My First 10K

I am back to my blog after long to narrate my first experience of Airtel half Marathon. I have a 4k race under my belt but that was in 2010 before IT industry and desk job sucked the vigour of a 20 something out of me. I am still in my mid 20’s (OK, nearing 27) but feel like little older when it is about physical work. I have never liked physical activities, for me affection have always been for reading some random stuff and clicking pictures but this year resolution somehow stick to me and I became regular at Yoga classes initially and then decided, I am going to participate in Hyderabad Marathon this year. Initially I set the target really high at half marathon but then reality hit me and I scaled down my ambitions to 10k. I was training from last couple of months but never ran more than 7.5k in one go. Today when I was tying my shoes for my first 10k, completion was a big challenge for me.

I collected my Bib on 28th Aug and to my surprise more than 10k people had registered across all formats. Bib kit had a very nice T shirt with bunch of information material and some promotional material by event sponsors. Kit distribution was operationally inefficient and queues were often half an hour long. Yesterday for preparing the run I took a mild run of just more than 2.5k and ate healthy food mostly and drank a lot of water to keep myself hydrated. I wanted to sleep early but could not due to some reason and when my cab driver woke me up at about 5:20AM, I had slept only for about 6 hour and 30 minutes. So in the morning, while tying my shoes, I was not fully fresh and hardly ready for longest run of my life but once I reached flag off point at Hitex ground, I forgot about sleep and fatigue. Hitex have a reasonable large ground but crowds made the ground look like filled. There were at least 5000 people gathered to run or to cheer the runners. Runners came in all sizes and shapes. They were young(10 years) and old(60+), they were thin and fat, they came in all colors from across locations. I met a couple of guys who flew from Mumbai, there were Nasik and Aurangabad runners clubs. Some of them were Yoga enthusiasts and running for the first time while many others were seasoned runners, There were bikers, cyclists, skaters and what not. One more thing I noticed was variety of T shirts being used. Most of runners wore official Airtel Marathon T shirts but a big minority had chosen T shirt as a preferred mode to express their identity. For them it represented their group (like Nasik runners), employer (Wells fargo and many others) and some times cause they were supporting. T Shirts also represented whole spectrum of light right from violet to red. Most inspiring of all runners were a couple of specially abled runners which was very heartening to see

It was not just runners which made the environment electric, There was music, press (For the first time, I saw a drone camera in action (Yeah I am pretty late)) and noise by boisterous group of people. Organizers arranged a band which played a range of music from Kishore Kumar to modern English Dance number as I stretched. There a formal warm up session by professionals as well.

Run itself can a be a post in itself where I can explain how whole of body becomes numb, mind starts playing its own games and you distract it to push and put one more step forward. Finish line and sea of runners keeps you motivated

Among the runners I saw a 4th class student who must not be more than 10 years limping along the crowd. He was a seasoned runner who used to complete his 10k in 80 minutes but yesterday he (May be his parents) pushed himself too hard and completed his 10k in 50 minutes and that made him tired and hence he was limping today. He looked like child prodigy (remember Budhiya) to me but actually just an average runner

I will like to call out the spectator crowd which was as or probably more diverse than runners. There were construction workers, walkers, policemen, general passerby and even a couple of helpless IT employees for who were dragging themselves to office on a Sunday morning (may be) due to pressure of clients or a pissed off wicked Boss who was hell bent on spoiling their Sunday. Among cheering crowds, I will like to call out this little drummer who was very charming and was playing good music

Overall organization was superb. Volunteers were present everywhere helping runners with water, energy drinks, glucose biscuits, bananas and what not. Organiser displayed meticulous planning while taking care of basic things like clean toilets and cloakrooms etc. Arrangement at stadium were great as well with reasonably good breakfast. Remember I am praising breakfast when I eat most stupendous breakfast daily at Google (Yeah, I like to brag). Traffic was well managed as well. 10k Track had only 1 stop due to traffic. ‘Just one stop’ is really good job done by traffic police considering track was passing through at least 8 major intersections.

I completed the 10k in 1 hour 32 Minutes and 55 Seconds, 13 minutes more than what I had targeted. I walked more than what I would have liked but Still I will remember this experience as a challenge that I pose to myself and completed. It is just a step in what probably is a longer than 10k journey that lead to fit lifestyle and I hope to complete it. Next steps will be to improve on this time to close to 1 hour next year and aim for bigger distances in future.

