Got gat?

A classic scene in Big Money by PG Wodehouse where an inebriated and well-armed Mr Hoke intrudes into Berry Conway's home and interrupts a conversation with Lord Hoddesdon who has just come in to discuss weighty matters with Berry.

'Do you want to see me about something?' he asked.
'Got gat,' said Mr Hoke pleasantly.
'Cat?' said Berry.
'Gat,' said Mr Hoke.
'What cat?' asked Berry, still unequal to the intellectual pressure of the conversation.
'Gat,' said Mr Hoke with an air of finality.
Berry tentatively approached the subject from another angle.
'Hat?' he said.
'Gat,' said Mr Hoke.
He frowned slightly, and his smile lost something of its effervescent bonhomie. This juggling with words was giving him a slight, but distinct headache.

...

Lord Hoddesdon rose.
'Where is my hat?' he said stiffly.
'Gat,' said Mr Hoke, his annoyance increasing. It seemed to him that these people were deliberately affecting to misunderstand plain English.

...

'You thinking of leaving?' asked Mr Hoke.

...

'...in answer to your question, I am thinking of leaving,' said Lord Hoddesdon.
Mr Hoke's momentary lapse into amiability was over. He was the strong man again, the man behind the gun.
'Oh, no!' he said.
'I beg your pardon?' said Lord Hoddesdon.
'Granted,' said Mr Hoke. He produced the gat, of which they had heard so much, and poised it in an unsteady but resolute grasp. 'Hands up!' he said.

...

'I had a mother once,' he said.
'You did?' said Berry.
'Yes, sir!' said Mr Hoke. 'That's just what I had. A mother.'
'The man's a dashed, drivelling, raving, raging lunatic,' said Lord Hoddesdon.
Mr Hoke started. Something in his lordship's words had caused a monstrous suspicion to form itself in his clouded mind. It seemed to him, if he had interpreted them rightly, that Lord Hoddesdon was casting doubts on his sanity. He resented this.

Wodehouse has been my favorite author since I was 16. Hardly a month goes by without me re-reading one or more of the 90-odd books authored by him. I may, from time to time, add a nugget or two from his timelessly laugh-out-loud funny books. Watch this space!

Battling it out in the greenbelt

The day I was supposed to do my longest training run of 28 miles added a few twists of its own. The day started warm and extremely humid, and as the day progressed, it grew warmer while still remaining humid. I have typically not done well in such conditions. Actually, that is quite an understatement. Humidity and heat have always oppressed me on my runs, so this long run was going to be a challenge.

We started out at 7am in the Barton Creek Greenbelt at the 'Hill of Life'. It was a new route for me today, and I promptly got lost on the trails in the first loop and did a couple of extra miles. I ended up doing 3 more loops, shorter because I knew the trails now. The hilly loop including a couple of overlook vistas with breathtaking scenery and I lapped it up greedily. The beauty of the greenbelt with some fall colors thrown in for extra credits really helped keep my mind off the pains and struggles in my mind and body today.

There were a few positives to take home today. I have now learnt to pace myself much better in different conditions. Previously in summer, I would run a few miles and then give out completely in exhaustion and frustration. But today, I slowed myself down after the first frenetic loop. I mixed in liberal doses of forced walk breaks to make sure I was not pushing too hard against the elements. Consequently, each loop thereafter was taking around 2-2:10 hours to complete, even as I grew more tired with every passing mile. It was rather slow, but consistency won the day today. And by conserving energy initially, I was also pleasantly surprised to be running strongly even in the last mile!

For such a hot and humid day, my improvised nutrition plan also worked well. Normally, I found it hard to eat anything after a few miles on such days; it becomes hard to chew and digest, and the taste buds complain a lot. Today, I relied on an array of options: 1 banana, 2 clif shot bloks, 2 hammer gels, a few spoons of tamarind brown rice mixed with some lentils, 1 bottle of ensure, 2 packets of Succeed Amino, and countless tablets of salt, all taken with a total of about 200+ oz (~2 gallons) of water. That sounds like quite a feast now, but while I was running, I managed to ensure a steady supply of energy.

Thanks to the humidity, I also used up quite a bit of gear today: 2 shirts, 2 shorts, 2 bandanas, 1 cap, and 2 pairs of socks. I sure wished I had more though!

Another positive today was my handling of my IT-band pain. My tight IT-band has been a bane recently, it has forced me to back off training and try different things to alleviate the pain, like tying my bandana above my knee. I recently came across some nice stretching exercises for the IT-band, and by doing a few stretches every few miles or so for 30 seconds at a time today especially when I felt it may start to bother me a little, I managed to keep that issue at bay.

