Microsoft Sucks Balls

At one point, I was a rabid proponent of Microsoft. Deeply entrenched in the Microsoft ecosystem and recommending Microsoft products and services to my friends too. But even after switching to Apple, I am being constantly reminded of how Microsoft sucks balls, thanks to my work ecosystem.

I have realised foremost that Microsoft has no idea what users want, adding/removing/changing things randomly as they see fit. Secondly, even after possessing vast resources, they are clueless on how to solve the most basic problems.

Below is a list showcasing how Microsoft sucks balls:

Windows

Microsoft x86-64 Integration

Windows has been running on x86-64 hardware for decades. You would think that is enough time to refine things and have them working in a seamless way, but, no. This is what happens when I wake up my work laptop from sleep, while connected to an external display:

13 seconds from sleep to usable
  1. Show signs of life : 1 second
  2. Flicker once : 4 seconds
  3. Flickr second time : 4 seconds
  4. Screen sort of pulsates, zooms in and out : 4 seconds

I have some questions

  1. Who, in Microsoft decided that waking a laptop from sleep to usable state requiring 13 seconds is acceptable in 2024? Macs take less than 1 second for the entire process.
  2. Why does the main display need to blink and be unusable every time I connect or disconnect an extended display?

Security/Group Policies

I understand that organisations need to have tight control on what happens on their machines. But the way Microsoft does it is completely bollocks.

  1. So, in our org, the Microsoft Store app is blocked by policy. Good enough. But then, if I go to the app’s Microsoft Store web page and click on install, the app installs just fine. What is even the point of blocking it then? Just to make things more inconvenient for users?
  2. Our organisation policy forbids one from saving/adding usernames/passwords to Edge. But there’s no policy to prevent importing of passwords via a csv file. So that’s what I do. Again, why block something half-heartedly just to make things more difficult for the user?

Bluetooth

  • Most platforms (Including Windows) can display the battery level of Bluetooth devices based on a standard. Other devices can also show you if the device is charging, which sadly Windows cannot do. What Windows does is, it gets confused and shows the battery level flapping like crazy.
Bluetooth battery level doing the St Vitus’ Dance
  • It’s 2024 and Microsoft still doesn’t allow you to reverse your mouse scroll direction easily. You need to dive into device manager to see the mouse’s HID and then mess around with the registry to toggle a value, reboot the OS to reverse the scroll. The alternative is to use an app the OEM provides and do it from there, but that is buggy too, as every time the computer wakes up from sleep, the scroll goes back to the default for a few seconds before reverting back.

Windows Hello

Ok, this one is more on OEMs than Microsoft, but why does Microsoft certify shoddy level sensors as Windows Hello certified? Approx half the time I try unlocking my laptop using my face, it fails. Even though I have “trained” Windows Hello multiple times under different lighting conditions. 10-20% times, even fingerprint recognition fails.

Even worse, some times, Windows Hello authentication succeeds, but windows still shows an error message “unable to recognise you” while at the same time logging me in. Make up your mind, asshole.

Wireless LAN

Many times, when my Laptop wakes up or boots up, it just doesn’t connect to my home WLAN even though the network is remembered and “Connect Automatically” is selected. Happened on my old Dell work Laptop and even on a newer HP work laptop, so can’t really blame the OEM for a consistent bug across different hardware.

Widgets & Shit

Microsoft introduced the new social area in Windows 11. It has a handful of supposedly helpful widgets but in reality, it is bullshit

  1. The news articles are of such low quality and full of click bait and propaganda pieces. And there are so many of the news widgets that it is impractical to remove them all one by one.
  2. The trafic widget is not configurable. Our company uses ZScaler, so the traffic widget always shows traffic conditions in Malaysia or Singapore.
  3. There’s no widget for Outlook calendar if you use the “new” Outlook.

Thankfully, they do allow you to disable this feature altogether.

Microsoft Windows does indeed suck balls.

Microsoft 365

Sharepoint/OneDrive for business

Some time last year, Microsoft pushed out an update that if you share a link for some Sharepoint file/folder via email, it would automatically give read permissions for that file to everyone in your To/cc list. While, this may sound useful, it makes your Sharepoint site into a horrible/fragmented mess of user permissions, something that a user cannot easily fix/reset via the GUI.

