Month: September 2006

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  1. Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
  2. Should your life have a purpose? What if you don’t know what exactly you want to do?
  3. How do you know when you’re happy and truly achieved something?
  4. Ever inspired by Norvig’s speech?
  5. Do you have aspirations/dreams? Even if it is world peace.
  6. Is money important or dreams?
  7. What if you don’t have any dreams or aspirations?
  8. How often should you stop, take a step back and take stock of your situation?

Are there any more hard questions one has to ask oneself?

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I completed the full marathon i.e. 42 km on Sunday in the Bangalore International Marathon 2006.

Well, barely completed. After running the first 21 km in 2.5 hours, I was elated at my good timing, but then the worst thing (for a runner) happened – cramps. I just couldn’t run, it hurted. The irony was that in the past 6 months of heavy training, I never faced this issue, and it had to happen on the final D-day. I tried a little running and little walking for a while and managed to reach 28 km.

At the 28 km mark, I gave up. I grunted and cursed myself. Then, a fellow marathoner came along, cheered me up and pushed me to go on. Okay, I guess it was worth another try. So, I mustered all the energy left in me to get up and walk. A few more marathoners came along and encouraged me to simply walk if I can’t run. I winced and walked, but I was pleasantly surprised at the encouragement by the people around, and specially the traffic cops.

If there was ever a test of my will power, I guess this was it. I took 4 hours to walk the rest of the way back to the Kanteerava stadium.

In the end, I was disappointed that I couldn’t run the 42 km as I wanted to, and my goal of finishing in 5.5 hours went down the drain. But at least I completed.

A huge shout of thanks to Ajay, Niara, Vikram – my running partners and closest friends, without whom I would’ve never run the marathon, let alone work towards my dream of running the full marathon.

Is it a coincidence that the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42?

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After an encounter with a firangee person, Vikram and myself started talking about difference in cultures.

For example, how doors are opened or closed. In USA, doors are pulled to get in but pushed to get out. Why? If there’s an emergency, it’s easier to push yourself through and get out of the building quickly. If you’re trying to get into the building, that means the building is safe, so it’s okay to take time to pull the door.

It’s the opposite direction in India. Why? Because we hope that bhagya da lakshmi enters our homes.

Such a minor issue, and yet such a difference between cultures.