About Birthday, aftermath of chess and losing weight!

The gap since my last post has been eventful, to say the least and I had planned at least 3 posts during this time and here I am... writing a post that I had not planned for at all!

Birthday:After the chess tournament in which I underperformed to an extent, it was my birthday to take over the spotlight for a day or two. It came just two days after the tournament and somewhere in my mind I had thought of gifting myself one of the 6 awards from the tournament that were for the taking for the unrated players. Nothing of that sort materialized and I spent the two days leading up to my birthday on a very low note, not going around much, not studying, not blogging, not playing chess and not joking around with bhaiya and bhabhi.

The family members were quick to realise this and they planned a mini party for my birthday and as a prelude to that,I was taken to the Lajpat Nagar market to choose a new wrist watch, which bhabhi had promised me some time ago. I chose one form the Casio Edifice Chronograph Series and I must admit, costly as it was, it went a long way in pepping me up.


I had not paid any attention to my mobile because of my low mood that day and I missed dozens of calls, the maximum of them from Omveer, who even mailed me to enquire what I was up to the whole day. It was in the evening, after the usual cake-cutting mini-ceremony that I got the best birthday gift. Weekend was approaching and bhaiya and dad had 3 days holiday on the trot. Bhaiya kept pressurising dad about how badly we needed a break from the usual routine, hinting at a short trip to somewhere. Nainital, Shimla and Jaipur were shortlisted as the options and we finally zeroed in on Jaipur and Ajmer, despite the weather conditions, as we had never ventured in the Western Part of the country. It turned out to be an excellent trip and it deserves a separate post with pictures(it was one of the posts that I had planned). Hopefully I'd be able to put up an account of that trip very soon.

It felt nice to get calls from the 4 genuine friends that I've made in manipal.Given my quiet nature, combined with my growing interest in chess, I could not spend as much time with them as I would have liked in my final semester there and I still feel guilty about this. I think they know me well enough now and have accepted this as a part of my nature. The paradox is that I realise it now,when it is too late and those days would never come back. Proud to have friends like Omveer,APS, Sagar and Anubhav( in no particular order of preference).

NTPC exam...almost missed:Yesterday I was done with the NTPC exam and how I reached the examination centre is another story(the second blog post that I had planned). In short, I reached the venue at 9.55, 15 minutes after the "NO ENTRY" time and somehow managed to get in and put up a decent enough performance in the test.

The Interesting Part - A pleasant change in lifestyle: I have become used to taking taunts from bhabhi and mummy about my bulging tummy and I never paid much attention to it. I do admit being overweight but it is only about 2-3 kgs. I wished to wait and watch for a few weeks and if it gets out of control, then I'd have done something about it. But, when my mamaji commented something along the same lines a few days back, I really gave it a serious thought. He is a person I respect a lot because of his discipline and the lifestyle that he commands as a Lt. Colonel in the Indian Army so when he says something, you are better off taking it seriously. I immediately checked up my height to weight ration in the Body Mass Index chart and my BMI came out to be 24.

The key to the chart read:

19 - 23: Healthy
24 - 29: Overweight
30 - 35: Obese
35+ In danger of dozens of diseases related to heart, liver, etc.


The conclusion was that I had just entered the "overweight" category which was not alarming enough for me to rush into doing something. However, when you have difficulty putting on a 34 waist jeans, you know things are not all that well. That was the moment that I decided to "lose weight" and as I did some research on it over the net, I changed my priority to "burning fat", as the two things are vastly different. The second one is more of a permanent and healthy option.

So, my day now starts at 6 am with a 2 km jog to the IIT grounds, where I do a variety of cardio exercises, push ups, sit ups, short sprints,etc, in sync with the advice that I got from a "Mylot friend" of mine here on the net. I return home really tired at 7.30,freshen up have a short breakfast( having 5 short meals a day is critical element in speeding up metabolism that eventually burns fat .... whatever that means!), go through the newspapers and by 9 a.m. (which used to be the time I got up from sleep until a week ago) I feel so fresh in the mind. Now I have time on my side. I can do a lot of things throughout the day and still have time left in the evening to go for another 30 minute walk. Its amazing how systematic I have become.

Now I even want to study some time during the day because I have so much time left after watching T.V, going through the chess e books, playing online chess, replying to mails, earning a bit of money online and yes, I now have time for blogging too!

I really hope I stick to this regime for a few weeks at the very least.