Contemporary Authors

• Anywhere But Home: Adventures in Endurance - 2016 Harper Sport, New York, NY

• Amazon -

  Anu Vaidyanathan is the first Asian woman to have completed the Ultraman Canada triathlon having a 10km swim, 420km bike and an 84.4km run, placing 6th. She backed this up with Ironman Canada, a few weeks later, becoming the only athlete to do so in the history of the race. Triathlon is an arduous sport involving swimming, cycling and running. Anu is also the only Indian triathlete to have qualified for the 70.3 Half-Ironman World Championship.

  Besides being a long-course athlete, Anu is an entrepreneur, a sought-after speaker at forums on Sport, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership and the Founder of PatNMarks, an Intellectual Property Consulting Firm. Anu received her PhD in Electrical Engineering at UC Canterbury setting the Department and University record in 26 months, shortly after her Ultraman placing. She has been affiliated with both the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad teaching courses in Computer Architecture, Innovation and Business Policy.

  Her website is at www.anuvaidyanathan.com

• Wikipedia -

  Anu Vaidyanathan
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Anu Vaidyanathan
  Personal information
  Nationality Indian
  Born New Delhi, India
  Residence Bangalore, India
  Alma mater Purdue University
  Occupation Entrepreneur, writer
  Sport
  Sport Triathlon
  Anuradha "Anu" Vaidyanathan (born 1983 or 1984) is an Indian writer, entrepreneur and triathlete. Vaidyanathan's first book, the memoir "Anywhere But Home – Adventures in Endurance"

  [1] , was published by Harper Collins in 2016, to positive reviews.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

  Contents
  1 Early life
  2 Career
  2.1 Sport
  2.2 Academia
  3 Bibliography
  3.1 Columns
  4 External links
  5 See also
  6 References
  7 External links
  Early life
  Vaidyanathan was born in New Delhi, India. She is of Indian descent. Vaidyanathan earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Engineering from Purdue University and North Carolina State University. She founded PatNMarks, an Intellectual Property Consulting firm, in 2001.[8] She has served as the founder and CEO.[9]

  Vaidyanathan also has a PhD in a record-setting time of 26 months from University of Canterbury at Christchurch, in Electrical Engineering.

  Career
  Sport
  In 2009, while working towards her PhD, she became the first Asian woman to complete the Ultraman Canada event, placing 6th amongst women,[10] in the absence of any significant sponsorship.[11]

  She is the first India-based athlete to train for an participate in Ironman Triathlon.[12] She has competed all over the globe in Ironman distance events and long-course triathlons culminating in Ultraman Canada in 2009, followed by a finish at Ironman Canada three weeks after Ultraman. Vaidyanathan was the first Indian woman to have qualified for the Half Ironman 70.3 Clearwater World Championship in 2008[13] (although she did not compete in this race[14]).

  Vaidyanathan speaks on a variety of topics including Gender[15] [16] [17] ,[18] Sport,[19] and Innovation[20] and has addressed several organizations, including Fortune 100 companies, Sporting Teams, Universities and Schools.

  Academia
  She has served as a member of faculty at Indian Institute of Technology Ropar in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering,[21] teaching Undergraduate and Graduate classes on Computer Architecture. She has also served as visiting Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, teaching courses in Business Policy,[22] Innovation,[23] Technology[24] and Intellectual Property.[25][26]

  Bibliography
  Vaidyanathan has written and contributed to articles and columns on the themes of Sport[27] , Technology[28] and the Evolution of IP Valuation[29] [30]

  Columns
  "Use of technology for emergency response" (2011) The Hindu BusinessLine[31]
  "Find your own path" (2011) The Hindu BusinessLine[32]
  "Keep off the doodle copycats" (2011) The Hindu BusinessLine[33]
  "Reputation Systems" (2011) The Hindu BusinessLine[34]
  "The Art of the Start" (2014) LiveMint[35]
  "Tramp the World" (2014) LiveMint[36]
  "The eve of inspiration" (2015) LiveMint[37]
  "Tranquil Dream" (2015) LiveMint[38]
  "Stay the course in the wilderness" (2015) LiveMint[39]
  "The Babushka Brigade"(2015) LiveMint[40]
  "Running memories and Trinkets" (2015) LiveMint[41]
  "Pedal Away" (2015) LiveMint[42]

• Indian Institute of Technology Ropar Website - http://www.iitrpr.ac.in/cseold/anu.shtml

  Dr. Anu Vaidyanathan anu.jpg
  Visiting Faculty
  Department of Computer Science and Engineering

  Biography
  Dr. Vaidyanathan is Visiting Faculty at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Ropar. Prior to joining IIT Ropar, Anu was the CEO of PatNMarks, the first Indian company to offer Value Added Services in the area of Intellectual Property.

