"Warm up before you work out!!! "

I have heard this advice from so many people including doctors, physiotherapists, my husband and my sister. But I never took it seriously, until that day.

Literally, I was not doing any sort of physical exercises for years. Cycling and walking were means of commutation during my school and college and they have been keeping me fit and healthy those days. But after I started working, only stepping up 2 staircases were my physical activity for a whole day. And I was working as a software engineer, I need not explain my job's effect on my health. Even though I was aware of it, I did not take any steps to work out. I resigned my job and moved to US after wedding. One fine day(very bad day for me :-(), I went to play racquet ball with my husband. I was playing after some 8 years. I did not even think of warming up. I just happily went to the court and started playing. After some silly shots, I took the game seriously and tried to play a good game. So I was stretching my legs and running here and there. Obvious that I lost the game to my husband.

I was perfectly fine with my leg. I was wondering that I was able to play better after so many years and I was telling some silly stories about my childhood games to my husband proudly. Told him that I was a good athlete those days and only because of it I could play better after so many years. Things started when I woke up next day morning. I could not move/lift my leg. I could not get up from bed. I initially thought it is some sort of sprain. After sometime, I somehow got up and tried walking. I was able to walk and it was much better after some 2-3 hours. But when I tried to sit, I was having such a terrible pain that I could never imagine in my life. I thought that it will become better in 2-3 days. Even after a week, I was not able to sit for even 5 mins. I was perfectly fine walking and doing all other activites. But I did not take it seriously. Since I was not working, I just passed the time without sitting. After a month, it did not get any better.

My husband was totally scared and we went to doctor. He checked it up and guessed that it could be muscle tear and said that it would heal itself in some 6-7 weeks. If it doesn't, then he asked us to go for physiotherapy. I waited for 2 months. I was able to sit for nearly 1/2 hour, but I had a little pain always. When I travelled to India, I had a very tough experience sitting in the flight for 9-10 hours continuously. I did not go for physiotherapy immediately. Trying to be smart, I started following some tactics to live with the pain. Time went by and I was not getting better. So nearly 5 months after that incident, I was scared that it could be some spinal cord problem since I heard the same from couple of my friends, I went to physiotherapist. For some 4-5 sittings, she was not able to identify the reason behind my pain. But she was sure that my hip muscles were very tight and when the nerve behind those muscles try to do some activity, it was giving me that pain. So she gave me some exercises to stretch those muscles. But I was not getting much better. Meanwhile, I started working out regularly doing Treadmill and stuff. Also, in the 6th sitting or so, she found the exact exercises to stretch the muscle that is giving me the problem. So I started doing those exercises and was working out regularly too. In 2 months, i.e., now...am feeling very much better and I feel like it is 90% recovered. My physiotherapist said that she needs only one more sitting and we could stop with that. The worst part in my pain is I was not able to sit in our new reclining couch since we bought it. I was very upset about it. And now...I am sitting in our couch (it is not new anymore :-)) and typing this blog for nearly 1 hour without any pain.

Sorry for boring you with my story but I wanted to stress the importance of warming up. So friends...

Warm up, warm up and warm up before working out/playing/doing any strenuous activity

"Gushy Voice of Yuvan Shankar Raja "

First, I thought of writing a post about Ilayaraja. But there is no one as far as I know who is not aware of the great maestro. A salute to our tamil music genius! Listen to the starting music of the song “Kanne kalaimane” from Moonram pirai. I am pretty sure that you might have heard it million times. But do it one more time for me. That music is more than enough to speak about our music king. There are crores of tamilians who started liking music because of Ilayaraja and only because of him. I am one among them. I started liking carnatic, western and all different varieties of music only after listening to Ilayaraja’s songs. His music has the power to bring out emotions and the most surprising part is his music is very simple. If you listen to the song “Neeyoru Kathal sangeetham” from Nayagan, the background music is all a very simple beat of tabla. But it makes the song so rich. How and why? That is Ilayaraja. See, I started talking about him and it would continue for pages. This is why I don’t want to write about him. This post is about Yuvan. So let’s talk about Yuvan.

