The Farm

Last Friday evening, after coming back from office, I was browsing my bookshelf and this book caught my eye. I bought it from a bookshop sale sometimes in June and never got an opportunity to read it. The book I am talking about is - The Farm The Story of One Family and the English Countryside by Richard Benson.

It brought back some of my childhood memories when I started reading it. The working life in Yorkshire countryside and countryside in Western Maharashtra isn't much different after all. The book itself is witty, at times tragic and makes you emotional. I spent first 15 years of my life growing up in the countryside and witnessing quite a few things written in this book. I used to spent lot of time after school and in summer vacation helping my Father run his Agro-service center. Like Richard I was inept at many things (and I was too lazy to do anything). One could never trust me in doing any DIY work or any job with tools. My elder brother, like Guy in the book, was good at everything. I abhorred any housework and instead enjoyed playing Cricket for hours.

Lords to Oval and a Win

I looked at my last blog and thought of writing one more on the topic. What a change? Honestly, Indian team did play like a Team. In hindsight, the jelly bean incident was helpful (one of the many factors). There were lots of positives and I am not sure about Dravid's follow-on decision. We can go on and on that decision. The positives were Anil Kumble, Dhoni (and his wicket-keeping), Zaheer, RP Singh...for England I though Sidebottom was brilliant and Tremlett had a good start as well. I hope we continue the same in One day series.

Rain rain come again...

Surely England players wanted to say "Rain rain go away, Come again some other...". Another dismal performance by so called Indian star batsmen. What an impressive batting line up we have got - Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman, Karthik and Dhoni that against England's relatively inexperienced bowlers (I give them a full credit, tremendous efforts by them).

What annoyed me was the scene after the test was declared drawn. Indian camp had a 'mini-celebration' as if we have a won the match. They should be ashamed instead, weather saved us in time. I have seen our team playing for some time and the world cup memories are still afresh. My personal opinion is - some players are doing 9 to 5 job. There is no passion, no desire to win. I have not seen the team putting their heart and soul in the game. They are pretty content with their lives and Cricket is just one part they have to play. It's high time we clean up our act and show the much needed performance because rain is not going to save us at Trent Bridge. Dhoni with some luck was definitely a star today but his performance is not consistent either. In fact, our bowlers did a great job. There was a consistency and IMHO they deserve full praise.

I stopped watching Cricket in between just because of the frustration. You spend whole day watching (or keeping track via whatever media you have got) the game only to find that we have lost due to dismal performance of players. I started again from the world cup only to find myself in a similar situation. There are whole lot of other issues viz., politics, team selection procedure, lack of proper system to replace ageing players and so on. Given the popularity of the game and kind of sponsorships we get its high time that we review the whole system and improve our ranking in both test and one day cricket.

Threesome, awesome...

Threesome, awesome...Our little princess arrived on 03 July 2007 and life has changed, for good, ever since. I am towards the end of my Paternity leave and just did not realise that time flew by just like that.

It is such a pleasure watching her. The babies in first month do not do anything apart from feeding, sleeping and crying. They do not respond to your gestures so one would think it is 'boring' that way which actually isn't. I feel so proud when she stretches herself and yawns. Her blank stares are worth looking at.

Wednesday the 25 July would be back to work for me and I just can't imagine what life is going to be like.

Graduate Recruitment

I had an opportunity to attend Graduate Recruitment seesions at CASS and Cambridge University. That reminded me of my university days when I attended most of the recruitment presentations and the events. I look back and think what does it take to get into a company one is looking for:
1. Passion
2. Desire to learn
3. Ability to take initiatives
4. Attitude
5. Technical/domain knowledge

200 Miles of Rain

We had been to South Dorset over the weekend to explore the beautiful Jurassic coast. Sudeshna and I had not been out for long time so another reason for this trip was to spend some time together. The places we managed to visit were Bridport, Charmouth, Lyme Regis and Durdle Door.

The tour started on Friday, 20th Oct morning. We reached Bridport after 5 long hours (thanks to traffic on A32), checked in hotel, had a quick change and went out to see Bridport. The landlady told us that Bridport has best seafood restaurant in South West and we definitely wanted to find out. As expected 'Riverside' turned out to be a really really good place.

Next day we went on our fossil collection tour. Sudeshna had a good luck in Lyme Regis and Charmouth - she found some good fossils. After exploring the Jurassic coast we drove to Durdle Door (Lulworth). On way our way back we stopped in Weymouth a lovely sea side city.

The blog says '200 Miles of Rain' because on our return journey it rained continously from Charmouth to Cambridge.

RunLondon

It is a bright, sunny and calm morning of 8^th October. I am mentally prepared for my second 'long distance' run. The first being JPMorgan Corporate Challenge which was just 5.6 Km but took 33m and 32s for me. This one is 10 Km and today I am aiming to perform better. I had few practice sessions of 8 Km and it took me roughly 48m that is 6m per Km. So I set a target of under 60 for myself.

