Sholay - Revisited

Just got reminded of this sequence in Sholay !

Botany Class - Telugu

This song was a rage when we were kids ! Nostalgia revisited !

Team Asha

Here are some of the members of this wonderful gang, Team Asha, Bangalore



(Pic Courtesy, Balaji)

Team Asha 4k/8k - Prakirya School

Cross Posting from Team Asha Blog
http://teamashablr.blogspot.com/2009/10/team-asha-4k8k-prakriya.html

Wow ! What a run !
Here are some pics from the event. Hope to come up with a detailed blog report soon.


The race begins


Go Team Asha, Go !



Bravo !



Team Asha, Bangalore


Here are some pics from one of the cameras:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/teamasha8k/Asha8KPrakriya#

Will add more pics as and when we keep getting it !

Thanks to all the participants who attended it !

Nice Quote and Ted Talk

Heard this in one of the Ted Talks today :-)

Alan Greenspan Quotes:

"I know that you think you know what I said. But I'm not sure whether you understood that what you heard is what I meant."

Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926 in New York City) is an American economist and was from 1987 to 2006 the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States. He currently works as a private advisor, making speeches and providing consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC

Ref: http://www.quotes.net/quote/13488

Below is that Ted-Talk !

Winter Sets in

Woke up to the first sight of fog this year in Bangalore !



Welcoming winter!



Happy Diwali to you all !

Flood Relief Fund: Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Karnataka

Its time for more action on the flood relief fund. If you haven't please do donate online.


Andhra Pradesh (AP):
Use the AP Govt's online webpage to donate through credit or debit card.
http://cmo.ap.gov.in/cmrf/registration.do


Karnataka:
Check out the Govt. of Karanataka's online page here:
http://www.karunadu.gov.in/floodrelief2009/contribution.html

(No qualms whether the funds will be properly used or not)

Every rupee or dime counts !

Obesity and the stigma - The Hindu

The below one appeared in "The Hindu", open page last Sunday. Truly a self-introspecting one.

Reference: http://www.thehindu.com/op/2009/10/11/stories/2009101153661200.htm

Obesity and the stigma

SRIKANTH SHARAN

My cousin, in search of an eligible bride, recently received some photos and bio-data of a girl, who was our distant relative and whom we have never seen before. My cousin found her quite eligible because of her good education, employment, wealth, beauty and very fair complexion. (The last quality is only to emphasise that she even had this additional but important qualification which we Indians seem to be obsessed with.)

On knowing this, some of our close relatives who knew her well rang us up to inform that the woman was not as slim as she was in the photos but was an obese “drum”, “rejected” an umpteen number of times and hence “unfit”. They even cautioned us not to get attracted by the hefty dowry which had been hiked only to compensate for her biggest “disqualification” (obesity). Despite such stiff opposition, we went ahead to see the girl. It was a pleasant conversation wherein my cousin expressed his desire to know the girl’s expectations and opinions about him.

Baseless discrimination

Later, during an informal chat with our relatives, I learnt to my horror that my cousin’s desire to know the bride’s opinions about him had become the joke of the day. For it seemed ridiculous even to her own parents that the girl, who was obese and hence “rejected” many times, had been asked about her opinion and expectations, as if she was not entitled to such things.

An internet search on obesity and social attitudes revealed the stereotypes, stigma and discrimination the obese people face in society and the negative attitudes these generate in them. The obese people are discriminated at home, in education, employment, social circles and are cast as lazy, gluttonous, adamant, mean and wicked. They, along with those having AIDS, are the least preferred as sexual partners/spouses and ranked far below the physically challenged and mentally ill. Obese women are not so social due to the stigma. They usually prefer obese partners in marriage.

All these reveal the discrimination and stigmatisation of the obese (especially women) which leads to low self-esteem. One of the reasons seems to be the outcome of the fashion industry which is obsessed with slimness. What is more disturbing is the commercial stigmatisation and exploitation by various enterprises as can be seen in many advertisements.

Obese people are also portrayed as gluttonous forgetting that their genetic makeup is one of the reasons for obesity and many even have a normal diet. But stigmatisation only leads to isolation, frustration and eating disorder in the obese. The most important thing is to promote positive psychological and social attitudes among and/or towards the obese in society.

Childhood and KV School pals

I was there in Hyderabad for my friend Sheetal and Ramji's marriage. It was great to see them get married and I've known Sheetal from my second standard and Ramji from college days. But this was also a time to catch up with college friends.

But what came as a neat surprise was that I found my KV pals. Pals with whom I studied from my first standard. It was total nostalgia and some of whom I met after 1997 !


(Rajesh, Hemanth, Dinesh, their Pal, and I)

We all went back to 1987 from our class teachers, girls, boys, embarrassing moments, joyous moments and many more. Idiosyncrasies of each of the teachers their methods of teaching and we getting beaten in their hands. wow.. so many things.


(Chutki, Vandy, Balu and Deepthi)
Of course caught up with the SVAD gang and the S in that gang got married today. Nice to meet up with so many of them at one shot.


Now the KV gang has decided to retrace each and everyone one of us and are planning a reunion some time soon. Lets see if we get this thing out.

Pic Courtesy: Vandy

Trueroots - Why do we do this?

Nice One. Reference from pal Amit Kumar's Orkut Videos !

Moral Relativism

Most of us talk about morals and some of us even boast about their morals and ethics. But each of us have our own set of morals with variable degree of flexibility.

Moral relativism explores and dwells into such relative morality.

Read more about "Moral Relativism" in Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_relativism

India Through My Soul

To quote Biswa who sent this:

My classmate and his brother did a 1 month bike trip in India. His brother is a photographer and made a video out of it..

This will now take me into my next ambitious motor bike trip. From Goa To Vizag to Hyderabad from the coastal belt. 3000 odd KMs !

Dusheera Run: Gandipet - APPA - ORR - Gandipet

Wow ! What a run it was. Three runners and an amazing SAG support from Vasu. Satish, Sri Hari and I set out from Gandipet at around 6AM to do a 16KM loop and it turned out to be an amazing run.

The weather and the route turned out to be perfect. The entire route and logistics was planned by Satish.

To quote Satish:

Route :http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3211225
Starting point : Gandipet

The idea is to start at Gandipet and run towards Mrigavani National Park. Then come onto the APPA-Chilkur road and run toward the ORR. At the rotary get onto the ORR and run towards the osman sagar road. At the Osman sagar road take a left and run towards gandipet. The total distance is 16.5k.

A part of this stretch was my regular route to my B.Tech. College. The roads have widened, there is an Outer Ring Road (ORR) etc.


The best part to me was the outer ring road and we had an entire 3-Lane empty for us to run. Amazing open landscape ! It was a more of those leisured and pleasured runs.


Last but not the least, Thanks to Vasu who was our SAG driver and shadowed us with all the essential support. Thanks mate !

Great run guys and as I have more long weekends to come by I'll be there positively for more such runs.

Keep Running Hyderabad !

(Pic Courtesy: Sri Hari's Mobile)