Book 07 – The 5 AM Club – Robin Sharma

This was the 7th book I read in 2020.

Words are not enough to describe how well-written this book. Each and every sentence written in this book is so thorough that I had to read most of the sentences twice when I was reading this book. That might be one of the reasons why I took a long time to finish this book. Also, I had to take notes while reading this book, so that I don’t miss any teaching by one of the most influential orators of the modern times.

I am sure I cannot put the summary of this book in just one blog post, but I would try to mention some of the learnings I got to experience while reading this book. Trust me, it was very hard to put this together and it took me almost a couple weeks to write this blog post.

So, here we go.

Best thing about the book
The best thing of this book is that it gives you the access to the exclusive “5AM Club”. Though this club is non-existent and truly fictional, you still can’t fathom the brilliance of the motivational author Robin Sharma. The other best thing about the book is that instead of telling us what to do when we start our day, the author puts forth this learning in a conversation style, which makes you feel included and you start paying more attention; instead of reading it as an advice from the author directly.
I remember reading the book and imagining Mr. Riley, the entrepreneur, the artist, and the spellbinder standing with each other and going through the secrets of the 5AM club. Picturing each member and their dialogues made them stick with me throughout the book and I think that’s one of the reasons I could remember what the author was really trying to say!

Small & Steady wins the Race
The race of life, we are saying. I don’t think about death too much, but it is the only inevitable in our life. You are born to die, so instead of ignoring the one inevitable fact of your life, I think, after reading this book, we should all focus on the fact that we are going to die one day and should think about it. The author, very cleverly, mentions this fact in the book and it doesn’t come across as a stigma. He has mentioned in the book that the goal is not to skip the death (which you can’t do. PERIOD!), the goal is to delay the death as much as you can. You can delay with inevitable truth/fact by waking up early and following the 20/20/20 formula.

Step outside your comfort zone
For me, personally, this was the biggest learning from this book. Through this book, the author, I don’t know how many times, has mentioned to the entrepreneur and the artist through the billionaire to step outside their comfort zone.
The author went through the depths of advantages of stepping out of your comfort zone. Through the billionaire, giving his own examples as to how he multiplied his net worth just by stepping out of his comfort zone and making sure the decisions he took were well studied and thorough.
Stepping out of your comfort zone has not only the financial, but the physical gains too. With the kind of activities that you can do with your body, the billionaire mentioned that he does 1,000 push-ups everyday. This is definitely like stepping out of your comfort zone and pushing it through the rigor of physical activities such as push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, etc. If you just follow this one rule, you would just surprise yourselves with the shocking positive results.

The four internal pillars to SUCCESS – Mindset, Heartset, Healthset, Soulset
This was an interesting find for me. I never knew there was something more than the Mindset. While reading all the other books and online articles on personality development, every single author had talked about how important your Mindset is to achieve something in your life. I am a firm believer of the thought – “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it”. That was one of the biggest mantras for me to land in the US and live the kind of life that I wanted and grew up imagining.
Until I read this book.
Mr. Sharma mentioned your Mindset is important, but there are other “sets” too which are equally important and those are – Heartset, Healthset, and Soulset.
The author mentioned if we want to win and live a successful life, we must work *daily* on strengthening the four pillars of success, tying back to the above point Small & Steady wins the race. He mentioned if a small effort done consistently over a period of time, leads to incredible efforts.
I will try to put these four pillars in a few words. Hope I could do justice to the depths the author had gone through while trying to explain the benefits of these pillars.
Mindset – Waking up early *everyday* (before 5AM) strengthen your mind and gives it the fuel that it needs to lead a healthy and strong life
Heartset – Waking up early *everyday* helps you strengthen your heart and gives you immense appreciation of small and trivial things in your life
Healthset – Waking up early *everyday* and working on your physical health gives you an added advantage, which you can use to live longer. You will die one day, but the waking up early helps you delay that inevitable
Soulset – Waking up early *everyday* and taking care of your morning routine, gives you enough time to spend with the family and friends and lead and live a life that others can only dream of

The gist of the book – 20/20/20 strategy
What a game changing method to revolutionize your life.
I will not mention my thoughts here and quote literally the author, because, I don’t want to collude author’s work and try to overshadow the importance of the message.
The author has mentioned roughly for 200 pages the secret to living a healthy, wealthy, free, and educated life is to utilize your victory hour everyday for the rest of your life and the victory hour that he mentioned is the period between 5AM and 6AM.
After mentioning that countless times, I, like every reader, got anxious about what the actual schedule/formula looked like and when I read Chapter 13 finally, then I realized the genius of the author. The author presented this formula in such a simple manner that I couldn’t help but bow down to him.
Without further ado, here’s what he mentions in the book while giving away the method to own your victory hour.

It is a three bracket formula. Each bracket is of 20 minutes each.
First 20 minutes – Move (Exercise – MUST SWEAT)
Middle 20 minutes – Reflect (Journal/Pray/Meditate)
Last 20 minutes – Grow (Read/Study/Review Goals)

I want you to pay special attention to the above three lines, that’s why I have put them in bold alphabets. Please note that I haven’t tried explaining anything and kept it as is from the book – giving you the importance of these three brackets and what to do with it.

I will stop here now with the hope that this will be helpful at least one single reader. And putting all the important and cool pictures from the book down below. Enjoy!


September 17, 2016 – My first road trip in US, Jersey City, NJ, USA

One more firsts to share with you guys!

I messed up with the timeline, so sharing this now!

This was the day when I took the first road trip and it happened with a few conversations over WhatsApp and some of the kind-hearted people graduated from my undergrad institute back home – SGGSIE&T, Visnupuri, Nanded, India.

So, SGGS, my undergrad institute, had been doing a lot of investments in the Alumni relations and due to this, they had been organizing Alumni meets over the globe for the past few years. The US, geographically, is a very big country, so they had to organize alumni meets for each coast and I ended up attending the East Coast meetup.

I was based out of Hartford, CT and the meet was supposed to happen at some place in New Jersey. Therefore, for me, the transportation was a big puzzle as I didn’t know how to drive back then and I didn’t know anyone living near me who could drive me roughly 100 miles from where I was.
That’s when Manik chimed in and helped me. I remember him coordinating with most of the East Coast buddies to figure who lived near me and managed to bring at least 5 of us in a car and made sure I didn’t have to worry about any transportation difficulties.
I am not sure, I ever thanked him for that or not, but Thanks, Manik!

