Shriram Properties Bengaluru Marathon 2018

Race Category: Half Marathon (21.1 kms)

Timing: 2:15:35

Well, the plan was to run a Full Marathon (42 kms) in this edition and I had registered for the same as well. But since my practice didn't meet the expectations for a Full Marathon, I decided to change this to a Half Marathon (21 kms) couple of weeks back.

The race started on a bright and clear sunny day at 6:45am with good turn up for the event. I had a Plan A which told me to run at a steady pace of 6:30 from the beginning till the end, and there was Plan B which told me to run dynamically based on how the body is feeling. Just after a kilometer, I decided to pursue with my Plan B and started off with a comfortable pace and regulate based on the intensity. And guess what, I was faster than my usual pace though out with this strategy. In fact, till the end of 16 kms, I was faster than my usual pace by well over 10 secs and that was something. 17th and 18th kms were slower due to higher elevation but ended my race with a personal best of 2:15 which is about a minute faster than my previous best ran in Mumbai this year.

Happy I managed to register my personal best again. Planning to raise the bar little higher during coming months. 

Face resemblance

Well, I'm not here to talk about the Facebook's face recognition or any other apps available in the app stores. I want to talk about one of my in-built feature which I'm not sure when or how it started.

I've this feature, rather a tendency, of trying to find a face match when I see any peculiar face. The face can be of anybody's - an actor while watching a movie, a friend, a colleague or for that matter anyone who is standing next to me in a queue at a cafe. And I find a face peculiar or interesting when my brain detects I know a face already which resembles this particular one. And the brain spawns a thread running an algorithm trying to find a face match considering all the face I've known so far. Yes, as expected, the database that stores all the faces is huge, which includes and not limited to relatives, friends, movie stars, TV series actors, sports players. On few occasions, this search hit is immediate and concludes the process. But on other occasions, the search goes on for quite some time irritatingly. Believe me, it's irritating, annoying and energy consuming when the brain can't figure out immediately and continues tiresomely to search every brain memory cell for the face match.

Few of my friends and colleagues are aware of this interesting feature in me. Few of them might have already got my texts mentioning about their look alike, according to my brain's algorithm.

I would like to bring to your notice few samples which went through this process of identification. And here are they:

- Neymar & Kunal Kemu (Football star & Indian movie actor)

- Dileep Rao & Rohit Sharma (American actor & Indian cricketer)

So what do you think about this interesting feature? :)

My first sub-60 minute 10K

Yeah!! I ran a 10K in sub-60 minute for the very first time in my life :)

Running a sub-60 minute 10K was like a long pending wish and I'm totally euphoric about this achievement. It all happened during a training run for the upcoming marathon which I've registered for.

If you have read my previous posts or if you are one of my close friends or colleagues, you might be already aware that I've been consistent with my runs during last couple of years. And during this time I've always tried to achieve this feat of sub-60 minutes but unfortunately was falling short by just couple of minutes. I had couple of 10Ks at 62-63 minutes on previous occasions and that was really disheartening. But I knew I could improve and that's exactly what happened this weekend, finally.

This improvement is seen primarily due to some changes I've made in my running routines and I'm glad I could figure out and bring in those changes. This has given me extra boost for further improvements and I know I will be doing better in my forth coming marathons.

TCS World 10K Bengaluru 2018

Race Category: 10K
Timing: 01:03:27

Disappointed! That's all I can say after the race.
With the past few week's practice and last week's Adidas training run's timing of 62 mins, I had set the target of under 60 mins for this race. But when I crossed the finish line, I realized I had finished it in about 63 mins, I was hugely disappointed.
I ran first 5 km faster than my usual pace and covered in about 28 mins. What I feel is that due to this faster pace during initial stage, I was unable to finish strong and hence the slower final timing.

Here is the result:

And since this was the only 10k I've planned for this year, the desire to complete in < 60 mins was stronger. Anyways, there is always next time.

BTW, I have registered for a Full Marathon scheduled for Oct'18. This will be my first FM and I'm eagerly looking forward to it. And I'm aware my training needs to be up to the mark to ensure a good run.

Himalayas 2018: Sandakphu trek

Wandering one gathers honey.

