Podium in Edgeverve 5K run

Standing tall at first place in Infosys EdgeVerve run happened on 18th oct'17 inside Infy Blr

Unofficial, overall podium 😊
5k, 22min, 45sec
As race was only for Edgeverve people...


Some say you need a big event to show your potential, some say show your potential whenever you can. And, I believe in showing my potential whenever I hit the road. Though we were not entitled for title, still we ran and aced it. You might say that few fastest runners didn't run due to event being untitled for Infoscians, so I came first. Whatever may be the reason we should never fear to celebrate our every little success. 

Another doubt raised by some veterans is that why I am putting 5k as distance is not exactly 5k. To counter that I say that the organizers call it 5k even they know that distance is not exactly 5k. So, I must follow the organizers' foot steps. 

Coming from an arduous Bangalore Marathon where I ran Full with good timings of 4:23, getting this pace is not a sort of achievement. Now, I believe, If I follow the same rigorous practice regime, I will soon be featured among winners in big races. Thank you Infy Happyfeet, captain Sampath and Aakriti for your selfless training and service. 

#edgeverve #run #5k #podiums #outliers#InfyHappyFeet #InfyDiaries #BeMoreBangalore
 — with Ajay Kumar N at Infosys Campus Bangalore India.

First Full Marathon (42.195kms)

When cause is big, preparation is apt and time is ripe you hit the bull's eye. Today, I finally completed my maiden full marathon with a timing of 4hrs 23mins.

GoldRunners - Club Level Glitterati Contest Presentation


Club level Glitterati presentation held at Infosys Toastmasters Bangalore on 3rd Oct.
As per rule, the presentation should be auto timed 5min total time and 20 slides max  of 15 sec per slide. Following is my team presentation:

AT THE CROSSROADS

He was standing at the crossroads, thinking on the feet. He fell down on his knees and murmured in the betwixt and between.
“Will the ‘rising sun going down’ rise again?”

HM at Spirit of Wipro 2017

Today in Spirit of Wipro 2017, I raced in HM(21k) with a slight improvement of a minute in PB timings. Though, I didn't maintain my beginning pace throughout the course. This demands more strength and that's hard to accrue.

Awesome run on 'Nice' road. Drizzling on the concrete road was bliss.


Nice to see sea of happy new faces in 5k and 10k tracks. As they said, there were around 13 thousands participants who ran today. This running clan is expanding exponentially.
As usual I have no complain from #SOW2017 organizers and Wipro Ltd.except medal and breakfast which was not there. 😊

Mysuru Marathon 2017 - HM

In your expatriate life, you learn to appreciate 'Go your own way alone' ( Ekla Chalo Re) philosophy. However, today I found a better contradiction to this philosophy when my dad joined me in the one of my competitive races. He specifically travelled to Mysuru from Patna to cheer me up. As far as I remembered, he joined me last time in my engineering counselling some 12 years back.

Today, I participated in the 7th edition of Celebration Mysuru Half Marathon 2017. My first attempt in the royal city helped me get my PB in Half Marathon. However, 1:56hr/21.2k pace is much slower than the target. Pace was dampen by under recovery ankle injury, unexpected 6k lake side slippery trail, and 
unknown Mysuru elevated routes.




Excuses apart, races are won against greater odds. 😊
Thanks Dad for joining me!
Thanks #HappyFeet(Sampath&Aakriti), Abhay and #InfosysMysore for improving and hosting me. This event will stay forever in my memory.
#CelebrationMysuruHalfMarathon #21k #PB

Toastmasters Value Coin




Thank you DTM Raj Kumar Bansal for hounring me with this value coin, brought directly from the World Convention of Toastmasters International 2017, Vancouver. It will inspire me to become a great leader like you are today. 
#Toastmasters #worldchampionshipofpublicspeaking#WhereLeadersAreMade #respect #service #integrity #excellence 
Infosys Toastmasters Bangalore

SPBM Training Run Nandi Hills - 20k


As they say the higher you go the cooler you feel. Similarly, an arduous uphill offers easy downhill. However, you need more power to contain yourself while you run downhill.
SPBM training run 3 brought us the tough Nandi hills. Thanks to NEB sports, one of my travel bucket lists got checked today. That too in sweats in the cold Nandi hills' foggy winding roads.😊
Not to surprize, the ultra cool challenging track helped me achieve a PB for me in 20k distance.
Total time: 1:52:36, 20k.
Yes, and the many hairpin bends confused my smart Tomtom that measured only 19k.
It was a good practice run for the next week's Mysore marathon. It posed a good challenge, enabling me to prepare better and be ready for the royal city.