This was taken during one of the gas stops.

During the drive, there were so many breathtaking scenes. Experiencing my first road trip and accompanied by some of the highly distinguished individuals, who graduated during the 90s from my college, I felt a little bit nervous and shy, so I didn’t click that many pictures. However, when I saw Manik clicking a few, I put my embarrassment aside and clicked a few too. I really liked this bridge and was lucky to capture it in a frame.

It took us nearly 2 hours to reach to the venue. I remember being on cloud 9 when we reached the place, as New Jersey was the first state after Connecticut that I was visiting. I knew the states have 50 states, and vowed to visit all 50 states during my stay in the US, and was glad to bring the count to 2.

Upon entering the banquet hall, I snapped this selfie but made sure that I was alone, as I didn’t want any weird stares from my fellow alumni. Such a stupid guy I was!

Anyway, the event started on time and I was glad to see some familiar faces in the crowd, especially, our beloved college professors and lecturers and our director sir too. It was really refreshing to see everyone gathering around, sharing the progress of the institute and what promises it brings to new students and what kind of advantages one gets if admitted to SGGS.

In the picture below, you can see our director sir, Joshi sir, giving highlights of the achievements for the past year to the fellow alumni. When I was in India, I never imagined our alumni relation was so strong. I was empathetic to see so many people in the crowd. I never knew so many people made it big after graduating from college. It was refreshing to see so many people doing so well and it was kind of motivating too to be honest. I could picture myself at their place after an X amount of years.

And off course, there was some amazing food to taste. As I mentioned here, I am a connoisseur of free food. Well, this wasn’t free technically, but still. I remember tasting almost everything they had to offer and filled up myself quite nicely. It was awkward to carry so many plates around, but, didn’t bother much.

These are some of the snapshots that I could capture when the ceremony was taking place. You can see many people catching up and bonding over food and drinks.
The only thing that I regret not doing during this alumni meet was to talk to as many people as I could. This was a perfect opportunity to build a rapport with some of the alumni as I was the *only student* present at the alumni meet. I must mention that I did talk to at least 10 of the alumni and enjoyed the discussion.

I am not the one to complain, so I felt lucky to be a small part of the SGGS Alumni community. I learnt so many things from this visit. The most important lesson for me was that the life in the US is entirely different than the life back home. In the US, we were more responsible as compared to Indian Alumni meets, when we were more carefree and still students, am I right?

One of the learnings that I will value the most during this visit was to always talk to people and build connections. By talking, smiling, and paying attention to what the next person is saying help a lot to build connections, so you must always follow these if you want to be a successful person here in the US.

Many more trips coming your way! 💪🏽

October 27, 2016 – First snow, Hartford, CT, USA

Who does not like their first snow?

Coming from a hot and tropical place like India to the land of opportunities, I always wanted to experience the feeling of enjoying the first snow. I came to the states in August of 2016 and I must say, I had to wait for a couple months to experience my first snow. Though I was excited for the snow, I didn’t mind the wait as I got to play a lot of cricket, through which I developed some life lasting connections.

Within the first two months of arriving at Hartford, I had friends around who cared for me and made sure I was doing good both academically and professionally. All of this couldn’t have been possible without cricket. It’s funny though.
During the first week after arriving at Hartford, I was exploring the Downtown and nearby area, when I stumbled upon Bushnell Park. I knew there was a part in downtown, but didn’t know it would be right across the street from my apartment. I immediately fell in love with it and started going there almost everyday. On one random evening, I saw a bunch of Indian guys walking in the park with the Cricket gear in the hand and at that moment, I knew, I had to ask one single question to them. It was not the moment of shying away but to be an adult and ask some random stranger, “Can I play with you guys?”. This seemed like a simple question, but for me, it opened a whole new world and some of the people that I played with that day became my life-long friends and have continued remain in tough even after several years.

This is classic MJ move, trailing down the actual topic of the blog post. Anyway, getting back to the subject of this blog post.

So, ever since the weather changed in the US, I noticed myself using the weather app more frequently that I used to in India. Heck, I never used the weather map in India and here in the US, I had to use whenever I had to go out even for some 5 minute walk, as it had become that cold, at least for me and my skin, which had been used to the Indian summers and winters for the last couple decades.

Like everyday, today also I checked my weather app and was pleasantly surprised to see there was a chance of snow. My roommate, Shlok, also confirmed that it might snow today so I better be prepared. So, here I was, listening to my experienced roommate and gearing up for my first snow. I was wearing a T-shirt gifted by my girlfriend, a Nautica jacket that I bought from BCF, and the warm that was given to me by my Dad. I had a pair of jeans and woodland shoes on, which I bought in Bangalore, India a few years ago.

This is how I looked. I couldn’t control but giggle looking at this picture.

I remember being inside one of the classrooms of the 100 Constitution Plaza when I started seeing the snow for the first time. I didn’t have any classes that day, so I could just go out and enjoy the feeling of first snow against my face. I grabbed a few friends of mine and we were down on the road, enjoying the snow for the first time, well for most of us.

The first thing I did was to get my phone to capture this moment to last eternity. I was wearing my no glare glasses and not sure where they are right now. 😆

It felt liberating to feel the snow for the first time. The moment I stepped out of the building and looked towards the sky, this is how it looked like. It’s hard to see the snow in the picture, but there were tiny bits of snow falling from the sky. I remember calling my parents back home to let them see what I was experiencing. It felt like they were with me at that Downtown parking lot.

And this is the picture taken from the same spot but in an opposite direction. You can see the intersection here which is shared with my UConn building. Gosh, this picture makes me miss this place even more.

There is something amazing with the feelings of firsts.
Your first car, first kiss, and first love!
The firsts always remain special
and this day is just like that for me!

Hopefully, I will get to visit this place soon! Fingers crossed!

Quarantine – Month 4 (June 18 – July 17)

I would strongly recommend checking out the first three editions here.
First month (March 17 – April 16)
Second month (April 17 – May 16)
Third month (May 17 – June 17)

Now, let’s get started!

