Gosh, I have been waiting for this day for so many days. The day I bade my goodbyes to her at the Bangalore airport, it was quite a hard feeling and her face was forever etched into my memory forever.
Every day when I used to get up realizing that she is roughly 5,000 miles from me was not a good feeling and always thought about how cool it would be to fly there and surprised her. But, real life doesn’t work like Bollywood movies and the harsh reality settles in, bringing you to the ground zero and forcing you to start off with your day.
The mornings used to be quite pleasant as I used to get to see her and talk to her. She telling me how her day was going and me telling how tired I feel after a good night’s sleep. The moment I used to hang up the phone, I used to wish if I could have gotten some more time to talk to her. Anyway, I am derailing here, so let me get back into the meat of this blog post.
The reason she was returning after many months was to attend her brother’s wedding. It was once in a lifetime moment (well, for most of the Indians), so didn’t want to miss it and even myself and my friends were scheduled to attend the 3 day long festivities at her place. So, naturally, when she got back to India, she decided to land in Bangalore and do some shopping before heading to her place in Maharashtra. I felt so special that she was coming to Bangalore before Mumbai and my excitement knew no bounds.
During this time in my life, I didn’t have a bike as I didn’t have any plans to settle in Bangalore or India. As she was coming to visit and we were bound to go out for shopping, I had rented out a bike to explore Bangalore and shopping.
One of my ex-roommates had this type of bike and she loved sitting in the back seat and sometimes riding it too. It was an obvious choice to rent this bike and even I liked riding it as it gave me a sense of freedom. The browny point of having this bike with me was the SWAG that you get with it.
I remember doing a countdown of the number of days until I see her and the days didn’t seem to pass fast enough. During this time, I had quit my job at Accure and was relying on the classroom and online Big Data sessions to earn my living. I had some saving too fall back on, so life was good; even being jobless.
The day finally arrived. I remember getting up quite excited and talking to her over the phone when she was ready to get on the plane to India and looked excited too as she would see me after such a long time. I had told my students about my future plans and if I remember correctly the previous day was the last day I bade goodbye to all my training students and colleagues for good. I was excited for new things in life and had so many plans in place to facilitate those changes.
She was supposed to land at around 7 PM, so as the evening grew closer, I remember getting butterflies in my stomach. Each second and minute seemed to go slower than I anticipated and never knew seeing someone would be so exciting and nervous at the same time.
One of my roommates took this picture when I was leaving for the airport. I knew she would have so many bags with her that it would be impossible for us to commute via bike. Plus, Bangalore airport is almost 30 miles from my place and I am as lazy as someone can get when it comes to driving a bike. You can see I am smiling from cheek to cheek with the excitement of seeing her. You can also see the Guitar in my hand, which was a surprise for her. More to come on that!
I took a bus ride to the airport and couldn’t seem to hold myself together. I was smiling like I had been from the moment I took a step out of the apartment. I wonder how many people would have been weirded out because of my smiling face. The culture in India is a little bit difference, where we don’t look at people and smile; rather, we stare at them until one of us back down and start looking to their toes. It must have been so weird for people to look at me looking at them with a smiling face and not knowing what’s going on with me.
The long bus ride dropped me at the airport and from that moment on, it was a waiting game. She didn’t have an Indian phone service, so, I didn’t know when she would actually walk out of those gates. I knew her flight had landed and wasn’t aware about the international flight exit procedure, so, it was adding to the suspense to when I would get a chance to catch the first glimpse of her.
And that moment finally arrived.
It was such a surreal feeling to get to see her face and after so many days. I felt like I am lost in a gargantuan maze and finally saw someone I have known for a long time. I cannot tell you how soothing I felt when I saw her smiling face. It was a feeling of multitude of happiness and I seemed not to know how to express it. If you have ever interacted with me, you know, I don’t express myself quite openly and usually take time to speak my heart and mind. With her, that was not the case. I could speak anything that I would have wanted and always seemed to be relieved at the end of the conversation. There were fights (one-sided unfortunately 🤪), for sure, but the amazing fact that we were together after so many fights was enough for me to hold onto her.
I welcomed her and realized nothing had changed even after months of separation. We exchanged our long overdue of hello and hearing her voice in person felt so good in my ears. It made me instantly happy and more.
Soon, she realized I had a guitar in my hand and was intrigued what I was up to. I took her away from the arrivals gate to a place in a buzzing Bangalore Airport where the two of us could be somewhat alone and I could surprise her with what I was up to for the last couple months. You have to consider that I had been really bad at music. When I was in grade 7, my music teacher enrolled me in a music class and made me appear in some examination where I had to sing. I still remember barely clearing that examination and scoring, I think, just enough to pass the examination. From that moment onwards, I knew I couldn’t get along with the music and bade my goodbyes forever. Until the moment when she told me her favorite song over the phone during one of our phone conversations. That was the moment I decided to learn the guitar song or at least try to learn it and sing it to her when we would meet. I had a good month or month and a half to practice and took some lessons at a local guitar store to hone in on it.
And, then it all came down to this. This was my first performance and looking back at it, it is safe to say, I SUCKED! I was and am not worried, though as I did it more for us than for anyone else.
Hope you get a good laugh out of it. If you wanna check the original Bollywood song, click here.
It was safe to say she loved and my friends didn’t leave a chance to make fun of me. That’s what friends are for, right? We headed home after that and had dinner and she showed all the things that she got for friends and we had a nice time.
I knew these few days that we were together would go like a blink of an eye, so I was trying to savor every moment with her and will always cherish those.
I hope I can safely end it here and can safely say the next few days are kind-of life changing for me!
After an incredible week number 21, in which I finished the first Marathon of my life, let us see what I accomplished in week #22.
Day 1 – Sunday, May 31, 2020 – Quarantine Day 76 Welcome to the last day of the month and I must say, I killed it again. The month of May has been incredible for me and I cannot thank the people around me enough to have accompanied me during this unprecedented time and being quarantined.
Today is the day that I realized I could compete in an IRONMAN. I think it should be doable in 2021, so I will keep this blog post in mind and keep checking on my progress and you never know, I just might surprise myself.
So, today, we finished the longest bike ride ever – we finished 41 MILES OF BIKING. Not to brag, but, I must say, even at the end of 41 miles, I wasn’t tired and could have gone for 10 more miles to finish the 50 miles of biking. Anyway, I am happy with this effort and hopefully I will be able to continue biking like that.
Unfortunately, I mistakenly ended the biking ride in between, so had to split it into two splits. Here you go.
And the second part of the bike ride.
Day 2 – Monday June 01, 2020 – Quarantine Day 77 Today, we got the news that our Governor announced that the stay-at-home order is lifted and the restaurants and gyms can open starting next Monday. It is a relief, but I am being cautious and going to stay away from everything for at least a couple months. I know, it is not an ideal place to spend the summer, but, I want to be safe and keep people around me out of danger, so I am going to limit myself from restaurants and CrossFit for at least a couple months. Let’s see how it unfolds as I still have some time on my hand.
Talking about the routine, I had to skip the run for the day as I got done a lot of work and by the time I was done, it was time for biking. After running a Marathon last Monday and longest bike ride ever this Sunday, I was not up for a long bike ride today too, so I was relieved to find out we were going for a shorter distance. Even though it was short, we managed to complete 12.8 miles of biking and were back home just in time for dinner. The weather had been a blessing here at Michigan and I am happy to take a full advantage of that.
Day 3 – Tuesday June 02, 2020 – Quarantine Day 78 Today was the first time that the number of COVID19 positive cases dropped below 200 for the second day in a row. I think, this was one of the reasons why our Governor announced opening of businesses and restaurants across Michigan starting next Monday. Hopefully, the count won’t increase by a significant margin after the economy opens. Right now, we don’t have much information as to when we will get back to work, so let’s see.