It’s that time of the year again when I travel all the way to Himalayas to have yet another trekking experience. I, along with my friends, decided to participate in trekking expedition to Sandakphu in West Bengal state organized by YHAI, a place where the Mount Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lohtse and many other mountains are visible. The idea was to explore a new side of India where we haven’t been before. On previous occasions we trekked to Khaliya Top in Uttarakhand and Brighu Lake in Himachal Pradesh. And I had done Sarpass trek a few years back which was again in Himachal Pradesh.
And by the way, on this occasion my wife, Varsha accompanied me for a trek for the very first time :)

Here is how we reached Darjeeling, our base camp:
- Flight to Kolkata, where we spent a day visiting places like Victoria Memorial and Howrah Bridge
- Overnight train journey from Kolkata to New Jalpaiguri (Darjeeling Mail)
- Taxi ride from New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling; Shared taxis readily available at the station

Day1: Reporting at base camp, Darjeeling
It was a comfortable hotel/hostel accommodation at Darjeeling. Once we were done with reporting formalities and freshening up, we headed out to explore the city. The railway station junction provided us a beautiful view of Kanchenjunga range in the background. The toy train with the vintage steam engine was a great sight too with its unique engine sound, drivers honking loud and the exhaust steam.

Day2: Acclimatization
Ours was the second group who would be heading towards Sandakphu the next morning. And we were around 25 people from all parts of India. A morning exercise activity at a nearby ground followed by a moderate walk to a Japanese temple was in the agenda. The group sweated it out on that chilly morning during exercise activity and then started our walk post breakfast. The Japanese temple called Peace Pagoda was built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii, a Buddhist monk from Japan. It’s a serene place where we all spent some time chanting “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” and, of course, clicking photos. Once back to the hostel, we were asked to deposit any extra luggage so that we can carry lighter backpack during the course of the trek. And we spent again roaming around the city for the rest of the day.

Day3: Trek to Tumbling (9,500 ft.)
Big day and we were up early to start our journey towards Dhotrey, about an hour’s journey in taxi, the starting point of our trek. Here we met our 2 guides, Gopal & Biren and we were all set for the trek after a small pep talk by the representative. We walked for ~8 km in that Singalila National Park.

It was cold, it was foggy and it was good. We had a lavish lunch at Tonglu and the lunch point was a nice little cozy place next to a small pond.

We walked further along the concrete road to reach our next camp, Tumbling. A beautiful location where we spent good amount of time taking photos. This was again a nice cozy home-stay (Siddhartha lodge) where we boys were given the top floor dormitory which was a suitable place to play some games post dinner. We enjoyed playing Mafia, a clever game of identifying assigned mafias in the group. The night was colder and we knew we were in the single digit temperatures.

Day4: Trek to Kalipokhri (10,256 ft.)
The next morning, we packed our lunch boxes and began our trek. The 13 km walk was again along the free road with very less visibility due to thick fog. We were entering Nepal soil during the course and that gave us a sense of achievement as it proved to be our first international trek ;-) The camp was again a small hotel accommodation. The temperature dipped further at night time. However, the fun only increased as we played card games and we all sang as a group. And to add glamour to the occasion, a few local singers and guitarists joined the fun night.

Day5: Trek to Sandakphu (~12,000 ft.)
This was just 6 km walk but certainly the most strenuous off all the days. The last 4 km was a steep ascent and every step was a great effort. When we reached the camp, again a home-stay/hotel accommodation, we were exhausted. The hotel staff didn’t make it any easier as they got busy attending a local politician instead of us, the scheduled guests. Anyways, the soup and lunch revived us. Next was the interesting part where I got a crazy idea of making everyone dance to the Garba/Dandiya beats. Good that our group leader had carried a Bluetooth speaker which came in very handy. We were cramped dancing inside the hotel and it got crazier further as we all decided to dance outside in the open space. Let me tell you it was freezing and with thick fog. But who cares, we had our dancing shoes on, not literally though. We had some wonderful dancers as well; pun intended :-p

Day6: Trek to Gurdum (9500 ft.)
The next morning was full of dramatic events. We were praying for a clear sky to witness sunrise with the Everest range and Kanchenjunga range in sight at 5:30 am, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. We all returned to the camp disappointed and started getting ready and with breakfast. While doing so, the skies cleared suddenly and there was sunshine and that’s when I came quickly back to the same spot to check if any mountains are visible. And guess what, the Kanchenjunga i.e. the 3rd highest mountain in the world was clearly visible over the layer of clouds. That! That sight was worth all the efforts. However, the Everest wasn’t keen to show up and grace us.
The 14 km descent was enjoyable as it was through the forest and steams and the weather was very pleasant. The camp was a beautiful hotel stay having a very few houses around and no drive-able road to it. People have to walk for a good distance to reach here. The owner had maintained a beautiful garden with some colorful flowers and strawberry tree stretch. The day ended with tasty dinner and many rounds of card games.

