Week 06 was not on par with expectations, let’s see how the seventh week turns out.
Day 41 – 02/10/2021 – 1897/325 Today was the first run of the day.
After a long time, I felt like giving up while running. This happened during the fourth mile when I was at least a couple miles from my place. I don’t know where that feeling came from. I suspect two things – The first thing was that I was running almost the entire way in snow, reducing my pace considerably and multi folding my efforts. The second one was that there were not a lot of people out today due to the snow and temperature. I like when I see people outside, it works like a motivation to me, which sadly didn’t happen.
Anyway, when I felt like giving up, I told myself to push through and see how far I can go before actually quitting. Fortunately, I got a breather at a traffic light, which worked like a charm. Post that traffic stop, I was unstoppable. Not only my pace increased, but I didn’t even realize when I finished the 6 mile mark.
I loved the route and hopefully, I will get to run more in this month.
Day 43 – 02/12/2021 – 1894/323 This was a special run. I was at East Coast due to some personal work and could run 2.6 miles in Bridgeport Downtown.
I wanted to run more, but had to come back to take care of work and it was getting colder by the minute. The most amazing thing that I realized after the run was my pace. It had been some time that I clocked in 8′ minutes a mile pace, and today was one of those days. Happy with the effort.
Before you go, please check out the week number 7 highlights. I finished 8.7 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1894.1 miles, that’s 5.88 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!
What an awesome day to spend with the family, before heading off to Mumbai to catch my flight to USA, which was starting to become a home now.
To start off the day, I didn’t know what my family had planned to spend my last day with them. I had my flight scheduled at 1 AM on December 28th, so I knew they were treasuring the last day with me and trying to spend it as best as they could.
The day started off with some lovely breakfast and my favorite parathas – Methi Paratha. I crave for those whenever I visit India and can’t get enough of those. Being an ardent fan of the non vegetarian food, my parents found it surprising enough that I like Methi Paratha so much. Gosh, just writing about them is making me drool. I will stop here!
Ok, the exploration started off with everyone of us getting in my uncle’s WagnonR. We are a big family, so it was impossible for everyone to fit in that small car, so a couple of us had to stay back. I felt bad that my aunt and a cousin had to stay back and they would miss all the fun, but couldn’t do anything about it.
I always like hanging out with family, but at the same time, I don’t like visiting temples! Man, when we went out, I didn’t know we were going to visit so many temples in a single day. I mean, who needs to see so many temples and why do we need to do that? But, as a nice family guy, I kept my mouth shut and just visited one temple from another. I must admit I was lazy and just done with visiting all the temples and just wanted to go home and have some relaxed time, but I didn’t want to say that to respect feelings of my family and parents.
The temples along with the long wait lines added fuel to the fire and I mean that literally. Even though it was winter in India, it was hot and I had to keep some napkins handy to wipe off the dust and sweat off my face and body. The only thing keeping me sane was that I was getting enough time to chat with my sisters and cousins. Those little moments were enough to poke fun at each other and at the same time (I know I might sound bad for doing this) making fun of the Gods and temples. I was careful enough not to blurt out these things before my parents or uncle or any deity for that matter. But, I must say, I had fun hanging out with my sisters and cousins.
While hanging out with family (particularly my sisters and cousins), I didn’t even realize the time. I wanted to get back home by 4-5 PM to give me enough time to pack a few last minute items, bid a proper goodbye, and then leave for the Mumbai Airport. What I didn’t know was that the entire family wanted to come to the airport to see me off. The day full of surprises wasn’t getting over, I guess.
Week 05 was awesome. I am not sure how I feel about the second month of 2021, which is already here. Time does fly faster when you are having fun!
Day 33 – 02/02/2021 – 1911/333 After last week’s run, I knew it would be a little difficult to run this week due to inclement weather and many developments in my personal life.
Tuesday gave me some hope when I got to see the sunlight for the first time in a couple days. The more sunlight brought in some warmer temperatures (still less than 30F). Anyway, the temperatures were enough for me to go out and circle around my favorite loop at least 15 times. I thought I would be able to complete at least 7.5 miles, but ended up with a total distance of 7.1 miles. Not better than I expected, but I will take it.
Day 37 – 02/06/2021 – 1903/329 After Tuesday’s run, I had to wait until Saturday to go out for the last run of the week. I was pretty occupied with the work so I couldn’t get enough free time to go out for my usual runs.
