What would you tell a 20 year old you

I would tell this to a 20 year old me.

1. Be adventurous

2. Don't be afraid to try out new things

3. You might fail,so what.

4. Become mentally strong. You are gonna need it for all the heart breaks that come in.

5. Become physically strong. It will be needed for one particular nasty incident in 2007.

What would you tell yourself today

1. Don't care what comes out of your mouth

2. Be persistent, don't quit too early. 

3. Love the ones who you really care for. What? You do it already? Well, express it.

4. Don't be afraid to try out new things

5. Stand by the people who do anything for you

These are on top of my mind now. Will add as I remember.

Will i revisit this in another 10 years. Let's see.

The "Spirit" of cooking.

After watching countless episodes of a cooking reality show the missus declares that she needs an oven. Having no other choice but to watch the same show when it is running, in the name of spending quality family time, I too watch these shows. Having an insatiable sweet tooth, I enjoy the desserts section a lot. I especially enjoy those dishes cooked with wine or desserts with brandy.

Being the awakened consumers that we are, we decide to do some research on the types of ovens available in the market. As a first step we scorch the net for models, makes and feedbacks. Finally we short list one of them and decide to go for it that weekend. I was all excited about making 'that' dessert. So I convince the wife and finally get a bootle of fine wine, just in case.

The next weekend we search for our model in a couple of shops but to no avail. We decide to order it online in one of those famous 'You can get anything shipped' online stores. We reach home dog tired and she goes to sleep. I decide to surf the net for the famous  'You can get anything shipped' online store. I bump into a desserts website. Since I was tired I decide to 'taste' some wine and get a good night's sleep.

Next morning we forgot all about our oven search and went about our weekday chores of appearing busy. Busy days lead to good night's sleep after sneeking into the kitchen cabinet for a round of wine tasting. By that Friday we decide we will get the oven that Saturday. Another fruitless search over the weekend and we decide not to buy the oven.

That day my wife decides to clean the kitchen closet and finds the empty bottle, which yours truly helped empty. We were again at square one, no oven, no wine. But the "spirit" of good cooking was not lost. It was decided that I stop watching cooking shows.

In my defence, what's the use of keeping the wine when we decide to not buy the oven anymore. Also wines don't ferment while in the bottle.

Disclaimer: The above story may or may not be true, but mostly true. It might or might not have happened to me. I might or might not have tasted the wine. All this may or may not be my imagination. All in all you should or should not believe anything written here over a period of time. 

Run

The other day I was thinking about how I got to running. One day I was walking along Rose garden road/Lakshman Rao park road in Jayanagar. I saw a friend of mine run and i thought of accompaniying him to beat the boredom. That week the 'Runners for Life' organised a 5K run in office to select our corporate team for their annual 'Urban Stampede' They invited anyone interested to run. this is where I ran my first marathon with timing+bib. I also found the idea of being served water or electrolyte or oranges and bananas on the run interesting. I found myself running easily after these. Thus began my tyrst with running.

Now I run because I want to train myself to run a full marathon (42K). I also find that I am stress free after a run. My mind frees up of any stress I have and I also get some thinking time alone, if required. Running just gets better with time. I ran my first 10K in Bangalore Sunfeast 10K at about 77mins on tarred roads across the central Business district. My next 10k was at Mysore along the trail of the river Kaveri. This was a trail and needless to say untarred. This was tough considering the many ups and downs on the trail and the weather in Mysore was not helping. My time was again close to 77 minutes. This was an improvement considering it was a trail run. or that was what I told myself. Then came the regular 10ks at office on Wednesdays. Since this was again on tarred surface I saw that I finally made my sub 1Hr 10K for the first time last week.

I decided to 'up the ante' by registering for the Bangalore ultra under the 25k category. This was needed as I wanted to run a full marathon in the next 1 year. A saying by a great runner motivated me. never stop if you are tired. Thats a way the brain feeds you false information and says go home. If you are exhausted, stop. Go home. thats when you are actually done. I took about 3 and a half hours to cover the 25k trail. This was tougher than the Mysore KTM run as this was an even more undulating trail and Bangalore decided to be hotter that day. But surprisingly I was not tired when I completed 12.5K (50%) of the run. I was surprised that I covered more than my usual distance of 10K without being tired. I used to stop at 10K earlier thinking that was my limit. Turns out I can do more. I was also surprised that I was not exhausted after 25K but dog tired. A couple of half marathons and I am on track on completing a full marathon in 2012 or latest by the Mumbai marathon in Jan-2013.

I learnt a couple of things this last 2 runs. Staying dry through out the run helps a lot. I bought myself a dry-fit Tee and shorts for the 25K. It is nothing but a cloth made of spandex, polyster, nylon and a small amount of cotton. Staying wet (hydrated) through out the run helps. Drink a lot of water the day before. Keep drinking water in small quantities through out the run. Do not drink a lot of water as it makes you feel filled up and you cannot run. This was the mistake I made last time. Also, empty your bladders before the run. Get yourself some bare minimum running shoe.

Do let me know if you need any info regarding running. I don't know most of it. But I know some professional runners from whom i get you the info. To lookup running events in your country please visit: http://aimsworldrunning.com/Calendar.htm

Update: I did my first full marathon in Non 2012 in Mysore and the second on in Jan 2013 in Mumbai. Finally I keep my word to myself. 

Pasta tonight

Well! Finally it was sunny. The eternal sunshine forced me to try something new. So I though of Pasta. How bout pasta for dinner. There are 2 recipes. Lets call it, my way and the right way.

My way first:
Get pasta from some sooooper store. Boil hot water with salt. Put the hard pasta in this and allow to boil again.
Put aside the boiled pasta. Take some(not some actually) butter in a pan and boil (I mean melt it) Add water and maida and boil again, add milk (Yes!! thats right. A little bit of milk) This would taste like pasta sauce.  Add the pre-boiled pasta, add jalepenos, pepper and salt to taste. And enjoy your pasta.

The right way:
Get pasta sauce from the sooooper store and heat, add the pre boiled pasta, add wine and put fire in the frying pan, Go ahead enjoy your pasta.

Sadly I have an electric cooker and cant add wine and burn it. Without burning the pasta would taste like liquor.