When I was writing the first and second edition of this monthly update, I couldn’t have predicted that I would be doing this for some more months. But, by the time I was writing the last edition, I knew I would be doing this for some foreseeable future. Given the number of cases and death rates across the USA and the whole world, I think, I wouldn’t be surprised if I do this for the next year or so. I don’t want to scare anyone, but, it might just be the reality that we might have to live with; until we get the vaccine! 🤞🏽

Reflecting back on this month, you feel humble, fortunate, lucky, and thankful for everything and everyone around you. You feel thankful for your employer that you still have a job and you are getting paid. You feel fortunate to have wonderful people around you, to give you emotional support EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Now that I am all done with my philosophical take, let us divert our attention to the topic of this blog post & start with mentioning how the fourth of quarantine went for me.

COVID19 POSITIVE CASES IN MICHIGAN
The fourth month was quite a ride for USA and especially for the state where I live and which I love, Michigan!

If you are keeping track of the US COVID19 positive cases, you would realize that we have gone from almost keeping it under control to spreading the virus more by protesting outside, not wearing masks, and not maintaining social distancing norms. It is such a shame that a country like US failed to control COVID19, and we all are paying the price for that. I am not here to complain. I just want to say that we are better than this and we all should listen to science and not some conspiracy theories.

Anyway, enough with my rant, and it’s number games now!

The number of COVID19 positive cases on July 17th was 768. We reached this number after going from 1000 cases on April 17th, 400 cases on May 17th, and 204 cases on June 17th. It is such a shame that we let the numbers inflate from 204 to where we were 3 months ago. Due to this, our Governor Gretchen Whitmer decided to penalize $500 fine to whoever don’t wear mask in public when they are in the closed building such as grocery store or shopping mall. I think, this is extremely important and brilliant decision given the situation Florida, Texas and California is in right now. Hopefully, we will be able to control it with this measure and I will be happier to report this number next month, which is not the case right now.

Fingers crossed!

RUNNING
When I started running in January, I didn’t expect to continue this much running, but this quarantine has worked in my favor and I couldn’t be happier for that. The fourth month was all about running with many highlights.

The first highlight for the fourth month was I could finish 100.6 miles during the fourth month of quarantine. This is a significant increase from the last month’s mileage of 85 miles. I am not sure if I would be able to repeat this feat, but enjoying the moment right now.

The second running highlight for the month was a PR 5K. Before starting the Detroit FreePress International Marathon preparation, I had a PR of 35 minutes for a 5K. In my wildest dreams, I didn’t imagine that I would be able to cut down 10 minutes from this time and finish the 5K under 25 minutes.
This PR run happened on July 15th when I ran 3.1 miles in 24:47 at 8 minutes a mile. This was by far the best pace for the distance greater than or equal to 5K. Let’s see how far I can go with this consistent and gritty preparation. I just might end up surprising myself one more time, who knows? 🤷🏽‍♂️

And the third running highlight was the Half Marathon number 5 that I ran during this duration. This HM came when I was running short on my weekly average and desperately needed 16-17 miles of running to finish the weekly running quota of 20 miles.

BIKING
The fourth month wasn’t that extraordinary for biking.

Mr. Aryan had some trouble with his bike, so we couldn’t go out for biking a lot. Having said that, there were definitely a couple moments worth mentioning here.

The first and foremost is my new bike. Please meet “Jinx”. If you are interested, it a Contend AR 3 bike from Giant.

I clicked this right outside D&D Ann Arbor, dated June 30th.

When the lockdown started, nobody imagined it would last this long, including yours truly. So, I deliberately waited for my old bike, which my friend, Anupam, generously gave, to wear off until I buy a new one. That old bike was better than my first bike and I had a tremendous time with it. I had named it “Definite Lee” and you can check it out below.

Unfortunately, due to increase in demand and limited supply, I had to wait at least couple weeks to get my hands on this bike. But, I must say, the wait was totally worth it as I finished the longest ride on this bike days after.

Which brings me to the second highlight for biking – The longest bike ride till date. Biking 50 miles with Jinx was such a smooth affair for me and it was only because of Jinx, I could finish 51 miles just around 4 hours. It was July 5th when I accomplished this feat and buying Jinx turned out to be an awesome decision. I would love to see what my target be.

During this fourth month of quarantine, I biked 125 miles, which is 75 miles less than the last month. Though I am down on biking mileage, I am okay with the fact that I have enough room for improvement!

HIKING
This month wasn’t great for hiking either.

I could go on only three hikes during the fourth month of quarantine, which brought the mileage close to 50% compared to the last month. During the third month, I hiked for 46 miles which dropped to ~25 miles during the fourth month. Like biking, I am positive that I have much room for improvement and I can come back stronger. Let’s see.

CORE EXERCISES
After reading the book The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma, I started focusing on my core exercises especially during the morning time 5AM-6AM. I wouldn’t delve into the details about the book, but extraordinary, brilliant, and life changing are some of the adjectives well-suited for it.

Due to this book I started doing my core exercises again and could finish ~800 push-ups, 600 sit-ups, and 500 Russian twists for the fourth month. I know it’s not a lot, but it’s a lot if you compare these numbers to 0 in the third month of quarantine.

THE CONCLUSION
Before I conclude, I am hopeful we will have a vaccine one day. I am hopeful, if we wear masks, we will be able to contain this virus and get our life back to normal. I am also hopeful that I will be able to visit India and see my family one more time!

Till then, take care & stay safe!

Week 28 – Detroit FreePress International Marathon prep (July 12 – July 18)

Week 27 was like a mixed feeling. You can check it out here. With 450+ miles under my belt, let’s see how far I can go in this week.

Day 1 – Sunday, July 12, 2020 – Quarantine Day 118
The first day of the week couldn’t be any better. Yesterday, as it was the last day of the last week, I did finish almost 16 miles distance while running early in the morning and in the afternoon, went out for hiking and finished almost 6 miles; this gives me a good mileage and allowed me to finish the week on a high tone.

I wanted to continue doing the same and start this week on the same high note. That’s why I decided to hike the new state recreational area an hour away from my place, Holly Recreational Area, thanks to my friend, Monika.

