Filters always mess with clouds. Hence, #nofilter
When the AQI is green, even Delhi skies paint beautiful paintings.
When the AQI is green, even Delhi skies paint beautiful paintings.
आपने हमेशा उग्रसेन की बाओली को चित्रों में बगैर लोगों के देखा होगा। But solitude is not to be found here on a Sunday evening.
Monster पुतला gonna haunt you tonight.
हाथ पैर देख लो ज़रा भाई के
हाथ पैर देख लो ज़रा भाई के
"Elephants and acrobats, lions snakes monkey"
Turtle and pangolin figurines from the #Harappan age. A beautiful collection of ancient figurines, so abstract and artistic, at the #NationalMuseum
#Delhi
Turtle and pangolin figurines from the #Harappan age. A beautiful collection of ancient figurines, so abstract and artistic, at the #NationalMuseum
#Delhi
M1 broke the museum. Then they all got together and fixed more than he broke.
A plant 🌿 shoots out from the base of a Bhudevi statue. How appropriate. Its literally breaking out of the rock.
M2: What is this?
Me: Mann ki baat
#AshokanInscription #IMeMyself #Delhi
Me: Mann ki baat
#AshokanInscription #IMeMyself #Delhi
"As machines make discovery faster, people may come to see theoreticians as extraneous, superfluous, and hopelessly behind the times. Knowledge about a particular area will be less treasured than expertise in the creation of machine-learning models that produce answers on that subject."
In the summer of 2002, Dr. Devendra Jalihal of the Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Madras, gave me sixty diskless PCs. I set up about assembling them at the Integrated Electronics Lab in the basement of the department building. By day, these computers served as a computing facility for undergraduate students. By night, they turned into a compute cluster.
Compute clusters or now fairly common. In those days they were still fairly novel. They were called Beowulf clusters, and were used almost exclusively by the scientific community, to replace their supercomputers with something more flexible and affordable. I remember fixing Linux kernel drivers for the cheap NE2000 knock off cards supplied with the PCs, and burning EPROMs using an external programmer.
With the compute cluster built, I set about looking for problems to solve. I has been taking courses in operations research from Dr. Srinivasan G. Perhaps the most patient and loving teacher I have come across, I invariably slept through his classes as he laborisously walked our thick heads through OR algorithms. I asked him for a good problem to solve, and he connected me to Gowri Krishnamurthy.
As part of her undergraduate research, Gowri has been studying the manufacturing processes at MRF's factories. She wanted to schedule jobs for their various machines "just in time", so that elaborate planning was not required and the factory was more flexible to changes in demand.
I first rigged our cluster to run LAM MPI. I then wrote a C program that used genetic algorithms to solve Gowri's scheduling problem. The program would always converge within seconds at the optimal solution. We realised that a cluster was an overkill for a real world problem of this size.
In any case, results were found and documented. We eagerly went to meet Dr. Srinivasan. In his affable, genial manner, he carefully explained to us how our work wasn't a work of "genius" in any way. We had no idea why the results we had were optimal. We had, in fact, no proof that they were the optimal solutions to the problems at hand.
Running a genetic algorithm to find a minima or maxima was one thing for a cluster. Running through every possible solution to verify that the claimed minima or maxima was indeed to the actual minima or maxima, was entirely another. Our cluster would take days to verify each combination. Which meant that every morning I would need to save my work before the day's classes, and restart the job at the end of the work day.
What Dr. Srinivasan tried to tell us was that an algorithm that generates the ideal solution, and a mathematical proof of its optimality, was really what we should aim for. I am not sure if Gowri ever found such a proof. I had my own fears, which SriniG was only exacerbating. My research work was part of my Master's course in Communication Systems. Almost all of my peers were doing theoretical research, writing novel mathematical proofs (or so they claimed). I was one of the rare few doing engineering and actually building something. It took multiple discussions with Dr. Jalihal to assuage my fears that doing engineering and building something was a perfectly acceptable research work for an engineering student. Ah, youth :-)
There were other clusters that I helped build. And there were other problems that I solved on the cluster at IEL. One was a problem given by my control system's professor, to model the human visual cortex. Again, a purely machine learning algorithm, it was able to correctly identify lines and boxes quite easily. No one had proof for why the software worked, but were indulging in biomimicry. As long as the software did what the human brain does, we were fine.