Microsoft Teams

  1. Sometime around June last year, I discovered a bug that if you share an HDR display in a teams call, teams crashes within a few minutes. Via my IT team, I raised a bug with MS. Almost a year later, Microsoft still has not been able to fix this bug. Even worse, the “New” Teams, which is supposedly built from the ground up, has the same bug.
  2. If you have a wireless audio headset with a mute button, the mute button does not sync with the Teams mute button. So many times I have been speaking thinking I have unmuted myself, but I forgot to unmute myself in 2 different places. Both hardware and software mute work independently of each other. The kicker? This feature works perfectly with Microsoft Teams on iOS and macOS.
  3. If someone updates their photo on Teams, the new photo appears on the mobile app almost immediately, but takes weeks/months to update on the desktop client, even the “new” client.
  4. Out of Office notifications between Teams and Outlook don’t sync well. If you set OOO on Teams, it ruins the format of the actual message

Microsoft teams sucks balls.

Outlook

Outlook was such a bloated mess, I was kind of relieved when they replaced it completely with a new app which is nothing more than a web wrapper. However, months later, it still has bugs. One annoying one is, if I select an appearance theme, it only loads 1/5 times I launch outlook. All other times, it loads with a plain GUI.

Not to mention that the new Outlook doesn’t even launch without an internet connection (Which is often because of the Wireless bug above).

Office Apps

While office apps have gotten better over the years, I don’t understand why there are 3 ways to open a Word/Excel/Powerpoint file

  1. On the web
  2. Inside Teams
  3. Using the desktop app

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster tools is the only Microsoft product I now use personally, to manage my blogs. While Bing perfectly recognises my vitriolic blog (This one), it refuses to index pages from my other, much nicer photography blog. All it says is that my domain is blocked. Customer service cannot provide a reason and they cannot talk to you more frequently than once in 6 months.

Although Microsoft Bing sucks balls, I cannot migrate to Google as a user (As a WebMaster, I find Google’s Search Console vastly superior).

Just stop with the bullshit studies already!

I read news everyday. At least some of the news articles are about bullshit studies telling you what is good or bad for your health. Over time, I started seeing a pattern. Most of these bullshit studies contradicted each other clearly. Below are some examples I found very recently.

Vitamins

photo medication pills on white plastic container
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

This study says that Vitamins are good for you and can slow cognitive decline.

Then, this article cites several studies that say that Vitamins increase the risk of cancer appreciably and will kill you faster.

This study says the Vitamins are neither good nor bad for you, but completely useless.

Alcohol

three cocktail drinks
Photo by Prem Pal Singh Tanwar on Pexels.com

This article cites multiple studies which say that moderate alcohol consumption is good for you (and me).

This study proves that drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol will shrink your brain.

Egg Yolk

adding of egg on a heap flour
Photo by Klaus Nielsen on Pexels.com

We all know in the last decade there were several studies advising you not to eat egg yolk, because they are high in cholesterol.

Thankfully, it was recently conclusively proven that eating food high in cholesterol doesn’t cause higher levels of blood cholesterol.

Ketamine

This study proves that Ketamine helps with Depression and Anxiety Disorders.

This study proves the exact opposite, Ketamine can cause your Anxiety to become worse.

Psilocybin (Magic mushrooms)

wild mushroom
Photo by Fazlul Kader Chowdhury on Pexels.com

This article cites multiple studies which provide that Psilocybin can alleviate depressive symptoms for up to a year.

This study says that Psilocybin is in fact, bad for mental health.

Marijuana

dark green leafed plant
Photo by Washarapol D BinYo Jundang on Pexels.com

This study cites that cannabis is effective in treating mental disorders. There are many studies claiming cannabis is effective for pain management.

This study (among many others) cites the exact opposite. In fact, I, myself have seen marijuana crazed people in mental distress.

Grain free Dog/Cat Food

photo of person feeding dog outside
Photo by Ricky Esquivel on Pexels.com

There was a fad a couple of years ago where all pet parents started feeding their pets grain free food. The logic was, the ancestors of these animals lived in the jungle and hunted for food, so never had access to grain.

All was well, till grain-free pets started dying from heart failure. Now there’s an FDA alert against grain free food.

Ozempic

This article says that if you use Ozempic to lose weight and then you stop taking it, you gain back more than you had lost.

This study says the exact opposite.

Blue Light

Remember all the studies that told you that blue light in the evenings and at night is bad for you and your sleep? How every OS there is actually baked in a feature to turn your screen warm after sunset? Remember that they even sell lasses that block blue light?

