Dhammonia

Nice Running Site

2008-07-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here are just 2 links from the site. Super fun

10 signs you may be a runner ( I agree with 6 :) )

Take a Dump in your pants if you need to!

Hat tip to Dibyo

Booty from Premier

2008-07-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the coupons from Premier from the KQA anniversary quizzes, here's what I got home today

Great Speeches of Modern India (edited by Rudrangshu Mukherjee)
The World according to Groucho Marx by David Brown
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham

Yippie Yo!

Advertising Peeves

2008-07-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, I get quite pissed with consumers' intelligence being insulted (atleast in my opinion).
My current peeve is with the HDFC Standard Life ad.

In the Hindi version, the daughter who gives her dad a cheque is named "Toolika Sharma" and in the supposedly Kannada version, which is dubbed in quite a pathetic manner, the name is "Arati Krishnan." Couldn't the advertisers have reshot the ad? Can't they atleast redo the ad with better lip syncing?

I don't see myself buying the product.

Here is my one-line for the day " if i don't have fire in the belly, will gas do?!"

Indian Coffee House - Days Numbered

2008-07-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Yet another cherished landmark in Bangalore is on its way to a slow death. As one of the waiters conveyed (with an expression tinged with sadness but with a smile on his face,) the lease on the location that ICH currently sits on, has expired. As a result, ICH is going to cease to exist!

Damn! There must be some way to prevent all this. Maybe some uber rich Bangalorean who reads this will buy out the location and let ICH stay :( Or maybe, they will find some new location like Dwaraka did after moving out of Bull Temple Road.

I wanted to post about the coupons I gained on the weekend at the KQA anniversary quizzes, but this kind of pooped the party :(

Dutch Soup

2008-06-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

The Dutch team, until today, my favourites to win the Euro 2008 were outplayed by the Russians.
The following were the reasons they lost
- Arjen Robben didn't play (I am not sure whether he was out injured)
- Robin Van Persie didn't start. The Dutch as a result played like a crippled team making attacks only down the right side. The moment he came on, there was some action on both fronts.
- Nistelrooy should have been replaced. Bouhlarouz got substituted when he was playing well
- The Russians marked their men perfectly except for the solitary goal they conceded and the Dutch seemed to have no clue how to react
- The Russians also played their own version of Total Football by having only 2 men manning their D for most of the time, while the Dutch had as many as 7 men at one point in time handling the mercurial strikers Andrei Arshavin & Pavlyuchenko who toyed with the Dutch defence especially after the exit of Khalid Bouhlarouz

Tragedy. But the Dutch have only themselves to blame. The young Dutch team also looked deflated from the beginning as if they were coming off a viral attack while they were supposed to have had an extra day's rest. Am sure there must have been something wrong in planning as well :(

I guess I will now watch only the highlights and goals

Sunday Loot

2008-06-15T03:57:00.000-07:00

Calcium Made Interesting by Graham Chapman (of Monty Python fame)
The Films in My Life by Francois Truffaut
From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple

After a long time also bought a packet of (Glitz - from Faber Castell) pencils (triangular shaped pencils).

Woo hoo!

God bless quizzing and good luck to us ;)

ACE 2008

2008-06-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

Came 3rd in the 4th edition of the ASHA ACE quiz organized at Hyd today. Got more dough and book coupons for efforts :)

got royally beaten by Irevna (with Anil and Vinod G) who had more than the 2nd (Satyam with Priyambad and co) and 3rd teams put together!

More t'row when I plan to redeem them at the local Odyssey store.

All in a day's work

Euro 2008: Italy vs. Netherlands

2008-06-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

What a demonstration of good football!
Only sore point of the match was the extremely obvious (to everyone but the linesman) offside. Time for the equivalent of the 3rd umpire?

Anyways, Italy's fate was sealed by the statistic of more than half the squad being over 30. The Dutch, by contrast had enough fresh blood to make a blue whale feel rejuvenated. Until Del Piero appeared, the absence of fine talent was painfully visible to anyone watching. Luca Toni didn't get enough passes and Dinatale despite trying hard was alone in his efforts. Other than Del Piero, Zambrotta was the only one who was trying hard and looking threatening. The rest were as if they were nursing hangovers.

And the likes of Materazzi and the rest of the defence played like schoolkids learning to play football. When was the last time you saw 6 guys chasing 2?!

The Dutch with new, young players demonstrated a fantastic brand of football - fast accurate passes and incredibly quick counter attacks - 1 of which yielded the best goal of Euro 2008, so far. Both Wesley Sneijder & Ibrahim Afellay demonstrated energy, skill and speed. The Italians demonstrated lack of coordination, old age and sluggishness. Hope they recover from this. Maybe Buffon should rest. He has been speaking too much and working too little. After the defence failed on the 1st 2 goals, the attack left more Italians in the Dutch half for more time than in theirs in a rush to attack, resulting in a silly lapse and another goal.