And now we are in the age of AI and ML, where no one is entirely sure why stuff works the way it does. Sweatshops across the world run by Amazon, Google and Microsoft employe young people by the thousands, who listen into our conversations and flag them to be fed as good and bad samples into the behemoth. Since we don't quite understand the inner workings of these engines, we feed them with more and more data in the hope that they get smarter and more accurate. But there really never is enough data, in a world inhabited by 7 billion people, millions of languages and cultures, and a million billion stories.
In the summer of 2002, Dr. Devendra Jalihal of the Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Madras, gave me sixty diskless PCs. I set up about assembling them at the Integrated Electronics Lab in the basement of the department building. By day, these computers served as a computing facility for undergraduate students. By night, they turned into a compute cluster.
Compute clusters or now fairly common. In those days they were still fairly novel. They were called Beowulf clusters, and were used almost exclusively by the scientific community, to replace their supercomputers with something more flexible and affordable. I remember fixing Linux kernel drivers for the cheap NE2000 knock off cards supplied with the PCs, and burning EPROMs using an external programmer.
With the compute cluster built, I set about looking for problems to solve. I has been taking courses in operations research from Dr. Srinivasan G. Perhaps the most patient and loving teacher I have come across, I invariably slept through his classes as he laborisously walked our thick heads through OR algorithms. I asked him for a good problem to solve, and he connected me to Gowri Krishnamurthy.
As part of her undergraduate research, Gowri has been studying the manufacturing processes at MRF's factories. She wanted to schedule jobs for their various machines "just in time", so that elaborate planning was not required and the factory was more flexible to changes in demand.
I first rigged our cluster to run LAM MPI. I then wrote a C program that used genetic algorithms to solve Gowri's scheduling problem. The program would always converge within seconds at the optimal solution. We realised that a cluster was an overkill for a real world problem of this size.
In any case, results were found and documented. We eagerly went to meet Dr. Srinivasan. In his affable, genial manner, he carefully explained to us how our work wasn't a work of "genius" in any way. We had no idea why the results we had were optimal. We had, in fact, no proof that they were the optimal solutions to the problems at hand.
Running a genetic algorithm to find a minima or maxima was one thing for a cluster. Running through every possible solution to verify that the claimed minima or maxima was indeed to the actual minima or maxima, was entirely another. Our cluster would take days to verify each combination. Which meant that every morning I would need to save my work before the day's classes, and restart the job at the end of the work day.
What Dr. Srinivasan tried to tell us was that an algorithm that generates the ideal solution, and a mathematical proof of its optimality, was really what we should aim for. I am not sure if Gowri ever found such a proof. I had my own fears, which SriniG was only exacerbating. My research work was part of my Master's course in Communication Systems. Almost all of my peers were doing theoretical research, writing novel mathematical proofs (or so they claimed). I was one of the rare few doing engineering and actually building something. It took multiple discussions with Dr. Jalihal to assuage my fears that doing engineering and building something was a perfectly acceptable research work for an engineering student. Ah, youth :-)
There were other clusters that I helped build. And there were other problems that I solved on the cluster at IEL. One was a problem given by my control system's professor, to model the human visual cortex. Again, a purely machine learning algorithm, it was able to correctly identify lines and boxes quite easily. No one had proof for why the software worked, but were indulging in biomimicry. As long as the software did what the human brain does, we were fine.
And now we are in the age of AI and ML, where no one is entirely sure why stuff works the way it does. Sweatshops across the world run by Amazon, Google and Microsoft employe young people by the thousands, who listen into our conversations and flag them to be fed as good and bad samples into the behemoth. Since we don't quite understand the inner workings of these engines, we feed them with more and more data in the hope that they get smarter and more accurate. But there really never is enough data, in a world inhabited by 7 billion people, millions of languages and cultures, and a million billion stories.
Something beautiful just happened in the world of maths:
http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~hhuan30/papers/sensitivity_1.pdf
The fundamental difference between maths and science is that our understanding of science evolves over time as new information becomes available. Maths is absolute. Mathematical proofs, once peer reviewed and accepted, are never proven wrong.
Therefore, Hao Huang's work is a work of absolute, universal beauty. It will always remain a work of beauty, due to its simplicity, and how it forms a building block to other, greater works of mathematical art. Ten thousand years from today, people (if they still exist) may differ on the beauty of Leonardo da Vinci or Ghalib's work. But Hao will be immortal - that is a mathematical certainty.
I am basically just gushing at this point... Bye.
