Why Do I Run ?

In 2013 the best thing that has happened to me is long distance running. But then one question has been always haunting me ever since. Why am I Running ..?.

So this post is more of reflections of my thought process which I am putting it in here in the hope that I will have an answer to the above question.

I took up long distance running around 3 or 4 month ago. It all started off when few of my friends pushed me to join "their SiMPLiRUN club " for the practice session which they were doing for TCS 10K. These guys were into their 3-4th week of their training and the first session that I attended with them they were doing their first 10k. I thought I will not even do a 2 km on that day and just went to their practice to be around and have some fun. But then when I started running I was not able to believe that I was able to do what I was doing. After covering first 4 kms, my body was still ready to take more & on that day along with all the other folks I did a 8K. That day I realized one thing about me, I understood that there is a lot more to me than what I knew about me. I was feeling happy that there is so much un-explored in me & I was sad that I had taken so much of time to realize that. This feeling didn't come because I finished the run in any decent timing. Actually if I think of the run it was pathetic, I completed it in some 1hr 25 minutes or something but then what I was thrilled about, was the way I did it without quitting. I just liked that part in me which just refused to give up. 

Above all these, what I really enjoyed about that day was that I was in company of guys who were common people like me who were running for first time who were apprehensive of running, people who felt bad about looking fat like me, people who were common, I was feeling that I was running with a lot of other "me's".

In no time the "their SiMPLiRUN club " became mine. 

Nowadays I cannot even imagine a week without running. I have started postponing my other schedules to include running on a daily basis. Thinking of it I am amazed.

Couple of weeks before one of my close friends asked me over a drink  "Do you run because it is your love. or is it just an infatuation? " I didn't have an answer then...and I still don't have one....Whether its love for this sport or is it a just a infatuation ?

Yes i didn't pick this sport on my own.It was my friends who pushed me into this & ya that gives a lot of room for some body to think that i never did it for the love of it in the first place. But am i not liking it then..Hmmmm..no I like running..Then that means i am liking the sport right..Does it mean that..I don't know..I think when we say we love some thing i think its a big statement to make. That means we are ready to give it time,we are committed to it and ya not for one or two days but for a life time. That's when according me we can say that we are in love with something or some one. 

So me to know whether i love running will take some more time.But ya..as of now.i am giving it time..I am giving it complete commitment..and i am in the phase were you are doing it do just because you like do it and I am enjoying it.

So do I have answer for the original question ?

No not yet.. I have more thoughts..

Actually when I recollect the time we are running..   Its about basically spending 1 to 2 hours of solid time with yourself.  Man!!!...isn't meditation. .You know what, I feel Running as an extended tooth brushing session. If you have observed, you will realize that the 2 minutes that we spent brushing in a day that’s where you are with yourself .some days you are like blank for that 2 minutes. Some days you get weird thoughts. Some days you plan your day.

Just imagine spending 2 hours on a deserted road with yourself.

I remember one of the runs I recently had which was around 14 kms, I never realized when the run was over. I was so into myself. During that run I recollected the good things that I had done till date.Felt bad about some mess up's..Felt good about few achievement’s  in my life. Felt good of being lucky to have whatever I had. Felt good about photography. Felt good about falling in love. Felt good about marriage. Felt good about the food that was waiting for me at home. Thought of some pending stuff’s in life, and above all dreamt a lot about things which I am not even able to recollect now. That’s what happens when you have two hours of time with an empty mind on an empty road.

Oh! It just stuck me ....i picked up running for loosing weight...

Hmmm..Probably yes..That was one of the reasons to start but is that the only thing..

NO.

If that was the only thing then probably I would have picked up any other sport. But then why Running.

Let me tell you one thing. The feeling that you get when you get to know that you can do stuff that you told yourself cannot. That’s something worth dyeing for. You change as a person. I remember one of the initial runs that I had with the group were I was running with people who were at least double my fitness level.

I was still able to pull it off. Those kind of moments give you a lot of confidence and makes you realize that the actual race is not with the guy next to you, but its with the guy inside you who want you to quit. That’s the guy who you have to beat. No one else.

Ok..So back to the question. Why do I run ?

Ans 1. I Like the people in the group with whom I run.

Ans 2. I am in love with running

Ans 3. I get to spent time with myself.

Ans 4. I wanted to loose weight.

Ans 5. I wanted to prove myself wrong.

Ans 6. I wanted to feel more confident.

Ans 7. I wanted to beat the guy inside me who told me I was a looser.

