesh, one cannot but wonder if it is the end of the world cup 2007 dreams for Team India.

Prior to the beginning of the world cup there was an interesting article in The Hindu. It was as though the author foresaw what was impending the eleven players who were carrying the hopes of a hundred billion Indians on their shoulders. Or maybe he was just targetting the overly passionate following for cricket in India.

In this "neck of the woods", as Tony Greg would put it, there is only a thin line between passion and madness when it comes to cricket. As long as the Indian team wins or atleast puts up a decent fight, the players are followed like deities. For uninspired losses like this one against Bangladesh, the response is often burning effigies and staging violent protests.

Coming back to the current world cup scenario, even to sustain hopes of moving to the super 8's India needs to win the next two games, and win big. I do see a slice of light in all this gloom and darkness. Are the big guns going to fire or is it the end of the road for India? While we pray for the best, I'm signing off to prepare myself in the event of an Indian world cup calamity. ;-)

Beating the House!!!

2007-03-13T02:56:00.001-05:00

For someone who was forbidden to play memory using cards, I have come a long way in discovering and understanding the nuances of poker and blackjack. I should admit however that roulette is the first "casino" game (probably the simplest too!) that caught my attention when a friend of mine narrated his experience at a casino (fortunately, he found providence).

I hadn't seen a roulette wheel until then. So he explained it from scratch. I understood that it is a game of betting and each bet has a fixed probability of winning. And more the risk, more they pay. My rather naive mind began to wonder why people didn't play roulette full-time to make money, but quickly realized how big an advantage the house enjoys in roulette.

Inspite of that I must have spent a couple of evenings researching "how to beat the house" from various online sources. Many mathematical system from greats like fibonacci fail to conquer roulette. These systems are based on certain assumptions that are forbidden in modern casinos, ergo invalid. I tried to create my own method of betting that would be effective, but soon figured out that all systems spiralled to the inevitable truth - the house is always 2 steps ahead of everyone (0 & 00).

Incidentally I came across an amazing book titled "the eudaemonic pie" which is a true story of how a few engineers and scientists (in their quest to make millions) device a method to predict the number on which the ball would land in the spinning roulette wheel, all in real time using microcomputers programmed into their shoes.!! The predicting equation similar to what NASA used to find out where a spaceship orbitting the moon would land. Pretty cool eh??!! (and all this more than 2 decades ago???)

Einstien said "the only way to beat the house at the roulette table is to steal money when the dealer is not watching". According to me, the only way not to lose to the house is by not playing it.

-Vijayasarathy-

Mind Over Body

2007-02-11T18:17:00.000-06:00

[say... 2 decades ago]
Growing up as a kid, I once heard a little story about my great grandfather. He had achieved such perfect control of his mind (through meditation), that he could rise up a feet from the ground (in a sitting posture). The man could float in air!!!. (If I remember right they have a picture of him, defying gravity, in my mom's ancestral home!!) I should admit that it didn't mean much to me then. I never gave it so much of a thought.

[Jan 2007]
I was running in the gym nearing completion of the third mile. I wasn't tired (for not being much of a runner), and the breathing was just perfect. Could have easily added a couple of miles to the count.... For some reason I stopped at the end of lap 24. Not a step after that. Why? I was definitely not physically exhausted, but the mind was revolting as though the limit had been reached and shut down on me like some major security breach had taken place.

[Reverberating in time]
I believe the story about my great grandfather that I was told as a small boy, though Newton might not be particularly pleased. With only 1% of that kind of control, I'd probably run 30 marathons a month without breaking a sweat!! The inevitability and importance of the mind's control and understanding of the body in achieving one's goals cannot be over-stressed.

-Vijayasarathy-

Madai thirandhu... late, yet the latest!

2007-01-23T14:59:00.000-06:00

I had decided against posting video links and embedded videos in my blog, but this one was so cool that I couldn't resist. Outstanding remix of an old tamil song with hiphop tunes. Tamil Rap is here to stay ;-).

Procrastination - Beat it or Get Beaten!!

2006-11-12T19:50:00.000-06:00

Recently I noticed that working out at the gym and running had become a major part of my everyday routine. I was intrigued for 2 reasons. One, I was never big on gym or running as I felt that I got enough exercise from sports (Cricket, Badminton, Basketball etc.) Secondly, I was never motivated enough to take time off and run for 30 minutes or go through the trouble of lifting 40 pounds of weight. It was just not my thing. Given a choice I’d rather prefer to play or sit at home and watch Seinfeld.

So the reason for this change evaded me for many days. The more I didn’t know why, the more I wanted to know. In the process of writing this blog I asked myself a question, which (in hindsight) provided the answer to my gym puzzle. “Why am I writing this blog at this point in time?” Because I had decided to work on a report this weekend but didn’t want to. Suddenly I knew the answer to my gym obsession.

It is a mechanism that I had developed to avoid/ postpone a more important long-pending extremely monotonous thesis work. The idea is to choose the less important (but more interesting) task over the more important task. So if you actually do plan well, you can utilize the time to reduce the number of tasks on your list (even though low priority) to be completed. Then all you need to do is set a deadline for the more important task and finish it. However from my experience it is easier said than done!!

The language politics of India!!!

2006-09-18T02:03:00.001-05:00

I am from Chennai (formerly Madras), a metropolis in south India. The languages I speak are Tamil (My mother tongue) and English (forced on us by the British who ruled us for over 300 years!!!). I completed my schooling and engineering from here. Madras has a lot of engineering colleges and it is not uncommon for students from other states to come here to attend college or grad school. My class in engineering had a few of these students too!!!

