The more I live & see what’s going on around me, the more I am convinced that we humans suck big time and don’t deserve this planet. Let’s look at why:
US has sent billions of dollars worth of aid to Palestinians in Gaza. So noble. But on the other hand, US is also the biggest supplier of armaments to Israel which kill the same Palestinians. I mean, what’s the point even? This is so counter productive. Either just kill them or just let them live. Why this game?
Modern buildings cost millions to build. It also takes millions to make missiles which will eventually destroy the building. How counter-productive is all this? Why build something only to build something else to destroy the first thing?
I won’t even talk about climate change in detail, because that is a whole new topic in itself. Most of the planet will be uninhabitable in less than a century, but we won’t stop there and are planning to colonise other planets. Who gave us the right? Must be the colonisation behaviour we inherently have. Some cunts even think it is more productive to terraform Mars than to save our own planet.
This behaviour of humans is not even new. We have been the most selfish species ever, for millennia and other species have always suffered from it. Because of this, I think this behaviour is inherent in most humans and humanity as a species is flawed and cannot improve.
This is Part 2 of my previous post listing songs I consider timeless. I don’t claim that these songs are the best in any way; is just that I keep coming back to them every now and then, even after all these years.
These songs are in no specific order. I may be obsessed with one of them today and with some other tomorrow.
Also, like before, I actually listened to each song and then wrote about it. For any song where I did not find anything to write about, I discarded from this list.
The first time I heard this song was during the end scene of The Matrix and was immediately hooked. Shamelessly political, this song has killer guitar riffs and bass track. I listen to it at least few times a week when I run and also otherwise.
This is one among the many songs Jaideep Singh (JD) introduced me to, when I went to the tiny room he lived in. Although I never was a Bruce Springsteen fan (still am not), this song hit a note with me. I found the song melodious with great bass.
The FLV version of the below video was one of the few videos I kept on my Nokia E50.
This song also reminds me of my early courtship period with my (now) wife in Nagpur.
This is undisputedly one of the best songs ever written, period. The beautiful lyrics are only matched by the haunting, winding guitar work by Mark Knopfler.
The entire song is one beautiful never-ending guitar solo.
This song reminds me of my friend Vipin Panwar, whom I sent this song as an mp3 after a night shift and he (said) he got hooked. I also used to listen to this song a lot when driving around Delhi in my i10.
This song starts with a killer bass track and I love the lyrics. Although I did listen to this song long ago, the one time I remember is when I couldn’t sleep all night and saw the Farewell 1 Tour: Live from Melbourne concert while wondering if I was playing it too loud and would wake up my landlords downstairs.
I heard this song when watching the RoboCop TV Series. It took quite some effort on y part to find this song on Kazaa after which I asked a fiend to write it on a CD for me.
The song is not that popular and doesn’t vein exist on Apple Music. But for some reason, I like it and keep coming back to it, especially if you listen to th lyrics from the point of view of someone whose brain has been removed from his body and fit into a robot.
This is probably the first song in this list that I ever listened to and as such, is special to me.
I first listened to this song when one of my father’s friends in Durgapur gifted me my first Aiwa Walkman. The Man-Machine cassette came free with the Walkman and since I was not in a position to buy new ones, I listened to it over and over again. This whole genre was new to me and I was fascinated by all the computer generated sounds. I remember lying in bed listening to this song with my eyes closed, imagining the aforementioned neon lights.
I love listening to this song at night to wind-down. The song is slow-paced and soothing to the ears. It would be a great song to fall asleep to, if it wasn’t so beautiful.
When I lived in Panchkula, I had a friend Vishal Chopra who I have mentioned before. His family had returned from Canada, and as such he had lots of gadgets, including a Playstation. He had a game called Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 which we played often (In black n white, because his system was NTSC but the disc was PAL). This song appeared on one of the levels. Of course, not being exposed to western music much at that point in time, I didn’t understand what they were singing, but I made up lyrics in my own mind.
I think everyone already knows this song and needs no introduction. Although I won’t call this song “great”, it is iconic enough to keep listening to over the years.
This song has 3 great guitar solos (the first one of which, David toggles the pickup switch mid-way). The rest of the song is also easy-going and nice.
This song, too, reminds me of leaving Someplace Else late at night.
I also remember going crazy when Parikrama covered this song when they played at YCCE, Nagpur.
It is also one of the few Pink Floyd songs I could listen with my non-rock listening friends.
