Chepauk Stadium

I went to Chepauk stadium to see India vs Australia match. This was my first live match experience.  I was there for about 1:30 mins. I had a wish to see one four, one six and one wicket which was fulfilled.
Good to watch star cricketers playing live less than 1 km away.
Sachin was just a km away, Dhoni was 1 km away.
Cricket commentators who I adore, Harsha Boghle, Ravi Shashtri and many many more were just a km away.
Wow! What an experience! That too just for Rs 125 / day. Commuting was so very simple with MRTS.

Its very difficult to follow a six, before you see in the air its already in pavilion.

It was still winter in Chennai but how much hot it was! How the players stand this heat for a full day!

Have resolved to see every test cricket match which is played in Chennai.

Safal Niveshak's Art of Investing Workshop Chennai

I attended this session on March 3^rd. I always told myself that I will definitely attend a session on share market investment , but was  looking out for the right opportunity.

I tried looking up  for classes and workshops  but in vain.

Sometime in Jan I came across the Safal Niveshak website and got hooked, then immediately came this opportunity and I took the plunge.

I like Vishal’s genuine passion for sharing knowledge. It’s a unique offer, he asks you to give any amount between 0 to Rs. 5000  for this training!

The following are the things that I learnt:

1.       How to read the Balance Sheet and look out for key numbers and ratios and using Screener

2.       Buy a share  which is much below its intrinsic value. You need not buy the best share, it’s enough to buy even an ordinary share at a discounted price. What you pay is very important.

3.       Do not buy Index Funds in India.The books that you have read which asks you to invest in Index Fund is written by western authors. The Index that they have here in India is not mature enough and it has frequent churning of stocks. 

4.     Do not sponsor the higher education of your child. Support till school and they can take educational loans

5.       Uncertainties and Risks are different. Risk can be calculated, uncertainty cannot be. Need to know Human Behavior so that we can respond rather than react to situation (one of the  materials for this training is “As A Man Thinketh”)

6.       Have journal to jot down your investment decisions(Better to have a journal for life as well). This will be helpful to reflect upon the decisions made and refining the investment style.

Here is the link to the blog regarding the workshop

The Ear phone

I need the ear phone. I hate exercise and I want to trick myself in hearing songs so I take my mind out of the body pain. But nowadays I’m into hearing discourse and podcast.

My previous company was in Siruseri and I used to commute for almost an hour to office, so that’s 2 hours a day. I’m not a guy who falls asleep as soon as I sit in my bus (this is an office bus). I’m not that  gifted! Also I cannot read in a moving bus, so I resorted to listening to radio and also sometimes to audio books.

Switching back to the present day, I’m hearing discourses in Tamil during my exercise. Right now its Velukkudi and Suki Sivam to be specific its Vidhura Needhi and Bhagavat Gita respectively.

All the audio books I heard previously were in English and this is the first time I’m into hearing a Tamil audio book (discourse).

Intellectually refreshing and physically beneficial (remember I’m exercising as I am hearing it)

The Joy of cycling

I invested in a second hand cycle for around 2.5 k. The cycle is a Hercules TurboDrive. I initially thought of using the cycle to commute from my home to St. Thomas Mount Railway Station which is just 3 Km. But I had to drop it for 2 reasons.

1.       You will sweat profusely

2.       The Road is dominated by motor vehicle its getting very intimidating and risky

So I decided to use cycle only for exercise and for some light travelling.

It was very challenging to start cycling after almost a decade gap and it was very exhausting. But the joy of cycling is very exhilarating.  

After traveling in scooty all these years, travelling in cycle looks very less noisy and there is a sense of proud that I’m reducing my carbon foot print and also improving my fitness.

I have started a project called ‘know your neighborhood’. I have been in this place since childhood but had never explored all the pathways and also never registered the street name. So I have taken it upon myself to memorize the street name and also to explore some of the streets which I had never gone before.

The Ring road is nearby and  people go for walking and jogging early morning. I used to go to that place using scooty but now using my cycle. So my exercise is starting the time I leave home.

Exercise Literature

The one that I’d referred time and again is “Fusion Fitness”. In one of Hanselminutes, Hansleman interviewed a fitness guy, who suggested three main strength training. I read it again here (thanks to a link from Hanselminutes)

Here is my notes

Lift a weight so heavy you can lift it only once, you're building strength (and, oddly, not much mass); lift a weight you can move six to 12 times, you're building mass (and, oddly, a little less pure strength); ease up to a weight you can lift 50 times, and you're working muscular endurance (which is great for endurance sports but tends to undermine the first three, shrinking your strength, power, and muscle size).

Dead lift, Bench Press, Squat - These are the best exercise

Taken from here

Should I invest in Barbell? Do I need a bench or can I Start with Floor Press

The Interpretation of Murder – Review

I read this book because it had Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung as one of the several characters. Yes there are just so many characters and Freud is not really central, but I’m happy with what little space this novel had kept for these 2 characters. The Dialogues especially of Freud are beautiful.

I read a book to understand culture and to understand a person’s feelings. I’m not good in visualizing scenes and I don’t really read a murder mystery. So even though the author had painstakingly painted a historical picture of New York, I was just indifferent towards it.

This is a historical psychological thriller with several characters and after you completed the book, even though you knew that you dint guess the ending, you will realize that it was good that you dint guess.

There are various twists and you know rationally that all these things are plain impossible, even though the author tries hard to give reason for everything. It’s too complicated and so very artificial. After two-thirds of the novel, the story becomes a plain thriller and you lose interest.

After the novel ended the author explains where he used his imagination and where he used the facts. Now that’s interesting, the author had painstaking researched a lot and that’s a lot of hard work. It’s a good commercial historical thriller worth reading.

Good bye Gym

Historically I had time and again enroll to gym, assuming that it was a good investment for health. And I try to go to gym regularly since I had paid a lot of money. I did not have good experience in gym, there are some tough guys showing off and you being a meek try to keep a low profile. Also the Gym instructor wants you to recruit him as a persontrainer and doesn’t care about you until you go in for a trainer package.

Enough is enough… I want to simplify life. I think we knew reasonably well about what is needed to be in shape and healthy. Fitness is important and the basic fitness can be achieved by any individual. Gym is just one of the many ways. I wanted to explore other ways.

1.  Martial Arts – I did research on this too. Good instructor is very hard and the training cost is becoming very high. I decided to shelve this plan for now
2. Sports – I would love to play, but with IT life and no vacant space and unavailability of people I will shelve this also for the time being
3. Your own exercise regime

I’m going to try option #3. This will be the cheapest but requires a tremendous will.

The first step towards developing the will, using the public medium blog. Announcing the start of Fitness Diary.

I hope I see this blog several years later and feel happy on what I have achieved.

Wish me good luck!

Aim: My Pant Size is 34 I want to make it 32 by May (3 months timeframe)

Exercise Regime to start with

If in home – Push up, yoga exercise with focus on tummay reduction, Squats, Cobra Push up and some free kicks.

If outside its cycling and jogging