In the end a couple of things which could have been better

1. Organizers kept ample water in course of run but there was no water available (at least it was not visible) at start point
2. Runners could have done without littering the track specially with toffee wrappers. May be organizers could have arranged toffees which come without a plastic wrapper but I did not like the sight of a road littered with toffee wrappers after completion of race
3. I could have boarded the running bus with better shoes (checklist for next year)

Oh yes I can not finish this without this pic of myself after completion (I told you, I like to brag :)

Photography 2 (MACRO)

Though Feb is not the best time to visit Munnar, season is a bit too dry and near by National Park. It is too dry to see wild elephants as they all move to another side of forest due to lack of water but it is rewarding in its own way as well. Thousands of flowers bloom in Feb. I took advantage of this to test some MACRO tricks on flowers. Here are some of the best. You can pick them up if you want to send a virtual bouquet to your Girlfriend :)

Photography-1

This is my first post on my experiments with camera. Generally we Indians give first place to Ganesha but I essentially don’t believe in concept of Elephant headed God. For me God is everywhere(or nowhere according to perception) so I will choose purest manifestation of God for my first pic, Child

Laddu, My Nephew is jolly and can look deceptively mischievous when happy

Crystals Colors and light..

Well, Its not a chopper..

Interesting Animal..

Sunlight through leaves creates magic which we choose to ignore so often

Sunset and Pine

I always wanted to click a waterfall in this way. Not bad for a first timer without tripod :)

Reflection is not always a true picture

And a well deserved Selfie

Delhi Election and lessons for Indian Right wing polity

This week we saw elections in Delhi, results will be available in 3 days but if we go by exit polls, AAP is going to triumph BJP this time. News studios and weekly columns will pay obituaries to Modi wave (obituaries incidentally is going to be same to what they said after UP and Bihar bye election) without even giving a thought that one of Modi opponent (read Nitish Kumar) have committed biggest political hara kiri in recent times. An act of political stupidity have to be really subline to beat Rahul Baba tearing ordinance and Nitish Kumar did exactly that (I have a feeling that Lalu Yadav is infectious :)).

Now coming back to Delhi elections writing only about AAP and BJP will suffice considering Congress have been moved to footnotes in most of Indian polity. I will not spend much time on AAP but just redirect you to this post of mine which I wrote in September 2013 when AAP was most “different looking” political party in India. If you remember past 1 year than you probably will agree that I hit eagle’s eye more often than not in that post (Look, I am ready to become a political analyst. Its just time for some news channel to call me and shout on their prime time program). Now, I will just theoreticize what I wrote at that time. Any political party more so in India can operate only in select band of morality. This band have no lower bound (As proven by so many of our distinguished leaders) but have a well defined upper bound and this bound depends on your competitors. You can start way above your your band but will have to come down to you band sooner than later (Lok Satta party of Hyderabad have remained an exception but probably thats why they are not successful). It happened pretty quickly in case of AAP, It took just less than 2 years. It took close to 20 (and 50 if you include Jan Sangh years) years for BJP in late 20th century. But we are all living in fast forward world these days.

Now coming to BJP, this election is a classic examples of mistakes, grave grave (intentional repeat) mistakes and there are lessons to be learnt. First and foremost BJP have to admit (may be just to themselves) that their calculations went wrong. They should have called for assembly election just after national polls, may be with Haryana elections but every day delayed after that was like kicking CM chair away and away from you. Probably in hindsight Kiran Bedi was not a very good choice as a CM candidate. Second is communication, Kejriwal copied every campaign and communication strategy Modi used in LS elections and he have beaten BJP masterly in it. I will just give you a few examples of Kejriwal replicating Modi’s election tactics.

1. Kejriwal projected this election as a lone common man fighting against might of BJP (remember 1 aam aadmi, 200 MP,5 CM etc etc and Modi claiming CBI, central Govt and Shehzada against a chaiwala)
2. Kejriwal used social media and frugal communication channels to bombard public with a message (which was generally lie like Gobhi 60 Rs/Kg, Gajar 80Rs/kg etc etc) like Modi did although using more money
3. Kejriwal was ever communicative on social media like Modi was during LS polls
4. Last but most easily noticeable was their use of caste spin. Modi used statement by Priyanka Gandhi and Kejriwal used BJP ad to give caste spin to a personal remark.

BJP have many lessons to learn from this election. Some of them are

1. Distinguish yourself from FRINGE: Media was able to project BJP and RSS being responsible for things like
1. Statue of Godse
2. People opposing PK
3. nuinsense makers on valentine day

BJP have to understand that they won because of support of youth and most of the youth do not resonate with politics of likes of Sakshi Maharaj and 1 statement like “Chaar Bachche” gives ammunition to opponents which is disproportionately more to benefit of having 1000 Sakshi Maharaj.