PS: If you wish to understand the fundamental importance of this work, please read https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematician-solves-computer-science-conjecture-in-two-pages-20190725/ . Yes, a nerd sitting in a Madrid hotel just made it possible for you to have fewer diagnostic tests before a doctor can determine what disease ails you. If you think it will be a long time before this research is applied to real life, understand that both computer science and operations research are rapidly evolving fields. People will adopt any maths that leads to higher efficiency and smaller circuits.
PS2: Hao came up with the theorem while having to write a research grant request. I can totally empathise with the guy. Asking for money for your work is possibly the most painful, wasteful thing for a nerd. I'm glad he chanelled the negative energy into his work :-D. I am myself guilty of writing code when I should have been writing marketing/sales proposals.
http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~hhuan30/papers/sensitivity_1.pdf
The fundamental difference between maths and science is that our understanding of science evolves over time as new information becomes available. Maths is absolute. Mathematical proofs, once peer reviewed and accepted, are never proven wrong.
Therefore, Hao Huang's work is a work of absolute, universal beauty. It will always remain a work of beauty, due to its simplicity, and how it forms a building block to other, greater works of mathematical art. Ten thousand years from today, people (if they still exist) may differ on the beauty of Leonardo da Vinci or Ghalib's work. But Hao will be immortal - that is a mathematical certainty.
I am basically just gushing at this point... Bye.
PS: If you wish to understand the fundamental importance of this work, please read https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematician-solves-computer-science-conjecture-in-two-pages-20190725/ . Yes, a nerd sitting in a Madrid hotel just made it possible for you to have fewer diagnostic tests before a doctor can determine what disease ails you. If you think it will be a long time before this research is applied to real life, understand that both computer science and operations research are rapidly evolving fields. People will adopt any maths that leads to higher efficiency and smaller circuits.
PS2: Hao came up with the theorem while having to write a research grant request. I can totally empathise with the guy. Asking for money for your work is possibly the most painful, wasteful thing for a nerd. I'm glad he chanelled the negative energy into his work :-D. I am myself guilty of writing code when I should have been writing marketing/sales proposals.
Broken Images, बिखरे बिम्ब is being staged right here in Gurgaon, tomorrow (Sunday). Please, please see the play if you are around. I've seen a performance in 2005, at Rangashankara, when Girish Karnad had just written it. It was perhaps the first performance, and Arundhati Nag played it to perfection.
The ticket price is steep, ₹1,000, but it is well worth the money.
The ticket price is steep, ₹1,000, but it is well worth the money.
😥😡 This is so sad and tragic.
Mobs take the law into their own hands when they are no longer afraid of law enforcement. They also dispense "mob justice" when they have no faith in the law. Either way, it is a failure of the police, government and judiciary.
What is the government doing to reinstate faith in the rule of law?
Mobs take the law into their own hands when they are no longer afraid of law enforcement. They also dispense "mob justice" when they have no faith in the law. Either way, it is a failure of the police, government and judiciary.
What is the government doing to reinstate faith in the rule of law?
Facebook keeps pushing these labour videos to me.
All of them are made in China.
It is obvious that in Chinese culture, society and media, labour is celebrated. That's not surprising, given their commie roots.
There is dignity in labour. Tremendous dignity and respect.
But so few (middle class) Indians realise that. Almost everyone wants a job where they sit in air conditioning all day, in front of a computer, breaking their backs, disconnected from the physical world, serving as a mere cog in a large corporate machine. The joy of being awesome at a certain task, is completely lost to them.
All of them are made in China.
It is obvious that in Chinese culture, society and media, labour is celebrated. That's not surprising, given their commie roots.
There is dignity in labour. Tremendous dignity and respect.
But so few (middle class) Indians realise that. Almost everyone wants a job where they sit in air conditioning all day, in front of a computer, breaking their backs, disconnected from the physical world, serving as a mere cog in a large corporate machine. The joy of being awesome at a certain task, is completely lost to them.
Making fun of someone's disability in a comedy sketch isn't cool. But making fun of religion is a hoot.
Who makes up these rules? We all just learn them, imbibe and accept them. But surely there is a backoffice somewhere, where someone churns these rules out.
Also, isn't being religious a mental disability? Then, how can we make fun of the religiously or spiritually disabled?
If you're a man and you make fun of a woman's appearance, you get booed. But if you're a woman, you can make fun of both a man and a woman's appearance.
