Pushing the Rebel in Me

Being a rebel gives you an adrenaline kick isn't it? Hearing people say or ask you to do things that doesn't make sense or not meaningful and not having a say in it is a really irritating feeling. There is an urge to shout at top of my voice and make the other person understand the worthlessness of the task but I control myself. I am feeling all pumped up and want to fight till the end, till I get my justice. A rebel in the making of sorts.

Ever since the team has changed, I am still trying to get to know the new team. Its in the understanding phase where I am trying to guage others frequecies. I had two such incidents today.

From 11th to 13th of this month, there is an audit taking place in our project. Each of us have to follow certain things to make sure we are aligned with the Accenture norms such as no external mails to unofficial addresses such as gmail/yahoo etc, removal of unauthorized softwares, removal of non-official multimedia files such as songs, personal photos etc. One point that I was not in agreemeent was clean whiteboard policy. First off in this new office that we have moved into almost a year back, the workstations are eerily similar to setup at call centers. As soon as one enters a bay one can see parallel rows of workstations spaced equidistant from one end to other having a gap in the middle. At each workstation we have one small notice board at the back of our monitor and a white board beside it.

This white board is the point in question now. One of the TL's came today and starting giving instructions to everybody to wipe off everything on the whiteboard and to keep it clean. Pointing to one workstation, he started shouting "You see this, this should not be like this. This will effect the rating of our project and consequently our company for breaking one of the rules". It cheesed me off. That whiteboard he had pointed had some defect numbers, some squiggly notes, some reminder, all written in not so legible format. What the hell is wrong with it I don't understand? Are we supposed to learn how to write neatly taking some lessons? Why the hell should it be clean and neat? I don't get it. What's the purpose of having a whiteboard if not for writing?

After he left, my lead came to my desk and asked me to clean up my whiteboard. Very recently I had moved to this workstation, so what was on it was written by someone else. I wanted to leave it that way and voiced my protest. I was expecting a non sensical reply but he was bit rational. He told me anything non-project related should not be there. What bugged me though is what he said next, there shouldn't be any drawings on it.

I know 3 people in our project who are just splendid at drawing and many a times I just snoop in to their bays just to look at the drawing on the whiteboard. Is a creative expression of one's capability and it must have given them immense pleasure in having it there every day. Art is a magical tool. A regular boring workstation having a factory archaic setting can be transformed into a beautiful place to work at with such drawings or pin-ups. I can just imagine the pain they must have felt when being asked to just "clean-up". Why is it we are forced to stick to norms and anything divergent is treated as violation? The Gen-U generation are like antique pieces who don't even want to scratch any creative surface.

Part 2 of the gripe is with the objective setting for the upcoming year. Every year at this point of time we need to complete a form that details our objectives and targets that we plan to accomplish.

Kar Chronicles - Jul 10

Woke up very early today, around 5:40 A.M. There was slight change in plan. First I went to driving and then came back home. Set out for jogging.

Weather was bit moist and dew was still settling in. Perfect calmness and pleasant atmosphere. Nothing more I can think of.

Things on my mind-
About reality of realty blogging, fashion show.

Kar Chronicles - Jul 10

Woke up way too early today by 5:40. Hit the snooze and slept for other 10 minutes. Woke up the second time, refreshed myself and reached the park in other 20 minutes. Weather was quite cold outside. Did some warm up, let my body get some heat. I set out to jog and damn it was very tiring. By second round, I was literally waiting for the elusive 10th.

When I reached my 9th round, I saw the same girl from yesterday in the park. Happily smiling, she said "Hi" and took a nice seat of the bench. Her father had already started his round of jog.

Things on my mind-
Most part I was thinking about most important topic of my married life "Realty, House and the Rest..". Two other things I tried to turn my mind to were Car driving and the discussion around the house.

Overall a good and exhausting jog, the way I wanted it.

Kar Chronicles - Jul 8

Woke up around 6:45 today thanks to Nanna's Galaxy Tab lying outside on the dining table. My alarm on phone was quietly "Stopped" not "Snoozed" by my sweetheart. By the time we hit the bed yesterday it was around 2:00 A.M. Understandably she didn't want my precious sleep taken away. 

I peeped outside my bedroom window, could see some sun light pouring in. Yesterday I had to forcibly skip my morning jogs and I also had eaten a lot in the last two days. So I got up, got ready and was out on the road by 7:10.