Where art thou Paulo?!

Isaac Newton

2008-06-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Bought the book Isaac Newton by James Gleick today from Book Worm after hunting for over 6 months for the book. It is one of those beautiful editions from Harper Perennial which has something called "P.S. More than a Paperback" label (which means the book has insights, interviews with the author (incl. his 10 favourite books!, reviews of the book, etc). This is almost like a wiki inside the book which leads me to more books and some generally interesting reading. Super fun

Monsoon Madness

2008-06-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the prize money from y'day, the following were added today

1) Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
2) Right-Ho, Jeeves
3) Piccadilly Jim
4) The Clicking of Cuthbert
5) Jeeves in the Offing
6) Ring For Jeeves
7) Big Money
8) Aunts Aren't Gentlemen
9) The Girl in Blue
10) The Inimitable Jeeves
11) Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
12) The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
13) Our Films Their Films by Satyajit Ray
14) Mahabharata (the complete series from Amar Chitra Katha)

1 to 10 form a collection called Jeeves and Chums from Penguin. All the above were purchased shortly after a coffee induced high at Indian Coffee House, from BookWorm

L-Cube

2008-05-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

Went to a quiz on (Leaders and Achievers) Politics, Sports and Business called L-Cube today, organized by the IIMB PGSEM guys (their 10th anniversary apparently) justifying celebrations :) KQA set the questions and Prof. Rajeev Gowda presented it.

Ashwin and I came 2nd. Woohoo! Woohoo!
Tups and Mitesh won it. Good quiz, set by Arul Mani, who is increasingly setting charming questions on Sports and Business, both of which he doesn't indulge in ;)

So I now have enough money to buy a dozen books atleast :)

The Flying Scotsman - Graeme Obree

2008-05-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

I thought I had already posted on this. The movie The Flying Scotsman tells the extraordinary story of Graeme Obree, the World Hour Record holder in 1993 and 1995.
The man battled great odds including a near fatal depression to claim these goals.

As a man of heart, I was tremendously inspired by the story. Heartwarming to anyone who needs a dose of inspiration. Read more about him here

Hope he is doing well now :(

As for the movie, it is good to know that he was involved with the making of the movie and Jonny Lee Miller, seen earlier in bit parts, essays a fine performance as the talented and troubled cyclist.

Rough Day

2008-05-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

On a day that we had a rather unsettling experience at work, kicking off a new project, I got to hear about one of my best friends at work, quitting the company. This bit of news has sent me into a depressive mood. Not only am I sad he is leaving but also sadder since his reasons for leaving are all legitimate :(

How I had Paul Tergat behind me!

2008-05-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Last Sat, I had the privilege of meeting Paul Tergat, the man who held the world marathon record until a few months ago, thanks to my running club (RFL) and Nike.

I will expand on this post soon and also post pics (to show how Paul was really standing behind me in a pic!), but didn't want to forget posting on it.

Paul has a reputation for being remarkably humble. He spoke of his starting running relatively late in life for a pro and then his journey. He also talked about how he wanted to be an engineer while he was growing up! He also gave us tips on how to make the jump from our current 4 hr levels to say a 3 hr level.

My planned sabbatical will come sooner now, I guess

Update: Pic is up!

Rainstorm and bingeing on books

2008-04-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

1. Something to Declare (Essays on France and French Culture) by Julian Barnes

2. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

3. Made in America by Bill Bryson

4. Deluxe Turntable Scrabble (the game, not a book!)

were bought Amazon last night. Barnes now joins McEwan, Ishiguro, Fry and Bryson as the most popular authors on my bookshelf. I do have 4 books by Graham Greene, but they were bought mostly due to the discount at the time of purchase, rather than chosen.

But that was not the event of the day.

The rumblings of the rather curiously named cyclone - Nargis, hit Bangalore with unexpected viciousness last night. 5 electric poles were uprooted. 2 fell on a bus and a car in front of me while I was driving. The driver and passengers of a Sumo next to me panicked and ran out, willingly getting drenched. All this while I was driving next to them! Thankfully the power supply was out. Hopefully no one got hurt. Further down, there were several trees uprooted and leaves and branches flying freely in the rain and wind and landing occasionally, abruptly on my car.

Was lucky to get home mostly untouched. Thank you.

If you were an Albiceleste follower like me...

2008-04-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

this would warm your heart. What an ad!

The Lives of Others

2008-04-20T09:34:00.001-07:00

The last time I had a severely cathartic experience, the kind when you have something burn you inside out due to the experience, as if someone left a cigarette inside your heart, was when I saw "No Man's Land." I maintain to this day that it is one of the finest movies ever.

The Lives of Others is one more in that genre. Incredibly well written, supremely poetic ending. Thank god for that woman due to whom I began reading Vikram Seth and then other poetry as a result. There is this unnerving scene within a scene in the movie when one of the main characters is referring to Lenin's description of Beethoven's Appassionata, saying something to the effect that he could not go on listening to it as he had a revolution on hand!