For today’s run, I decided to start my run in the reverse direction to see if I could handle it or not. At the same time, I added a couple miles more to my usual route and explored some new scenes on my way back home. I really enjoyed running through Northville Downtown and could see myself speeding up. I think, there would be many runs on this new route and I am looking forward to them. I ended up completing 8.6 miles, which was better than I expected.
Unfortunately, I could run *only* twice during this week, which is not what I expected!
Before you go, please check out the week number 6 highlights. I finished 15.7 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1902.8 miles, that’s 5.81 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!
Ok! After spending a couple days at home, it was time to head Vapi, Gujrat. My youngest uncle and his family lives here, so it was a good way to catch up with cousins and have my family drop me off at the Mumbai Airport, which is four hours away from my uncle’s place.
Today was all about bidding goodbye to my home at Patansaongi, traveling to Nagpur to catch a train which would take us to Vapi, Gujrat and enjoying the journey with my sisters, family, and cousins. It was something that I was really looking forward to as it was going to be the last time I would get to enjoy with my family before finally bidding goodbye a couple days later.
Anyway, before leaving my parents’ place in Patansaongi, I took a good look at my room and the spot where I used to study during my grade 10 preparations. I took a look at my parents’ house from the outside and took a picture of it. Whenever I look at that picture, I feel so special because the house bears my name on it. Even though I call it my parents’ place, having my name up there gives me a sense that this is my home.
We had booked a car to take us from our place in Patansaongi to Nagpur Railway Station. We usually take bus for this route, but everyone were going this time and we had a lot of luggage to carry with us, so it made sense to just book a cab and have a convenient and comfortable journey instead of their opposites.
We reached the Railway Station in around an hour and that’s when the waiting game begins. Even though we are in 2017 and there are so many cool things in the world, the one thing that still remains unpredictable is the Indian Railway schedule. I know it has improved considerably over the past few years, but still it is a long way to go if you compare it with the transportation systems in some of the developed nations. We waited for around an hour before the train decided to show up and it took us some efforts to find our seats and request the fellow passengers to get up from our seats as we had reservation – the part that I hate the most.
The rest of the journey was such a blur. Usually, I don’t prefer traveling throughout the day. This time, I was with the family, so the time went by pretty quickly and I didn’t have to complain about anything. The day started for us at 9AM and it finally ended when we reached Vapi around 9PM. My cousins and uncle and aunt were waiting for our arrival and as soon as we reached, the atmosphere in the house was chaotic. Everyone were talking, gossiping, and catching up with everyone.
My sister, Minu Tai, had already arrived from Bangalore and was waiting for us. Once everyone settled and had food, all cousins got together and started making fun of each other. I treasure that memory and it is one of the most special feelings in the world. I miss these moments. I miss them!
After a trip to Pune, it was time to head home and enjoy some relaxed time with the family before heading back to US.
Visiting home is without doubt exciting and at the same time, it tells you what you are missing in your life. Visiting home just once makes you realize how beautiful and simple the life is and I often think about the simple times I grew up in and with simple things.
This trip to home was special because in a couple days we were about to leave for Vapi, Gujrat, visiting our youngest uncle and his family. It was a logical decision to visit him since he lived a few hours away from Mumbai Airport, from where I was about to fly to the states.
When I reached home, the first thing I did was to have home made good food. My mom had made Poha for breakfast and I loved every single bite of it. As I had only a couple days left before leaving for my youngest uncle’s place in Gujrat, I decided to visit my grandma’s place who used to live a few minutes away from my parents’ place.
Grandma’s place is the one where I spent my childhood. We grew up in that house, so certainly, it holds so many sweet and lovely memories. Every time I visit that house in Patansaongi, I try to relive lovely moments that I spent as a child there. I make a point to visit every single room in that house and try to find different things I used to play when I was a kid. I know my sisters and cousins hate the fact that I am my grandma’s favorite grandkid, so when I visited her, she was kind enough to cook an entire meal for myself. It is her way of showing her love and affection towards her grandkid, who lives in a faraway land. The food was tasty and more delightful because of the fact that she took extreme care while preparing it and I love her for that.
After the meal, I bade my goodbyes to her and took one last lap around the house and captured a few pictures.
Post lunch, it was time to head home and go through the family photographs – which is a ritual every time I visit home. I like to go through my parents’ wedding album and our childhood photos. I love reminiscing the past and indulge plenty discussions around it.
Before I knew, it was time for some relatives and friends to show up at my place to meet me and have some delightful conversions. I hadn’t had a chance to meet everyone during my India visit, so I appreciated everyone who took time out of their busy schedule to come to my place and meet me. It is one of the reasons why I love going back to my hometown and meet all the lovely and wonderful people there.