I am in a 1245 wave. I had a relaxed start, woke up around 9'ish had my bowl of cereals and took 0945 train to Kings Cross. I knew that there are no changing facilities at Hyde Park (race location) so I decide to change into my running gear at Kings Cross. It isn't that cold so I can be in my running shorts. I walk to Kings Cross underground and go to Piccadilly line west platform. By the time I reach the platform, I came across quite a few North and South team runners in their respective t shirts. This race is North vs South and I am least bothered about the team. I know I am here to run and through that to collect some money for Fairbridge charity. In my mind this is also a run dedicated to my Dad, just wanted to do something before his first death anniversary in December.

The excitement has already started building up and I just wanted to go and run. It took roughly 15m to reach Hyde Park Corner station. I quickly come out of the station and enter the park through Elizabeth gate. I had never seen so many enthusiastic runners ever in my life. It seems everyone from North, South, East and West is heading to Hyde Park. Later I heard approximately 30K people participated. It indeed must be as I started making my way to the start line my pace slowed down. Few of them had already finished their run and few of them were about to do so. Many relatives and also not related to anyone turned up to be part of the race. I am following the start sign and just wondering that Northerners exceed Southerners. It is not true though just that I felt so.

I follow the baggage sign to check in my gym bag and then walk towards the warm up zone. Two teams had already started warming up and the whole scene is so inspiring. The warm up session is really a fun. The sun has come out and temperature is slightly higher than what it was in the morning. I felt so much better. After a quick warm up we all started walking towards the start line. I had to stop roughly 150 meters away from the start line. The wave was about to start. Seb Coe is here and some bloke is talking to him (by the way he is running for South and Paula Radcliffe ran for North in the previous wave. Incidentally both of them are Loughborough alumni). He told us in short about the Olympic preparations and also the fact that 2012 London Olympics is just 312 Sundays away. That sounds lot shorter than 5 years few months.

The much awaited race for me finally began. It was difficult to find the way in an initial stage. Some of them are finding the way and I am careful while I did so. I am taking it easy, nice and slow. First few kilometers were dead easy and in my mind I am looking for a 5 Km mark. The digital chip tied to my trainers is recording the time after every couple of kilometers. My breathing is stable and I am good till 5 Km mark. They had put water station just after 5^th kilometer and I am undecided as what to do. I decided not to have water and just push myself towards the finish line. In the process I overtake some and some overtake me. I look at them, most of them are young crowd but there are many in their late forties and I even see few of them in their late fifties. Some of them pushing themselves really hard and some of them not so hard. Some of them tuned to their iPods while some of them just running. I am just running and only one thing in my mind – to cross the finish line under 60m. I crossed 6 Km mark and then after a while 8 Km. The 8 Km was a psychological mark as I have done 8 Km few times and I know I should be able to do another couple of kilometers. I have crossed that and I am having a slight pain in my chest, don't know why but nevertheless I am continuing. I am also having a stiff neck (blame it on my pillow) and that is making my run worse. I am slowing down intermittently not to exhaust myself but it happens without knowing and when I realise I pick up the pace. It is hard to run at a constant pace unless you are doing it on the tread mill. In fact, I find it difficult to do anything at a constant pace over long period. It is always in cycles, everything has got peaks and troughs.

Slowly and steadily I cross 9 Km mark, I am relieved, damn sure that I am going to complete this race. The question remains – is it under 60? I sort of increase my pace and as I gradually move towards the finish line I see more people cheering on both sides. They are shouting giving support to all the runners. I try and capture these moments knowing this is what I am taking back. Finally I could see the finish line, I am excited and I increase my pace. Now I am taking that final sprint to finish line. People on both sides cheering and shouting and amid all that I cross the finish line. I go past and realise that I have forgotten to look at the time, I look back and calculate – 57m 10s. I smiled and said to myself not too bad.

I pack my bags and walk towards the tube station. On the way back, saw few people are still finishing, few of them walking and then running again. I wish them good luck and say good bye to Hyde park to arrive at Kings Cross. I reach home and my mobile beeps, I check who it is. There is a message from Nike RunLondon team saying I finished the race in 56m 47s. I smile again!

Exploring Cambridge

After my first crappy blog on iWeb here I am with another one. Cambridge is a University city located in rural Cambridgeshire in the eastern part of England. It is also known as a Silicon Fen for its technology companies. I love Cambridge city, its streets and alleyways. It is such a diversified place where you hear people speaking different languages all the year round. It has a rare mix of medieval and modern place. The bike route from the place where I stay and city center takes me through the Mill road which has scores of international shops and cafes to name a few, Asian, Chinese, Korean, Middle-Eastern and French.

The city-center is a place to be and most of the colleges are on the Trinity street and Kings Parade. The famous ones are St John, Trinity and Kings College. The back side of these colleges, along the river Cam is picturesque. I have put few photographs on the Photo albums page. The market-place is an open market with local people selling variety of things (do not forget to have Ostrich burgers here). I always like to nip in one of the excellent book shops to look what’s new and what’s not so new in the literary world. My personal favourite is Waterstones and its Costa Coffee. Not to mention many cosmopolitan cafes and restaurants serving variety of food. Try Don Pasquale in the market square and La Raza on the Rose Crescent. Cafe Uno on the Bridge Street is also nice. Dojo noodle bar is famous among students. I am yet to try punting but this is one of the activities many people enjoy. Chill out at The Anchor before or after punting.

Few other places to see in the city center are Round Church and Fitzwilliam Museum.