Attended my first Mumbai Barcamp ( http://www.barcampmumbai.org/index.php/BCM12 ) yesterday. Reached there at 10:00 am on the dot and the orientation session was going on.  Do not take off your shirt – one of the rule items had. Moving on..

Picked up a sticky and put my session ( 3 Running Myths busted ) on the wiki. I had to move it around so I could attend another Running talk.

Went to the first session – it was on Meditation by Kiran. He showed a simple technique and asked the audience to try it out. Folks had mixed experience. Interestingly half already knew some kind of technique or the other.

Each session was 20 minutes with a 10 min break in between for any discussions and change over time. The volunteers cut off precisely after 20 minutes and did a great job in keeping the sessions contained.

I moved on to the next session – How an average runner can run the toughest foot race in the world and you can too! – this was a paisa wasool session for me.

I have read so much on Ultra Marathon ( especially my last book – Eat and Run by Scott Jurek ) and had not heard of any Indian from my gene pool who has run it – and here was this gentleman – Girish Mallya ( http://twitter.com/GirishMallya ) who has done it – and that too the toughest ultra marathon.

The run was 250kms over 6 days in the Sahara Desert and the runners had to carry their own backpack of 10kg weight. They had to run a full marathon daily and were burning almost 6k calories a day. Their daily intake was 2k calories. The muscle mass was being burnt to make up for the calories being burnt. In his words – this is very unhealthy.

He trained 4 years in preparation. He ran with his office backpack, going to and fro from work. Slept on floor for a year – as he had to sleep on the desert sand.  He ran 15 half marathons consecutively.

Every year more than 1000 runners register. There is a country wise quota and there is a waiting list of 2 years for Europe and USA. 95% of the participants completed. There were 2 blind men, one obese man and they completed it. It is more mental than physical – and anyone can do it.

Snapped a photo with Girish. I am an un-apologetic hero worshipper.

Then it was my turn on 3 Running Myths busted.

Actually I had planned for more Myths – thought 20 minutes wont be sufficient so threw away a few slides. My talk was over in 12 minutes. Luckily Girish and Kunal -the cycling hero had come to the session and we had a nice discussion going.

1. Running around a 400 meter track on the same direction will damage one leg. So keep changing direction if they allow. Some joggers park do not allow that.

2. Running on roads is also bad for the legs as towards the sides of the road it slopes to drain water – and if we keep running on the same side over long distances it will injure the ankles. By alternatively running on either side of the road – this can be prevented.

3. When I said I have started substituting milk with Soy-milk ( I went from a Meat eater to Vegetarian and now going towards a vegan diet ) – someone in the audience said that he has heard that Sperm count will go down. Bhagwan – now when I think back my response is this – heard that the polluted air we breathe will reduce the Sperm Count.

Anyway – it was satisfying. Hope I would have inspired a few to get out and run.

Next session I attended was by Kaushtubh Shirdikar, a 2nd year Electronics student from VJTI.

He spoke about his philosophy on how technology should be simple. He has created an e-bag which can charge your laptop, phone, keep coffee hot and water cold. It is still in prototype stage and has used arduino controller and weighs 5kg. I loved the idea. Had a chat with him and gave my requirements. I travel often in trains and I am always tied to my laptop bag on the fear of losing it – I can’t fully doze off with my bag on the top shelf. Imagine if the bag could alert my phone that it is moving out of my range and/or the bag can sound a loud alarm too. And if it is little light, I will happily pick one up.

Also learnt about Eklavya at VJTI ( http://sra.vjti.info/eklavya ) – they have free training sessions on arduino, raspberry pi. He gave some tips on where to procure these things, programming languages you will need etc. Time to make time for this – an adventure is waiting here.

Then lunch – had to pay for my own food. I liked it! But wish the organizers had made arrangements for coffee at a minimum. If they are against sponsors I would suggest for anonymous donations.

Post lunch attended Kunal ( https://www.facebook.com/kunalmithrill – ) – our cycling hero’s session – on travelling around the world on a cycle. My knowledge on cycles is nil – and this session was an eye opener.