Ok so now ..What Is the answer.. Oh man..I was better off without this write-up. This has confused me more. Or may be the answer is “all of the above”. Or may be there are still some more thoughts which are yet to occur to me. Any ways as I said before I am giving it time & whatever is the reason for me to pick up running, I am enjoying it as of now.

I cannot mention my gratitude in words to SiMPLiRUN and its founder  Jaikanth Kumaran  for allowing me to be part of this entire journey and for making me part of this experience.

Cloud Computing Pains !!!

I have been working on cloud computing for couple of years now. After the intial excitement,I thought it would be nice to see if there are any pain points that are bothering the brave ones that have taken the plunge.Some research on this topic gave me the below top 10 problems.

 and this will be my first technical blog

1. Online patching in cloud environment

Eg:- Bill Gillis, director of eHealth technologies implemented an online system that provides electronic medical records to 1,600 physicians at over 300 locations.

His major pain point was keeping electronic medical records continuously available while still patching his virtualized systems promptly to ward off threats. There was no window in which systems could be taken down for patching.

The product that they used to do this is from VMware its called  vCenter Update Manager. This product uses vmware technologies to update vm’s online.

2. Complications with mobile apps.

Eg:- American Airline.

American airline had an mobile app that was hosted by Microsoft Azure  that gave flight details of customers on their mobile. According to them it was complex to put corporate user data through a partners cloud service. 

The way they did this was to create a Web service proxy server that brings the data out from behind the American corporate firewall and makes it accessible to Microsoft's Windows Azure, which in turn makes it available to Windows Phone users.

3. Legacy Apps Don't Migrate To The Cloud

The biggest pain point here is in moving the apps that involves system dependencies that need to move to the cloud with the application, such as secondary applications, database systems, identity management.

The real pain in moving legacy apps to the cloud is financial. Legacy app owners want to reduce their cost of operation, but a migration to public cloud infrastructure will not prove cost-effective.

A way to make use of legacy apps as part of a cloud computing initiative would be to identify particular services within the application, transforming them into separate, callable services, and making them accessible as Web services. This gives companies the option of designing and running "green field" cloud applications on public infrastructure while still obtaining key services from the data center.

 4. All eggs(Data) in one basket.

Eg:- Goggle blogger failure in 2011

If the service providers vanish someday your data also vanishes.

These can be easily tackled by having some way to mirror the data & apps on cloud to your local storage. You can, for example, easily backup all of your Gmail data on your local hard-drives .

If your local storage fails, you can grab what you need from the cloud. If your cloud service fails, you’ve still got it locally. But if you rely just on the cloud, you’re vulnerable to exactly this sort of failure.

5. Risk:Legal and  regulatory.

Applications that have legal & regulatory information’s may never make it to cloud. Its not a great idea to put apps that will expose user sensitive data on cloud

6.App performance could suffer

A private cloud might, but a public cloud definitely wouldn't lead to improved application performance. 

"I couldn't see an investment bank putting a latency-sensitive application on an external cloud," adds Steve Harriman, a vice president at NetQoS.

7. Bandwidth could bust your budget.

Every day, Sony animators access and generate between 4 and 12 terabytes of data. "The network bandwidth we'd need to put that into someone's cloud and to read it back is tremendous, and the cost would be so large that we might as well buy the storage ourselves rather than paying someone else for it," says Nick Bali, senior systems engineer at the Culver City, Calif..

Sony first considered going public cloud but finally decided to go for something private .They were  evaluating a private storage cloud, using ParaScale's cloud storage software for this purpose.

8.  Security Risks

This is perhaps the most visible and riskiest component of the cloud. From customer records being hacked to cloud providers denying responsibility, to major brands being damaged as a result, security is always an issue.

 9. Hidden Costs

One of the major draws for cloud computing is that it promises a low-cost alternative to enterprise applications, especially for the SMB market.

However, with the addition of user licenses, customizations, added functionality, what started as a cheap application can balloon into an expensive one without proper over sight. Other hidden costs include the cost to manage the application, which usually does have to involve IT once an application reaches enterprise-scale.

 10. Service Levels Mismatch.

Some enterprises have discovered that the level of service they expected has not held up, and without an airtight contract it is difficult to enforce. Because cloud-based apps can often be assigned to a departmental budget, it can become a real challenge when a cloud application grows across an enterprise, and there weren’t the necessary service agreements put in place from the beginning because IT wasn’t involved. It can be difficult to track back and remedy this when a cloud-based application proliferates throughout a company.

