My first mini Marathon...

Tomorrow will be my first competitive step towards participating in a full marathon...

I will be running in the annual city 10k run...

Intend to do it under 60mins...

Signing off...

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Update

I did fine...

Notwithstanding nerves and tactical goofups, I reached the finish line in 1:08:15...

Could have easily shaved off atleast 15minutes, had it not been for my tactical oversight...

Lessons for future:
1) Stay as close to the start line as possible, not only will it give a head start but it will also help you avoid the path blocking runners...
2) Be clear about the rules, discuss beforehand with the organizers...

Signing off...

Three incidents...

The top right hand side of my mobile read 10:25, which meant I just about had enough time to reach my desk, regroup and head for the conference room...

'Excuse me, your id please', I hear a voice. I cursed Murphy under my breath and turn around to face the speaker. It was the new security personal. I flash a charming grin and lie that the card is at my desk and escape. 'Never take short-cuts', is what my Dona Ines always says, but old habits you see.

I do not even archive this incident and went ahead with my work-day. In was on my way to another department and behold I notice a lady checking-me-out, not that I am averse to attention but what got me thinking was that she had broken a few unwritten ogling commandments . To quote a few, thou shall the act to a few seconds at a time, thou shall hold thyself back if thy object of desire is breaking the eye contact (unless you are drunk, drinkers have different rules, remember), make a pass or pass the chance - do not maintain the status-quo.

After a discussion that lasted a good three hours I get back to my desk and realize that someones presence. I throw a blank stare at her and she responds with a 'caught-you' smile and demands that I show her my identity card. Oh, it was the security lady. 'I am social' would be like saying 'Fish can swim', it is my second nature, however timelines or the lack of the same decided the couse I took. I confessd that I did not have my card. She pulled out a pen and wanted my 'number', I spell out my employee-id. She mobile to number, 'why?', I inquired innocenly. 'New policy', was all that she said. Once done, she takes down my name and walked off.

The project was taking its toll on me and it had been a good 72hrs since I smelt the proverbial roses. I rush in to another status check meeting and participate in a focus-group and shoot a dozen replys. I pull my mobile out to check waht the top right hand side corner has to say and I notice 8 missed calls, so I called back.

'Hello', I start off...
The line is blank...
'Hellloou', I go again...
'Who is this', a flat tone enquires...
'Archit, I recived missed calls from this number', I get to the point...
The call is cut and I am in no mood to call back...

My mobile runs out of charge and I have no patience to use my office charger, so I let it be...

I reach home late and just as I put the phone to charge, it starts ringing...

I answer reluctently...

'Your smile is fine', and the line goes blank...

That is when I experience a eureka moment, the security lady and the ogling lady and the caller were the same person, she changed her dress thrice in order to pull it off...

What am I going to do next, I have no idea...

Signing off...

My Marathon Memoirs...

Post a body numbing work-out, I began to wonder why I became so irregular the last couple of months after almost an year of consistency. I could not come up with a plausible answer. The dopamine rush after after a hard run is better than a spirit-high.

I have decided to train for a full marathon, 42kms of endurance test. My target is to ready up for one in an year, 365 days. I can do 10kms in a little over an hour but after that my output takes a drastic hit. That was on the endurance front but on the speed front I can do 5kms is under 30mins, never stretched myself further.

Given the speed, endurance and required numbers, it is a tall order. I have to cut my liquor intake to a bare minimum and hog on protein and stay away from white carbs. All this calls for detailed planning and meticulous execution.

I intent to use twitter to post my marathon updates on a daily basis and write a detailed weekly post stating the progress.

Signing off...

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1st of November, 2008

It may not been my most productive work-out week however I am fairly satisfied with the output, considering my hectic work schedule and under-par biorhythms...

I gave the whole idea a good amount of thought and came up with a training plan, milestones and targets - in the reverse order actually. I took a top-down approach where in the first the targets were decided upon, which were then broken down in to milestones and a plan to achieve the same was thought-off...