This is just a nice soothing song that I love that I didn’t hear till recently because it is so obscure. I also tried watching the movie it was a soundtrack of, but couldn’t tolerate it.
Back in college in Nagpur, when I was falling in love with my (now) wife, we chose the worst rated movie as our first movie to watch together. But purely based on the above-mentioned falling-in-love phase, this movie and this song left a deep mark on me. I even read the lyric translations to understand what the song was about.
I was introduced to Avial by my friend Goru, while we were going to attend Sonal’s rural wedding at Saharanpur. While I found most of their stuff average, I really liked Ayyo, even though I couldn’t understand a single word of what they were singing.
I had listened to this song many times in college, but the first time this song really left a mark on me was when Arka came to visit us (We were still in final year and he had already passed out). He had one of those Sony Walkman series phones and he asked me to try the sound quality. The opening bass notes blew me away and I listened to this song from a whole new angle for the first time.
The first time I listened to this instrumental was when I watched the Live at Pompeii video. The double bass track blew me away and I was hooked.
What I associate most with this song is going on solo motorcycle rides to Katol and other places around Nagpur. And as such, I remember this song with the background of my motorcycle engine thumping. I remember driving on the highway with my phone in my pocket and the earphones in my ears and wind whistling by.
This song reminds me of the time when we had just moved to Bangkok, living in quarantine and my daughter was obsessed with Teen Titans Go! Anyways, I love the song and listen to it often.
The most recent song in this list.
Time for some Analytics
After this interesting experiment of making this list, I wanted to also analyse my preferences from different angles.
Decade
Number of Songs
1960s
1
1970s
13
1980s
3
1990s
11
2000s
2
2010s
2
Favourite Songs by Decade
Looks like I mainly like songs from the 70s and 90s. Wonder what happened in the 80s?
Language
Number of Songs
English
28
Instrumental
1
Punjabi
1
Malayali
1
Bengali
1
Favourite songs by Language
Genre
Bands
Number of Songs
Progressive Rock
Pink Floyd
9
Rock
Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Doors, Dire Straits, Joe Walsh, B.E.R.
9
Alternative Rock
The Cranberries, Avial, Vertical Horizon
4
Heavy Metal
Iron Maiden, Metallica
2
Folk
Arnob, Rabbi Shergill
2
Heavy Metal/Rap
Rage Against the Machine
2
Grunge
Nirvana
1
Heartland Rock
Bruce Springsteen
1
Electronic
Kraftwerk
1
Ska Punk
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
1
Favourite songs by genre and band
Genre
Bands
Number of Songs
British
Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Iron Maiden, Dire Straits
13
American
Eagles, Nirvana, Metallica, The Doors, Rage Against the Machine, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Walsh, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Vertical Horizon
One thing that you should know about me is that I don’t seem to be able to learn a lesson. I am writing this just a few weeks after my latest anxiety medication fail.
So, I had a good thing going on with my medications, no problems, good productivity, happy in life. But, I started looking for ways to cheap out. I found a pharmacy which would provide me cheaper versions of the medications I currently take from my hospital.
Basically I replaced my expensive medication with cheaper versions, with supposedly the exact same chemical composition, but at 1/4th the price. What could go wrong?
Lots.
Turns out, all medication are not created equal, even if the box says so.
The first night I switched meds, I had awful sleep and woke up the next morning with an altered mental state. I had a work-related argument the night before, so I thought it was related to that.
The second night, too, I slept awful. At this point, I started suspecting the meds, but decided to give it another try.
Luckily, I still had some of my old medication left. So I decided to do a series of experiments
Third night I rolled back Escitalopram to Lexapro – No Joy
Fourth night I rolled back both medications – Much joy
Fifth & Sixth night, I did Esidep + Neuris – Much joy
Hence, I identified that the Risperidone generic version is no good. The next day, I went to the doctor and got my regular medication.
In case I have not made it clear already, I love music. Music plays an important part in my life. So I decided to make a list of songs I consider timeless. I don’t claim that these songs are the best in any way; is just that I keep coming back to them every now and then, even after all these years.
These songs are in no specific order. I may be obsessed with one of them today and with some other one tomorrow.
Also, I did an interesting experiment with this post. I actually listened to each song and then wrote about it. For any song where I did not find anything to write about, I discarded from this list.