Bangalore Vahan Yatra 2009

Visited The 2009 vahan yatra at palace grounds today...
As in the previous years.The vahan yatra was not a very big event but it had enough varieties of vehicles on display..

An exclusive photoshoot of Some of the excitements at vahan yatra 2009...

Happy driving..

A perfect entertainer...

In Bangalore from almost last 50 days i was seeing a telugu movie poster all around the place .




These posters had induced a strange curiosity within me and i wanted to know what was the movie name. But hailing from kerala , reading telugu is a distant dream so after asking some of my colleagues i came to know that the name of the movie was arundathi & i was told that it has become a huge hit in AP.But being a mallu understanding telugu was a remote possibility and i didn't want to waste any money just watching a movie without understanding its meaning.Last week some of my friends from tamilnadu said that arundathi has been released in tamil as well.Thats when i decided taht i will give this movie a shot.Malayalam & Tamil are siblings & i have been a huge fan of kamalhasan & rajnikanth seeing almost there every movie so understanding tamil movies was easy for me.even though i was never a fan of dubbed movies i could not resist this one because the posters of the movie were so fasinating that i wanted to know what made a beautiful young bride take a bloodyy sword as depicted in the posters.The movie is a perfect blend of drama,special effects & background score.Story was a no surprise there has been a lot of movies of this gene but the treatment of this movie makes this one a complete feast for the eyes. BUT the BIGGEST surprise of this whole filim is the performances...man....what a releif to the eyes...A beautiful heroine decides to do such a powerful role..hats off anushka..especially the character which depicts her as a princess requires special mention what a performance..the dialouge delivery..the persona..every thing was just too good...after anushka the next surprise pakagae was sonu sood...another fine actor..i was very happy seeing his performance he is a true performer & he delivers the villian role in greatest style.not to forget others who had done a good job.The best part of the filim is that they have not over done any thing..they have not put in lot of special effect s whcih would have ruined the filim & they have not put unnecessary songs which again would have killed the script.what ever songs are in the filim are perfectly placed.Most of the tamil songs are sung by khailesh kher..he again has deleivered a bunch of songs whcih make us to listen to them again & again.

Over all it was a perfect mixture...a complete entertainer.There is a little too much off blood shed in the movie but then i think that brings in the whole drama.
My Verdict:--


Go watch this movie if you want to see some fine perforamnces and a movie which would keep you stuck to your seats for 3 hours...

bangalore to shirdi & back in 2 days

Visiting shirdi was always a great releif for me.This year in midst of lot chaos we finally made it to shirdi during the final week of of feb.Getting train tickets to shirdi was always a head ache..and it was no different this time..sai baba has always been a ray of hope in my life i was very sure of making this trip happen at any cost.So we decided to start on 27th of feb and be back by 1st of march.sadly shirdi has not got a station for its own.Kopargaon is the nearest to shirdi & karnataka express which runs between bangalore & delhi is the train which we took.The train runs on all the days of the week.The train started at 7:oopm from bangalore and it reached kopargaon at 2:00 pm the next day..Even though feb is not the best time to travel in north india mainly because of the hot weather in those parts of the country especially if you are not traveling in ac.but then given the amount of rush in shirdi in other months feb was a better choice because of the school exams & stuff like that which happens across the country at that time.After reaching kopargaon you can hire a auto to shirdi..it would be almost 20 kms distance & they would charge you any thing between 150 to 170.& also you can opt for share auto which would be a little more economical especially if you are traveling alone.
Shirdi is a small villiage blessed by sai baba and is exsistance is solely attributed to him.We reached there at around 2:30 in the afternoon,We stayed at Dhantra(Tel: 255890, 255895)which is a decent hotel in shirdi which is a little bit on the higher side but then its very close to the temple hence going to the temple in the early morning can be a lot easier and yeah not to forget the restaurant in this hotel is by far the best you can find in shirdi.There are several poojas whcih are done in shirdi but the main being the kakkad aarthi performed early morning then the afternoon pooja and then the dhoop pooja done in the evening.after reaching shirdi we had a quick lunch from dhantara made ourself fresh and rushed for the dhoop aarti at 5.getting darshan in shirdi is no joke..but this time we were lucky that we got a nice darshan in the eve without having to wait for too long.After finishing darshan we roamed around the small shops around shirdi and got some statues & photos for our house.The next day plan was to go for the kakkad aarthi which was at 5 but then the Que for the same would start from the mid night.we planned to get up @ 2:30 in the night but then by the time we reached que,it was already 4:30 in the morning & it was obvious that we were a little too late.We finally got the darshan @ around 7 in the morning & that was a tiring 3 hours of waiting.But once in front of baba we just forgot every thing we had gone through & it was a feeling of eternal bliss which we had.once we came out of darshan we visited the near by hanuman mandir & took part in the aarthi which was taking place at that time & then had a quick walk around again to find some thing to shop.Here i would like to warn any one going to shirdi that if you are going for the 1st time or even if you are going nth number of time please don't forget to shop around because you would find bizarre differences in prizes for the same item in shops which are just adjacent to each other.The more you shop around the lesser the chances of you getting ripped off.after buying a few things we rushed to our hotel room to grab some sleep & then left for kopargaon around 3:00 in the afternnon.the train was supposed to arrive at 4:20 but then KK express as it is comonly known kept the tradition of indian railways alive and came 2 hours late.after waiting for 2 long hours in a place were there were hardly any amenities i was dying to get some rest with all hopes as soon as i entered my sleeper coach what i saw jolted me..there were 10 people sitting in a place were only 6 were supposed to..I was too weak to protest & then taught would better wait for the ticket checker.But then by the time TT turned up it was 8 in the night and also he was a new guy who hardly knew to talk.finally after a long wait food arrived i stuffed in what ever i could & then jumped on to the upper berth to sleep only to find that there was lot of garbage lying out there..with little options at my hand i ended up cleaning up all that shit,Finally by the time i got some sleep it was around 12:00 mid night.We reached bangalore the next day around 2:00 pm and it was nice to be back home.
All this time there was one person who was calm & understanding and tolerating all my tantrums with patience and that was my wife.In this way we both made our second visit to shirdi after marriage.
OM SAI RAM.

