Firstrain Runners

It's going to be a big day for Firstrain runners.....the day Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (30th September 2012) http://www.procamrunning.in/adhm/! There is a record 16 of us + 1 mystery runner (can you guess???) who are going to take part in this marathon. We are going to attempt to run 21.097 kms without dying or suffering serious injury. While our level of fitness is MUCH below the professional athletes who are running, we're still very much inspired and enthused to participate in the marathon. Over the last two months, we have been following the news stories, Facebook posts, etc related to a Half Marathon. We are talking to each other about the training, exercises and experiences. Most of the runners have only one question in mind- "Will I be able to complete the race?".    The Firsrain India office official trainer AjaySharma is giving all the valuable tips and preparing us hard by organizing fitness sessions.

Due to the rainy season and not so proper parks or roads that you find in Delhi and Gurgaon, one quickly become frustrated during half marathon training with how hard it is to plan out and run with directions in order to achieve a certain distance. But spirit of Half Marathon pushing us to participate even if we are not fully fit or practiced. In 2011, 3 people from Firstrain participated in half marathon and this time the number has increased to an impressive 17!   Thanks to KD and few others who have really motivated people take part in the marathon.

There are some serious runners among the lot like Sanjay Shankar and Narender Kumar who already dry ran the marathon- hats off to their achievement! There is one mystery runner who is going to surprise us during race day itself. Sorry folks, you will have to wait until 30th September to find out about him/her.  Three of us from previous year will try to improve the timings.

First time runners after completing the race will surely going to enjoy and  cherish the moment when they finish it. This is going to be a big adventure for all the runners. Only 9 days to go before race day! I wish everyone the best of luck, the main thing is to enjoy the race and have fun.

Following people from Firstrain are participating in Half Marathon. Will they able to finish the race in 3 hours? You are welcome to comment. 

1. Vipul Goyal
2. Priyankar Shrivastava
3. Rajiv Arora
4. Rohit Goyal
5. Aparna Gupta
6. Sanjay Shankar
7. Varun Dixit
8. Mohammad Atthar
9. Abhinandan Bora
10.Binay Mohanty
11.Ansuman Mishra
12.Nilendu Gupta
13.Ankush Nagpal
14.Kushagra Deep
15.Gaurav Khera
16.Narender Kumar
17.MYSTERY RUNNER

Facebook on Decline?

When bad news comes for somebody, it comes in abundance. This is exactly what is happening to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Mark Zuckerberg has married at the right time. Just after his company's Initial Public Offering (IPO), i.e. the very next he got married. He knew that he and his company is now matured enough. He got married and his company Facebook marry a stock. But things did not work as planned, at least to Facebook as a company. First, the blunder in stock trading on the very first day. Then the opening stock price of Facebook which was decided as $38 plunged to $27.58 as on today. The loss made by shareholders is huge. I wonder what went wrong. Though I personally think that Facebook has made the decision late for IPO.

Now the next bad news for Facebook Inc is that the user growth on Facebook has slowed down significantly. Also people spending time on Facebook has reduced. If you look at the graph below (source: comScore), you will see the time spent by a user on Facebook has declined as compared to previous years.

I am observing this trend even in daily life. I have seen people now complaining that Facebook has become boring now. They don't log in much to the website as they were previously. One reason which came out from the report is the growth of mobile internet worldwide. People are now switching to mobile device to log in to Facebook instead from their laptops or desktops. It is still unclear whether Facebook's mobile growth is coming at the expense of personal-computer usage, said comScore's analyst, Mr. Andrew Lipsman. ComScore began tracking mobile use of Facebook only several months ago, so there are no clear trends in the data.

Facebook is a great product which has revolutionized the Social Networking concept and truly won our heart in very short time. I hope that it continues to grow with new features.

Nigeria Plane Crash Victim's List

Here is the list of people who have died in Nigeria Plane Crash.