Which reminds me. This morning, on our drive to the school, Nilay noticed a poster of a women's only gym. So he says, "A woman's only gym is considered cool. But open a men's only gym and people will shame you. There is a women's helpline number, but nothing for men. Isn't the government for both genders?" I kept quiet, because I didn't entirely agree with him. But I totally get where he is coming from. Arnaz Hathiram , have you been secretly talking to my child?
Anyway. When we make up these arbitrary rules, remember, the children are watching.
Who makes up these rules? We all just learn them, imbibe and accept them. But surely there is a backoffice somewhere, where someone churns these rules out.
Also, isn't being religious a mental disability? Then, how can we make fun of the religiously or spiritually disabled?
If you're a man and you make fun of a woman's appearance, you get booed. But if you're a woman, you can make fun of both a man and a woman's appearance.
Which reminds me. This morning, on our drive to the school, Nilay noticed a poster of a women's only gym. So he says, "A woman's only gym is considered cool. But open a men's only gym and people will shame you. There is a women's helpline number, but nothing for men. Isn't the government for both genders?" I kept quiet, because I didn't entirely agree with him. But I totally get where he is coming from. Arnaz Hathiram , have you been secretly talking to my child?
Anyway. When we make up these arbitrary rules, remember, the children are watching.
Did you wish the birthday boy today?
Messaging me on WhatsApp or Facebook doesn't count. You've got to call and wish him.
The pic is from yesterday, when he bought a bunch of candy for his classmates.
Messaging me on WhatsApp or Facebook doesn't count. You've got to call and wish him.
The pic is from yesterday, when he bought a bunch of candy for his classmates.
How Kavin talks to Google
is far from home still in theaters in haryana
I don't think I can ever talk to a search engine in natural language.
is far from home still in theaters in haryana
I don't think I can ever talk to a search engine in natural language.
There is a mouse
In our house
It is small and brown and shiny
Kavin is very impressed
I was in one room, he says
And minutes later, I was in another
And so was the mouse
I never saw it go
No one ever sees it go
It's too fast
Or too furtive
Or both
We've set up traps everywhere
But it's still running around free
In our house
It is small and brown and shiny
Kavin is very impressed
I was in one room, he says
And minutes later, I was in another
And so was the mouse
I never saw it go
No one ever sees it go
It's too fast
Or too furtive
Or both
We've set up traps everywhere
But it's still running around free
I haven't commented on this, and I don't need to now, considering what an excellent treatment a friend has given to the subject.
In the morning I was following the violet footsteps in this station. In the middle, they vanished, and I got lost and disoriented, like a child.
Now I'm following the yellow footsteps. I hope they'll take me home safely.
Now I'm following the yellow footsteps. I hope they'll take me home safely.
भाईसाहब Mayank is on a roll today. Do you follow him? But you should.
Sounds like a perfect Sunday morning. Shalini, Raghav, बताओ, चलें...
😂 Story of some people's life 😅
हाय मैं इस कुत्ते की हालत पर हसूँ या रोऊँ
This morning I was privy to a phone conversation between a senior citizen and a caller. The old man was carrying a Nokia phone of the kind that everyone in the room can hear when used.
The caller was threatening the callee with dire consequences if a boy from his family did not stop seeing a girl from the caller's family. She apparently had been taking rides on the boy's bike. The old man tried to explain that if a girl sits on a boy's bike of her own free will, why is her family threatening the boy's entire family? And why wasn't the caller taking up the issue with his own girl?
The old man was very patient and polite. The caller was very rude and threatening violence continuously. And that, for you, is Haryana.
This morning I was privy to a phone conversation between a senior citizen and a caller. The old man was carrying a Nokia phone of the kind that everyone in the room can hear when used.
The caller was threatening the callee with dire consequences if a boy from his family did not stop seeing a girl from the caller's family. She apparently had been taking rides on the boy's bike. The old man tried to explain that if a girl sits on a boy's bike of her own free will, why is her family threatening the boy's entire family? And why wasn't the caller taking up the issue with his own girl?
The old man was very patient and polite. The caller was very rude and threatening violence continuously. And that, for you, is Haryana.
Yea! We launched!
Few things I noticed during DD's live stream of the Chandrayaan II launch.
1. One commentator was speaking English, the other Hindi. Hindi sounded strange, juxtaposed against the visuals of the entirely South Indian ISRO team. The only North Indians were in the viewers gallery.
2. The Hindi commentator spoke big Hindi words to describe each complex component of the system. But he struggled to pronounce १८४ in Hindi. He also struggled to translate velocity to गति, and use other simple Hindi words. This made for some linguistic comedy.