In India, different states speak different languages. So these other students in my class obviously didn’t know Tamil, the local language. They had problems communicating with us as most of them were shy to converse in English. So they (these students from the other states) hung out together and we (The Tamil speakers) never interacted well with them and vice-versa. Surprisingly these other students spoke Hindi even thought they were not all from the Hindi speaking BIMARU (Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) belt. One student was from Kerala, two from Andhra and one I think!! from Maharashtra. (Kerala and Andhra are our neighboring states and don’t speak Hindi).

I began to think that Tamilnadu was the only state that didn’t approve of Hindi (which is true to an extent!!. The reasons for which I am not delving into here) and felt that we were secluding ourselves from the rest of the country by not learning the National Language (I had read that in my history textbook!!). So I felt the need to tell my fellow students to learn Hindi as a language that would unite us and give us an identity outside India. At this time I learn't very little Hindi even though I learnt how to read the script.

After my undergraduate education, I came to the United States to pursue a graduate degree in Engineering. I had to give the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and TOEFL (“Test of English as a Foreign Language”). It is a common requirement for most programs. The reason I mention this is that the students who get admitted to schools in the US are generally good in English and have a decent vocabulary.

While studying at the US, I met some fellow Indians (the term used to refer to them is “desi”) or “desis” who went to the same school as me. In my experience most of the desis I met here assumed that I spoke Hindi by default and would start of with “Arre, tera naam kya hai?” (What is your name?) or “tum kahan say aa raha hai?” (Where are you from?) (Please pardon my grammar!!!). And since I neither spoke Hindi nor understood it well, I would reply in English that I didn’t understand what he/she asked also mentioning that I didn’t understand Hindi.

Typically, there could be two different reactions in this situation (its almost like a pattern of behavior!!!). Either the person would look at you and say “Oh!!! Tum South Indian eh kya??” (Are you a South Indian?) with disdain!!, or he or she would be totally oblivious to what you just said and would continue talking in Hindi. I can understand this attitude if it was India. People don’t speak English unless it is officially required. But in the United States where they attend graduate school this is not the case. From answering in a class, to shopping at the grocery store all of these students speak English. But when it comes to answering a fellow desi they wouldn’t reply unless you spoke in Hindi.

(However, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't mention about the few nice people who had no signs of the above problem.)

When I enquired what the problem was, all of them would reply “arre yaar!!! Hindi hamara Rastra Baasha” (Hindi is our National language!!). In effect all of them converged to one idea, that you are not patriotic if you didn’t know Hindi.(!!!!???) So I decided to do a little bit of research in this. Even the constitution of India (Article 343 deals with the languages of India) doesn't mention Hindi as the National language. It is one of the many (if I remember right 23) official languages of the republic of India. All this while I believed Hindi to be the national language as wrongly reported by the History textbook!!! When I told these other desi’s that Hindi is NOT the National Language they would totally refute the fact!!!!

The question I ask here is “Is Hindi language the identity card for an Indian?”, “Is language more of an identity to me than me being an Indian at heart and in my thoughts?” I don’t think so. Would it make sense if I told these people to converse in Tamil?

I am not against people learning other languages. In fact I am a proponent for the same. However if I chose not to learn some language, that’s my choice and should be respected. Respect for freedom of right and freedom of speech has more Indian-ness to it than just knowing Hindi!!

Dad's Dollars!!!

2006-08-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

Here comes the halo again!!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Counting the number of shorts... that went past me disturbing my thoughts
I started reading a chapter on stroke... while the blonde who strolled past me left my heart broke
I heard a distant voice, that of my dad... whom I often drove mad
for the next few minutes I got back and read... still thinking of the babe clad in red
not ME!! not ME!! I thought... but my hormones that ought to be taught
not long after, my dad caught me dreaming... and as usual started screaming
I asked him.. 'Do you ever understand? ... that your wish has always been my command?'
he gleamed at me with an understanding smile... that's when I decided to use my guile
Yet unsure whether to ride my luck... I explained to him the crux... was that I needed 500 bucks

--Vijayasarathy--

If you smell...!!!!

2006-07-31T04:35:00.000-05:00

The Rock quickly rose to fame and rightfully claimed the title as the most electrifying person in sports entertainment. I remember the time when I bunked school to watch The Rock in action!! Since then my craze for WWE has died out. But here are some videos of "The Brahma Bull", "The Great One", "The Rock" rolling his mouth!

The Rock With La Bamba - video powered by Metacafe

The Rock sings to Happy Birthday!!!

My Little Office

2006-07-30T01:22:00.000-05:00

This is my first blog here!! I'm pretty excited about getting my own e-space!!
Just to get started... Here's a little poem I wrote (no!! no!! I'm not a poet!!.. Once in a while I get this halo around my head and then these words pour out!!)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a saturday afternoon... I assured myself that I would wake up soon...

I was killing time, I knew for sure... but drenched in an attitude, 'why do I care?'

I lay on my bed, eternally bored... not minding a beautiful sun that soared...

hours seemed like light years... thanks to the previous nights beers...

then I decided to move my ass... crooning like the next-door lass...

I stepped outside the door... n jumped on my bicycle and rode...

I saw trees swiftly move behind... while running over the go lights, never mind...

n then came the familiar place... where day after day I hide my face...

as much as I hate to say... in there my future lays... in a bit of disarray....

I got down from the bike so slowly... n dragged myself across the alley..

silently I hoped to succeed... and vowed to work for it indeed...

that's the place I call 'my little office', where anything I do would never ever suffice!

-Vijayasarathy-