  Anu graduated with a B.S in Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2001. After getting a Masters in Computer Engineering from North Carolina in 2002 and a brief stint at IBM Austin, Anu ran PatNMarks full-time, with offices in Bangalore and Chennai. She finished her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Canterbury at Christchurch, graduating in a record time of 26 months. Anu is also an avid athlete and founded two student groups, iWiSE (Indian Women in Science and Engineering) and the Ropar Runners (a running club) which in conjunction hopes to change the nature of the canal close to campus and learn more about the place of education in rural India.

  Personal Webpage
  http://www.anuvaidyanathan.com
  Research Interests
  Scalable Systems, Emergency Response, Location-Based-Services and Applications, Pervasive Computing with RFID, Workload Generation and building large research testbeds.

  Education
  Ph.D., University of Canterbury, Christchurch, 2007-2010
  M.S., North Carolina State University, 2001-2002
  B.S., Purdue University, 1998-2001
  Work Experience
  Contractor, QTech (www.reqall.com), 2010: Anu was the team lead for designing a new feature using proactive crowd-sourcing within a reminder service with a push-based implementation for iPhones, BlackBerry and Android devices, and a web-based implementation for SmartPhones. This was part of a 6-person effort and the development of the feature was carried out using RoR and OS-4 extensions.
  Trainee, IBM e-Server Group (www.ibm.com), IBM Austin Research Lab, 2003: Anu was part of a team that built a hypervisor from scratch being entirely responsible for the I/O Virtualization component.
  CEO and Chief Software Architect, PatnMarks (www.patnmarks.com), 2001-2010: PatNMarks is the first company to launch value-added database services for conducting prior-art searches within the Indian IP landscape.
  Selected Publications
  1. "Characterizing Cell Breathing using PCMD", Anu Vaidyanathan, Wilfred Wong 25th International Conference on Information Networking, ICOIN 2011, January 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

  2. "Crowd Sourcing using Individual Based Models", Anu Vaidyanathan, The Tenth International Conference on Networks, ICN 2011, January 2011, St. Maarten, The Netherlands.

  3. "The Wisdom of Crowds in Emergency Management", Anu Vaidyanathan, NIPS workshop on ???Computational Social Science and the Wisdom of Crowds". December 2010, Whistler, Canada.

  4. "Community Outreach using MoyreReachTM for Rural Punjab", Divya Sharma, Ankita Goyal, Tania Garg, Shruti Tripathi, Madhu Garg, Anu Vaidyanathan, Grace Hopper Women in Computing " Poster Session, Bangalore, India, December 2010.

  5. "A Test-Bed for Emergency Management Simulations", Anu Vaidyanathan, International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, September 2010.

  6. "The Use of Cell Phone Technology for Improved Disaster Response: A Case Study from New Zealand", Anu Vaidyanathan, David Johnston, Australasian Journal for Disaster Management.

  7. "Emergency Response with Proactive Crowd-Sourcing: Reverse-111", Anu Vaidyanathan, 5th International Conference on Critical Response Information Infrastructure Security (CRITIS), Athens, Greece, September 2010.

  8. "A Visualization Tool to Enable Emergency Management", Anu Vaidyanathan, Mark Billinghurst, Harsha Sirisena, Australian Telecommunications Networks and Applications Conference (ATNAC), Canberra, Australia, Nov 2009, IEEE Xplore Print ISBN: 978-1-4244-7323-6, INSPEC Accession Number: 11306085

  9. "Understanding Directional Load Balancing using Per Call Measurement Data", Anu Vaidyanathan, Wilfred Wong, Mark Billinghurst, Harsha Sirisena, International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (SPECTS), Istanbul, Turkey. July 2009. IEEE Press Pages: 213-220.

  10. "A Case for Dynamic Pipeline Scaling", J. Kopanallil, Sameer Desai, Anu Vaidyanathan, Eric Rotenberg. International Conference on Compilers, Architecture and Synthesis for Embedded Systems (CASES), Grenoble, France. October 8-11, 2002.

• Yourstory - https://yourstory.com/2013/08/meet-anu-vaidyanathan-a-woman-achiever-and-an-all-rounder/

  Meet Anu Vaidyanathan – a woman achiever and an all-rounder
  Preethi Chamikutty posted on 30th August 2013
  As a story teller, I love my job. Of the many stories that I have been writing over the last couple of months, there have been a few that have personally tugged at my heart. And this one goes on top of the list :)

  Call her what you may – an athlete, a triathlete, an entrepreneur, a doctor, a professor, and yes all the other tags also rests pretty on her shoulders – daughter, wife and sister. Long story short; meet Anu Vaidyanathan – a woman achiever and an all rounder.

  Anu

  Anu, the sportswoman

  Anu first came into limelight when she became the first Indian woman to complete Ironman Triathlon by living and training in India. Triathlon is an endurance sport, which consists of three different sports, one that involves a 3.8 km swim, 180 km biking and 42.2 km run, but this was not a one off thing. Anu continued to better her records and became the first Indian to qualify for half-Ironman World Championships and the only Asian to compete in Ultraman distance events.