Today was a running day and I was happy about that. The temperatures were in the 80s and was an ideal day to be outdoors. I was a little dicey about the effect of this temperature on my body from the start itself, so wasn’t sure about my route until the moment of choosing came and I went with a longer route. I think this was kind-of a mistake for me. Two reasons – if I fell short of water (and I wasn’t carrying anything), then I will have to cover longer distance just to get home and the second one was there were no trees on the route I chose, exposing more of myself for longer time to the Sun and possibly risking burning my skin.
Anyway, I have learnt my lesson as I had to stop a couple times during the run, under the tree to feel some cold air and moisture of the grass. Those proved to be better than I expected and could finish the 5 mile run under an hour, a feat which used to take an hour before. So, apart from the learnt lessons, everything else seem to be working.
Day 4 – Wednesday June 03, 2020– Quarantine Day 79 The COVID19 positive cases climbed to more than 300 today, which was expected. Still, it is a good number and safe to say that we are making progress.
Today was the GLOBAL RUNNING DAY and I celebrated it by running a 5K. Technically, a little more than 5K and at night, I ended up watching a couple documentaries on YouTube, you know, to appease and motivate myself to work harder and achieve greater things in life.
You feel so pumped up after watching these documentaries.
Anyway, my 5K was pretty normal. I went for the shorter distance to avoid any dehydration that I experienced yesterday. I had Mr. Arnav accompanying me for this run. He was on bike and I was on foot, so it was hard to catch up to him, but, he was courteous enough to be my side throughout this distance. I loved the picture below and is my usual reading spot early in the morning and I seem to can’t get enough of it.
After shutting down my work laptop at around 4.30PM, it was time to refuel before heading out for a “short” bike session. I didn’t want to stretch myself as I had a little tingling in my right knee during the above run.
You can see below it was a short 8 mile bike ride and was soothing for my legs and feet.
Day 5 – Thursday June 04, 2020– Quarantine Day 80 What a day! Today, Ford announced that they were extending the Work From Home order through September, with a possibility that it might extend till December. So, I think, we are in this for a long haul. And, I am trying to digest this surprising news and coming to terms with it.
After a long day at work, I was anxious to get out of the house and knew it was scorching hot, so, I decided to take the shorter route for the run. One thing that I haven’t told you after my Marathon that I am no longer using those shoes and using my older pair for running and didn’t realize how good they were until I tried them on. Running in those shoes are soothing for both feet and legs and I don’t have any complaints so far with those.
I did start my run with high spirits and all because of the documentaries I saw a couple days ago. I get so pumped up after watching the ultra marathon and long distance running documentaries and it is one of the reasons why I don’t need music while running. I am surrounded by my thoughts and feelings and gives me enough time to focus my energy and efforts on running and things that I care about.
I had to cut short my run at 4 miles mark as we were about to go out for biking at 5 PM and I was right at 4.50PM with a few minutes to take a quick shower and have something to eat before I head out for biking. It was an amazing feeling to have completed 4 miles and still raring to go for more. This is the type of things that make me happy and I yearn for those.
The long bike ride followed my run. Again, documentaries effects kicked in and I ended up stretching my body to the limits going at the 10 MPH for almost 10 minutes, which I hadn’t done before. Also, previously I used to use lower gears for climbing the uphills and in the effort to use my body to the extremes, I tried climbing those same uphills with the higher gears and successfully could do that. I surprised myself what a human body is capable of when you make it go through the grinder.
Day 6 – Friday June 05, 2020– Quarantine Day 81 The last day of the work week and I am still processing the extended Work From Home announcement. Taking things a little lightly today and decided to skip my run and do a lot of reading and I mean, a lot.
We went out for biking at the end of the workday and it was a light session as the heat was too much and we had some bike trouble. Friday ended up with fun, delicious, and belly full of food and having a good summer time with friends and family.
Day 7 – Saturday June 06, 2020– Quarantine Day 82 And that brings us to the last day of the week. The scene here in the US is quite depressing and hopefully, we will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The US should show what it stands for and that is “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and not the “DIVIDED”.
Anyway, Saturday has been our hiking day for quite some time now and I like it that way. Well, some running would have been better, but decided to skip it for hiking and the evening hour of soccer with kids. We decided to head to the Island Lake State Recreational Area for the Saturday hiking, but, unfortunately, the area was closed for the day due to large number of people showing up to enjoy the beautiful weather and some beach scenes. Therefore, we had to head to the next best and close state park available to us and that was the Brighton State Recreational Area. This area was honored to be the first hiking spot for me when the quarantine period began.
The hike was super fast and quite cool weather-wise. The last we were here, the leaves and trees were not that green, so the same hike route was unrecognizable as almost entirety of it was drenched with the green color. We finished the 5 mile hike sooner than expected as we ran almost half the distance. It was a good feeling to run on trails and enjoy the cool breeze through the trees.
And here we are, at the end of week 22. I didn’t imagine it would last this long.
Continuing my travel from Mumbai to Hyderabad and then to Nanded, which was my final destination for the week-long Big Data Analytics seminar. I cannot thank my Alma Mater enough for giving this opportunity to me to help the fellow students with some of the things that I have learnt during my stint in the corporate world for the last 2-3 years and it was an amazing feeling to finally give back to my Alma Mater.
As it was a week long seminar, I made sure I do not repeat any clothing for the most part of the seminar and managed to click these selfies before heading to the daily seminar sessions. But, before dwelling into those, let me start from the beginning of the seminar.
So, on the Day 01 of the seminar, I arrived at the Nanded Railway Station during the early hours and being here just brought back countless memories. All the late nights spent here waiting for trains taking us home, many friends and students with whom I traveled back home numerous times, the time I arrived here for the first time and didn’t have a positive experience and how I thought of returning back home but didn’t to pursue my dream of a BTech degree in Computer Science from a cheap but a good Engineering college. I must tell you, looking back at that evening when I arrived at Nanded, I made a better decision going through the process and earning some life lasting friendships during my 4-year stay here. I will always be grateful to my Alma Mater.
After cherishing a few moments of solitude at the railway station, my next destination was Hotel Pooja Garden. I was amazed to see how quickly they transformed an entire restaurant to a hotel and had a world class room. By that time, I have had a chance of staying at different hotel rooms across India and this hotel stood out for me due to the cleanliness, and the aroma of the room and a great room service. Here’s what I was welcomed to and couldn’t be happier to look at this clean a room.
I took care of my morning business and got ready for a long day at “work”. The moment I arrived at my college gate, I was astonished to see the grandeur of it. I remember my last time here and seemed I couldn’t get enough of it.
And here is the administrative building of my Alma Mater. We were fortunate enough to be the first batch when this building was constructed and got to experience all the brand new things that the institute had to offer.
Walking through the college gate, different department buildings and the administrative block and reminiscing all the good old memories brought me to this moment. Every student thrives to be at the opposite end of the table once in their lives and I was extremely fortunate to have experienced that only 3 years after graduating from the institute.
Blessed. Grateful. Humbled.
These moments will be etched in my memory forever. When I said YES for conducting this seminar, I didn’t have this part of the seminar in my mind. I didn’t realize that, being an Educational Institute, they would start the seminar by paying respect to the Goddess Saraswati, who is the Hindu God of knowledge and wisdom. When I entered the classroom and scanned the room from the left to the right, I was in awe of the thought that went behind the scene.
It took me a good couple minutes to realize and come to the reality that I was no longer a student here but an instructor and was going to be treated like one. Frankly speaking, I was kind of nervous to be treated like that, as it was my first time in this role before my own professors, but, went ahead and faced my fears. I loved how they introduced me and welcomed me, and even requested me to light the essence sticks before the idol. I declined at first, but, caved in after our Hon. Director sir requested. Truly, an awesome feeling.
