Start to Finish

The entire republic day (and a saturday) spent in office. ये जनता का राज कब आएगा :p 

Wool III

Bwa ha ha!! The third book of the Wool series is done too. The plot built in second is put to full use, and ends on a very exciting note. Superb again!

Wool II

Just finished reading Book 2 of Wool. While the first one was essentially a self contained story, the second makes it clear that there is more to come; there is less action and more plot building. But the writing remains excellent, and it succeeds in that the excitement for the third one is all built up.

Wool I

Just finished the first book of Wool. The Wool series, which has already become a classic of modern SF, began life as a short story in 2011, and which now includes seven books (with volume 8 and 9 in the works). Plus Ridley Scott has assumed the film rights. A terrific read, and I think it will appeal even to the non SF crowd. Thankfully, I have bought the omnibus edition with volumes 1 to 5, so there remains a good deal more to read. The book was originally self published through Kindle direct, so it is only appropriate that I read it through Kindle as well (though I did it mostly through the cloud reader+android app).

Enjoy!

Gift story

There are gifts and then there are gifts. A kindle that recently came into my our possession certainly fits the latter. As it happens my books have eaten a lot of space already, and even the accelerated expansion of universe has failed to add much space to my current 1BHK. So space saver it is. But apart from that, there are also quite a few books that I had wanted but couldn't find in any bookstores or on flipkart. That problem is also solved now. I am also impressed by the kindle app integration, this might be the first real integrated service I have used. Though it has never been a problem before, having the same book available on the device, phone and desktop adds a lot of flexibility. Here are the books I have added so far. And to end the list, the my vs our thing has already sparked some rows, so if the gift-givers harbored any evil intentions in that direction, they have come to fruition too :p.In short, and including this one, things are looking good.

Perfect Rigour

The Poincaré conjecture was a great open problem in topology, first posed by Henri Poincaré in 1904. It was an important problem, and was included in the list of seven Millennium problems by the Clay mathematical Institute; each problem carrying a prize of $1M for a successful solution. Most people thought they would not see a millennium problem cracked in their lifetime.

Then in 2002, Grisha Perelman, a mathematician from Russia, posted a solution to the Poincaré conjecture on the Internet, and it was verified to be correct. Incredibly, Perelman refused to publish it in a scholarly journal, refused to vet other's expositions of the proof, declined the Fields medal (the highest honor of Mathematics) which was  subsequently offered to him, and also declined the $1M prize. Perfect Rigour is his story.

The book offers a glimpse into Perelman's life and a light foray into his work. Perelman's is a story of mathematical genius, but also of the troubles a logical mind faces when the 'real world' comes calling. The situation was compounded by Perelman's unique, personal code of conduct, which nearly everyone failed to fathom. After publishing his proof, Perelman severed almost all human contact, mathematical or not, and the book is written based solely on interviews with those who knew Perelman, none with Perelman himself. The book is quite readable, and we are definitely indebted to Perelman for providing a major intellectual advance of our times, but ultimately, it seems a mind like Perelman's cannot find peace in the world as it currently exists, and it is hard not to feel but a little sad about it.

The Sentinel

Hard SF is the category of science fiction that pays at least as much attention to scientific accuaracy as to the storytelling. That might seem like a redundant classification, but genuine hard SF is actually massively outnumbered by other, softer varieties. 

That is why The sentinel, a collection of short stories by Arthur Clark brought so much a joy. Among its pages you will find the stories that later grew into novels 2001: A space odyssey and Childhood's End, both of which I had enjoyed tremendously (short stories growing into novels is rather the norm for SF). And there are others which are no less impressive. Wind from the Sun describes a race of spaceships using solar sails, something which is slowly turning into reality. Meeting with the Medusa explores the fantastic possibility of floating life in Jovian atmosphere. And just to give an example of 'hardness quotient' (to coin a phrase) of the stories, Clark mentions in the introduction to Jupiter V, a story which describes a journey to the inner Jovian moons, that he did 20-30 pages of orbital calculations to get the details right. How many SF writers can beat that?

In the introduction to the book Clark calls science fiction 'the only genuine consciousness expanding drug'. This book is surely a concentrated dose.

आत्ता समजलं

माणूस मरायला टेकला की त्याला 'घर घर' लागली अस का म्हणतात :p 

Matru, Bijlee and Mandola

When I first heard of Vishal Bharadwaj making a comedy, I was not immediately excited. Changing genres successfully is not that common. And so I did not make any plan to go watch Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (I will shorten it to MKM in case it is needed again). Fast forward to yesterday: I was returning home from my endless search (don't ask of what), when I missed a turn and suddenly found myself in front Esqaure Kharadi. Now when I had first heard of this multiplex, I was staying some 15km away, so had marked it as 'too far'. In subsequent years, I myself had moved 15km, so in fact it was quite near now, but had failed to update my database. So I was little surprised, and a decision was made on the spot to go watch the movie (there were no other choices anyway). 

MKM is branded as a romantic comedy, and it is fair to call it so, but more than that I found it to be a satire/commentary on the life in and present condition of our country. As such, the story is not outstandingly tight. Things happen apparently without reason and then vanish (in that manner it mimics life well), but each event in itself holds something of importance. The dialogs are subtle and intelligent, and there are enough 'Gulaabi Bhains' jokes, so the movie has mass appeal too (bwahaha). Pankaj Kapoor as always is outstanding and Imraan Khan is good too. But personally I found Shabana Aazmi to be the best. The subtle villainy she has portrayed is just outstanding.  All in all, it appears that Mr Bharadwaj has made the transition quite nicely, and we certainly expect more good movies from him. Meanwhile, this one is definitely worth a watch.

Unexciting Developments

Actually they are a little painful, so I will try to be done as soon as I can.

1. The landmark bookstore in camp (SGS mall) has transformed itself into something else. There is electronics, toys, sports gear, games, but apart from the a few trivial ones almost no books. It had been a savior these last four-five years, but now it is gone. The one in Phoenix still has some bones, but I am not sure for how long.

2. Manny's in camp closed down. I had found quite a few rare books there.

3. Try searching for a book on flipkart. Earlier, 'Books' used to be the topmost category. Now it is in some corner, lumped together with 'pens and stationary'. Wow.

I am not good with library schedules, a book might be a single night's affair but it takes months to find the appropriate night. Crossword always seems to pack only the best sellers (a category I fastidiously avoid), but given the state it seems to be the top choice. Life for serious book lovers in the city has gotten tougher. The only consolation is that I have built my personal library of some strength. But I will be missing wandering through the shelves and stumbling upon pleasant surprises.

We know the numbers

Or at least have known them at some point, but a bit of occasional visualization goes a long way. Like in this fragment.

On a diagram of the solar system to scale, with the earth reduced to about the diameter of a pea, Jupiter would be over 300 meters away and Pluto would be two and half kilometers distant. On the same scale, Proxima Centauri, our nearest star, would be 16,000 kilometers away.

More music (and dance too)

The new year parties at office went musical in the recent past. This was occasioned by the arrival of some actual musical talent, and it is a change we all welcomed. Today was the second iteration of this recent tradition, and only better because in addition to singing and music, there was dancing too. I tend to be a little in awe of those with musical talents (because I have none) and the cadre did not fail to impress this time too. But in the end, it also makes one feel like an ingrate. I mean these guys did all the hard work, while I just sat back and enjoyed. This is my Thank You note.