a byte of me

Now this is called bad timing. I was just getting better at skiing. And then, a fall I had while last weekend has caused me a fracture in my leg and has wiped out any chances of me skiing this season again. Now I have to walk on crutches... and that is no fun at all. :(

I was skiing at Alta the weekend of 11th February with a bunch of friends. I had already gotten bored of skiing the green and the blue-marked slopes on Sunnyside. So I decided to venture into an area, not frequented much by other skiiers. The snow was deep, and the path was a bit bumpy. Along the way, one of the bumps, sent me into the air for half a second. It completely took me by surprize because I wasn't going fast at all. I have not had to worry about landing back on the ground after a jump yet, so I didnt know how to. And so when I landed, I did it incorrectly.

The soft, deep snow gave way because of the impact, causing me to lose my balance and fall. While falling, I fell on my side and rolled because of the slope on my right, but my skis did not come off of the boots and they got stuck in the snow I think, causing me to twist my leg pretty bad.

I got up, cleaned the powder off of my clothes and felt a bit of pain in my shin. But it felt minor and I could walk properly and so I continued skiing, hoping the pain would go away later. After coming home that night, I took care of my leg by putting it in hot water for half an hour and then applying a muscle ointment. But the pain just kept getting worse over the weekend, until I got some X-rays taken on Monday which revealed a hairline fracture in one of my bones.

I am still astonished that this happened considering my fall wasnt that bad at all. But I guess the twist must have been bad. Luckily I didnt tear my ligament tissue or else I'd be bed ridden. So currently, I am supposed to not put any pressure on this leg for 2 weeks and just walk on crutches. I hope the bone heals and within the next week and recovers by the end of this ski season. I really want to ski again next season at least. Till then, I just gotta wait... Sigh!

Winter Olympics start today in Turin, Italy. In exact 31:05 minutes as I write this. And I am very excited. I find this very weird, because I am not the kind of person who would sit down and watch a sport on TV or follow a sporting event usually. I used to follow Cricket and Tennis when I was in India, watch them on TV and go for matches that were held in India. But after the Cricket match-fixing scandal came out in 2000 I sort of gave up following cricket, feeling betrayed as a fan. Along with Cricket, I canned watching almost all other sports also and plunged myself into other things, like my career.

But, recently I have been learning skiing and I love it more than any other sport I have ever played. I have always loved mountains and there is something different about going down a mountain with a high speed! People are drawn to Formula 1 racing and other speed sports for probably the exact same reason - SPEED! And thats exactly what you get to experience when you ski.

For that reason and the fact that I live in Salt Lake City, which hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, I am motivated to follow the olympics this year. It seems that the 2002 Olympics have left a profound impact and have changed Salt Lake forever! The olympics still linger around here in the air. The people I have interacted with, who were here during the time, have such awesome stories to tell. One man I talked to at a small, local electronics shop said "Man, what a time it was. Firecrackers, lots of people, sports and excitement! Along with that came so much business also. I was so busy , and was working so hard that I fell sick. And yet I enjoyed the olympics. I would pay anything to bring the Olympics back here!"

Then there is all the new construction that took place for the Olympics, which we are taking advantage of as U students today. Even though I wasn't here in 2002, it makes me feel like I am a part of the winter olympics tradition somehow. Its crazy! In fact, the other day I was reading on BBC how the IOC is worried about the mega structures that Olympics leave behind in the host cities and is imploring future cities to scale down their ambitions of building moster facilities for the Olympics which never get utilized to their complete capacity after the event is over. In fact, it makes economic sense in bring back the Olympics to a city that has hosted it before, because then you ammortize the cost of building it the first time. Its money well spent. But the IOC feels it should keep rotating so that it can spread the Olympics more. I really feel that the IOC should strongly consider leveraging the already built facilities and help the host cities out since most host cities end up losing money on the Olympics. Salt Lake was one of the few cities in recent history to turn a profit. If so many cities end up losing money, I think hosting the games a second time (maybe after 8 or 12 years) will help the cities making more money to recoup the losses with relatively little expenditure the second time.

Moving along, there is another thing I noticed. I was going through the Athlete roster by country and I couldn't help but notice the disparity in numbers. USA has a total of 221 athletes participating in these Olympics. U.K. has 51. India has (guess....) 4! A measly 4. Every time the olympics or World Cup soccer or any other world sporting event comes along, India gets criticized for its lack of participants or the number of medals that we bag in comparison to the percentage of world population it has. So this is no different. But I really think that as it develops and the economy grows and India takes it's first steps towards being a super power, it takes steps to grow in other fields too.

Tagged: Salt Lake City, Winter Olympics 2006, India

Languages interest me a lot and I am always out to learn more and more stuff in different languages. So I have just learned from a friend what my full name in Vietnamese would be if we went for word by word translation by meaning. Its turns out to be that I'd be called - Hoang Tu Thuoc Tien Cuoi Lang.

Thats a loooong name! Its kinda funny! But kinda cool too.

Heres the analysis -

Hoang Tu = Prince = Kumar
Thuoc Tien = Elixir of Immortality = Amrut
Cuoi Lang = Town's End = Chheda

:))

Technorati Tag: Vietnamese

Jan 26th was my birthday. And I really had a blast.

The fun junkies junta came by with a surprize pineapple upside-down cake and lots of birthday bumps for a party at midnight. Thanks guys, it was a lot of fun! :) (Except for those bumps! Ouch)

Mallika kept wishing me happy birthday all day whenever we talked on the phone (and even the day before). :). Vivek, Partha, Ashwin and Subodh called at midnight to wish.

Thanh called at 5 am while she was going to work in NYC (7 am EST). Felt nice to wake up to her voice.

She sent me an iPod - I had gifted her one about two years ago when they first came out. Thanks Thanh, I love it.

Then I went back to sleep. I woke up later in the morning and rushed to get ready. Opened the door and just as I was about to step out, on my door step lied a plate covered with foil and a happy birthday balloon tied to it. Inside were delicious home made brownies. No name. Hmm Secret Admirer. :) Thanks for the brownies and the balloon.
(Later I found out, it was this couple - a guy who goes to the U and we usually ride the bus together, and his wife - they live in the same apartment building as I do).


Later, Sharvari, a good friend of mine here in SLC gifted me an awesome bookmark and a card. Thanks Sharvari. What a blast!