Mango Mania

Dhammango
Dhammaniac
Dhammalgova

For those who came in late (a la Phantom comics, and haven't read this, I am mad with joy after eating malgova mangoes for the 3rd straight day for dinner...

There are those who say Alphonso is the best, but only "those" who haven't eaten the malgova ;)
Whatever the case, (not mango case or a case of exploding mangoes you nut case!) mango is indeed the king of fruits...

You remember the Calvin strip where he eats excess sugar and blurts out gibberish, this post is a lot like that

Stained Finger

Woo hoo! I voted :)
After n years of being away from home, I finally managed to vote. A curious mix of events had conspired to prevent me from voting over the last few years.
Also managed a 6 mile run, thanks to office having half a day off, to let us vote. While the allowance was unnecessary, the drop in traffic is thoroughly welcome

Boston Marathon 2009

Deriba Merga (Ethiopia) won in 2:08:42
Rono (Kenya) 2:09:32
Ryan Hall (USA) 2:09:40

The defending champ Robert Cheruiyot dropped out towards the end. The winner won by over 50 sec and was leading by almost a minute at one point.

And this is a marathon!

Politeness Benefit of being a new entity

Typically, I prefer to be polite to people I don't know when I meet them for the 1st time.
Of course, there are occasions when I am not so polite to utter strangers. But those are exceptions.
And this is something I picked late in life.
What about you?

Dark Night

When I was in engg., on one of my room walls, I had written down all the answers which cost me the winning of a quiz. There were only about 5 such items. Yeah, I was psychotic!

In the last few years, running had taken so much precedence that I had not given as much time or attention to quizzing. So winning/losing didn't matter. And besides, the latter is what happens mostly given the quality of quizzers, especially in Bangalore.

Today was one of those days when I went in with reasonable expectations for the Brand Equity Quiz 2009, Bangalore edition. I had a strong team mate and hence was hoping to make it to the finals. There is a golden rule in quizzing - First guess is usually right. I violated it, to our misery today.

Haven't been so upset with myself in quite a while. Reminded me of those days when I would come back fuming and sullen and scrawl on my wall.

Keep telling myself that these are not things that will change your life. Same as what they tell you about love - Tread carefully, Don't do this, Don't do that. And then you see the woman and your heart flips. Kambakt ishq!
Quizzing was still my 1st love.

Plan to run a fast 5 km atleast in the morning :) There is nothing a 7 min mile can't cure.
Update: Ran 9.7 km in 48 min. Am getting there. Come home, all is forgiven... ;)

Sunfeast World 10K

The rather grand sounding title for the race rather overstates the standard of organization for the 10 km race. There is indeed a set of international competitors, but the race is poorly done. Not much jazz. Too much noise.
However I had a lousy race last year and aim to better that time of 51 min. That alone is a reason to register for me.
Just registered after deliberating for over a week whether to pay for what I do almost every week, anytime I run. Hopefully the goodie bag will make up for my entry fee.

Strategic Intuition - Book Review

Read here

Weekend book buys

While I have consciously stayed off book purchasing new books this year, there are some which come recommended strongly and others which just jump up and asked to be bought

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif

The 1st book above is a tale of murder, insanity and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary!
The 2nd comes strongly recommended by a bibliophile friend.

A Series of Uncommon Events (mostly...)

The last week has seen
- a significant expansion of friends' circle (an uncommon event)
- birthday parties of friends incl. one who shares my b'day (again uncommon event)
- winnings at Opus (not so uncommon event)
- my buying booze for friends' parties (never happened before!)

I started this post with the working title "3 day weekend and accompaniments" but decided to change it midway considering the eventful leadup.

I am on my next few book reviews right now and YES! finally have Alberto Manguel's A Reading Diary (thanks to a gift from a buddy). So splendid start to the next year of my life.

Decided after much heartburn and deliberation to forego - first a trip to Hyd to a buddy's abode and then a trip to Mysore to run at Chamundi Hills, in favour of catching up on my year's reading target.

Here's wishing a stupendous day to everyone who reads this :)

Random Thoughts

I saw this headline on DD a moment ago "Mahavir Jayanthi celebrated with religious fervour"
WTF?
Mahavira and religious fervour!

In engg. college, I had this batchmate we nicknamed Dil Fek (Dil pronounced as in Dill with a soft D sound, Fek as in Fake) since he lost his heart quite frequently to almost every 2nd woman he met, especially in the final year. I think I am turning into that guy now. I am in love yet again :)

Once every 2 months or so, I am overcome my what I call the real estate virus. I feel like acquiring some property. Most of those times, the virus is self destructive since it generates a matching strain of paranoia linked to the threat of EMI till old age. I am currently under the 2nd such spell for the year.

I still want a book shelf. My mom gave me no such gift this year :(

Read this

Someone tells me I am their hero. Day is made. Q.E.D

Lok Sabha Elections 2009

And you thought people only wanted to follow the US Presidential Elections.
I guess it was a matter of time.

Here's Google's coverage of the Indian Elections

Running With a Tummy

I am one of the authors at this blog titled "Running with A Tummy."

My fellow authors at the blog have an average IQ of about 160-180 as far as I know :)
We write very infrequently about running, but I enjoy the blog url, which refers to the way we look despite our running, which is infrequent as well.

Am also adding this to my blogroll

Ek Fool Do Mail...

Today was a significant day in terms of my ageing or perhaps not.

I had contrasting experiences in my communication. I struck a bond with a colleague by being plain civil in my handling of some work and my conversation. I had what I would count as "could have been better" day on a personal note when someone took offence to the way I communicate.

The startling thing is that I am often told that my personal relationships are significantly better than my professional ones and I should learn to replicate the former in the latter. And I maintain more or less the same tone in both believing in a "consistency of communication" stance, rather than use one over the other. The only discernible difference is a conscious avoidance of expletives at work.

So much for trying...