The above photo is a typical touring cycle – and Kunal showed all the parts. The back wheel has 36 spokes. I guess it varies for different types – commuter, racing etc.

Here are some tidbits I noted :

70 pedals per minute is a good average.

A brand called shwalbe – the tyre lasts 30k kilometers and is tough

Learn to fix puncture – takes 5 minutes. Learn to change spoke, even if 1 spoke breaks in the next 1 hour all spokes will break.

Travel with Bungee cords and duct tape – they are so useful.

Bike lock – kryptonite. He also morphs his cycle with stickers trying to make it look like a bhaiyya cycle and not reveal the brand – to discourage thieves.

7 to 10 litters of water a day when you bike 70-100kms… otherwise you will get cramps – which is not at all nice.

Helmets don’t protect.. above 30kms you are gone.. but it makes people think this guy is serious – atleast in india. In a few countries helmet is banned.

marino wool – sheeps wool – expensive. underpant costs 2.5k…highly recommended.

1 soft fibre trek towel – only product to buy from decathlon – small and soaks nicely and dries in 20 mins

Note to self : have to checkout this book Kunal was reading – hitchhiking across ireland with a fridge.

He can easily do 100 to 130 kms a day.

In night – dont cycle at night. Europe is pretty safe. UP Faridabad are really bad. Gujjus fed him cashews and gave sumptuous lunch dinner wherever he went.

Then went into a session – The Rational Thinkers – forgot to note down the name of the presenter – will update once I find it.

Was an interesting concept – He wants to create an online debate group, 1 topic each week that directly or indirectly affects you, no judgements and they will publish the discussions every week. He will keep the debaters limited to 100 or 150. The comments from the audience was enlightening. Hope he carries on with the idea. Today all the opinions we hear are only from people with an agenda ( You : Paid Media ). If this project of his succeeds, will make us more aware and educated. Hats off to a great idea.

When I came out saw Kunal had gathered a crowd and was continuing a session on the corridor.

Kunal was talking about the interesting characters he met during the tours. And topic went into tips and how to do cycling – he doesnt get bored talking of cycling!

My body reminded that there was no more caffeine in the system ( organizers, next I time I will sponsor  just coffee / tea anonymously if you will allow me to ) – and also I had to get home to prepare my kid for the school next day as Sangeeta was on a day trip to Pune. Missed the last hour of session and got back after a well spent day.

Sep 18th, 2008.

You might have forgotten – this is the day Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. The world came to know about Sub Prime Derivatives and economies around the world started collapsing one after the other.

And this is the day I started my journey as an Entrepreneur.

And just like that I have travelled 5 years of my life.

If I look back – was it easy, was it fun, what did I learn? – let me take one at a time.

Was it easy?

Hell No. I am totally out of my comfort zone. I hate talking to strangers, hate small talk, I am an introvert to the core. But I was pushed to deal with prospects, vendors, investors, partners – day in and day out.

I have to sell – and have to speak a lot – to strangers. I have tricked myself into enjoying this but inwardly I prefer the comfort of a keyboard and a good Editor.

I have to speak in Hindi ( thank you for nothing Tamil politicians ).

I have to say No ( mostly fancy requirements or things which I know will set them up for a failure ) and have to defend it while saying an Yes would have been easy

For the most part I had to manage an economic downturn within the family. And dealt with shifting from Bangalore to Mumbai – and have to deal with expenses of various kinds with a thin wallet.

Zero vacations. In fact I dread vacations – when anyone core in the team takes off, I become the backup by default.

I work 7 days a week. Continuously till my brain melts, and I force myself to take half a day off.

Even though the above looks like Cribs – each one has its own upside to it.

Initially the economic downturn was hard – having been spoilt being on a double income household – but we got smarter, and learnt to maximise on any luxuries we indulged. I started valuing money and quality of service more. Realised “less” is actually “more”.

Speaking and interacting with strangers – I learn a lot from each and every one of them. My Hindi has got better – ( passed Madhyama just in border – other than that knew hindi only from watching movies ).

Was it fun?

Of course.  The first year was fantastic – I call it the honeymoon period – could do whatever I felt like developing – not many customers, not many competitors.

