Tuesday, June 28, 2005


I called my mom stone and sand
And roamed around- a fiendish little brat.
I told my dad he was an unfriendly lad
Nary did he care, even a tad.

All this when in seventh I studied
It took a while before the head even steadied!
Then I become a good little son
But still prone to pranks a ton.

Those were the days, long since past
How I dearly wish they will always last.
But time flies in a hurry - always so fast
Like a steamship cruising on so full a mast.

Now I am old and a little bit bald
I have a son thats no less ribald.
"Like father, like son" screams he
and gleefully jumps all over me.

Monday, June 27, 2005

"My books, Mine alone" spake Gollum.

I feel utterly possesive about books that belong to me... and I feel likewise about likeable books that belong to others. I then plot, plan and scheme to extract these bound pages of joy from their owners. I weave intricate webs of deceit to envelop him and giddy his mind until he parts with the treasure - treasure I will henceforth call my own and guard fiercely like a mother her baby or a pirate his wooden box. (him/her interchangeable- me no MCP...not that much. :) )

Inspite of the love, I consider my reading to be limited. I have felt rather downcast upon hearing several of my friends wax eloquent about some obscure work or talk about Franz Kafka or Yasunari Kawabata (Aside: If you are like me, you would not know who this fellow is. He is a Nobel laureate for literature from Japan - wrote books on the effect of sex on culture and explored very strange minds. One of the aforementioned friends gave YK's book - "The Lake" - for reading. I read it and understood nothing... only figured it was about a crazy fellow who had foot fetish, could not distinguish between reality and imagination and ultimately he turned out to be more complicated than he started out. One thing was sure. I felt repelled and whenever my mind reminds me of this book, I consciously instruct it to keep away. Powerful writing? Perhaps. But to my taste?No).

Anyways, Janani tagged me and here is my list. Thanks, J - you gave me one more topic to write about.


Books I own:
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I have about 150 books (equally divided between tech and non-tech) here and perhaps another 300 back home. While they are all in once place and arranged neatly in Urbana, its a nightmare back home in Madras - on bored afternoons when we rummage through old boxes, cabinets and overhead shelves, new books are discovered often. A couple of years back, I found some tax books bought by my grandpa in 1910 hiding inside a shelf untouched in years! Anyways, my collection keeps expanding. My worry is, how will I transport them when I return back to India?

Books recently bought:
----------------------
Complications by Atul Gawande - Doctors are revered and sought after the world over. But they are not miracle workers and face crucial decisions of life and death every day. While their patients have to live with the consequences of their actions, the doctors have to live with the knowledge that it is they who made the decisions. The book is a true story of the uncertainities, perils and pleasures in the life of an intern who becomes a doctor - Dr. Atul Gawande. Written in a very Feynmanesque style. Loved it.

Love story by Erich Segal - Being late has become a character trait for me like being honest, hard working etc. While teenagers read this book in college and try hard to fall in love, I read it at the end of grad school - late again. Very poignant and nicely written. As for falling in love, err...

Books I am reading now:
-----------------------
Prizes by Erich Segal - After love story, I attacked Oliver's Story, Acts of Faith, Only love and Man, Woman and Child. Prizes comes next naturally.

Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham - Recommended by a friend, I got this book from the library. The movie was splendid and moved me to tears. I was told the book is better!

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - My birthday gift! The imagery is excellent and the characters are so real and yet live in a magical world. If the translation was this good, I wonder how wonderful the original would be.

Favorites:
----------
I like this section! :-)

Surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman by R.P. Feynman - Rip roaringly hilarious! One cannot but be inspired by the spirit of this man and his antics. The king of all pranksters, I will worship him by default (along with Hanuman, of course :) ). And to top it, he was also extremely smart! But at a slightly deeper level, this book is about the remarkable hidden treasures that life holds at every corner. We all see them and make a choice - to pursue it and sate our curiosity like a little brat or move on hoping for more interesting things to turn up (like a "grown up"!). Feynman belonged to the first category and he ensured that I too remained in the first. I owe you one, fella! A+

Curious minds by John Brockman - A collection of essays by scientists recollecting the events that made them what they are today. Nicely written and full of life, its a perfect gift for your kid when he grows up. A

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - There are some things which are revered and held so high in the altar that words can never reach them. This one is at the very top of 'em all. Text version of a Michaelangelo sculpture.