Yuvan Shankar Raja is a little genius of the maestro Ilayaraja. He is also a great musician. This post is not about his music composing, but about his voice.

Listen to the song “Kanave kalaigirithe” from Azhagai irukkirai bayamai irukkirathu before continue reading this post.

“Ithu thana kathal ithu thana
Anu anuvai sagum vali thana”

When he sings these lines, I cannot believe that he is just singing this song. The words seems to be pouring from his heart.

“Tharayil mothi mazhai thuli sagum
Viralinai thedi imayodu kanneer kayum
Valikkinra bothum sirikkiren naanum
Unakkaga naalum theigiren”

These beautiful lines get their complete meaning when they come out in Yuvan’s voice. That too, the last line…”Unakaga naalum theigiren” , as the meaning of this line says, his voice fades out gently and kekkara naamum apadiye antha kural la mayanguvom.


Next song which is going to talk about his voice is “Yedhodha yennangal vandhu” from pattiyal.

“Viralilla malargal ennai vanthu varudiyathe
Kaalilla katru than ennai vedi thadaviyathe
Siragilla megamum ennai ennai mothuthe
Nagam illa iravugal ennai mattum keeriyathe”

I am really surprised that a tamil song can be sung in such a stylish way with correct pronunciations. I like the way he says the word “iravugal’. We can feel the pain of love when he sings these lines.


Next song is "Indha kathal" from Satham Podathey that we are gonna talk about. But this song is not fully sung by Yuvan. Adnan Sami is the main singer. Listen to it! I am not going to write anything about it other than mentioning that it is too good. Enjoy listening to it!

"Then and There" - The simple key to success

This time, I am trying my hand at philosophy. I am going to tell a very small story to explain the success key.

I went to meet a friend, who is a very successful career woman. I was sitting in her office and having some personal talks with her. She received a phone call in the middle. It was some personal call for her and they had asked her to deliver some information to her mother. As soon as she completed the call, she picked up the phone again, called her mother and gave her the information. I was very surprised to see that. Because we were in the middle of the chat and the information was not that important. In that situation, I think most of us would have ignored that phone information or would have planned to convey the information at leisure. I believe that is human mentality. So her act was a total shock to me. But I did not show my feelings to her. She continued our discussions. In about 2 minutes, her manager dropped in and discussed about some critical issue and he left. After that, she set up a meeting with her directors that afternoon. Then again she got a call from some orphanage asking for donation. She told them that she will be delivering a check to them that day itself. After she finished her call, she wrote a check and called her personal secretary and asked her to deliver that check to the orphanage. All these took some 5-10 minutes. So she conveyed her apologies to me for breaking our discussion and then continued our chat. I was totally amazed and I asked her why she is completing all her tasks as she is in a rush. Her answer to my question is the key to success that she gave me. Her golden words below:

"You could have noted that there are hundred things happening around me in few hours. I myself could not remember things that happened to me after sometime. Because of this, there are chances to miss much important information and there are chances to miss important guidelines and fail to do critical tasks in time. If I would not have conveyed the phone information to my mother, she would have got very upset that I am not giving her importance. So it may affect both personal and professional life. But to complete tasks like what I did, will simplify our life. It will save lot of time, money and improve relationships. You might have noted that I have set up a meeting with my directors to discuss a critical issue. All it took me is one minute to set up that meeting. I triggered the chain. It takes off from there and activities would be going on by now. People would be collecting all the information to discuss in the meeting. If I would not have done this, I might have forgotten the whole issue ending up in bigger problems. Or if I get a chance to remember it sometime in the evening, it is too late to set up that meeting. The same is in the case with the orphanage. The check would reach them very fast and would be very helpful to them. In that case, why to delay? To explain it simply,

"Do it then and there"

This is the secret of my success".

All of us know the advantage of doing things then and there, but we never implement them practically. But after listening to her, I started practicing it and finding it very useful. You could also try it if you are not doing it before.

"Wow…Vista…wow…"

This is my first blog. I was planning to write a blog for a long time. But I was not sure what to write. When I got my new laptop couple of days before and started exploring it, I decided "Hmmm…My first blog is going to be about Vista" because I fell in love with Vista. Vista is giving me a scintillating experience which I was dreaming right from the day I started using computer. The look and feel of Vista is awesome.