There is always a kick I get when a new customer signs up – its very intoxicating. Each win is a culmination of lot of effort and thought – and years of planning and execution. Little things which have gone into making a well rounded product and service culminates in a sale. And if the customer picks us after a thorough evaluation – its doubly satisfying. This is much like the runners high – which cannot really be described unless you experience it.

Small nice perks – Can go for a hair cut when the crowd is less on a weekday. Am there for my kid whenever he has a performance or an event.

Did I learn anything?

Lots. Much like the equivalent of a Double MBA.

The last 5 years has been an all round growth for me.

I started running and meditating to become sane. The chatter in my head – always scheming, reacting to angry customer calls or analysing long past it had subsided – all started giving me sleepless nights. I found that as I ran more and meditated more I became calmer and could handle crisis situations better.

I crunched a truck load of books on various subjects – marketing to project management to business.

I might have never picked up these books – and would have remained confined to technology or philosophy. There is an ocean of ideas out there waiting to be harvested.

I have created my own theory on Sales – drawn from various books and my experience through trial and error.

I met an interesting gentleman during one of my sales meetings – and he put me onto a spiritual journey by suggesting a few good books.

So thats my brief round up.

This is very much a journey to be experienced from within.  I have started writing a book ( with some spice of course ) on my spare time – you can read it all some day!

Don’t know where the next 5 years will take me. But I am sure of a few things –

I can handle it.
It will not be easy.
And it will be fun 🙂

See you in 2018.

I tried mindfully eating the other day.

Ordered a Masala Dosa in the canteen in a hospital last week.

Was alone. By habit I pulled out my phone to read or browse something while eating.

Then I stopped and put the phone back – had been reading Awakening the Buddha within – thought let me try mindful eating – a practice as suggested in the book.

Tore off a small part of the dosa – dipped it in sambhar and chutney and ate it. Chewed it trying to discern the contents – the dal, rice, coconut, onion – thought from where all the ingredients would have travelled. Relished the taste of different ingredients – it was just like listening to a symphony and trying to identify the music instruments.

Then my mind drifted away – don’t remember what it started analysing – and after sometime realised I should be mindfully eating – and again started focusing on the food and the moment.

Man it is tough. The mind keeps drifting.

After that day, have tried a lot of times when I eat alone to remind myself to eat mindfully – no phone, no ipad, no book, no TV while eating. To think of only the food and trying to keep my mind around food and eating – and not let it go on its journey on work, or judge people or the billion things it can think at any moment.

There is another advantage of mindful eating.

I am paying more attention to nutrition, the flavour, the taste, the texture – food never tasted this good. Even a simple preparation is tasty now. I have taken a new interest on Rasam – it is so simple but has got some amazing taste if you just close your eyes and take just a sip. If I drink Coke mindfully, I will think of all the harmful chemicals in it or the 10 spoons of sugar they have put – will not be able to continue drinking coke anymore.

If I eat mindfully – the food I pick automatically becomes healthy and wholesome and in tune with the earth. And as a bonus my daily quota of meditation also is met or exceeded – because mindful eating is also a form of meditation. We get 3 or 4 times a day to eat – these are beautiful opportunities to practice meditation.

Rest Easy Chickens.

I am not going to eat you.

And also you – the Baby Goat, Goat, Fish, Prawn.

And this time I think its for real.

Here is the path to reducing consumption and finally zeroing it out – if you are a carnivore who is in doubt you can continue reading this post. If you are a carnivore who doesn’t care – you need not read any further – but if you want to amuse yourself – go ahead and read it 🙂

2000

Went to LSU to do my masters. I figured out that chicken was cheaper than Veggies. Also cooking chicken was much much easier – drop in some masala and within 30 minutes a tasty preparation would be ready. No brainer.  Also in US everyone ate meat – 3 times a day. The poor Veggie FOBs all suffered – some converted. I did not have any 2nd thoughts ( not that I had ) that eating Meat had any issues in it and it was totally fine.

