I started walking again

Walking is one of my favorite pastimes and an all round excercise - a complete fitness regimen. I was a regular walker for two-three years. I cultivated walking as my main form of physical excercise since almost eight now.

Walking is indeed a great excercise. I used to go to office after walking. It was mainly inspired by my aunty, uncle and grandfather. I was the last one to go for walking in my aunty's house. It started with half an hour walking. My uncle, aunty and grandfather would go for walking before dawn. I used to go, in the beginning, from 6.15 to 6.45 am, then come home take bath, worship, have breakfast and leave home by around 8.15 taking lunch box. This was in 2001 when I was working for a magazine aimed at those appearing for civil services exams and students (It's another thing I used to read this magazine Dikschoochi when I was a student).

When I joined a daily newspaper office, I continued it with diet too for sometime when I found my weight was increasing. This was on 2002. Mention must be made of an article I wrote for Jeevanadi health mangazine in 2003 after reaping the benefits of walking. Subsequently it was, to my surprise, published in a book on walking. The later years saw me walking for about 40 minutes, jogging (2004 thanks to Olympics sportspersons) and then came a period of full stop. Three to four years no walk. The Mini Park was good for walk and there used to be rush of walkers even at 8.

I got married, started my own family then I started walking again. Juggling with shifts, it continued and was synonymous with 'Bel Belagge Belagere', Ravi Belegere's Good Morning Programme on FM Rainbow (2006 end-2007 beginning). It was fruitful. I changed the job, it was a general shift job but I could not walk. Here and there, some efforts were made in early 2008 for a week early in the morning from 5.50 to 6.30 but no. The park was at some distance say some 10 minutes from my house.

I changed my place of location in September 2009 and started again walking which I thought I would be committed for life, at least 10 minutes, if not for 30 mins (That's the minimum doctors suggest) but no. The park is just a 5 minutes walk, almost on the backside of my house I should say. After some 10 days, I fell ill and stopped. Then no, then yes. This has been an up and down journey all along in the last eight years. But I am certain that walking had helped me a lot as my favorite fitness regimen for over 2 years and will certainly help me now and in the years to come.

Again

Hi, me again. After a long time. I have so many things to tell. A lot of things are happening. First of all, let me tell you about the work. Work is going on well and is hectic. Many projects, many issues and i am wading my way through a thick foerst called work. The work, howmuchever heavy, is manageable.

Secondly, i have to tell about my son Akash, now one year and three months old. He is growing fast and walks easily.

He is also learning to communicate. His utterings like "ayes", "ya", "bee" and "oo" are all cute. He has become a demanding baby. He demands water by saying "jiji". He wants me to entertain him at all times. He plays with mobiles, remote and all the things that we use. I feel he wants to explore everything. He touches them, spoils and gives a horrible time to us everyday. He can't sit silently for a second. When he came here to Bangalore, he was a kid of five months. A tooth is coming now and he wants to bite everything he gets including me hand.

Thirdly, I am reading and writing also. These are two of my favorite things. With a lot of things happening here and around, there is a need to get updated about all the things possible.

Meri Awaz Suno: Many Moods of the Melody Queen

To mark the 80th birthday of the legendary singer.

Courtesy: Rediff.

Akash My Son

ನನ್ನ ಮಗ ಆಕಾಶ್ ಈಗ ನನಗೆ ಒಂದು ವಿಸ್ಮಯ. ಅವನು ದಿನೇ ದಿನೇ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಪರಿ ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯ. ಅಚ್ಚರಿ. ಏನೂ ತಿಳಿಯದ ಒಂದು ಮಗು ಹೇಗೆ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿದು ಅದನ್ನು ಅನುಭವಿಸುವುದು ಒಂದು ಬಗೆಯ ಸಂತಸ. ಆಕಾಶ್ ಈಗ ಒಂದು ವರ್ಷದ ಕೂಸು. ಅವನಿಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಪರಿಚಯ ಈಗ ತುಂಬಾ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಆಗಿದೆ. ನನ್ನ ಕಂಡರೆ ಸಾಕು ಹೊರಗಡೆ ಟಾಟಾ ಹೋಗೋಣ ಎಂದು ಕೈಸನ್ನೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಹೇಳುವುದನ್ನು ಅರ್ಥ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತ ಇದ್ದಾನೆ. ಅವನ ಜೊತೆ ಕಾಲ ಕಳೆಯುವುದು ಗೊತ್ತಾಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ.

Old pastimes, but where have they gone?