Day7: Trek to Rimbik (7500 ft.)
We walked in the dense forest again for few kms before reaching the lunch point, Sirikhola. The hotel was located next to a river and we didn’t require any special invitation to dip our legs in that cold running waters. In no time we all were at the river with all our cameras on.

Post lunch we headed towards our next camp and reached there by 5:30 pm. It was situated in a market area of the small town. In quick time, we took our rooms, got ready and were on streets for general shopping. 
A small ceremony was held before dinner to commemorate the completion of our trek. Completion certificates were handed over followed by some activities.

Day8: Ride back to Darjeeling
Early morning the taxis were ready to take us back to Darjeeling. On our way back, we were fortunate enough to get the view of the famous Sleeping Buddha, the Kanchenjunga range. This view was more majestic than the previous morning’s as this was the full stretch of mountains. What a wonderful sight it was!

After reaching base camp, we packed all our luggage and hired taxies to take us to New Jalpaiguri to board our return train to Kolkata. The wonderful trip ended at Kolkata where we all took our respective flights back. Our group parted ways with whole set of new ideas and plans for our next year’s trek :)

Word puzzle

From the beginning I've enjoyed spending time with my son, Nivaan taking care of his school activities and homework. Initially it was just about drawing, shapes, alphabets and numbers and he was highly enthusiastic about it and used to look forward doing them. But now that he has moved up to Sr.KG class, even his activities are to the next level, specifically spellings, words and sentence formation. Since these are comparatively difficult and time consuming, it becomes challenging to keep his interest level up during these activities. So, often I find myself coming up with new and innovative techniques of getting things done that really helps both of us. 😊
Since few months, there is this dictation activity going on in his class where all the kids are asked to write about 10 words dictated by the class teacher. These words are shared to the parents one week in advance so that they can make the kids practice writing those words. Making a kid write 10 words seems a pretty simple task but believe me, my son's interest lasts only till the forth word and after that it's a war between him and me. So I decided to come up with a great idea of getting those words added in a word puzzle and make him solve it. A puzzle and the sense of accomplishing solving it always drives the kids. It worked quite well in my case as my son got interested in it every week and in the process I could make him get the phonetics and spellings of each word correctly. The results in the class were also encouraging and this made him feel good about it. Mission accomplished! 😎
Here is how it went down. Initially, I made the word puzzle myself on a sheet of paper taking the words given by the teacher.

But as this was weekly activity, I decided to improvise and automate it. I wrote a program which would take 3 parameters as input; complexity, number of words and the list of words. And the output of the program is the word puzzle in a file. I just need to take a print out of this and voila! the meal is served on the table.
Before writing my own program, I realized few word puzzle tools were already available over the net, but I didn't find a perfect match for my requirements:

• I wanted word directions to be only left-to-right and top-to-bottom in the puzzle as I wanted them to be quite easy for my kid during initial weeks. 
• And I wanted the gap fillers in the puzzle from a selective set of alphabets like O, X, Z etc which will make my kid find the words easily.

Here is the snippet of it -

Input:

Output:

Activities like these will undoubtedly bring a lot of satisfaction not just in kids but also in us as well. Isn't it?! 😉

And now, can anyone puhleeease suggest how to make a kid write 'Fruit' and not 'Froot', and that too after they have taken all the phonetics classes? 😣

Fraud alert! (OLX)

So, tell me how many of you get annoyed by repeated reminder texts/mails cautioning us not to share any credit/debit card numbers, CVV, PIN, OTP or passwords with anyone?
I'm sure almost everyone gets annoyed. But believe me, this is very much required.
Because despite these reminders from the banks and institutes, many people out there get cheated every single day. The losses range between few hundreds to thousands of Rupees, and in few cases in lakhs. Yes right, just talk to a police office and he will confirm the same.