The target, to do my first 'full marathon' in under 3hrs. 42.5kms in under 3hrs sure seems herculean. The same translates to roughly 14kms per 1hr, now this breakup was unnerving as my personal best both in distance and time terms till then was 10kms in 85mins (on a treadmill). Given the two premises I had to work both on speed and endurance, I 'hit the wall' (a running phrase meaning 'near burn-out') after my previous best, but them again that was a good year and a half ago and after that I have only gotten in to better shape.

Given the fact that I had to work both on speed and stamina, I came up with a strategy which sufficiently addresses the two.

1. The idea was to keep the time constant and increase the speed everyday by .1km/hr on the treadmill and
   
2. To hit the road on at least one day of the week where it would be more about the distance covered rather than the time taken...
   

The first step would help me shave the seconds off and the second actually had two benefits, on one hand it would help me check my performance graph across the distance and secondly it would clear the webs covering my psyche about how far I can push myself. I realized that running a marathon is as much if not more related to the mind as it is to the body...

Now I can average 10.1km/hr for 30mins...

I did 10.4kms (quarter marathon) in 72mins, considerably away from my target but way ahead of my previous best. The best thing being my previous best was a flat machine and my current best is on a hard road with slopes and inclines, if that was the icing the cherry is the fact that far from 'hitting the wall' I felt I easily had another 3 or 4kms in me...

On the input front, I have totally cut down on liquor and increased carb and protein intake.

Signing off...

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22nd of June

Well did little of what all I wanted to do, owing to multiple reasons...

• Work pressure
  
• Accident recovery
  
• Locational change

Will get back to achieving it...

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Ten tips to improve your bargaining skills...

1) Value versus want: Most bargain to get a good deal but some do for the sheer pleasure of doing it, be sure which category you fall in to. If you are at it to hone your skills or feel good about you skills then the product/service seizes to have any significance, on the other hand if you are looking for a deal then the act is not as important as the output. This tip might sound elementary but is profound.
Approach: Ask yourself how badly do you want the product, if the answer is 'very' then you are in the first category. If you do not need the product but are willing to buy if it comes if the intangible pleasure of victory then you fall in the second category.

2) Never drop an anchor: 'Anchor' is the base price that you are willing to pay. It is a factor of the quoted price, your perceived worth of the entity for sale and the urgency of your need. 'Dropping an anchor' is to let the seller how much you are wiling to pay in the least. By doing so you are handing the advantage to the seller.
Approach: Talk the seller in to slashing the price as much as possible, this will give you an indication of his intentions and also a lot of room to play around with.

3) Juggle expressions and emotions: People react differently to the same stimuli, so using different emotions is a very useful tool in making the seller react in a manner favorable to you. Some people react to emotion and logic while others are immune to pain, so to each his own.
Approach: Interact with the seller for a while and try to size the person's psyche, having done so attack the most vulnerable dimension. I used to buy paper backs from a person who could be convinced not by logic or reason but by ordering

4) Know when to walk away: Nobody can have a 100% strike rate, everyone has off days. If you feel the actual price is not in line with the perceived value do not let your emotion rule you, walk away.

Approach: When nothing seems to work, politely reject the offer and walk away. This will establish your character.

5) Nothing personal, purely business: At the end of it all all that you and the seller are looking for is a good deal, you want more bang for your buck and the seller wants a profit and a satisfied customer (ideal scenario). It is a purely a business transaction for both of you. One can never be too careful in their choice of enemies - Oscar Wilde.
Approach: Refrain from making scathing remarks or getting personal.

6) Introduce variables: Avoid speaking about the price in isolation, always refer to the price in association with variables. The variable need not necessary be intelligent or appropriate, they could actually have nothing to do with the item on sale but trigger the sellers right brain.
It always helps if your associations can target multiple senses, vision, auditory and kinesthetic (inspired by Unlimited Power).
Approach: Use the physical attributes of the product like the color or the texture and map it to the sellers carpet or the table wood, if you see where I an coming from there might be no correlation or causality but this will distract the seller.


7) Connect at one level at least: We generally buy from a person or a group of people, by implication one or more flesh and blood beings. Hence connecting with the seller gives us a huge leverage, the connection could be at either an emotional or psychological or spiritual level...
Approach: If there is something between the seller and you, get it to his notice. If you are feeling creative use tip number 2).