This made the evening go much faster that I almost forgot to pack. Thankfully, my Mom helped me a lot packing many things. Also, we were going to stay at my uncle’s place for a couple days, so we had plenty time to take care of packing.
Before I called it a night, I was coming back from a friend’s place when I caught the local kids and adults playing a game of Kabaddi – an Indian contact team sports played in the Indian Subcontinent. I spent roughly 5-10 minutes, observing a few plays, before heading back home and calling it a day.
It was a good day, the one which is still etched in my memory.
After spending the first day in Pune with a couple relatives, college friends, and Reshma, it was time to spend the second day and last night in Pune with my college roommates. To commemorate the occasion, I had brought a couple bottles of Single Malt Whiskey from the Duty Free shop at the Airport. It was such a nice moment to see everyone together after many years of college. Catching up with my college roommates and spending this time together was definitely the highlight of my India trip.
The day started normally, with us going to a nearby breakfast place to have some food. I still remember, it reminded me of the way we used to have food just outside of our college. It reminded of the fun times that we had together a few years ago.
After the breakfast, some of my friends were still hungry, and hence decided to drive down to a more spot to have Idli Sambhar. I was thrilled about it because the one thing I never miss while I am visiting places is to try all kinds of food that those places have to offer. After the food, it was inevitable that we had some chai and other snacks. The one thing that I found funny was we were eating while standing up. Even though I have spent almost all of my life in India, I found it strange to just stand and eat. I tried finding a place to sit, but didn’t want to awkward the situation for my friends.
Anyway, I spent the remainder of the day catching up with other friends and doing things that I liked. I was just waiting for the day to get over so that we could sit together as former roommates and talk to each other, which we hadn’t been able to do for the last few years.
To prep for the evening, we roamed around different shops and stores – to gather enough Chakna and food for the night. If you don’t know what Chakna is, it is an Indian snack that usually go well with the liquor. It felt good to realize that I was taking care of the party and loved to do so. We spent almost an hour gathering everything that we could find and headed to my friend’s apartment to start the festivities.
Man, we had so much fun. As the evening started unfolding, we talked about so many things and cherished so many memories. If there was one word to describe this evening, it would have been “memorable”. We talked, gossiped, and tried living the engineering life again. My friends didn’t miss out making fun of me as I was the one living abroad. That moment was enough to tell me that nothing had changed between us and we were the same humans that were once roommates and used to spend days together.
During the night, we decided to take this party to a roadside bar across the street and called a couple other friends to join us. They came and we had more fun. If I am not wrong, we were in that bar until it closed, which was well past 2AM. Some of us puked (I won’t say who) and some of us ate too much, but one thing I know is that everyone of us had fun and that’s what we were going for.
I was glad that I took the time out and visited these guys, because I wasn’t sure when the next time would be when I would get to see them.
The fourth week was okay-ish. Let us find out how the fifth one turns out to be.
Day 27 – 01/27/2021 – 1940/339 The first run of the week came today. The more important thing about today was the I got to run twice today and could complete a total of 7 miles for the day.
The first run was in the morning. I really wanted to complete the 10K, but the weather was so cold that I had to take a different route and limit my run only upto 3.7 miles.
The second one was in the afternoon, lapping around my favorite Country Place Condo loop six time, finishing 3.3 miles. Nothing too major about these two runs. The only positive of the day was that I could cover 7 miles for the day, which is always a special feeling.
Day 28 – 01/28/2021 – 1935/338 Today was the second day of consecutive run.
I could cover 12 loops of the Country Place Condo, finishing 6.1 miles of the running. The weather wasn’t on my side, and hence took more time than I anticipated to cover this distance.
Day 29 – 01/29/2021 – 1924/337 What an awesome day of running today. Like Wednesday, I went out for a run twice and both the times, it was around the Country Place condo.
The first run was just before the lunch. I wanted to finish 12 loops, but limited myself to 10, resulting in 5.2 miles of running.
The second one was after the day was over and I was about to call it a day. I got a window of about an hour and decided to use it to my advantage to cover 5 more miles for the day. This run brought the total distance covered for the day to 10.4 miles, which is more than what I expected from the day.
Day 30 – 01/30/2021 – 1919/336 Oh! What a wonderful feeling to run in my old community where I spent the 9 months of quarantine and running. Friday evenings are a regular affair at Monika’s and when I got a chance to go out for a run on Saturday, I took it like someone who was on a mission.