Travels by Michael Crichton - The beauty of it is that the reader is taken for mindboggling adventures along with this author. Magically transported into the deserts of california to talk with cacti and then, to the depths of oceans to dance with sharks in a swift underwater current, it opened my mind up a bit more. Loved it. A+

Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Outrageous book! Amazingly well written (especially in the initial parts). We can sit with DA and laugh our hearts out on sunny days when the neighborhood tree wakes up from slumber to shed its leaves on the parked car nearby. A+

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse - A book on the life of Siddhartha as he grows up as a child seeking to answer the ultimate question of "Why". Subject to varied experiences, he is finally taught the answer on the banks of a river. Its a religious experience (even for an atheist!) A+

Trouble with Testosterone by Robert Sapolsky - A remarkably deep book by the renowned Stanford Professor, Dr. Sapolsky. He is a primatologist and visits the jungles of Africa to track a single herd of Gorillas through their life cycle. Must read for anyone who asks "why the hell did I behave like a chimp in front of that babe?". A+

There are a few others like "Waiting for the Mahatma" by R.K. Narayan, "We Indians" by Khushwant Singh, "Climbing Free" by Lynn Hill (The last one is a fantastic account of rock climbers around the world. I bought it and dutifully read it when I had a surge of enthusiasm for rock climbing) which were close runners up.

Now the baton passes to Born a libran, Amit Sethi, Anupama. :)

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Coming up Next - Formula for success

Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian ever to get Formula one points. With a little help from his sponsors and ample help from the almighty, Narain finished fourth in the just concluded US Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Amongst the strong Indian contingent rooting for his success was yours truly, diligently capturing the patriotic fervour on video. The scene was a riot and reminded me of Indo-Pak cricket matches. Check this space for videos of these unforgettable moments in the history of Indian motor racing...

Saturday, June 18, 2005


I know not where I bloom... I know not what I see...

iHate

...Emails filled with spelling mistakes (fi ouy rea os caerlses, tehn dotn wriet to em )
...Emails written with short forms (shrt frms do not lenthen ur days or mk u smrtr)
...Emails with capitalized "I"s and everything else in small case (whats that GRE word - egoistic?)
...Emails written without using full stops (case in point: my aunt)
...People who don't respond to emails (the writer is not a fool you see)
...People who respond to long, well written emails in a hurry (see above)
...People who don't acknowledge greetings (c'mon, did you grow up in a loveless household?)

Here's to a happy and loving cyberworld (now that we have messed up the real world beyond redemption)...

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Yoda asks...

Anij showing Picard a fluttering hummingbird poking its nose into a flower (slow mo) in "Insurrection"; Spock vouching his loyalty for humans in "Search for Spock"; The Klingon Worf getting angry after his 'little' ship was destroyed in "First Contact"; the first contact itself with Romulans. All scenes from Star Trek and all indelible classics.

Was never much of a star wars fan until I watched the revenge of the Sith last week. It was splendid; the special effects spectacular. Now my loyalties have been swayed and stand equally divided between astrum peregrinations and astrum strife. What is yours?

Monday, June 06, 2005

A giant leap for hanu-mankind...

My piety is merely pseudo-renaissance in nature. I had my phase of atheism (when I was in 9th class). Soon after, I downgraded myself to being an agnostic as I could not prove the absence of God. Later, during 12th class, there was a surge of religious fervor. Afterall, if divinity could improve my marks, why would I refuse? And it naturally declined after the exams.

I love ancient temples and visit them regularly. I feel perpetually amazed by the stunning human efforts that go into building temples, the wonderfully skilled hands of the architects and the resources that Kings were able to amass to build such enduring monuments.