I reached the ground and began taking doing my warm up exercises. I saw two cute girls holding shuttle rackets which were almost their height facing each other with about 5 feet apart and trying very hard to make contact with the shuttlecock. It was quite windy. I started with my leg press exercise i.e. standing upright, bending your right knee backward while keeping the left leg straight and holding in that position by the right hand for about 15 seconds.I did the same with left leg this time. When I was about to do the second rep I heard one of them say "Uncle, you already finished that leg". I told her I was repeating.

As I was proceeding to do the fourth rep, with way of reminding, the same cute girl frantically shook her  hand in the air. Once she got my attention, she did some mock leg stretch to tell me I needed to do that. It was such a cute site. I wanted to lift her and give her a nice kiss. I gave her a smile, told her that I had few more reps to do before I came to that exercise.

I then proceeded to do my leg stretch.

Pat came a question "Uncle, do you come everyday"
"Yes"
"Oh..but it is so difficult no?"
"Ya..little difficult. And you?"
"Only Papa gets up sometime and takes me, otherwise I can't come daily" she replied with a cute smile. It was time proceed with my jog. So I told both of them one really strong advice "Don't play shuttle in this atmosphere. Its too windy. You can jog if you want" and off I went.

Came back home, finished my quota of crunches. Feels good. Really good.

P.S. - Had to forcibly skip my jog yesterday and couldn't do it either in the morning or evening. The morning is thanks to Lester, my onsite manager. He just ate our brain non-stop for at least 2 hours on the phone. Even a routine home exercises at home was not possible. 

Kar and Car should go together - II

This post is continuation of this one. Do read that one.

The second such movie we saw was 'Don-2'. This was scheduled at a reasonable timings i.e. around 8:00 P.M. Somehow that day it required me to stay and have a call on clearing up some blocking issue. Work and life dilemma kicked in. Love won the war fair and square. The toughest part was to reach the theater. I successfully managed to extricate myself by 7:20 P.M. With a single point action mode and geared up fully I zoomed full throttle, honking like never before and zip zapping through the tough traffic. It was a photo finish by the time I made it. Deja-vu. This was eerily reminiscent of the time I had made it to the first time. Movie sucked, we both agreed.

We also agreed for another important thing - No movie on weekdays. It was just too dangerous, very tight time lines, late night and unnecessary risk.Again here is where Bike has got me that wonderful feeling without which movies would have been just not possible.

The courtship days have been one of the greatest moments in my life.Meeting Sammu and coming back, faced some severe redressing from Nanna about my late night travels. Athamma too had been complaining about my late night leaving. All these I accepted and apologized, vowed not to repeat, fingers crossed though. None could stop me from meeting my love and the desire, longing to be with her increased more and more as the days passed. 

Krishna used to call me crazy for returning so late in the night and also used to caution me to drive steadily. The lovely moments that Sammu and I had at the end of the day when I dropped her at the home, sharing some thoughts at the parking lot of her apartment and talking for a while were too hard to explain to him. It was a magical feeling. The ride back home was only filled with thoughts of catching up with her again.

During the time between the engagement and the marriage I had also taken up the car driving lessons in tandem with my morning walks. I used to walk for half an hour and then proceed to learning classes. I had been to around 11 classes in 3 weeks span of time. I don't remember if I had paid the whole amount or the part amount. Once the marriage dates started coming nearer, I didn't have time to attend. This, I realize has go down as one of the worst mistakes of my life for which I am seeing the after affects now. 

Marriage finally took place, followed by honeymoon which was then followed by two months of getting the house together. I was then sent out to Toronto. After I came back, frankly I didn't have time to think of driving. Though Sammu used to remind me, it just skipped my mind and had gently postponed it.

My first thoughts on buying a car was to understand how financially viable it was going to be. With thoughts of buying a flat in minds, this was gonna be a huge finance to maintain on my own. Car wasn't looking attractive after looking at the finances wherein around 55K per month would need to be shelled out to maintain our lives. These were my thoughts initially.

Amma has moved in with us after a week or so when I returned from Toronto. It wasn't until we started hiring cabs when Nanna used to frequent us to go to any place, be it to Avva's house (which was roughly 8 KM's) or to see for flats ( which were around 7 or 10 KM's radius) I realized the necessity of having a car badly. It is so difficult to go out with family and especially when we are at places like Kondapur. Back when we were living at Hyderabad, Nanna's car was always there to move around in town. With Nanna now stationed at Eluru, the transport has become very difficult.