A Romantic Rendevzous with Nature

Daily work was becoming monotonous and boring and myself and my wife was dying for some break.Finally those much awaited vacation came in form of diwali holidays and we charted out a 10 day plan.The initial plan was start Friday afternoon go to munnar and from there to calicut (home town) and then back to bangalore.After a week long of research on the web regarding the routes and from the suggestions of friends the routes were decided.The plan was Bangalore - Krishnagiri –Dharmapuri-Thoppur - Mettur - Bhavani - Perundurai - Avinashi - Tiruppur - Palladam - Pollachi-udmalapet-chinnar-

munnar.Then came the villain in form of work and my 4 days of leave got canceled.My wife was not very happy about the idea of going that far & not visiting native,and i was not ready to cancel the trip.nothing was finalized till Thursday night & nothing was packed.My wife was hoping that i would leave the idea of the trip & i was hoping that she understands my frustration..after a lot of fight, planning & re-planning we both decided on friday morning to hit the road and the destination was pollachi masarani amman kovill.

We packed what ever we thought were relevant and started from angalore

at around 4:00 pm on friday afternoon.we had split up the route & had decided to stay in salem for the night.We hit the hosur road around 6:00 pm..thanks to bangalore traffic.But once we left bangalore it was drive of my life time..the road till krishnagiri was awesome with jaw dropping scenery and a light drizzle made the ride all the more romantic.But after we crossed krishna girii the fun was lost..there was 4 lane widening happening and the ride in the night to salem had actually become night mare...but then

with less traffic it was ok..and we managed to hit salem @ around 9:00 in the night.Then the next day traget was pollachi and we had to reach there be

fore 12:00 for the pooja.we grasped some sleep in one of the hotels in salem and started to pollachi the next day around 5:00 am.We took the coimbatore highway.The road was okie but there was road widening happening with lot of lane changes and diversions but overall it was fine and were able to reach polachi by 11:45 am just in time.The drive was ok was not that tiring.We had an excellent darshan in the temple.We were out of the temple by 1:00 pm and were clueless of were to head.we thought of traveling back to banagalore but then we still had 3 days in our hand and we didn't want to go back to home & watch TV.The next option was munnar which was around 150 kms from pollachi,but it was raining heavily in munnar at that time & every body i talked to were tellin

g us not to go there.the third option was to go to ooty which was also 150 kms away.We were confused till the time i called up one of my friend Vadii w

ho is a hardcore biker for his opinion.As soon as he heard me..he was doubt less he said..munnar...and i started my car and drove right out of the temple and took a right turn and we were on the road which would take us to munnar..my wife was surprise at the way i took that decision and she was syaing i am sometimes just impossible.It was a kinda of cool because thee was absolutely no planning.what we knew was friends number in munnar and the fact that it was raining heavily there..nothing else.we were actually not very sure whether we would be able to see munnar fully because that's not a place which u should be visiting in the rainy season..but then we had our instincts and