With all the convenience and ease that comes with the new technologies, through smart phones and applications especially, there also comes newer ways of exploiting the system and cheating people. That's why we see so many news headlines of frauds and scams every other day.

Many of us might be aware of how these digital systems, online banking processes and procedures work. But there are larger chunk of people who are new to all these changes, the upgrades and so called applications that are offered through smart phones. They are unsure, ignorant sometimes, about these and that's why they fall prey to online frauds. That's why it becomes more important than before why we need to educate our near and dear ones about these technologies and what different ways the fraudsters take to steal information and money.

Last year sometime, one of my relative was duped of money when he shared an OTP to someone who claimed to be a bank manager over phone. Of course, this OTP was used for some online transaction and not for "unblocking" of account as that fraudster claimed it to be for.

Now, here is a bigger and interesting story.

Recently, while talking to one of my near one, call him Kunal, he mentioned that he is trying to sell his iPhone through OLX and has got a buyer who is expecting him to courier the iPhone to Nigerian address. I immediately knew something is fishy and went into the details.

• Firstly, after the iPhone ad was published in OLX by Kunal, he receives a message to share his WhatsApp number from the fraud buyer Mr. "Smith" in order to discuss more.
• On sharing, Mr. Smith texts Kunal in WhatsApp and tells he is interested in buying the iPhone at a better bargain. To boost up his image, he further adds that he works in army and holds a good position and currently is out of country for a "mission". You can just say, he dished out a wonderful story.
• He even convinced Kunal saying that if he ships the iPhone to this "Nigerian" address, his bank will credit the amount to his account immediately on his instruction.
• Kunal in fact receives this below mail which kind of reinforces his claim and starts believing everything is genuine and should proceed towards the shipment.

In a hurry to get a good deal, he doesn't even take a step back and wonder whether all this sounds fine?! Forget about noticing the dead giveaways during the chat or in bank mails.
Please check below image to lookout for in these kind of bank mails for authenticity. Kunal was ready to ship his iPhone at the courier desk when I happened to speak to him. I'm pretty sure, Kunal wouldn't have received any money if he had shipped it.

I was fortunate enough to get in touch with Kunal at the nick of time and prevent this fraud from taking place. I informed him about all these details and convinced him that this whole thing was a setup and he should be careful about all these things going forward.

Mr. Smith, who was now disappointed understandably, had some nice words to share at the end.

If you just search for these kind of frauds and complaints, you will come across innumerable ones already reported in different forums. So please talk about these kind of frauds/scams with those who are less aware and who needs some help in understanding important topics such as the banking transactions, online shopping and the payment options along with the process involved with selling/buying used items etc.

You may as well share your similar experiences here.

Mumbai

Over the last few years, I've lived in couple of state capitals and visited many other cities in India but no other city has impressed me as much as the amchi Mumbai. Yes, that's a big statement which might surprise a few and few others might simply acknowledge what I mean exactly. Well, I visited Mumbai for the very first time recently to participate in the Tata Mumbai Marathon 2018 held on 21st January. It was a 3 days visit and I had just enough time to explore at least a few interesting places in the city. My friend and host, Abhishek was gracious enough to take me around and made sure I had a memorable trip.

Here are the places I visited and the things that impressed me:

The Gateway of India:
The distinguished monument at the waterfront was a great scene. The monument pulls good crowd and its neighbors, Taj and Trident buildings just add to the beauty. And these are the places I generally like to visit and spend some time. And that's exactly what my friend and myself did, clicking photos and taking in the whole atmosphere.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya:
Formerly named as the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, was an interesting place with a great variety of artifacts of great historic importance and included artifacts from other nations as well.
Jehangir Art Gallery:
A quick stop-over at this gallery amused us with some awe inspiring art work. Few paintings were simply outstanding showcased by artists from all over India.
Sanjay Gandhi National Park:
A well known wildlife sanctuary with dense flora and scarce fauna is a good option to spend some quite time in the natural habitat. There is a short ride inside in mini-bus to take us around few tigers and lions. Spotted deer are common and are found easily in the interiors. A lake/pond in the middle has a boat riding option where people can enjoy.
Local commutation:
Everybody uses local trains in Mumbai and I'm sure it's one of the most talked about thing. I had heard about it before but I understood it quite well only when I traveled in it. The auto-rickshaws outside the stations are lined up to transport the incoming crowd to their destinations. All of a sudden, everything around you seems to go in that fast track and you in your own thoughts stuck there watching, perhaps admiring the city pace.
Mumbaikars:
I need to emphasize on few aspects here otherwise the whole description about the city would be utterly incomplete if I miss mentioning them. 