2006

Got back to India – and had to visit Chicken shops – as there was no pre packaged meat like in US. I would say 1/2 a kg – if the vendor doesnt have stock, he will take one chicken from the cage, go behind the counter, slit its throat and will drop it into a drum. There will be a commotion and slowly it will subside. He will give me 1/2 kg in a black plastic bag – and it will be warm. It disturbed me – but only till the time I dropped it in the kitchen. My mother ( an ex-carnivore herself ) would cook some delicious dishes – and all was forgotten.

2009

Reliance Fresh opened a Meat section near our home. It was back to good old US days – it was all packaged – and zero guilt. Also this time I started running – thought I needed protein and started getting meat almost on a weekly basis.

2011

This is when I read Born to Run – ( http://kvrlogs.blogspot.in/2011/10/three-running-myths-busted.html ). Learnt that you don’t need to be a carnivore to run better.

And I was reading more and more spiritual books. Had lot of questions in my mind – every time I tasted a meat preparation – always a doubt will come in my mind.

2012

We moved to Mumbai. The area we moved in – Kandivali – did not have any meat shops. There was only frozen stuff and we completely stopped cooking chicken at home. Fish continued but I was getting weary of eating fish – too cumbersome. However we checked out lot of famous foodie joints – Bade Miyaan, BBC, Candies..and meat eating continued.

At the same time – Mumbai gave lot many good veggie options. Banana Leaf, Cream Center.. we liked visiting often – so when we went out as a family ( my mother being veggie ), we always went out to the veggie joints.

2013

Sangeeta tried to spring a surprise on me in June – by taking me to Meating joint in Colaba – not a single veggie item in the menu. Actually the variety was fantastic and would be a delight for any meat eater. In my weird conflicted mind – I could not enjoy the food like before.

Few weeks back I had to go to Navi Mumbai for a demo. At lunch I went to a food court in a mall nearby. I ordered hummus. Next to me someone brought a chicken sizzler – I didnt feel jealous or wanted that. Was very much at peace with the hummus dish I got.

Then I picked up Eat and Run by Scott Jurek.  It was an eye-opener.

For those of you who don’t know Scott Jurek – he is an Ultra Marathoner.

Marathon is where people run 42Kms under 6 hours. Ultra Marathoners run 24 to 48 hours at a stretch and cover crazy distances – 100,150.. even 300 Kms, on hills and rocks, through deserts and snow. Totally ridiculous inhuman race.

Guess what? – Scott Jurek was born and brought up in Minnesota – his dad presented him a Gun in his 10th birthday – so he can go hunt rabbits, deer and fowls. The family will eat these animals – they were big meat eaters.

Scott Jurek started running – and like any new runner got injured. He figured out that eating plants helped him recover very quickly. Also the plant based fat burnt faster than animal based fat – he was leaner and stronger. He started doing lot of research and found that eating Animals are bad for the running form.

He turned vegan – not vegetarian – vegan – absolutely no animal products. He won ultra marathon after ultra marathon – inspite of eating just plants. He is the most accomplished and distinguished Ultra Marathoner of all – and has won every race in the world.

Combined with this book – I started reading on Buddhism – which abhors violence to humans and animals alike.  I also remember reading a quote somewhere.

“You can eat meat. There is absolutely no problem in it. However if you are in the path of awakening you will question this habit.”

And this was a question in my mind the past few years – is it alright to eat meat?

Am I missing something? – Maybe.

I have not yet visited Taj and had some fantastic signature meat dish by a renowned chef.

I havent visited Ponnusamy or Anjappar in more than 4 or 5 years.

I will probably not have the Bade Miyaan Bheja Fry – and the weird taste texture it had.

I was joking to Sangeeta – when Cigarette smokers quit they would smoke 2 3 packs and quit in style.

I did not do any of that. The transition just happened smoothly. Don’t even remember the last meat dish I ate.

So – dear Chicken and all animals of all kinds – relax. You are safe in my presence.

This week, after working for almost a month without a break ( except for a sunday when we went to Lonavalla but the drive to and fro was more stressful than a work day) – my body just slammed on the brake – by picking up a nasty cold. I had to stop and slow down.

