Kissed the ground

Its the third class of my skate lesson at stake journeys today. Still at level 2 but now very comfortable on rollers. I was able to glide on the rollers without walking, it seemed so easy to glide now. All of us on B2 was pretty comfortable on the rollers now. Since we started gliding bit fast now, next thing we learned is how to stop. The technique known as scissor and heel stop looked very easy. After some practising, I don't know whether I got it right, but I was able to stop and break my speed (as though I was going so fast). As time went by, I was proud that I didn't fall even for a single time. The class was over and it was free skates on the rink. We started moving in circles along the side, and I was very happy in the fact I'm able to go a bit fast now and able to glide on the rollers. Then came the title of this blog, I don't know what happened, I was trying to slow down and turn along the rink, the next moment I was out of balance and was on the way to the ground. I tried my best to hit the grounds with the guards. Irrespective of that, I did, don't know what to name it, a strange loop in the midway and hit the ground, somehow keeping all the body gear I wore out of the way. Yeah, it was a big thud and I felt the hardness of the pain immediately as I hit my chin hard on the ground. It took me a minute to come to reality, even though I was up in a jiffy. I learnt that it was no easy task on the wheels. Should practise on that falling to the ground with the gears hitting first. Guess the bump in my chin will remind me of that.Poor me...

later...

My Hero

I know lot of people hate Vivek Oberoi (including me!) just because he is stealing one of the beauty queens ;-) I didn't know what was in this guy, that he is so popular. Yeah, he is rich and acted in some movies and most of all he is the boyfriend of Aishwarya Rai (well that lot explain his popularity). I thought he was one of the spoiled rich kid, but everything changed when I came to know what he is doing now for the affected people of Devanampatinam. Never heard of the name? Yes, many didn't. But it doesn't change the fact that it was one of the worst hit coastal villages of Tamil Nadu in the recent tsunami. Vivek, unlike other cine stars doesn't stop with giving some money (a tiny fraction of their income). He actually went ahead and adopted (with proper govt. acknowledgement) the village of Devanampatinam. Vivek said when asked what he's planning to do, he can't bring all the lost lives of the people of Devanampatinam, but he can help them get back everything else. True hero! And most of all, he is staying in the village to monitor and be a support to the people till the village is restored. That's a great thing to do for a man of his living, leaving back the entire spotlight and living in a village? He's great! Sending some money is good, but being there to help the people is far better, I really envy him.

TOI article on the same

Hats off to Vivek!

later...

Inline skating and Me

I live in Seattle area, Northwest US. You know how it is here, not much cold but much rain could be harder and no outdoor work makes Prathi a dull boy. So we (me and my friends) thought of something to do on weekends. I heard about inline skating and how good a workout it is and a nice school nearby my place. We were planning long to attend the classes but keep skipping, at last one fine Saturday we made it.



The mere thought of learning a new way to move from one place to another was really exciting. And we were at the peak of excitement when we stood on the wheels without kissing the ground. Then came the shock from our instructor, he said, "Well everybody's up, let's learn to fall!". Certainly, I didn't come to the class to learn how to fall, I came to learn how NOT to fall while skating. But the instructor had a very good point, you may have to fall at some point or other, you can't be perfect all the time, so better learn how to fall safely rather than falling and hurting yourself. We struggled a lot to make ourselves to the ground, it's really difficult, if you don't believe me, try standing up and fall on to the floor. You're so conscious and you couldn't really fall knowing that you can hurt yourself if you are not careful. But the point in the exercise is that of falling with your body parts, which is geared up with guards, first.

Then we started learning the stride and it is fun the whole class. We (although not the same batch) returned to the next class nearly after 2 weeks. I was in the impression that I can comfortably move on to the next level, but to my dismay I ended up on the same level. Then the instructor came up with a nice info, "practice". I have a slight problem while skating, I tend to look down on my rollers to see how they're aligned. In the laws of physics that is a bad thing to do, because it pushes your COG (centre of gravity) outside your body and you'll lose balance. My instructor told me this exact sentence when I was looking down, "Don't look at the ground, it's going to call your name", how true.

I need to tell this happening on my second class. Two kids of age 5-6 yrs also joined the class with us. That was the first time they're wearing the rollers. After an hour, they were striding absolutely beautiful, we have no words seeing that. Kids, they don't have any fear and learn everything fast. I just gave a thought why as kids we learn things fast? Kids just grab everything that comes on their way, they never think twice or the consequences. On the contrary, we think about of all the things that can hinder the thing we are supposed to do, and I was afraid of falling and breaking the bones, hospital charges, whether my insurance would cover that, whether my work will be affected,...really a train of thoughts that just blocks the fun and learning advantage we had as kids. Just want to go back to be a kid!

later...

Blogging for the first time

It's a nice word 'Blog', created from Web log, it is being entered in the English dictionary this year. I really don't have a habit of writing diary or keeping written records of my life, but this one is easier with lot of blog engines popping up in the cyberspace so that you don't have to worry about your misplaced diary. As for my blog title goes, I'm just going to express myself on the things that interest me, you have a right to remain silent if you don't like it or a right to talk about it if you like it :-)

see ya in my posts...