It is indeed a painful reminder each time Nanna comes and we have to hire a cab to go out of the house. I had to learn it. It dawned on me really bad that this needs to be done on high priority. The only thing that stopped me from proceeding was the driving school. The one that I had joined during the post-engagement time was the second time I joined a driving school. It didn't give me good confidence and I wasn't sure having another one would do me any good.

I was banking on my colleague Kalyan who had offered to teach me. The last week he was bit busy and we were supposed to start from today as in from Saturday. I tried to reach him through phone but to no avail as I was getting switched off messages. These were the thoughts running in my mind and I wanted to do them in my way and not tell anything to her till I started going to drive at least 3, 4 times.

Today was the day when the message has hit me hard. We had gone to Avva's house today for the pooja in the morning. As Amma asked us to be there in hurry, I had asked her to adjust this one time on the bike.In the evening while being in the house, we saw that it was raining profusely outside, a literal downpour of rain. We completed our dinner early by 8:30 P.M. and it was then Balu anna came to rescue. He offered to send his car with driver to drop us home. During the ride back I could feel that I have failed her as a husband. I shudder to think what would have happened had the car not been there. This was the final straw on the camel's back. She was upset too during the ride back and I could somehow feel this is the cause of it.

I have now decided I would go to the motor driving school starting tomorrow. I will also capitalize on Kalyan to try out my learning with his car. Both together would give me enough confidence, energy and most importantly win my heart's love all over again. I vow myself on this day, on this post, on this very line that by my sixth month anniversary I would learn the car driving and buy a car too, if I can. The "if" is only because I am not sure how is the availability of "Blue" color models are.

I sincerely pray and hope this I can achieve with the same steadfast determination I have committed regulating my health and my weight.

In conclusion - Kar and Car should go together. 

Kar and Car should go together - I

I have failed her today and I failed miserably. Today has been the limit and  I have broken her trust. I am feeling really bad and guilt is just breaking me apart.With utmost pain I realize car is one of the utmost priority in life after marriage. 


Bike and Me-


My bike has been my lifeline for over 5 years now and I never regretted one day. Of course I do often feel my choice of bike could have been better. Traffic doesn't really get on me and I love going for any distance just to hang out with friends, to catch a play, ride tricki, go out late in the nights. Riding is such a joyful feeling. Be it rain or sun, I never really bothered or complained about the distance, the seemingly endless waits at traffic jams, the dust etc. There were times when I rode my bike with only rear break working. The best parts are always when going out late in the night. It feels adventurous. 


There were good number of times when I had dropped in at Avva's place, Anu or I used to sneak out in the night to CreamStone, get our favorite ice-cream. Nikki was responsible to keep a watch and open the latch door quietly so as to not to disturb anyone. After ending the discussions around 12 or 1 in the night, I used to go back to my room. Sometimes, it used to be the movies that ended our nights and I always used to fall asleep during the second movie for which I only insist saying seeing one movie is not enough.

I have done quite extensive biking and I loved the moments.

Engaged and Thereafter - 

December 18th, was the day I got engaged to my darling, my love, my sweetheart Sammu. You can read more about it here. That was the starting of one of the most beautiful phases in my life. It was the "text-talk-talk-talk-text-talk-talk-talk-text" phase. The last text is for "Good night...muaahhh" message. The more I talked the more I got to know her and more I missed being with her. The days after engagement my life at work took a dramatic turn.

From being a zombie working late in the nights, fixing defects, building code, debugging the issues and sending out midnight feelers, I came to the state where I started leaving by 7 or 7:30 in the evening. Even in the office, messages never stopped, smileys were streaming in and out. Naresh,  my TL, sometimes used to take my phone, keep it aside and then start the meeting.

The work at the project was at its peak. The work at hand was like irresistible, the challenging deadline, the zeal to complete it much before time and with perfection- the kind of job that gives me some of the sweetest nights that fills me with abundant joy , satisfaction and more importantly the pride of having it done. It was only my true love that opened my doors to the joy beyond work. This was a phase where not many friends I knew were around me. From a guy who started living in the world where the soundless chants of "Work is Worship" went on and on, my love gave a new meaning, a new perspective towards life.

I started looking at work differently. Suddenly I realized the HUGE amount of time I was wasting going for tea breaks or having elaborate lunch or trying to do things that had good enough allocated time in zippy. For me the only thought on my mind was the idea to leave by 7. It was after that the real life began for me. Almost 3 days in a week I used to meet her. Sometimes I used to meet her during the lunch breaks too visiting the Inorbit Mall, which was just adjacent to her office. I met once to give my measurements for the suit for reception, during the time I had to alter my measurements and finally during the time I took the suit.

