Running and Helping

I always wanted to do different things and things that are different. I believed that I'll gain experiences that are unique which nobody else have gone through. To my surprise I always find people who are doing things I thought would be different and unique. Well I have realized that "Its not the things that are different but I'm getting to meet different people who are willing to do different things". Does any of that makes sense ? If not don't worry about it.

Why Marathon ?

Last year on of my friend asked if I'm interested in running a marathon and my instant answer was NO. My dad always say "If you are not doing something now you will doing it when you are a year older" he did not mean the marathon though :-) . Things have changed in the past few months since I have started practicing. Now I do have a reason. I'm running this marathon to bring smile to some of the under privileged children in India. I'm running with the charity organization called Association for India's development or AID. Click here to know more about AID and Click on 'Projects' to view the list of projects supported by AID - Maryland chapter

About AID

Is it Fun ?

Well running 26.1 miles is not that fun but there are few things during the course of the training which are really fun. Like

1. Going to brunch with friends after the run and loading up on all the carbs without any guilt.
2. Gossiping during the run.
3. The image of water melon and bagel in front of eyes . I never used to like bagel before.
4. Yelling "Looking Good" to your friends who are trailing behind when they are really looking not so good. I'm telling thats lot of fun
5. After the run you get to hear all the excuses why someone couldn't run as good as they should have

I need all your help

Feel free to donate any amount be it even a single dollar

A few suggestions-

$25 (Approx. one dollars for every mile I run)
$50 (Approx. two dollars for every mile I run)
$100(Approx. four dollars for every mile I run)
$200(Approx. eight dollars for every mile I run)
OR (Total Practice run in Miles : 286 * 10/15/20/25 cents)

AID, Inc is a 501(c)(3) organization. Donations to AID are 100% tax-deductible. Click the "Donate Online" button on the right to make a donation


You can donate online OR Mail me a check payable to 'AID' with marathon:ramesh_n' written in the memo at

Ramesh Nair
2101 Raven Tower Ct, #103
Herndon, VA, USA.
Cell – 571 241 0222

Note: Please check if your company matches your contribution towards the charity organization.

It’s absolutely fine, If you are unable to give me your helping hand in fund raising efforts, I am sure, your best wishes will be always there to help me complete the Marathon run.

Looking Good,
Ramesh

Rileys Rumble

The night before the marathon, I had all my excuses not to run this race but the next day morning it was a different scene. After reaching 20 minutes late and going through not that messy registration process, searching for the bib and managing it to pin. I said good luck to my friends Shushma and Malini. The starting line was deserted and did not give any indication of the difficulty of the trail that we were about to face. Rumble in the Rileys is considered one of difficult half marathon around the DC metro area with lot of up and down hills. All the runners who are seriously considering running a full marathon use rileys as a test to their endurance and will power. This is my first half marathon. Though I have ran upto 14 miles during the practice runs this trail was nothing like any trail we ran before. The up hills were killing while the down hills were horrifying. Thanks to some good piece of advice from previous year runners to take it easy on the down hills and not to give it to gravity. To your left is the elevation chart of the course. If you could figure out what that means let me know. I'm still trying :-) . I have to talk about the good things of the trail as well. There were lot of friendly people all along t who were up that early and made it to the trail to cheer us. All the volunteers did a very good job to keep us hydrated and more importantly motivated. its funny to hear when they yell and cheer "LOOKING GOOD" when you are actually ..... you know doing "NOT SO GOOD". Some where around the 6th mile turn around I saw some familiar faces like Dilant, Ravi and few others from Marathon charity partners. They were all "LOOKING GOOD" :-). What matters the most is to finish the run and feeling that comes with that is something different. I managed to finish the 13.1 miles in 2 hours 16 minutes and 40 seconds and taking into account of the face that I started 15 to 20 minutes after gun time let say Its not that bad. 

Playing God

I'm not gonna talk about genetic engineering and gene therapy or about the politics and law makers invading our privacy and peace. I save you that trouble. This is something about the game I play . Some call it as people watching and I'm not gonna take the credit from them but I have my own rules for this game. I love this game and I wish everybody would play it. Its very simple and easy . All you need is a group of people . People you have never met before makes it a lot more interesting. You will be the GOD to these total strangers. Play it any where you want . My favourite place and time is during my metro train rides. Rules are very strict but again are very simple. Like every other game there are some DO's and DONT's . Let start with DONT's . In this game god is not allowed to judge neither pass judgements. No stereotypes based on color, community , language or caste. Watching, Listening , Predicting , Assuming and Imagining are allowed. Every individual has to be treated uniquely. And yes you have to have a very pleasant and smiling face during the course of game otherwise your creations may think you are psycho for staring them at a train and psycho is not a very popular vernacular for GOD though quite a few people would agree with it .