This study linked from this article states all that is bullshit, it is now yellow light which is bad for you and your sleep.

I wonder what is the reason for such contradictory studies. I can think of the following cases

  1. Both studies are in fact correct, people are different and everyone reacts to things differently.
  2. Some of these studies are bullshit/unscientific.
  3. The entire mechanism of studies is inherently wrong.

Books I read in February 2024

Continuing my series, as promised. In this post, I present the books I read in February 2024.

BookAuthorMy Rating
Tintin in the land of SovietsHergé2/10
Tintin in the CongoHergé6/10
Tintin in ThailandBaudouin de Duve3/10
Books I read in February 2024

I read so much science fiction last few months that I started having space themed dreams. So I decided to take a break and read something else.

I had always known off the presence of the Tintin app in the App Store, but never bought anything there. So this time, I decided to buy all the comics, because mine are packed in boxes in Gurgaon. Although I have read each book at least 20 times, I keep coming back to them from time to time.

Tintin in the land of Soviets

I decided to go sequentially and first up was Tintin in the land of Soviets, which is easily one of the worst books I have ever read. Shoddy drawing and pure anti-communist propaganda. Soviets are shown as brutal people. The bad guys keep using absurd phrases like “By Lenin’s goatee”. They are also shown to be spreading propaganda to Britishers, showing them their “great” factories, which are actually fake and empty inside. In one absurd scene, poor Soviet people are shown to queue up for free bread and only those who call communism great are given a loaf. Also, Tintin comes off as a jerk, attacking people for no reason.

Tintin in the Congo

The second book in the series is Tintin in the Congo. There’s no good way to say it, the book is racist as fuck. First of all, all the Africans have been shown resembling apes. Tintin says he needs to hire “a boy”. Many other things which would have gotten Hergé cancelled if he were alive. Tintin kills wild animals for no apparent reason. He kills 15 antelopes “for dinner”. He kills a monkey just to skin him and wear his skin as a coat. Kills an elephant and takes his tusks for ivory. Also kills a buffalo for fun.

When his European car collides with an African train, the train derails. Then he screams at the Africans on board the train and forces them to fix it. Missionaries are shown to be super smart and benevolent. African children are shown as stupid, after spending all day, he cannot teach them what 2+2 is.

The good part is, the drawing is epic and as per normal Tintin standards.

Tintin in Thailand

Tintin in Thailand is an illegal parody of Tintin comics. I decided to give it a fair shot.

The comic starts with Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus sick in Marlinspike Hall, with no money. Then Jolyon Wagg’s wife comes along to tell them that her husband went to Thailand many months ago and hasn’t come back. She asks them to track him down and bring him back. So they go to Bangkok and find out that Jolyon Wagg has run away to Chiang Mai with a Kathoey (Ladyboy). Haddock and Calculus immediately start whoring around while Tintin spends the night with the male toilet attendant.

Tintin and friends flying to Thailand
Tintin and friends flying to Thailand

Tintin, looking for more boys, finds Tchang, who reveals that the Yei in Tintin in Tibet had been raping him and now desensitised to it, he works as a prostitute.

Tintin and friends planning their debauchery in Thailand
Tintin and friends planning their debauchery in Thailand

Meanwhile, Snowy is having his own Siam experience fucking Haddock’s Siamese cat. Also, Jolyon Wagg’s wife starts fucking Nestor. Tchang gets drunk and tries to cut off Tintin’s dick. Tintin reveals that he doesn’t have one to begin with.

Eventually, they all ring in the new millennium together in Thailand.

Of True Detective and Talaash

So what does Season 4 of True Detective have in common with the 2012 Bollywood movie Talaash? Quite a lot actually. In fact True Detective: Night Country borrows most of its core themes from this movie.

Spoilers Alert

True Detective: Night Country
True Detective: Night Country
  1. A woman is brutally murdered by a group of entitled men; this has already happened before the timeline of the show/movie.
  2. No one cares for the death of the woman/police doesn’t investigate seriously because the woman came from a marginalised section of the society (Inuit/Prostitute).
  3. The “ghost” of the woman starts exacting revenge, killing her murderers one by one
  4. Two/A police officer investigating the murder of these men discover the connection to the murdered woman.
  5. The police officer is anguished because of the loss of their son in a (car/boat) accident many years ago. Both have difficulty sleeping at night and spend the night wandering their town/city.
  6. People (Partner/Neighbour) tell them that they have made contact with their dead son, which angers the police officer at first. But eventually, they believe the person and finally find peace knowing their son’s soul is at rest.
  7. The police officer falls in the sea and almost drowns, but is rescued (By partner/ghost).
Talaash: The Answer Lies within
Talaash: The Answer Lies within

Even after all those similarities, True Detective doesn’t feel like an outright copy of Talaash. It has enough to distinguish itself, but clearly the creators have been inspired from the movie.

