Running beyond dog-tired

I started training to run a marathon a few months back. Ok its not exactly training, since I dont run every day of the week. I just run on Sundays coz thats the only day I can manage to wake myself up early. Anyway I am taking part in the Marg Give-life Chennai marathon (http://givelife-chennaimarathon.com/). So wanted to see if I can push myself atleast close to 21kms. So me and a couple of my friends met up in IIT and started running at 6:45 (planned to meet at 6:30 but I was late since I was searching for my new sneakers, which appears to be stolen). Anyway we started and were surprised to find that a dog joined us. This dog followed us around through IIT running parallel to me mostly. At times it would run in front of me and look back to see how far back we were. Anyway we were kinda struggling to get the first 6kms out of the way and this dog managed to do it with ease at the same time picking fight with other dogs, tracking down two motorcycles and even managed to chase a deer around.

We started on our second round and this dog also came along, I was glad it came along coz I had planned to take a picture of this dog which accompanied us in the run. It ran with us for a total of 9kms and then looked at us as if we were nuts to keep going. Obviously it got tired of running around for 9kms with no purpose. So it said bye to us and went on its own way. We continued going beyond the point of dog-tired :). All the time i was dreaming of finishing first by virtue of photo finish (head first, or hand outstretched). I managed to get to 18kms but took a time of 2hrs30 minutes. I am atleast confident that I can finish the 21kms run on aug 31st, but my hopes of winning the 10lakh first price is gone. Only to find out that one of my friends had a similar thought too :). Anyways how we do on aug31st will be updated later (provided we do good).

Iphone for 31k ---- is it worth it?

Is the new Iphone 3G really worth 31k? Especially since it sells in the US for $200. I couldn't care less if I had to sign a 2 year contract with Vodafone(vodatha-fone) or Airtel. I was hoping they will make it competitive enough to Nokia N95. I guess Apple quoted the same price to AT&T in US and Vodafone & Airtel in India. And Vodafone and Airtel have just thought of passing on the cost to the customer instead of even thinking of some creative marketing.

But you cant really blame Vodafone or Airtel for this because they cannot hook you onto Iphone for browsing using the 3G because, guess what they have not got the spectrum allocated. And there is no guarantees they are going to get it either. So why are we queuing up to buy something which might not actually work with the provider? And that too at a higher cost than any other place except Belgium (where Iphone costs something like $850). I dont know the answer to this question, maybe someone who else who reads this does.

If I were an advisor to Steve Jobs, I would have suggested to manufacture some more of the older generation Iphone for countries such as India where the 3G spectrum itself has not been allocated. I guess there must be a very valid reason for pushing a highly expensive phone with features that cannot be used and hoping to capture the market.

Only time will tell how much of the market Apple will capture in India ahead of Nokia. But you can help them capture it by going and picking your phone from your nearest Vodafone store at midnight (Because I am sure you cant wait one more day and would rather give up your sleep and still buy this).

I am glad I am not going and buying it because I already have my first generation Iphone.

Inspiration to win Olympics

I always thought the only inspiration someone needed to get a Gold Medal in Olympics was to prove to himself and to the whole world that he/she was the best in a particular sport. But all the monetary gifts that the government, local politicians and anybody else gives is definitely a good enough reason to compete. The best inspiration that Vijender can have is obviously Bipasha agreeing to go on a date with him. I am sure Vijender will treat that reporter in a special manner for mentioning he was Bipasha's fan.

Go Vijender!! You can do it! Now I wonder if Anju would have done better in long jump if only John Abraham had said something...

And for all you guys who are ruing the fact that you didnt know about such a date waiting for you.. dont worry you are not alone. We now know what to expect for 2012 Olympics. It could be Bipasha, Deepika or anybody else for that matter. Bipasha, if you are reading this, just to let you know, I have started training for running a half-marathon :).

Now I can go sleep peacefully after having inspired a few people atleast.

India's performance in Olympics

Ok... I know a lot of people are happy about the performance of India in the Olympic games that is going on right now.. The fact that we have tripled our medal tally ought to mean we have done something good. But look at the overall medal tally that shows how far back we are and what kind of countries are alongside us... Anyway one of my friends made a comparison that India should get a separate medal for showing maximum improvement from last Olympics since even the mighty China haven't shown that kind of improvement. Of course that is one way of looking at things. But we could have done even better had Rathore and Leander/Mahesh pair done something which everyone thought they would be capable of doing (this thought came from another friend of mine).

I thought there should be some sport that we should be doing really good at.. Of course at one point in time we were very good in Hockey and this time around we "managed" to not qualify for Olympics even... Anyway I continued in my previous thought and I came down to two sports, Fencing and Archery. Historically if you look at it we had been using swords to fight wars. Even when our enemy was using guns and cannons.. Anyway since every museum shows Swords of different shapes and sizes, we should be having that in our blood right.. Of course I agree that whatever they use in Fencing (Foil, epee and sabre are the three weapons used in sport of fencing) are quite different from a sword.. Meaning this is not so broad as a sword and does not stay straight, blah blah blah... But the way I look at it, its just a different type of sword. And we as Indians who have been fighting with swords should do a lot better. Anyway thats just my thought...

The other sport is Archery. We have been using this for ages too. For some reason, we are not good at this sport either or good enough to even win a Bronze medal. I was thinking hard about what could be the reason and came to this conclusion. That we are not a beef-eating country and that was the reason we weren't doing so well at this sport. Now you could ask me how does that affect how we do in this sport. Its simple, they call the target Bull's eye. We should simply call them Parrot's eye or Fish's eye so that Indians can do better. If you don't get why those 2 are ok, please go read about Arjuna :).

Anyway these are just my thoughts and does not have to make sense to you :). But if it gives a clue as to how we can improve upon our performance in Olympics then I am glad I was of help.

Lastly, congratulations to Abinav and Sushil for winning the medals and good luck to Vijender to win another Gold for India. Make us proud!

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this blog to everyone who has inspired me to write a blog including my supervisors who gave me more and more work to prevent the thought of spending time to blog my thoughts :-)... Anyway thanks to my friends and family and a lot of bloggers who were inspiration for me.. I hope reading my blog is also a passtime for somebody like reading many blogs was for me..

Lastly my laptop which threatened to run out of battery while I was posting this blog...