Somajiguda to Hussain Sagar

Woke up at 5:30 am, put on shoes and was off running to Hussain Sagar for my weekly run. Had not run on Sat and hence was keen to do atleast 10 km for the long run. On the bridge after the circle, met some kids, one of whom was hurt and had scraped his knee. One of the girls in the group asked for my water bottle to wash the guy's wounds and the kid did so. After this brief stop, carried on. Reached Hussain Sagar in abt 11.5 mins from the hotel.

Began a repeat of my experience last year to lap the lake. The sun came up so quickly that, by the time I came up to the last arc of my lap, I was sounding pretty much like the transcript of the Monte Carlo Open final between Rafael Nadal & Gaston Gaudio. However did finish the lap, despite almost running into some roller skaters, whose families had blocked off one section of the road for the kids, with their cars.

Feel pretty fit now, but not as relaxed as I would like to. Guess I need to wait for another month and a half before I see the effect of the gym.

My Gult Trip!

No, that's not a typo. I have been on a mini trip of the Gult land aka Andhra Pradesh. Actually it is just 2 places - Warangal and Vizag, but then its been great fun and besides, how else will I sell my book?!

Warangal was a slight let down as I had great plans for it, since it houses an REC, but it turned out to be not much beyond a town, as of today. I had to call a friend who studied from the REC to ask for a place to eat breakfast since I ended up very early in the town. One place actually told me that I could get vegetable biriyani or pulao or wait till 10 am!

Vizag has been a revelation. See this for more details of what all one could do here. For one, it has hills, mountains and numerous beaches, which are largely undiscovered. The place has nice cafes in the city amongst other things. We were there on work and hence did not get around much. But we did go to Rishikonda beach, which is quite good and then Kailasagiri, which would perhaps fit better into a gult movie with the heroine prancing around trees. But the place rocks in terms of serenity. My hotel room had an awesome view of the sea and the service at the Grand Bay hotel was excellent. So we were pleased with the entire experience. Strongly recommend a visit. However due to the rough sea, non swimmers are requested to exercise caution. I have taken a few pics which shall be uploaded soon. If you want to see them, mail me.

Also managed to finish off the 1st volume of Collected Plays by Karnad. There was this kid next to me on the flight back to Hyd, who was accompanied by her grandma. They were on their way to the US as the grandma explained to me, in broken english. The kid was cute, about 2 years old. She spilt chocolate cake all over the seat and then tried to clean it up with some cover she had. She asked me to open her water bottle. Actually she just gave me the bottle (the std 200 ml one you get on planes) then gestured with one palm with all fingers shaped as if gripping a cap and then shaking her head from side to side, indicating the futility of her attempts. Very cute :) Well, we love kids and most things they do.

Managed to see a movie called Eulogy which is a good weekend watch.

This stay in Hyd coupled with my visits is giving me a gult complex ;)

BEQ Finals Telecast

A friend messaged in saying that the BEQ finals in which my team came 3rd will be on TIMES NOW at 8 pm on 30th April 06(t'row!)

Made my day

What all does one want on a Sunday?

One nice run.
One nice quiz (maybe two! ;))
Michael to start on pole.
Michael to take chequered flag.
Some nice coffee...
One nice crossword...
One nice book...

Managed to get 5 of the above 7 done. Not bad, I guess. But then, we do 5 of the 7 above anyways! This Sunday, Schumi chipped in to compensate for the missed run and the quiz. Thanks Schumi.

The rest of the story ...
Last Sunday, I was sitting in the Barista at Banjara Hills having my regular coffee and doing my crossword, when someone approached me at my table and asked if I was from REC Trichy. Now we are very passionate about being from where we are and were totally kicked. Turns out that the guy was my senior from college by one year and is now in Hyd. The best part is that he had found me from here Small world, eh? There are other people who read my blog!?

We caught up on life for so much time, we had to move to another outlet named Ofen, which serves continental food and also has coffee.

I was partially feeling down due to not having made his quiz, the quizzes in our baby Bangalore and another lone wolf quiz in Chennai by QFI (for some reason, I have not managed to attend a single QFI meeting yet). But most of the feeling down was due to our missing the RFL monthly run for the 1st time in a long time :( I did take it out on the treadmill in the gym, but then running in a gym is not the same as running a road race. But then we make our choices and live with them. And then life has its share of surprises to cheer you up.

Its always nice to meet someone from a part of life, from which you have fond memories. I guess the pleasure is doubled when it is accidental like this one was. So much for Viggyboy who made my day alongwith Michael and Mr. Carroll (just finished the Alice) That is not bad company either.

Happy Budday

For someone who has filled about half of my life with happiness, here's wishing him a very happy birthday.
But then, bhagwan ka b'day hota hai kya? Will leave that to my brother separated at the Kumbh Mela ;)

New Members in my Hyderabad family

These are the things I managed to pick up in about 15 minutes of sifting thru a book fair in Secunderabad at the YMCA. Expect a few more when I am at
ABIDs on the weekend

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis,
Eight Comedy plays incl. Arms and the Man by Shaw, Twelfth Night by the bard &
Uncle Vanya by Chekov) and
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Also managed to read the 'Alice' after a long time, yet again. Good fun, one must admit.

The Prophecy, The Autograph, ...

One of the things I had looked forward to, at the time of the BEQ finals was the dreaded Saturday edition of ET on the eve of the quiz. Despite my best attempts, I did not manage to crack the 1st across clue. So you could say that I knew that I probably would not win it. However if you had seen the actual finals, you could have been left thinking that my team came very close to upsetting the eventual winners...

And of course, I had mentioned this a long while ago.

BEQ finals, Bombay,...

Came 3rd. Rest of the gory details in the ET. Almost won, I guess.
Losing didn't hurt as bad since we gave our best effort and totally dazzled in the last round. Also, the winning team had a friend. How can you feel bad when someone who has teamed up with you in the past and is a a fellow quizzer wins? Also had a band of people who had come all the way from Bombay & Pune to support me and did so, vociferously. Surprisingly lots of people actually turned up (1500 acc. to ET) to watch the quiz. Don't know whether they did so, since they were seeing Aamby Valley for the 1st time.

Had good fun all thru the weekend, being driven back with a band of friends. In fact didn't sleep on Sat, since I had an early morning flight to Madras and then an another one to Hyd in the afty. Been a long time since I did a night out. But did some nice stuff like talking to a pal all night and then walking around Bombay in the wee hours of the morning to break the monotony of sitting in the house and talking. Used to do a lot of this in the engg. days.

Best part was finishing Ian McEwan's Black Dogs on the flight to Bombay and then finishing 2 plays from Karnad's Collected Plays - Tughlaq and Hayavadana on the ride to Aamby Valley.

Feeling cool in life, esp. since my hotel in Hyd has a gym and a pool.

Hussain Sagar to Charminar and back!

My job has taken me to Hyderabad for a 3 month stint. Will get to relive my half marathon experience several times over I guess. Already like the place due to the personal landmark set during the half marathon. Let us see what else we manage here.