After the inaugural ceremony, I was free to roam through the campus as I was scheduled to conduct a session later in the day. The first thing that I wanted to check out was the SPORTS section of the bulletin board and felt proud to see my name up there along with some of my closest buddies. It was a special feeling to be recognized by your institute for all the efforts that you put in to bring laurels home.
The first session went as I expected. Having lectured hundreds of students and working professional over the course of 2-3 years, I have developed a natural habit of public speaking and am most comfortable talking about life lessons and Big Data. I had an awesome time and hope the students did too; Hope, I didn’t bore them as I tend to go tangent when I start speaking!
The night was well spent with a couple of old buddies or should I say juniors. We had fun, talked so much and about so many things. Basically, had a really good time!
The next couple days went like a breeze. During this time, I was conducting some online classes, so I had to take those and head to the institute for the whole day of seminar and teaching. It was an awesome feeling to be doing what I love to do the best. During these couple days, I remember, surviving only on breakfast, water, and dinner. I had to skip lunches to help the fellow students with their questions, doubts, suggestions, and helping them understand how the real time projects work.
And that’s when I met the man that I admired the most during my undergrad. The man standing next to me has been more than our sports teacher and a guiding force for all the achievements that I could amass during those four years – none other than Mr. Megde sir. I was so fortunate to have met him during this trip and will always cherish his advise and guidance throughout my life. Along with me, you can see my colleague Mr. Prince who volunteered to teach a session or two on Machine Learning which was still a new concept 4 years ago.
And this is where I have created so many memories, during my first year of Engineering. This was the classroom where I made many friends, and like a girl so much, I couldn’t think of someone else. I had fun, I ate food here with friends, and had the time of my life and this is where the process of me becoming a leader in the real world actually started.
How can a visit to Nanded be complete without visiting a Gurudwara. I had a good time to go to this Gurudwara with my former colleague Prince and his mom, who had a strong desire to go to this place and visit here. I was glad that they could do it and through them, even I could visit this place. It was such a bliss to have visited this place after so many years, and how constant things were and virtually nothing had changed, which is a positive in this constant changing world!
And last but not the least, my lovely students and colleagues who helped me support to conduct this seminar. The most memorable moment for me came actually at the end of my last session during this seminar. The reason I distinctly remember that moment because as soon as I stopped giving answer to their questions and explaining how they can be successful in the corporate world, the whole classroom started clapping unanimously. I think that was the best gift I could have received for all the hard work that I had done for the past week or so and I was so fortunate to have helped so many students before I continue with my aspirations in the new country with new people. It was a moment to remember. Thank you, everyone!
And before I knew it, the week was over and I was on my way to Bangalore again. I thought a lot of this past week and realized how far I have come both professionally and personally and soon realized the small things have become kind-of a SNOWBALL and I loved the way it rolled.
Welcome to the travel blog after a couple weeks’ of interruption.
This was such a memorable trip and for so many reasons and one of the most important ones being this was the first time I was traveling to Mumbai after so many years. The last time I was here, I didn’t have a good experience at all and had to detest Mumbai for most of my adulthood. But, when the opportunity knocked, I didn’t want to miss it.
One of the lecturers at my undergrad institute, SGGSIET, reached out stating he has an opportunity for a week long Big Data workshop and if I could pitch in with my expertise, that would be appreciated. I was jobless, waiting for my US visa interview, with a girlfriend overseas, and nothing else to do, so immediately nodded in approval. I was excited as it was the cultivation of two things I love the most – teaching and traveling. This was a backstory of me traveling to Mumbai on my way to Nanded, where my alma mater is based out of.
As the institute was paying for the trip, I chose to fly to Mumbai and enjoy a few places before I head to the US. It was an awesome experience to have fun without thinking too much about money and in the process, I was biding adieu to almost anything or anyone that I used to see/meet during this trip and onwards.
I clicked when I was waiting for onboarding my Mumbai bound flight from Bangalore.
Hello, Mumbai!
“This was back in the day when I had a Facebook account and I remember updating my status as HOPE TO MAKE SOME MEMORIES TO LAST A LIFETIME when I told everyone I was traveling to Mumbai, and at the end, it turned out that I was right. I do have a special place for this trip and would cherish the moments spent here forever.”
Before I knew it, I landed at the Mumbai airport and one of my friends who was supposed to pick me up was still at work, so I had to take a cab to her workplace. From there, it was time to head home, freshen up, and then go out to roam Mumbai.
During my last visit here, I dreaded going through the Mumbai Local just because of the number of people and how fast paced the life was. I was never a big-city guy, so Mumbai came out too strong and scared me. But, this time it was different. I had a friend along who had been living in Mumbai for quite some time now and was Mumbaikar enough to take care of me (helping me navigate through itsy-bitsy details you need to survive in Mumbai), so I knew I was in safe hands.
We changed a couple of locals to reach the first spot that I wanted to visit – Nariman Point. I must tell you, when you get out of the local and head out of the station, you don’t realize that you reached the actual destination so soon, but, as soon as you see those stones, man, you cannot help but realize how grand this beach is and why people actually love this place. I instantly fell in love with this place and thanked my friend for bringing me here.
We spent a good 90 minutes at this place, talking about various things, and reminiscing the past and having a good time, basically; And, of course, clicking many pictures.
MUMBAI! MUMBAI! MUMBAI!
take me to those roads, take me to those blocks, for all the memories, and the long walks!
This is my first memory of this place. No matter what happens in life, whenever, someone says or will say NARIMAN POINT, this picture comes before my eyes and I am immediately taken to this spot. Lovely company and good talks is all you need to build a beautiful relationship!
I didn’t know I would spend this much time at this spot that it started getting dark and I got a bit hungry, so, we decided to head to a nice restaurant to have some good food.
As you can see, back in the day, I was not good with food photos, so here’s the one that I took while I was trying to finish some of the food that we ordered.
After dinner, it was time for late night chai and chats and we ended up staying late till 3 AM, as we were catching up almost after 4-5 years. The next day, I had my flight scheduled for the further journey, so had to bid adieu to Mumbai and the beautiful memories. Until next time.
Until next time!
Cherish each moment, as you never know which one will be your last and when you will be able to see the very person you are talking to right now!
Don’t take anyone for granted, because, you might be someone’s priority right now, which might change in future, if you start taking them for granted.
And YES, it does get better. Don’t worry, everyone goes through this. It is the WINNER who comes out STRONGER.
This book was a short read as it had *only* the collection of wisdomous quotes from the 44th President of the United States of America.
After reading The Snowball, I needed a short book which I would finish in a week’s time to give me some confidence that I can read at least one book in a month and this book provided me just that, and something more. After reading this book, then only, I realized how proficient and eloquent our former POTUS was and how he always used his words carefully!
There were many memorable moments while reading this book. I am sure I cannot remember those all, but a few stood out and one particular statement I would remember for eternity and I am going to talk about that statement in this post. That’s it, nothing else, that just one statement, which conceals the entire philosophy of the POTUS and how a well deserved position should be treated, respected, and never taken for granted.
The quote, if I may, went like this (I know, I am going to screw it up, because, let’s be honest, I cannot remember every single word that came from such a profound and eloquent personality).
Presidency is like holding a baton in a swimming relay race. You have the responsibility of taking the baton from the former President and handing it to the next. While doing so, you have to make sure that this transition from your predecessor to the successor is absolutely smooth and effortless. However, while doing this, you are cautious as you have the responsibility of correcting what your predecessor might not have achieved and concerned for the way your successor might treat this position. But, you have the ability to control this flow by creating and approving laws which give opportunity to every individual equally and work for the betterment of the society, the people, and the nation.