We have been to many state parks this year for hiking and walking, and Holly Recreational Area stood out to be the best so far. There are two hiking trails available in this recreational area, connected by a common parking spot. The biggest advantage of this area is that the trails and the campgrounds are around the lake, so even though the Sun was scorching some heat from the North, the trees and cool breeze from the lake made sure we are not uncomfortable during the hike.

We ended up finishing both the hiking loops in around 4 hours and the distance covered was roughly more than 9 miles.

The hike was followed by Pizza and tea and talks! Excited for the week ahead!

Day 2 – Monday July 13, 2020 – Quarantine Day 119
After an awesome weekend, it was time to put some breaks on my outdoor activities.

Saturday was 15.6 miles of running and 5.8 miles of hiking, followed by Sunday with 9.6 miles of hiking. This totals to 30 miles of weekend activities, and after that, I desperately needed to take a rest day.
Monday turned out to be that ideal day for me to cool down and let my body recover.

I skipped the run, but ended up completing 4 miles of biking followed by an hour of soccer with the kids. It was not a lot, so I didn’t mind it.

Day 3 – Tuesday July 14, 2020 – Quarantine Day 120
What a day!

When I tried the Tartan Tracks at the Northville High School over the weekend, I immediately fell in love with it and was waiting for next opportunity to try those tracks. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait too long, as I could experience the soft surface of the track against my feet today itself.

After waking up a little later than my usual 5AM time, I didn’t feel like running as I was still *feeling* some pain in my left knee. My friend, Anupam, was getting ready for the run and asked me if I would like to join. I had to turn that offer down. But, when he left, I started thinking about last week and how difficult it was for me to complete 20 miles of quota for the week. So, instead of skipping the run and sitting at home, I got my bike and reached the Northville High School for the run. He was surprised to find me accompanying him for the run, which I answered with one word – FOMO.

After parking our bikes, we started running together and I immediately remembered the beautiful feeling of the Track & Field surface against my feet.
There were two different things about today’s run. The first was that I had Anupam for the company, who usually runs faster than I do and the second one was I didn’t look at my Apple Watch today, so that I focus on finishing the 5K instead of concentrating on my pace. I was just counting the number of rounds of the track and tried pushing myself, being breathless. It was until 3 miles mark that I finally took a peak at my pace and I was overjoyed and pleasantly surprised to see 8’25” pace for the mile. I couldn’t wait to finish the 5K run as I thought I was onto something, and boy, I was right. As soon as my Apple Watch hit the 3.1M mark, I noted the time, and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw 25:35. It was my PR for a 5K run till date and definitely a morale booster as I have been struggling to improve my pace and bring the 5K time lower than 25 minutes. I am sure with this lifestyle and focus, I would definitely achieve my 5K PR under 25 minutes.

After finishing the run and soaking in the feeling, we biked home and enjoyed some beautiful bread omelette. Here’s the picture.

The evening was spent with some lazy bike ride and an hour of soccer with the kids.

Day 4 – Wednesday July 15, 2020– Quarantine Day 121
New day, new Highs!

Today was the repeat of yesterday’s morning routine. After waking up at 5AM, I was out the door at around 5.30AM and started to bike to NHS at 5.45AM. It took us around 23 minutes to get to the school and we started our run at around 6.15AM. Little did I know when I started the run that I was surprised myself again today.
Looking at the mile chart they have at the Track and Field ground, we decided to circle the lane number 8 12 times to finish 3.3 miles in total. Like yesterday, today I didn’t check my pace while running and waited until 3.1 miles to check the time. I was overwhelmed to see 24:47 on my Apple Watch and realized I have just realized a big milestone that I was trying for last month or so. After finishing 12 rounds, my friend Anupam was still running on the track, so decided to complete one more round before calling it a day.

At the end of this run, I had covered 3.6 miles in 29 minutes flat. This has been the quickest pace by far for me, so grateful for this.
After the run, we enjoyed tummy full of Maharashtrian breakfast – Poha. Here’s the picture.

The evening was busy with the kids around on the bike and it was awesome to take them to the high school and run around on the turf surface. They seemed to like it, let’s see if they run on it the next time.

Day 5 – Thursday July 16, 2020– Quarantine Day 122
With just couple days left for the monthly Quarantine update, I desperately need almost 20 miles of running to finish the 100 miles for the fourth month of quarantine, however, the weather Gods here in Michigan were busy playing tricks. It rained throughout the night, which extended till 11AM. That caused me to run in the afternoon.

I was glad to shut down my laptop at around 3.30PM to go out for a run. I checked my running log before going out for a run and noticed I needed approximately 18.5-19 miles to cover 100 miles of running distance during the fourth month of quarantine (June 18 – July 17). I wasn’t in the mood to cover 18-20 miles in a single stretch, so convinced myself to run a Half Marathon. If I could run a Half Marathon, this will be my second HM for the month of July and the sixth one overall. I have a target of 12 Half Marathons for the year 2020. Let’s see I will achieve it or not.

Coming back to the run, I fueled myself with just a banana and a glass of water and relied heavily on the weather to be cloudy so that I don’t dehydrate myself. Fortunately, the weather stayed cloudy throughout the run and the temperature was below 70F. I didn’t take any water bag or food to have it during the run. Not a good decision, but, went ahead with it.

The run turned out to be a super fun and the best Half Marathon effort yet. This is the PR Half Marathon. The first few miles went like a whisker, before I knew I was at the High School, having already covered 5 miles. The Tartan Track at high school helped me cover 5 additional miles, bringing the distance to 10 miles. When I looked at my Apple Watch, I saw I had covered 10 miles at 1:51, which was my best effort so far. This was the moment I realized I could go for my for Half Marathon PR. I told myself, if I could cover remaining distance in 30 minutes, that would be my new PR. All is said easier than done, right? I took almost 32 minutes to finish the rest of the distance and still managed to score a PR, finishing the Half Marathon distance at 02:23:39 with 10’57” pace.

I was so done with this maximum effort and run that I just sat alongside my car’s wheel not talking to anyone for a good 5 minutes. I was soaked in sweat and desperately needed water and food. Good that my friend Anupam had already prepared fruit smoothie for me, which I took 10 seconds to finish. When I was at mile 11, I told myself to go through the rigorous effort that I was putting in and I would reward myself with the BnB (Bread Nutella Banana). I was just picturing it during the mile 11-13.1 and I was so happy when I took the first bite. I was tasting Nutella after a couple years (that’s right!) and it was enough to compensate for the 2,000 calories that I had burnt during this run.

