Soma Purana

I know the reason for poor running in December. The temperature dropped considerably. It was in low 30s. If it falls below 40 deg F, I am hesitant to run. So, I now have decided to switch to treadmill whenever the weather is not amiable. Week of Dec. 30 2012: 0+6+0+6.5+++= Mon was on treadmill for 92 min. The machine said 1020 cal, 312 Fat cal. Wed was also on treadmill for 106 min (but a little slower).  1000 cal, 302 Fat cal. Need to include some yoga since I have lost quite a bit of flexibility.

I had stopped making the updates. I was not recording daily run miles properly in the previous few weeks. Anyway, in the last few weeks I did not meet my quota of 40 miles per week. I know I will be motivated to meet my quota if I record every day's miles and report here. What I have decided is to start this post and just edit it week after week rather than write a new post every week. Some learnings from previous weeks running. Got new running shoes. makes a huge difference. Was getting a lot of pain in the knees initially. Over weeks of running, it has gone away. Cold does not bother me.  It had been 27 deg F one morning. But I was OK after a couple of minutes with just a jersey. Each number is for Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat Week of Nov. 4, 2012: 8+5+7+6+0 +0+8 =34 Thurs there was snow. Fri, I was just tired.   Week of Nov. 11, 2012: 6+7+7+0+5+0+6=33 Week of Nov. 18, 2012: 0+8+0+0+0+0+0=8   Pretty dismal week! Cannot blame it on weather. It was co

It was a thrilling ride! The professor Keith Devlin (Stanford) was superb! I also received a certificate of completion with distinction! I cannot believe I obtained some quality education from a prestigious school. This is the power of MOOCs. Makes it available to anyone; then it is up to you. These courses are tough! Require a lot of work. But they are exciting and you do learn. Now I am deep in my Genetics & Evolution MOOC. It is getting a little bit beyond my abilities but I am hanging in there.

I finished my first MOOC course "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" taught by Keith Devlin of Stanford, an outstanding professor. It was a tough course! I am almost half done with "Introduction to Genetics and Evolution" taught Mohammed Noor, another outstanding professor from Duke. I have already learned a great deal from this course. This is a tough course too. Believe it or not, I have signed up another 16 MOOCs! Within a month, three courses will be starting; Think Again: How to Reason and Argue , Introduction to Astronomy , Drugs and the Brain .  The New York Times called 2012, the year of the MOOCs, see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&.

I feel I have no time at all, yet feel I have not accomplished much at the end of the day. So I thought I would analyze what I have done today so far and determine whether that accounts for much. I had done masters degree in Industrial engineering and had worked as an industrial engineer for five years before I switched my field. So, this post has industrial engineering bent. Let me first list the items I have completed so far. Ran 6.5 miles in the morning (started at 4AM). Made smoothie (spinach, banana, cantaloupe, grapes, orange). Only I and Neeraja consume smoothies every morning. Cooked garbanzo beans and made breakfast with oatmeal in my style. Used liberal quantities of ginger, garlic, three varieties of pepper, onion, turmeric, cumin powder, beans, egg plant, oil.  Made several rounds of coffee for everyone at home. Made salad for the day. Packed lunch for my wife and Raghu. Attempted Genetics and Evolution MOOC course Problem Set 1. Watched Mathematical Thinking MO

I signed up for an excellent online course called Mathematical Thinking by Keith Devlin, a Stanford professor. This course is primarily about mathematical logic. This is week #3 and it is going really well. It is not easy though! I also have signed up as a community tutor (I don't know yet what my responsibilities would be). My initial experience was so exciting, I signed up for a whole bunch more future courses. Computational Investing, Part I Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning Introduction to Genetics and Evolution Introductory Organic Chemistry - Part 1 Know Thyself Calculus: Single Variable Introduction to Astronomy   These are all given by eminent scholars in ivy league schools and are free! These are known as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course). If someone is interested they can browse the available courses at https://www.coursera.org/courses   I would think, this is going to be the future!  One can design and follow whatever curriculum th

Going forward, I will update the walk review once a month. I want the blogs to be more of my thoughts and insights rather than mundane exercise talk. This week I made 42 miles with some difficulty. I had soreness in my knees during many nights, particularly, in early morning. I thought it was because of inflammation after long walk. But, I think it is because of lactic acid buildup that happens when aerobic respiration is not adequate and the muscles resort to anaerobic process to generate energy. This is just my theory, I need to understand this a bit more. For the last three days, however, I have not had this soreness.