Most evenings I used to land up at her house and then we went out for dinners trying out at different restaurants. The weekends were like paradise as I had full fledged time with her. The weekdays were challenging and tough. It was almost 45 minutes drive from my office at Gachibowli to her place Domalguda.After picking her up and having dinner outside, I used to drop her at her place and then come back to Madhapur around 11:30 or 12 in the night. The bike as I said earlier was my lifeline without which I could have never done.

Sir, Bill episode - Part II - (Part I - here)

The greatest feat I would say during those days had been the times we set out to go for movie during week days. I can never forget the first of such movies - Journey. For some reason my bike wasn't in a proper working condition. I had to go to Prasad's by 7:30 P.M. and the show timing was 7:45 P.M. I took our general shuttle bus at 6:30 and then realized what an atrocious and agonizing torture it was with the traffic and the actual distance seen from a vehicle of this kind, something other than a bike could offer. I got down the bus near the Lakdi Ka Pul junction, took an auto on advice of my bus friends who also made sure I took a short cut road to the theater. I finally made it by 7:40, huffing and panting. Sweat was pouring through my skin and I was running from the parking lot to the entrance.

As I cleared the entrance screening, my searching eyes found her standing there with a shocked look in her eyes seeing my condition. Me, on the other hand, was brimming with happiness and did a mental victory lap dance in my mind for having made it in time. Before she had any chance to express, whatever loving feeling she had, I rushed to the ticket counter, took the tickets.

The joy of making it in time somehow wasn't as appealing to her as it had been to me. I got some sound advice on taking care not to do such things again and why on earth I had to run like that as if some building was on fire. Quickly apologizing we sat at our seats wading through the dark theater with the light from our cell guiding us. I always hate coming late to cinema as I love watching the small clips that they put.

This was a intense drama movie with some solid acting. The movie starts with a bus collision and we see passengers of both sides colliding with each other, heads smashing against the front seat, people getting dislodged from their seats and flying up, everything in slow motion. What follows is deconstructing the events that led to this. You have two story lines running with two different pairs. The rest of the movie is about getting to know the back stories. Both of them are heart touching, gritty and very well presented. I loved the story of the guy who works as small time laborer in a factory and his love story that blooms with the nurse. The actress who played the nurse has got to be one of the toughest women out there and did absolutely wonderful.

As the story reached the half-time, it was time for pop-corn. I got out, got in the line even though I had no money at all in the pockets. Zilch. I had also tried in vain attempt calling Chandan in a hope that he could transfer some money during the time I was coming in the auto. As I reached the counter, I told the sob story to her of how I have come to position 0. I profusely apologized to her and explained my tight purse position owing to the shopping and expenses incurred for marriage. She was angry, understandably but reasonable and fair. She assured me it wasn't a big deal. We went back to our seats and watched the rest of it. Though it was a very good movie, I felt the first of the first movies could have been set on a lighter note, something funny, something comic or an outright romance. Anyways once the movie finished, I dropped her at her home, made an apology again. This time she gently squeezed my hand, gave a nice fulsome smile and said "That's ok.". The smile made my day until the point I reached home.

Since I had no money I had phoned my mom who was at Hyderabad that time and was up late as she was having her golden time with her sister who had come from Australia. If the feelings of Sammu on knowing my money situation is to be compared with what I had to hear from my mom - Sammu's was like quick heat one experiences by touching something hot while mom's was like being made to stand on burning charcoal or rather sleep, which ever has a everlasting affect. Of course, I should have had a minimum decency to be loaded with some money but the way things were at hand, I hardly had time to go to loo, forget about coming down to cafeteria, waiting in line and drawing money from ATM. Things were happening too fast and money was dwindling too fast too than my normal limit of withdrawal.

Anyway this was a lesson well learnt. One the importance of having a bike and the need to carry money.

More to follow in part II...

Kar Chronicles - Jul 6

Woke up late today and was little sad that I may have to cancel today. Weather proved to be wrong and surprised me with nice breezy air around 8:00 A.M as I peaked through my bedroom curtain. I rushed myself through the chores, came out, put on my tracks and went to jog. This in no way means I am gonna take back my words of Hyderabad weather though.

I had some crazy surprise in mind. Today we had to go to our Avva's place. My atha, who stays near by to our house had called us up and we decided to go to Avva's place together in the morning. After cutting the call, Sammu had asked me if she had called us for the breakfast.She hadn't and I could see a little disappointment in her. My atha is one of the sweetest persons ever and I wouldn't have minded calling her up and inviting ourselves for breakfast. Usually she would have called us up, but she might have forgotten this time.

