Bits from weekend

Made a trip to the British library after a long time. Usual interesting finds, about which you might see more in the future. On my way back, bought a copy of Mrityunjay. It's a gem of Marathi literature (also a winner of Dnyanpeeth award), but there is more to it. The year I was in 8th standard was filled with this book. Day and night I used to read and think about it. I may not read it cover to cover this time, but many pleasant hours of browsing surely lay ahead.

We all are eagerly waiting for Dark Knight Rises, but that is no reason for others in bollywood and hollywood to lose all hope and produce utter crap. But apparently that is what they are doing for a couple of months. Thankfully, the third iteration of MIB provides a welcome break. But first things first. This movie had 5 pre movie trailers, along with a sneak preview even longer. I welcomed this change. There was this new bond movie, Skyfall; the new spiderman movie (Trivia note: the guy who played Saverin in Social Network is the new spidey), and a new version of Total Recall (probably closer in storyline to the Philip K Dick novel on which it is based than the earlier version featuring Arnold S). All were bookmarked of course. Coming back to the movie, MIB3 retains some of the freshness of the original, which is a hard thing to do. The new villian is cool too, and the story is nicely integrated. Barring a couple of glitches, this is surely the tonic you will need to survive till July 20th.

Finished reading 'Quantum theory cannot hurt you' by Marcus Chown. The title is a little incomplete btw, about half of the book talks about relativity. And despite this, it's a small book, only 158 pages. It explains some things well, but handwaves others (ratio might be about 70/30). That is unavoidable for popular treatments; but I have read others and it was more apparent with this one. Interesting bits of trivia are aplenty though, they keep you reading even when you are familiar with the ideas. For example, the sun is getting lighter by 4 million tons per second (mass equivalent of its energy output). Or that if all the space were squeezed out of matter, the entire human race would fit in the volume of a sugar cube (because atoms are mostly empty space). But the best one probably is this quote,
"Black holes are where God divided by zero".

Enjoy!

@rooftop

Chai on a Sunday evening after a good, long nap, and followed by a stroll is one of those things that makes a Sunday, well, Sunday (and the following week bearable :) . I skipped the stroll, and went to our rooftop today. The building I live in is quite tall (eight stories) and naturally, terrace affords a good view. Once there, I located a short stump of a pillar and made myself comfortable.

The view is obstructed by a number of buildings in every direction, but mercifully a fair amount of vegetation is still seen. I located three or four kites in the sky, which rather amused me. Birds were returning to their homes, and as they were travelling at right angles to my spot, and due to the distance, the up-down motion of their wings was not visible; they appeared like a bunch of black marbles gliding across the sky. The sun was setting steadily, going behind one cloud after another in its course and illuminating their edges in ever more beautiful patterns, to reemerge a moment or two later, only bigger and redder. Now this happens every day, but it is also new every day. Did you know that the Deccan plateau (on which most of you are standing right now, just like me) was created by the volcanism ensued by the asteroid strike which also ended the age of dinosaurs 65 million years ago? That was what came to mind when I cast my eye towards the distant mountain ranges. But forget distant things, even the road in front of the building, on which I travel every day, looked different. Maybe I never noticed the suru trees by its side before. There is a mangal karyalaya nearby, and I would not have missed the band had it been absent, but curiously, all the songs being played were at least 20 years old, say from Don or Ashi hi banwabanawi. The patch of highway had started glowing against the backdrop of the nearby hill. Sat there till the sun was invisible, strolled for a few more minutes, and came down.

Rest of the weekend

Great Dictator येतोय World Movies वर, अभिजात विनोद म्हणजे काय ते Chaplin कडून शिकावं.. Chaplin चे सगळे सिनेमे पाहिले पाहिजेत..

अजुन पुस्तकं ढीगभर आहेत.. वाचायला आहे भरपूर, वेळ सोडून..

घरी राहण्याचा सगळ्यात मोठ्ठा फायदा म्हणजे 'चहा'.. त्यासाठी पायपीट आपल्याला मंजूर नाही.. [आता dinner साठी पायपीट..]