I was excited to run on my old route, at the same time, I was having a hard time remembering the exact distance I would cover at the end of the run. The only goal I had in mind was to cover at least 5 miles of running, making January a 100 mile month for me.
All the feelings and old habits came rushing back when I started running and I remember how I used to run on the same surface during Summer and Fall. All that surface was covered in snow now and there was nothing I could do about it than just running on it. I enjoyed the run so much that I could have gone for one more round. I missed running on this route and would love to do it again!
Before you go, please check out the week number 5 highlights. I finished 29.3 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1918.5 miles, that’s 5.71 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!
The only reason I bought this book was because Mr. Bill Gates recommended this. I thought given that I was living through the pandemic and thought it would be good to know how the protagonist in this novel spends his time when he is ordered for a house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Russia during the 1900s.
At first, I was skeptic; Should I buy this book or not and if bought, would I be able to read it or not as it was a novel. With this dilemma, I just went ahead and bought it. When I finished reading “The Ride of a lifetime” by Robert Iger, I started reading this book. As soon as I started the book, I knew it would be a difficult task to finish this book.
I started reading it in October-November of 2020 and there were many other important things going on in my life, so I couldn’t focus while reading and ended up taking almost 3 months to finish this book. Everyday I used to take this book in my hand, I used to ask myself whether the book is really worth my time or not and for the 450 pages, I had the same question for myself. But, when I reached the last couple chapters, all the regret that I had while reading the book faded away.
Throughout the book, I couldn’t connect the dots between many places, things, and people that the author explained throughout the book. It was really hard to keep track of everything but once I was through first 100 pages, everything started to make sense. The book just started becoming more and more interesting, with a few pages that got me bored in between.
I must say the way the author explained everything about the Metropol hotel, Theatre Square, Count Rostov (The Protogonist), Count’s hotel attic room, Neena, Sofia, and everyone else in the story is simply amazing. He paints such a good picture about everything and everyone that you don’t help but imagine that quite vividly. You tend to imagine you are sitting there with these characters and those characters are talking to you. Having said that, I would also point out that elongating these descriptions sometimes hamper an amateur reader in you and your mind tend to wander some other place, which is very dangerous when you are reading a book like this.
The author carefully builds the story throughout the book, but it is those last 15 pages where everything hits you in the face out of nowhere. Even after spending so much time with this book, I didn’t see the ending coming and I was so happy while reading these 15 pages. I remember how I regretted reading this book and telling my friends about it, but those 15 pages made it all worth. I was glad that I stuck with it, so that I got to see the ending of the story. It was very well written by the author.
If you are fan of the novels, then I would recommend reading it, but please be aware that you will have spend considerable time with the book before it gets interesting.
After spending a night at my uncle’s place in Morshi, it was time to spend a couple nights with my college roommates in Pune and finish off some Duty Free liquor that I got for them from the airport.
After graduating from my undergrad institute, most of my classmates and roommates had moved to Pune for their work and better opportunities. I wasn’t sure whom I was going to meet during this trip, but I was sure to meet my college roommates and Reshma, one of my best friends since college and till date. I was excited to meet everyone and catch up on things going on in their lives.
When I reached Pune Railway Station, I hailed a cab from the station to my friend, Bakul’s, apartment. I was pleased to know that I didn’t have to book any hotel or other accommodation as my friends were generous enough to offer me to stay at their place. Bakul was neighbors with other friends from college, so it was nice to catch up with them as well.
After I got freshen up, I called one of my relatives whom I was scheduled to meet for lunch. We had grown up together and I had looked up to him like an elder brother. We were meeting after a decade or so, it was a nice feeling to see him after so many years. I don’t remember the restaurant we went to for lunch, but it was a nice one and filled with so many young people, as it was around the area where most of the IT companies were located.
We ordered a Butter Chicken dish and rekindled our childhood memories. We talked a lot, shared many things, and thanked each other for taking the time out to meet.
After that, it was time to head to Cognizant office & catch up with Vedant, who was working at Cognizant, Pune. I had to kill an hour before I would meet Reshma, who was still busy working. I called up Vedant and he took me to a nearby PaniPuri vendor, where I got to meet many of my SGGS classmates. This meeting was something unplanned for them as well, so they were surprised to find me in there.
