Author: Murali
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Why we remember teachers and the lessons I learned
Each country has its own traditional day for celebrating teachers and teaching (see here). In India, Sep 5th is celebrated as Teacher’s Day. Happy Teachers Day! On this day, the usual activities and classes are replaced by activities of celebration, thanks and remembrance. Sometimes the senior students may teach to show appreciation for the teachers.…
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India at 75! Happy Independence Day
Time has the perfect ability to slowly and steadily move forward. I wasn’t around when India got its independence. The country was born in the midnight, forged in solidarity after many sacrifices from millions. Life would not have been easy then. My dad, who was in the elementary school, recalls their assembly to celebrate the…
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Bike Ride to Sequim WA
The last few weeks have been good for running and biking. Six years back, I did a long distance ride of about 115 miles. I was interested in repeating such a long distance bike ride. In particular, I was interested in biking from Bellevue, WA to Sequim, WA. My family was concerned about my interest…
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My (first) longest run in Seattle
Seattle has a beautiful landscape with lakes and mountains. For many years I have been dreaming of running on the Lake Washington bridges in Seattle. I always found it harder to run past 3 miles. Often the brain will tell me that I had done enough and push me to stop. Starting in 2021, I…
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Out and about with CEGO
Two events catalyzed my move to run more often and continuously. One was the desire to conquer the fears and run a full marathon. Another was the chance meeting with an avid group of runners in the summer of 2021. One suggestion I received was to share with others and hence get support. I founded…
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Write better with Elements of Style
About twenty years back, I was a member of the Toastmasters club. The club helped me to learn more about public speaking. One of the topics I spoke about was about communicating ideas. Yes, in a workshop meeting on communication, we spoke about how to communicate. When I looked at the discussion note, two things…
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Healthy Eating for Happy Life
One evening about a decade back, my father had a heart attack. Fortunately our neighbor took him to the hospital in Chennai within 20 minutes (within the golden hour). My father received angioplasty with stem implant to cure his condition. Since then my father has been on stricter diet and medications. This was a wake…
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Digital Tools to help with Tamil Learning
As shared earlier, I am reading more Tamil Literature these days. To understand more, I am also writing more about what I am reading. To start with I am creating a simplified Verse Reader site that will have the verses along with meaning in English and Tamil. Slowly and steadily a collection of tools are…
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Discovering the joy of reading Tamil Literature
In my high school days, I used to read a variety of ancient Tamil books. Comprised mostly of poetic writings, these classic literature books spoke about nature, humans, kings, morality, etc. Initially I read to prepare for speaking competitions and debates. Soon curiosity drove further engagement. We had a single public library with dusty books…
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Step up and care for the heart
Almost every month, if not every week, we hear about someone affected by heart disease. I count my blessings for knowing a lot of people. I count my blessings that my dad recovered from a heart attack 11 years back. I count my blessings that several people helped us. My wife, being a cardiologist, also…