पुस्तकातले धड़े जिथून छापतात ती पुस्तकं आत्ता समजू लागली, म्हणजे त्यावेळी आपण गाढव होतो का?

मराठीत पहिलाच post, त्यामुळे मस्त वाटतयं.. त्यातून आता 'च्यायला' वगैरे अस्सल शब्द.. उदा. उद्या monday, च्यायला.. :) ['नाद खुळा', 'चक्कीत जाळ' वगैरे पण आहेच.]

माणसाच्या घराला खिड़की ही असावीच.. दोन चार झाड़ं, आणि मोकळं आकाश दिसावं.. सांगून कदाचित पटणार नाही, पण फार फरक पडतो त्याने..

चला हादडायची वेळ झाली.. परत भेटूच..

Weekend so far

And some other stuff..

The weekend started with a party. Let me say this is print, I do not have any respect left for people who build two hotels in the same galli with the same name (differentiating in the third word doesn't count, note for the nitpicks). It was a lot of fun, but afterwards my mind kept coming back to this, in IT your almost entire friend circle changes every few years (assuming you make friends at the workplace, some people successfully manage to not but I am not the one). My dad (who is a professor) has workplace friendships going back more than my age. I am sure that makes our lives a little less rich, a little less complete.

Finished reading Massive, on the enginneering scale a pass-class book (a distinction (not the grade) your truly used to enjoy while in college). Next came H.G.Wells' The Time Machine. I had heard so much about it that I was bound to like it :).

The mistake is to say life is one thing or another. It's an optimization problem. Which means most of philosphy is ruled out and you can not die in peace.

TV continues to insult and madden me, nowadays more than ever. They should design a game where you can shoot TV shows.

The sky is pale blue, I can see a few trees through the window. A bird flies by. The road buzzes with traffic. Life goes on..

Long weekend cometh

3 days. No plan. I'll try to keep scribbling here. So based on what happens, and when and if I come online, you might see something, nothing, or a lot of things at the end in this space.

Listening to radio. Some really good songs they are playing today. Glad that there are more than one stations. The receiver gives trouble sometimes though. 01/05; 12:53PM

Random reading. Biography to Fiction to Classics. Number of pages read in each, very limited. 01/05; 2:51PM

Uninterrupted, dreamless afternoon sleep. Feeling Good. 01/05; 6:12PM

Trying to read a book about markets. Must learn some FinanceSpeak. Once again, suggestions? 01/05; 10:05PM

Call from home. Mom:Pura weekend so ke hi nikal raha hai kya? :-). 01/05; 10:16PM

A friend forwarded me this link. Funny. Best one, "Always go to other peoples' funerals; otherwise they won't go to yours." 01/05; 10:41PM

When the only writing you do is a blog, your sentences invariably come out longer than would befit something like twitter or sms. Every medium needs some relearning. 02/05; 12:13PM

History of communication, SC style. 02/05; 2:41PM

Read some short stories from A twist in the tale. My first book by Jefferey Archer. Liked 'The perfect murder'. 02/05; 6:55PM

Just watched TBBT (S02E21). Best line: Homesick. 20 ft or 20 lightyears, doesn't matter. Plus Are you spock? best hota. 02/05; 8:11PM

Drifting trajectories of life. You begun at the same place and now look, how different have you become. 02/05; 8:25PM

Good article about API design @ CACM. 02/05; 9:34PM

Watched Baazigar on DD1. One of my favorites. Was a big break for the time when it was released (93 I guess). 03/05; 12:45PM

Read some more stories by J.A. Liked Just Good Friends. 03/05; 2:10PM

Three hours nap. Long weekend has spoiled me. 03/05: 5:54PM

Long walk at teatime. I likes it. Later Chocolate delight at Mongini's. I likes that too. 03/05; 6:55PM