What a powerful quote and statement. It shows how well-read and well-educated our 44th POTUS was that he could compare the pressure of presidency with something an average American would relate to – relay swimming.
He gives a perfect analogy while comparing the presidency to the relay swimming as it works only when you work closely and perfectly in sync with your partners, both predecessor and successor. At the same time, he mentions that while doing this, you must be both cautious and concerned while both receiving and passing down the baton. Cautious because you don’t want to undo the good and positive things that you predecessor did and concerned that your successor should carry on with same zeal and innovation that you did. Apart from being cautious and concerned, the one thing that you can control is the way you play and deal with the flow of the water and you can do that by creating and approving the laws which help the average American and create an equal opportunity to everyone.
I cannot tell you how many times I get goosebumps just thinking about this quote form the former POTUS. This sentence is a proof that the leader of the Free World first thinks and thinks quite hard before acting and he/she acts in a certain way, which is beneficial to everyone equally.
Hope, this helped at least one of you! It helped me! 🙂
This short and concise collection of quotes from the former POTUS gives you an idea of how the leader of the FREE WORLD thinks and acts!
People close to me would know how obsessed and fascinated I am with Eminem. I am not sure how it all started but ever since I can remember, Eminem has been my favorite rapper/singer of all time and I don’t get seem to be enough of him.
The biggest regret that I have though is that I didn’t attend his concert at Detroit. I still remember that evening. I was sitting in my apartment after a long day at work, enjoying my beer. Then, suddenly I opened my Facebook feed and saw pictures from someone at the concert. I cursed myself so much. I know it had been only a couple weeks for me at Michigan, so I was not able to drive by myself, but if I had at least tried, I think, I would have made it to the concert. The more painful point for me is that due to this pandemic, I don’t know, when he will have his concert at Detroit and I really want Em’s concert to be the first one that I attend. So, hopefully next year might just be the year with his two new albums – Kamikaze and Music To be Murdered By, there is a high chance that he will have his next concert at Detroit and hopefully, I will be able to make it to that one!
Now, that the heavy load is off of my chest, let us talk about some of the things that he has influenced me over the years.
English Literacy – Em is, by far, the most acclaimed rapper of the modern times when it comes to lyrical capability and influence. The most amazing thing I find about him is that he was not gifted with the lyrical ability and kind of words he can use in his songs, but, he earned it. In the movie 8 mile, you can see how hard the rapper B Rabbit struggled to make his mark, but through GRIT, PERSEVERANCE, and HARD WORK, he finally gets it and wins the championship. As you might know, I hail from a small village in the state of Maharashtra, India. I am fortunate to have lovely parents who predicted English and Computers are key to success and provided us all necessary tools to excel in these two categories. I was drawn to both of them from the young age and could write MSDOS commands by the time I reach 4th grade. However, with no one around, I found it hard to perfect my English. That’s when MTV arrived in India and it changed my life. I started listening to Michael Jackson, Blue, Linkin Park, and finally Eminem. This is where my English literacy rate skyrocketed as I tried humming songs from these great artists. I found Em too fast for a 5th grader in India, so immediately skipped past him and landed on Blue and LP. I started listening, singing, and humming songs all day long, just to improve my English fluency. I must tell you, these small things added up and they helped so much while transitioning from grade 10 to 11 that I didn’t have a hiccup and could excel in exams without much hesitation.
So, yes, if taken correctly, rap music and rappers can be beneficial for your personal development.
Motivation – I cannot stress this enough how motivating Em’s lyrics are. He is a wordsmith and I realized this while listening to his song in collaboration with Rihanna – Love the way you lie. In this song, there is a line “Out the window, guess that’s why they call it window pane”. I was blown away with the last word of this line. It is so simple and subtle, you just bow down to the genius of Em. If you see the video, you will see the protagonist (the girl) is going through so much pain in the toxic relationship with the antagonist (the guy) and Em wanted to show the struggle of their relationship and how the girl decides to leave the guy and that is when this line makes more sense showing the “pain” from the guy’s point of view and literally watching the girl through the window “pane”. Simple concept – Pane and Pain are homophones and by including those in his lyrics, the song just went to some another level for me.
One of his most famous songs – Lose Yourself acts as an instant dose of Motivation for me. If you listen to this song and don’t get motivated, I don’t know what else can motivate you. 😛
A perfect start for the day – For me, an ideal day start with listening to Lose Yourself and I usually do that once I sit down at my workstation at home. Man, I get goosebumps every time I listen to this song. If I listen to this song in the morning, and if you are around me, you will see how energized I am and I have to contain that excitement and energy before I try doing so many things at once. IT IS AN INSTANT HIGH.
Simply writing and thinking about the song is giving me goosebumps and I know, I am typing quite ferociously on my Mac. While preparing for my Marathon, I remember, listening to this song on loop and have grown, frankly, addicted to it. I can’t seem to get enough of it, so when Eminem performed this song at the Oscars, I remember, watching his performance on YouTube at least 10-15 times. You can watch it here.
Letting go off people/things – This has been the biggest learning for me from Em. If you take a close look at his lyrics over the last 2 decades, you will see that he has come a long way. His initial lyrics used to focus on small and petty things, followed by his struggle with the drug addiction, then determining to come out clean, and now, attacking on the new age rapper who barely rap and mostly use autotunes for their songs. Recently, he has raised voice against the gun and racial violence too in America and I really loved the song and the music video.
His songs have made such an impact and after understanding those songs, you see, how petty small things are in life and we should always focus on the big picture and for the betterment of the society and this Mother Earth. That is why it has become so easy for me to let go of things and people, and carry on with your own life.
This brings us to the end of this post. I could have gone for more content, but limited myself to avoid any overdoing, but, trust me, if you meet me, I will bore you with details from Em’s song. The next goal in life – attend his concert.
What an incredible week I have in store for you! Can’t express my gratitude to everyone who helped me achieve things that I achieved during this week.
Day 1 – Sunday, May 24, 2020 – Quarantine Day 69 The first day of the week was welcomed with some Sunday morning laziness. I think it was yesterday’s late night reading and working that made me get up quite late, since, it was a Memorial Day Long Weekend. Today was also the rest day and for a good reason. Me and my friend, Anupam, decided to run a Marathon to commemorate the Memorial Day 2020. It was the first time for the both of us to run a Marathon and seemed like a mammoth but highly possible task. So, with all the rest that I had for the last week and a good mental state, I thought, tomorrow is an ideal day for us to accomplish this dream.
However, to get rid of the boredom and to end the day on a little happy note, we decided to go out for a quick walk before calling it a day. It was a nice day and it felt refreshing to go out for a walk. The kids biked with us *slowly* and we enjoyed a good sunny Michigan summer weather. We ended up completing 2 miles during this short walk and I remember myself being tired and heading to bed earlier as we had a long and historic day before us.
Day 2 – Monday May 25, 2020 – Quarantine Day 70 The day I was waiting for finally arrived and I must say, I barely managed to crush it.
You can read about details here. If you do not want to go through this long description, here are the highlights – Anupam completed his first marathon too, along with me. – Monika and kids helped us with supplies for our Marathon journey. – We could have started earlier (around 4.30 AM), would have given us advantage. – We should have carried more water after taking a break at 15 miles mark. – Recovery included an ice bath, a quick shower, and a 4-mile bike.
Here is the picture of the Marathon runners. 😃
Day 3 – Tuesday May 26, 2020 – Quarantine Day 71 Yesterday, I ran the first Marathon of my life and I couldn’t be happier, so, naturally, today was the REST DAY. I enjoyed this day and sort-of took the feeling in.