The first time I remember hearing this song was at my erstwhile friend Bhavesh’s house. He had just found the Hell Freezes Over video and his family had gathered around the computer to watch it. So this version stuck with me over the years. The starting notes of this song was one of the first songs I learnt to play on the guitar. It was quite some time till I even heard the original version & even then it took me quite some time to develop a taste for it. Now, I listen to the original version more and the Hell Freezes Over one not so much.
Overall, this is a timeless classic that will stay with me till the end of my days. The guitar duet between Don Felder and Joe Walsh is unparalleled in rock history.
I don’t remember exactly when I heard this song for the first time, but I assume it didn’t leave a big impact on me then. What I do remember is, like the previous entry, I listened to the Pulse version of this song before I did The Wall version. Over time, this song grew on me, especially when I saw the movie and understood the meaning behind the lyrics.
The song is special, because of the fantastic guitar solos by David Gilmour.
The first solo starts off with an uplifting note and is simpler in nature.
The second solo starts much later and is more serious in nature. It is also much longer and technical. If you like the song, do watch the movie to understand the deeper meaning as the protagonist loses his mind.
Like the previous entries, the first time I heard this song was the cover version in this concert. But the original version came to me from my friend who now goes by the name of Lee La.
This song was also my introduction to Fleetwood Mac.
I think I love this song because of how melodious it is, in spite of not being too technical or having complicated solos. I also love the bass track.
The FLV version of the below video was one of the few videos I kept on my Nokia E50.
Even though I had been a Pink Floyd fan for a long time, I hadn’t heard Animals. and when I did it drove me crazy. Of all the songs in that album, Sheep is my favourite.
This song is like an unstoppable train, relentless in its pace, reflected in the distorted guitar shredding. The bass track is also awesome.
I love how the song crawls down to a near stop around the 3:50 mark, stays that way for some time and then goes back to its frantic pace.
Although when I was young, I preferred the heavier songs from Nirvana, I have stopped listening to most of them over the years, leaving this as one of the few Nirvana songs I still listen to, regularly.
This song is defined by its melody and simplicity. The bass, guitar, drums are all relatively easy to play, leaving only Cobain’s angtsy vocals that still cannot be matched.
I had just come back from a trip from back home in Kolkata and the first thing I did was install my Worldspace satellite radio system. I put on Orbit Rock and went to take a shower, when this song started. Even though I had never heard it before, I immediately recognised it as a Pink Floyd song and was captivated and listened to (all 23 minutes of it) in my towel. After it finished, I went online and looked up Orbit Rock’s schedule to find out the name of this song.
Over the years this song has left a deep impression on me. I am not sure why, but this song reminds me of driving to office just before Durga Puja and being excited about the upcoming holidays.
The Live at Pompeii version is even more special as it has an elaborate bass track by Roger Waters.
I remember going to office listening to this song and reaching before it got over and then spending up to 10 more minutes in the car in the parking waiting for it to get over. One day, like this, a colleague knocked on my window to ask me why I was sitting in the car alone and I pretended not to notice him.
I didn’t listen to rumours till (relatively) recently, but what an album! But this section is about my favourite song from the album, not the album itself.
The song starts off slow with Lindsey Buckingham’s haunting guitar plucking with chorus vocals coming in after. The bass and guitar duet-solo is also iconic.
To understand the deeper meaning of this song, I suggest you watch the Classic Albums episode of this album, which explains the personal turmoils the band members were facing.
This is my favourite Eagles song of all time, I just love it so much. It made me a fan of Timothy Schmit’s beautiful vocals and Don Felder’s haunting guitars.
The song is slow and easy-going. The 2 solos are just beautiful.
I bought an electric guitar to play these solos. I grew long hair and a beard, wore a shirt with a big collar and recorded myself playing the 2 solos.
The FLV version of the below video was one of the few videos I kept on my Nokia E50.
This song also reminds me of my early courtship period with my (now) wife in Nagpur.
This is my favourite song from The Dark Side of the Moon. The opening clock sounds are so iconic, many movies, songs and TV shows have used them over the years. And every time I hear them, I get excited for this song followed immediately by disappointed when its not this song.
Nick Mason’s drum solo in the beginning is iconic, too. Gilmour’s solo is amazing; I even learnt to play it at one point of time.
This is one of those songs, whose lyrics I have used to live my life by, mainly how not to waste your time on unpleasant things (like toxic relationships) and if you aren’t careful, the world leaves you behind.
The song ends with a reprise of Breathe, which is also a song I like.
The number of times I have listened to this composition would surely be close to a thousand. This is my favourite morning song. The >13 min long Parts 1-V are perfect to listen to when your morning coffee hasn’t kicked in and you want to take it easy.