A 10K run needed for 100 miles of running for the fourth month of quarantine.

Day 6 – Friday July 17, 2020– Quarantine Day 123
Another day to run before ending the week number 28. As I mentioned yesterday, I still needed a 10K run to finish the fourth month of quarantine at 100 miles, so that was my goal for today & I was so glad I could do it.

I couldn’t go for a morning run, so I had to wait until the end of the day to go out and achieve this goal. It was 5PM by the time I shut off my laptop and after devouring a couple BnBs, I headed out for the run. I was under confident of myself when I started the run. A lot was riding on it and I didn’t want the pressure to get to me, so I took a good 5 minutes to breathe myself before starting the run. That helped me calm things down and to tell myself that it was just like a regular run and I shouldn’t think too much about the goal.

Plus, the temperature in the early evening was around 80-85, which made it harder to run. I had to keep the pace in check so that I don’t dehydrate myself as I wasn’t carrying any water with me. My friends, Monika & Anupam, also wanted to join me, so we planned to meet at the NHS, upon reaching where I just had 2.5 miles to go for my 10K distance. Running at NHS on the Tartan Track has been a blessing for my feet and I remember putting more efforts and pace towards the end of the run. I managed to finish the 10K distance a few seconds after the 1 hour mark, a good achievement under the circumstances.

More than the 10K pace, I was happy with the fact that I amassed those many miles of running during this fourth month of quarantine, setting myself one more ambitious goal for the next month (given that we don’t go back to work before August 18th). Let’s see how things unfold and where we will be in the coming weeks.
I am riding the high wave of confidence till then!

Day 7 – Saturday July 18, 2020– Quarantine Day 124
Ah! We finally reached the end of the week and keeping the tradition alive, Saturday turned out to be a well deserved hiking day.

This week we decided to hike at South Higgins Lake State Park. It was roughly 3 hours drive from our place, but, sitting at the back seat of the car and reading my book made the 3 hour drive feel like a few minutes as I couldn’t believe that we reached our destination sooner than I anticipated. As we had just had breakfast when we left home, we had lovely lunch by the beach before starting the hike. I was disappointed to see so many faces without the masks and crowding the beach. We decided to stay away from the crowd and the lake water as precautionary measure.

After finishing the lunch, we enquired the Park Ranger about the nearby trail, who confirmed that the walking trail is available at the Marl Lake across the street from the state park. Upon reaching the Mark Lake entrance, we were relived to know the parking lot was empty and could start out hike with some peaceful nature.

The hike overall was very peaceful and we didn’t meet more than 5 fellow hikers throughout the hike. The hike had three trail to offer and we chose the longest one among them. It was 5.2 miles long. If you add up all three trails, you would get 9 miles of distance in total. Unfortunately, all loops overlapped each other, so even though we covered all three loops, we could only hike for 5 miles. It took us about 2 hours.

After the hike, it was usual post-hike Pizza time and we devoured it. Have a look.

This brings us to the end of the week number 28. Many things accomplished so far and many more to go. Hope the best is yet to come!

September 10, 2016 – My first cricket trophy in US, Hartford, CT, USA

The firsts are always special!

So, it had been less than a month for me having arrived in the US. During this first month, I have made so many friendships and had experienced so many things. Having relived those moments, the one thing that stood out for me was to build relationships through the love of Cricket.

Growing up back home, I had been an ardent cricket lover and a pretty good player myself. I have had pleasure of developing relationships with so many people because of the mutual love for the game of Cricket.
I wanted to continue my love of Cricket in the land of opportunities too.

The story of how I met my cricket buddies here in the US is actually interesting. I’ll keep it short OR I will try to keep it short.

So, I arrived at Hartford on August 12th and during the first week of my stay, I tried exploring the Downtown area and that’s when I came across Bushnell Park. I remember someone telling me that there was a park, but I didn’t imagine it would be this big in the middle of the downtown. When I saw it the first time, I immediately fell in love with it and could imagine myself hanging out in the lush greenery surrounded by chirping of the birds and quietude at the same time.

I started going to Bushnell Park every single day during the evening time to get some steps in. It was during one of these walks when I came across a few people marching with cricket gears in their hands. Upon looking at them, I knew they were going to play a game of cricket and were searching for some spot to play on. I told myself, this is the moment. I had two options at that moment. Either to keep quiet and move on and continue my walk or ask them if I could join them. I chose the latter.

I reached out to one of the guys and just muttered the words “Can I play with you guys?”. This one question turned out to be a life changing moment for me. Just by asking this question, I met some of the most incredible people in my life and have developed life lasting relationships over the period of couple of years. That was a simple question to ask, but has caused the positive domino effect in my life, both personally and professionally and I couldn’t be more grateful to this wonderful Gentlemen’s game.

That was not a short story, BTW!

Anyway, getting back to the topic, after starting playing cricket regularly and developing good rapport with some of the players, they invited me to join them for short tournament over the weekend. It was supposed to be over in a day, starting in the early morning and finishing by the day’s end. I immediately complied and said I would love to join.

This was the scene when we arrived in the morning to partake in this tournament. In the picture, you can see, Shree and Kumar. They have been the prominent influence for me as far as leadership through cricket is concerned. I loved how calm and collected Shree remains under immense pressure and tries to give his 100% for the team. On the other hand, Kumar is one of the most passionate players that I have had chance to play this game with. You don’t get surprised when you see his trophy collections, after playing a game or two with him.

After arriving at the venue, I was a doubted whether we would have a full day or playing or not. Turned out, the Sun was playing tricks on us and it started to show a sliver of rays through the thick clouds in a matter of moments. This gave us a relief and the organizer confirmed the start of the tournament.

We were scheduled to play, I think, 3 games, before competing for the big prize. Since, it was a one day event, not many teams showed up, reducing competition for us. Though we didn’t have the quantity, the quality was definitely in attendance.
Due to the time constraint and number of players available, we were just 6 people in each team. My team entrusted me with being the opener while batting. It turned out to be a good as we started putting strong totals on the board while batting first and chasing down the targets easily while batting second.