Day 4 – Wednesday May 27, 2020– Quarantine Day 72 I surprised myself by recovering earlier than I thought. Initially, I thought it would be a week before I start running again, but, the recovery after the Marathon run helped tremendously and I saw myself running a short distance today morning.
I got up earlier than usual and thought of going out for a quick run before making it just in time for the breakfast. When I started the run, I thought I would see and try to complete a couple miles, but a few minutes into the run, I saw myself exceeding expectations and thought I could go for me and so, I did. I was wearing my other shoes – the old ones, so I think that area could have been improved to further enhance my running experience. But, I am not complaining, I am glad that I could run just a day after running a Marathon and couldn’t be happier.
After the work, it was time to go out for a bike ride with kids. They were complaining that I don’t spend much time with them due to too much work, so, I made sure I accompany them for our usual bike ride. It was a good session and was soothing for my knees. Loved every single part of it.
Day 5 – Thursday May 28, 2020– Quarantine Day 73 And this brings us to Thursday. I surprised myself again today.
I got up at around 4.30 AM and did some early morning work. As soon as the clock hit 6, I made sure I go out for a quick run before the breakfast time and I was glad I did that. I was wearing my different Nike shoes that I used for more than a couple years for CrossFit and the feeling was ecstatic. Those shoes felt so good that I crushed the run. For a new runner like myself, a pace of less than 10 minutes a mile, is gold, so I was thankful that I had these shoes to my rescue until I buy a new pair.
The good thing about this run was the my third mile was the quickest and my first mile was the slowest. Awesome times for me!
After the run, I was swamped with work and loved that it kept me busy and I didn’t even realize when it was time to shut down my work laptop. After finishing the work, it was time for our daily bike ride with kids. We took our usual 19 mile route and loved every bit of it. Even after running a Marathon and a few short runs and bike rides, this distance didn’t feel that much. I was glad to see the time taken for 18 miles bike ride was coming down a little bit, but not much of a concern for me at this point in time.
Day 6 – Friday May 29, 2020– Quarantine Day 74 Ahh! Friday feeling! It was a good feeling as Friday arrived early for the week and I had my work cut out for myself for the week and felt good to finish off all the work assigned to me.
Apart from the wonderful food and an awesome company, the thing to remember was our long walk after dinner. This walk was so long that it became dark on our way back home. It was a weird feeling to roam in so much dark, and was certainly tired at the end of it. It was, I think, 10 PM by the time I reached home and went to bed as I was tired. Plus, I don’t like staying late at night.
Day 7 – Saturday May 30, 2020– Quarantine Day 75 And this brings us to the end of the week. We chose to repeat our hike at the Pinckney State Recreational Area for Saturday.
This time, we wanted to take things lightly and go for lesser distance than the last time. We loved this State Park as it had a nice trail going from Pinckney to Waterloo, which is a 35 mile long trail. We chose the trail which was around 5-6 miles long and could finish it with enough breaks in between.
For the last couple of hikes, we have started running a little bit while walking, so that definitely helps us cut down some time for the hikes that we do and hopefully, it gives us good exercise to keep our bodies in shape. Nothing too extraordinary regarding this hike, except the fact that we enjoyed a slice of pizza at the end of it. I enjoyed it very much.
And this brings us to the end of Week #21. This was a great week for so many reasons, but, the highlight being MY FIRST MARATHON.
Here’s my Running journal. So many things to say, but too less a space available. Good thing is I completed 300 miles of running for the year 2020. My goal is 1,000 miles, so let’s see how far I get.
Running a Marathon was an ultimate dream for me. I still remember that December 2019 evening when I was watching running documentaries on Amazon Prime and thinking how cool it would be to run a Marathon. Deep inside, I knew I was dreaming, because, I was never a runner in my life. This just goes on to show how important your consistent efforts are to achieve anything in life.
In this post, I will try to cover the pedigree of successfully running a Marathon. Please note that this worked for me, so, take it with a grain of salt. If this post inspires at least one reader, I would feel grateful to have spent time to actually jot down these points.
Make a plan and stick to it I cannot tell you how important it is to plan everything that you do in your life. I am an adamant follower of this rule and my life runs by all the plans that I make. I rarely do anything in the spur of the moment and like to do things by having some plan in place.
Running a Marathon is no small feat and you must have a proper plan in place. When I was thinking of running one, I made sure I do proper research before actually drafting out my plan. To do this, the first thing I did was to join the slack channel at work dedicated to running. I think that was the smartest thing I did, as it introduced me to marathontraining.com and their two-part Marathon preparation plan. I cannot tell you how important this step was. I got to sit down, think about the days that I had in my hand before my Detroit FreePress Marathon, and draft out the plan, which looked like this.
Now, when I drafted this plan, I was obviously not aware about the current COVID19 pandemic that we are dealing with.
This is where the second part of Make a plan & stick to it comes into play. Due to COVID19 spread, you can definitely say a lot of planning went downhill starting mid-March. However, that didn’t mean that I completely lost the will of running and stopped. No sir! In fact, I started running even more and with more dedication as my CrossFit sessions were also cut off due to Government shutdown. Skipping CrossFit “helped” me focus more on my running, which helped tremendously to expedite my Marathon preparation plan. I know COVID19 is a serious threat to our daily life, but I took the shutdown as a good sports and tried working out more and keeping my body in shape.
This brings us to the second important step in my Marathon preparation – tracking my progress.
Track your progress This has been a visual experience for me. I am a Data Analyst/Engineer by profession, so I have always been a visual guy. It was a no brainer for me to keep records of my run. I chose to keep an excel document to track my progress and it has been a good decision so far.
It is so important to keep track of your progress. I know it becomes a little hard with your job and other obligations in your life to keep track of what you are doing. But, it is very important to reflect upon all things that you are doing to achieve something and whether the strategy is actually working or not. This is very important to check if you need to change something to perform better and produce better results.
The thing that worked for me the best was to keep track of my weekly progress. As you saw above, the plan that I had drafted initially focused on weekly goals, so it was no brainer to go with the weekly checkpoint and I am so glad that I did it. Over the last more than 20 weeks, I have tried keeping my progress consistent with the plan and I could do that for most of those weeks.
“I have come a long way! More than the number of miles, it’s the mindset that has changed the MOST & I couldn’t be happier!”
Invest in proper gear This portion of preparation I didn’t think was important initially. It took sore knees and toes to realize how important it was to have proper gears to achieve the dream of running a Marathon. When I started my preparation, I had my training shoes that I used for CrossFit. I used to use the same shoes for running, and after running for a week or so, I realized, those shoes will not give me the comfort and performance I need for running, so, I decided to do some research and tried finding out an affordable pair of good running shoes and then I stumbled upon these ASICS shoes. The two good things about these shoes were they were in my price range and looked cool too. So, after purchasing these, the only thing to figure out was are they worth it?
After running almost 100 miles with those shoes, I realized, they helped me run better, sometimes faster, and are extremely lightweight as compared to other shoes that I have had. The most important thing about these shoes are/were they made me run more and I sort of used to get drawn to them. Having said all these things, the one downside to running is that you have to change your shoes after every 250 miles, because of the wear and tear.
As I have run more than 300 miles now, I am in the market for new shoes and researching my way through the available options. Let us see which one I go with. Please let me know if you have a good suggestion for me.
You can see my *current* shoes. This was taken during a 10 Mile Hike at the Pontiac Lake State Recreational Area.
Keep *real* expectations Keeping your expectations real is very important self-realization that you need throughout this journey.