2. Be (hyper)communicative as Modi was during election campaign. You missed many opportunity to stop falsehood from spreading and give too much leeway to opponent to spread falsehood Example
1. Modi’s suit during Meeting with Obama (Suit was fashion disaster, see points below), Opponents claimed (and less importantly here) it was worth 10 lakh and taxpayer money was used to buy it while the truth is that suit was a gift and cost was way below it. But we did not see any tweet from Modi or PMO on it. This lie was tweeted and facebooked thousands of times and everybody knows that a lie iterated thousand times is a truth
2. Kejriwal kept giving false prices of vegetables and telling lies over LPG subsidy  during his campaign and NOBODY from BJP dared quote RBI stats or truth of LPG subsidy to him.
3. Above all BJP failed enormously on the communication of black money. As far as I remember nobody in BJP quoted 15 lakh leave alone “depositing in your bank account” but this lie was spread zillion times and Amit Shah committed a bigger mistake by confessing it being a “chunavi zumla”
4. I will just highlight benefit of hyper communication that AAP enjoyed in this election. They gave so many conspiracy theories that their mistakes appeared as conspiracy. They were able to cover up as well, as happened in case of EVM tampering. They alleged, EC retorted and rejected their allegation and they said they are satisfied after EC’s promise/explanation. (Intelligent wordplay it is)
3. Correct some basics.
1. MHRD have been root of so many controversies. Many of the being media hit job, no doubt but a thing being in doubt is capability of Minister of human resources. Why not get her a not that important portfolio to prove herself and get a person like Arun Shourie to manage Indian education system. He can easily take on intellectual space dominated by left wing manipulators who have manipulated Indian history beyond recognition and steer India’s future in right direction
2. Mr. Modi, Take charge of communication yourself. Amit Shah is good (no doubt) in election management but there is no communicator excellence at par you. Leave some of your foreign policy engagements to Ms. Swaraj. She is competent and you need not do everything by yourself.
3. Take help of experts which are lying just at arms length and believe in ideology most of the times. Some people I will suggest (apart from Arun Shourie) are: Jayaprakash Narayan of LokSatta Party, Prof HC verma of IIT Kanpur and many highly capable foot soldiers like team of CAG
4. And finally get back to what RSS do the best. Be simplistic. Modi ji only real criticism in last 8-9 months of your personality is that suit. Please get back to simple Modi Kurta’s and return to times when you cut sleeves of your kurta as they were inconvenience. You created a brand out of it. You do not need brands/fashion trends for popularity but you create fashion trends and brands. Simplicity does no harm (I by no way is saying that your dressing sense is poor just because of 1 wrong selection or dressing for the occasion is bad. I merely imply we love simple Modi more than fashionable Modi)

I will like to end this uncharacteristically long post of mine with few lines for Indian right thinker. This war against Left (to generate prosperity for India) is going to be a tough one. We won a major battle in may last year and many smaller one subsequently. A small defeat now should only act as a reminder that war is not over and its not the time to fall complacent. Delhi election is a fightback by secular(Not dictionary meaning but meaning in Indian context) and socialist(Dictionary meaning) block of India. With every defeat they will fight back and may be fight back stronger (As they have done this time) but we must not lower our guard. This is historic opportunity for India to turn towards prosperity and move away from “Mai baap” and socialist policies.

If you like this post you may want to follow me on twitter(@goyalprtk) and read my 1st attempt at hindi writing

हिंदी का चेतन भगत

हिंदी, मेरी मातृभाषा, परन्तु मैंने कभी हिंदी में कुछ लिखा नहीं। शायद इसलिए कि मेरी पढाई मुख्यतः अंग्रेजी में हुई। शायद इसलिए कि अाधुनिक तकनीक के साथ हिंदी में लिख पाना मुश्किल है। लिखना अब कलम, कागज़ का खेल नहीं रह गया है कि जब मन किया कलम उठाई और लिखने लगे। अब आपके पास एक गोद में रखने वाला कॉम्पुटर होता है जिसका कीबोर्ड हिंदी के लिए बना ही नहीं है। आप अंग्रेजी के अक्षरो में हिंदी लिखने की कोशिश करते है, जो कि भाषाओ के स्वर विज्ञान के कारण काफी मुश्किल है। स्वर विज्ञानं क्युकी मै इस लेख को लिखने (या टाइप) करने ले लिए लिप्यंतरण(ट्रांसलिटरेशन) तकनीक का सहारा ले रहा हूँ।

अब जब मैं लिखने बैठ गया हूँ तो ये सवाल उठ खड़ा हुआ है की क्या लिखू। इसके लिए मेरी हिंदी में लिखने की प्रेरणा का विवरण मैं करना चाहूंगा।

