On Winning the Parent Lottery

The title of this post refers to a statement from the book and the talk, "The Last Lecture", by Randy Pausch, a Computer Science professor at CMU, who had pancreatic cancer, to which he succumbed in July 2008. In his book, Randy talks about how you have don't have any control over who your parents are, and how they influence your life the most in your formative years, which in turn determines to a large extent, the shape your life takes.

Recently I read three books on stories of women oppression- "A Thousand Splendid Suns", "Not Without My Daughter" and "Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia", based in Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia respectively. All three are excellent books, and I highly recommend reading them all; especially the first one. I shudder to think what would have become of me if I were to have been born in a family/country that had no concept of women's rights whatsoever.

I feel *so* lucky to have been born and brought up in India, by excellent, very well educated parents who have been most supportive and encouraging of all my ambitions, my goals and my interests in life. I very much consider myself to have won the parent lottery, hands down.

Support SaiG for his Fund Raising for LLS

Cross posting from my other blog (Pradnya's Marathon Training Blog) to target a wider audience:

A very good friend of mine, SaiG, is training with Team in Training with the goal of running the Seattle marathon in June 2009. In addition, his goal is to raise $3900 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This is a cause that is extremely dear to my heart. Even today, when I hear of someone training with TNT and raising funds for LLS, it strikes a deep chord.

Please support SaiG in his mission to help fund research on leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and hodgkin's disease, and to help support the patients of these diseases. Together, let's help fund and find cures for these terrible diseases..

Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Darwin

This day today, 200 years ago, marked the arrival of Charles Darwin into this world. On this occasion, I'd like to recommend the following award winning documentary to readers: "The Genius of Charles Darwin" by Richard Dawkins. A very fascinating and very well done documentary..

On A Mission

It had been a long time since I had gone on a hike, and I had been itching for a nice time in the wilderness. This trip to the bay area seemed like a good opportunity to get some hiking done. Getting friends around here to join me turned out to be quite tough. I was therefore thinking of doing a hike alone- something I had done a long time back- almost 7 years ago. Finally, a couple of days worth of frustration, caused by a freak online stalker, pushed me over the edge on Saturday morning, and I concluded that a good hike was the only way to get over my sinking spirits.

I decided to hike up Mission Peak in Fremont- a trail I had done with a friend, about 6 years back. As I set out on the hike, I knew exactly why I was impressed with this hike the last time around. The vistas were just excellent. The elevation gain of about 2200 feet is quite obvious in the kind of scenes you see on the way up. You get a view of the entire bay area below you and the nearby mountains, as you ascend the peak. The 2.8 mile trail is a moderately difficult one, with a continuous upslope, without a single respite. The trail is entirely worth the strain on the muscles, and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone interested in hiking.

I reached the summit in about a couple of hours, and estimated that I could get down to the trailhead in about an hour. This left me plenty of time to enjoy the scenery around, to eat my packed lunch, to read a book, as well as to watch a couple of paragliders take off and glide down the hills. And to regain my lost enthusiasm..

By the time I had made it down to the trailhead, I had successfully accomplished my mission of cheering myself up. I am not certain whether this was due to the beautiful vistas, or the thrill of ascending a challenging peak, or the unique charm of a solo hike, or the contemplative nature of the hike, or the fulfillment of some not-so-obvious desire somewhere within, to assert myself as an independent woman after reading a couple of books about stories of women oppression in Afghanistan, Iran etc. The sum total of it all was that I had a wonderful time hiking up Mission Peak, alone.