Many times, I am sure this happens with the best of us, we start watching these running and marathon documentaries and watch a couple of extra-ordinary people finishing the Marathon distance in 2-3 hours and we start daydreaming about achieving the same. This is a positive reinforcement; However, one thing that we fail to realize the number of years they have put in behind these incredible feats. It is a good thing to know what you want in life, but setting unrealistic expectations for yourself sometimes lead to extreme wear and tear both physically and mentally. If you set yourself for a failure like that, it will have more emotional adverse effects than the physical ones.
I am being very careful here while putting my words together. I don’t want to imply that it is BAD to dream or aim for big things in life. All I am trying to say here is to have somewhat realistic expectations which are both gettable and possible for you while doing the preparation. Hope I was able to put my point across the way I wanted.
All things aside, you just get humbled looking at this extra-ordinary superhuman on our left – Mr. Eliud Kipchoge, who accomplished finishing a Marathon in under 2 hours.
Eat Healthy and fresh food Even if you are not preparing for Marathon, IMHO, the most important and positive thing that you can do to your body is to eat healthy and fresh food. When I wrote this article, I stresses a lot of eating clean, healthy, and fresh food.
Eating good and healthy food does wonders to your body even though you don’t exercise that much. I realized this when my parents were visiting me last Summer. I stopped going to CrossFit for 2-3 months and I wasn’t running during this time to spend more time with my parents. Even after stopping my physical activities for more than 2 months, I did not feel that many changes in my physical appearance and I weighed the same. Throughout these 2 months, I mostly ate the home cooked, fresh, and healthy food. I admit we went out to eat whenever we travelled, but, apart from that, I strictly dined at home and loved every part of it.
You must have enough energy to run a Marathon and food and drink is the only way to obtain that energy, so, you have to make sure whatever your intake for food and drink is good, healthy, and fresh – ALL THE TIME! You will be amazed to see wonderful results these small changes will have for your body.
This is only a small portion of all the healthy and fresh food I have been intaking for the last couple months and let me tell you how important these small changes were to actually run a Marathon! I would like to thank my friends Monika and Anupam for this wonderful food! ❤️
Most important – Friends who support you This is a treasure. This is a must. This is a need. Without your friends, IMHO, you won’t be able to accomplish what you want to – be it a Marathon or climbing Mount Everest. If you don’t have friends who support you achieve your goals, then the first thing to do is to get such friends and spend time with them. Once you cement these relationships, then you certainly can help each other achieve your dreams.
I have talked on numerous occasions about the importance of friends and their positive support to achieve your dreams, and I would echo myself one more time, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, FRIENDS ARE A MUST. Humans are social animals and we can’t survive without each other, without the social aspect of the life, so, the sooner your embrace it, the better.
I have been blessed to have such friends in my life – Monika and Anupam. When I talked about my Marathon plans over the Memorial Day weekend, Anupam graciously volunteered to accompany me during this run, hoping to finish his FIRST MARATHON along with me. And, what do I say about Monika? She made sure we are hydrated and well fed during this unprecedented feat and made sure we are emotionally okay during this monstrous distance. Manju also helped me by lending her running gear and providing important feedback when needed.
Thank you is a small for everything that you have done!
That brings us to the end of a small pedigree that I thought is necessary for running your first Marathon. I might have missed a few points here and there, so please let me know. I always like to improve and would be happy to do so again.
Showtime Now, to “listen” how the actual Marathon was, you might wanna click here. I didn’t want to bore with so many details in a single post. For now, have fun, enjoy and see what we will accomplish together in future! Many more things to come.
If you gave a read to this post, then, I thank you for doing that and appreciate your interest in learning more about how my first Marathon went.
Without further ado, let me start with the nitty-gritty details of the FIRST MARATHON OF MY LIFE.
Preparation on the day of the Marathon I was so excited to run this Marathon that I didn’t need an alarm clock to wake myself up in the wee hours of Monday, May 25th, 2020. Running a Marathon is more of a mental struggle than physical, so, I was glad that I was mentally prepared to face this daemon.
I remember waking up at around 4.30 AM to get myself ready for the 5.30 AM start time. I quickly got freshen up and made lemon juice for myself and my friends, Anupam and Monika. After guzzling down a glass of lemon juice, it was time for a banana. I had also put some coffee for myself and Anupam but after the lemon juice and banana, we felt it was too much and had to skip it.
After this, it was time to “formally prepare” to begin our Marathon. I put on my Compression Socks, my knee cap, my sunglasses, my hat, and my under armor shorts. I chose not to wear T-shirt for this run to avoid nipple chafing that I have experienced in the past.
I was ready for some stretching exercise. I didn’t follow any proper stretching technique – just did whatever came to my mind at that time. I did some push-ups, some squats, leg curls, and pigeon pose. And, I was ready. I remember talking to myself while stretching – it was a mental preparation to tell myself that this can be done, all you have to do is to focus on one single step at a time and you will finish the Marathon before you know it. I know it sounds crazy but I believed it in and it worked to some extent.
Miles 1-5 What a feeling it was to officially start the Marathon. For everyone else, it might had been a normal run, but for us (myself and Anupam), we were trying to give the best shot of our lifetimes. The start for me was less than ideal. Keeping the weather in mind, I knew I would need my sunglasses, but, in the excitement of starting the Marathon run, I forgot those in the garage, so quarter mile into the run, I had to go back to fetch them. It was a bummer for me, but one thing that I have realized over the years and especially while running is that if you need something at the start itself, then don’t delay it, you will eventually need it, so it is better to return from the 0.25 Mile mark than 1 or 2 Mile mark. If forgetting my sunglasses was not enough, after crossing 1 mile mark, I was so focused on my run, I dropped my T-shirt which I had tucked in in my shorts. After taking almost 20-30 steps, I realized that the T-shirt was missing, so again, to my dismay, I went back to the spot to grab it. These two things went against me during the first 5 miles of the run, and I couldn’t be more disappointed at myself. This disappointment, though, was not long lasting. During the 3rd and 4th mile, I started focusing on my run and within no time, I was back to my usual pace and by the time I crossed the 5 mile mark, I looked at my Apple Watch and was amazed to see that I still had a few minutes to go for 1 hour. It was an awesome feeling to get back to my zone even after a couple of setbacks.
The first 5 miles felt like a breeze and all credit goes to the low temperatures of the early morning Sun.
Miles 6-10 Starting mile 6 until mile 10, this is where, I think, I performed the best. The trees, no traffic, and my favorite spot in Michigan – Hines Drive, these three factors made sure that I am totally focused on my run and never let go of the amazing pace and running strategy that seemed to be working with me. The strategy – So, if you have gone through my Marathon preparation announcement post, you would know that my dream is to run 100 Miles under 24 hours mark. It is a tremendous task and I am sure it will not be easy, but, it is not impossible too. Anyway, while thinking and preparing for this ultramarathon, I have gone through many YouTube videos. One of the YouTube video stood out, which I am having a hard time to find the link for. In that video, the YouTuber talked about all the mistakes that he did during his first 100 mile run and one of the strategies that he thought he could have used was 5-1 strategy. The 5-1 strategy is where you run for 5 minutes and walk for 1 minute. This strategy, IMHO, seemed logical and kind-of clicked with me, so, I decided to give it a shot. That might be one of the reasons why, even when I was on mile 10, I hadn’t had a single sip of water from the water bottle that I was carrying and still seemed that I could go for 10 more miles, before, you know, my feet felt tired. I cannot stress this enough how important it was for me to go with this strategy and still be somewhat not tired at the end of 10 miles. I just kept telling myself during this segment, 6 done 20 to go, 7 done 19 to go. I won’t lie, this didn’t seem to work that much as I still had this mental stress of completing 19 more miles, but, it was something I was really looking forward to at the end of the mile and it was both gentle and harsh reminder for myself that there is still more work to be done.
