The Leap Year
Life surprises us. Sometimes in a good way. At times, bad. But it’s unpredictable, for sure. Well, what’s the fun in predictable, normal, boring things, anyway 
A leap year is that tiny bit of anomaly in an otherwise “normal” year.
It tell us that this year, we have that one extra day till the new year or till the first of March
. One extra day that we can choose to see as an adversity or as an opportunity. Sure we’ll have to wait a little longer to celebrate our birthday but we’ll be younger for one more day!
Think of it this way, if every day was a possibility, this year we have 366! Let’s make them count 
… and let your moments and stories flow through on insider (write to: cultural.committee@wisdmlabs.com) … and as for today’s edition read on…
Client meetings are precious
Heske from Young Scholars Initiative (YSI), one of our long-standing clients, was visiting Mumbai for one of their conferences at IIT Bombay. We have been working with them for over a year, and their new site was recently launched.
Our original plan to meet at the hotel they were staying at fell through and we finally met at Sunanda’s home in Hiranandani, Powai. Sunanda was a gracious host and had arranged for lunch for the entire team. We met the YSI team right at the entrance of the building and greeted them in the entrance lobby. From the YSI team, there were 5 people in total: the host Sunanda Nair-Bidkar, who is a director at INET which is YSI’s parent company, Sattwick Dey Biswas, a co-ordinator on the website, and finally Christina Mosalagae, Jay Pocklington, and Heske van Doornen who are all directors at YSI.
We discussed topics ranging from the project’s previous look, work conditions in Germany, what Italy is like to stay in, and Heske’s stint in India’s junior college to everyone’s travel plans. The day we met was Shivaji Jayanti, so we also discussed the brief history of who Shivaji Maharaj was to Maharastra!
We exchanged gifts and snacks with each other. The gifts that Abhijit and I received are in the pictures below. We had lunch together and shortly after parted ways with a long goodbye and happy memories.
– Shruti Jadhav, Technical Lead, Services Team
Contribution to the WordPress Community....
Members of our team keep on helping in the WordPress community, and one such event was the WordCamp Pune 2024 which was unique with an experiment having no speakers.
Shamali (Tech Lead, Services) and Ashwin (Solutions Architect, Business Development) were able to help as part of the organizing committee.
We had Akshaya and Abhijit attending as attendees and we had ex-Wisdmites Apurva, Krunal, Amar Sawant, and Sonali as Volunteers and attendees.
WordCamp Pune was different from other WordCamps because it had a different format- “Learn by Doing” (Surely something we advocate when it comes to our training programs). Learning happens in a group, and there’s a facilitator to introduce the topic and guide people.
Quite interesting – here are some pics Ashwin has shared from the event!
What have people been up to...
If Bruno isn't adorable, I don't know who is...
Ravi Sharma from the Services team added a new member to his family, the very adorable Bruno❤️! He’s a German Shepherd.. you can follow him on his Insta Channel – @brunotheshepherd19
The artist called Rohan Yadav!
What happens when you put pen to paper… maybe you note down your thoughts, you doodle, you list some ideas. But when Rohan Yadav puts pencil to paper, he creates magic ✨ He’s even made a self potrait… take a look @art_of_infamous
Yash and his journey to better health
– by Yash Ranka (Business Development Team)… An inspiring read!
A few years ago, if you would have told me that “running” would be a hobby of mine, I would have probably laughed at you. I have been obese for the better part of my adult life and I never really focused on my health as much as I should have. However, this is not what I wanted to talk about today.
It started back in October 2017, when a college friend of mine If I wanted to run a “5k” Halloween fun run. I had never taken part in such kind of event until then and was not really interested in taking part either, but then a question came to my mind – Can I “run” for 5 kms?
The curiosity bug has always been a big part of my personality, so for the sole reason of finding out the answer to this question, I registered for the run. It was a fun event and that is the first time that one of the biggest misconceptions about run and marathons got clarified for me. While I do not want to undermine the hard work and efforts that elite athletes put for these events, but all of us “normal” non elite athletes, a 3km/5km/10km/21km or even 42km run or marathon does not actually involve “running” but is majorly a combination of jogging and walking.