That being said, I liked both the movie and the show, though I liked the movie just a bit more.

My Best Purchases-Nuphy Air75v2

Continuing with my series, the next entry in the list is the Nuphy Air75v2 mechanical keyboard which has completely overhauled my typing experience.

The story is that I was looking for a keyboard for my iPad, leaning towards the Magic Keyboard. But it seemed too expensive for what it was offering. Simultaneously, I had some allowance to spend from my office on ergonomic peripherals. One day, both these things clicked together and I decided to buy a wireless mechanical keyboard.

I tried a Keychron keyboard but didn’t like it much because the key travel was too deep and the colours pretty drab. Eventually, Ashish suggested Nuphy via a proxy and I decided to buy the Air75v2.

Nuphy Air75v2 at office
Nuphy Air75v2 at office

It turned out to be one of the best purchases ever. I never knew typing could be such a pleasurable experience, but now it is.

The keys are solid, the travel is not too deep and the feedback is just amazing. I love typing on it so much, I even took up extra documentation at work. I have the wisteria keys which don’t have an audible click but do have a noticeable thump.

iPad with Nuphy Air75v2
iPad with Nuphy Air75v2

It can pair to up to 4 devices and switch between them using a key combo.

The backlight is fancy but I mostly have it turned off. The keyboard runs QMK firmware and supports VIA, but the customisations are quite technical to set up and use and I just don’t bother.

I just wish that instead of a switch to toggle between Windows and Mac modes, it could auto detect like Logitech keyboards do.

Toxic Comics

Recently I started reading the newspaper again, which includes comics. As I read them over the months, I realised how toxic and negative most of these comics are. Below are some examples

Andy Capp

Andy Capp is a job-less alcoholic whose main hobbies are drinking at the pub and getting into fights there. The town counsellor keeps lining up interviews for him, but he keeps sabotaging them. And all of this is played out for laughs.

Andy Capp looking for free booze
Andy Capp looking for free booze
What a loser, Andy Capp!
What a loser, Andy Capp!
Toxic Andy Capp
Toxic Andy Capp
Toxic Andy Capp
Toxic Andy Capp
Andy Capp, the real loser
Andy Capp, the real loser
Andy Capp beating up Buddhists
Andy Capp beating up Buddhists

The Born Loser

As the name says, the protagonist is sort of a loser and this is played out for laughs. His boss, his wife and even his own children insult him all the time.

Brutus being insulted at work (Again)
Brutus being insulted at work (Again)
Brutus being insulted at work
Brutus being insulted at work
Gladys insulting Brutus
Gladys insulting Brutus
Gladys insulting Brutus (again)
Gladys insulting Brutus (again)

Blondie

Perhaps the most toxic boss of all time is in Blondie. The boss Julius keeps insulting Bumstead, threatening to fire him, fires him a few times. But he doesn’t even stop at that. Many times, he has physically assaulted Bumstead. I am just surprised he hasn’t asked to have sex with his wife. Despite all this, the Bumstead and Blondie go to his house for barbecues. Absolutely no self respect.

Dagwood kicking bumstead
Dagwood kicking
Julius insulting Dagwood
Julius insulting Dagwood
Dithers insulting Bumstead again
Dithers insulting Bumstead again
Julius insulting Dagwood (again)
Bastard Julius insulting Dagwood (again)
Dithers insulting Bumstead again
Dithers insulting Bumstead again
Julius insulting Dagwood (again)
Julius insulting Dagwood (again)
Julius insulting Dagwood (Agan)
Bastard Julius insulting Dagwood (Agan)
Julius invading Dagwood’s privacy at home
Julius invading Dagwood’s privacy at home

Pickles

Opal and Earl are a retired couple who sometimes take care of their grandson. Opal stops at nothing to insult day and night. I would like to see an alternate universe version where Opal is married to Sherif Roy Tillman, instead.