  Anu’s liking for these different forms of sports started as a kid when she used to cycle 7 kms from her home in Basaveshwaranagar in Bangalore to her school in Malleshwaram. Her training in swimming happened during her summer vacations when she visited her native place in rural Tamil Nadu and swam in the pond near their house. She started running in college, when she was studying computer science – and running was her way to keep herself warm.

  But the best part about all her achievements is that Anu is self-motivated and has done everything according to her own interests. There was never any ‘performance pressure’ on her to either excel or stand out in anyway.

  “I had a very normal childhood and my parents were very hard working. I think I was a studious child, not competitive and I was not too bothered about ranks. But yes, I would be very proud of my studies, because I identified my talent to lie there,” says Anu. Therefore from choosing to study engineering, to getting her doctorate in computer science to becoming an athlete, Anu’s story is purely that of a free-willed and strong valued woman. But most of these things have happened in phases and Anu clarifies that she is no superwoman. “I did my PhD and sports at once. I have never professed to be excellent at multiple things at the same time, that’s kind of oxymoronish you know. To be excellent at something, you have to give it everything, nothing can really take away from whatever you are presently focused on,” explains Anu. However she admits to be very organized in whatever she does and that helps her achieve the maximum. “In a day I know what has to be done and I do it without complaining. You have to have a clear set of priorities on how you want to work and do that work well,” elucidates Anu.

  Timex is associated with Anu in her capacity as a sportswoman and she considers it a matter of pride to have someone invest in you. “I only partner with those who I think bring some value and can take some value, so I don’t feel too stifled there,” she reasons. Anu thinks that if you as an individual want to do something, you can always find a way to do it and one need not always look outside for support. “I know I am incredibly privileged to be talking to you about this, but I feel if there is something you want to do, the athlete has to find a way. Rest all will follow later on – fame, money, support. What is more gratifying for me is when youngsters write to me and say they have taken up this sport and draw inspiration from me. It’s a great feeling.”

  Ask Anu if she has plans to open academies or tell people about Triathlon and she says that is not something she is interested in. “I am already spreading awareness by just doing it myself. By participating and doing something that a person with a job can do, I am just demonstrating what people with a job and other responsibilities can do, that is the statement I am making. I am clear that I am not here to start a social revolution, because then you are setting yourself up for failure,” she asserts. However, she is more than willing to provide inputs if someone wants to spread awareness and actually train people for participating in Triathlon.

  Anu, the entrepreneur

  Anu Vaidyanathan Anu is also the founder of PatNMarks, an intellectual property firm based in Bangalore. She started PatNMarks in 2001 and says things are going good on the business side. “Life is good, but yes the market is tough. One of the earlier challenges we had was to make people understand what IP was all about, but now inventors are smart and hard-working,” she says. PatNMarks has offices in Bangalore, Chennai and Austin and a team of 12 people run the show.

  We ask her if there are any similarities she sees between her two lives, and she says the work ethics in sports and PatNMarks are the same. There are also synergies in the way of thinking, sports is much more intellectual than it is made out to be, she says. “Atleast my kind of sport -- it is so much repetitive motion, which needs an element of discipline that you cannot find in too many places. Like in entrepreneurship, where you work for three years, then you can get funding and be happy for a while. In sports, its about managing your energy – its not the same thing, so you have to keep a consistent effort,” Anu explains. There are also similarities in the way people are handled, dealing with competition, how you react when you are in a bad spot and how you can dig yourself out of a hole.

  PatNMarks is now embarking on a program, where they will talk to students and encourage them to file for IP. Anu’s choice of taking up IP as a profession also happened because both her parents have been in the field for a long period of time. Anu’s mother - Alamelu Vaidyanathan – was the second registered women patent attorney in India, who got one of her degrees after she had children. “I would say it was very path breaking for her generation. That kind of mindset was different. These women do stand out in their own way, because they have been brought up in a very different way than you and I have. That’s why they are also very hands off too, they do not believe children have to be excellent in studies or there is no life,” says Anu.

  Anu handles business development and customer relations at PatNMarks and has a team of engineers and lawyers to assist her across the various offices. Most clientele of PatNMarks are Indians. As an entrepreneur, Anu says her goal is to consistently do what they are doing and do it effectively. She says her big bet is on startups as far as IP is concerned and her immediate goal is to work with very interesting people. They currently do not have any expansion plans, because in her line of work Anu says quality is more important than quantity, as they operate in a niche space.

  Anu, the human being

  Anu VaidyanathanPerhaps what made me identify with Anu was her insistence on being human and being normal. She does not seek any glory or doesn’t want to be put on a pedestal. Anu says she has as much respect for the mother of two who finds 25 minutes from her daily work to get on the treadmill, as much as she respects her most fierce competitor. We ask her what she thinks will impact our country more – entrepreneurship or sports, and this is what Anu had to say: “What will impact people most is probably safe roads and respecting women, more than entrepreneurship or sport. Entrepreneurship should be understood for what it is, because not everybody has the stomach for it. So if you have the stomach for business, you have the head to deliver a great product and you are able to turn into profit, then do it. But if you have tried something and it’s not working, you should always have a second plan. Because that is life and it is a long life. So if you are not an entrepreneur today, your life is not over,” she says very matter-of-factly.