Please see it.
p.s. As my tribute to the movie, have begun reading The Dubliners by James Joyce and My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead

Coming back to Life

2008-04-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

Listening to "A Spot of Bother" by Mark Haddon on an audio book. Thanks to my dear friend "hennu magale" as we call her :)

Cycled 11.5 km to Cubbon Park, ran 9 km and cycled back home. A colleague from Bombay joined the Bangalore office y'day and today we got him started off on running. He exceeded expectations by getting his fiancee to join!

What a glorious start to the weekend!

An April Sunday

2008-04-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

This has been the best weekend in over a month.
Salvaged my scrabble rating a bit.
Managed to run a little over 5 miles, my longest since Bombay.
Managed to finish The Devil's Cup.
Found time to go out and buy a nice book, in a genre that I read little in, (Sci Fi) - The Dispossessed By Ursula Le Guin. The book comes highly recommended as does the author.
Went to a pub named Mojo's, just off Residency Road for the 1st time. They are run by the same folks who run Peco's and play excellent music.
And hey, some work got done as well.
And to top it all off, Ferrari won 1-2 at Bahrain. Not bad, eh?

30 plus, Jeetendra and other stories...

2008-04-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, jumping Jack Jeetu was on TV advertising a product called 30+. The premise of the ad was that you lose some vitality when you cross 30 and hence needed supplements.

2 days ago in the Bangalore edition of BEQ 2008 (in which incidentally we got whipped and didn't even qualify), I answered something that evaded all teams on stage. Derek in his usual style asked my name and since the theme for this year was retro anyways, said "You are Dharmendra, I am Jeetendra!" and even had a pic taken with me and posed for the cameras!

Eerily enough I was reminded of Jeetu yet again as I turned 30 a few days ago. Nothing special happened except that I ran for the 2nd time in less than a week. I have now resumed running after the docs at Manipal have said there is nothing apparently wrong with me :) Add to that a fun lunch with office folks. This year's reading target has taken a huge hit (no pun intended) with current work load. I plan to remedy that with a sabbatical later in the year.

For now, hope to recoup on the 3 day weekend

Mad as a March Hare

2008-03-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

The last 3 weeks have been the busiest 3 weeks of my life and have also been the 1st time when I have not stopped working on the weekend (3 of them in this case!). Life has been topsy turvy with an insane time schedule and loads of work. They have also added to an extended period of no running for about 7 weeks now :( So managing to maintain patience and staying motivated are huge issues. Further 2 weeks ago amidst this madness, my car got rammed by a truck from behind, at a signal, resulting in much heartburn and a substantial dent in my bank account.

When I started this year, I was hoping to take 3 months or more off to try and qualify for Boston, but now if I start running soon, I will be happy :(

Y'day someone at work remarked I have a good smile. I replied that it wasn't as good as it was rare and was thus was reminded of how much I miss running. You tend to get cranky after a while if you are used to running.

And further, it has been 3 weeks since I managed to read a book.

I am about 2 weeks away from turning 30.

What goes?

80th Academy Awards

2008-02-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

Saw this year's show live.
Looks like One must see "No Country For Old Men" and "There will be blood" amongst others.
If you were watching the show, did you also observe that the presenters for the award for Sound Mixing broke a tradition at the Oscars by saying "the winner is ..." rather than "the Oscar goes to..."?

Majji also got his predictions for 6 of the 8 leading Oscar awards right. More when I finish seeing some of the leading movies this year.

All in a Saturday's work

2008-02-20T02:21:00.000-08:00

Reading a book during the day.
Carnatic Classical Music Concert in the evening.
First ever meeting with Bangalore Scrabble Club (after which we have been monomaniacally playing scrabble at http://www.isc.ro/ everyday for the last 4 days)
Winning a Pub Quiz in the night, which paid for our drinks and those of our pals...

were all events last Saturday in our life :)

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead - Jeffrey Eugenides

2008-02-20T02:11:00.000-08:00

Latest addition to the growing pile on the desk, due to yet another coupon
after a hiatus in my bibliomania is My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead - Jeffrey Eugenides, a collection of love stories. Read NPR for a glimpse of what the book contains.

The Double Helix

2008-01-30T11:38:00.001-08:00

Very rarely does a book go beyond offering just the delight of enjoying a good read.
It does make a difference to your spirits at the time as well as improve your confidence about facing up to the world bringing general cheer into your life.

I am positively delighted to recommend The Double Helix by James Watson, as a work of simplicity and intellectual honesty, presenting as it does, a first hand account of the discovery of the structure of the DNA.

What stays with the reader is the charm of the youngish Watson who by virtue of perseverance and broad interests, while engaged in the race for the glory of the Nobel Prize matched wits with his older colleague, Crick, who was an acknowledged & intimidating intellectual giant.

Will try to make a longer post when I find time.