This is where I start loosing a little pace. I wasn’t much worried about it as my focus was on actually finishing the Marathon distance than to actually do it within a certain time span.
Miles 11-15 What I dreaded really happened during these miles. After triumphantly finishing 10 miles, I had a couple miles more before I took the 275 Metro Trail, which is 3.43 miles long. IMO, there are two disadvantages of taking 275 Metro Trail. The first one was it was a straight trail – meaning, you could see from the beginning to almost the end of the trail, so it seemed a never ending trail to me, and the second one was that it was paved – cemented and well, adjacent to a freeway. These two factors caused a lot of distractions and I had a hard time finishing this trail. I remember my 5-1 strategy not working that efficiently during this time. I was still running for 5 minutes, but with much lesser pace and started appreciating the 1 minute when I was actually walking. I was hoping to finish this dreadful trail as soon as possible, but, it wasn’t that easy and I found that out the hard way. During this time, I kept reminding myself that this is the hardest part of the Marathon, so, if I could finish this, the Marathon distance is no big deal, just focus on taking one more step, one more breath, and one more corner for the trail to end. I was jubilant when the trail ended and looked at my watch, soothing myself to realize that I was done with almost 15 miles and the location where we decided to take the break was in sight – The Fresh Thyme store parking lot. I was getting more excited with each single step as I would get to meet my friend, Monika and kids, and hopefully Anupam as I didn’t know his whereabouts. Just 11 more miles, come on Milind, you can do it.
I lost my pace, again, during this segment of the Marathon. My concern was not the timing but the distance, and kept myself going during this time.
The Break I was a little bit concerned when I did not see Monika and kids in the parking lot as decided, but, after taking 10-20 more steps, I saw, Aryan, waving his hand from the car in the distance, that’s when I took a deep breath and thank them for being there. When you are targeting for a Marathon distance, more than the physical preparation, you need mental preparation and you need that mental and emotional support from family or friends. It was until I reach the car that I realized Anupam was sitting at the passenger seat. I was glad to see him too and we tried checking with each other how the run was going. Unfortunately, we both were tired, but our spirits were up and IMO, it was the most important thing during that time. Monika was kind enough to bring some protein bars, some bananas, and water for us. I finished it in no time and checked in with kids how their morning went. Talking to them gives me immense satisfaction and I forget all the stresses of regular life. We spent a good 10-15 minutes taking as much rest as we could and clicking a few pictures. It was a much needed break to recharge ourselves and finish the remaining 11 miles of the race. By this time, both Anupam and I, were at mile 15 with just a few minutes over 3 hour mark. We were happy with the progress and thought the Marathon could be finished in the next couple hours or a few minutes more.
Don’t get deceived by Anupam’s and my smile. We were tired but happy that we were doing something that we had never done in our lives. It was a mammoth task and we were thankful for Monika to have helped us to try achieve our “dream”.
Miles 16-20 After taking break and recharging ourselves, it was time to loop through the Hines Drive and 5 Mile route. I didn’t know it was a 5 mile loop and thought it would be more so that I could finish Marathon sooner than anticipated. Boy, I was wrong. My legs and feet were getting heavier with each passing step. I think, it was during this stretch, I had so many instances where I wanted to give up on my Marathon dreams, but, reminding myself to focus only on the next step helped me keep things in perspective and saw myself crossing marks of mile 16, 17, and so on.
When I was at Hines Drive for the second time, I saw the vehicle from the Sheriff’s office and thought how cool it would be to stop the vehicle and request the person to drop me off home. This was my body telling me to give up, but, having Anupam by my side, running and achieving what I wanted, gave me that fire that I needed to go and capture this distance.
After finishing mile 16, I told myself I have only 10 more miles to and I should focus on bringing that number to a single digit. Once I finished mile 17, it was only 9 miles to go. This was the first time, I realized that this could really happen and felt like this dream was within reach. As soon as I passed mile 18 mark, my 5-1 strategy barely worked and I found myself walking more and running with less pace than I would have loved to, but, as I have learnt over the last few months, it is more important to cover the distance than to focus on pace, when you are running your first Marathon. 8 more miles to go. One more mile and I would reach my lucky number – this was me telling myself to go on for one more mile. The moment I reached mile 19, I was about to exit Hines Drive and head to 5 mile road with the mammoth uphill. Just looking at that hill gave me shivers, so, it was a difficult task to climb that while running, so I ended up taking extended walks during this part of the Marathon. Also, I kept telling myself, reach mile 20 mark, and you will have only 6 more miles to go and once you do that, you can rest as much as you like.
Still holding the pace nicely and clinching towards the Marathon distance one step a time.
Miles 20-22 After finishing 20 miles mark, I could feel the Marathon distance within my grasp and got more excited at the sweet realization. This excitement was short-lived as the fatigue started to build up. I think the watch showed 11 AM by the time I reached mile 20-21 mark. The Sun was doing his job and giving us enough sunlight. This made me more thirsty and my body needed more water. I was running out of water that I refilled during the break, so I was strategically drinking it so that I don’t run out of it soon, and have enough left for the remaining miles. 20-22 miles mark was the last stretch when I actually ran during the Marathon distance. I struggled a lot to keep the pace and was fatigued the most during this distance, so, unfortunately, I couldn’t continue running, but, that didn’t deter me from walking the remaining distance. I just kept telling myself with each passing mile, to go for one more step and one more milestone.
Miles 22-26.2 This was the last stretch of the Marathon and I mostly walked this distance. This is not the ideal way I wanted to “finish” the Marathon, but, being this is the first one that I ran, I took it as a learning lesson and took mental notes during these last few miles. During these last miles, I finished my rest of the water, making myself more thirsty and craving for more. I realized how important water is during these miles. Anupam and I took different routes to finish these last few miles, so we were unaware about each other’s progress. I thought he was going faster than me, so when he called me when I was at miles 24, I thought he was calling to let me know that he finished the Marathon. Unfortunately, he was on the same boat as I was and confirmed that he was walking too. I was so relived to know that he still had his spirits up and determined to finish the Marathon. With each step, I was getting closer to the finish line, but the stress of running so many miles take a toll on your body and you start comparing your current condition with the way you started the Marathon. The first 5-10 miles didn’t bother me much and felt like a breeze, but now, after having finished 25 miles, the last 1.2 miles seemed like forever. I kept checking my watch for each 0.1 miles distance to give me some positive enforcement and encourage myself to finish the Marathon. When I was at 25.8 miles, Anupam finally joined me and from there, we decided to cross the finish line together. Surprisingly he was also at the same mark, so it was such a sweet coincidence. By this time, the kids knew were about to finish, so they came out to cheer us up and Monika grabbed the phone to record our Marathon victorious moment; and, I was so glad she did that, as it gave us a good memento for an outstanding achievement.
Here, you have a look.
Post Marathon Recovery I cannot express how awesome I felt after crossing the Marathon mark. It was really a dream come true for me. After finishing the Marathon, Monika was kind enough to prepare a fruit smoothie for us. I remember finishing it in a single gulp, followed by a couple glasses of ice cold water. Monika has also made sure that we don’t have to wait for our ice bath, so she filled the bathtub with cold water and ice cubes. By doing this, she really showed how much she cared about us and our goals and how happy she was seeing us accomplish things in life. After the ice bath, it was time for lunch and she prepared Dal & Rice for us, which was super awesome. The afternoon seemed short for me and I decided to take kids out for biking. We did 4 miles and I made sure that we do not go with more speed and give enough recovery and rest at the same time. Here’s the map of the bike ride.
Closing thoughts It was an important milestone, which seemed impossible just 5 months ago. With enough hard work, and *consistent* perseverance, I proved to myself that anything is possible in life. From this point onwards, I am just going to focus on doing things *consistently* and not worry about the sweet outcome of that strenuous labour.
