Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Three big strategic failures of AAP

The one thing that always worked for Aam Admi Party (AAP) during their honeymoon period was their strategy. Be it the selection of party symbol or be it the style of campaigning or be it the culture of holding public referendums, the various strategies always set them apart from the traditional parties. But like every human being, their strategy failed miserably in three circumstances, which eventually led to their downfall.

1. AAP should have held a public referendum before quitting the Delhi government. When they took so much time to think about formation of the government and held a referendum too, the sudden decision to quit the government took everyone by surprise. Most of the people felt it highly contradictory to their previous decisions without even giving a hint to the people. There was so much happening at the government functioning that they kind of lost touch with common people. I think they shouldn't have formed the minority government in the first place keeping the promise they had made earlier of not taking support from other parties. They would have made an excellent opposition party.

2. The generalization and bashing of media was really uncalled for. Although Arvind Kejriwal keeps denying this always, but no one can argue the role media played in AAP's Delhi win and the overall rise of AAP. Although there's a lot of corruption in media, I'd like to believe that at least a handful of media people are honest to their jobs. In such a case, making a statement that all media is corrupt and would be sent to jail if AAP comes to power was really arrogant, uncalled for, and against the party values. This statement really rubbed the media wrong way and AAP was bound to get a negative publicity by the media after that.

3. Fielding Arvind Kejriwal against Modi in Varanasi was a big strategy failure. Firstly, the belief that defeating Modi and Rahul Gandhi would put an end to BJP and Congress sounded too illogical. Everyone knows how traditional parties play their politics. To give a simple example, a defeat in Lok Sabha elections would do no harm to Arun Jaitely's chances of becoming the next Finance Minister. They will always find a backdoor entry. Manmohan Singh never won any election and still was the Prime Minister for 10 years. In such a scenario, investing so much of energy and time on this so called battle was unnecessary. This resulted in other constituencies getting neglected and AAP losing everywhere badly including Varanasi.

Despite these failure, it would be interesting to see if AAP can form a miraculous strategy to revive themselves again. Otherwise, I see no chances of their revival until the time corruption charges start leveling against the Modi government.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Nike+ Run Club - Bangalore

If you are looking for a running group in Bangalore or if you are a beginner and want to learn a few tricks from the experts, Nike+ Run Club (NRC) is one the best places for you. NRC has been around for more than six years now. It happens every Sunday at 6am. It sometimes happens on both Saturdays and Sundays, generally a couple of months before the TCS World 10K event. All you need to do is show up at 6am at the Nike store on brigade road. On your first visit, you would need to fill up a simple registration form. You just need to fill up basic details such as name, DoB, address, etc. No need of carrying any documents. You would get a bib, which you need to preserve and carry with you every time you come to the club. There are two star coaches to train all the runners:
K.C. Kothandapani - Fondly called as 'Coach Pani', an experienced runner, and one of the humblest guys you'd have seen.
Reeth Abraham - An Arjuna Award winner, an olympian, and an inspiration to all.

A typical session at NRC involves the following:
- Warm up jog starting at 6:00 AM from Nike store, brigade road to Cubbon park
- Warm up and stretching exercises at 6: 20 AM near badminton court, Cubbon park
- Run at Cubbon Park. The type of run and distance varies every Sunday depending on the schedule prepared by the coaches.
- Stretching, strength training exercises, and yoga based breathing exercises at 7:30 AM
- The training concludes by 8.30AM

Sometimes, there are special sessions on nutrition, sports psychology, injury prevention, motivational speeches, etc. especially around the TCS World 10K time. There is a baggage counter available at the Nike store where you can keep your belongings and attend the session.

A few motivations for joining this club:
1. It is FREE...yes, absolutely free. Thank you Nike for this noble cause.
2. Water station providing water, glucose, biscuits, bananas, etc. available at Cubbon Park
3. You can try out Nike shoes. You can pick up a pair Nike shoes of suitable size from the trial counter at the Nike store at the beginning of the session and return those when the session ends.
4. If you are a regular at the club (don't forget to mark your attendance every time you visit the club), you can get a free pass to the Nike Lounge at the TCS World 10K event. In there, you get to brush your shoulders with celebrities, have breakfast, massage, live music band to name a few luxuries.
5. You get to meet top runners in Bangalore and sometimes celebrities too. Most of the top runners have started their training with NRC.

So, if you are a runner in Bangalore looking for a running group, I see no reason why you shouldn't give NRC a try.