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Friday, April 29, 2011

Vacations have begun in India

The arrival of mid-April is the time when schools and colleges finish with their terms, examinations and all, and close for the summer break, which is approximately 1 1/2 to 2 months in all. I still remember that when I was a schooler, my school used to wind up around the 11th of April. Most times, due to the financial problems my father had, we would stay at home, though a few times, we did take small trips to places around my home city Mumbai; for example, we went to Pune, or Matheran, or places similar to these. Once or twice, we went afar, such as our trip to Aurangabad/Ajanta/Ellora and one trip to Kapadwanj, our native place in Gujarat, where we stayed for over three weeks in our ancestral house.

When I had daughters of my own, they studied in a school that did not allow children the same privileges we had; the school would continue to function till the 1st of May, when the report cards would be given out and the official vacations would begin. Considering that the children had already finished their final examinations nearly 3 weeks ago, the school management's insistence bordered on obstinacy at best and a kind of devilry at worst. I remember how bored my daughters would get, and how stupid it all looked. Both of them have now completed school, but the school in question continues with the same policy it had in those years when my precious kids went there.

Vacations are also the time when people go out of their home city, and as a result, there is a sharp fall in my professional work. Today has been a dismal day, with hardly any patients in the clinic and barely a few calls on the cellular. With such practice, it becomes difficult to maintain internal calm and be philosophical about money.

There is news brewing at the home front, and I will share it here when the time is right. In the meantime, read on ...

Monday, April 25, 2011

Two weeks on since my last post

Hi readers. I am on to the walks at the Mazgaon garden, and have reached 12 rounds now, which I complete in 1 hour, at about 5 minutes per round of 490 ft. However, I walk on alternate days, and the remaining days, I do a bit of yoga, a bit of aerobics, a bit of stretchings, and a bit of calisthenics after a single round of warm-up. My wife has started coming with me, and we begin the day at half past five, leaving the house at 5.50 a.m. or so, reaching the garden around six o'clock. One hour or 65 minutes of workouts, and then  we return home, arriving back by 7.15 a.m. The routine has gradually set in, and to meet with the morning deadline, we go to sleep a little early as well. I am even able to catch sleep in the afternoon, so I am pretty much okay. Not so, Nishrin, as she gets just 5-5 1/2 hrs of sleep daily, and is gathering a sleep debt every day.

To complete my floor exercises, I even got a few spreads stitched, with a cloth top and a plastic bottom surface. This enables me to do the workout on a bit dirty ground too.

The garden resonates with the sounds of countless parakeets, a dozen or so Indian koels, some barbets, and a few other bird calls that I haven't as yet identified.

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Back to exercising

About 15-20 days ago, (just a few days before I lost my cousin Aslam at a young age of 42 to a massive coronary) I resumed exercise in the form of a daily walk. There is a very nice, well-maintained hill-top garden at Mazgaon known as the John Baptista Garden. I used to go there some years ago for my daily walks, but I had given this up in favour of intermittent stints with the various gymnasia which include the Gyms at Saifee Hospital, City Centre (Talwalkar's) and the one at Dongri (Mission Fitness).

Starting wasn't difficult, but I realised, to my horror, that my body had certainly grown old; I am obviously grossly over-weight and sport a tummy that is a mother of all tummies!I remember doing 7-8 rounds of the garden during the earlier period, but now, even after 10 days or more, I am barely able to complete more than 6 rounds. Also, I combine the rounds (mostly walking, but a few rounds running) with some amount of calisthenics, aerobics, floor exercises and so on. The entire rigmarole takes more than an hour. I end it with a vegetable drink like neem or tulsi or karela drink, available just outside the garden. Sometimes, I stop to have upma, poha or idlis. I even take these for my kids when I am returning home.

All in all, this has been a good start and I am patiently waiting for the scales to show a weight loss,but I am also looking at honing up my fitness quotient over the next few months, before I go on a vacation.

India's win at the Cricket World Cup 2011

Of course, it was mind boggling. Dhoni, the captain, hit the last winning ball for a six, and here is a Youtube video showing the same, click here. A thousand and two hundred million Indians rejoiced on seeing this shot, as this got India the World Cup, almost taking it away from the Sri Lankans, who also played well.