8) Bundling favors the seller: Bundling is putting more than one offering together and quoting a common price for the tied up entities. It might be counter intuitive but bundling goes against the buyers interests, I will not go in to the maths of it but it is true.
Approach: Arrive at individual prices and work towards reducing the overall price, then you gain at both ends.

9) Patience pays: Bargaining like all arts calls for patience. One needs to approach it like an artist treats her art.
Approach: Understand the dynamics and deploy the most tip or set of tips most likely to succeed.

10) Transactional or relational: Transactions are one off and relations are long standing. A transaction can lead to a relation. The way you transact once you are in a relation is different from how you would if you were not. The relation need not necessarily be with the seller but
with the establishment.

Metropolitan mendicant...

Suffering -> Pity -> Sympathy -> Generosity -> Charity -> Money

Fear -> Anxiety/Aversion -> Panic/Hostility -> Dodge -> Loss

Signing off...

Gluttony, a virtue...

I sincerely hope that Gluttony is a virtue else Michael Phelps will be rotting in hell for eternity...

The athlete consumes 10,000 calories on an average every day, it is common knowledge that an urban male adult can sufficiently make do with 2400 calories on an active day. That means this gentleman's daily calorie consumption is over four times that of a regular person. Roughly 3,500 calories translate to one pound, simple math would suggest that he is putting on 3 pounds every day. His body fat content is only 8% so that means he is also burning a major chunk of the calories he consumes.

A healthy adult (in his 20s) can burn up to 500-600 calories per one hour of rigorous workout.
It is logical to assume a world class athlete can double it, so 1000-1200 calories per hour. Even if he works-out for 5 hours a day (a standard Olympic preparation), he would burn 5000 calories on the conservative end and 6000 calories on the aggressive end. That would still leave him with an additional 200o calories, even after discounting 2000 calories for daily usage.

Obviously he does not have calories piling on, or they are not visible at least (8% body fat, remember). So how are these 2000 calories accounted for. The only logical answer is that his metabolism is such that he is burning calories all the time,. If one were to see him after a world record breaking/setting swim he never seems out of breath. His metabolism might be facilitating expending of calories at all times.

Imagine the possibilities if your metabolism was such, you could eat all those kebabs and chocolates and fries and ice creams and cakes. You can always give in to the wafting aroma of a biryani or a steak. You could down a couple of bottles of wine everyday and not worry about your body's ability to break it down.

If a lady had such a metabolism, she would never have to worry about her weight or curves. She could but any dress she wanted without having to worry about weather she will fit in to, remember she can gain and lose weight at will. Losing post-baby fat is no longer a concern.

Sustainability is the only question...

Singing off...

Michaels take over the world...

Wonder what is with the name 'Michael' and sporting glory...

Michael Johnson
Michael Jordon
Michael Schumacher
Michael Phelps

Is the name just common and that some of the name-holders have gone on to greater things or is there really a correlation. There are a good number of atheletic Michaels who are not as august as the ones named above, viz.

Michael Vaughan
Micheal Youzhny
Michael Clarke
Gene Michael

Though no mean achievers themselves, but the names formerly mentioned would each figure in any 'best in class' list of their respective sport...

A research in 1990 revealed that, about 3.2 percent of American parents chose the perennially popular name Michael for their new baby boys.

Michael is a popular name in the United States, and has been the first or second most popular name given to male babies in the U.S. for each year since 1954. It is in the top 50 most popular boys' names in England and Wales. The name has been popular in Orthodox Christian countries, and was borne by several rulers of the Byzantine and Russian Empires. In recent years, Michael has been the most popular name in the Philippines,the second most popular name in Finland (Mikael) and ranks among the top ten names in Denmark (Mikkel) and Ireland. It is the 23rd most popular name in Canada, and the 37th most popular in Mexico (Miguel). -> Wikipedia

Sheer numbers aside the quantum of success achieved by individuals named 'Michael' is way more than that done by those with any other name...

Another unique phenomena is that the name is not geographically bound or professionally bound...