OK now before anybody thinks or rather judge me as a psycho I would tell you what made me play this game. It was few years back when I lost the connection with GOD. I come from a country where 33 million native gods and some foreign gods are getting along more or less peacefully ruling 10 billion people. But during my travel to Middle east, South east Asia, Europe and America where there are very few gods and comparatively very less people having all sorts of problems. The core of the problem is not GOD but his/her religion. When a religion is gaining power over GOD even GOD becomes helpless. I see people who believed in GOD don't believe in themselves . I like the word faith over religion and faith is belief and if one doesn't believe in himself what else he/she could believe ? I made the judgement that there is no one called The ONE. Undoubtedly I was wrong . I was just searching at the wrong place.

Playing GOD helped me to find The ONE in every one. Now I could understand how unique am I and that every one else is. I used to be very afraid of people now I can connect to my people. They are my creation why should I be afraid. I try my best to be honest to the rules what I made . I don't need a religion . All I needed was a train ride , myself and few of my creations.

My Namesake

First of all I'm not writing a review about the movie "The Namesake". Most of you saw the movie while few of us read the book. But there are similarities between Gogol Ganguly of "The namesake" and myself . I believe some of us go through some trouble due to our names . I had my share of trouble just for the namesake . To start , If you have a last name of 33 characters you are in deep deep trouble. How do I know ? Well keep reading and you will find out yourself. No computer in any airport of the world are equipped to handle a last name with 33 characters.

It all started while I was in third grade. My brother was getting admitted into a new school in eleventh grade . Unfortunately there was a student with the the same name as my brother. My parents had to add one more initial to my brothers name and eventually the same initial was added to my name as well . From K . Ramesh , I became V.K.Ramesh . I fancied my new name . In school and college I was popularly known between my unpopular friends as Vee Kay Aar. I loved it . I felt a rhythm in my name . Rough pages of my school notes were filled with various designs of my new name . It was like a new avatar . My parents told me that people with three names end up very popular . M K Gandhi, M G Ramachandran , N T Ramarao and then there was V K Ramesh. I was sure that I'm not gonna end up as a politician but may be , one day I'll be know as D J Vee Kay. Good times .

Well now to the most funny part . How many of you has your last name given by a travel agent ? If you are one of them post a comment I would love to hear from you . I was 17 years old when I went to a travel agent to apply for my passport . I got lazy to fill up the application and asked my travel agent to do it. He asked me only two questions. what my initials V and K stands for . I answered . I don't have anybody else to blame apart from myself . He did his job and thats how I got my last name. From V K Ramesh or Vee Kay Aar I took a new avatar.

Given name : Ramesh
Surname : Vasudenvan Pillai Karthikeyan Nair

Do the math with the spaces its 33 characters . For the very first name I hated my name . I never wanted the caste as part of my name . Now I have two castes in my last name . I asked my dad . Are we Pillai's or Nair's ? He didnt have an answer . He had no clue how the Pillai in my grandfather's name changed to Nair in his name. Apparently I found out whats the difference but that was not important. I had faced carrier and financial loses due to my name. I had a lot of funny moments .

Its been 12 years now , Things have changed and so is my last name . My last name has shrunken to four characters . As I said good bye to 29 characters I said good bye to my grandfather's and dad's name . I bet they must be floating somewhere in the chaos of this universe wishing to catch up with me as a bad karma for that one lazy minute when I let the travel agent to fill up my passport application. I knew this time for sure its just for "My Namesake". My Name is Ramesh Nair.

I had a dream and in the dream I had a tail

I woke up middle of the night sweating and gasping. I searched my body to make sure things are normal , bending my hands to the farthest corners behind my body feeling my spinal cord to the point where it ends . I couldn't believe what has happened to me. It was more than shocking . Where is my tail ? The mere thought of missing it brought tear to my eyes to a mans eyes . Whatttttttttttt ? Stop lets roll back . I woke up middle of the night sweating and gasping. I searched my body to make sure things are normal , bending my hands to the farthest corners behind my body feeling my spinal cord to the point where it ends . I felt such a relief . I had no tail . It was more than liberating . "I had a dream and in the dream I had a tail" .