This led me to think – what is Born Lucky.

At one point while growing up – I wanted my Dad to own a motor bike like other Dads instead of the bi-cycle – a vehicle that was also showing its age. After some time I saw my class mates who rode around in a car. Some wore fancy “jerkins” with multiple pockets and zips. I wore a sweater – served the purpose though – for the Coimbatorean chill. I thought they were born lucky – to be born in a rich family.

Then went to College. Saw folks who were gifted. They had amazing memory and analytical skills. They could solve complex mathematical problems and seemingly knew the answer to any problem in any subject. They could easily ace the exams while I had to work hard to understand the concepts. That time I thought they were born lucky – who are gifted with such good memory and IQ.

Couple of years later, work life started – and would admire those who speak fluently, articulate complex thoughts really well, who can put across their points of view firmly and influence an entire team, who will walk into a party and everyone would take notice – who are charismatic and are born leaders – being born lucky.

And so on – the definition of being born lucky kept getting updated as I see more and more “lucky people” in my life!

I thought being born lucky was to be born rich, or to be born with high IQ or to be born with lots of charisma.

I was so wrong.

To be born lucky is simply to be born healthy – without any defects ( reminds me of the Avaiyar poem –  translation is at the end of the post ) – that is truly being born lucky. We get a body – which has been honed to perfection through evolution over millions of years.

Yet – we throw away our luck. By over working ( like what I was doing ), or smoking or eating junk or having a sedentary lifestyle.

And being Healthy is complete in itself.

If I have a Honda City, I yearn for an Audi, someone having an Audi yearns for a Lamborghini.

Someone who is gifted with prodigal IQ – may perhaps be not satisfied – and may want to get famous by cracking a complex Mathematical puzzle or find cure for Cancer and win a Nobel Prize.

And for the person with oodles of Charisma – perhaps will think – wish I was like King Khan – and for King Khan – perhaps he is thinking how can I get to be the next Bachchan.

There are no levels in Being Healthy – much like running – I do not compete against anyone else but I am a happy content runner.

If we are having the gift of a healthy life – we should work hard to protect the gift and keep it with us as long as possible.

Getting rich or intelligent or becoming charismatic – all take lot of effort and hard work.

Protecting good health is quite simple – just need to live a stress free, simple, active life style. Sounds lot easier than the other 3.

Also just being healthy – all the above 3 can be achieved – the reverse is simply not possible.

Here is Avaiyar’s poem which makes sense now. And the great sage has suggested a path when you are born human and luckier to be born healthy and luckier to get educated..

“It is rare to be born as a human being,
It is still rarer to be born without any deformity.
Even if you are born without any deformity,
It is rare to acquire knowledge and education.
Even if one could acquire knowledge and education,
It is still rare to offer service to the mankind and contemplate on the higher self.
If one leads such a selfless divine life,
The gates of heaven open to greet such an evolved soul.”

[Above Translation is from  http://risingabhijeet.blogspot.in/2011/09/avvaiyars-favorite-poem-rare-to-be-born.html ]

Once gizmos run out of warranty I get excited. Time to try out a few things it was not originally designed for ( definition of hacking )

My Early 2011, Mac Book Pro (MBP) 13″ is soon turning 2 years.  And it was getting slow. Painfully slow. [ Tried Taming Lion but was not enough ]

Meanwhile I was slowly burning in envy ( envy is good. jealousy is bad 🙂 ) – looking at @sanban‘s  Mac Book Air (MBA) – which was so light and ran amazingly fast. All thanks to the SSD – Solid State Drive in it vs the HDD – Hard Disk Drive on my MBP.

Twitterverse advised me to upgrade to SSD. Spoke to @b_hari who advised me – its a no brainer.  And you won’t regret it – the difference is humungous.

I did a search on the local flipkart and ebay.in but could not find any SSDs.  This was some 6 months back I guess.

A few days back I was planning to do a re-install – things had gone painfully slow. This time I went to ebay.in and searched for SSDs and got a few hits.