3. That joker Sadhguru had placed himself prominently in the center of the proceedings. His pseudo scientific nonsense gathers credence when he is seen snuggling up to real scientists. Sad.
Few things I noticed during DD's live stream of the Chandrayaan II launch.
1. One commentator was speaking English, the other Hindi. Hindi sounded strange, juxtaposed against the visuals of the entirely South Indian ISRO team. The only North Indians were in the viewers gallery.
2. The Hindi commentator spoke big Hindi words to describe each complex component of the system. But he struggled to pronounce १८४ in Hindi. He also struggled to translate velocity to गति, and use other simple Hindi words. This made for some linguistic comedy.
3. That joker Sadhguru had placed himself prominently in the center of the proceedings. His pseudo scientific nonsense gathers credence when he is seen snuggling up to real scientists. Sad.
What kind of sorcery is this. Tetrapaks are 💯% recyclable? You can transform them into outdoor furniture. Woweee.
(on the way to his first day of the new school year)
Nilay: Dad, how do I make more friends.
Me: Just be your usual, nice self. Remember how you made friends with five random kids on top of a mountain in Pooh.
Nilay: Not five. Ten. 😊. That's helpful. I feel good. I'll go make some friends.
Me: Would you rather be the nice kid or the cool kid.
Nilay: I'll go with nice 👍🏽
This, while I've myself wondered in recent times if being a nice guy is such a good strategy after all. Perhaps being bold, aggressive and cool is the better way to go.
Nilay: Dad, how do I make more friends.
Me: Just be your usual, nice self. Remember how you made friends with five random kids on top of a mountain in Pooh.
Nilay: Not five. Ten. 😊. That's helpful. I feel good. I'll go make some friends.
Me: Would you rather be the nice kid or the cool kid.
Nilay: I'll go with nice 👍🏽
This, while I've myself wondered in recent times if being a nice guy is such a good strategy after all. Perhaps being bold, aggressive and cool is the better way to go.
Yesterday was the last day of Nilay's vacations. I thought of making it a special day. The National Museum, Aravalli Biodiversity Park and a performance of चरणदास चोर were some of the possibilities. We started for Delhi, but heavy rains on the way scuttled our plans.
We ended up hanging around in malls all day. The drama of glitzy retail, with their buy one get one schemes and their overpriced, overhyped, unnecessary products left me quite disgusted.
But hey. I got a T shirt to show for it. There was a buy two get 50% off offer; I got to buy the second product so we could cash in 😂
We ended up hanging around in malls all day. The drama of glitzy retail, with their buy one get one schemes and their overpriced, overhyped, unnecessary products left me quite disgusted.
But hey. I got a T shirt to show for it. There was a buy two get 50% off offer; I got to buy the second product so we could cash in 😂
So all of the people who cursed her throughout her old age, who said she would rot in jail due to her corruption, who called her names, are now singing her paeans.
ऐसे जीने से तो मर ही जाना बेहतर। ज़िन्दगी में लोग कोसते हैं, मौत में दुआ देते हैं।
ऐसे जीने से तो मर ही जाना बेहतर। ज़िन्दगी में लोग कोसते हैं, मौत में दुआ देते हैं।
Public Humiliation of Husband Corporation of India Ltd.
"She laughed and laughed like olden days internet connecting sound"
Mathrubootham is too much.
"She laughed and laughed like olden days internet connecting sound"
Mathrubootham is too much.
Please go support a small business, a local business.
We are small and local in Sohna Road. And we are open today. Do drop by 😂🤣
We are small and local in Sohna Road. And we are open today. Do drop by 😂🤣
अंत में ठेके वाले भाईसाहब ने गाया और सब को मन्त्रमुग्ध कर दिया। वाह वाह।
दोस्तों ने बाहर बुलाया
खिलाया पिलाया
मग़र हम पर हमेशा की तरह
मौसीक़ी का ही नशा छाया @ The Piano Man Gurugram
खिलाया पिलाया
मग़र हम पर हमेशा की तरह
मौसीक़ी का ही नशा छाया @ The Piano Man Gurugram
@msginnygill के cafe का नाश्ता। सदा delectable.
#महनत. Nilay has been going to work with me for two days now. The first day was hard. He didn't like it. He wanted out. His body ached in the evening. The second day was a lot better. He did something a hundred and fifty times over and liked it. He learnt a few things. He didn't ask to go sit in the air-conditioned software office, and work on a computer instead. On the ride back home he tells me, "We have lunch at Haldirams, I drink milk out of the coffee machine, we go back home tired and fulfilled and sleep. This is the good life."