Happy Challenging!

First Title - InfyRun Team Relay 2017

Then, I focused on academics for career reasons, I went places. Now, I'm focusing on sports for health reasons, I'm running over places.
Ladies and gentlemen, today my team comprising AshaAbhayPremkhumarand myself secured second place in 2500 × 4 Team Relay in Infosys Run 2017.
Excitement apart, this was my first podium finish in a corporate running event.


I asked my photographer to get me a matrimonial pic and the result is this. 😂😂





Total time: 10k, 45:50min
Personal pace: 4:27m/k
An exhilarating start of a copacetic corporate life - all credit goes to our captains Sampath and Aakriti for breaking our shells of inhibitions.
#BeMore #Infosys #InfosysRun2017 #TeamRelay #InfyDiaries #InfyRun #BeMoreBangalore #HappyFeet

2nd Daughter Taru Born




It's baby girl again!

I tried to study, I did reasonably well.
I tried to acquire entrepreneurial way of life, I ran some miles.
I got married and I superseded all the expectations.
Two kids, after two years of marriage. 😁😁😁
Sarcasm apart, both the mother and baby are good and comfortably breathing new life. The star angel is very pretty and giving tough competition to her elder sister in all super girl characteristics.
Now, I finished my race early to give them long track ahead. Wish them luck. Very long they may go. 😊😊😊🙏🙏🙏



Trust and verification

Madam Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and dear guests, Good evening!

Today my speech contains 3 acts. These acts may resemble some situations you might have experienced in your lives. I would like to have your attention for next 10 minutes.

Act 1


A century back, on the North Eastern shore of India, there was a concert (Satsang) organized in the honor of a holy man of that time. Just before the ceremony, the main singer backed out due to some personal reasons. A local boy, Narendra, with good vocals was put in as a replacement. The program was a huge success despite having a novice singer. At the end of the program the priest approached the boy and asked him, “Oh dear boy! For me you are an avatar of Lord Vishnu! You have got a heavenly voice, please come to my temple.”  
The priest was a very well-known holy man while the boy was an atheist. When the boy was with his friends, he made fun of the holy man.
 The Holy man went back to his Temple and asked the Goddess, Kali, “O Mother! Please send Narendra to me! When are you sending him?  Please send him soon!!”
While the boy kept on refuting the madness of the priest, the priest kept on requesting his Goddess to send his disciple, the same way, every day for several days.
One fine day, the boy approached the priest, questioning him, “Who are you? Why am I getting pulled towards you?”
“I knew you would come. My mother listens late but she does listen to my prayers.”
From that day onward, the boy never left his master.
The boy was none other than Swami Vivekananda and the master Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

Act 2

Two people - one boy and one girl were truly, madly and deeply in love. One fine day, the boy asked the girl, “If something happens to me, will you still love me and be there for me?”
The girl said, “What kind of question is this? Of course, I will be there for you.”
The Boy said the same thing to the girl.
Seeing how deep their relationship was, their parents started putting pressure on them to leave each other and focus on their careers. One day, the girl approached the boy and cried, “My parents have found a match for me and they are putting pressure on me to get married.”
The boy said, “Don’t break, I am there for you.”
Soon, the boy started getting serious towards his career and got an admission call from one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. However, he refused the admission as his priority at the moment was his love. He didn’t tell his decision to the girl and waited for an opportune time. On the other hand, the girl had also made up her own mind about the current situation.
Later that day, the girl finally told him, “You know, last night I didn’t sleep properly. Both my parents were crying.”
“I love you very much. I can do anything for you. I want you to remain happy in life. But you know, last night, I thought a lot. I realized, we may have been together for a year, but my parents have been with me all my life. They have made me what I am today.”
The boy asked, “What have you decided?”
The girl said, “I love you very much. You are my life. But I also love my parents. I don’t want to lose them because of you. So, I will marry the boy my parents choose. “
“What have you decided?” the girl asked the boy.
The boy said, “I also wanted the same for you.”
The boy didn’t tell the girl that he had said “No” to his dream university - just because he wanted her to be happy.