Monday Morning. Looking back over the weekend, I see nothing unusual. But I guess that is the point. Three days spent doing nothing. Reminds me of Good old school summer holidays. Signing off. 04/05; 10:53AM

Happening weekend (a lot happened)

Made my first trip to a pub/disc (I hear there is a difference) on Friday. Was not very sure if I wanted to go, had suspected I would just get bored, but glad I did go. We had our dinner at E street cafe, again, was visiting it for the first time, a nice place anyway. Then came the dancing part. Surprisingly enough, I was not thrown out even after four hours on the dance floor ;-) . Learned a couple of new things too, like innovative uses of tissue paper and using clocks to locate objects. But again, wonderful time is less about the place and more about the people. Thank You Guys..

Reached my room at about 3:30 AM, and next 13 hours were spent in a sleep-wake cycle. Rajesh came to meet in the evening, meeting your old college buddies is a great great refresher. Went for a long walk on the road behind my house later in the evening, wide, not very crowded (and hence less noisy), ideal for gappa-tappa. Made a short visit to Nashir who was leaving for Belgium late in the night (and gulped a glass of Durga Cold coffee, my favorite).

Meanwhile got my phone in a saner state, which had become a constant source of irritation for me (and for my friends, only more so). There was some issue with the phone memory, so I could not send/receive messages, not even look up missed calls and stuff. A software reset solved (or seems to have solved) the problem. I had imagined that taking the phone to a repair shop would be necessary, but exactly one Google query gave us the solution. Yes, Google Rulez!!

Abhishek (my roomie) gave me a great news later in the evening, we were getting a TV. Not a TV tuner card TV, but an actual, proper, respectable TV. As it happens, one of Abhishek's friends happened to have an extra one. Don't ask me how can somebody have an extra TV, I am amused myself. It's almost as amusing as someone having an extra toothbrush ;-). But yes, now we have it. Not operational yet, the Tata Sky guy hasn't given darshan yet, but hopefully that will happen soon. Suggestions on what to watch (and what not to; I suspect there would me more of these) are welcome.

AND did some random reading (H2G2 and PuLa), reconfigured my phone (like tuning in the radio stations and setting the ringtone), had to make room for the TV, in the process cleaned my room (OK, part of it) and restored some order to the swirling vortex of entropy (to use Sheldon's words) that I currently call home, all over a single weekend.. huh... :p

So how was your weekend?


P.S. Happy Pi Day. Enjoy.

Return of the WeekendPost

Went to the office on Saturday. And I was surprised to discover only two other souls (discovered a few others later). But a small group also means something approaching (asymptotically? I don't know) a meaningful chat, like what we would be doing after, say 20 yrs. It was good. And here is a discovery of immediate practical utility (at least for Kothrud dwellers). BB is has started serving Hyderabadi Biryani, and the taste was good. Fellow HB lovers, Be Ready!!

Went to Landmark in the evening. And I must say, Pune traffic is a b****. But the journey turned out to be quite fruitful. Made my single biggest purchase so far (which made me eligible for their 'card'). I am not going to pen down the whole list, but got a few books which have been on my list for a long long time, like DNA, and there were some interesting new finds like The Dragons of Eden. I now have something to keep myself busy with (probably more than I can cope with :).

There were a few frustrations too, but I'll leave it at that. Now must get ready for the Monday. Signing out..

Unexpected..

Unexpected rains =
Unexpected Maggi and Omelette
+ Unexpected discoveries of movies and music
+ Unexpected raindrops on your body (and glasses)
= Unexpected fun..

Just for the record..

Weekend Movies
SuperHeroes - Some jokes are awesome.
Wall-E - Mahaan, a few touchy moments.
Amhi Satpute (Marathi) - Okiesh type. Did not finish.

Also started reading The Fountainhead. I have met Ayn Rand fans (and fanboys) almost everywhere, but somehow it took me this long to actually pick the book. Right now on Page 37, so it is too early to say anything about it.