Michael Jackson -> An American Performer
Michael Gorbachev -> A Russian President
Michael II -> A Russian Czar
Michelangelo -> An Italian prodigy
Michael Caine -> A British actor

My favorite Michael without doubt is 'Michael Corleone', fictional maybe but surely fantastic...

Signing off...

Targets for H2...

The 10 things I 'will do'/'make happen' in the second half of this year...

1. 1 account each in Australia, India and Singapore...
2. 1 client each in gaming and gambling...
3. 1 week long holiday and a new country...
4. 1 chess tournament...
5. 1 blog post per week...
6. 1 new stock...
7. 1 new investment medium...
8. 1 finance textbook...
9. 1 blood donation...
   
10. 1 new language...

Signing off...

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Crossed off...

1. 3. 1 week long holiday -> Goa...
2. 4. 1 chess tournament -> won a Virgin mobile...
3. 9. 1 blood donation -> exactly an year after my first donation...

Missed out...

1. 3. 1 new country -> of all the misses, this hurts the most...
2. 4. 1 blog post per week -> will work towards this...
3. 6. 1 new stock -> the market did not help my cause...
4. 7. 1 new investment medium -> still on the look out...
5. 8. 1 finance textbook -> hhm...
6. 10. 1 new language -> German/Spain, yet to decide...

Lost care...

1. 1 account each in Australia, India and Singapore -> chucked my role off...
2. 1 client each in gaming and gambling -> chucked my role off...

Signing off...

The reprieve...

Today marks the end of the second week since the bolt hit me...

The bolt in question is a 2lac bill that I assumed to be a relic of my past...

Briefly put:
I made an international transaction of US$2720 on my Girl's credit card, needless to say I received a confirmation for the same from the recipient. It so happened that the transaction had to be canceled. Under normal circumstances I would have gone ahead shot a couple of mails or put my self proclaimed fluency in French to use with the recipient over the phone (the party in question was a French establishment). However, this was no normal situation and I was definitely not in my element. As per the bank the transaction had not gone thru and the allowable credit limit on the card was half the value of the transaction. Putting two and two together I assumed that the deal stands canceled and that I do not have to give it even as much as a second thought.

Actual happenings:
Same day two weeks ago I had a whale of a week-end, however the icing was not as good as the cake. My Girl informed me late in the night that the transaction had actually gone thru and that the amount has been charged and to complicate things further the bank had called her to seek permission to extend funds to a French enterprise for another US$1000. To put things in perspective this happened a six weeks after the request was raised and we were also way past the period of requested service.

Repercussions:
Now one cannot even imagine how miserable I felt. To make things worse I had to spend an agonizing night cursing myself, as nothing could be done till next afternoon (France is three and a half hours behind Indian time).

I 'work from home' the next day and put game theory to use, trying to think of ways to curtail the damage and if possible zilch it. I call the bank and the French establishment. At the end of the day the losses are cut to half.

A result of:

• 8 international telephone calls
• Multiple escalations
• Endless negotiations, I topped Negotiations course in the schools you see
• Numeous mails
  

I earned US$1360 for one day of effort, not what are the odds of that happening...

I deploy a few more parameters and dimensions to limit my personal loss...

As days go by I realised that I can recover my damages in a couple of months. Not the best of situations to be in but what the heck I will atleat get the money back, eventually.

I hit the ATM machine to clear the bill, do as and leave. My Girl calls to inform that the transaction is no longer reflecting on the card.

I reel out instructions:

• Block all transactions on the card
• Surrender the card
• Recover the money I paid the bank

Retrospection:
Now that the worse is over, I sit back to think how it all happened. The nincompoop vendor side people I interacted with got confused and made two refunds one was half the amount and the other was half the amount on the credit slip...

Even a second grade student would know that half and half makes whole, and come to think of it the French will rule Europe this term (God save Europe)...

Signing off...

An elopement drama...

It is around 2 in the night, we had crossed Agra half hour ago and were about 2ish hours from Delhi. The eccentric antics of our co-passengers kept us entertained. Just as we thought that after 26 hours of traveling we had seen it all, the unthinkable happened.