So FaceApp was created to condition us for Top Gun 2?
Coolest. Job post. Ever.
I have no idea what this was about. But the kids were doing this over and over again.
"You have been branded by the chicken. All hail!"
Anyone know anything about this? Asking the Google didn't help. Should I be worried?
"You have been branded by the chicken. All hail!"
Anyone know anything about this? Asking the Google didn't help. Should I be worried?
Nilay: Dad. You're not overweight. You're chocolate enriched.
कितनी इज्ज़त से गिरफ़्तार किया है पाकिस्तान ने इसे 😂😡
Hello everyone!
@[100063777711947:2048:Thinvent] is hiring and I would really appreciate some referrals. As usual, we are not looking for degrees/qualifications or industry experience. We are looking for demonstrable skills, and a desire to work smart and solve problems. We are hiring:
1. Three software engineers who will be programming in C, Python and Shell on the Linux platform.
2. A DevOps engineer who will be working on technologies listed here: https://www.thinvent.in/devops-services/
3. Three helpers in manufacturing. They will be assembling and testing electronics, and packing and moving boxes around.
4. An accountant, who should be adept at GSuite and Zoho One.
If you know someone, please do connect me over WhatsApp (if you don't have my phone number, DM me please) or email (saurabh+hire@thinvent.in). All openings are at our office in Sector 49, Gurgaon. For roles 1 and 2, we are also open to candidates in Bangalore.
@[100063777711947:2048:Thinvent] is hiring and I would really appreciate some referrals. As usual, we are not looking for degrees/qualifications or industry experience. We are looking for demonstrable skills, and a desire to work smart and solve problems. We are hiring:
1. Three software engineers who will be programming in C, Python and Shell on the Linux platform.
2. A DevOps engineer who will be working on technologies listed here: https://www.thinvent.in/devops-services/
3. Three helpers in manufacturing. They will be assembling and testing electronics, and packing and moving boxes around.
4. An accountant, who should be adept at GSuite and Zoho One.
If you know someone, please do connect me over WhatsApp (if you don't have my phone number, DM me please) or email (saurabh+hire@thinvent.in). All openings are at our office in Sector 49, Gurgaon. For roles 1 and 2, we are also open to candidates in Bangalore.
So I'm going to be taking my boys for the Chandrayaan 2 launch, whenever it happens again. DEL to MAS flights are typically ₹5,000 one way when purchased one day prior, ₹4,000 one week prior. Uber from Chennai airport to Sriharikota is about ₹2,000, three hours.
If you wanna join us from Delhi, or meet us at MAS, let me know now. We don't know when ISRO will reschedule the launch and how much notice we will have, so we will need to stay prepared.
The boys will probably miss a few days of school, but they have full attendance anyway. And this is very educational. Chandrayaan 2 is a combination of three things. A 2.5 ton orbiter, a 1.5 ton soft lander, and a 17kg rover. Yes, ISRO will be only the fourth team to soft land on the moon, and they'll go a roving on the surface. But that's the payload. The rocket, which is what we will see, is the GSLV III. A 640 ton behemoth is going to lift into space and shoot for the moon. If that don't make your skin tingle, तुम्हारी रगों में ख़ून नहीं पानी है पानी 🤣
The launch site is next to Pulicat Lake. Which makes for great stargazing. Since this is a geek trip, I'm thinking of throwing in some factory tours. I know Royal Enfield does tours in Chennai. ICF (think Train 18), Isuzu (Sri City), CPT are on the way. Kalpakkam is nearby.
On the way back we could take the train. SPE is close to Sriharikota on the MAS-NDLS track. Its a 30 hour run from SPE to NDLS by express, though I'm not sure if express trains halt at SPE.
If you wanna join us from Delhi, or meet us at MAS, let me know now. We don't know when ISRO will reschedule the launch and how much notice we will have, so we will need to stay prepared.
The boys will probably miss a few days of school, but they have full attendance anyway. And this is very educational. Chandrayaan 2 is a combination of three things. A 2.5 ton orbiter, a 1.5 ton soft lander, and a 17kg rover. Yes, ISRO will be only the fourth team to soft land on the moon, and they'll go a roving on the surface. But that's the payload. The rocket, which is what we will see, is the GSLV III. A 640 ton behemoth is going to lift into space and shoot for the moon. If that don't make your skin tingle, तुम्हारी रगों में ख़ून नहीं पानी है पानी 🤣
The launch site is next to Pulicat Lake. Which makes for great stargazing. Since this is a geek trip, I'm thinking of throwing in some factory tours. I know Royal Enfield does tours in Chennai. ICF (think Train 18), Isuzu (Sri City), CPT are on the way. Kalpakkam is nearby.