I very rarely dream and usually I don't remember them the next morning . Well I'm pretty confident that they are not worth remembering and hence I was never bothered except for the one time when I bought the book which I never read "The interpretation of dreams". I think its time to dig in the book for the meaning of this crazy dream. I'm wondering if anybody had a dream like this . More than that I'm wondering what if humans had tails . Its not a cool thing I agree but it would be awesome . I could already think of so many ways I could use my tail inspired by watching animal planet and the real planet.


A lizard breaks its tail deliberately to distract the enemies chasing it. A cheetah uses the tail to balance its body while chasing a prey. A dog shakes its tail to show its affection towards the master while a monkey uses its tail to climb trees . The monkey god Hanuman of Hindu mythology or rather I should call it epic can extend its tail to any length. Now how cool is that. If I have that power I could grab a soda from the refrigerator without even moving from my couch and watching TV. The cons are , It would be very difficult to travel in a crowded bus or train .


Well guys I'm just being sarcastic here . Dreams seldom turn into reality and in this case I'm pretty sure about its never. If I tell my mom about this dream, she would ask me if it was a early morning dream. She believes early morning dreams comes true . Well I have come to a sad realization that I'm never gonna have a tail . Though I miss it , I'll be better without it. Thanks to evolution.

A better man

"My daddy strongest", How many of you remember that advertisement from Dabur. I loved it. As kids we all have argued whose daddy is strongest and we never gave up on our dads even if you got your ass whipped the very same morning for killing a gold fish in the fish tank. For the record my brother did that. Well this blog is for my dad. I'm still ready to argue "My daddy strongest" and any one who doesn't agree post a comment. He must be 64 now that's my guess. I don't know his age and I don't want to know . He is still young . Nothing makes him happier than people telling him that he looks like an elder brother to my elder brother and they are true. Poor brother always had to hear that . Soon I guess it would be my turn. Nothing would make me happier.

I have my respect to all those dad's who dedicate every moment of their life for the family and my dad was no exception to that . He did his responsibilities like every other dad. But what makes "My daddy strongest" is he made his kids responsible of their responsibilities. I have seen some of them parents who failed miserably and they don't have an idea what did they do wrong . My dad came out with flying colours . He may not be the only one but for me he is the one and I'm proud the way he did that.

He was not the dad who sat with me to help with my homework but he was the one who sat with me and spoke about sex, lies , marriage , morals , life and world. He never came to a parent teacher association meeting but he sat with me and shared his Johnny walker on the rocks and taught me smoking is injurious to health while he was a chain smoker. He was not the dad who takes off from work to watch me playing soccer but he was the kind who to took a painful job miles away separated from his family to pay for my soccer shoes. He was not the one who taught me ride bicycles but he definitely gave me the courage to learn it myself.


There are situations in life which separates men from boys and then there are situations where you have to more than just a man . My dad is a Best man, Handy man , Candy man and some times an Invisible man . There's best then there are better and my dad is A Better Man.

Waiting for the world to change

It was a beautiful Sunday morning when my sleep break . No I was not in coma , but sure felt like one after a long Saturday night. I Dragged myself to the couch in the living room stumbling and searching for my friend . Hell yeah I was looking for the remote . Through the glass sliding doors on my patio I could see the brightest star declaring that morning as a sunny day. As I was enjoying the view my vision was blocked by an object in my patio . what is it ? . I remember that it was my mountain bike I bought few months ago .

I turned around and started watching TV . But it wasn't long when I heard a strange voice . I started looking around and there was no one else other than me and my friend remote . I ignored but I started hearing it again . This time it was clear and it was coming from my patio . It was a question, What are you waiting for ? . I realized it was my mountain bike . I had a choice to make .

Few minutes later I was having a great time powering my bike through the dirt and small streams of water on the trails . Wind was gushing through my body trying to slow me down.After two hours I was back at my couch soaked in sweat , but I thanked my new friend for asking me the most important question . What are you waiting for ? . In that particular moment I realized how many times I have ignored this question ? Or did I have some excuse as answer.

I vaguely remembered the first time . It was my dad who asked me this question when I was doing pretty much nothing after my graduation . What are you waiting for , son ? "Waiting for a job". Then there was a lot of them . I'm waiting to have enough money . I'm waiting for the girl of my dreams and I'm waiting for that dream. I'm waiting for my luck. I'm waiting for a good politician . I'm waiting for the system to change . I'm waiting for my time , I'm waiting for a sign, I'm waiting for the moment. I realize , I'm waiting for the world to change.