अभी कुछ दिन पहले मैंने प्रेमचंद की गोदान पढ़ी। प्रेमचंद हिंदी साहित्य के सबसे ज्यादा चमकने वाले सितारों में से एक है। 19वी सदी के में हिंदी साहित्य की लालटेन जिन लोगो के हाथ में थी उनमे से इनका नाम सबसे आगे होगा। वापस गोदान पर आते हुए, मै सामान्यतः काल्पनिक कथाओं से ज्यादा अकाल्पनिक किताब पढ़ने की कोशिश करता हुँ। पर बचपन में स्कूल में पढ़ी हुई प्रेमचंद की "दो बैलो की कथा" एक ऐसी कहानी है जिसने मेरे स्मृति पटल पर अमिट छाप छोड़ी है। उसके अलावा मैंने प्रेमचंद की एक और कहानी "पूस की रात" भी पढ़ी थी और वो भी मुझे बहुत पसंद आई थी। शायद इसलिए मैं हमेशा से गोदान पढ़ना चाहता था। तो जब मैंने अमेज़न का किंडल खरीदा, सबसे पहले गोदान डाउनलोड की और पढ़ने लगा। गोदान एक साधारण किसान की कहानी है। मै ज्यादा विस्तार में तो विवरण नहीं करूँगा पर मेरे जैसे व्यक्ति, जिसकी इतिहास में रूचि है, उसके लिए ये उपन्यास एक 1930 के भारत के बारे में एक कक्षा के सामान है। यह किताब उस समय के किसान की, श्रमिक की, औरत की, जमींदार और मध्यम वर्ग की समस्याओं और सांस्कृतिक दोगलेपन के ऊपर एक नाटकीय टिप्पणी है।

ये किताब पढ़ने के बाद मैंने सोचा की हिंदी साहित्य को क्या हो गया है। कहा हैं आज के प्रेमचंद सरीखे कहानीकार? कहा हैं रामधारी सिंह दिनकर जैसे कवि? मुझे राष्ट्रकवि दिनकर के बाद कोई हिंदी साहित्यकार याद नहीं आता जो लोकप्रिय हुआ हो। शायद कुछ लोग कुमार विश्वास के नाम का उल्लेख करें पर मुझे लगता है की वो एक सफल और लोकप्रिय कवि नहीं हैं बल्कि उनकी प्रेम रस की एक कविता "कोई दीवाना कहता है" सफल और लोकप्रिय है। पर शायद साहित्यकार इसलिए नहीं है की कोई साहित्य पढ़ने वाला नहीं है। हिंदी को एक चेतन भगत की दिरकार  है। चेतन भगत, जिनके उपन्यास व्यापक तौर पर पढ़े जाएं। चेतन भगत चाहे साहित्यिक तौर पर बहुत आदरणीय ना हो पर उनके "फाइव पॉइंट समवन" ने भारतीयों की पठन शक्ति में एक क्रांति का संचार  किया था। ऐसा नहीं है की भारतीय उससे पहले पढ़ते नहीं थे पर उनके इस उपन्यास के बाद भारत के लोगो ने, कॉलेज के छात्रों ने बड़े पैमाने पर पढ़ना शुरू किया। ये चेतन भगत ही थे जिनके उपन्यासों ने पढ़ने को एक कूल हॉबी बना दिया था। और उनकी सफलता ने बहुत सारे लेखको को प्रेरित किया और देखते ही देखते भारतीय लेखको की एक नयी नस्ल तैयार हो गयी। कुछ लोग ये अवश्य कह सकते है कि इस नस्ल के लेखको की कथाओ का कोई साहित्यिक मूल्य नहीं हैं। पर  सवाल साहित्यिक मूल्य का नहीं है,  सवाल है अस्तितव का। कुछ साल पहले तक कोई भारतीय बड़ा लेखक कलपना के आधार पर लिखता ही नहीं था और लिखता था तो या तो सरकारें उसे प्रतिबंधित( सलमान रुश्दी) कर देती थी या उसे कोई पढता ही नही था। पर अब लोग पढ़ने लगे हैं तो वो दिन दूर नहीं जब भारत में भी डान ब्राउन जैसे विश्व स्तर पर लोकप्रिय उपन्यासकार होंगे। पर अब हिंदी को भी ऐसे ही उपन्यासकारों की ज़रुरत है। कुछ लोग कोशिश कर रहे है जैसे ख़बरबाज़ी के नीरज और फेकिंग न्यूज़ के राहुल रौशन, पर ये लोग अभी तक सिर्फ व्यंग्य तक ही सिमित है। उम्मीद है की इनके जैसे लोगो की संख्या में वृद्धि होगी और हिंदी साहित्य को भी अपना आधुनिक चेतन भगत मिलेगा।

मैं पहले भी प्रेमचंद के बारे में यहाँ लिख चुका हुँ।