  When at home Anu spends a lot of her time in reading, cooking and gardening. “My beliefs are very simple, I don’t think there is any free lunch. For a middle class kid like me, education was my meal ticket. I couldn’t go wrong with that. I couldn’t say, I will quit college and become a glamorous athlete, there was no such glamour to be found, you have to work for whatever you want to achieve,” advises the super achiever.

  Another mantra that she lives by is to avoid negative things or negative people. One of her ways to do this is by not having TV at home, which she says has helped her concentrate and be very aware of what her body is telling her. “So if I am stressed or not enjoying my workout, I can stop that and do something else. All the blaring, noise and negativity that TV can bring into your house, doesn’t happen with me,” she suggests.

  We thought this story would be incomplete without talking to Anu’s mother – who has been a source of inspiration and is also someone Anu has admitted to emulate a great deal. Mrs. Alamelu Vaidyanathan is very proud of her daughter and had this to say about her: “Anu always worked harder without being asked or pushed - I think that comes more from her father, who is very active on a daily basis. She is very clear with what she wants and what she doesnt want. I always wanted my daughter to be proud of her womanhood and still never defer to men, she has evolved into this even without my telling her to.” But Mrs. Vaidyanathan admits ignorance as far as her sporting choice is concerned, and insists they had no role to play there. “That is something entirely her own effort, as parents we could not guide her or give her security in this pursuit. I had no idea about sports at all and it took us years to realize what she has achieved and what an endurance athlete actually is,” says the proud mother.

  preethi@yourstory.in

• India Infoline News Service - https://www.indiainfoline.com/article/news/anu-vaidyanathan-indian-ironman-athlete-5334228746_1.html

  Anu Vaidyanathan, Indian Ironman athlete

  India Infoline News Service | Mumbai |

  Youngsters should focus on work and glamorize the work they do than chasing glitz and glamour.

  A+ a- 0

  Open FREE Demat Account and get access to indepth research on 500 stocks

  Name

  Mobile

  City
  T&C apply.
  Anu Vaidyanathan is an only Indian Ironman athlete, trained in India, and the first person from India (male or female) to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships held in Clearwater, Florida on November 7th, 2008, Anu survived many accidents in the two years that she literally lived and breathed her triathlon ambition while training.

  A B.S. in Computer Engineering (1998-2001) from Purdue University, and an M.S, Computer Engineering (2001-2002) from North Carolina State, Anu worked for IBM for a short while and decided to be her own boss and set up a consultancy firm in Bangalore with a branch office in Chennai.

  Who has been your inspiration for taking up sports?
  My inspiration comes from my family and friends who have nudged me into running, cycling and swimming. I do admire many sports persons, but do not have any one specific person to name. I'm also inspired by the Indian women who take out take their valuable time from their busy household chores to jog at 5 am, keeping in mind that they have a long day ahead to finish. It’s commendable to see people, especially Indian women participating in the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon and giving their fullest at such events.

  You have a PhD in Electrical Engineering, hacked Linux and open source at IBM and have taught at IIT and IIM. What interests you more sports or the tech world or is it the teaching?
  I got my PhD in the year 2010 and I set a University record by graduating in 26 months. I have worked with IBM for couple of years. I was teaching at IIT and gave a break as I got married and settled in Ahmedabad where I again took up teaching at IIM Ahmedabad. I enjoyed teaching as I met some wonderful kids but sports is definitely what I love the most.

  Brief us on your collaboration with Timex?
  I am really proud, happy and will be associated with Timex as long as I can. They are more performance driven, very supportive and make themselves available whenever in need.

  What are your future plans, any upcoming races? How are you preparing for the same?
  My future plans are to plan my race and cover the distances. I will continue and keep up my job to represent India at the best I can. I have a Couple of Ironman races in the month May or June and a couple of half Ironman. I do few sessions of each sport, every week which also includes a serious gym routine.

  What would you say are your achievements as a Triathelete? Between swimming, cycling and running what stresses you the most?
  My biggest achievement was when I competed in an Ultraman Triathlon in Canada and finished at 35.13.58 hours and bagged sixth position making myself the first and only Asian woman to complete it. Probably cycling is the most stressful as it is very difficult to find a good stretch of road.

  We are always underestimated and it’s a testimony to say that we are very close to Africans in terms of athletic link ups; we definitely have the endurance and power to achieve athletically.

  The Government is often blamed for lack of support provided to sportspersons. How has your experience been?
  I completely agree that the government doesn’t support sportsperson, but I am not a person who will complain and it’s not worth the time to discuss. I take it in a positive note that I have accomplished myself as a Triathelete and I have Timex to support me moving forward.