Curiously enough, inspite of my agnostic beliefs, I feel happy when I visit temples. Tiruvannamalai is one of my favorite places not only for the temple but for the huge mountain and the sweet smelling fresh air that breezes across the hill early in the morning. Kumbakonam is another. Every visit to Patteeswaram is a day to cherish. My heart starts beating faster and there is palpable excitement in the air (Yes-even I find that hard to believe but such is the nature of truth)

And Hanuman is my favorite God. I suppose his antics endear him to many a teenager. And quite often, this love extends to adulthood too. And then, he is partly a monkey. Who would not want to be friends with a non-human? His strength, humility and devotion is the stuff of legend. He is a man that inspires, that one can look up to.

I woke up this morning and on my bed wondering "why do mornings travel quickly across darkness while dawn seems to slow them down". It was one of those days when laziness drives a fantasy. My fantasy revolves around conversations (Ahem. we are only talking about decent printworthy fantasies here fellows. So rest your imagination). Sometimes, its a girl; sometimes an plant; sometimes Hanuman. I was thinking about Hanuman and as usual, I felt a wake of affection. I remembered him as he is seen in the temple-tall, brave and majestic-and wondered how nice it would be to talk to him. I was pleasantly thinking of walking with him in a forest, plucking fruits and eating them, reaching a cliff and looking at the spectacular views. And thought that I neither have a picture of him nor a statue in my room. Then I thought, I have the most vivid image of him in my heart and was amused and content with this precious gift (All from a 26 year old who is confused about religious beliefs and thinks he is an agnostic. Sometimes, I find myself really messed up in my head but I am quite happy with that-so I guess its ok. Hmm...)

R had returned from India and I reaped my share of gifts from this trip. One of the two was an old cardboard box. I opened it and there was a bunch of crumpled newspapers. I was touched by her gesture and thanked her for bringing me a set of multi-lingual newspapers. While I contemplated rambling about national unity and patriotism (which I, thankfully, avoided), she grew irritated.

A was watching all this but decided to focus on the food in his plate, his primary interest.

Meanwhile, I did go past "Indian Express", "Loksatta", "Eenadu" and "DinaTHandi" and unearthed a beatiful statue of who else... Hanuman! It was a great coincidence and it made my day. Now, he has been promptly installed on my desk.

My life seems to be filled with coincidences. But as Michael Shermer (of Skeptic fame in Scientific American) says, humans keep looking for coincidences and only seem to record them. We are very good at finding patterns and we keep trying to fit our lives to such patterns-possibly to improve predictability. And that is the reason why everyone's life seems "blessed" with such events. We think about a friend and they call. We see two crows and our days become happier. We visit temples and our success rate improves. In other words, he says we look at conditional averages instead of plain averages. And obviously, there is bias.

He could be right and magic could dissappear from this world of rational events. On then other hand, what if he is wrong...

Sunday, June 05, 2005

I live underwater. I move silently. I am deadly - Submarines

I ambled across the concrete near the church where a huge open air book sale was going on, wondering about the best way to spend a warm and sunny sunday afternoon. I rummaged but was looking not for intellectual heavyweights or racy bond novels but for picture books that come very cheap at these events. I chose the largest of the books I could find and opened it - it was about these silent, potently deadly creatures which slide across the ocean floors.

I was spellbound by a 2 feet long picture of a submarine majestically breaking free from the depths of loneliness to sniff a whiff of fresh air (called the emergency surfacing manoeuvre). I stared it for a full minute and knew I was hooked for life. I have been a sucker for fighter aircrafts since I started watching "wings" on discovery. Now, I am a sucker for submarines. I watched with awe when they were moored in San Diego... I keep watching K19 and The hunt for red october... I fantasize about building my own miniature submarine (a 4ft model costs $800+, hmpf...) and I dont hate the water that much nowadays. So, if you are planning on giving me a gift and are blessed with a lot of money, you know what to do. Meanwhile, if you are poor and are like me, take a look at these videos:

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/images/imagesub.html

drop me a line and we can share a sigh...