Biking baby steps!

Cycling is not easy! Especially, if you haven't done it for years. Even if you are generally fit. Even if you have done it in the gym. 

My enthusiasm for cycling was to be satisfied. It always seemed the thing that was missing in my list of aspirations. 

I have cycled so much in life, I was an expert in city biking, in Bombay. And, this cliche, if you can bike in Bombay, you can do it anywhere in the world. I used to enjoy the breeze on my face, with music in my ears on an old tape walkman, ever ready to take off just like that. 

And now here I was, 20 years later, trying to feed my desire to get back on that bike again. And I've been fascinated by a folding bike because I could carry it along to various places. Though, I now realise, it is easier said than done. And I was not finding a foldable bike that had a wheel diameter of 26 inches. 

When I finally found one that met my specifications on Groupon at RM 599, I jumped at it. Well, not really. I still took a few weeks before I took the plunge. It was a Korean make Excider 26 inch. 

The bike arrived one Friday afternoon, a few days before I expected it. It didn't take long to assemble, but the gear required some adjustments. I did that over a weekend and brought it back home. 

No more excuses now. I took her on a trip one Sunday night, after much preparation, getting my Endomondo and S Health apps started, out on the road, changing gears often, and up a slope, when Oh! the pedal threading came off and I fell down, a minor injury on my knee. I walked back the way home, cycle in tow, with the broken pedal in my hand. 

I parked the bike and didn't look at it for a couple of weeks. A visit to Chow Kit over that weekend, and I saw cheaper bikes, though not foldable, and felt worse. 

I mustered up my will last evening and got the bike to Rodalink for repairs. The guy there is good at his work but bad at small talk. He managed to get the threading back in place, replaced the pedal and got it back in working condition. I had spent RM 100 more on the bike with not many miles to boast. 

Last night I decided to start again, no Endomondo or S Health apps, no changing gears, no slopes, just plain simple doodhwala-biking, on a flat stretch of road just outside our place. 

I had to come back to taking baby steps, rather than try something ambitious, so that my confidence is back in place. This time it worked, and though the result may not have been that romantic, it still counted as a positive. 

And it rekindled hope that things will slowly get better!  

When you become a Dad!

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You become a Father when you hear her cry for the first time, when she open her eyes to see the first light of the world, and the doctor congratulates you, when everyone rejoices at the arrival of a beautiful daughter! 

You become a Dad when your daughter calls for you, not just once, but in a loop, waits for you, believes you will listen to all that she says, tells you everything that happened today, when you're back home after work, when she knows it's you when she hears a knock on the door, wants you to get the stuff that has rolled under the couch, too far for her to reach, narrates the same story in the same few words a dozen times, and expects you to listen without getting bored, sits at the steering wheel of the car, believing that she is driving the car, demands that you make the milk to drink today, when you're the subject character of all her cartoon pretend play, when you have to offer your hair for her to try her new clips and hairbands, when from across a crowded room she is assured that you're there for her! 

You become a Dad when she knows she is the princess in your life, and will always be!  

Last year I was a Father! This year I became a Dad! 

Genius!

In response to a question 'Is Glenn Beck a genius?' on Quora, Glenn Beck himself replied, quite frankly, and with a lot of humility, 

Tesla was a genius. Edison was not.

Sid Caesar was a genius. Jimmy Fallon is not. 

Ben Franklin was a genius. Thomas Paine was not.

Steve Jobs was a genius. Bill Gates is not.

Genius charts a totally new course. Hears notes that have not been sung and colours never painted. The rest of us, look at history and events around us and rework the clay that others have worked already.

Short answer. No.

Liked it a lot. 

The Whole Earth Catalog

The Whole Earth Catalog was published by Stewart Brand from 1968 to 1972, with the purpose of creating a catalog of everything. His intent, in his own words' was to provide education and access to tools, so a reader could find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested'. Steve Jobs called it the 'google' of his time. Kevin Kelly called it a blogosphere of user-generated content. The phrase 'Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish' was the farewell message placed on the back cover of the last issue in 1974. 

The website gives pdf versions of most of their publications. 

Take control of your stress

Source

She doesn't age

Promise yourself.... To live in faith

To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them

To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.

To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

- Christian Larsen 

Have less and Enjoy more by Graham Hill

A radical viewpoint from Graham Hill, who writes in the New York Times, about living a simple life. The point he makes about de-cluttering our lives is not outrageous. Some of the drastic scaling down may sound. 

He talks about material stuff and how it ended up running his life, or a lot of it. He says 'The things I consumed ended up consuming me.' 

He queries aptly 'What exactly are we storing away in the boxes we cart from place to place?'  

'Intuitively, we know that the best stuff in life isn’t stuff at all, and that relationships, experiences and meaningful work are the staples of a happy life.' 

'After a certain point, material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support.Often, material objects take up mental as well as physical space.' 

He summarises 'I sleep better knowing I’m not using more resources than I need. I have less — and enjoy more. My space is small. My life is big.' 

Link to original article 

Levels of belief in God by Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins states the following levels of belief in God from 1-7: 

1-Strong Theist: I do not question the existence of God, I KNOW he exists.

2-De-facto Theist: I cannot know for certain but I strongly believe in God and I live my life on the assumption that he is there.

3-Weak Theist: I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.

4-Pure Agnostic: God’s existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.

5-Weak Atheist: I do not know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be skeptical.

6-De-facto Atheist: I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable and I live my life under the assumption that he is not there.

7-Strong Atheist: I am 100% sure that there is no God.

Noam Chomsky about the US and India

Noam Chomsky about the US 

• In the United States almost nobody knows anything about the outside world — people don’t know where France is. India would be some word that they might have heard in school in passing. It is a very insular society.
• One good thing about this country is that there is very little state repression, no censorship, so they can speak out what they can. On the other hand, the internalisation of doctrine here is just overwhelming, that is, with the intellectual community in the universities. 
• And it is partly a reflection of the freedom, I think. You get an impression that everything is free and open because there are debates that are visible: the Democrats are debating the Republicans, and the press does its share of condemning. 
• But what people don’t see — and the seeming openness of the debate conceals it — is that it is all within a very narrow framework. And you can’t go even a millimetre outside that framework. In fact, it is even taught in journalism schools here as the concept of ‘objectivity’ — that means describing honestly what’s going on inside that framework and if there is something outside, then no, that is subjective.

Noam Chomsy about India 

• What is really striking to me about India is the indifference of privileged sectors to the misery of others. People don’t look, they put themselves in a bubble and then don’t see it. 
• There is a lot of talk about how India is slated to be a major power, and I can’t believe it, with all its internal problems.