This version reminds me of my time in Nagpur when I had finally gotten serious about studies and rewarded myself between study sessions by listening to music. I remember listening to it on a shitty Samsung phone, whose SD card retainer had broken and I had to use tape to keep it inside.
I remember listening to this one in college. Although Zombie was the more popular The Cranberries song, I preferred Linger. I just find this song so melodious and haunting. My ultimate feel-good song.
This is my go-to song when I want a dose of heavy metal. The guitar riffs and the bass track are just amazing.
I find the lyrics fun (I don’t consider them deep or something). One of the things I do is, when I am speaking/chatting with someone, I try to fit-in the lyrics of this song somehow into the conversation. Has led to hilarious conversations in some cases, especially when the other person recognises what I am doing and responds in kind.
One great moment was when I discovered that there’s a clothing store named Golden Goose.
Whenever I buy a new set of speakers or headphones, this is the song I test on it. The song starts off in a soft melodic setting, but it develops through multiple sections into heavier and faster speed metal sounds, leading up to a tapping solo by Kirk Hammett, and a dual guitar section by Hammett and James Hetfield. The double bass drumming by Lars Ulrich is the only bass in the song as this album famously has almost no bass guitar sound.
Ah! One of the most beautiful & melodious songs ever. Such beautiful bass and keyboard tracks. The first time I heard this song was not the original version, but the Snoop Dogg cover, in the game Need for Speed: Underground 2.
This song reminds me of leaving Someplace Else late at night while its raining outside or has stopped raining, but the streets are still wet.
We also had a fun rule in our family for many years. Whenever it would rain (rare in Gurgaon), we would play this song.
I first heard this song at our favourite (now defunct) Bengali restaurant & fell in love with its melody and simplicity. Although it’s in a language I understand, the dialect is foreign to me and I don’t understand all the lyrics.
One thing I love to do, is go to Ibirapuera Park, sit on my favourite bench facing the lake and listen to this song.
I also want to go to Bangladesh one day and listen to this song while sailing on the Padma.
Zombie is a powerful anti-war anthem by The Cranberries, which is still relevant today, because humans can’t stop making war.
My earliest memory of this song goes back to our college second year fresher’s party where my friend Arka was (supposedly) going to perform this song with a junior girl on the vocals. We were all quite excited, so you can imagine our disappointment when we found out the girl had fainted and the performance was cancelled.
That’s it for Part 1 of this post, look out for Part 2, soon.
Recently, I participated in a running event called Bangkok 21K Park Run 2024. Even though the name says 21K, I participated in the 10k event, which was my third, ever.
Even though, in my last race, I had decided I would try to break the 1 hour barrier for the 10k, because of travel, excessive heat and medical issues preceding the run I was not able to prepare well. On top of that, monsoons started in Bangkok just a few days ago, so I was not sure whether the event would even take place. So, overall, I decided I would just enjoy the run without worrying about the performance.
Anyways, luck shone on us and there was no rain on the morning of the run.
Bangkok Park Run 2024 starting line
The run was in one of the most beautiful parks in Bangkok. If it wasn’t so far from here I live, I would got here regularly to run.
Bangkok Park Run 2024 starting line
The run itself was uneventful and enjoyable with great views of the park during sunrise.
Bangkok Park Run 2024
Considering I hadn’t prepared that well, I didn’t do too bad.
Bangkok 21k Park Run 2024 statistics
Bangkok Park Run 2024 splitsBangkok Park Run 2024 HR ZonesBangkok Park Run 2024 medalBangkok Park Run 2024 medal
I wrote about how I went sober (But eventually failed to maintain it), I wanted to reflect back on some of the worst benders I have been through. Why? Maybe just to remind myself why I shouldn’t drink like that anymore.
Below are some of my worst benders over the years:
Most of my engineering days were about booze. And since I was young, the benders were not that bad. However, there are some incidents I remember.
This was when I was living with my senior roommates. For some reason, one day we decided to drink whiskey at 9 AM in the morning. I have never had a good relationship with whiskey, so after many pegs, while I was at Sandeep Kalia’s house, I puked in the toilet. His kindly grandmother (We called her aaji) was very concerned what was happening, but the others told her I had eaten something bad.
One time we went drinking at PP’s garage pub and drank too much vodka. While others were puking, I was puzzled why I was lying awake in bed and not able to sleep. This was one of the first times I realised that alcohol affects my sleep so negatively.