The things that I like the most in Vista:

1. The folder view
   
   
   

   If it is a document folder, it shows the folder containing excel sheets, word docs inside. If it is a picture folder, it shows a couple of pictures in an angular view. This view is amazing.
   

2. Switching between windows:
   
   
   

   When I click on the 'switch between windows' icon on the task bar, it shows all the windows in a slanting position one below the other. You should experience yourself to find out the sheer pleasure in viewing it.
   

3. Search in Start Menu:
   
   
   

   I just ask this question to myself again and again…How they can think of all these cool things. There is a text box in the start menu in which you can search for your documents, settings, control panel, power options and all the system contents. You need not explore the whole system to change the system settings, to find a file or to search anything in the machine.
   

4. Gadgets:
   
   
   

   You can set up whatever gadgets you need on your desktop. This includes Clock, CPU Usage, Stock, weather, etc. Why to go to a website to find out all this info…just have a look at your desktop. Isn't it superb?
   

   
   

   To get a gadget, click on the Windows sidebar icon on the taskbar. Click on the '+' to add a gadget. This will list all the available gadgets.
   

5. Windows Calendar and Contacts:
   
   
   

   I used to maintain all my appointments, tasks in Outlook. But I need to open outlook if I need to get a reminder for my appointment or task. But Vista comes with a Calendar which reminds you of your tasks, appointments and the only requirement is to have your machine switched on. Doctor's appointment, friend's birthday, bill payment….don't worry, your machine will remind you.
   

   
   

   There is Windows Contact to maintain all your contacts phone number, email ids, address, etc. The most exciting thing in this is there is a family tab in this calendar. In this you can add all the family members of your friend/relative and their anniversaries, birthdays and the all the other important things about them.
   

6. Other cool stuff:
   
   
   

   Personalization:
   

   
   

   Go to Start Menu and type 'Personalization'. Go there and set the color, display, desktop background, screen saver, sound and all the other things you want in your machine.
   

   
   

   Sticky Notes:
   

   
   

   You can create notes by drawing and voice recording. You can use the Sticky Notes accessory to write and store short notes, phone numbers, and other reminders. You can place sticky notes directly on your desktop as quick reminders or in any OLE-enabled program, such as Word, to add electronic comments or reminders to your documents.
   

   
   

   Works Task Launcher:
   

   
   

   You can manage all the tasks of your family in this. To plan your daily tasks or trips or expenses…use this.
   

   
   

   
   

   There are so many utilities like the above. But I am not familiar with all. I have listed the things that I got a chance to look into.
   

   
   

   Explore Vista and make your life simpler.
   

   
   

   Bugs L
   

   
   

   I listed all the useful stuff in Vista. But there is also a bug that I found. Power and Volume icon on the task bar suddenly disappears. This happens very often with no reason. I was not able to find why it happens. I tried going to Task Bar properties – Notification tab. Under the System Tray, these two icons are unchecked and disabled. So I was not able to select them. I tried logging off and logging in. Once I do this, these icons become enabled in the notification area and I selected them. This solves the problem.

There is another problem in Vista that I recently found. It is about the CD/DVD drive. I was inserting CD/DVD in the drive and was trying to play it. But the drive was not getting detected. I searched in google and came to know that there are so many people who are facing the same issue. There was one solution given in the below link

http://www.randomfix.com/2007/04/12/windows-vista-%E2%80%93-missing-cddvd-rom-drive/

This worked perfectly fine. The solution is to do some delete in the registry editor. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Go to start and type "regedit" without quotes

2. Open the registry editor. Click on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE available on the left menu bar.

3. Then go to edit menu. Click on the find and type "Filters". There will be a number of keys opening in the right side of the editor.

4. Look for two keys named "LowerFilters" and "UpperFiltes". These two keys have to be deleted. Before deleting, take a backup of all the details of these two keys (in case if they are needed in future). Then delete them by selecting them and pressing the delete key. Confirm deletion.

These steps make the drive work.