There were lot of options and I zeroed in on Samsung 840 SSD ( 250GB ). There was a Pro but more expensive. I snagged the non-Pro 840 SSD at Rs.11,500. Took 4 days to reach – felt like I was back in US ordering stuff from newegg!

Here are the steps. Took 4 hours end to end – to get the same setup back on SSD.

1. Moved music and other unnecessary files to the external Hard Disk – have to now fit things from a 3BHK into a 2BHK.

2. Took a time machine backup to an external hard disk. What a time saver this time machine backup was.

3. Burnt the Mountain Lion Installation file to a 8GB USB Stick.

4. Bought a 31 in 1 Screw kit, Chinese made from a fancy store for Rs.110. The DiY blogs,youtube videos specify some Philips Screw Driver, Torc screw driver etc – good luck finding those in India. This Chinese one had it all.

5. All set. Popped open the bottom lid. Tried removing the battery connector ( some of the youtube videos advised doing this ) – but the connector was not coming out – decided not to do something stupid by damaging the connector. So let it stay there.

The Hard disk drive came out easily. The SATA connector also did not give any problems.

6. I spent some time admiring at a cool piece of technology in the MBP – which is now getting obsolete. The HDD rests on a sensor – and when the laptop is moved fast or is dropped – it detects the fall and stops the HDD’s needle from touching the spindle – this prevents any bad sectors / physical damages to the hard disk. You would hear a small cracking noise whenever the motion detection happened. But with SSD there are no movable parts and this piece of hardware is not needed anymore.

7. Then fitted the SSD, bolted it nicely. Put the lid back ( didnt screw it ) and powered the laptop. Heard the Apple chime and the screen just froze white for an eternity. I had a mild panick attack – but then a folder with a question mark showed up. Phoo – thats good. The SSD is windows formatted so it was not detected.

8. Now I put the screws back – thanked the Chinese Screw driver. Plugged in the 8GB USB stick.

9. Powered it on, choose Disk Utility and formatted the SSD – into 3 partitions – Jobs, Gates and Linus.

Screenshot taken after the installation was complete.

10. Continued with the installation ( remember to make a username which is different from the one you used to have. Time machine when it tries to restore it will ask for a different username if its already taken ). I made this mistake ( not a big deal though )

11. Once installation was over,  connected my external Hard drive, chose Migration Assistant and restored from the Time Machine backup. Forums recommend Carbon Copy Cloner – not needed if you have a Time machine backup.

12. A few things I had to do from what I gathered from the forums.

a. Installed TrimEnabler – this will optimize the writes and will not spoil the SSD ( ahemm. I never really understood the whole file storage and sector concept)

b. Turned off the Hard drive motion sensor – can be disabled from command line.

c. Turned off Last Access time for file – seems the OS will thrash the SSD a lot. Again a command line setting.

You can google for these. Simple ones.

13.  Finally it was done. All the Mail was restored, all applications ( except Microsoft Office which had to be activated once again ), settings, wallpaper – just like before. And it is blazing fast. If you are drooling at the new Retina MBPs or planning to get an MBA – try out the SSD route – for lot less you can breathe another couple of years into your favorite MBP.

I dont see any difference in weight. Its still heavy. I didnt see any significant change in Battery life.

Next : Have to install Windows 7 and Ubuntu. The rEFIt bootloader I had put is still intact ( actually I was worried if I would run into problems because of this – searched in forums if anyone having rEFIt had done SSD swap – could not find any – but thankfully it all went smooth ).

After a couple of months – will either put one more SSD inplace of the DVD Drive ( another piece of technology fast becoming obsolete ) – or remove the DVD Drive itself to reduce the weight a bit.

And friends – if anyone needs any help on how to swap an SSD sitting in India with all parts procured locally – now you know who to talk to!

Meditation

Earlier I used to think Meditation is ‘Focus’. Focus on light, or some sound or an image of a God. I learnt Transcendental Meditation from a Thermodynamics professor in CEG during my 2nd year. Don’t remember his name, but remember his teaching still. His focus was on a Mantra.

I thought I have to focus on the Mantra during meditation. But later realised the Mantra is just a vehicle to go into “Thoughtlessness”.