On the whole, I am happy I ran long today and did not bail early. It feels like quite an achievement for me, especially after the nightmares of summer training. I have clearly learnt a lot through experience, and I am still learning with each run on what works for me under different conditions. And battling it out today on the hills of the greenbelt under hot and humid weather and making the 28 miles slotted for today is a nice confidence boost! All in all, a great training run.

A dangerous intellectual infancy

Arundhati Roy writes another essay, in a way only she can, this time about the Mumbai attacks. From the politicians to the police, from the US to Pakistan, from terrorists to communists to communalists, and from celebrities to the media, they all come under fire for the state of affairs that allows incidents like Mumbai's terror attacks to happen.

In Mumbai was not our 9/11, Arundhati has some classic one-liners.

A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.

We're now in the era of Grabbing by Force, and democracy has a terrible habit of getting in the way.

In the business of terrorism, victims and perpetrators sometimes exchange roles.

If Kashmir won't willingly integrate into India, it's beginning to look as though India will integrate/disintegrate into Kashmir.

Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they're for people that governments don't like.

There are many threads to follow in the essay. One concerns why the Mumbai attacks should so outrage the Indian media and elite, and why it is even being called India's 9/11. That is a stretch in so many ways, and Arundhati surely does a great job of bringing that out. Reasons why these attacks are "special" probably include the targeting of elites by the terrorists, and the opportunity for breathless media coverage.

An even more dangerous development seems to be, what she calls rightly, a regression into intellectual infancy. Media and elites flirting with the idea of a police state, and whipping up anger against all politicians seems like an attack on Indian democracy itself. Truly, media coverage and analysis in India has touched heights that Fox News can only dream of.

Terror in Mumbai: Enough Already

Some more links on the terror in Mumbai, there are quite a few more thoughtful and sober analysis coming out now.

An editorial in Guardian talking about what the idea of India means, and why that dream is still attainable. Inspiring, and despite all the social inequalities that still persist, I think we should take heart from what has been achieved so far in the face of almost-insurmountable odds.
The unforgotten dream

Adding perspective to the media's hysterical coverage, Badri Raina plays on NDTV's rather ridiculous and vacuous caption 'Enough is Enough'. Enough of NDTV and its breathless sensationalism perhaps.
Enough is Enough

Mumbai, Muslims, beards and Jews. Jawed Naqvi looks at some misconceptions and dangerous stereotyping by a terrorized people.
Mumbai rekindles debate about Muslims, their beard and so on

Patrick Cockburn, a journalist whose reporting and analysis I mostly look forward to, lays the blame at various commissions of Pakistan and omissions by the US.
From Baghdad to Mumbai, by way of Pakistan

Good ol' Tom! Never thought I'd say this, but I actually find good merit in what Thomas Friedman says in his op-ed piece. He calls on all Pakistanis to rally and protest against the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage, similar to how they stood up and even lost lives over the Danish cartoons. Its an altogether different matter that he didnt write such a sensible and potentially more useful article asking Americans to stand up for, say, the Iraqis dead in some mindless collateral damage in the Iraq war. Oh well, with dear Tom, we are grateful for the small mercies of life...
Calling All Pakistanis

Another Pakistani opinion-piece. Another one looking self-critically at the politics and policies of Pakistan. In many ways, the mass media in Pakistan is more independent and sober about their own country than the generally India-is-shining media in India. Pakistanis seem quite pessimistic about their government and even country, possibly because of the rather sorry state of affairs there. Irfan Hussain is fun to read though, and I have generally enjoyed many travel and political articles written with insight and compassion by him.
Facing the truth

Terror in Mumbai

Perspectives

Praveen Swami has a well-researched article from a terrorism-security framework:

India's strategic deafness & the massacre in Mumbai

Progressive publications have been silent on this issue thus far. Have they no perspective on this? They seem unable to provide even basic answers to pressing issues that trouble average folks, like security. Terrorism, though not a major killer in numbers, has a much greater effect psychologically because, like Bush says, of the 'hopelessness' offered by it. A rather indifferent article by Tariq Ali conflating ideological pet themes with real ground issues that connect tenuously:

India's leaders need to look closer to home

Kashmir

William Dalrymple has a sober informative article relating how normal and middle-class Kashmiris and other South Asian Muslims become emotively resentful of India's treatment of Kashmiri Muslims.