On the way back we could take the train. SPE is close to Sriharikota on the MAS-NDLS track. Its a 30 hour run from SPE to NDLS by express, though I'm not sure if express trains halt at SPE.
#Bangalore has clear blue skies. Clean, breathable air. And frog face cameras staring at the moon. What more does one want?
Au revoir, Bangalore.
How was the meal? Well, it was fully 10x the price of an equally satisfying meal at a Darshini. But fresh idlis, early in the morning, deep inside an airport, are ❤️. I'm not complaining 😁
How was the meal? Well, it was fully 10x the price of an equally satisfying meal at a Darshini. But fresh idlis, early in the morning, deep inside an airport, are ❤️. I'm not complaining 😁
Me: ha ha
Rahul Pal: What's funny?
Me: You've heard that song, right
"Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end"
R: Uh, no.
Me: Uh, never mind. Eat your dinner, boy.
R: No tell me.
Me: Someone sent me a recording of the song. She was surprised to know that I'd heard the song. It's a popular song. Why wouldn't I have heard it?
R: (eats dinner)
Later...
Me: I'm at my friend's place. He is my oldest friend. I can say anything to him, do anything with him. He is my chaddi buddy.
Kavin: That sounds creepy, dad.
Me: Did you eat your dinner, boy? Go eat your dinner.
https://open.spotify.com/track/6QOg1CWFpLAsIK7I54JX4G?si=lxkI_bMpSWyo1k7WBrbPRw
Rahul Pal: What's funny?
Me: You've heard that song, right
"Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end"
R: Uh, no.
Me: Uh, never mind. Eat your dinner, boy.
R: No tell me.
Me: Someone sent me a recording of the song. She was surprised to know that I'd heard the song. It's a popular song. Why wouldn't I have heard it?
R: (eats dinner)
Later...
Me: I'm at my friend's place. He is my oldest friend. I can say anything to him, do anything with him. He is my chaddi buddy.
Kavin: That sounds creepy, dad.
Me: Did you eat your dinner, boy? Go eat your dinner.
https://open.spotify.com/track/6QOg1CWFpLAsIK7I54JX4G?si=lxkI_bMpSWyo1k7WBrbPRw
Le #street #art of #Bengaluru
#streetart
#streetart
I was Arthur Dent for a day 😁
As I ambled about Jayanagar after a very satisfying round of sundaes at Corner House, I saw these.
Monster money plant gonna get you tonight.
Monster money plant gonna get you tonight.
I was told to go see the #blooms at #CubbonPark. They were enchanting. @ Cubbon Park
Bangalore has been run over by beautiful women wielding beautiful #mookuthis. It is an epidemic, of the delightful kind.
Featured here is my childhood (youthhood?) friend, famous superstar, and lifelong Daler Mehndi fan club chairperson, Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
If you haven't heard of her, please crawl out of whatever rock you've been living under, add Bindhu Malini to your Spotify favourite artists list, and soak up her soulful music. You can also add her equally talented and delightfully random husband Vasu Dixit. Then you will have full flavour.
Featured here is my childhood (youthhood?) friend, famous superstar, and lifelong Daler Mehndi fan club chairperson, Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
If you haven't heard of her, please crawl out of whatever rock you've been living under, add Bindhu Malini to your Spotify favourite artists list, and soak up her soulful music. You can also add her equally talented and delightfully random husband Vasu Dixit. Then you will have full flavour.
Me, typing a message on my phone:
"I'm in"
Autosuggest on my phone keyboard throws up two suggestions:
"a meeting", "love"
यह क्या भद्दा मज़ाक़ है बीच दोपहर में मेरे साथ।
"I'm in"
Autosuggest on my phone keyboard throws up two suggestions:
"a meeting", "love"
यह क्या भद्दा मज़ाक़ है बीच दोपहर में मेरे साथ।
The café I was at, had a fly on the wall. Was it listening to my conversations. But I was sitting there all by myself.
Could it listen to the musings of my mind?
Will it keep my secrets?
Could it listen to the musings of my mind?
Will it keep my secrets?
There is much beauty in the little things.
