Three Steps to Weight Loss

I seem to have dropped a few kilos. I am not some ripped guy who has a six-pack, or even toned per se. Far from it. Nor was I obese or depressingly overweight. I was just overweight. You could say somewhere between overweight and plump. 
And over the past fortnight I have done just three things that have managed to cut down my body weight and greatly increased the happy feeling when I look at myself in the mirror. And how have I achieved this? Not by hitting the gym everyday (though I now am moti-weighted enough to do so, and will.), nor by dieting like there is no tomorrow. 

All I did was, 
1. Have a warm glass of water with honey, first thing after waking up every morning.
 (Recipe: Take a glass. Put a tablespoon full of honey in it. Fill the glass with water. Microwave it. Drink.)

2. Use the stairs instead of the elevator.

3. Cut out some food things from my diet. 
 (This doesn't mean you avoid it like the plague. It just means you don't over- indulge. You like Rice? Have it only once or twice a week. Have smaller quantities. Have lesser number of Bananas. Don't drink as much cola. I have been drinking a litre of Cola almost everyday for the past 12 years. Now I drink maybe 300ml twice a week. Replace it with some other drink that you like. Like a Iced Tea or something.)

This is all I did. And in two weeks I have lost 3 kilos or so. This isn't some mantra or some hard and fast rule. Just something that worked for me.
And I feel good.

New Year Resolutions Part -II

Okay,
So another whole year went by. And once again I have failed to stick to my New Year resolutions, which are now Old Year resolutions. 
Why? Was I busy? One piece of evidence suggests that I probably was. Because I seem to have managed only one blog post between the Old Year Resolutions and this one. But a stronger piece of evidence suggests that I wasn't so busy at all. What is the stronger piece of evidence you ask? Well, it is my bank balance. Forget about multiplying my wealth, I didn't seem to add to it at all.

Anyways, the crux is that another whole year went by. And I couldn't stick to the promises I made to myself. I didn't get fit. I lost a bit of weight, but that happened at the fag end of last year and is currently an ongoing process. I didn't end up reading as much as I thought I should or would have. My waking habits degenerated some more. My temper levels went to previously unseen levels. Which I regret wholly. Said and did things that I feel ashamed of. And I apologise from the bottom of my heart for those things. My expenses shot off the charts. I didn't buy a house, nor did I travel much. In fact the only places I travelled to last year were to Goa and Colombo, SL. And I didn't put my bike on the road either. Pity. Because that would have been pretty cool.
All in all, it was a pretty bad year. But! There was not just a silver lining, there was the whole Sun shining! I got married. Took a long time coming, but boy am I happy! But I will save that for some other time.

So this year I plan to do all that I promised myself last year and then some. 
I do have a lot planned for this year, and I will ensure that I do see them to completion. 
Amen.

Stoned Talks

I have been meaning to write for a long while, on how difficult it is to have a sensible conversation when you are under a self-induced period of bliss. The following conversation/story/happening/occurrence, might or might not be, fictional.

So here we were, sitting on the terrace. The occupants of the terrace consisted of the Sage, the comic relief, the foreigner, the translator and the dog. The dog was not actively involved in the intake of the happy substance. But I had noticed in the past that the dog chose to lie quite close to us on our previous occasions of the blissful state. (On other regular days of hanging out, the dog would generally ignore us, or choose to lie at full-stretch at a respectable distance.) Today, it was looking at us with a goofy smile, which seemed to say, " Come on already, blaze it."

The Sage: This is some good shit dude.
Foreigner : Dieses is gutes unkraut. (This is good weeds.)
Comic Relief: What?
Translator: This is good weeds.
The Sage: Yeah, that's what I said.
Translator: Yeah, I was just translating it for the Foreigner.
The Sage: Were u translating what I said, or were you translating what he said?
Translator (moments of sielnce later) : I think I translated what he said to you, and it meant what you said to us, and it also echoes what I am thinking.
Comic Relief: Dude you are good!
Translator: Thanks.Danke.
Foreigner: warum? (why?)
(ignored)
Dog: Yawn!
Sage: Hey, You know, lets smoke some more. Yeah.
Blaze.

New Year Resolution

Okay, so I am a little late in posting this. Especially as a New Year Resolution. Especially since one of my resolutions is to not procrastinate.


Okay, so here we go.


1. I will wake up early. (Except on weekends)
2. I will catch up with all the reading that I have missed over the past few years.
3. I will get fit. Yes, I will. In the next 3 months. Starting tomorrow.
4. I will control my temper. 
5. I will control my expenses.
6. I will buy a house.
7. I will travel more.
8. I will put my bike on the road.
9. I will certainly ensure all the above resolutions are followed.


So that's that. I guess I'll add new resolutions as and when I feel they deserve a place.
Okay, so that's that. Good luck to me.

I miss the days of yore.

I am now 28. By June 2012 i'll be 29. And the year after that, shudder. I think i'll lose my memory.

Everything goes by so fast these days. Every day turns into a new month and then a new year. It just seems like yesterday that we were all, well, young. I remember with the fondest feeling, my memories of high school and then graduation. Going to school, skipping classes, exams, playing squash, girls, the excitement. It all seemed so fresh. Now, jaded. I don't mean to say that things are boring now. No, they aren't. I have a wonderful girlfriend who will soon be my wife (she is the prettiest li'l thing). I make decent money, fingers crossed. I have some real good friends. Most of whom have been with me since those earlier days I was talking about. Some left, some new ones came in, but thats the cycle of life. You discard, get discarded, recycled, redundant. But, I am digressing.