- Firstly, along with the city getting kinda evolved over the years, the Mumbaikars have also evolved and not just the systems around which they exist. Take an instance, they follow some unsaid guidelines during the commutation in those over-crowded local trains; they know exactly how to or which side to board or get off, how to adjust and accommodate with others in that train without being too fussy about the whole over-crowded situation. Mumbaikars understand very well the problems what one faces and are more than willing to help others, just like when I had an altercation at the counter due to unavailability of exact change to buy a ticket, people came forward to lend that amount to me. I tried to transfer them online but they simply refused to take back asking me to consider them as friends.

- You will hardly see any taxi/auto-rickshaw driver overcharging or denying the trip just because he doesn't want to go to a particular destination. I know there will be exceptions and all, but when compared to other cities, this is so great.
- I found this city comparatively clean and I'm certain that this change cannot happen with just the system. Even the people contribute immensely in keeping the city clean. I found many folks who made sure to keep it clean and even objected others when they tried to litter around.
Mumbai Marathon:
Last but not the least, the Mumbai marathon is immensely popular in India and now I know why it's regarded as the best in India. The route took us through the sea-link i.e. the bridge connecting the Bandra and Worli through the sea and it was a great sight and experience running on it. Followed by it was the marine drive which each and every runner would have enjoyed. Local crowd came in good numbers to cheer the runners. They even went ahead distributing orange slices, water and candies. As if that wasn't enough, they even brought placards with funny & witty lines and shouted inspirational quotes all along.

When I sat alone at the airport while returning, I started wondering what was more satisfying, was it running my personal best at the marathon, meeting my trekking friends or was it the charming city Mumbai experience. I couldn't figure it out frankly.

Tata Mumbai Marathon 2018

Race category: Half Marathon (21.1 kms)
Timing: 2:16:26

I had registered for the Tata Mumbai Marathon 2018 in Aug'2017 as I was already practicing for Bengaluru Half Marathon and Hubballi Half Marathon for the months of Oct'2017 and Nov'2017 respectively. I got application confirmation in Oct'2017 based on my previous 10K timing of Bengaluru 10K. This provided me ample HM experience and practice.
Unfortunately, the month of December was hectic with a lot of traveling due to two marriages at home and hence I didn't have any good running going on. With only 3 weeks of running in January, I came to Mumbai with no great expectations and set a realistic target of 2:20. I reached Mumbai two days prior to the race and collected the bib on 19th. It's quite difficult to come to a place like Mumbai and not visit the interesting tourist attractions. The fact that it was my first visit to the Mumbai city added more excitement. And thanks to my wonderful friend, Abhishek who had all the energy, time and patience to take me around the city during these two days. Though we kept it light the previous day of the Marathon, I somehow felt little tired the previous night, may be due to traveling and lack of sleep.

On the race morning, I came to the holding area well before the scheduled time and warmed up. The plan was simple: run at constant speed from start to finish. The race started at 5:40 and within few minutes we were at the sea-link connecting Bandra and Worli and it was simply amazing. After couple of kilometers, I didn't feel any tiredness and started my self-talk: "I'm feeling good and strong". I changed my plan and started running at a faster pace as I felt strong. Taking advantage of the easy elevation, I continued for few more kilometers at that improved pace. That gave me confidence to update my target to 2:17. At around 12-13 kms mark, there was this crazy road which was quite steep uphill and I said to myself not to stop running at any cost. And I was successful in doing that and I started feeling much better. For next few kilometers the route was just next to the sea and it was a great sight. By this time the sun was up and it was quite a view; the sea, the birds in good numbers, people enjoying on the beach will surely give a soothing effect. The enthusiastic crowd cheering and providing support were great. At no point during the race I stopped or walked. I finished the race surprisingly strong, in fact I could afford a 200 mts sprint at the end (which few suggest not to do).
And when I checked the time, it read 2:16 and that brought a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. I was really happy with the efforts and this instilled a new urge to improve further with some changes in the running plans and good practice.

Glad that I ran in this this Mumbai Marathon and I know for sure I will run there again in coming years!