  Your message to youngsters-especially how to balance work and sports.
  My message to youngsters is to focus on work and glamorize the work you do than chasing glitz and glamour, it will come your way just wait for the right time. Set your goals and when you’re clear about how to go about them, don’t back out. I definitely don’t preach balance. I think it’s a very over rated concept to define. I believe to be someone really great, you need to be unbalanced.

• The Hindu - http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/anu-vaidyanathan-on-her-book-anywhere-but-home/article14408391.ece

  Anu Vaidyanathan: Neither a champion, nor a victim
  Sangeetha Devi Dundoo HYDERABAD:, JUNE 29, 2016 15:20 IST
  UPDATED: AUGUST 16, 2017 19:30 IST
  SHARE ARTICLE PRINT A A A

  Anu Vaidyanathan
  Anu Vaidyanathan

  MORE-IN

  Anu Vaidyanathan chronicles her journey as a triathlete and talks about finding a distinct voice for her memoir
  Anu Vaidyanathan was running one marathon after another, becoming a better triathlete. Wherever she travelled, people told her that she should write a book on her journey. She didn’t let that suggestion linger. “I thought a lot of people say that to a lot of people, and that’s that,” laughs Anu, in Hyderabad to promote her book ‘Anywhere But Home: Adventures in Endurance’ (Harper Collins; Rs. 350) which chronicles her adventures, triumphs and humbling moments as a triathlete.

  The soft-spoken Anu holds a Ph.D in electrical engineering from UC Canterbury, founded PatNMarks, an intellectual property consulting firm, is the first Asian woman to have completed the Ultraman Canada and Ironman Canada. Three years ago, she thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to write a book. “I was pregnant and had slowed down in my sport. I had a day job, but I wanted a challenge and the book seemed right,” shares Anu.

  Anu had been writing journals and blogs, so a documentation of her journey existed. She had to collect them together and decide what had to go into her book. She didn’t want her book to be a “couch-to-5k training programme”. She had to find a distinct voice that didn’t make her look like a champion or a victim. “Many autobiographies are ghost written or completely about a sport. But sport is only a part of how I engage with life. I am someone’s daughter, wife and a mother,” she says.

  When she began running in her hometown Bangalore, there were very few women runners. When she asked a coach permission to swim during general timings in a large pool, she was advised to do what good girls did — get married. Anu took the jibes on her chin, and continued to cycle, run and swim because sport was her way of reconnecting to a hometown that had changed drastically in the time she had been away in the US.

  She also didn’t want to sound like a gender crusader. “The women in my family, be it my mother, grandmother or mother-in-law, have had minds of their own. They’ve gone ahead and done what they wanted to do and the men have championed them, standing by them at work and home. So for me, gender tussle wasn’t an issue,” says Anu.

  The book gives a glimpse into her middle class family, the small town moorings of her parents and the lessons she’s learnt from them. She writes: ‘I learned early that people study hard because that is their only meal ticket. I was no exception to that rule’. Anu shined in academics, started her own company drawn by the idea that stemmed from her mother, and an early start to her day ensured she didn’t miss out on running or cycling.

  The process of writing threw up challenges. “There are many ways in which you can recollect a marathon, either through the run statistics or what you go through during a run,” she says. Her initial drafts went through rewrites. “I wasn’t used to anyone correcting my sentences. All engineers are made to feel like they walk on water and Ph.Ds tend to be even more arrogant,” laughs Anu. As she wrote, she knew there would be different sets of readers. “A couple of days ago when I was talking to Hyderabad Runners, I felt I was among old friends. So the recollection was different,” she says.

  Anu mentions slipping in cheeky references to Haruki Murakami and Lance Armstrong, “I like Murakami’s books; but I can’t help thinking why do we need a Japanese author to tell us about running? Similarly, we have a number of runners and cyclists in India, yet we only look up to global names like Lance Armstrong,” she signs off.

• Outstanding Speakers Bureau Website - http://outstandingspeakersbureau.in/speakers/anu-vaidyanathan/

  Anu Vaidyanathan is the first Asian person to have finished the Ultraman Canada (10K swim, 430K bike and 84.4K run) in Canada. She was placed 6th and became the youngest to have achieved this feat. Just three weeks later, Anu grabbed the Ironman Canada becoming the only athlete to do so in the history of this race. Anu is a PhD in Electrical Engineering, an educational qualification she earned for herself in record-setting time of 26 months. Anu is also the first Indian to qualify for the Half-Ironman World Championship.

  Besides pursuing her passion for sports, Anu also involves herself with consulting and teaching. She is the CEO of PatNMarks, an intellectual property consulting firm and lectures on Computer Architecture and Innovation as guest faculty at IIM and IIT.

  Anu Vaidyanathan has also been involved in the non-profit space and addresses issues around Domestic Violence, HIV/AIDS, Retinoblastoma and Education.

