One fasting swami you have probably never heard of

Unless you are a reader of the Hindu, this is one story you perhaps missed.

And the guy didn't exactly fast from morning to evening. He fasted for some phenomenal amount of time (~144 days) from what the news item says.

And the cause was quite noble too. Pity we are too busy watching a media circus.

Depressing.

HT to Sanchayan

New Arrivals on my bookshelf

To clean up some of the melancholy from the previous post, here are some shiny new additions to the bookshelf, part of which has been purchased thanks to credit card points :)

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The pillow book by Sei Shonagon

The Cilappattikaram (the tale of an anklet),

The absent traveller (Prakrit love poetry from the Gathasaptasati of Satavahana Hola)

The last 3 books were Jerry's recommendations and the last one in particular is perhaps the first work from Prakrit that I have laid my hands on. Merry times ahead

Boston Sadness

In my mother tongue, there is a saying which has an equivalent in several languages. It roughly translates to, 'Who will protect the field if the fence grazes on it?" Essentially, who guards the guards, etc.

The title of this post is a reference to that long pending dream of mine to line up at the starting line in Hopkinton Square.

From my discussions with the BAA, it appears that the dream will have to wait for a while.

I had spent the last few weeks agonizing over my chances of getting a place to run in Boston in Apr 2012 given the new norms. Among various nutcase activities I had compiled the no. of people across my age category (18-34) for the top 10 marathons in the US to see how many would beat me. Now all that is irrelevant :(

I had known that the new norms favoured faster runners. I had not tried to explore the ambiguous territory of whether "fast" was an age-adjusted term. Apparently it is. And that breaks my heart. I had kept away from checking that out till today hoping to leave it for later, when I would find out in Sep anyways. In one reckless moment I wrote a mail to the BAA to clarify this and they did quite generously and clearly.

Running is the one activity that guards me from getting down due to various other causes. However that leaves me open to the risk of being vulnerable to something that saddens me and has its origins in running. Not getting a place in Boston 2012 despite making the 3:10 norm is a terrible pill to swallow.

This means that I will need to beat the 3:05 norm next year and by a large margin to ensure I am through. While that is infinite motivation to run faster in the future (I have been suffering from marginal complacency & some hubris in the past 5 weeks, since I got back from the US), it means that I will need to exceed my own performance by an order of magnitude.

Humility is never late in arriving

Of course, I will still apply in Sep 2011, but my calculations show that there is no chance of my qualifying since older folks will be able to beat their norm by a larger margin than my piddly 13 seconds

Mumbai Police appeal

Don't drive for two hours so that emergency crews have empty road.

Help the authorities manage better. Don't panic

Bomb Blasts in Mumbai

For those who didn't know, there have been 3 bomb blasts a while ago in Mumbai as reported on Rediff.

Check this http://news.rediff.com/commentary/2011/jul/13/liveupdates.htm

for updates

Take care everyone.

Just hope no one is hurt

IIT . IIM . Aaaiiiyaaiiiiooo !

Inspired subject line shamelessly pilfered from the Opus' weekly mailer.

Some killer witty person pens these lines week after week for Opus.

Somewhat reminiscent of "British Intelligence, ... Average Intelligence" line from Cars-2

Pedder Road, old friend, we meet again

After a 5 week layoff from running, necessitated by an injury, I resumed running y'day.

Ran about 5 miles - with the last mile being the fastest mile of the 5.

 

And then this morning, said hello to my old friend (I have spent more weekends running up Pedder Road and hence been in its 'company" than I have spent with anyone except perhaps my parents!).

 

Ran into several running buddies from Bombay who were all finishing up, thanks to my waking up late :(

And last night's monstrous dessert at a friend's wedding feast was just asking to be burned up.

 

But then, running 10 miles was made doubly tough since I ran in the rain for almost the entire return leg from Chowpatty...However the newer lighter me (despite the weight gained back in the last 5 weeks) found it much easier to go up Pedder Road twice, than I have ever found it in the past.

 

Good friend, we shall start meeting again, more often.

Man can be destroyed, but not defeated or could he?

Hotchner on Hemingway - mildly depressing piece (read it to see why it is sort of recursive!)

HT to someone on my twitter TL that I can't recall ...

roger bannister in sports illustrated, 57 years after 'the moment' in modern running

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1187805/index.htm

Joga Bonito

http://meretricula.tumblr.com/post/7244678139/stickmarionette-copaamericanepsport-tango

HT to Prem Panicker

Radical Honesty

http://www.esquire.com/features/honesty0707

HT to Prem Panicker

Bharat Matrimony & LinkedIn

In one solid WTF headline I read that BM & LI tied up. As one smart friend wagged, you can now send your horoscope and resume to your future father-in-law and say, naukri nahi to chhokri to de do!

The Azarenka Test

Just a few moments Petra Kvitova passed what is now termed the Azarenka test. Essentially in 6 of the last 8 tournaments, the player who beat her has gone on to win the tournament. Fodder for a bunch of journalists and bloggers including yours truly. While I read this when she got beaten, the latest link I chanced upon is from the wackily named 10sballs! Read http://www.10sballs.com/2011/07/02/the-azarenka-test/