Running Playlist

In no particular order, my current running playlist (to keep my mind on the trail and off the pain in my shin).  

Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
Emerson Lake Palmer - The Enemy God Dances With The Black Spirits
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
The Doors - Strange Days
Greg Lake - Still. . . . You Turn Me On
The Eagles - One Of These Nights
Alan Parsons Project - The Tell-Tale Heart
Aerosmith - Dream On
Iron Maiden - The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner - Clips from the original 1962 movie with the Maiden score
Rush - Dreamline
Rush - YYZ
Black Sabbath - Neon Knights
Porcupine Tree - Stars Die
A-ha - Move To Memphis
Moody Blues - I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock n Roll Band) - #GraemeEdge #FTW
Yes - Changes
Anthrax - Antisocial
Metallica - Creeping Death - Live at Sofia Bulgaria. Lars Kills It!!
Metallica - Orion - Live in Korea 2006
Asia - Only Time Will Tell
Boston - Amanda
Pink Floyd - Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun - From the Live At Pompeii set
Porcupine Tree - And The Swallows Dance Above the Sun
Bob Marley - Iron Lion Zion
Camel - Never Let Go
Camel - Stationary Traveller - The muse that is Andrew Latimer
Journey - Message of Love
Infected Mushroom - Disco Mushroom
Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit - Grace Slick, West Coast Scene Queen :)
Starship - Sara
Blondie - Call Me
Rush - Marathon - Every runner's song!
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower
Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird (Hipster chiquitas knock themselves out from 6:10 *winks*)
Deep Purple - Soldier Of Fortune
CSN - Wasted On The Way
Dave Matthews Band - Pantala Naga Pampa / Rapunzel
Porcupine Tree - Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape


Happy listening
S

Evenings in Mumbai

Mumbai Race Course.

Evenings.

Fragrance Of Freshly Cut Grass.

Walkers

Joggers

My Tribes Folk

Dogs

Crows

Children Playing

A Setting Sun

Horses

Jockeys

Me And My Thoughts

15km

Happiness

Dinner with Son

The wife is travelling in work. Which means I have lots of time with the son over the weekend.  Last evening we went out to the City.  Took a metro ride from Byappanahalli to MG Road and walked down to Church Street.

I indulged Atri's ask for a Captain America shield and Thor's Hammer - franchised by Marvel, of course - at The Entertainment Store, a place that sells a LOT of comic, fan fiction and other stuff from pop culture.

We then went to On The Edge for dinner.  Among my favourite open air rooftop restaurants in BLR.

About two hours of good conversation - the world as seen from a 6 year old's eyes - involving Marvel Avengers, Lego Ninjago, Roll No. 21, art at school, his troubles with some homework, how he wants to be the fastest person ever in Tennis and so forth.

Always listen to the little things that little children tell you, those things are big in their world.  It makes it easier for them to tell you the truly bigger stuff in both your worlds.

Dinner was a Mango and Papaya Salad accompanied by Chilly Lime Prawns in rice paper rolls, for me.  Atri had a Fish Benedict, served on a bed of spinach and mushroom mash.

I drank a couple of Vodka Rickeys for good measure.  Apple juice for the son.

Dessert was a NY styled Cheese Cake with Rum and Raisin Compote.

At the end of it, Atri said, "Giving you 100 marks Sumanth. No thousand. No, 59.8 thousand trillion marks and 55.  For the dinner. You let me eat how much I wanted and bought me fish and cheese cake and apple juice. Great Sumanth."

Am ecstatic.

We took the Metro back and then drove home from the station. Just passed out shortly thereafter.

An evening very valuably spent.

Runner's High

I ran this morning. For 37k. In a little over 4h20m. 

Not unlike the long runs that I have been doing these last few months. With one difference though.

As I started running post warm up, I just kept going on... and on... and on... and on.  I felt no pain in my legs, no cramps in my belly, no breathlessness in my lungs and no accelerated heart rate.

It was a throwback to about 6 years ago, when I experienced a state of physical and mental being, as beautiful as this.  The mind was empty except for one thought - to run as much as I could; the body willingly assisted.

I am  resting now.  In complete sat-chit-ananda!  Or, as my tribe know it, the Runner's High.

On the Eve of 45. . .

The best advice I have received in a long while.

"Sumanth, tomorrow is your birthday. So, don't do certain things that you do daily. Take the day off. Go for 20 rounds in our community.  We will watch Avengers cartoons after that." - Atri

Peter Goalby. . . Rediscovered

I was curating music over the weekend and was listening to some old treasures. . . Which led me to Uriah Heep again. . .

Was struck by the voice of all their vocalists - Right from David Byron (in my mind, their greatest) in the beginning to Bernie Shaw (their current).  Whilst I loved John Lawton, he pretty much lasted just 2-3 albums, I think.  His version of "Feelings" is one of my favourites.

Sunday, I discovered the voice of Peter Goalby - His rendition of "Think It Over", the b-side single from Conquest, which made it as a main track in Abominog.  I had sort of "collected" Abominog, Equator and Sonic Origami, just to tick a box and have the complete UH set.

But, when I listened to Goalby's version, I was blown away.  

Here's the link to the song on YouTube.

Totally captivating and deep.

What Feet Should Look Like

After a good run, this is what they should look like.

Happy and together.

Notes from T.D.

"It's like in this universe, we process time linearly forward. But outside of our space-time, from what would be a fourth-dimensional perspective, time wouldn't exist.

From that vantage, could we attain it? We'd see our space-time would look flattened, like a single sculpture with matter in a superposition of every place it ever occupied. Our sentience just cycling through life like carts on a track.

See, everything outside our dimension - that's eternity. Eternity looking down on us." - R Cohle.

The Druid's Prayer

I chanced upon the Druid's Prayer several years ago.  For some reason, I never did think to put it up, although I do relate to it almost daily.  

Recently in a conversation with a dear friend, I gave the TL DR version:  Druids are reverent and worship nature.  The prayer however, captures it all for me:

Grant, O Nature thy Protection
And in Protection, Strength
And in Strength, Understanding
And in Understanding, Knowledge
And in Knowledge, the Knowledge of Justice
And in the Knowledge of Justice, the Love of it
And in the Love of it, the Love of All Existence
And in the Love of All Existence, the Love of Nature and All Goodness.

Peace
S

PS:  The prayer itself is supposedly composed by the Welsh visionary, Iolo Morganwg.  I am simply posting it here.  All copyrights belong to the respective owners of this work and not to me.

Reunion

Was invited to a WhatsApp group of my classmates from School. 

Been having a good time reconnecting with old friends and renewing old acquaintances.

Of all the bonds that hold us, the ones forged in the school years are the most enduring and willingly carried.