While I did the fun Halloween run and got the answer to my question, it just ended up leaving me with more questions….The most important one being, How much can I “run” ? So when the next opportunity came thanks to an ex college professor to run for awareness, I signed up for a 7km run along with friends.
Now the questions kept coming to me, and more than running, I was enjoying finding out what my limit was.
Generally running events have distances like 3/5/10/21/42. So after 5 & 7, the next logical step was a 10 km run. Though it would not happen until the next year, I held on to that question long enough to be able to answer it one day. And in Nov’2018 I did just that.
After this, I realized that I could cover 10 kilometers, that’s about it, I had no idea about pacing, running shoe types, runner’s foot, split times, smart watches to track heart beats, running patterns, etc. My journey started with trying to find the answer to a question and kinda hit a pause when I found it. So after this, it was the usual 10km runs that I would do in running reason (Generally, October – Feb) until 2019
Everything was good, until 2020…..the dreaded year. When Covid hit, my entire focus from fitness went away. First priority (obv) was to stay safe and it was the same year I joined Wisdm as an intern as well so I wanted to make sure I did well (Or atleast well enough to impress my Manager and the HR here :p )
I did not run again until Nov’2022 when I saw a huge newspaper advertisement for a run organized by Bajaj in Pune and I wanted to see if I could still complete the 10 km run (Covid took a huge hit on my stamina and fitness in general). So on 27th Nov, 2022, I completed a 10km run .
After completing this run, the first thought that popped up into my head was – “What next?” Funnily enough, I did not know the answer to this question but thought it would be fun to wonder and find out.
After a couple of weeks of thinking about it, In Dec’22 I decided to run a 21.1 km half-marathon. Now while runs like 3 km / 5 km / 10 km do not require training regimes but basic fitness and a few practice runs are enough, the same cannot be said about the big guns – 21.1 km and 42.2 km runs. I knew it would take patience, dedication and a lot of discipline to do this but I had made my mind up. Now, however, unlike previous times, I did not have any question to answer or anything to push me to concentrate on this goal, and being the procrastinator I am, I did not take it up seriously in any way. The first half of 2023 went without any progress and the second half seemed to be going too.
However, in Oct, I decided that I had procrastinated enough and this “HAD TO” be done. But again I faced the same problem, no motivation nor reason to commit. Now, one fine day in Oct, I (my mind) came up with a brilliant idea. I knew that half marathon training regimes are generally 12- weeks (3 months) so I stated searching for Half marathon events in Pune 3-4 months from Oct. That is when I found out about the Lokmat Maha Marathon that was to be held on 18th Feb’24. So, in Oct, without any training, without any preparation, I simply registered for the half marathon.
Now that I had registered, I knew I had to start training. Also, being Marwari, my mind would not allow me to ignore it this time since I had already paid the money for the half marathon, I had to stay true my Marwari blood. So, starting Nov 1st, I started training consistently. I just knew 1 thing and that was – I have to show up every single day. That’s it. I will not lie; the 4 months were not easy. There were good days, average days and bad days too. All I knew was showing up, keeping my head down and just training. Training could be weight training, cardio, practice runs or a simple walk too.
And finally, after 115 days of hard work, the big day came! 
I was excited but more nervous to be honest. And because it was my first half marathon, I had not set any time goal for myself. I had only 1 goal that day – Cross that finish line.
And I did. It is very difficult to describe that feeling in words, but I know that it is one memory I will cherish forever!
If you somehow made it to the end of this story…..firstly thank you :p, secondly, this was my attempt at talking about how my experience has been. I hope you liked it! Lastly, I am no running expert but if you have any questions that I can answer or are just looking to start out, feel free to reach out anytime via Hangouts, only a ping away :p
Last but not the least...
Here’s the video we shared on the Foundation Day Celebration call… words from fellow teammates about “What WISDM means to them”