My attempts to incorporate some (any) form of physical activity in my life have ranged from the strangely optimistic (I once bought a gym membership for an entire year) to the vaguely absurd (I once signed up for a sport that involved catching hen).

I've finally found something I like doing. Running.

I can barely believe this myself, but I really do enjoy it. The reasons are many.

I chanced upon a great site, Lifemojo, that had a series of articles on how to run, how not to run and how to look good while doing it.

Two things got me started. One, I learnt that I didn't have to run fast. Apparently, it was most appropriate to run at a speed that could allow conversation. I liked that thumbrule. Two, I realised that I didn't have to run a lot, at a stretch. Small bursts of activity (at least to start off with) were recommended. I liked that even more.

Incidentally, I also found my schedule become less arbitrary, and that lent itself well to a 30-min slot being free almost every day. Better still, this slot was in the evening. That meant no early morning wake up struggles. More importantly, there was the cloak of darkness to hide that flab bouncing around, a garden that is practically free of humanity after sundown and a cool, gentle breeze for company almost unfailingly.

What I like most about running, though, is that my mind practically goes blank. I find myself unable to hold on to any train of thought, mostly because I am trying to concentrate on doing what I am doing right. As a beginner runner (not even that actually), I try and ensure that I am breathing right, running at the right pace, stepping in the right place and that my track pants are not falling off. I am like a newbie driver who has to look out for a hundred things while driving, and hence finds himself/herself unable to let the mind drift around.

I have been reading up a little bit on Vipassana, and I found what I experience to be somewhat in line with what they say one must experience when one is meditating. I find myself concentrating on my breathing, and I find emotions come and go without reacting (or being able to react) to them. That can't be such a bad thing.

The 30-minutes of blankness, then, are like a different form of meditation, and that goes well with a life that is unpredictable at best, and absurd at worst.

Greetings.

My last post about anything was on May 29, 2009. I believe my last serious 'thought' about anything was around the same date.

Without further ado, being the abominable narcissist that I am, I welcome myself back to regular writing about randomness. I don't know about the three of you reading this blog, but I missed myself.

As always, there are no guarantees on how long this will last (for all you know, this might be the last post for another six months, but what the hell), but let me try and make the most of it while it does.

In the interim, I have found Twitter to be exceptionally useful in allowing me to express my thoughts (mostly rants to the tune of 'WTF is going on here?') in one sentence. No thinking, no editing - just type and hit 'post'.

It's good to be back to good old, old-fashioned writing.

Giddy up, folks! (Yes, the three of you.)

I've noticed a spate of carpooling sites mushroom around here. It's fashionable to say that it's a great idea. I think it's crap.

There are too many things that must match for a carpool to become successful. Timings, workload, office location, home location, etc. It's difficult to match all that for a country like India, where the work culture is not like that in other developed countries - come in at 9, bugger off at 6. Being the back office of the universe, we tend to work our butts off all the time.

Getting all that to match for two people is a challenge, getting it to match for three is a difficult challenge, and instead of trying to get it to match for four, one would be better off trying to teach a zebra what a zebra-crossing means.

Carpooling has to be tackled on an organization level. Chaps working in the same company/same IT park/same SEZ would be better advised to share their ride to work and back. Which they do anyway. So where really is the need to have a fancy website?

What carpooling in India demands, is flexibility and spontaneity. Flexibility - you're not stuck with the same group of chaps everyday. Spontaneity - car pools get formed and dissolved on a per-journey basis. There's a bulletin board that poolers and poolees use. At 1400 hrs, pooler types in to the board, "I am leaving for home at 1730 hrs - from Mindspace, Malad to S.V.Road, Khar. Anyone want to share a ride, call 98XXXXXXXX by 1530 hrs." Poolees, on the lookout for a ride home, are checking the board, and get in touch with pooler if the ride is of any use to them.

I hate Barista, and I hate Cafe Coffee Day even more.

There, that's out of the bloody way.

I think they're expensive, noisy and filthy.

The coffee is terrible. The hot coffees are insipid, the cold ones are full of snow and the iced ones are a magnificent explosion of ice cubes.

The food is stale. All fancy names, and no go.

And the service is appalling. I have always detested being served coffee in a plastic takeaway glass by a 15-year old doofus who wouldn't be able to tell the difference between coffee and bird pee even if he drank a gallon-odd of each.

We've dumped Baristas and CCDs.

Enter Vrindavan, Krishna Vihar, Ratna, Vishwa Bharti, Sairaj and Sadanand. In no particular order.

Udupis are the new meeting joints. Power lunches, quick bites, and everything in between.

Cheap, fast, reliable. Great food, fast service, Oracle-sque waiters. And that filter coffee.

Bahrista, I'll tell you what, take an effin' walk.