Actually once I realised the goal of Meditation is to get into Thoughtlessness it became easy as I did not have to fight to focus or control the mind. I just let it loose. When I sit for Meditation a ton of thoughts come to my mind – much like a jelly lorry emptying its load on a road side – the mind is very excited now – finally it is getting a piece of time to analyze everything. I let the mind analyze everything and once in a while remind the mind ( by recalling the Mantra ) that I am here to meditate and not for a psychiatric session.

But some where I drift into Thoughtlessness – do not know how much time I go into this state – I know I have gone into this state as when I get out of my 30 minutes session I cannot remember much of the analysis the mind was doing. I feel fresh and calm – and a kind of happiness and love sets in. Something like the runner’s high.

Meditation puts the mind to rest. This allows the subconscious / soul to surface. The soul gets a chance to come out of the cave – as this mind is like a dog barking all the time outside this cave – and the soul never dares to peep out. When the soul peeps out brilliant things happen – as it is pure and is full of love. The soul/heart is pure intuition and if we let this drive our life wonders will happen as it is not weighed down by ego or the mind.

Mindfulness

Of late I am discovering one more style of Meditation – Mindfulness. This is even tougher to practice but this is the next logical step.

Right now, this very minute – as I am writing this blog – my ego is jumping like a mad monkey from one tree of thought to another – how will the person who is reading judge me, will I get enough Facebook likes etc. I am not completely immersed into this post and writing with my heart and soul.

But when I write being mindful of just this post – I automatically get enough Facebook likes or people call me to appreciate that was a good post. At times after I finish writing I know – this is a good post – I was mindful only about this Post, and the ego was forgotten.

I am noticing this “not being in the moment” during many instances of my waking life. Yesterday I was in Juhu beach standing on the shore with my niece Charu – a 12 year old. She was jumping and talking to the waves and was fully drenched in the moment. I was standing there not drinking in the moment but thinking of work or the thousand things my mind likes to chew upon.

Now and then I get into a “flow” like state when I am immersed in the moment. While coding or while writing some emails or such blog posts – words or code just flow. I get into this meditative state – and I would have dished out ton of good stuff in a short span of time – and yet feel refreshed and energized to produce more.

I should try to get more into the “being in the moment”. When I write code or blog or eating or shaving or cleaning my laptop – should just be mindful of this task. When I am singing or dancing with kids – be there with them – in the moment. This sounds much easier than meditation but it is quite tough.

I have to keep reminding myself to be mindful. Much like the mantra I use during my meditation session to break the train of thoughts and remind myself that I am here to meditate.

When I am doing a task – and if my mind starts drifting – should bring it back to the task at hand. Then I am in a meditative state all day and the very thought is intoxicating!

Mindfulness is Meditation.

Life is much like a train that takes you through many Cities.

It has taken me from Coimbatore to Madurai to Chennai to Baton Rouge to Madison to Chicago to Bangalore and now in Mumbai.

Coimbatore is very special to me. The monsoon drizzle in June/July, then the Puja and Diwali rains, the chill in December,  Pongal time visit to a village temple from where my father came from and the summer holidays – visiting the Annual Exhibition – the highlight of the city once. Lot of sweet simple memories – all intertwined among school friends, street friends, relatives and festivals.

Madurai was hot. Super hot. Got Jaundice and Chicken pox. This city lives and breathes Tamil. I still remember one Sugarcane vendor’s rhyming statement when he had to go attend nature’s call after handing over the juice ( thankfully ) “Aatharathai adaku mudiyum aana mootharathai adaku mudiyuma” [ You can control Anger – aatharam, but you cannot control nature’s call – mootharam ]. All the streets, places had beautiful names – Anupaanadi, Thallakulam – and each has a story which the Tamil Miss will tell. Then the school I attended where except me all were somehow related to each other – and at times during marriage season half the class will be gone to attend a wedding!