• Anu Vaidyanathan Website - http://www.anuvaidyanathan.com/

  Anu Vaidyanathan is the first Asian, male or female, to have competed in Ultraman Canada triathlon having a 10km swim, 420km bike and an 84.4km run, placing 6th, being the youngest finisher that year. She backed this up with Ironman Canada, three weeks later, becoming the only athlete to do so in the history of the race. Triathlon is an arduous sport involving swimming, cycling and running. Anu specializes in the half- Ironman (1.9K swim, 90K bike, 21.2K run) and Ironman length (3.8K swim, 180K bike, 42.2K run) events, which are amongst the most difficult, single-day endurance events in the world. Having competed all over the world, Anu Vaidyanathan is also the only Indian triathlete to have qualified for the 70.3 Half-Ironman World Championship.

  Besides being an award-winning athlete, Anu is an entrepreneur, a sought-after speaker at forums on Sport, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership and the Founder of PatNMarks, an Intellectual Property Consulting Firm. Anu received her PhD in Electrical Engineering at UC Canterbury setting the Department and University record in 26 months, shortly after her Ultraman placing. She has been affiliated with both the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad teaching courses in Computer Architecture, Innovation and Business Policy.

  Being regularly featured in some of the world’s best print and television media in Sport, Lifestyle, Women’s and Business segments including Sports Illustrated, Marie Claire, Triathlete Magazine, Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Times of India, NDTV, CNN and prominent radio channels, Anu is also a new mom and an upcoming author, with her first book on sport releasing in 2016.

Vaidyanathan, Anu: ANYWHERE BUT HOME
Kirkus Reviews. (Sept. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Vaidyanathan, Anu ANYWHERE BUT HOME Harper Sport (Indie Nonfiction) $None 7, 5 ISBN: 978-2919947904

A debut memoir chronicles the experiences of an endurance athlete who became the first Asian woman to compete in the Ultraman Canada. Vaidyanathan is an unlikely endurance athlete. A native of India, which is not known as a breeding ground for female athletes, she didn't even consider participating in an Ironman competition until she reached an emotional dead end after studying at five colleges and spending six years in the U.S. "I asked myself, 'Am I doing this for fun?' " she recalls in her memoir. "The answer came almost immediately. 'Hell, no! I am doing this to buy me my oblivion.' " On one level, the book tracks Vaidyanathan's progress through a grueling series of Ironman races in Ottawa, Brazil, New Zealand, and China, culminating in her becoming the first Asian woman to compete in the three-day Ultraman Canada. In her training, she had to overcome such obstacles as being chased by a pack of dogs while running in India and dive-bombed by magpies on a group bicycle ride in New Zealand. "Luckily, the more experienced Kiwis upfront fielded most of the attacks, with no casualties," she writes. The pace of the narrative can be slow at times, but the author livens things up with her wry humor. A cycling tour in New Zealand attracts "hard men and women with shiny quads," while sports psychology might be a nice profession because "it paid a neat amount and I could do monologues." In perhaps the most compelling sections, Vaidyanathan captures her journey away from the constrictive expectations and prejudices of Indian society. At a swimming pool, a reputed coach tells her, "Not worth it. Give up swimming. Get married." And she doesn't get much support from her family either. "My parents did not speak of it to me, but my relatives put intense pressure on them to find me a man so I could 'settle down,' " she writes. "What are Indian women anyway? Sediment? Settling is so boring." It is through her physical endurance tests, in fact, that the author ultimately finds self-realization: "Sport itself had taken me to unexpected places...I visited repeatedly the dwelling of my inner goddess, the forests, and ran free." The author's observations about Indian society and its expectations for women give this engaging and perceptive book an extra dimension.

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Vaidyanathan, Anu: ANYWHERE BUT HOME." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504217450/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=36882a87. Accessed 12 Apr. 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A504217450

• The Hindu
  http://www.thehindu.com/books/literary-review/In-her-shoes/article14504722.ece
  Word count: 873

  In her shoes
  Baradwaj Rangan JULY 23, 2016 16:05 IST
  UPDATED: JULY 23, 2016 14:31 IST
  SHARE ARTICLE PRINT A A A

  In her shoes MORE-IN

  The fascinating story of Anu Vaidyanathan, the first Asian woman to compete in Ultraman Canada
  As someone who goes to bed praying the morning papers will publish findings that pizza is good for weight loss, two questions popped up when I read Anywhere but Home: Adventures in Endurance, written by Anu Vaidyanathan, “the first Asian female to have competed in Ultraman Canada”. It sounds suspiciously like auditioning for a superhero movie set in Nova Scotia, but what is it really? The answer is easy enough, as it exists in the finite and definable realms of sport and mathematics: a 10-km swim, a 420-km bike ride, and an 84.4 km run. (Four weeks later, again in Canada, Vaidyanathan switched her allegiance to a different superhero: Ironman. This time, a 3.8 km swim, a 180-km bike ride, a 42.2 km run.) I then asked the tougher question, the answer to which lies in the diffuse dimensions of metaphysics: Why?