Mumbai atrocities highlight need for solution in Kashmir

Pakistan

And Pakistan, poor Pakistan. At the end of all this jingoistic barrage, helpless to protect its image, and helpless itself against the same forces at work, Pakistan is really paying a big price for its misadventures of the past. Pakistan has already faced more suicide bombings than any other nation including Iraq this year, and is caught between a barely restrained marauding force (US) and further alienating and radicalizing their own citizenry. Even as the Mumbai street battles were winding down, Pakistan faced yet another suicide bombing killing 6 security personnel.

Indian jingoism, barely separated from Hindu righteousness, is threatening to unnecessarily and unhelpfully escalate an already terrible situation. Political leaders are proving no more than opportunistic by feeding red meat to the raving dogs of war...

Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

...neighbouring nations would have to face a cost if they allowed their territory to be used to launch attacks on India...

Pranab Mukherjee, Foreign Minister of India

...prima facie evidence indicates elements with links to Pakistan are involved...

Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat

This is for the first time Pakistan has allowed use of sea routes to further terrorism against India

Never mind the absence of evidence thus far. What a shame.

Why am I running?

I am training to run the Rocky Raccoon 50 Miler race as part of Team Asha. My target race is on February 7, 2009, in the Huntsville State Park, Texas.
This is my first 50 miler ever! Infact, it is way longer than anything I have attempted so far. Training has been fun but hard, and has involved a lot of commitment in time and effort for my first 50 miler. I am doing all this, as I keep reminding myself on runs that keep getting longer and harder, for a cause I absolutely love and support. I am running as part of Team Asha this year to raise funds for the wonderful and deserving schools run by Gramin Shiksha Kendra in rural Rajasthan.
The schools provide a high quality of education thats relevant to the local community in order to bring about meaningful socioeconomic change. It is a very thoughtful effort by a few committed and talented educators to make a real and qualitative difference in the lives of the impoverished rural community. They promote learning based on fun and child-centric activities. Teachers employ innovative teaching techniques and educational materials tailored specifically for every child to learn effectively and thoroughly. Local knowledge and cultural expertise is incorporated into the syllabus so that the children have a broad curriculum that they can relate to easily. More importantly, it also grounds the education of the children to the success of the local community. I passionately believe that the success of this initiative can provide a good model of education that can be replicated across various rural and urban communities all over India!
For this initiative to succeed, it needs your support! Learn more about this exciting project here.
I have pledged to raise $100 for every mile I run in my race. All the proceeds from my runner page go towards supporting Gramin Shiksha Kendra. Please contact me to sponsor my race and help me reach my fundraising target as I strive to reach my 50 mile distance.

My runner fund-raising page where you can DONATE is here.

Warda Cardiac Run 25K

The Cardiac Run race happens every year at Damon Nolan's Bluff Creek Ranch in Warda, TX. The ranch has pine forests, open grasslands and even an oil rig! The 25K race consists of 2 loops of 12.5K each, with about 325' of elevation change in each loop. The course is mostly runnable except for a few small but steep hills in each loop. There is one aid station in each loop apart from the Start/Finish area.

The 25K this year started at 10am, in bright but very windy conditions. For the first 3 miles, as my muscles were warming up, I felt some pain on the outside of my right knee. The pain however went away soon and I hit a comfortable stride after the first aid station.

Joe P. who was on his second loop of his 50K run caught up with me here and we ran together for about 3 miles running at a fast but comfortable pace. At around mile 6 though, as Joe and I were running astride, Joe's brand new shoes caught some mesh and sent him tumbling over my way. Joe was fine though and just got up and ran hard again!

As we pulled into the S/F area at the end of the first loop, the clock showed 1:17. After a minute replenishing gels and water, I started out on the second loop feeling more comfortable. And knowing that this was my last loop helped to push a pace that was definitely among my best for long runs. I finished the second loop and the race at 2:28, doing a negative split by 4 mins from the first loop. Quite easily, a personal record for me.

After the race, I walked into the ranch house, and had some wonderful food prepared by Damon. Joyce, Jeff and Robert also joined us here and Damon regaled us with stories about the ranch and activities in the ranch. After a while, I walked out to the finish area, and saw Joe finish in 4:59! A fantastic time, and then soon, Savi also rolled in for a personal record for her. Ganesh had started earlier and finished and left for San Antonio for a marathon the next day!

A wonderful race set up informally with very friendly volunteers and the good running conditions made it a memorable and enjoyable experience. The trails and the informal atmosphere reminded me a lot of my first trail race, the Rocky Hill Ranch 25K. I appreciate all the hard work that Damon and his folks put in to make this a great race for all the runners!