I am trying to get up as early as possible nowadays. Though i (If you think the i here should be I you are right, but see what Times of India's Speaking Tree column, they are using it like this and i believe hardly anyone has noticed it? Why? Any answers?) I am not yet practising it on a daily basis but my sincere efforts are on. I made a firm resolve not to get up late and that subsequently sees going office late (BTW the office timings are strict 9 am to 6.30 pm, the longest i ever worked). So even if i get late five minutes late everything is delayed. Like it happened today - I had come to bus stop but then remembered i had forgotten the mobile, again i went back home and got it and it finally resulted in 40 minutes delay. I reached office at 9.40. Though i got up at 6.30 it was not use today. I slept lazily for 15 mins and hardly the early get up was useful. Like my wife says there's nothing i do which is really really useful - yes, not to forget i cleaned the house with a broom. Generally my usual chores which i think i can do at home are - cleaning, getting water, milk, groceries - these are all usual but my favourites are listening to radio (Its my old habit to switch on to radio as and when i get up. I tune into Akashavani Bengalooru), reading papers, if possible see TV (Mathooru Krishnamurthy's Gamaka Vachana), or catch an old B&W movie on Udaya Movies or play the tape recorder and lend ears to my favorite songs - some in cassettes and some recorded. Rarely it happens, but if i look back 10 years, there was hardly any day when i stepped out of house without listening to Lata Mangeshkar's songs. Indeed there were the heydays of film music DDLJ, HAHK, DTPH, Border, KKHT etc etc. I have enjoyed those days. I clearly remember listening to thought provoking and inspiring Chintanas on Akashavani Mysore (Some of which I remember crystal clearly remember even today) and i rarely listen to Chintanas on Akashavani Bengalooru now (Thank God I have listened to two continuous Chintanas yesterday and today about Achara and Oduva Havyasa) . Was all that a glorious PAST? Ten years on, all that looks so good. Old pastimes, but where have they gone?

Good Quotes

After all consciousness is something we seek, and then run from. Why? Because consciousness demands responsibility and action. If I know I'm being harmed, if I know I'm harming someone else, if I know I'm not living up to my own personal honor code, there is only one way to respond consciously: I have to act. I have to change whatever I am doing or not doing. I have to change the way I am living.

Living consciously means living in the body, conscious from moment to moment of thought and sensation, but not becoming attached to thoughts which hurt, frighten, create anxiety and/or punish.

Reeling under RECESSION

It has been quite a long time since I blogged. A lot of things are happening. An obvious reference to the recession. Where is India and where is the USA? Still we are reeling under the recession. It's a concern that we are also facing and battling recession. I have witnessed the painful scenes of my colleagues being given pink slips in the recent days. It will be very hard to forget all those miserable moments. Thankfully some of them have found jobs and are doing good. I couldn't stop my tears when a good colleague, who sat beside me, was sent out. It took an hour to recover and be normal. Our team of 5 has became a team of 3 now. It was a high concern issue indeed. However, i am braving all odds and coming up to new realities in life. Each day is becoming a challenge. But i am facing them couragiously. Once i dreamt a bad dream. Generally my dreams don't come true. I still believe in values and these are tough times indeed. The first such a critical time i am facing.

ನ್ಯೂ ಇಯರ್ ೨೦೦೯

The new year - 2009 - has already started and a month is over. New year. New challenges.
I have not blogged for all these days. Though I wanted to update, I couldn't. I wanted to make some new year resolutions but later thought what is the use of making new year resolutions when none of them would be achieved. If I had made such resolutions, the fitness regimen would have topped the list. Yes. Badly I need to get into a fitness regimen or simply a regular walking schedule. I wanted to change my lifestyle and come out of the old things. Then reading a lot could have also joined that list. At least one hour of reading everyday. Though I have built up a libray of 30 and odd books for myself little I have read. And it is quiet a long time I bought any books. The last one I bought was Nimma Magu by Anupama Niranjana which I liked. It is a book about children.

Now my family is talking a lot of time. My six-month-old child Akash is with me. His growing up is a wonder for me. I am amazed at his growth everyday and wonder how my parents had felt while seeing me growing up. This is indeed a wonderful phase of each human's life, i believe. He is recognizing me and with him I spend a high quality good time. He has become my aankhon ka sitara nowadays.

The year 2009 signals the end of the first decade of 2000. A lot of changes happened in the last nine. The country has witnessed tremendous, pathbreaking changes in the last eight years. The biggest, i believe, is the advent of internet into all parts of the country.
Barack Hussein Obama has just been sworn in as the 44th President of USA. I watched the swearing-in ceremony live on news channels. Said to be the largest swearing-in of any US President, the event had more than a billion viewers glued to the TV. Obama has been praised as a man of change.

India is gearing for the next general elections. Hardly two months away.