Records are meant to be broken. 8 miles was my limit. I do 8 miles several times now and one day this week, I made 9 miles. I walked six days (one day I didn't walk, not because of weather, but because my knees cried for rest). I made 46 miles putting 6 miles in the bank. My walk these days consists of an hour of brisk walking and an hour of slow running. I am using arms quite a bit while walking. I start off with my arm at 90 degrees from midsection and swing it to slightly higher than my heart level. This is helping me tone my arms muscles. I may have to perfect my arm movement to maximize the benefit.

I walked all 7-days, hooray!!! I made 47 miles total. 40 goes to my quota and 7 in the bank. 8+7+5+7+6+7+7=47. This week was very god for walking. No rain; temperature was perfect.

I read quite a bit of fiction. I generally don't buy books but pick them up at Mercer County Community college where I teach as an adjunct. Most of the books I pick up are trash, I throw them away later. Some are real jewels. "Eric Ambler's "Dirty Story" and Herman Wouk's pulitzer winning "Caine Mutiny" are among those. I just re-read Dirty Story. Absolutely fascinating novel. Caine Mutiny is just marvelous reading (I didn't like the movie that much). I liked Dirty Story so much I ordered The Light of Day by Ambler whose sequel is Dirty Story. The Light of Day is just as suspenseful and a delight to read. The unlikely hero in these sequels Arthur Abdel Simpson is a thief, a swindler, a coward, an opportunist, somehow gets mixed up in constant troubles, yet, a reader walks away extremely sympathetic towards Simpson and convinced that the world has dealt a very unfair hand to him. I don't think I would want to swap my life with his, but exper

What a wonderful book! Read it for the 2nd time. Once you start, you cannot put the book down. This novel won Edgar Award for Best Novel, 1964. In the previous post, I wrote about a little madness in Zorba. You see plenty of fascinating madness in the Simpson character in this book. I have read another fiction by Ambler "Dirty Story" which is a sequel to "The Light of Day". Simpson's life is so rich because of the madness. I can't wait to re-read "Dirty Story." Eric Amber writes so well, the language is so appealing. I wish this book was made into a movie!

Watched two movies. "The Apartment" (2nd time watching) was truly entertainng with superb performance by Jack Lemmon who should have won best actor award. The movie won best picture and bagged four more Oscars. Truly entertaining movie. "Zorba the Greek" with finest acting by Anthony Quinn as Zorba who also should have won best actor award got three Oscars. This movie is quite entertaining while being quite philosophical. The most memorable quote for me in the film is Zorba's " Damn it boss, I like you too much not to say it. You've got everything except one thing: madness! A man needs a little madness, or else..."

I wrote about walking 8 miles on one day and suffering severely from it. I concluded the week with 7 miles on Saturday. For the week, I did 5+8+0+0+6+7+7=33 miles. 7 miles, even 7.5 miles, is OK, but 8 miles messes me up. Strange! it looks like, going forward I can meet my 40 miles per week criteria (provided it doesn't rain). I did 7.5 miles today. I still miss my bike riding.

Buoyed by successful week of walking and running, I upped the ante and covered 8 miles on Monday 8/20/2012 with 4 miles of it running. Boy, did I exceed the limits that my body demanded! Later that day, that night, and the following day was hell. It felt like my knees were falling out. Advils did nothing. With a couple of days break, I restarted doing moderate 5 miles with no running. I have to figure out slowly what I can do. I am sure over time, 8 miles will be alright, but right now, I am no where near it.