A half sleepy dude walks up to our cubicle (excuse my IT lingo) and inquires about the train's Agra schedule. We reply in concerned amazement that Agra was a good 50Kms behind. Needless to say he was anxious. The guy's worry seemed misplaced as the train was akin to a bus, stopping where ever there was a station (even when there wasn't one, at times).

He drags out his brick of a phone and starts dialing, he stops midway and looks around. A good 10 pairs of eyes were on him. He says to no one in particular that his mobile is out of currency. A concerned neighbor lends him a mobile. He calls and reels out the situation to the listener, it was difficult to make out what the listener was saying thanks to the wind speed.

The call ended abruptly and the guy was visibly shaken, he starts sobbing. None of us knew exactly what the issue on hand was so we did our best to calm him down, we succeeded in a couple of minutes.

As it turned out the guy had planned to elope with the village Sarpanch's daughter and get marry her in Agra before leaving for Delhi and immigrating to Dubai. The driver put a spanner in his best laid plans by missing the schedule first and catching up later. The train reached Bhoopal an hour late and later took numerous halts, thus making our dude inform the girl to reach the station at half past 3.

The call woke up half the people in the lady's house and she got grounded for good...

I had half a mind to get his contact details to track their lives in the future, but decided against it. Maybe I should have!

Signing off...

We are off...

Post 30 hours in the train we badly needed something to rev us up...

• A dude who was least interested in his newly wed petite mind-blowing wife...
• A couple of 22 year olds who were instructed by thier Dad to not put their hands out of the window...
• A master marketer who wanted to use the leg-space as a bed-space, this guy actually set the scene up perfectly before getting his companion along to share the spce..
• A dude on the upper berth who was miffed with a lot of things ranging from the light-bulb to the pace of the fan to the pitch of our voice...
• The three of us shared two berths, this was royalty when compared to most others who shared an unreserved berth with atleast three other unreserved dudes...
• Some of the place names were rather funny -> Amla Jn, Chichora...
• More later...

Somethings we found for sure, actually many things is more appropriate...
The Delhi Metro and the Karims are only two of the many things...

Will get in to details and publish pics later...

Signing off...

Week long Voyage...

About to take off for a week long holiday to Leh...

It was about time, considering the fact that my last proper time-off was Goa (last October)...

I hope the train ride to Delhi would be smooth, it will be my longest train ride ever, now that is a first...

The train is scheduled to leave Deccan station at 10:20, let us see how it pans out...

Shantaram's 'Gregory Davil Roberts' should fill the void...

Signing off...

Mocha...

Ezekiel 25:17

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Google Labeler...

All of us would have used the Google 'image' search sometime or the other...

Its functioning is not conventional in the sense 'image search' and 'web search' happen differently...

Their algorithms work differently in that the latter is concentrated around the concept of 'page rank' and 'authority' but the former does not, or more appropriately cannot...

It is technically impossible to scan a picture and check for keyword relevance, so how are the pictures thrown up...

The keyword/s is/are compared to the file name of the picture, the URL of the link in which the picture is present and presence of the keyword in the vicinity of the picture...

Not the best way to go about the task, consider an instance where a girl's picture is saved with a guy's name as the file name, giving the girl's name as the keyword will not yield any results but giving the guy's name will throw up the girl's picture effecting the appropriateness of the search...

To tackle these issues Google has gone about doing something which only Google can conjure up...

Google has come up with something called the 'GOOGLE LABELER', it is for all practical purposes a game where in you are pitted against an unknown user in a two minute 'label'ing exercise...

Once you sign in and wish to start the game the system chooses your partner randomly, once the selection is done, images are flashed on the screen and you are expected to write keywords (colors, emotions, objects, feelings) pertaining to the image that come to your mind. As and when there is a match (the first match is what is considered) you are awarded points. The longer the matched word the more points you score. Some obvious words are marked as 'off-limit words'...

Your cumulative score is saved, trust me it is addictive...

Google is getting people to work for them and whats more free of cost...

Signing off...

My Google Notebook Link...

Click here to view my Google Notebook...

Signing off...