The first three games were not at all hard for us, as we swiftly sailed through those to reach the finals. I was overjoyed just to realize what had happened in the matter of a few hours. When I woke up in the morning, I didn’t know that I would return home with a trophy, be it the winners or runners trophy. As I was savoring this moment, the other two teams were battling it out to join us in the final. Kumar told me about the strong team who was favored to win and made sure I understand to put more efforts if we had to win the competition.

Like the first three games, I continued spreading some magic with my bat and we put a strong total on the board. I didn’t pay much contribution with the bat, but came in handy with the field, saving some precious runs as we won by a margin of a few runs. It was absolutely amazing feeling in the world. I didn’t know how to express my happiness, so I ended up telling the gentleman who was handing me the trophy that it was my first trophy in the US. He ended up being a generous guy who took the entire team out for BDubs.

Here’s me posing with the trophy.

Back then, I didn’t know what BDubs was and like every Indian, thought it was made of bufallo meat. Silly me! I asked my teammate whether it was okay to eat it, as he laughed it off and confirmed its chicken! Gosh, I felt like such a bum!

Anyway, it was a good day and I will cherish this day forever. This one trophy has cultivated into a collection of five more for my stay in Connecticut and I am forever grateful to my connections which I made through this wonderful game of Cricket!

Here’s the Instagram gallery.

See you!

August 26, 2016 – New Apartment, Hartford, CT, USA

The first apartment that I stayed in the US.

All the credit for the arrangements of this apartment goes to my ex-roommate, Shlok. When I was in India, I got in touch with him over the phone as he was looking for roommates in the US. During our initial discussion, he came across as a straight forward guy who went out of his way to help us find a nice apartment closer enough to the university building so that we could just walk to our classes.

As soon as my visa was approved, I gave him a call with the good news and he took care of all the formalities. I think, it was only because of him, I could stay in such a well maintained apartment, with quick access to the park, cafes, and essential businesses. Over the years, we have grown our friendship into something life lasting and we cherish every moment whenever we get to meet each other, which happens once in 2-3 years.

Anyway, when it was time to move into this new apartment, we made sure everything was all right with it while checking it out. This was the first time I was checking this apartment out and I couldn’t be more excited.

As soon as I entered the building, I knew this was going to be a comfortable stay at this apartment, just by looking at the cleanliness and the prime location of the place. Our apartment was located at the 8th floor of the building.

Though I couldn’t see anyone outside their apartment, I got a good feeling about everyone staying there as it was properly kept and well maintained. The moment I entered the apartment, I was greeted with this view. You can see my roommates talking to each other by the window, which had some gorgeous views.

As soon as you walk inside the apartment and go to the living room, you are greeted with these giant windows with some more views of the Downtown Hartford. I couldn’t fathom the grandeur of this apartment, as every Indian, I could imagine playing cricket in my living room itself.

If you go close to these windows and just take a look at your back, you would get to see the kitchen. I really liked the open concept and didn’t mind spending most of my time here. It was at Hartford where I learnt most of my cooking and mostly from my roommates, and this kitchen had been used quite a lot as all my roommates were great cooks.

The view that I was talking about looked like this. Even though the picture doesn’t show the entire view, it is enough to give you an idea that it really was a *beautiful* view and I remember spending countless hours sitting in those windows sipping my tea (I was a tea person back then) and talking to friends and showing off.

And how could this visit be complete without my selfie? I used to sit like this – reading, drinking (doesn’t matter what), and creating memories.

After checking the entire apartment, both bedrooms and bathrooms, it was time to check out the basement, which was shared among everyone in the building. It had a pool table, a ping-pong (table tennis) table, some wonderful leather couches and a giant TV, with a generous sized gym.

Most of my time at this apartment is spent at this basement as it provided an oasis for a quiet reader such as myself, and mostly vacant throughout the day. People used to gather here mostly during the night time, and I, being the morning person, benefited from that. I used to play pool, ping-pong with my roommates; and when I was alone, I used to either read or workout. It was this place where I started running and am eternal thankful for that.

Man, this place is filled with so many memories. Every time I think about it, I get goosebumps and yearn for more.

Until next time!

August 17, 2016 – UConn Orientation Day 2, Hartford, CT, USA

This was the second day of the orientation. If you haven’t had a chance to go through Day 1, I will recommend checking that out.

The first day was all about getting us familiar with the new environment and helping us transition into the new lifestyle and culture of this great country. We were treated with utmost respect and paid special attention to while doing all this.

The second day was more about informal interaction between the freshman and the seniors. Also, today’s focus was to make sure we are technically equipped to start our classes from Day 1. This was the biggest shocker for me.

In India, we spent countless hours of the initial days figuring out how to install all required softwares before starting with the actual studies. I loved how at UConn, they made sure our laptops were equipped with all the softwares so that we don’t face any issues during the classes, once they commence.

Like yesterday, I took the back seat here too and followed all the instructions that were given to us by one of the instructors.

I was amazed with the free wifi. I know it sounds weird, but, in India, we don’t have that much connectivity. Accessing a wifi network is one of the perks back in India, and here, in the US, we breathe wifi. So, it was definitely a big change for me.
When I opened my laptop and I didn’t need to connect any cables and I was online and connected to the internet, just like that, was one of the goosebump moments and realization that I was literally living a dream. It was a big step for a small kid from a small village in India.

Anyway, after going through the setup and installation process, it was time to have some food and I was glad that they had sandwiches and fruits for us. I didn’t hold back and had plentiful, A CONNOISSEUR OF FREE FOOD! I think it was the first time I was trying turkey, and loved it!

After tummy full of yummy food, it was time for some more ice breaker activities, along with more than 200 students, my future classmates. Our seniors thought out some nice and innovative activities for that and I was impressed with the thought process behind it. I am sure they must had spent some time to organize and putting everything together.

We were divided into groups of 7-10 students and were asked to carry out those activities. Even while doing that, I managed to capture a few moments. It feels funny to look back at all these photos and how long we have come from then!
Enjoy!

While everything was going on, I managed to capture a selfie with a couple of seniors, who appeared to be in charge of all the arrangements. You see Akram and Arpita in this photo, who had been extremely helpful answering all our questions with patience and making sure we had the information that we needed.