Last week I was watching a program by Shawn Achor called "Happiness Advantage." Achor was relating how we derive happiness with smiling. He said if we put a pen across our mouth forcing it to look like we are smiling broadly, the brain dumps dopamine into the system and we feel "happy." It is not a real smile, there isn't a real happy event, but basically, you have tricked the system into producing happiness. So, I am feeling happy and I also know nothing has changed. Is this schizophrenia? Who is feeling happy? Is that me? why do I feel happy? Brain produces thoughts in mind. Theologians claim, mind and the body are two different things. The "body" includes brain. To illustrate, I have to use two me's, letme call them I-A and I-B. I-B decides to put the pen across mouth. My body and brain decide I must be feeling happy and introduce dopamine. Increased levels of dopamine cause I-A to feel "real" happiness. This statement assume

Last week I walked five days covering approximately 25 miles. I started week 2 (Sunday 8/19) upping my previous per-day miles. I walked today 7 1/2 miles in an hour and a half. My goal is to do 40 miles in one week going forward. Probably, I will feel sore later today.

I am almost there to restart biking. But until then, I take the less pleasurable exercise of walking. I walked everyday Monday through Friday. On Friday 8/17/2012 I walked 6 miles, actually, I ran 2 miles of it. Exactly an hour and a half. That is pretty good rate. I am sure it is as many calories I would burn with 2 hours of bike ride, but not as enjoyable. Bike ride is tasting freedom in its purest form! I woke up today, Saturday, early as usual, reluctant to walk. And the weather cooperated, it was raining.

This morning before my first long walk after the 7/9/12 accident, I observed two planets close to crescent moon the moon being in between the planets in a line. One that was closest was really bright. I was not sure what these planets were and looked up on Google and found a fantastic website http://earthsky.org/ Now I know! Venus was the bright planet. I read that you could see with telescope four moons of Jupiter. I should get a telescope and try that sometimes. This is the first time, I uploaded a picture. I am planning to insert more images in my future blogs. I am going to look for another planet, mercury, insert itself on the dawn of August 16th. Two more planets - Mars and Saturn - will appear in the sky in the evening on August 20, 21, and 22. I am going to look for this.

It has been more than a month now since I rode bike. I am eager to get on my bike again but it is too early. So, I started brisk walk this morning at 5AM. I walked for little over an hour and covered 4 miles. I ran the last mile. Feels great! Gradually, I want to increase the length of my walk/run so I am prepared for bike ride again at my old pace.

The B and C vitamins are water-soluble and need to be replenished every day. The water-soluble vitamins tend more toward the deficiency side, since they can't be effectively stored. Drink your OJ and milk daily! The fat-soluble ones such as A, D, E and K, need to dissolve in fat and finally end up in the liver and in body fat, where they're stored until they're needed (much like fat). Fat-soluble vitamins, therefore, don't require daily consumption. They stick around inside the body. One downside of storable vitamins is that they can build up in your system, so it's important to make sure you don't overdo it. In other words, be careful with supplements containing fat-soluble vitamins.

There is a spurt of recent studies that indicate that nutritional supplements may not be needed and may actually do some harm. I do take some supplements such as multivitamin, flax seed oil capsule, garlic tablet. Recently, due to my fractures, upon my orthopedist's recommendation I am taking also Vitamin D and calcium supplements. I was concerned about the harmful effects mentioned in the recent studies and looked up several articles on internet. One thing that caught my eye was that o nly animal foods have vitamin B12 naturally. Vegetarians may not get enough B12 unless they consume milk, food that are fortified with B12 or take supplements. Fortunately, one serving of milk contains about 1.2 mcg of B12. According to NIH, adults require about 2.4 mcg (micrograms) of B12 daily. Breakfast cereals also are fortified with B12. I don't eat cereals and don't regularly drink milk. Vitamin B12 deficiency causes tiredness, constipation, loss of appetite, weight loss, ner