So now Earl can't even blink?
So now Earl can’t even blink?

Garfield

How can an article like this be complete without Garfield, who physically assaults Odie for no reason other than fun.

Garfield physically abusing Odie
Garfield physically assaulting Odie

Fuck Streaming Services!

I have been blogging regularly about my TV viewing and streaming services over the last few months. In short, I stopped pirating and switched over completely to streaming services. Till last month, I was subscribed to Apple TV+, Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar & Netflix. All combined, I was paying approximately ₹20000 ($250) a year on them. I was subscribed to all English TV streaming services possible in Thailand. Why, then, was I still not able to watch my favourite shows? These:

  • Fargo (FX On Hulu, not available in Thailand)
  • True Detective (HBO, not available in Thailand)
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO, not available in Thailand)
  • Young Sheldon (CBS, not available in Thailand. Available on Indian Prime, but not Thai Prime)
  • TVF Aspirants (Available on Indian Prime, but not Thai Prime)
  • Futurama (Hulu, not available in Thailand)
  • The Office (Indian version) (Available on Indian Hotstar (even there, censored), but not Thai Hotstar)

Nor can I hope to watch upcoming series I am looking forward to:

  • Alien (FX, not available in Thailand)
turned on flat screen smart television ahead
Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

As yo can see, most of the services are US-only. Also, FX is a separate service, Hulu is a separate service and FX on Hulu is also a thing? What bullshit. Even if I was in the US, I would be paying 10x the cost of basic cable to watch all these shows. On top of this, all of these services have a separate selection depending on the country, a Prime exclusive show like Aspirants is not available on Prime Thailand. A Hotstar exclusive show like The Office (Indian version) is not available in Thailand.

Watching movies on these services is not great either. If I want to watch some specific movie, I have to open each app one by one and search for that movie till I find one which has said movie. More often that not, no service has that movie that I want to see and I have to end up renting or buying anyways.

So I say, fuck these services. If they are actively trying to keep from from buying their services, I would rather pirate. So this is what I switched to

  • ShowRSS : I get the RSS feeds of my shows from here
  • Put.io : I import these RSS feeds (One time) in this boutique cloud storage service. It also provides helpful APIs, ftp and WebDAV access to access the storage using other means.
  • Infuse Pro : I connect this app to my Put.Io account on all my devices to access my Library of TV shows. This is optional, you can use Put.io’s own app to do the same, but I really like the Infuse user experience. It also syncs your shows to Trakt
  • Trakt: To track my TV shows

Now to catch up on all the shows I missed.

Living in Bangkok: 3-year report card

I moved to Bangkok 3 years ago. After living here all this time, it is time to do a report card of things I like and things I don’t like.

Things I like (love) about living in Bangkok

  1. The weather is awesome.
    • In summers it never crosses above 35C and in winters it never goes below 25C. I simply love the weather.
    • I love the sudden & heavy nature of the rains especially that it almost never happens during commute times.
    • There’s ample sunshine all year round, something I really need and appreciate. UV is quite high but can be managed with sunscreen.
  2. There are many beautiful places to visit and stay at, within a few hours drive. Hotels and AirBnBs are cheaper than in India. The nearest beach is 70 minutes drive from my place.
  3. Bangkok (And even Thailand) is multi-cultural. People from all over the world live here, with Europeans and Japanese being most common.
  4. Salaries are higher than India for the same level of work.
  5. Tax rates are lower than India. It makes me feel sick to think how much I paid as taxes in India and how little we all got back.
  6. Gadgets are cheaper not only in absolute value but also accompanied with higher purchasing power because of higher salaries.
  7. Healthcare is cheaper than India and insurance plans cover yearly tests and OPD visits.
  8. Fuel is cheaper than India. Consequently,
    • Taxis are cheaper than India and better, too
    • Airfare for travelling within Thailand is much cheaper than airfare for travelling within India.
    • Electricity is cheaper than India.
  9. The rivers are well maintained and have great river-view dining and entertainment options. I also love the Khlongs that branch off the rivers into the cities. I love travelling the city by boats.
  10. Much better air quality than North India.
  11. People are very considerate & conscious of passing infectious diseases to others and self-isolate even for minor things like colds and wear masks.
  12. Food and beverages are abundant, varied and cheap.
    • Thai food in Thailand is better and cheaper than Indian food in India. No one (except Indian expats) brings food from home to office. Everyone eats outside.
    • International food in Thailand is about the same price as in India, but the quality of food and restaurants is much better. Even the high-end restaurants here are not more expensive than mid-range restaurants in India.
    • Indian food is more expensive than in India, but that is to be expected.
    • As of 2024, there are 35 Michelin starred restaurants in Bangkok alone. Many of them in the vicinity of where we stay.
  13. Rents are about the same as Delhi for comparable locations, but places are much better. But income is higher, so we can afford to stay at a much better location compared to what we did in India.
  14. Better infrastructure, any day.
  15. Thais are religiously tolerant. Keep their religious views private and don’t force it on others.
  16. Relatively safe at night. Relatively safe for women.
  17. More pet friendly, although not the same level as the west.
    • Most restaurants allow you to bring pets. Most of them also serve the dog water and are kind to them.
    • Most malls allow you to bring pets if they are in a pram. Some allow them on the floor on a leash even.
    • Most AirBnBs and many hotel chains are dog friendly.
    • Pet-friendly transportation exists, although at a slightly higher cost.
  18. Most Thais are very polite and friendly.