Our breakfast usually consists of me eating oats/musili with milk and sugar and Sammu having her regular dose of masala oats. Amma has her bread and egg combo. So when she had sweetly inquired about the breakfast invitation, I could sense the longing to have something other than the routine offering. So I mentally decided I am gonna bring the food from outside. So I took my keys, my cell and some money along with me to the park. 


This was the thought that kept running on my mind as I jogged. The other things in my mind were my thoughts to blog about my birthday, Avva and the movie Brave. As I kept jogging sentences were running in my mind about what to write. It works better than the music I feel. Actually I jogged with music only twice so far. What happens with music is your mind keeps thinking of the count of the songs that are playing, trying to assess if the song is in the middle, keep wondering when its gonna end and when the next one is gonna start, think about if its worth stretching my jog for 5 songs or just stick to 3 songs. The list goes on and on.


With thoughts on writing, its just endless like the this post has just flowed. Thoughts keep flowing and words keep flying. I always remember the line I read from Swat's diary - writing is a theraupatic medium, nothing brings more joy than having your feelings and thoughts written out. The three posts I might do it some other time but they will always be there in my mind to take me through the jogging.


Back to the surprise. As soon as I finished my jogging, I rushed back home, got on the bike and set off to the tiffin center. I decided to skip the crunches today. For that I would have come up again and my darling would spoil my plan. I can always make it up some other time. I called her up from the hotel and gave her a nice surprise by asking her what she wants for breakfast.


Took two plates poori, came home had breakfast. That's how the jogging ended. On a surprised, happy and peaceful note. 

Kar Chronicles - Jul 5

Got up little early today and was all set by 6:30 A.M. Had small errands to do and by the time I was in other 10 minutes.The first thing I noticed was the bright sunlight that was falling on the edges of the building. It wasn't a good sign. For the first time in my life, weather was playing an important role. Never cared about it before. Ever since I started jogging I really hope to look forward to nice cold weather, the kind that's usually prevalent between 6 to 7. I just don't like doing jogging with sun directly falling on your head. Hyderabad weather has got to be one of the worst ever weather. Monsoon is feeling like Summer. Wonder how the upcoming winter would feel like.

I for one am darn sure I would be comfortable wearing shorts all the time. Anyways, had a good jog. Left knee was slightly paining. This was due to yesterday's extra dose of exercises.Since jog was ruled out yesterday, I had stuck to exercises. With over zealousness I had done 3 sets of uthak-bathak (a.k.a squats) with 15 reps. Same with the case of stretches. Wasn't feeling good all day till night. By morning it had subsided considerably with little traces left.

It is only after I came back from my jogging and about to do my exercises I realized what had caused this.
Two things are in my mind now.

1. Irresistible urge to check my weight. The highest weight I ever had in my life was around 86.5. Over the last six months I was hovering around 78-80 Kg. My actual goal is 74. I have this strong feeling that I have touched that mark but I am little afraid to check fearing it might show more than what I am expecting. Even if I have touched 77 I would be happy.

I wanted to check the weight this Friday. Now that I will be on leave I am going to do it coming week. I would be putting little extra efforts and maintain a real strict diet. It almost feels like the extra amount of control that sugar patients put up just a week before their diabetes check. I feel like a school kid eagerly awaiting my first unit test exam result.

2. Am little concerned with the kind of surface I am running on and the after affects it would have in my life. Ever since I heard Guatham Bava tell me during the last car ride we had during his birthday, that one of his friends who had constantly ran on concrete for years together, suffered arthirits I have become more concerned. Want to phone Anu and ask her to find out with her Physio if it is okay to run on ground surface, which is what I have been doing so far.

Hmm..no wonder my mom tells me "Practise writing less matter." This was supposed to be small notes on everyday jog. This turned out to be something else entirely. 

Kar Chronicles - Jul 4

Got up at 6:10 A.M, checked the weather, looked good. I thought I will just rest for 5 minutes but that stretched to 25 minutes. By the time I completed my chores it was 6:50 A.M. and it was blazing hot outside. Hyderabad has got one weird weather. So I started doing what I do when it rains outside - 15 surya namaskaras, 3 sets of squats, 2 sets of stretches and ab crunches. Did sweat out but this is nothing compared to the sweet sweat of exhaustive jogging.

I actually had worn the vest too for today.