I miss the days of freshness. The days when we would wake up with a new adventure each day. When we would discover something new everyday. Study, swim, play squash, ping-pong, place bets, lose bets, won some, watch movies, talk rot. What was missing was the stress.


Let me introduce to Youngs modulus. It is is the ratio of stress, to strain.

E is the Young's modulus or the modulus of elasticity.
F is the force exerted on an object under tension.

A0 is the original cross-sectional area through which force is applied.

ΔL is the amount by which the length of the object changes.

L0 is the original length of the object.

So, that is what Youngs modulus is. It is a measure of the stiffness of an elastic material.
A formula by Thomas Young, a 19th century scientist.

Ironic isn't it?

So, if the object in question was me. Since i'm under tension. F would be the force exerted on me. My original cross-sectional area through which force would be applied would be my length multiplied by my breadth (all figures approx. or in my case round). Which is say, 174cms by 43 cms. i.e 7482 square cms.

The amount by which my length would change ΔL would be the amount i'm stooping due to the burden on my head.
And my original length is 174 cms.

So basically, E would be derived by (F*174)/(7482*ΔL)

Okay, this is turning into a complicated calculation. And I am sure I will get a few e-mails saying that I screwed up somewhere, so I'll end it there.

But isn't it funny that it's called the 'Young's Modulus'? Because the stress and the strain only keep ever increasing when we get older.

Whoa, that was intense. My brain almost got fried there.
Anyways bottomline is that I miss those days. I miss going to school. I miss playing squash. I miss my friends from college. I miss the the bus to college. Going to college in Pushkar's jeep. Splitting fuel bills due to our paltry allowance. I miss the paltry allowance. I miss my room-mates Ashutosh Prakash and Sachin Chauhan. I miss smoking with them. The trips we had on our Royal Enfields. The butter chicken at Koregaon Park. The Indian Ocean concerts. The monsoons of Pune. The mushroom on toast with my friend at SMS Quick Byte. The friend. The bike. The chowmein in the canteen. The skipped classes. The feeling of relief on getting a job.

Ah, thats when the shit started. This whole getting a job thing. Right after that, it was like Young was applying a lot of force on my head, and giving me stress due to which I now feel strained.


My advice to any of those reading this and are still in college or school. make the best of your time. Don't study so hard that you don't have time to smell the roses. Maybe you wont be the ace of your class, but you sure will come out feeling hella fresh.


And to all my friends and everyone else who has been a part of my life so far, Thank You.

Ian Brown - Always Remember Me

Love this song. Ian Brown's Always Remember Me.



The day trip over
A tangerine sun
Becomes blood red sun splashed horizon
You walked yourself into the wilderness
I wondered there did you ever guess
You'd always remember me
Always remember me
Always remember me
Always remember me

Those were the days when
We had it all
And these are the times
I got so much more

The day trip over
A tangerine sun
Becomes blood red sunblessed horizon
You walked yourself into the wilderness
I wondered there did you ever guess
You'd always remember me
Always remember me
Always remember me
Always remember me

Led the pack
Then off the track at the bend
We learnt that all good things do truly
Come to an end
Dippers and trippers
Paint on the walls
Those were the days friend
We had it all
And these are the times
I got so much more
Always remember me
Always remember me
Always remember me
Always remember me

To Cool or not to cool.

Disclaimer: This post might sound highly immodest. That was not the idea. And if you think that is what it is, I don't really give a rat's ass.

Everyone has been through a phase in their lives where they try and try to fit in with the others. To be cool. I went through that phase too I guess. Back in high school. Though I didn't realize it then, I guess I was trying to fit in with rest of the 'cool-gang'. I already had my own spot. I was the funny-guy. I was witty, well-mannered, and quite funny. Everyone loved my company. All the girls loved my smart-alec remarks. When they were not busy with the 'cool-gang' that is. See, everyone wanted to chill with me, but no one wanted to date me. :) But i thought i was cool. Till I came to class 12.
I had moved towns and went to a small town, where my Dad was commanding a batallion. Here I was the coolest teenager on arrival. I played 3 different sports every evening, was a regular at the golf club, well mannered and well cultured. Parents would cite my example and tell their kids that they should be more like me. No kidding! And i joined the best highschool over there. On my first day at class I realized that here I dont need to try to be cool anymore. No one was. Everyone was the studious kinds, and their idea of fun was mischevious pranks.
That was when I realized I really didnt need to be cool. I just needed to be myself. And I started being myself. And I liked what I was. And since then till date, I have mostly been myself. I am sure there must have been a few instances where I must have deviated and tried to be cool, but they were quite rare for sure. I just didn't care anymore. I was just myself. No need to be something else. No need to be anything else. Just be.

Then I went to college. In the biggest city I had been to in my life so far. And I still didn't try to fit in. I didn't care about fitting in. I felt people should like me for what I am. And they did. I had developed friendships that were supposed to last a lifetime. And some of them are. But the funny part is that I was considered cool. Those close to me liked it when I slouched in class and not sitting ram-rod straight. They liked it that I never worried too much about anything. That I was the one who had a calm head around when any shit hit any fan. They turned to me for advice, comfort, help. Over the years, the same attitude caused people to think i am too cold, without emotion. And now its come back a full circle. I'd stopped trying to be cool 10 years ago. And now some feel that I am still trying to be cool by not trying. I don't give any explanations. :) I won't try to be anything else other than what I am. And I really don't care about most things. I just want to be. You should too.