By the time, it was almost 2PM, we were heading home and I was reminiscing all the lovely people that we met during the day and how amazing it would be to spend a year of my life at this wonderful university with some amazing people around. I was lucky to have gotten amazing roommates and I was extremely thankful for that.

Like yesterday, once I reached my apartment, I called home and my girlfriend and gave them an update on the day’s activities. Everyone back home seemed excited to hear I was having a good time and was not worrying too much about them.
After the usual calls, I enjoyed some afternoon nap and by the time, it was around 7PM, we headed out again for some food. I think, this was the first restaurant visit for me in the US and I was excited about it.

I clicked the below picture when we were walking to the WestFarm Shopping mall from the parking lot. This mall seemed unfathomably big, not used to seeing such big and large buildings back home.

After some wonderful food (& I regret not taking picture of my plate), we explored the mall for a few minutes. I am not sure whether I purchased something from the mall, but I sure got a good memorable picture from there! I still remember appreciating the architecture and the beauty of this mall to my family and friends back home, the next day!

After spending some time, it was time to head home and I got to see the night life (from inside of the car) for the first time. Though, there was not a big crowd around the Downtown Hartford area, I still appreciated the night lights surrounding the road and was amazed by a simple fact that all the lights in buildings were on even though nobody was inside the building. #truestory

And with that, the second day of the orientation was over.

Comfortable life ends here and “studies” do start!

August 16, 2016 – UConn Orientation Day 1, Hartford, CT, USA

What a wonderful and memorable day to remember for eternity.

A step back – Ever since I got to know about Baseball, Ice hockey, Linkin Park, and Eminem, I had been fascinated with this land of opportunities. When I realized my true potential, I knew USA is going to be an ideal place for me, as it provided equal opportunities to everyone and hardly there was a discrimination based on your gender, color, or birthplace. Almost everything that I imagined for myself has one single word answer – America. And, with that, starting from, I think, 6th grade, I studied and worked hard with one single goal in mind – Come to America and make a living for myself and my family! Every single morning and night that I had spent studying, every time I pushed myself when my body told me to give up, every extra hour I spent working and all the amazing connections and relationships I developed over the years had this one goal in mind. It was not that I hated India or my life there, but with the kind of ambitions and plans that I had, only one country would have been able to fulfill that and that would be the United States of America.
So, when this day arose, I couldn’t help but chuckled at myself looking in the mirror. Though it seemed like this journey lasted for 2-3 days, but it took me more than 13 years to get to where I was currently at and I valued it the most in life and vowed to not take it for granted. It was a pleasant thought to start this important day with and I couldn’t have been happier and more excited about it.

The day kicked off in an interesting way. When I was planning to come to the US, many people reached out (in a good way) telling me how one experiences jet lag when you go to a different timezone especially with a 14 hour difference. For me, the case was a little different. I reached Hartford the day before around evening time, an ideal time to reach any new place, giving me enough time to freshen up and have some food, before dozing off for the night. This setting worked so well for me that I woke up at my usual time on this day and didn’t experience jet lag at all. Even I was surprised when I was the first one taking the shower and my roommates were still sleeping.

We were supposed to report at 9AM, so I got ready quickly and was waiting for my roommate to get ready as we had same reporting time for the orientation. I got a few minutes for snapping some pictures and was fortunate to have this beautiful view. We were at the 9th floor of the building, so it treated us with a nice view of the road leading up to Downtown Hartford.

Once we got ready and started walking to the address that was given to us, I managed to capture a selfie too while walking on the empty streets of the Downtown Hartford. I had chubby cheeks back then! It was a brisk 10 minutes walk to the 100 Constitution Plaza, the building where I would spent next year of my life, attending lectures, drafting University Magazine issues, and creating memories with friends and classmates.

Once I figured out how to enter the building, apparently a hard thing for me 🤪, I saw a few signs guiding us where to go for the orientation. I was nervous at first and was a little quiet, but as soon I walked in, I saw Kathy, who was our on boarding coordinator. Having conversed with her over the emails for the last few months, seeing her in person for the first time, gave me a soothing feeling and immediately I transformed into a good old Milind, who treated everything and everyone as business as usual.

I took a seat in the back as I didn’t want to sit in the front, and soon was joined by my future classmates. I managed to do some small talk, I didn’t know it was called small talk by then. Anyway, we got to talking and after a few minutes, managed to grab a couple selfies with students that I was interacting with. I think, one of those was taken when we were playing a team building activity.

It was very nice of our seniors to spend some time thinking about various team building activities we could do, so that we can bond as classmates and help each other whenever needed. It worked like a charm and I found myself bonding to so many people whom I had talked over the phone when I was preparing for my visa interview and travel plans. It felt both wonderful and awesome to see put faces to the names that I have interacted with for a few weeks and months.

I think from this day onwards, I was known as a selfie enthusiast, I am not sure if that’s the correct term/lingo. You can see here, a bunch of us posing for a selfie, which is etched into eternity forever.

After this photo session and doing so many small talks with many people, it was time to head home finally. During the orientation, we were told different things that we would go through as international students. We were introduced to different terminologies such as CPT, OPT. I was surprised to see that our seniors took time out of their busy schedule and prepare a welcome video for us, showcasing what we can expect from our life at Hartford and UConn and what a great institution it is. They turned out to be right, I must say!

While walking back to my apartment and thinking about all the things that we were just exposed to, I couldn’t help but notice the grandeur of the building and immediately snapped a couple pictures before it becomes way too familiar and old.

I also struck a pose in front of it and it turned out to be a cool one.

This one picture signifies beginning of my UConn journey. As carefree as I look in this picture, deep down, in my heart, I knew I was worried about the mountain of expectations from the friends and family back home, and also the huge education loan that I had taken to support my graduate degree. However, in that one moment, I took it all in and realized that I was living my dream. I was finally doing the one thing that I had worked so hard over the last few years!

This is worth countless hours of hard work, study, and not giving up on your dreams!

After getting back, I had a nice meal with my roommates, talked to my family and girlfriend and enjoyed an afternoon nap, which I craved for.

In the evening, one of our roommates volunteered to drive us around Hartford area so that we get to experience the US life that we had come there for. It was such a nice and gentle gesture from him. This is us all smiling before heading out to an unknown exploration with people I met a couple days ago! Life is crazy!