Things I dislike about living in Bangkok

  1. Very few microbreweries, because of laws designed to maintain the duopoly of ThaiBev and Singha.
  2. No hill-stations that compare to Indian hill-stations.
  3. Thais are obsessed with ice. Most drinks and even water served at restaurants are 80-90% ice unless you beg them not to.
  4. No Amazon. Local e-commerce options are not as good.
  5. Metros are more expensive than India. In most cases, cabs are cheaper than metros if 2 or more people are travelling, but traffic is horrible, so people prefer paying extra for the convenience.
  6. International schooling is much more expensive than India. It is because International schools here hire only native English speaking teachers and they don’t come cheap. Even at higher rates, school infrastructure are not as expansive.
  7. Thais, especially Thai women are extremely vain. They care too much about how they look. Although, this doesn’t affect me directly.
    • It is common for them to body-shame each other for putting on a single kg of weight. Plus sized shops are named Fatty-Fatgirl plus size, Fat girls and Chubbers. Consequently, cloth sizes are different, too. I wear M sized shirts and pants in India. In Thailand, same shirts are L or XL and pants are XXL.
    • Cosmetic procedures are incredibly common here. Many malls have entire floors with “clinics” dedicated to such procedures. Most women above 30 take monthly Botox injections.
    • Obsessed with fairness, much like India.
  8. Obsessed with social media. Are always on their phones even when out for meals with others and even dates. I saw the same thing in China.
  9. Have a strange relationship with ambient temperature.
    • Like to keep indoor temperature very chilly. But then wear jackets and coats. What a waste of energy unnecessarily cooling a place.
    • Cannot handle temperatures above 30C.
    • Cannot handle temperatures below 20C.
  10. Treat pets very strangely, is irritating.
    • Don’t sterilise their pet.
    • Many Thais keep part-time pets. Basically this means that the pet stays on the streets, but comes home to feed. Such people won’t let the “pets” be taken away and sheltered, neither will take responsibility when the “pet” harms someone.
    • Don’t let their dogs meet other dogs on the street even though the dog is begging for it.
    • They also try to project their desire to have a baby on the dog. Come on just let them be dogs
      • Keep wiping the saliva from their dog’s mouths.
      • Scold their dog if it sniffs another dog’s butt.
      • Don’t do anything when their unsterilised horny dog mounts another one at the dog park.
  11. Too non-confrontational. Will take abuse and insults without any retaliation.

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives not only in quantity but also in intensity. Looking forward to many more years staying here.

Books I read in December 2023 & January 2024

Continuing my series, as promised. In this post, I present the books I read in December 2023 & January 2024, in sequence.

BookAuthorMy Rating
Paradise and other short storiesKhushwant Singh8/10
Hope – How Street Dogs Taught Me the Meaning of Life: Featuring Rodney, McMuffin and King WhackerNiall Harbison8/10
The Three-Body ProblemLiu Cixin7/10
The Dark ForestLiu Cixin8/10
Death’s EndLiu Cixin9/10
Books I read in December 2023 & January 2024

I didn’t do much reading in October and November 2023. In December, I started reading again.

Paradise and other short stories is a bit different from other Khushwant Singh books. As in, they are not personal stories about his life, but short stories with the themes of sex and religious superstition. I really enjoyed it and half-way through also realised that I had already read it before, years ago.

