The joy of finishing

Thanks to the Managing Committee of Nitesh Forest Hills Apartment Owners Association (NFHAOWA) for allowing me to organise the second edition of the Marathon events for residents. 

Nitesh Forest Hills and Nitesh Flushing Meadows are two phases of a single residential condominium community located in Seegehalli - far from the madding crowd, yet with accessiblity to ITPB and Whitefield. 

The layout of blocks within the phase wise development, the private spaces between the phases in the premises makes provides for a decent stretch which can be used for walking and jogging track. The community in general is very much into fitness - walking, jogging, yoga, sports activities and so on. Both these put together was the motivation for making a running track for conduct of short form Marathon events - 3 km, 5 km and 10 km events.

The race track layout

The laid out track track is approximately 900m and so its 3 rounds for a 3k, 5 rounds for a 5k and 10 rounds for the 10k. The very first version of this kind of event for Nitesh Forest Hills and Nitesh Flushing Meadows was in 2019 and was conduced on the night of 19-Jan-2019. For the 2020 event, named 2.0 the date was set to 1-Feb-2020 a Saturday. This event saw 300+ registrations in categories of Under 8, 8-12 Kids, 12-58 Adults and Seniors. 

Teaser

My boys 9 and 6 both ran the 3k events and my wife also ran the 3k under the adults category. Last year's event since I was organiser and officiating on the runs, I watched from the side lines cheering my many friends who were running. This time around I was fortunate to have have a different person officiating so I was able to participate in the 5k event. 

All our race bibs

The events were conducted between 4:30 pm and 10 pm with time slots to various categories. Kids ran first and both my boys completed the full 3 rounds. My younger one ran the rounds hands holding with two of his close buddies. By the time 3 rounds were finished, both of them were huffing and puffing with pink all over their faces. 

The adult events started about 8:00 pm with the 10k runners starting up first. 10 rounds is no easy play and it requires some practise and strong will. I realised this as I was running my 5 rounds. By the time I finished the 2nd round, I was already panting and realised that I need to slow down to work out a breathing rhythm. Thus rounds 3 and 4 were managed. Round 5 was the hardest but executing this 5k without making any stops or walking was very very satisfying. 

With fellow residents and friends

Till 3.0... 

Malaysia - Truly Asia

Kuala Lumpur - Fusion blend of ethnic Malay with Indian, Chinese and other imports. Liberal with the right spirit of tolerance for an Islamic country. Beautiful lush green is seen everywhere. Although the tropical climate and the 3m of rainfall a year helps, Malaysia does take in every effort from citizens to remain clean and beautiful.

Getting there - Bengaluru - KL convenient flights from IndiGo, AirAsia and others. We took an IndiGo flight. Booked though https://www.makemytrip.com 

Visa - eVisa or e-NTRI visa for Indians. Applied though portal: https://www.malaysiavisa.com.my submitted scanned PDF versions of Passport, Birth certificate for kids, Travel tickets and hotel confirmation. Payment is online. Visa was processed in 2 days and PDF document of the e-Visa was sent to the registered email address. 

SIM card - Grab one from the airport itself. Maxis and Digi are options. We went with Digi and they had a 7 day plan which worked perfect for us. It was quite good. There is no registration, no ask for any KYC etc, configuration is super quick and you have a local Malaysian number in no time. This is a MUST have. 

Grab Taxi - Download the app, its a super Uber and its very very convenient and cost effective. https://www.grab.com/my/download/ 

Attractions that we visited. 

Aquaria KLCC - an underground aquarium on multiple levels. Freshwater tanks, planted tanks, reef setups, saltwater, brackish, terrariums and palaudriums, this place has it all. The best first place to visit on this tour that the kids enjoyed so much and we also had a lot of fun.

KL Tower - This is in the KLCC area and since we stayed at the Grand Hyatt it was just a 5 min Grab ride. There are 2 tour options when you get there a visit to the observatory on the lower level or observatory plus sky deck visit on the top level. Take the combined ticket it is worth it. We visited the tower when it was already dark and the city scapes were well lit. 

Batu Caves and Shrines - First stop on a day trip. The shrines on the ground level followed by trek up the long and coloured flight of stairs and visit to the shrine on the top. Was a hot and humid day, get blessed and find your way back to the transport to continue the journey. 

Genting Highlands - After Batu caves the day trip took us to Genting. Fun ride in the cable car to the resort and mall on the top. Day excursion, the water theme park was unfortunately closed for renovation but shopping, indoor kids theme park and food was welcome and made up the good part of the day. Fun place but pricey. 