Many more stories to come!

Week 27 – Detroit FreePress International Marathon prep (July 05 – July 11)

After running more than 25 miles in last week, let’s see what’s in store for week number 27.

Day 1 – Sunday, July 05, 2020 – Quarantine Day 111
LONGEST BIKE RIDE TILL DATE!

What a Sunday! I could finish 51 miles of biking, longest bike ride for me so far and I think I am not going to stop here. Let’s see how far I can go.
This is all because of the new bike that I got a week ago. I have been waiting to try it out on a long ride and glad that I could finish such a long distance without a hitch.

I learnt many things and understood how to better attack it the next time. Nothing more to say, just enjoy the picture of my bike!

Day 2 – Monday July 06, 2020 – Quarantine Day 112
It was a rest day for me. I was still recovering from the long bike ride and decided to skip the run for the day.
We went out for an hour of soccer with the kids in the evening. It was tiresome to run for an hour in 93F temperature and glad that the kids could handle it.

Day 3 – Tuesday July 07, 2020 – Quarantine Day 113
One more rest day and this was taken due to too many emails and calls at work. The work has been a little bit tight for the last couple of days and after spending nearly 10 hours before the screen, I thought it would be good to relax in the evening and head to bed early.

Glad that I headed to bed early but the bed was actually a tent. To prepare ourselves for the camping season, we thought it would be fun to spend a night in the tent in the basement, so we put a small tent together and enjoyed a good night’s sleep!

Day 4 – Wednesday July 08, 2020– Quarantine Day 114
The morning wasn’t ideal for me as I had planned to wake up around 4.30 AM to catch up with my morning routine, starting at 5AM. Unfortunately, the first night spent in the tent didn’t work out well for me and I ended up waking at around 5.20 AM. I cursed myself for sleeping so late and decided to get my affairs together to go out for a quick run.

Initially, I had planned for a 10K, but, since I woke up late, I had to shorten it to just a 5K and also, I didn’t want to stress myself so I was hoping to go for a slower pace. Turned out, the cool weather and the new shoes had some other plans and I ended up completing the 5K at almost 10’ per mile pace. I was happy with the performance and hopefully, I will be able to finish at least 20 miles of running for the week. Let’ see.

After the run, I treated myself with this beautiful breakfast. It is called Sabudana Khichdi in my mother tongue. You can click here to know more about it.

The rest of the day was spent before my laptop screen and got to enjoy an hour of soccer with the kids before calling it a day!

Day 5 – Thursday July 09, 2020– Quarantine Day 115
One more rest day for the week. Not sure what’s going on in this week as I have taken 3 rest days so far. Let’s see how far I will be able to run for the next two days. Hopefully, at least a couple miles! 🤪

Day 6 – Friday July 10, 2020– Quarantine Day 116
The last day of the work week and it couldn’t be busier.
Though I got up around 5AM, most of the time was spent in reading and opening my work laptop at around 6AM. I spent almost entirety of it before my laptop screen and was working well past 5PM. I just wanted to relax at the end of the day and avoided going out for a run. I wish I could have, but didn’t.

With only one day to go until the end of this week, I need to get some serious distance in if I want to inch closer to the 1,000 mile for year mark. Let’s see.

Day 7 – Saturday July 11, 2020– Quarantine Day 117
Saturday arose with a bang. Last night, we slept in the tents with our new sleeping bags – getting ready for camping, I guess. It was a new experience for me to be sleeping in a sleeping bag, given that I mostly sleep in a starfish position. It was difficult for sure, but loved the feeling of the material and how comfortable it was. I think, apart from the gas oven, we are all set for camping gears and equipments. I will keep you posted on this.

Talking about the run, my friend, Anupam, has been running consistently for the better part of the week, which was motivating enough for me to finish at least 20 miles of weekly running quota. I have run only a 5K this week, so I needed to run at least 17 miles to finish that. With that goal in mind, I set off running early Saturday morning around 5.30AM and was taking my usual route. As soon as I reached Northville High School, I couldn’t resist myself to go their Track and Field ground to try running on them. Before doing that, as a good citizen, I checked whether I was permitted to do so, and upon receiving the confirmation, started my run.

The moment I stepped for the first time on that running floor, it was so soft and much better than the concrete floor that I was immediately hooked. When I started the run, I thought I would run a couple rounds, before continuing my usual way through Hines Drive, but I was so wrong. The material of the track felt so nice against my foot, that I just kept going. Also, properly marked tracks help you avoid disturbing other runners, and maintain social distancing at the same time. I was glad that I could finish almost 10 miles on the track, finishing my half Marathon distance there before taking a break to refuel myself.

After devouring an Apple and a Protein Bar and drinking some water, all while walking, I continued my run and it was more difficult to resume my run that I thought. I shouldn’t have stopped running and should have continued was all that I could think. Anyway, I took it as a good learning for me and vowed to never repeat it again.
In the end, I could finish only 2.2 miles before walking home. It was a little difficult to walk, but I managed to finish that.

Thanks to my friends, Monika and Anupam, who were kind enough to prepare some wonderful breakfast for me, so that I would get to enjoy some delicious food after this long run. It was our usual Saturday brunch – Puri Sabji. I loved every single bite of it and ate it like a pig. Here’s the quick picture of what I am talking about. It was both awesome and delicious filled with lots of love.

After the brunch and some hanging out, we set ourself for the Saturday hiking trail and this time, we wanted to finish the shorter loop at the Island Lake State Recreational Area. They called it a Yellow loop which is roughly 5 miles long and definitely shorter than the blue loop which is around 9 miles in distance. We had already done the blue loop twice, so wanted to check out the yellow loop this time.

The kids were running almost throughout the hike and didn’t seem tired at the end of it. The highlight of the trail was some of the most breathtaking views and watching people Kayaking. I haven’t tried it yet and would love to do so. Let’s see when that time comes.

We ended up hiking around 5.6 miles and it took good 2 hours.

This hike finished the week for me and even though I couldn’t capture the distance that I initially wanted to, I would like to shrug off that feeling and push myself more in the coming weeks. It would be interesting to see what the next week has in store for me.

Before you leave, have a look at my Running Journal. Take care!

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