  I get why people climb the Everest. It sounds like something you’d want on your obituary note, or at least your Facebook post. But what glories can swimming, running and biking bring? As it turns out, Vaidyanathan is searching for a “why” too.

  Despite the broad motivational-poster nature of the narrative (sample quote: “If it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing”), Anywhere but Home is also an intimate portrait of a single woman in India — “a quintessential Tamilian Brahmin — five times a year at least, during Pongal, Nombu, Ganapathi Chaturthi, Krishna Jayanti and Deepavali” — brushing off the “when are you going to settle down?” question, training on bad roads, without much money for equipment, putting her body through unimaginable stress, all because... Because... The answer, finally, comes from writer and Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl. What athletes do with their goal-setting “frees them up from commerce or the meaningless pursuit of goals that depend on other people’s validation.” The other reason: “the grand challenges of survival were absent because we were children of luxury.” Hence the transformation of life into a hurdle race with a series of self-imposed challenges.

  Vaidyanathan writes like a runner — breathlessly, without getting sidetracked. The pages seem to pant. The prose is observant (“watching dark grey clouds tease the distance between them and my rear-view mirror”), if sometimes too cute (a chapter is titled “An Inheritance O’Floss”). And often very funny, in the way everything circles back to running, even romance. About an early boyfriend, she writes, “I think I was in love. You would have to be, with a boy who took you on a 13-km run through the woods on a first date.” Later, she writes about dating a tall, soft-spoken German boy who did not understand why a ride was so much more exciting than a movie. “Miffed with his lack of understanding, I took off on a long run.”

  I must say I saw the German boyfriend’s point. Vaidyanathan is quite a character, someone whose idea of a memorable Thursday includes a 3.5-km swim, a two-hour run, an hour of commuting on the bike, and 30 minutes of upper-body weights. (One can only imagine what her idea of a perfect Valentine’s Day is.) She never seems to rest. If she’s not working towards a PhD in Electrical Engineering, she is at home in Bangalore plunging into a start-up.

  Anywhere but Home is mostly the story of a solitary pursuit but filled with family and friends. We meet the people Vaidyanathan leaves behind when she goes off on her runs and bikes and swims, the people she yearns to be with while living out of suitcases. We get to know her roommates and boyfriends (though we never seem to know when the relationships ended). We meet members of the running community, people who seem to think nothing of scrounging up enough money to fly off to exotic locations (Brazil! China!) for endurance events. And everyone is so giving. During a run, when Vaidyanathan was suffering from dehydration, sleeplessness and worries about an unsupportive crew, “Lena held my hand for nearly two kilometres, running alongside me, reminding me to never give up.”

  The last chapter deals with another sort of hand-holder, finding “someone crazy enough to marry me”. And we sense a calming down, especially after the birth of Vaidyanathan’s son. “Giving birth brought with it a moment of great clarity. There was magic beyond what any class in engineering, science or objective observation had taught me. However, to sustain that magic past the endorphin rush of birth would involve a great deal of humility… Overnight, I went from being someone’s daughter to being someone’s mother.”

  The epiphany lasted about six weeks. Soon, Vaidyanathan was back on the road, participating in a 10 km race. It wasn’t easy, but she finished, “just for the pleasure of having my son know that his mother embraced life’s challenges.”

  Anywhere But Home: Adventures in Endurance; Anu Vaidyanathan, Harper Sport, Rs. 350.

• CHICONOMICAL
  https://quirkyengineer.blogspot.sg/2016/11/book-review-anywhere-but-home-anu.html
  Word count: 591

  Book Review: Anywhere But Home - Anu Vaidyanathan
  20:14:00
  The will to win is nearly not so important as the will to prepare to win

  --Vince Lombardi
  (From the Anywhere But Home by Anu Vaidyanathan)

  Let's be clear. I'm not a sports-anything. I'm a crawl into your bed and read books under the covers while you sip your hot coffee person. Yes, I'm really a cat disguised as as actual person. So of course, reading a book about a (absolutely amaze-balls) sportswoman was a match made of contradictory emotions. I love reading a book so that's right up my alley but reading anything related to sports isn't my forte. So imagine my surprise when I couldn't put this book down. Also, I won't really talk about Anu Vaidyanathan and her well known achievements in this review (you can read about that here first if you're curious). I'm going to talk about what the book represents to me.

  Anu Vaidyanathan is a essentially a goddess in my book. She writes the way she speaks (not that I've spoken to her but a girl can dream right?) and that's honestly the best kind of writing there is. The book is about her journey from the dusty lanes of Bangalore where she trained to the picturesque mountains where she competed in various Triathalons and other equally (crazy in my book) races.
  The book does exactly what the cover promises, its literally an adventure in endurance. The writing brings to life the mental endurance that is a lot more important than physical endurance in many cases. I've always felt that most books about sports don't talk enough about the turbulence a person goes through in trying to achieve any goal-big or small.

