Goals appraisal - 2017!

"If Procrastination is a religion, I would be god"
I heard this line long time back (don't even remember who said it), But it stays with me as its true in more than one ways in my case. So much so that, I intended to do the goals - review after first quarter of the year. And the way thing are going, it seems that it will be half yearly review by the time I'm able to finish this.

As I try to sum-up the progress for the first few months of this year. One major trend was lack of progress for last few month. The graph or progress was great for Jan and Feb and then hit a major road-block in march and April.

Part of this reason can be attributed to the usual pattern that any new year resolutions follow, As the initial euphoric state subsides and the reality hit home. The progress graph plateau. Which surely happened in my case too. But the bigger reason was our inhuman workload since March causing us to work ungodly hours. In fact; the stress / workload / frustration of this job is now beginning to enervate me. But more on this later (in perhaps another blog past).

But still its the first half of the year only. There is still chance of pulling in back on track. Hence a review of the goals set in beginning of new year might give me the necessary impetus plus some insight on where I'm going wrong.

So, here are the goals plus their status for 2017!

PHYSICAL HEALTH
1) Reducing weight - target 70 - 72 kg from 76.5 kg.
Right now I stands at 74.5. I think from now onward things will get really tough as the inital flab is easier to loose. My schedule plus travelling is making it even tougher. As for learnings, Now I'm concentrating more on physical workout than dieting as there is a limit to how much you can starve. I've started Yoga and plan to start running in morning too.

2) Participate in Delhi half marathon
This is one target where I really needs to buckle up, The half marathon will be in November. Not even six months remaining and I'm yet to start running. This particular goals has been on my to - do list for many year now and I don't want to miss out on this yet again.
Immediate plan - starting running from Monday which is tomorrow

3) Weight training -
I tried to do bit of weight-lifting but still in really initial stages. Needs to really work on my stamina. Hopefully the Yoga and running (still to start) might help.

4) Yoga / Pranayam -
By coincidence I started Yoga. But then you need luck on your side sometimes too :). I pushed my wife to start Yoga and I"m learning from her meanwhile. But not so regular unfortunately which I plan to change.


MENTAL HEALTH

1) Blog - On it , right now too :)
Jokes apart. I had great beginning of this year in terms of number of blog post. The momentum is still helping me even though last few months were really dry. Still on track for at-least one blog post per year. But needs to be wary to slipping behind. One good thing is that now I'm never short of writing topics as I write on my experiments or experiences with new things.
Had five blog post now in this year in five months now.

2) Books
I'm a self confessed bookworm. Reading keeps in on track and away from depression. I've intentionally set very modest target of only 12-15 books for this year (Which I have already revised to 20 books). I have read around 8 books so far; so already ahead of schedule. The thing that I wanted to do differently this year is read more meaningful non fiction books rather than simple thrillers because those I can finish in one night itself. As someone very aptly has said that books are windows to the world. I need to include more variety in my reading lists. I also plan to write some sort of summary / review / my take away / new words added in my vocabulary from these books.

3) Writing my own book -
Here comes the road block. I have experienced writers block even before writing a single chapter of my book. In spite of setting a target of writing an initial draft of my book. All that I have managed to achieve is to read a book on how to write a book and perhaps short listed some topics. At this pace, writing a book is really a distant dream only.
Perhaps I need to track the progress on monthly basis and select the topic and brief outline of the story at the earliest (which is the basic requirement of writing a book)

4) Recreation -
The target selected under this heading was learning to play the guitar. Unfortunately I don't even have a guitar yet. I have been thinking of buying a guitar but perhaps it will be too late by then.
I will try to buy a guitar within next two months only

As if the above targets were not enough, I have added another target based on the circumstances from last few months. Which is to change my job. Based on my last experience. This target itself is so big that it dwarf all other targets. And moreover it consumes lots of time and energy too.
I plan to change this job max by the end of this year.

In the nutshell. All that I need to do now is to exercise daily and try to write something (However inconsequential that may be ) daily so that I have enough writing practice. Hopefully then by next month I will enough writing practice to start draft of my first book. Side by side finding time for buying time to buy guitar and running each morning.

I'm sure its going to be as difficult if not more as it sound !

