9 October 2009

Durga Pujo 2009 Dance

Durga Pujo is the biggest annual festival for Bengalis from India. We had a three day clebration here in Atlanta. Nikita and Natasha both danced in it. Sharmila was busy getting dressed up in all the traditional Indian clothes and chatting with her friends. I was mostly eating and making myself scarce. 🙂

The first video is of Nikita. This is a song composed by Tagore. Dance choreographed by our personal friend Mayuri Ray. The second one is by Natasha and her friends – this time a popular Bollywood song and choreographed by Mayuri again. The last one is by Natasha and her friends to a popular Bengali song – choreographed by another talented friend of ours – Indrani Kar.

Nikita’s performance – “Megher Koley”

Natasha’s first dance – “Dheem Ta Na”

Natasha’s second dance – “Saat Bhai Champa”

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19 September 2009

Roswell Rise N Run 5K

On Sep 19th, 2009, I ran the Roswell Rise ‘n Run 5K Run. This run is organized by NFCC along with the City of Roswell. The mission of North Fulton Community Charities is to prevent homelessness in North Fulton by supporting families in their homes during short-term emergencies. By pooling the resources of local religious, business, and civic groups and individuals, NFCC assists families with rent, utilities, transportation, food, clothing, medicine, and other basic needs. NFCC also coordinates special assistance to families during the holidays and matches volunteers with projects. You can learn more about them at http://www.nfcchelp.org/ABabout.html

I posted 26 min 50 seconds which is still woefully short of my PR – around 23 minutes. But the borken toe did much better and I did finish the race!!!
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11 September 2009

Kaiser Permanente Corporte Run, 2009

On Sep 10th, 2009, I ran the Kaiser Permanente Corporate Run/Walk. I was the executive sponsor for Equifax. Our team had multiple people coming in at 19-20 minutes. Of course, I hobbled around with my broken toe around 27 minutes – 26:57 to be precise. More than the toe – I did not pace myself correctly and ran out of breath.

It was great fun though. Lots of folks came from Equifax. Almost 15000 runners. Met up with Amitesh!!!
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10 September 2009

Free Bacteria

Free Bacteria – courtesy Indian Railways

We just came back from a great 3 week vacation in India. The kids had a blast and so did Sharmila and I. There were some memorable moments in the trip – I will try to capture some of them here.

On our way back from our home town Durgapur to Calcutta, we traveled by Shatabdi express – which is one of the most premier express trains. If you did not know this, India is the country with the maximum amount of railroads in the world. It is the primary mass transit mechanism. If all the railroads in India were laid end to end, you would reach the moon and come back quite a few times. Indian Railways has 1.6 million employees!! Talk of corporate complexity. Due to the size, Indian railways prepares and presents a separate budget a day earlier than the budget for the rest of the stuff in India!!!

Anyways, back to the story – so, we were traveling First Class AC (you will be surprised what a strengthened dollar can help you do 🙂 ) And half way thru, we were offered “premium dinner”. Usually, I avoid all outside food in India – but this once I decided to try. I opened the tray and the first “welcome note” that greeted me had me guffawing out loud. See the picture below!!

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Not only does the bacteria come free and clear, it is ready for use too!!! 🙂 🙂

For the curious, Sharmila had an upset stomach for three days after eating the meal. Talk about truth in advertising!!

Rajib

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15 August 2009

Totally Running 5K

On Aug 15th, 2009, I ran the Totally Running 5K. As an interesting aside, my last run was on Independence Day of USA – my adopted country. The next run, today, was India’s Independence day – my birth country!! I ran a race after a long time – since I was suffering from shin splints. First and second miles were strong but had to relent in the third mile. Will need to train more.

Came in at 25 minutes 23 seconds.

Race proceeds will benefit the Will Davison Memorial Scholarship Fund, founded in memory of William Clay Davison. For more information, please visit www.willdavisonmemorial.com
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