There's just something about #tree #canopies
Sitting among trees. Reading about trees. The joys of a lazy #Bangalore morning. @ Richard's Town
The kids weren't with me when I came across this switch. I wonder how tempted they'd have been to toggle it 😁
The criminals who presided over the destruction of the world, who profited for decades as they sent the world hurtling down the wrong path, all the while being fully aware of the disaster that awaited us at the end of this path, are now issuing dire warnings. Meanwhile their purse strings stay firmly tightened, their money bags bursting with cash made from the pillage of the planet over centuries. Even the most destructive fungus adds more value to this planet than British royalty and their platitudes.
We (both countries) are noble with each other in the death of a child.
I wish we would extend such courtesy to the living too. If a living seven year old had slipped into a nallah and floated to the other side of the border from either side, he would face tons of harassment. And older children and adults have languished in jail for years for a mere slip.
हम ऐसे क्यों हैं?
I wish we would extend such courtesy to the living too. If a living seven year old had slipped into a nallah and floated to the other side of the border from either side, he would face tons of harassment. And older children and adults have languished in jail for years for a mere slip.
हम ऐसे क्यों हैं?
My timeline: Cars are bad for the environment and for cities. We need more public transport and cycling infrastructure.
Also my timeline: Car sales are down by 25%. The economy is in deep trouble.
Why can't we decide once and for all what we want? We have built an economy that hugely depends on the sale of demerit goods like cars, fossil fuels, cigarettes, sugary drinks, plastic packaging and what not. If this economy flounders ever so slightest, we all panic. Yet we want a change in consumption patterns.
When the anthropocene ends with the mass extinction of most life forms, when human civilisation as we know it collapses, will we then build a new sustainable economy from the ashes of the old one?
Also my timeline: Car sales are down by 25%. The economy is in deep trouble.
Why can't we decide once and for all what we want? We have built an economy that hugely depends on the sale of demerit goods like cars, fossil fuels, cigarettes, sugary drinks, plastic packaging and what not. If this economy flounders ever so slightest, we all panic. Yet we want a change in consumption patterns.
When the anthropocene ends with the mass extinction of most life forms, when human civilisation as we know it collapses, will we then build a new sustainable economy from the ashes of the old one?
Sanjoli: Mamu, teach me about batteries.
Me: Charge, electricity, positive, negative, North Pole, South Pole, current, voltage, watt, joule, power, work, rotor, stator, alternating current, direct current, electron, proton, moron.
(2 hours later)
Nilay: (passed out long ago)
Kavin: All that is fine, but question, question, question, question and question. Also you made 3 mistakes. I've been keeping count.
Sanjoli: This was useful. But I'm tired. Can we continue in the morning.
Meethi: Oooh. What does this button do?
Next morning...
Sanjoli: Mamu, can you teach me about batteries?
Me: Here are your books. Read all about batteries. Yesterday I taught you all about electricity.
Sanjoli: Yes but I had to learn about batteries.
Me: Now you know what it's like to be Nilay and Kavin.
Me: Charge, electricity, positive, negative, North Pole, South Pole, current, voltage, watt, joule, power, work, rotor, stator, alternating current, direct current, electron, proton, moron.
(2 hours later)
Nilay: (passed out long ago)
Kavin: All that is fine, but question, question, question, question and question. Also you made 3 mistakes. I've been keeping count.
Sanjoli: This was useful. But I'm tired. Can we continue in the morning.
Meethi: Oooh. What does this button do?
Next morning...
Sanjoli: Mamu, can you teach me about batteries?
Me: Here are your books. Read all about batteries. Yesterday I taught you all about electricity.
Sanjoli: Yes but I had to learn about batteries.
Me: Now you know what it's like to be Nilay and Kavin.
Same thing?
While the story, like most in Akash's posts, is poignant, and talks of modern day slavery too, I see a silver lining here.
Recently a severe cyclone went through Odisha. Though property damage was extensive, loss of life was minimal. This stour is from Bangladesh. At least in our country, in today's days, people rich and poor, literate and illiterate, have started paying heed to warnings from emergency services. Cyclone shelters are enough to save everyone.
There will be fewer stories like hers in the future.
Recently a severe cyclone went through Odisha. Though property damage was extensive, loss of life was minimal. This stour is from Bangladesh. At least in our country, in today's days, people rich and poor, literate and illiterate, have started paying heed to warnings from emergency services. Cyclone shelters are enough to save everyone.
There will be fewer stories like hers in the future.