Run for Bhumi at the Bhumi India Run

10x in a 100 days - Be Limitless

Until 2018, my limit to run continuously was ~400m, I would end up panting so much that I started walking faster instead.

On December 31, 2018 I joined a gym and started strengthening and regularly hitting the treadmill.

On April 7, 2019 at the NTT Data #BhumiIndiaRun, Chennai I ran my first 5KM continuously.

There are no limits to what we can achieve beyond the limits in our mind. The strongest thing in the world is human will, once you realise it you can be #Limitless

My next goal is to run 10KM continuously at the next #ChennaiMarathon #SPCM20

Manohar Parrikar on Water Melons and Education

Narrated by Manohar Parrikar.
“I am from the village of Parra in Goa, hence we are called Parrikars. My village is famous for its watermelons. When I was a child, the farmers would organise a watermelon-eating contest at the end of the harvest season in May. All the kids would be invited to eat as many watermelons as they wanted.

Years later, I went to IIT Mumbai to study engineering. I went back to my village after 6.5 years. I went to the market looking for watermelons. They were all gone. The ones that were there were so small.

I went to see the farmer who hosted the watermelon-eating contest. His son had taken over. He would host the contest but there was a difference. When the older farmer gave us watermelons to eat he would ask us to spit out the seeds into a bowl. We were told not to bite into the seeds. He was collecting the seeds for his next crop. We were unpaid child laborers, actually. He kept his best watermelons for the contest and he got the best seeds which would yield even bigger watermelons the next year. His son, when he took over, realized that the larger watermelons would fetch more money in the market so he sold the larger ones and kept the smaller ones for the contest. The next year, the watermelons were smaller, the year later even small. In watermelons the generation is one year.
In seven years, Parra’s best watermelons were finished. In humans, generations change after 25 years. It will take us 200 years to figure what we were doing wrong while educating our children. Unless we employ our best to train the next generation, this is what can happen to us. We must attract the best into teaching profession."
#RIPManoharParrikar

Want to do something for a soldier, be an Indian who is worth fighting for

For the past few days I've been grappling with my emotions stemming from the brutal #PulwamaAttack that has irreversibly destroyed at least 44 families. Families that have brought up their children in a way that made those young adults chose to defend this country and not a seemingly safe job anywhere else.

I have always wanted to travel to Kashmir, now a holiday is planned with my friends, yet there is much trepidation over the politics of violence due to the impending elections. In the next few weeks, it will be a toss-up between the apparent risk of travelling there, against the apparent safety of travelling elsewhere. The safety, our security forces allow us to take us for granted. The safety for which these brave young men died.

When a calamity like this strikes us, how should I react? How should we the people of this country react? How should India react?

Should we strike back to cause equal hurt? Should we strike back to cause greater pain? What then about the pain caused by our actions? What then about the collateral damage? Won’t our reactions then perpetuate a never-ending cycle of violence? As Gandhi said, “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind”. Should we then decimate our enemies from the face of the earth so that there is no pain or hurt anymore?

Or should we choose to follow Gandhi’s footsteps and embrace our enemies with the message of ahimsa, peace and non-violence? Does that bring lasting peace? Is it still relevant in this day and age? Is peace possible without a dialogue?

In our current political scenario, India stops dialogue, sports, and even business with Pakistan whenever there is an attack. In any dialogue there will have to be some give and take. As a society, do we have the vision of what peace can do, or the maturity to accept any resolution that may seem like we have given up something? How then will the politicians resolve this issue? How then will there be lasting peace?

I am struggling with these questions in a constant state of Rage & Placidity #CalmVolcano but here’s a thought that came out of this befuddlement and pain.

When there is such a mind numbingly painful attack on our country and our people. there is an out pouring of offers to support. But, even in apparent lack of war, India loses soldiers every other day. I feel most families may get some sort of support, yet, there could be some families which may struggle to educate their children. Also, do the children of such brave men need our support only when they lose someone? I am looking for Bhumians, collaborators who would like to join a team
- do some ground research and understand reality, and the need for such a programme
- identify and shortlist children for scholarships
- conduct fundraising campaigns to raise money for these children
- mentor/support these children until they graduate

Want to do something for a soldier, be an #Indian who is worth fighting for #Volunteer

Be unreasonable

Recently, someone told me I could not possibly do something! And, how many times has that happened before :) That, however, did not trigger this post. An exchange between two colleagues about a young person who hasn't understood his own potential did.

The world is filled with people who do not achieve their true potential because they let someone else tell them they would not be able to do something.

I like these lines from the the Pursuit Of Happyness where the on-screen Chris Gardner tells his son "Don't ever let somebody tell you-you can't do something ... You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you-you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period."

Another quote by George Bernard Shaw that rings true, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Put your mind to anything and you can do it, whether it's waking up at 5 AM every day, climbing the Everest or becoming the CEO of your company. Be unreasonable!