we just went ahead.That 150 km journey from pollachi to munnar was an awesome drive and very soon we reached the chinnar check post.from here we were supposed to go through the chinnar wild life sanctury.This stretch was just awesome again..the roads were ok..there were literally no traffic and then you some stretches on that road really felt like a forest.only thing bothered us was some 20 or more checkposts in between never understood the purposes of that but then spinning out 20 bucks each gate was a pain.We covered that stretch in almost 1 and half hour, by the time we started entering munn

ar it was around 5 in the eve..and from her the real fun stated ..what to tell about this place yaar..its heaven..there were greenery all around,there were endless tea estates a slight drizzle & we were just driving through deserted roads..

that evening was un undoubtedly one of the most romantic ones we had till now.after some time there was intense mist which made the visibility to 0 and we were actually driving on roads which were just enough for a car..It was very scary but @ the same time we enjoyed that to the fullest.We reached munnar some time around 6:00 in the eve and it was like almost 12:00 midnight in that place..it was covered by mist.our friend arranged us a home stay and i suggest home stay to every one who like to visit to munnar..i think that its a cool way and can save a lot of money too..we stayed at a homestay owned by one Mr,Binoy(09447434765) and he was more than helpful to us and took care of each and every need of ours..The night there was horrible it was un bearable cold and we had almost frozen.With my last day experience of the narrow roads and with little time to waste we hired our very helpful house owner to be our guide/driver for the next two days which he did for a very nominal prize.Next day morning our destination were 2 dam location and to go to the highest point in munar.We started of a little late around 8:00 and then went directly to a dam location.we had some good time there and then we proceeded to the highest point in munnar and enroute i felt that the decision i made to hire a driver was one of the intelligent one i had done for a long time..if i had not done that i would have crashed my car onto some tree for sure..the road were so pathetic that for a while i thaught i was the one who was discovering those roads...we spent some good amount of time @ that place and returned back..Our guide educated us on various stuff enroute and he made sure that we didn't miss on any thing..after returning back in munnar town we had a nice lunch from one of the restaurants in the town and then headed towards the most famous water fall in munnar..It was again a wonderful drive through the tea estates and the view @ the water fall was just awesome..after capturing some of the moments there we returned the town around 6 pm.

In the night we were sponsored a special dinner by our cousin @ abad plaza a 4 star hotel in munnar and after that we relaxed back @ our room.The 3 rd started with confusion as for weather to get back to bangalore by the same route which we came or to take one more day off and visit one of our uncle in thrissur and then go back to bangalore..nothing was decided but then the short term plan was to visit the famous hills in munnar were a violet flower blooms every 12 years.we reache dthere by around 10.The place is actually a hill were only govt buses are allowed for tourist purpose..the buses take you to a distance and then you have to walk almost 1.5 kms.It was real fun had some nice opportunities to try my newly discovered photgraphy skills.after spending some fruitful time there we started to think of our next destination..Finally we decided the plan B ie go to thrissur and then to Bangalore..but then we didn't want to leave munnar that fast..but then good things never last too long and we left munnar , promising ourselves that we would come back here very soon to re live the moments and to discover more...Way back roads were good.only the exception was the stretch from angamaly to thrissur.This 100 odd kms tested my driving skills to the limits..thanks to widening being carried out there. we reached thrissur by 5:00 in the eve.It was always good to be back with family members.The next day morning we started to bangalore back @ around 5:00 in the morning and the route planned was palakkad-coimbatore-satyamangalam-nanjungaud--mysore-bangalore.This was again an un explored route by me.Thanks to Vadii again for suggesting this one..It was a great drive.The roads were bad only for about say 30 kms near nanjunguad and rest were very good roads with enough scenery to fill your eyes.we reached back bangalore @ 9:00 pm and thus we were back from the best weekend we ever had in our life till now.

As some one had truly said

"Good days are to be gathered like grapes, to be trodden and bottled into wine and kept for age to sip at ease beside the fire. If the traveler has vintaged well, he need trouble to wander no longer; the ruby moments glow in his glass at will.”


Find some snaps @
http://picasaweb.google.com/82.harish/Munnar?authkey=Gv1sRgCNWChYLS64zTWQ&feat=directlink

& some more @
http://www.flickr.com/photos/harishmohan/

Just another trip back home....

Some bank related work took us to our home town last Friday ...Guess what we got on our way back...a small village on the way greeted us with a view to die for..








When we thought it was over...nature just offered a different color to us..





and we stood spellbound and hypnotized ...