We hugged, shared so many things, and ate many PaniPuris. After an hour or so, Reshma called and told me to come and see her. I always look forward to seeing Reshma whenever I visit India. Ever since we left college, we had remained in touch after many years and have that respect and liking for each other. I am proud to say that I consider her one of my best friends, and I have relied on her a lot during my engineering, especially for completing my assignments! 🙂
We decided to meet at a restaurant, which served Rajasthani food, as Reshma was a vegetarian. As soon as she reached the venue, she broke the news of her engagement. I knew it was coming but never anticipated it to happen so soon. Anyway, I was happy with the news and spent the next few minutes mocking her and her future husband. I have this weird habit of forgetting names of the spouses of my friends, so when she told me the name of the guy she was going to get married, I immediately forgot his name and had to ask her again to remind me his name.
The dinner went well and we had a lot of fun. We caught on so many things going on in our lives and I was glad even after so many things and years, we were the same people that we were a few years ago. I think that’s what is magical between us and I would always cherish that. She was kind enough to drop me off at a spot from where it would be easier to get a cab as I was staying quite far from her place. We bade our goodbyes, with the hopes that we would get to see each other soon.
The cab driver was kind enough to drop me at my friends place even though it was quite far away. What else do I say about this day? It was amazing to spend time with everyone that were part of my life just a few years ago.
After spending a week at my place, it was time to get moving and explore some places in India.
The reason for me traveling to different places in India was the timing of my visit. I was never a fan of the Indian summer, and since I was visiting during the wintertime, I knew I had to make most of it.
The plan was to visit my Uncle’s place in Morshi, which is a small town in the district of Amaravati in the state of Maharashtra. After spending a night at my uncle’s place, I had a train reservation from Amaravati to Pune, where I was going to spend a couple nights at my college roommates’ place. At their request, I had brought a couple bottles of *some* whiskey and the plan was to finish it off over the weekend.
Getting back to my stay at my uncle’s place, the journey was nothing short of drama. I chose to take the different route to Morshi because of everyone’s recommendation. After spending more than a year in the US, I had forgotten how crowded and populated Indian cities are. That’s why when I reached the bus station to catch my bus, I was dumbfounded to look at the competition to get into the bus. Thinking I am too soft for this kind of behavior, I chose to wait for my turn, which was a dumb decision.
After letting go of that bus, I had to wait at least 30 more minutes to get on another bus, which was again jam-packed with fellow travelers. It took me extreme patience and calmness to get to a city from where I was supposed to pick up another bus that would take me to Morshi.
As it was 4PM, the bus depot was buzzing with a number of people, ranging from students, working-class professionals, and daily wage earners who were traveling after retiring for the day. In the middle of all this, I was there, alone and by myself, figuring things out. The scene was no different than the previous one and this time, I had to force myself in the bus to get at least a space to stand inside the bus. The journey was just an hour, so I told myself to get to my uncle’s place, even if that means I had to face some hardship. It’s funny how my definition of struggle changed after spending only a year in the US. Living a cozy and comfortable life in the US has made me a softer person, I must say!
Anyway, this bus ride was filled with potholes and sweat. Even though it was wintertime, the temperatures were in 70Fs. At this temperature, it was hard to keep the sweat off and I was extremely uncomfortable because of this. I was just counting the minutes for Morshi to show up so that I can take a shower and just lie on the bed. The day seemed to stretch longer by the minute.
It was almost dark when I reached Morshi and I called my cousin to pick me up. Oh man, it was such a good feeling to see him after many years and I was yearning more for the home-cooked food now. After reaching home, I took a shower and had dinner with the family. It was soon that I closed my eyes and just slept on the bed in the living room.
The next morning was quite pleasant and enjoyable. I had my favorite tea and some Indian food for breakfast. I took a quick shower as I wanted to explore the town a little bit and meet a couple friends before heading to Pune. I took my uncle’s motorcycle and went from one place to another. I needed my cousin’s help to navigate through the streets, but eventually, I got to where I wanted.
I wanted to visit a family of a close friend of mine who were living in Morshi and it was such a warm feeling when I got to see them. I realized so many things had changed over the last decade, but was happy to see their smiling faces and ever encouraging Indian hospitality. They didn’t mind me dropping by their place surprisingly after so many years and were courteous enough to feed me some awesome Indian food.
After this endeavor, it was time to head back to my uncle’s place and bid a final goodbye before heading to the bus station to go to Amaravati Railway Station to catch a train to Pune. It was not a long journey and fortunately not filled with people. At the end of the day, I realized, this trip was better than I expected as I got to see my family and friends after years and I got a taste of how many things have changed in India ever since I left.
stochasticity 