Gudquote (just to add randomness to this already random post)
When art critics get together, they talk about Form, Structure and Meaning. When artists get together, they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine. - Pablo Picasso.

On a Sunday Evening..

Don't give me the latest movies.
Don't give me the fresh 'Seasons'.
Don't give me exotic food.
Don't give me new places.

Just give me a room (a katta will do fine), and a few old friends and I will be happy.

YABPAMWK

[Yet Another Boring Post About My Weekend Activities (or lack thereof)]

Read:
Finished reading Destination Moon. A wonderful book. Full of interesting info about the Moon, earlier missions and Chandrayaan-I, with the most interesting tidbit being the plans for a Mars orbiter by 2015 and a Man on the Moon by 2025. I just wish they publish translations in regional languages like Marathi and Hindi. The topic is clearly important and it would be better served that way.

Bought:
This month's quota was already over (yes, I have a monthly budget for books [which I rarely follow, but that is another story]). Hence I was resolved to buy nothing. But the sight of a few good books meant I couldn't resist. Bought Six easy pieces, Where wizards stay up late and Science at the edge. But I must say I was rather disappointed with the almost half-empty science bookshelf at Crosswords, SB Road. I am OK with them putting it in an obscure corner, but they should at least try to fill it. Plus half were compilations useful only for adorning library shelves. It's a pity Landmark is so far from my place (or that I am such a lazy XXX).

Watched:
Happened to watch Men in Black on TV. Now I am one of those perpetually whining about quality of TV shows, but this is one area where TV still shines, the element of surprise. MIB is a favorite and accidentally discovering it was as delightful as bumping into an old friend.

Movies and books make a good weekend (or Han mujhe ye pasand hai)

Movies I watched this weekend -

K-PAX

You see Mark, what Einstein actually said was that nothing can accelerate to the speed of light because its mass would become infinite. Einstein said nothing about entities already traveling at the speed of light or faster. -prot

Prot claims to be from the planet 'K-PAX' and is sent quite unsurprisingly to the psychiatric institute. The movie revolves around his interactions with his doctor, Mark and the rest of the patients. Though the movie does not explicitly say whether prot is really an alien or not, I liked the movie. Some of the dialogs are quite insightful (and it had been ages since I watched an insightful movie).

Race

Ab aayega mazaa.. -RD

The plot is a bit convoluted, but execution is decent. People keep changing allies, so it is a bit hard to keep track of who is with whom. You will be better off using an E-R diagram. Saif gets a cool new look. But the female cast is a big disappointment (in terms of acting). Special effects are good, and I liked the song 'O Janejaa'. Overall, a paisa vasool movie.

Also made a trip to Crosswords. Here is what I bought -
The emotional brain by Joseph Ledoux
Bill and Dave by Michael Malone
Mathematical Mysteries by Calvin Clawson
Hasawanuk, Batatyachi Chal, Aghalpaghal and Marathi Sahityacha Gaaliv Itihas - all by P.L.Deshpande

But it has been a (bad) habit of mine to buy a bunch of books, read 1/2 and then buy the next bunch. I hope I'll get rid of it soon. Bye for now.

Notes from the weekend..

Friday 00:09 - Aahh, here comes the most beautiful day of the week, Friday. Just the tingling sensation of the coming weekend makes this day special.
Itni shiddat se maine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai,
Ke har jarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki sajish ki hai.. (wah.. wah..)

Maybe I will someday write 'The joy of Friday', but now, time to go home. Did I tell you I am still in the office?

Saturday 05:03 - The weekend begins, 2 days of 'Do what you want to do' and not 'What needs to be done' and also have 'a lot of fun' (arre ye to poem ban gayi). Saturday also means no hurry, sleep as much as you want. But why am I awake at this ungodly hour? Of course because I am still in the office..

Not much about the rest of the saturday, you see I don't do much when I am sleeping..