Act 3

As most of you know, I live in E-City. But before that, I lived in JP Nagar, where the house owner seemed like a trustworthy fellow. But his true intentions came out the day I vacated his flat. That day the owner returned my deposit by paying 62000 in cash and 38000 as a cheque. I vacated happily. Next week, I got a call from bank that the following cheque had been bounced due to insufficient funds. I followed the flat owner for 4 months, applied personal and police threat. Then I got my many back. That two in 3 installments.
Ladies and gentlemen, in all three acts, the situations unfolded due to the trust of the protagonists.
In the first act, I discussed trust in the divine. We call it faith - the trust that we have in our kith and kin, where you never doubt them. However today, we hardly find anyone who can qualify for our faith. You should trust but verify. We don’t have anything or anyone to have faith in. This is what the world has become today.  Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s faith in Maa Kaali and faith in Narendra joining him is rare today. It’s purely emotional.
In the second act, the boy trusted his girlfriend and said no to a life changing career opportunity. He was at a loss because he trusted her feeling for him without verifying her situation. Trust cannot be given in the absence of logic. Emotion drives away logic. Trust is an emotion but verification is logic.
In the third act, the subject had to incur losses due to professional courtesy. Here, I gave him my trust as I lived on his property for over three years.
Believe me, you can trust a flat or a flat owner, but you should not trust owner who keeps your deposits.
Trust but verify.
Now, I would like to conclude by modifying what I just said.
Trust but … ??? when you can. Thank you Toastmaster!

Toastmasters Club level Associate President Election Pitch


"What you do has far greater impact than what you say.” Steven Covey says.
Respected Election committee, fellow Toastmasters and dear guests, Good Evening!
I have been a Toastmaster for last one and half years. I always think Big, but this doesn’t give me a certificate to lead from the front. However, my past work experience gives me authority to keep dreaming Big.
I have a vast industrial and entrepreneurial experience. In my past roles as the AVP and VP of Membership, I have helped add 77 new members with more than 80% retention rate. I have tried to build a healthy, competitive learning experience through my iEvolve initiative that has helped us grow together.
My active participation in speeches, contests and visits to other clubs have given me better understanding of club functioning.
As a Club Associate President, my focus will be member, office and club.
For members, theirs dreams will by my dream. I have already developed a meaningful connection and trust with members, and I intend to continue the rapport.
For office, the officers’ tasks will be my tasks. I intend to lead the team by example.
For club, the club’s growth will be my growth. I intend to see my club as the TOP club in District 92.
Vote for Surety, Sustainability and Supremacy.

Vote for me. 

Result: I won the club level Assoc. President Election by 33-11.

Toastmasters is a place where you learn to Influence without Authority

Based on numerous feedback from evaluators, I hired one personal Tutor for my Accent and Grammar improvisation. The Tutor has more than 10 years of experience and he is always in demand. I told my reasons for signing up for courses. He was impressed with my sincerity. However, he was not so impressed with the idea of Toastmasters. As he assumed it as less productive forum.


The course went smoothly, I learnt and re-learnt many basics. Now, I'm at the conclusion of the course where I am realizing that I'm still making the same mistake with 'Sh' sound and other tough phonetics. My weakness with 'Articles', 'Genders' and other 'Determinants' are still there but I'm able to find my mistakes easily. I think, learning is life long process. So, I am evolving. I am satisfied with my Tutor.

Coming towards the 'Influence' part, I believe I'm highly influenced by my tutor. So does he. In the beginning, my tutor was apprehensive about the idea of Toastmasters. Now, in the end, he is joining Toastmasters. He visited Mecon Club and Dhavani club. He is joining Dhavani this week. He is giving his CC1 on coming Saturday and wants to complete his communication manual soon.

Ladies and gentlemen this the real testimony of 'Influence without Authority' which I can only learn in Toastmasters. Where a non-Toastmaster becomes a Toastmaster after meeting a Toastmaster. 😄
What's your story?