  Pin on Pinterest

  One of the early parts of the book deals with Anu's disillusion with academia and its hidden red tape. She decides to quit her PhD program in order to come back and start working on her own venture. While I'm nowhere close to as gutsy as her, this part resonates with a lot of events in my recent life.
  Of course, there's also the nicest little bit where she finds herself holding conversations with trees more than people. Honestly, I've been there and the book gives such insight into how difficult it is to work to achieve something when just about two people (thanks to all the supportive mom and dad's out there) support you and the only fuel you've got is your determination and passion.

  Truly, the journey fascinates and inspires. While the book may be about a sport, its got enough everyday problems and inspiration to help any person with lofty goals. I found myself reading slower and slower as I neared the end of the book, almost as though I didn't want the story to end. This obviously meant that this review has lagged that much because of my churlish needs. However, the finish only made me want to read it again, and that's something I can't really say for a lot of books I've read recently.

  My advice? Buy it right now, it's not even a question. Brilliant, down to earth and an extraordinary story about somebody who thinks they're rather ordinary...this is really a must read!

  Name: Anywhere But Home, Adventures in Endurance
  Author: Anu Vaidyanathan
  Publisher: Harper Sport
  Price: Rs. 350
  My Rating: 4/5

  Buy it here

• TheBookSatchel
  http://www.thebooksatchel.com/book-review-anywhere-but-home-by-anu-vaidyanathan/
  Word count: 804

  Book Review : Anywhere but Home by Anu Vaidyanathan
  14th November, 2016
  Anywhere but Home by Anu Vaidyanathan
  Ultraman Canada is an endurance test that only the bravest of the brave can endure. It involves a 10-kilometre swim, a 420-kilometre bike ride and an 84.4-kilometre run. And one Indian woman thought she should participate in it. She later becomes the first Asian to compete in the Ultraman. This book tells you how she arrived at her decision and what came after.

  Review
  The book starts with a young Anu being enrolled in a new school. She is a girl who wouldn’t settle down for anything lesser than what she desires, be it a school or hostel. Here is where we start seeing glimpses of a girl who shows maturity beyond her age. She faces the big-Indian-question “what will people say” (Note to those who are not Indians – This is a common phrase often used in a majority of the households in India. We apparently care a lot about what other people will think) on her own at a young age. We follow the teenager Anu to her adulthood and later to the day when she realizes what her passion is.

  Anu is your regular Tamilian Brahmin girl, with her eyes on academics. The setbacks in her academic pursuits strengthen her endurance in sports and this later boosts her to achieve her academic goals as well.

  The role that Anu’s mother plays in her life is immense. I admire her for inculcating in Anu the independence of spirit and the urge to achieve the impossible. At several instances in the book, I could see that these lessons passed on to her by her mother made her strive to work against the odds.

  Anywhere but Home by Anu Vaidyanathan
  What I Liked
  First and foremost, is the honesty with which the book is written. Anu tells facts through her book, nothing more, nothing else. She does not whine or complain. She just tells you how she faced the obstacles in her way, be it funding or treatment of women in workplace or her own fears. I was struck by her unwavering enthusiasm to achieve her goals. In the midst of nagging relatives, lack of proper gear and no funding, Anu sets her heart on an adventure of endurance.

  The writing is sprinkled with anecdotes and humour in everyday life. This gave a nice balance to the read.

  Anywhere, but Home is about running and the focus is never side tracked. Though there is little mention of her social life, the role her own family plays in the journey is written in a detailed manner. I could co-relate her focus on the subject as a writer to her focus on her goals as a sports person.

  What I Disliked
  As much as I loved this straight-talk-no-distraction technique of writing in the book, I was disheartened on several occasions because as a reader I wanted answers. For example when a fight with a special someone is mentioned and dealt away with, in a few sentences, a part of me wanted to know what happened next, how or when it ended? How did the author tackle both the pressure in her social and love life along with pursuing her dreams and doing a PhD?

  There is a lovely message on why the book was titled so, in one of the last chapters. However the brevity of this explanation struck me as odd. Though the matter is conveyed in a few sentences, as a reader I would have been happier with a longer clarification.

  Final Verdict :
  This book is an incredibly inspiring read. It spells out “Never give up”. It is the story of of one Indian woman chasing her dreams. I love how the book ends – almost on a fairytale note. What I genuinely salute is how Anu has set a good example to everyone around by pursuing what she loves. Her story is not something that ‘happened’ but something that ‘is happening’ right now, in the present. And in making it happen, she also spreads the message that nothing that you are absolutely passionate about needs to be sacrificed for a career elsewhere, a marriage or motherhood. You are whatever you want yourself to be, and you can choose to have them all.

  You can listen to a TED talk by the author here – Through the Looking Glass in which she talks about her life, new roles and also tells some stories.

  Title : Anywhere but Home : Adventures in Endurance
  Author : Anu Vaidyanathan
  Publisher : Harper Sports
  Published : 2016
  Language : English
  Pages : 176
  Rating : 3.5/5