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Cause for the Run

Hello Friends!

Greetings for the season and the new year ahead. Hope this mail finds you in great health and mood.

In my first year of Engineering (2000), I participated in inter hostel cross country. It was a 7 km run. I had never ran that much in my entire life. But still somehow managed to complete the race. (though I was bedridden for couple of days). I had challenged myself of running a marathon someday. It took me 8 years to reach a bit closer to my dream. I have registered for the Mumbai Half Marathon in January 2009. I have been training for the 21 kms run since past one year. In my last practice run, I completed 20 kms in 2 hours 7 minutes. I feel confident to complete the run in 2 hours. I know you must be feeling proud of your friend. [or that Kaushal is boasting himself ;) ] For me its feeling of ecstasy and am excited about it.

But what troubles me is that there are 650 million people Did you know, about 6% of India’s population is disabled? There are millions who cannot even walk. I want to contribute for these people. I want every inch I run be counted for this cause. Through this marathon I plan to raise INR 1,00,000  for NGOs working for physically challenged people.

I look forward to you to pledge your support for my cause; in your own capacity. You can contribute minimum of Rs.10/km and anything above that.

NGO details: ASTITVA (Dombivli, Mumbai) (Statutory details)

(It is the NGO I know; if you are aware of any such NGO or projects, let me know)

If you interested in supporting the cause, please help me with more details:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=psnKRd14dKWscKFX5LWuqCA

All money would be collected after the race. Race organizers use an electronic chip which is attached to the shoe. This chip measures how much I ran and the time I took! (so that you are sure of my claims :D ) I would contact you to collect funds after the run along with my completion certificates.

Looking forward to your motivation to run for the cause.

kaushal

XLRI across time

Tried to capture development of XLRI from time lag in images in Google maps and Microsoft Live images. Still trying to find more recent imagery.

Must be 2-3 years back. We see green on the area behind Faculty residence.

This image must be a year back, when construction of GMP hostels started. There is still green in front of those residence.

There much more development taking place. The lawn has been created in front of GMP hostels. The area beyond the XLRI compound and river is cleared up (assuming this is the site for future EDP infrastructure). A very recent development, which is shocking for me was clearing up of area behind the MDP guest house. The dense trees and foilage has been cleared. This happened in last few months. Still dont know whether this is part of XLRI infrastructure.

National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship

Should be a great event. Really looking forward to attend this first National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship being organized by XLRI (31 Jan - 1 Feb 2009). The speakers involve best people from Social Entrepreneurship;

• Aparna Banerjee, Founder, Project Sukanya
• Anshu Gupta, Founder-Director, Goonj
• Joe Madiath, Founder & Exec Director, Gram Vikas
• Keerti Bhushan Pradhan, Head of Programmes, Right to Sight
• CV Madhukar,Founder, PRS Legislative Research & Co-Founder, Akshara Foundation
• Dr. Pradip Sarmah, Director, Centre for Rural Development
• Samit Ghosh, Founder and CEO, Ujjivan
• Sivakumar.S, Chief Executive, ITC Agri Business
• Sushmita Ghosh, President Emeritus, Ashoka Foundation
• Vanita Viswanath, Chief Executive Officer, Udyogini
• Venkat Chaganvalli, CEO, Emergency Management and Research Institute
• Verghese Jacob, Lead Partner, Byrraju Foundation
• Vijay Mahajan, CEO, Basix Microfinance

More details can be found at the website: http://www.xlncse.com

20 kms

Completed 20 kms run today (http://treksee.com/p/83y)

Took 127 minutes

2 water breaks and 2 Red bull break(experimenting with it for first time)

I think I am almost there to my target, 21 kms in 2 hours! Infact the route I run, has a farily high gradient. I would be able to run much longer and faster on flat roads of Mumbai.