I was very hopeful a week ago. Now I am not so sure. I had a lot of pain in my arm last night. I took oxycodon and slept well. I don't like oxycodon; it causes constipation for me.  I have no visibility to really know what is happening inside in my arm. I only feel the pain. This suggests perhaps there is a lot of muscle damage which has to heal. The fractures seem to be healing; I would know when I go for X-rays in a week. My biggest problem is sleeping at night. I have tried two couches and two beds in my home and one bed (not the one I usually sleep in) and one couch are relatively more comfortable. I developed a shooting pain in my right lower rib which was not injured during the accident. I must have injured it during sleep while turning or so (turning myself or getting up is always difficult). What all this suggests is until I heal completely, my internal condition is unpredictable. At the cellular level, in the neighborhood of my injuries within my body, it must be a

human body is marvelous. it forced me to rest and sleep a lot and was quietly working furiously inside to heal the injuries and repair the damaged bones and tissues. my job is to provide it all the necessary supplies, basically, a lot of calcium, vitamins, antioxidants. i have been consuming tons of vegetables, milk, vitami d and calcium supplements. i use tumeric, ginger, and garlic liberally in my food. very little carbohydrates. even with zero exercise i have maintained my weight so far. this regimen has worked very well so far. all non-fracture injuries have almost healed. i don't know how well fractures have healed. i would know when i meet the orthopedist in a couple of weeks and he takes new x-rays. i have stopped taking pain killers. i don't like them. they constipate and interfere with healing. sleeping continuously for more than 3-4 hours at night is difficult since i feel co much discomfort with immobile left hand in sling and not being able to turn on the side.

i saw dr. iturbides yesterday. i love him. he is the best doctor and the best human being. he is my doctor for the last 17 years. i consider him my brother. he had called me twice after the accident. he really cares about his patients. he examined me and told me there is no new bad news. so, i have scapular and pelvic fractures and a lot of abrasions, muscle damage, internal swelling, and pain. fortunately no internal organ damage. this is going to take many weeks to heal. after that i start physiotherapy. could be several months before i am back on my bike. i may never recover 100%. i am not mad at the lady who hit me. it was an accident. i believe human body is amazingly adaptive and will heal.

met orthopedist today. he took more x-rays and said i have pelvic bone fracture also. he wants me to see my regular physician dr. iturbides so he can check abdominal area again since i still have some pain there. i am eager to get back on bike. it is going to take some more weeks i am sure. my boss and colleagues are extremely supportive. they have told me i have to focus my health first. but i should be able to get back to my regular work within a few days if not sooner. i am immobile and will be for a while. i cannot drive. pari has to drive me around. fortunately, she has summer break. i am so much dependent on her now. i cannot even button my shirt. after i take my bath she cleans and bandages all the open wounds and puts and buttons my shirt on. i can put on my brief and pants myself. i feel tired easily and has been sleeping most of the time.

what a difference a day makes! when i was riding my bike yesterday morning, i was hit by a car driven by an indian lady. i spent five hours in the emergency department of robertwood johnson hospital. i have suffered scapular fracture and pretty banged up on my left side. i am in terrible pain. i am seeing an orthopedist tomorrow. this is going to be long road to complete recovery. parvathi is helping me a lot. i still went to teach my evening class at mccc. parvathi drove me there. the students were very cooperative. teaching is one thing that will make me forget the severest of pain. i feel so helpless, it is very difficult to do simple things, like putting on a seat belt. i found out there is not much you can do with physically sound right side but messed up left. i have severe abrasions, a lot of swelling on my waist, upper arm, wrist, shoulder. i will get through this with others help over time. i am more afraid of discovering what else may have happened in the shoulder area.

Lest someone think I make over 400 Km week every week, let me assure you, it does not happen. My week's goal is 200Km but some weeks I cannot make it because of some reason such as rain or my knees are hurting. When it is ideal I try to put some kilometers in the bank to compensate for bleak weeks (or should I say weak weeks!). When it is raining or snowing, of course I cannot ride, even though I have been caught in the rain after I started in which case I rush back. If it is just a drizzle I don't care, I continue riding. I ride in winter too, just dress up well. If the roads are covered with snow, even slight amount of snow, I don't go. If it is too windy, I don't ride. Riding against wind is so hard.