Sunday 12:03 - Just woke up, Now need to watch a movie, but which? My options are 'Jodha Akbar' and 'Welcome'. I started watching 'Welcome', expecting it to be a good timepass, but to tell the truth, it squashed all my expectations. Bad jokes, bad storyline and bad direction. Ohk, I will watch 'Jodha-Akbar' then, hope it won't s$%^ this much, you see I really need to watch a movie.

Now I am not a big fan of historical movies, not the least because I can't understand the language very properly. Like 'Shahenshaho ko Shahenshah' ya 'Malika ye Hindostaa'. I don't understand how people managed to keep their jaws from falling off using these mouthful phrases (but sometimes it is good to listen, I'll admit). The movie seems good in fragments, but you probably can't watch it in one sitting. So long and so slow. Better if it had been made in two parts :-).
Did nothing much after the movie. Just ate and slept.
The weekend was not exactly what I had wished for, but that does not mean it was any less fun.(yes, pulling an all nighter is still fun :-D)

P.S.
One more thing, Jaggi returned on Saturday with a spanky new XBox 360, but we could not turn it on (our power supply did not like it much I guess, and in the process we managed to fry a fuse, :-)).

P.P.S.
I also fulfilled my long time desire to watch 'Sivaji - the Boss' this weekend, this movie is amazing. Rajnikanth does so many things in so little time. He beats the crap out of thousands of gunda log, after returning from US as a multimillionaire, becomes poor and turns the tables using just a single one rupee coin, changes his getup couple of hundred times and also eats a plateful of red chillies to show his love to the heroine. Usake samne sab hollywood superheroes (superman, spiderman and the rest of baccha party) look like 'paani kam chai'. hehehe..

A weekend (well???) spent..

Last weekend slipped through my fingers like sand, had a lot of things to take care of, but managed to get some longtime pending work done (which is unusual for me on a weekend).

So here is what happened..
Fri 7:45 PM

I am just back from work and thinking of taking a nap. But I have a party to attend. I am not very excited at the prospect of getting out of the bed, but hey, its a chance to meet old friends.

Sat 10:15 AM

Ohh S*it, we have to move to a new place today and we haven't even yet packed our .., err stuff. Wake up everybody, miles to go before we sleep (again).

Sat 11:43 AM

It seems like eternity since I am packing these books. But on a positive side, I became pretty good at tying 4-5 books together in a bundle using a thin rope. Then I realize why Henry Ford was so successful with the concept of Assembly line. People really get good (but also bored) by doing the same thing again and again.

Sat 1:03 PM

Where is the tape? (In case you have forgotten, duct tape is a very important part of life. It holds everything from broken toilet windows to wires in your hand-assembled-positronic-time-machine together (maybe it also holds the universe together, who knows). To know about many other important things in life (like towel) read h2g2)

Sat 3:17 PM

Finally at the new place. A quiet, residential neighbourhood. And BIG rooms. But the kitchen tubelight does not work. Gotta talk to landlord.

Sat 6:42 PM

Since time immemorial I am postponing the purchase of a new hard disk. Today is the day to do it.

Sat 11:37 PM

Sabayon managed to f*** up the partition table, time to reinstall..

Sun 12:00 AM
Happy Birthday Anna.

Sun 2:23 AM

What has happened to linux distributions? My debian DVD won't work, and fedora is unable to start X-server after full installation.

Sun 01:12 PM

Unable to sleep, I am at Crosswords. Found 'The man who knew infinity', a biography of the great Indian mathematician, S.Ramanujan. I will be busy for a few days now, my friends.

Sun 03:40 PM

At home, I am very tired, need some sleep. The reinstallation did allow me very little sleep last night.

Sun 4:00 PM

Here comes the electrician and there goes my sleep. But no choice. Let the drilling begin..

Time Unknown

What is this trr, trr. And (to my horror) I realize its my alarm clock. It shows the day as Monday (but to appreciate the horror you must be an IT engineer). But I have very little choice now. Gotta get ready for work. Hope next weekend will arrive sooner.

Disclaimer:

The timings mentioned above are entirely made up and present only for the effect.