Is this me...

Is this really me who is blogging??? This I guess is the start of a new phase of my life. There I was...a typical cosmopolitan brat, grinding my a*** at work, hardly any time to socialize and spend time with family..... leading a non-sense life style in a nut shell. But, I guess my thought process started taking a new dimension when I visited Ladakh last year in July. Being in that enchanting world, I realized for the first time that the life I was leading was not everything I wanted. That was really a wake up call. But again, I was back to same old Bombay, and the realization I had in Ladakh slowly went into oblivion.

Come February 2009, myself and a colleague of mine were driving down to one of those meetings in south Bombay and we were discussing about the just concluded Mumbai Marathon and how people from various walks of life, social strata, age groups were really latching on to the phenomenon. The CEO of our own company has become an amateur marathoner himself since the last couple of years. That's when we thought....Why Not!!! Let's start preparing ourselves for 2010 and initiate a group from amongst our colleagues for the Run next year. The realization from Ladakh was slowly peeping out and was pushing me. We approached Mr. CEO and he agreed instantaneously to mentor the group and that's how we started our own office community called Go21. Almost 30 individuals enrolled, male and female put together. Mr. CEO prepared nutrition charts and training schedules for us. Although the group has shrunk to its half size by now, the movement is still on. Unfortunately for a ligament tear in my knee seven years ago, the doctor advised me not to go through the rigours of a 21 km run. So, I am now just looking forward to the 6 km Dream Run.

In this whole process, I became serious with my fitness and took the first step towards changing my lifestyle. I started maintaining strict diet (from being a voracious eater of all kind of eatables) and also became a regular at the gym. Because of my sedentary lifestyle of the last 5 years, I had become overweight, lost my edge (in all physical areas) and also had developed a pot belly. But with the new regime, thankfully, I am getting back to shape and have already lost 7 kilos. I started leaving office by 7 p.m. (as compared to 9 p.m.) to be in the gym and sweat out for at least an hour.

These were really changing times for me. But, at the same time I also made sure that work did not suffer. Here I was, starting to balance work and other aspects of life. In the process, my wife also had little to complain (especially the pot belly) and she had been a real support for me during these changing times.

Couple of months ago, I had gone to Crosswords with my wife. She is a voracious reader. And I am exactly the opposite. There was a time, in my student days, when I used to read. Books by Alistair Maclain, Satyajit Ray, some non-fictions etc. But somewhere, the brat in me wasn't excited. Around 3 years ago, I read a book called Da Vinci Code. Everyone said, it's really enthralling and I also thought so. So I finished reading the book......in 4 months. This was me all these years since the time I embarked on my career. So, coming back to Crosswords, I thought why not pick up a couple of books and give it one more shot, since I am anyway trying to change my lifestyle. so I picked up a couple of books - one by Barrack Obama and the other was the autobiography of Lance Armstrong.

I started reading the book by Obama, but somehow I was not getting hooked onto it. But still I used to push myself thinking that I shouldn't give up since I was consciously trying hard to do something different. Then, a colleague of mine suggested to go for the other one, by Lance Armstrong.

On a flight back from one of my business trips, I started reading this autobiography. It's just around 3 weeks now and I am almost on the verge of completing the book.

So, this is the new me. I am regular to the gym, maintaining my diet, reading at least two pages before going to bed, and now blogging (thanks to a colleague who explained me how to start). My wife really can't believe it all and keeps asking me...is this you???

Yes this is me......