Chennai was magical. The beach, the crowd, the super hot summers and movies. I tasted freedom. Had my own pocket money to spend between movies, food or books. Life in CEG was even more awesome. Techofes, Waves, Student Union Elections, running a stall during Techofes, the “study” tours, the labs, late night chat parties, editing a magazine, horrible hostel food, the cricket matches in TV room with some 200 people crammed into a 20×20 room – that too in that chennai summer – each day was new and un-predicatable. Then the second phase of Chennai life where I worked in TCS – had lot of money now – could go places where I could never go before – Residency buffet or Ponnuswamy or Anjappar and could buy any book or CD when I wanted. I once blew a months salary on a VCD system and watched umpteen movies week after week from a VCD rental shop in Velacherry who did door delivery. But got bored quickly with this life.

Was once again broke as a student in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where I went for my Masters. It was Super hot in summer when I landed. I thought USA was a cold place. This was year 2000 – did not know of Google or a website to go check for Weather. And it was a place with warm hearts and down to earth people and had a unique culture  Cajun culture. Learnt to cook  and got addicted to American Football, Baseball and Basketball. It was a lazy laid back place with a huge river – Mississippi – and God Awesome hurricanes.

Then shifted from Hottest place in USA to the Coldest place – Madison – another college town. And then to Chicago – a fairy tale place with museums and sky scrapers and parks and lakes and plays and all kinds of restaurants from around the world – so much to do – cycling,trekking – or just walking near the lakes late nights. If I ever go back to live in USA, here is where I will drop my anchor.

Then Bangalore. I actually feel sorry for this nice little city. In the 6 years that I was there, could see the city turn into a concrete jungle. Do not know how the old timers feel. But this city feels young and vibrant.  Here is where the New India ( India 2.0 ) is being forged. Barcamps, Devcamps, cycle commuters, car poolers, Tree planting drives, New Age Politicians, Wasteland turned into a meeting cum work place cum garage sale place, Eco Conservationists…its a long list of new age thinkers and doers. Then the MG Road, Brigade Road, Church Street, Cubbon Park and now Metro – loved to just hang out.  335E Volvo – thanks to traffic will take 1 hour to reach my office – a distance of 8 kms – and I crunched book after book – Leo Tolstoy, Paulo Coelho, Ayn Rand, Robert Pirsig – thanks to Justbooks – a library startup from Bangalore. And Startups – cart loads of them.

Finally since last year – moored in Mumbai. Started on the wrong foot – bike got towed, got hit with a fine next day for jumping signal. Discovered public transport, most are super hard working people, folks who respect and value money, auto drivers who return 1 Rupee, parks everywhere, dirty roads and pan spits everywhere, and Rains that keep going on and on and all festivals celebrated with lot of food, music and dance. This is one crazy city. Folks here do 2 3 jobs and are always looking for new opportunities and to make things work. 200 sqft shops where some 10 people work in this space thanks to the concept of a “mezzanine floor” – like the new office we are to move shortly ( will post photos next week after we move ). Its amazing how Mumbai uses space.

Yet to fully discover Mumbai. It has so many layers which I keep peeling as I continue my journey here. But the thing I have come to appreciate the most are Drinkable Tap Water ( felt guilty drinking bisleri water in Bangalore ), zero power cuts and a Public Transport that is so reliable.

Where next? No idea – I live in the present 🙂

I am noticing this dichotomy everywhere. From life to love to design to coding.

It is easy to eat junk food. But hard to eat healthy stuff.

It is easy to watch TV. But hard to read a book.

It is easy to veg out in the couch. But hard to get out and run.

It is easy to hate someone we despise. But hard to love the same person.

It is easy to create something with lot of code. But hard to create the same functionality with minimal code.

It is easy to get stressed out and feel down. But hard to keep cool and spirits high.

Guess what? – in all cases – the hard part is the most rewarding.

Yet – we all choose the easy part. Again and Again and Again. Even though we know that taking the hard part will be more rewarding and beautiful.

I think this is a test being conducted – and if we have to pass in this we have to keep taking the hard path at every fork.

Eat Healthy.
Read Books.
Run.
Love everyone.
Write beautiful code.
Stay cool & Keep Spirits high.

& Drink coffee / red wine 🙂

ps : some vices are Ok I guess. We need not aim for a 100. An 80 will do!