I have been following Niall Harbison on social media for quite some time and donating to his dog rescue efforts. When I saw that he has released a book about dogs, I eagerly bought it. Interestingly, the book is not directly about dogs. Instead, Niall first goes through how toxic his life was and how dogs turned it around.

After this, I started Liu Cixin‘s The Three-Body Problem, a trilogy spanning millions of years. It is well written and entertaining, although, being a Chinese sci-fi, it overestimates the importance of China in the global order.

It was good enough for me to move on to the next book in the series, The Dark Forest, which was slightly better than the first part.

But the best book in the series was Death’s End. 2 things stand out :

  1. The description of how 3 dimensional beings perceive 3 dimensional objects in the fourth dimension. This part is so well done, I read it twice.
  2. The way Yun Tianming tells three stories to Cheng Xin to give her clues without alerting the Trisolarans is genius.

Electricity Woes

The world’s first public electricity supply was a water wheel driven system constructed in the small English town of Godalming in 1881. I was born more than a 100 years later and this article documents my woes around electricity growing up.

Electricity woes
Photo by Pok Rie on Pexels.com

Asansol (Late 80s & 90s)

Asansol is a shitty town in West Bengal where one of my uncles lived. It was also the first stop where I went every year with my mother, during my summer vacations. My uncle and his family lived in the Sen Raleigh township at Kanyapur and it is the closest I have ever been to living in a village. I did not live in big cities during those years either (Gwalior, Indore etc), but this place gave new meaning to the term “backward”.

In summers, on average, there was electricity only for a few hours each day. At their house, even a fan was a luxury. I remember lying in bed for hours at night, not being able to sleep because it was too hot. When things were not too bad, the family used an inverter for the hours of the blackout. Eventually, over the years, even that became impractical because you could only charge it for a few hours every few days. Eventually, they switched their lights & fans to DC and hired pre-charged batteries on a per-night basis.

I also remember that they used their refrigerator as a wardrobe, because that’s all it was good for.

Still, I was a kid and resilient, so it didn’t bother me too much.

Kolkata (Late 80s & 90s)

Kolkata was the second stop in our summer holiday itenary & slightly better than Asansol. Electricity was more or less available, but there were sudden un-announced blackouts which the locals called “load-shedding”. Again, these would last for hours and I would lie in bed not being able to sleep. In bed, I would count down from 10 and pretend that at 0, the power would be back. When it didn’t, I would start again. Many nights, my mother would stay up fanning me with one of those Chinese fans till I fell asleep. Eventually, things became better after the power distribution in the city was privatised and today, such things are rare.

Karishma Apartments, East Delhi (1993)

Karishma Apartments (Now called Kirpal apartments) were shitty apartments, I lived in for (thankfully) 1 year around 1993. The story was, the apartment used some illegal way to apply for its electricity connection, which was eventually discovered and the electricity was disconnected for the entire complex. Most of the year I lived there, there was 0 electricity. Most people had their own generators putting away on their balconies. If I remember correctly, we shared a generator with another family and there were often disputes. Because of no electricity, there was hardly any water in the overhead tanks and there was a water tanker mafia selling water to everyone at exorbitant prices.

We lived on rent, we could have easily moved somewhere less shitty, no idea why we didn’t.

Gurgaon (2008-2015)

DLF Phase 3, U Block

There were daily power cuts during the summers. For others, it was no big deal because the power cuts were mostly in the daytime when they were all in their air-conditioned offices. I worked nights and these power cuts put a real damper on my sleep schedule.

DLF Phase 2, K Block

DLF Phase 2 being more posh than DLF Phase 3 had less power cuts, but they were still there. Still, it was not that bad.

Sector 22

We lived on one floor of a 3 floor house on rent for a few years. This was probably the shittiest house we have ever lived in. The landlords were kindly, but what they call “leechad“. They had 3 electricity connections for 3 floors, but chose to use 2 connections for one (their own) floor and the third connection was shared among the other 2 floors. Consequently, when we used the Air Conditioning, it would frequently overload and blow something on the electricity pole outside. The electricity people refused to resolve such issues at night and we spent many nights waiting for the fan to stop working when the inverter battery ran out. Eventually, we had enough and we gave notice at 2:00 AM one night after another incident.

Thankfully, this was the last of my electricity woes and since then, I have managed to elevate my life above such worries.

Earth bound misfit, I