Kar Chronicles - Jul 3

Had same uneasy feeling today getting up. I woke up at 6:40 and by the time I completed my chores and set out it was 7:10. Was very cold today, should have worn an vest inside. I don't seem to get any distractions during running excepting mentally counting the number of rounds left. iPod should fix that.

Anyways one point I forgot to mention in the last post. I also want to run the 5K Marathon, whenever that is gonna be here in Hyderabad and want to be fully prepared for that.

Kar Chronicles - Jul 2

Can someone tell me the difference between jogging/running? I tried to google it but I don't see the fine line. Anyway as I was telling in my earlier post I have been running/jogging (can't say) consistently 10 rounds measuring 2 KM's for the last 3 months now of which say 2/3 days per month I have taken a break.

Reading through various posts in http://running.about.com/ I came across an article that talks about self-boosting to keep up the regularity. This involves note taking/diary entry the way I am doing for the first time now. Its a brilliant idea.

My first goal of running initially was to be really fit for marriage and reduce my paunch and extra unnecessary fat. I wanted to be good-liking, trim and smart. After all, marriage happens once in life and I wanted to look best. I believe I was able to achieve that only through seminal walking and food control. Once I found the new house, I started going to the ground near by for my jogging and then stuck to it. I stared liking it more as I sweated out in the heat. The inspiration now was to be like my peddiah, who for the last 10 or 15 years, has remained in same shape through constant daily walking. I want to be like him. I want to maintain a routine for my life. So far, its been absolutely great.

I may/may not hit the gym but I am going to definitely continue to jog and do my crunches henceforth.Jogging keeps me active throughout the day and it gives me thoroughly enjoyable feeling. 


Coming to back to the topic, here is today's entry-


I felt really lazy getting up, first time in weeks. I just didn't want to get up at all.Even the rounds were strained as I was focusing more on the numbers than enjoying the run. 

Jogging/Running Lessons

Ever since the project has gone live, I feel as I am re-living each day with the same uneasy feeling of boredom and frustration. Being pushed to support and with not many incidents in queue, I am just whiling away my time. Its almost 3 weeks now with such state.

I need to do something before this gets out of hand. Turning this into opportunity for me to expand my knowledge is gonna be a biggest challenge for me. Even if I can spend 2 hours a day I can reach the target and I resolve to accomplish that. There is a reason for this new found confidence in me. Over the last few weeks barring a day or two I have successfully jogged 2 kilometers in the morning. This forms my favorite part of the day and it has improved me in lot many ways.

I have lost good bit of weight. I am now very chosy about the food I eat. Oily foods, Chicken Biryani, Chicken Soft Noodles,Delhi ki mushoor Kulfi,  Snickers, Chicken Manchuria,Fried Rice, Khaju Barfi, Omlettes, Chocolates in general, Rasmalai, Chocolate Ice-cream so many of favorite things I have cut down. I don't repent a bit. Mind you, controlling the desire of food is only tip of the iceberg. Jogging 10 rounds in the ground is the toughest part.

I am amazed at how arduous the seemingly simple task is to implement. I get up in the morning, freshen up and set to go to the park. I stretch for a while and then begin my jog. The first round seems simple enough and then couting begins - 9 more to go, 8 more to go and so on. I try to divert my mind on something say thinking about any module within the system or thinking about a movie or thinking about the day's activity or my favorite - thinking about the marriage time. There are some days when I wanted to give up after the first round feeling slight pain in the stomach and sometimes this happened during the 4th or 5th round. I never succumbed but pushed myself hard to complete the rounds and stick to the routine and successfully did it and touch-wood, continue to do it in the future. It’s a constant fight with your mind and body to exert and push and sticking to the target. There is also weather I need to fight with. Every time it rains first thing I pray "Oh God, please don't let the ground wet". I am then forced to do my exercise routine indoors.

This involves 15 surya namaskaras followed by crunches and ab exercises. Though I sweat, it is not as fulfilling as running/jogging a full 10 rounds.

It is now I realize this focus is what is missing coming to current state of work. If somehow I can fix my mind to put that effort in reading the books and practising stuff I can do hellava things. The bigger picture to take note is this "resolve" to do needs to get ingrained. I have lot many things that I have planned myself to accomplish as listed below- (First off, I need to buy that darn whiteboard and stick it in the bedroom)

Learn Foreign Language - Preferebly French/Spanish

Learn Salsa

Learn Musical Instrument

Learn Golf

Learn SSAS
Run 5K Marathon

That's for now.