Three Short of century

Recently I went to the doctor for a health check up. The doctor like more than 50% of us in India seems to be an avid Bhakt of our national religion - Cricket.
He had one of the cricket channels running on the small monitor inside his consultation room.
There was a re run of one of the old one day matches may be as part of the program " India victorious" or something. It had Viru bhai one of my favorites thrashing Pakistan all over the place at Karachi in front of their home crowd.
Incidentally I remember Viru hit a century in this match and got us the win. If you also see the statistics whenever Viru has done well India has gone to win the match.
It was my turn . The doctor did the usual checks - Blood pressure, weight, height etc..
He suddenly said " Three short of century". I thought he was talking about Viru's innings which was on the TV. I said no doc he scored a century in this match. The doctor replied "I am not talking of Viru, I am talking about you- Your weight is Three kgs short of a century and you better do some thing about it". He also went on to say that I am on the wrong side of fifty and though I have no issues ( Sugar cholestrol etc.. ) as of now they could come any time into my life if I indeed reach the century like Viru.

Pushpa my better half was also around when all this conversation was taking place. She immediately wanted to me to get into serious action. I was trying to tell her that nothing much has changed in my life style - I still slog like the earlier days almost doing sixty hours per week at office. This in spite of people giving feedback on my 360degree appraisal that I need to manage my work life balance.(Honestly I never understood the cliche - Work Life balance - How can you balance across two different areas. However this is one big topic which seems to be part of the employers attractiveness as per many of the surveys on why people join and stay with an organization!!).

Now coming back to my "TSOC" (Three Short Of Century) stage Pushpa wanted some immediate action. I was trying to tell her it is in my genes and can't do too much about it now. I reminded her that her mother-in-law was healthy which must have passed on to me. She did not relent but got me enrolled in a yoga class with a personal trainer.
Murthy was my neighbor's yoga trainer who used to come home and teach. Very interesting character. He is 63 and is up every day at 4.30 and his first class starts at 5.30. He says he has 5-6 classes everyday of an hour each and he does all the exercises along with the students. So some stamina for his age. He always prides himself as an innovator and tries modifications of existing Asanas like Trikonasana ( All others teach only one variant- We are the people who teach you four variations. Even Shilpa Shetty's video does not go beyond two variations!! Says Murthy proudly).
Thanks to him and some discipline from within I am now able at least do some of the asanas and pranayama regularly. Now I can do Kapalbhati for 350 counts and the target is to reach 500 counts.
According to Baba Ramdev Kapal Bhati is a great way to keep your weight in check besides fighting the battle of the bulge. Now that I have been a regular for the last 2 months wanted to check with my wife and kids whether they see any visible change in my mid section. My daughter claims she can see change of few microns off my belly - Guess she must be having fantastic eyesight.

Anyway the Pranayama has helped to feel energetic through out the day while I fight my battle of the Bulge and making sure I don't reach the coveted century mark.

Hopefully time will tell whether this happens and hope my motivation also holds up in my battle ...

Electricity Bill

Usually I try to pay my electricity bill through the bill pay option from my bank account.It is so convenient. However I missed it this month. Madam who usually gets hyper for smaller things ( thanks to My pop in law's genes) gave me an ultimatum to pay it immediately and she could visualize the line getting disconnected by evening. Basically she gave me no choice.
I had no clue where to pay and finally my driver said that BESCOM has many franchisees where you could pay. So I went to Reddy's pharmacy on our road Only Cash the lady at the counter said firmly.I came back with a receipt which looked like a idli vada bill from Srinidhi sagar with a big smile. Madam was very apprehensive and was sure that the line getting disconnected. She said I should have gone to the BDA center and paid through cheque etc.. Fortunately so far our line has been intact and Reddy's franchise also seems to be.

This takes me back to my childhood days where paying electricity bill was an elaborate affair at home. My grandfather had an efficient system of keeping track of the electricity bills. All the bills and the receipts used to be filed on a metal hook which used to hang from the door knob in our hall. As soon as a new bill came in my grandfather will check for it's accuracy and in case of small rounding off error he used to talk on how things were absolutely prim and propah during the "angrez ka Zamana" and how it has changed post independence. Thank god he is not alive today. "Gaplas" and "Gotalas" of Rs 10 crore don't make front page news any more as the levels of corruption seem to have their own standards if they have to be front page news.

Coming back to the electricity bill payment my grand father's excitement levels used to go up in exponential proportion as the due date for the electricity bill approached. He would have talked to everybody including our milk man,maid servant, vegetable seller, fruits vendor and his friends on how he has an important assignment in the coming days - paying our electricity bill.
On the "D" day we used to leave home by 5.45 AM ( we have to be beat the queue was his solid argument) with the exact amount for the bill. ( My grandfather would have checked this at least a dozen times in the past one week).
Most of the times we weren't the first one in the queue. Another grandfather like mine would have beat us to the queue for the "mission possible".
Finally around 7.30PM we would have completed our "mission possible" with a beaming smile on my grandfather's face of having completed a big task. Post our "mission" we had hot idly and coffee at the udupi hotel which was only reason I used to accompany my grandfather.
How I wish we could go back to a time where life was not complicated and even simple tasks were taken with a lot of seriousness and responsibility and completing them was considered such a big achievement.

Aduthathu Ambujathai parthela!!

Recently I went for a an annual executive health checkup. Supposed to be an annual one but I guess I did this after almost 18 months.
While most of the critical reading were ok some especially the ones around triglycedrides count was on the higher side.
One of pushpa's close friends husband also went through this routine some time back . After the tests the wife has absolute control over what he eats at home ( What he eats outside is anybody's guess). Pushpa and her friend have a daily review , which generally lasts for a couple of hours when they are busy and about four hours plus when they have time. They keep sharing notes especially on the hot topic of the season- diet control. Pushpa's friend is putting her husband through a diet consisting No sugar, No oil, no rice, no Alu virtually "No Nothing" with "Ghas Phus" in its native form for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Besides this new therapies like " Louki Juice" in the morning which is supposed to a super cure for triglycerides gets tried. Now I am a guinea pig for this medicine at home now. No more bed coffee- First glass of fresh "louki Juice" and then anything else is my routine now.
"Aduthathu Ambujathai parthela" is a famous song from K.Balachandar's classic of 1968 "Edhir Neechal". What this song talks about is comparison (fair as well as unfair) with your friendly neighbors and how to be one up on your neighbor and friends.
In this song "Pattu Mami" compares her husband "Kittu Mama" to their friendly neighbor ""Aduthathu Ambujam's" husband. She says how their neighbor gives in to anything "Aduthathu Ambujam" asks for and how "kadoos" and "Kanjoos" Kittu is.
Thanks to the "Aduthathu Ambujam effect Pushpa keeps suggesting and trying out new "Patti" remedies on poor me. ( Having Methi Husk is next in line for me - Yuck).
I guess the concept of "Aduthathu Ambujam" has taken a new avatar especially in the IT industry and is renamed as the market benchmark exercise which has helped consultants to come out with fancy reports and charts on where you stand against all the "Ambujams" in the industry.
This has opened up a decent revenue stream for consulting firms since now "looking good" in front of "Ambujams" of the industry is the new survival mantra especially for senior management.