Onyeka Anyene
Hurria Lawal
Maimuna Anyene
Bakisumiadi Yindadi
Ebuka Enuma
Oluchi Onyeyiri
Sunday Enuma
George Moses
Ogechi Njoku
Noah Anyene
Kamsiyona Anyene
Stanford Obrutse
Kaiyenotochi Anyene
Okeke Hope
Rev. Ayodeji Cole
Ngozi Cole
Noah Anyene
Ailende Ehi
Oluwasegun Funmi Abiodun
and Shehu Sahad Usman, Alade Martins
Onita Jennifer (Mrs)
Onita Josephine
Ike Ochonogo
Joy Alison
John Ahmadu
Akowe Fatokun Anjola
Fatokun Olaoluwa
Fatokun Ibukun
Buhari Maikudi
Amina Idris Bugaje
Ajani Adenle
IkeAbugu
Adijolola Abraham
Obot Emmanuel
Otegbeye Hadiza
Ehioghae Sunny
Onwuriri Celestine
Abikalio Otatoru
Noris Kim
Eyo Bassey
Njoku Charles
Anibaba Tosin
Okocha Christopher
Sobowale Femi
and Phillip Chukwu Ebuka, Sparagano Lawrence
Somolu Oluwakemi
Ariyibi Temitope
Meche Eke
Ojugbana Amaka
Ojugbana Christopher
Buna Walter
Coker Olumide
Lilian Lass
Mutittir Itsifanus
Yusuf Alli
Lt. Col. Jumbo Ochigbo
Eribake Wale
Zhai Shuta
Wang Yu
P. Awani
O. Awani
N. Chidiac
Rijoel Dhose
Li Hizha
Apochi Godwin
Lang Yi
Yinusa Ahmed
Faysal Inusa
Mojekwu Adaobi
Ibrahim D
Bamaiyi Adamu
Ifekowa Jones
Peter Nosike
Anthony Nwaokocha
Mahmud Aliyu
Nnadi John
Akweze Elizabeth
Dorothy Adedunni
Echeidu Ibe
Maria Okulehi
Jennifer Ibe
Okoko junjip
Sarah Mshelia
Ahmed Mbana
Okonji Patrick
Oyosoro Rajuli
Oyosoro Ugbabio
Kaikai Farida
David Kolawole Fortune
Eyinoluwa David Kolawole
Kaltum Abubakar
and Dakawa Mahmud. Patience Sunday Udoh
Asuquo Iniebong
Onemonelese Aimeihi
Onyeagocha Chidinma
Onyeagocha Ogechi
Ike Okoye
Amaka Raphael
Ijeoma Onyinjuke
Garba Abdul
Aisha Abdul
Benson Oluwayomi
Anthony7 Opara
Taiwo Lamidi
Awodogan Olusanmi
Obi Chinwe
Shaibu Memuna
Major I.G Mohammed
Nagidi Ibrahim
Attah Anthonia
Shaibu Sam
Ifeanyi Orakwe
Obinna Akubueze
Li Rui
Xie Zhenfeng
Oko Eseoghene
Chukwuemeka Okere
Adetunbi Adebiyi
Ibrahim Mantakari
Was Ruth
Wasa Awiyetu
Ojukwu Alvana
Lawal Anakobe
Nabil Garba
Mohammed Falmata
Ibrahim Jangana
Okikiolu Olukayode
Komolafe Olugbenga
Dike Chinwe
Dike Chike Ezugo
Olusola Arokoyo
Adetola Ayoola
Akinola Olumodeji
Olukoya Banji Saka Otaru
Adeleke Oluwadamilare
Yusuf Ibrahim
Ikpohi Obiola
Aikhomu Ehimen
Levi Ajuonuma
Mbong Eventus

Videos of the plane crash:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqtF_GiBAw0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULovt2qG2d0&feature=player_embedded

Note: List is taken from other websites.

Still Remember TV Video Games?

There was a huge craze when TV video game was introduced in India in middle of 1990s. Earlier it was limited to video game parlors where kids after school make queues to play their favorite game. After it was available in market for individual buyers, every kid wants to have one. We used to exchange video cassettes/cartridges in the neighborhood. Everybody has their favorite game. Me and my brother has spent many hours playing these games. Can't even imagine how many hours are spent on them. The cassettes which are very popular are 64 in one, 7 in one, 6 in one, 4 in one. Few of my favorite games are:

1. Mario - I still want to complete those 8 rounds.
2. Contra - Both Contra and Super Contra were amazing. Loved that S power.
3. Spartan - Kicking and punching on 4 floors and that flying kick.
4. Batman - This one is with another super hero fighting in a house which have large plates, glasses.
5. Mustafa - Get back to the era of dinosaurs.
6. Baseball - Really wanted to hit those home runs.
7. Turtles - My favorite was Ralph with some amazing powers. Dragons were difficult to beat. Never finished it.
8. Road Fighter - Car race with different speeds. Have to keep a mark on the speed level.

Now a days Playstation, Xbox, Wii has taken their place but those games have their own charm and still stored in my memory.

Petrol Prices Increased by Rs. 7.50

I think this is the highest ever petrol price hike in the history of India. I don't know where our country is heading. Rupee has reached to its lowest level to around Rs. 56 and now petrol prices are increased by Rs. 7.50. Sensex is also loosing daily. This UPA government is worse. I have not seen such a bad condition of my country in my life. May be older generation has seen it during wars. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are making sure that this is UPAs last tenure. I don't think if any literate person will vote for their government ever. It will only be a political or religion based decision to vote for them.

Manmohan Singh is the same man who revived Indian economy in 1991 and now he is taking it to that level again where India was before 1991. I don't know what kind of economist he is? It doesn't even bother him. He is silent as usual. Mamta Banerjee who is against hiking railway fares is also silent. What happen to you now Madam? You are more busy in deleting your cartoons on web. Is this some kind of revenge taken by this government from Indian people? I hope 2014 comes soon so that we can get away from this government. I know it will be tough for the new government as well but at least there will be a change and Change is Good.