My bike ride week starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday. The last week (7/1/2012 through 7/7/2012) was probably the best week and deserves a post. Rode the bike all 7 days of the week. 18 hours of riding (average 2.57 Hrs/day) 433 Km (270 mi) Average of 24 Km per hr (or 15 mi per hr) 7645 calories burned 979 fat calories burned  

Watched this movie on TCM. It is a b&w old movie but very enchanting, romantic movie. The acting by Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper, and other characters too is absolutely superb. I found out this movie was a commercial failure in the US when it was released but was a huge success in Europe.

When I was an undergraduate engineering student (I think, I was in my 2nd year), I left my bicycle outside my room in BK Mariappa hostel where I was staying and forgot to lock the bike. I dozed off and when I woke up my bike was gone! I was extremely sad. I knew how difficult it was for my parents to buy me a bike and I was careless. My parents were farmers and also ran a morning cafe to supplement their income. My bike's cost was like six months of the cafe income. I knew they would be devastated and worried endlessly how I would break the news to them. Bike was essential to me to commute between my college and hostel and now I had to get up early and start on foot at 6:15 AM for my 7:30 AM class every weekday. I was not worried about that but I was reminded what a financial struggle it was for my father to buy me the bike which I lost. I sat down to write a letter. It took many hours to compose the letter and I cried and cried writing it. Basically I told then what happened an

I use ginger and turmeric liberally in my every morning oatmeal breakfast. I have my own recipe which is basically a lot of vegetables. What I prepare lasts for three days for me and my wife. The general ingredients are: less than one cup oatmeal 2 big long eggplants 2 big red onions lots of frozen vegetables (beans, corn, peas, tindora, amla) Ginger Turmeric Hot chillies Mustard Peanuts Canola oil Tamarind I don't put garlic since I don't like the taste but I have been taking one 2000 mg garlic pill everyday. It will take some time to clearly understand the effects of all the ingredients in my oatmeal breakfast, but I want to start off very briefly with what turmeric and ginger do in this post. Turmeric : turmeric is at the top of the spice class. It is known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, its use as a digestive aid, and it ability to improve circulation. Its benefits are touted to be improving cardiac health, relief of aches and

Watched last night this beautiful movie based on a true story about a textile factory worker in a small town in North Carolina. The worker starred by Sally Field gets involved in organizing a union and goes through a lot of hurdles and eventually gets fired. But unionizing succeeds. This movie won best actress Oscar for Sally Field. Ron Leibman as the union organizer is superb and should have won the Oscar too. A moving drama.

When I was a toddler I developed an enormous interest in a machine, our village bus. I was truly fascinated by it. When I was like 4 or 5 years old, my everyday routine was to run in the morning around 7AM to the village bus stand and observe goings on in and around the bus. The bus would leave for Chinthamani at 8AM, but most of my interest was in cleaning and preparing the bus to depart. The first activity was to push the bus to the village tank (this was actually a small dam) about 500 yards from the stand. Why the bus was pushed rather than driven, I don't know to this day. Who would push? Under the approval and direction of the Cleaner of the bus it was the kids like me who would do it. It was a privilege for us. Every bus would have three workers, a driver, a conductor whose job was to collect fare, and the cleaner who job was to keep the bus clean, do minor repairs, haul passengers' luggage to the roof of the bus and bring it down, and to yell "Right" when e

I am proud of my cousin Ananth Kumar (my paternal uncle's son). He went through a traumatic childhood (see my own experience detailed in several stories published in 2006 living with his eccentric and abusive father) and wandered through several stages before realizing his true purpose. For the last ten years or so, he has been running an unconventional school near Mysore and has changed the lives of many a children. He and his wife Padma have dedicated their lives to run this school which is free and admits kids who are dropouts, opportunity deprived, and essentially considered hopelessly uneducatable. Today, Ananth is attracting numerous volunteers and funding support from across the world because nobility of his purpose and purity of his mind. Ananth is an idea machine. His school is called Kaliyuva Mane (Kannada for "the house for learning") and adopts the premise that the school is for children and not the other way around. The strength of this simple premise is h