My experiment with outdoor camping

Being one with the nature was something that I always craved since my childhood. In the hindsight, I was lucky to spend majority of my growing up years in different parts of the country which were diverse in geography but having one common pattern in the sense that all these places were more closer to natural jungle than concrete jungles.
In any case I'm not a very extrovert kind of person , therefore I always find myself more at home in secluded, calm places than let's say in crowded malls etc. I'm always game for any sort of adventure activity especially if it involves being closer to nature. I've done river rafting, trekking, para-gliding, lots of annual vacation at hill-stations. But now I wanted to take this to next level. One of crazy idea in my bucket list is to experience outdoor camping away from the hustle - bustle of the city. Actually inception of this idea was originally in my close friend's mind but like most of my goals, hobbies. I borrowed and made it my own.
For quite some time, Camping on our own has been a topic which we frequently discuss, mull over, make some crazy plans which never fructify, decide in all seriousness that we will definitely try it next week. It sort of developed a pattern which we somehow were not able to break; till last month.
This time too it started as it always do. While chatting on skype, My friend quipped that we must plan for an outdoor camping experience. Since it was starting of new year. I was all pumped up with the excitement and motivation that you feel for a few weeks after making your new year resolution. Plus as the luck would have it. I have to attend some family functions spaced over a week with some 2-3 days free in between. As I would be in my hometown during this duration with nothing else to do and keen to get away from my ever-inquisitive relatives. I find it a golden opportunity to satisfy my long standing whim. And thus begin my first experience with outdoor camping.
The family functions in question here was wedding of two of the cousin's from my wife's side. And as I said earlier, they were spaced round the week. So I landed up in Chandigarh with the family and duly attended the first set of functions. Though we have talked about the preparations for this camping trip but unfortunately we could not take out time for this. Hence it was more like in the spur of the moment kind of trip plus there was still some ambiguity about the real dates as I was not sure when I could get away from all this madness. But fortunately everything went alright and I ultimately landed up at my friends place to start this camping experiment. The situation was one down, one to go. As I was free from my last moment urgency; But my friend was still in his office and hence very much occupied. Anyways after some time both of us as relieved of urgent pending to do task and ready for this adventure of outdoor camping.
So we get into the car, took some bare essentials for this trip and decided to head towards Morni hills which is a secluded yet famous weekend getaway near Chandigarh, especially for college going crowd. To reach this spot, you actually has to pass through natural forest. The distance is not too much. Plus there is a guesthouse operated by Himachal tourism right at the bank of lake after the Morni hills, called Tikkartaal. In fact during one of my previous visits to this place, I had spotted some tents just beside this guesthouse which I understand were operated by the tourism department itself. We were also open to the idea of renting out their tents itself. The way to this lake was itself picturesque perhaps moreso because of the calm and tranquil state of mind that we were in. We stopped at the local grocery shop in a village on the way and bought some Knicks knacks, snacks plus matchbox as we were in full on mood of outdoor camping with bonfire. We made two more stops in the way; One for collecting some dried up branches of tress (We were lucky to find heap of wood, preferably collected by some nearby villager) and for having a plate of maggie. Yes we actually find one person selling noodles and other snacks very close to our destination. As we were in no hurry whatsoever and were feeling a bit hungry too. We stopped at that place. The food-stall owner actually has built a nice place for bonfire. Overall it has nice ambiance and the maggie was not bad too. After treating our taste - buds. We went ahead with our trip.
And so we reached our destination. It was twilight and the lake nested inside the mountains was looking even more beautiful. Coupled with that village like ambience with some folks songs sounding on radios, smoke rising from homes signaling the preparations of foods. Few snap of this picturesque setting below.

 Everything was perfect but for one thing, there were no tents there. Even though we had carried makeshift tent in our car, still it was a big setback for us. Anyways we were not going to abandon our program due to this reason only. So we decided to follow our initial plan of enjoying the idleness even without the tents. So we sat down on the ground just near the parked car. The place was the best combination you can get between total wilderness yet accessible and secure. Although on secure part I will cover later on.
We chit chats for some time, talking about all the irrelevant topics. The sun was setting on the horizon. We could see the shadow of the same on the surface of the lake. After a while the stars come out. The sight of star-studded sky is something that you don't get to see in our over populated city. Once the darkness descends, it was almost impossible to judge if we were sitting in a city or a totally remote area. Just like the stars above, this total darkness is again something we are not accustomed to. After a while, I could see the shadows lengthening which was driving my over creative mind into overdrive. After some time, we decided to satisfy our whim by making the bonfire. In any case darkness coupled with dogs barking (I have a long-standing phobia against dogs) was unnerving us. We took out all the dry figs collected by us and got to the task to making the bonfire. Even though we had shown the presence of mind to buy matches from the grocery shop on the way. Still, lighting the bonfire was not as easy as it sounds. Unfortunately we did not have kerosene or anything else. All that we had was some old newspapers lying the car which we promptly wrapped on the wooden sticks and try to make the fire. It does not seems like we were going to make the Bonfire till my friend come up with a indigenous innovation better known as Jugaad. He found out that polythene film wrapped on the wooden fig makes it catch fire really easily. Probably because polythene is in essence oil and it should catch fire. Anyways it was a good hack. As to the question of where to find the polythene. Well unfortunately full of India is a big dustbin. You can easily find empty water bottles and chips / snacks packets scattered more-so at so called ecologically sensitive areas. For us it was actually hitting two birds with one stone. As not only we were enjoying outdoor camping, but also helping in cleaning the environment a bit. We actually made a good Bonfire, pic below.

The problem however was that we never had enough wood to last the night. So after a few hours maximum the fire was done and we were left with some simmering amber as the last remnant of our adventure. The forest nearby start appearing more scary since our eyes were not yet adjusted to the absence of light. I could sense the hair on my arm standing due to the sound of some dogs barking nearby. Good that we had one long stick which gives us some sense of protection. However false that may be. We fooled around for some more time but then ultimately could not shy away from the big question. Should we erect the tent lying in the car. After some deliberation also considering the fact that we don't have anything to defend ourselves. We decided not to pitch the tent. Another major factor was that it was really chilly outside and we were not prepared for that either. Hence we decided to use the car as makeshift tent for the night. I agree it was a major dampener and not at all a substitute for what we have originally come for. But it was a best bet we have considering the circumstances. Anyways we were as uncomfortable as we would be in a car parked in a totally secluded and forest area. My friend obviously is used to such adventures and was quite comfortably asleep in new minutes But I was almost fully awake for the whole duration.

At around 4 in the morning I think, Our body started reminding us we did not had anything for dinner last night (Save for some snacks) and the sleepless night did nothing to assuage the hunger rather it increased it. Hence we said enough is enough and with that our first experiment was finished. Nonetheless we still had some fun which includes night drives in foothills around Chandigarh; looking for some road side dhaba which would be open at such ungodly time and having steaming hot parantha's early in the morning.

So with this we concluded our first experiment of outdoor camping.

PS : At more than 1600 words, This is the longest blog post I have ever written