I will leave you with this thought – IF I CAN DO IT, SO CAN YOU!
A person who loves to talk and write a lot, I barely fall short of words while talking about something or someone. This book by Alice Schroeder on the life of the ORACLE OF OMAHA is one of these things which humbles me to the core and I become speechless. There is just not enough words to express how good, thorough, simple, and inspirational this book is & for that, I would like to thank my friend, Megha, who graciously gifted me this book a couple years ago and the only thing I regret is reading it so late and wish I could have completed it back in 2018.
Anyway, I would try to put a few things that I learnt reading this book and I know, I would fall short of both words and feelings.
Beginnings – Mr. Buffett, initially, had a simple childhood, like everyone else. A few things that made his beginnings different than the rest of his friends, siblings, and cousins was his insatiable brilliance with the patterns and numbers. If you know some kid who is really brilliant with the patterns and numbers, but, struggle with the social aspect of the regular life, that’s your little Warren Buffett for you. Even though he struggled socially, he didn’t let that come in way to become a successful businessman. He used to help his grandpa at his store but not with the physical labor and help him with the business aspects of it. His business acumen helped him start business efforts such as used golf balls and newspapers. He loved his job as a newspaper delivery person and that was his first real job. While delivering these newspapers, he quickly realized the better and more efficient ways to deliver the said newspapers. While dealing with all these new efforts, he realized his life goal and that would be RETIRE BY 30 WITH A MILLION DOLLAR TO HIS NAME.
I think this was quite ambitious goal for a kid and it helps you “guess” how extraordinary this kid was from the young age.
Mentor – The second portion I want to touch upon is the mentor that he loved and utterly respected throughout his life. One of the lines from this book that still gives me goosebumps is IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE TO WORK FOR SOMEONE WHOM YOU DON’T RESPECT.
This one single line has such a deep meaning hidden in it. This line holds true for almost everything that we do in our daily lives and I try to implement it in whatever I do. This brings us to his mentor – Mr. Ben Graham. The way Mr. Buffett was introduced to Mr. Graham through the latter’s book The Intelligent Investor. Mr. Buffett has sung so many praises of this book, you can clearly imagine the positive impact that this book has had on his life in so many ways. This book made Mr. Graham an idol for Mr. Buffett. He was so enchanted by Mr. Graham that when he was rejected by Harvard, he decided to apply for Colombia just for the fact that Mr. Graham was teaching a class at Columbia.
As the stars aligned perfectly for Mr. Buffett, he was accepted at Columbia though he was late with the application process and his joy knew no bounds when he got the good news. Mr. Buffett, by that point in his life, had read The Intelligent Investor, that he could talk about it for hours, so, when the class actually started, usually, it used to be a dual of discussions between the class instructor Mr. Graham and the keen student Mr. Buffett. It was during these classes that Warren further developed and strengthened his relationship with Mr. Graham and successfully landed a job at Mr. Graham’s firm after graduating Columbia, which in itself was an achievement.
Warren was one happy guy after landing a job at Mr. Graham’s firm and this is where he learnt the different ways and sources to find a *hidden stock* which had tremendous potential and was heavily undervalued. In the later part of the book, Mr. Buffett reflects upon this time of his life and realizes how important these few months were to *informally* start the SNOWBALL rolling.
Emotional Support – This is one area of Mr. Buffett’s life that he really relies on someone. Warren has been an emotional kid since young age and always needed someone by his side to survive. Be it his sister (surprisingly, he couldn’t get along with his mother, since the young age), aunt or other family friends; he was always surrounded by someone who would eventually take care of him.
After leaving his parents’ place, the role of supporting him emotionally was transitioned to his girlfriend, followed by his first wife, Susan, and then his 2nd wife, Astrid, after his Susan’s demise. Be it any emotional moment, a stressful situation at work, or some of the complexities with this relatives or family who kept pestering him for money – there always was someone who took care of him like you take care of a little kid.
This part of Mr. Buffett’s life surprised me the most and made me wonder it doesn’t matter how wealthy and successful you are, you are just a little kid at the heart. It soothed me to further read into his personal life and different people who were part of this awesome journey.
How THE SNOWBALL was formed – This is the question I needed answer to and hence I started reading this book. What was this SNOWBALL and how did it form in the first place? I never knew the answer would be this simple yet profound.
There are many things in life that we pay attention to and usually get caught up in the daily struggles and rat race, but, this is not the way Mr. Buffett operated while making deals and running his business.
I distinctly remember his dilemma and clever way with which he overcame it. The dilemma was whether to continue as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway or keep working with his friends and relatives managing their money and use it to invest in stocks. As we all know, he chose to be the CEO and earned himself an invincible name in that category. But, what impressed me the most is the way he made that “choice” and how “bluntly honest” he was while giving reasoning to his relative/family who were his “business partners”.
One more key aspects that you can study (if you are interested) are his annul letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. These letters are so profound and carefully written that someone wrote a book about these letters alone and tried explaining the minute details hidden in those letters which a normal person (such as myself) might have missed.
One last thing before actually closing this section is his conviction regarding people that he works with and all the businesses that he invests in. He rarely sells stocks and when that happens, it really is not a good news for those stocks, so, the one thing I learnt from this aspect of the book was to believe in whatever you do, no matter what anyone would say.
The unpredictable move – Initially, this was the most controversial move (at that time) by someone – TO GIVE AWAY HIS ALMOST ENTIRE FORTUNE POSTHUMOUSLY.
No one ever did that before him, so many were surprised at first and criticized Mr. Buffett for doing that. One person responsible for making Mr. Buffett think about others and using his fortune for good use was none other than his friend – Mr. Bill Gates. It will take me a lot of words to describe their journey to the lifelong friendship, so I will not do that. I will mention one sentence from Bill Gates which made Warren think about leaving his almost entire fortune to charity and that was – YOU WILL BE FAR BETTER OFF IF YOU KNOW YOUR MONEY COULD SAVE AT LEAST ONE LIFE.
Warren never thought of giving away his hard earned money, not even to his immediate family. But, this one sentence from his close friend, helped him see beyond himself and what a wonderful feeling it is to save people’s lives with your money and time. For Warren, help always meant professional or financial advise, but, after this incident he started giving away a little portion of his fortune to charity and to do it more efficiently and legally, he setup a foundation too, which later would donate all of its money to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In closing, he was the first person to come up with an idea to give away his money to charity after his death.
What really matters at the end? – And this brings us to the MOST IMPORTANT LESSON from this book. This question and its answer is simple, yet so overlooked and unfathomable.
This question/answer is mentioned in almost the last chapter of the book when the author describes how he used to host young people (college graduates) at his Omaha office and used to answer their questions. While answering one of the questions, this sentence made me stop and reflect upon it, and, he put it so casually, it is easy to just skip through this sentence, but, for me, this was the answer to the most important question that I ask myself all the time – what is the most important thing in this life and will I be able to achieve it?
The answer for the above question, as Mr. Buffett puts it, “once you get to my age, all that matters is how many people actually love you and you want them to.” This is one of the most eye-opening answers I have heard. May be it is a simple answer for you, but, for me, it was like knowing the purpose of your life and I was so glad I got to know it. From this point onwards, whatever I do and wherever and whenever I do something, it will all be concentrated around this one analogy – “how many people love me and I want them to”.
I am so glad I got to read it and actually understand the meaning of it. I spent a good couple months to read this book and I am glad that I did, because I am never going to forget the lessons from this book.
Many thanks, Mr. Buffett.
My humble ode to the ORACLE OF OMAHA is a simple bow at a genius of the small steps which led to THE SNOWBALL and respecting the process of how that snowball was actually formed!
stochasticity 