When I went to village school in India, there were not too many girls. Most involuntarily dropped out. My own two older sisters were not allowed to go beyond 4th grade. That has changed now. Even in villages, there are lot more girls pursuing high school education. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many top ranks in 2012 obtained by girls. Look at 2012 top SSLC ranks in Karnataka. Max achievable score is 625. Names highlighted are girls' names. Name Marks NAVYA 623 PALLAVI 621 ANUSHA 621 SHREESHA 621 NAMRATHA 620 S Suhas 620 PRIYANKA 619 MEGHA 619 SOUMYA 619 KRITIKA 619 TEJASWINI 619 AKHILA 618 KARTHIK 618 VASUDHA 618 GAYANA 618 LAKSHMI 618 SRIDEVI 618

Neptune is the farthest planet in the solar system after Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status. It was discovered mathematically first and then by observation in Sep. 1846 (166 years ago). Neptune completes its revolution around the Sun every 165 years. So, it just completed one revolution since the time of its discovery! It has seasonal changes kind of similar to ours but its season lasts for 40 earth years! It has 13 known moons. Triton, the largest of Neptune's moons didn't form in place but was "captured." Triton was going around the Sun like another dwarf planet but fell into Neptune's gravitational pull and became its moon.

I don't know the answer. No one knows. Whatever one believes it can never be proved. But let me present a scenario that is theoretical and could throw some light into the question. Suppose, I am just a set of molecules organized in some very complicated way. This organization of molecules creates me, let us argue. Then it should be possible to create another being with exactly the same organization, complicated nonetheless. Once it is created the new being possesses the same shape and form as me and it exhibits the same thoughts, consciousness, feelings, emotions, knowledge as me. Then the question arises, who is "me"? Is it me or the other being that just got created. Me and the new being can never be the same since, physically it is impossible for both me and the new being to occupy the same space. Exactly where we physically are at a given time also is a variable that affects how we evolve. Then there should be minute but distinguishable changes that occur between

I was listening to an interview on NPR with an author of a recent book which inspired me to write this post. Have you considered how much your life has benefited from what others have done? Of course, the major effort was by your parents. And your teachers, and many others you may or may not even know about. How about Indian mathematicians who invented zero? And those who invented and perfected domestic agriculture and domestication of animals? And scientists and engineers whose toil resulted in all the modernity we see around and use. The list continues. Great authors of fiction and non-fiction, movie makers, actors, directors, bus drivers, and so on and on. Without the efforts of all the humanity that preceded us, we could, at worst be still living in caves risking being eaten by a wild animal or dying at the age of 27 of natural causes, or at best tending a farm and domestic animals.Much as we always find some thing that is missing in our lives, we live a far superior and enjoyable

I had watched this before. Excellent movie. Won the best Picture Oscar in 1967. Outstanding performance by Rod Steiger who won the Oscar for best actor. Sidney Poitier is simply superb.

I was in Cleveland, OH for two weeks during 2/13/2012 to 2/25/2012 for some training. My bike rides were interrupted due to this trip. During the first week, my classes started at 6AM and ended at 2:30 PM. I was so busy after classes with conference calls, I couldn't use the gym or walk. However, during the 2nd week, my classes started at 3PM (and went on until 11PM). I decided to not bother with office work during the mornings and instead decided I would walk. I found out Cuyahoga Valley National Park ( http://www.nps.gov/cuva/index.htm ) was close to my hotel. I discovered wonderful trails and other natural beauties and took advantage every day in the 2nd week I was there. The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail is iconic. It is more than 100 Km long and runs along Ohio and Erie canal that was built in early 1800s. This canal was the source of fabulous growth Ohio enjoyed over a century helping industry and transportation. I always started my walk on this trail at Lock 39 and d