KL Bird Park - Short Taxi ride away from KLCC. This is a bird park where visitors enter into enclosures with birds.

Petronas Towers and Suria KLCC Mall

Malacca City Tour - Another Day tour that we booked from the Hotel's concierge desk. Churches, Museums, Religious harmony, city walks and the river side are main attractions. There is enough to do in Malacca that once can spend about 2 days in this place. We got a taste of the Baba Nyonya cuisine. 

Aadhaar Seva Kendra (ASK) in Bangalore - Such a breeze.

Aadhaar Seva Kendra (ASK) is now open in Bangalore. This is located in the Basavanagudi - South End Circle area. The ASK is a stone throw from the South End Circle Metro Station.

This brings the focus firmly back on Aadhaar. Previously banks and post offices were the only avenues and the experience was a bag of crap. 

The ASK is modelled on the lines of the Passport Seva Kendra and starts with a queue for Token, then a document verification queue, payment and then registration or update services of the Aadhaar.

The process was super quick and super easy. After standing in queues for tokens in front of SBI bank for hours together just to be denied tokens since only 10-15 are issued each day and taken for rides by the bank staff (treated like shit), the experience in the ASK brought solace to my soul. Thanks. Amen. 

Read my review on Google: https://goo.gl/maps/3MtExNPGpQKM8Wvc7

The 12th of March, 2014

Pallavi spent over night at the hospital - Fortis @ Bannerghatta road. The OT was scheduled for 8.45 am. Pallavi's mom was with her. 

It was almost 7.45 am when we (My mom, Arjun, Pallavi's dad and myself) got into the car to drive to the hospital. The road was full of early morning commuter traffic. Plus frantic calls from Pallavi for filling up the consent forms for the OT. Finally keeping cool prevailed and we reached close to 8.20 am. 

Consent form all done, Pallavi was wheeled into the OT and I was asked to suit up for entering the OT. It was freaky and I was nervous, but I also became the first family to see the just born being whisked out. Boy. Elation mixed with a little let down. But Pallavi was happy or appeared to be so. It was more difficult for me to underplay my emotions.

Outside and in plain clothes, started the big list of messages, whatsapps, phone calls for conveying the message. Somu, Pallavis cousin came by and helped in getting the hospital admission for the new born. Mom was making sure Arjun was warming up to the new born when Pallavi was being wheeled in after the procedure. 

Sudha athai and Sunil came by to spread the congratulations. It was a lot of merry. Arjun was feeling hungry and I dropped him and his Apaai back home for him to have lunch and the mid afternoon siesta. I rushed back to the hospital to get some quality time with the new born without Arjun getting J. He really loves his papa... 

Pallavi was wide awake, but in of stiffness and pain, but was chatty and thus started a conversation about the name for the new born. Frankly all our plans was around a girl baby. We had a name picked out. We had plans to move to a bigger house and a bigger car. All thats out. Back to the name. We picked one from the shortlist. It is making its way to the BBMP registers as I make this post. More on the name later. 

Medical insurance pre-op required some work and that was promptly dispatched. A box of chocolates for the people visiting us at the hospital and a  box for the Nurses Station. By now return messages started pouring in, and this was all done for. Pallavi's mom was to spend the night at the hospital and I drove back home with Pallavi's dad. The day was phenomenal, but a good indication of the days ahead. 

So thats how God spoke it. Two boys it is. He has designed for Arjun to have a little brother to spar and for the little one to have a big brother in Arjun. One thing that is going to be simpler is that the love will be equally distributed, not just from us but from the family in whole. If it was a girl, then Arjun would have been J much much more. I think thats what was in Gods will... 

Volleyball

One of the good things I enjoy about living @ Springfields is that it has a 20k sq. ft ground. And a few gentlemen folks who man the Springfields Welfare Association (SWA) happened to be Volleyball enthusiasts and put an outdoor court on this ground.

So almost every evening, few folks (sometimes 3 a side to sometimes 4 teams of 7 members each) get together for a few games. Now that we have played almost for a year, the games have become of good quality.

I used to play Volleyball back in school. I used to enjoy it so much. I was one the most loved things for me at school. This was the teens. I have not played any sport in my 20s. Now I hope this changes in the 30s that an hour or two of Volleyball a day will keep me fit. Will it keep me flexible, I do not know. But its a thing I enjoy about every day @ Springfields.