One time we were returning from a drinking session at one of the dhabas and my motorcycle got tangled in a high tension electricity cable hanging on the road and launched into the air. I remember passing out, but luckily I was back to normal next day.
Our time in Gurgaon was the first time we had freedom to do what we wanted and we had money to spend because we were earning. Sood sahib was my roommate and very frustrated with his job. So, almost every evening, he and his degenerate colleague would come over and get drunk. It didn’t help me that I worked night shifts and went to work drunk many times. However, this was not the worst part.
I remember we gathered together with Chatur after a long time and started pub hopping at Saket. He came all sophisticated in a car, dressed in a suit, which we found funny, but probably helped getting us into fancy places. So we got drunk on cocktails and not being satisfied enough, drank at 2 more thekas over the night. Eventually, Chatur passed out and we somehow got home. Again, I couldn’t sleep all night while Chatur was puking in a pizza box.
While working night shifts, it was very common for us to go drinking after our shifts. One morning, after our shift, we went drinking with Amar sir, who was famous for making “lauly (Lovely) pegs”. We were standing on the road outside DLF Phase II Central Arcade (Less than 100m from where my parents were sleeping). Since it was peak winters, we all got drunk on dark rum. My body doesn’t react well to dark rum & I don’t remember getting back home. Next afternoon, I woke up with my knees bruised and vomit all over my bathroom. Somehow, I cleaned everything up before my parents saw but felt terrible. All afternoon I drank water and Gatorade, but there was hardly any pee and it burnt when I tried.
We once went on an office party and Karkose (who incidentally doesn’t drink himself) suggested I drink beer buster, which is beer mixed with tabasco sauce. It felt fun drinking it then, but I couldn’t sleep all night because my chest and stomach were burning. Horrible experience.
Xiamen
Baijiu at Zhongshan Road, Xiamen
I was drinking Baijiu at Zhongshan road with my office colleagues. It was very cold, so instead of sipping it like the others, I did shots non-stop. Big mistake! I couldn’t sleep because my chest and stomach were burning all night. I puked many times and next day the pain in my stomach was so bad, I had to see a doctor at the airport (I was travelling back to India). The doctor told me the 60% alcohol volume Baijiu had stripped my stomach of its lining and likely made ulcers. I couldn’t eat anything other than simple rice for at least a week afterwards.
I am just glad I didn’t puke in front of my colleagues.
I was at São Paulo for the second time and me and my colleague went drinking Caipirinhas at Eu Tu Eles. Now, Caipirinhas are one of the most deceptive drinks I have ever had. They are sweet and tasty, so it is very easy to have too many too fast without realising it. Anyway, I don’t remember how I got back to my hotel and what happened later. But next morning I woke up to find my hotel room smelling of vomit and my brain feeling like it was in a vice. I used many of the hotel towels o clean up the vomit and then hid the towels behind the AC unit on the balcony. One of the most shameful things I have ever done.
Bangkok
Once we moved to Bangkok, I discovered how cheap and easily accessible booze is. But since I have absolutely no friends here, there have not been many social occasions for me to go on benders. There have been just 3 incidents, all with office colleagues. Unlike the other incidents, I drank too much not because I was having fun, but because of peer pressure.
I was just visiting Bangkok and it was my farewell party. 6 of us finished many crates of beers within a few hours. I don’t remember how I got back to the hotel.
Stacks of beer bottles
We (the wife, the kid and the dog) went to the kid’s friend’s house, whose parents are north indian. He doubted from the beginning, if me, as a Bengali would be able to drink much. To prove him wrong, I got shit-faced. Soon, I proved him correct by missing my step in the dark, losing my balance and falling into their building fountain. Again, I don’t remember how I got back home. Next day I cursed myself and promised I will never get into such a situation while out with the kid or the dog.
The last and most recent incident was when I went out to drink with my colleagues. 3 of us went through 8 bottles of wine in 6 hours. I came to, next day covered in bruises and my room smelling of vomit and me still drunk and stumbling about. Unfortunately, soon, the AC servicing guys came and saw the state the bathroom was in. I have never felt worse in my life than that day. My nails, my room etc all smelt of booze and I felt sick. It was truly the worst day of my life & the day I decided to give up alcohol for good.
I am still not at a stage where I can look back at all this and laugh about it. But just the act of typing all this out has strengthened my resolve to not get drunk ever again.
My family hails from Kolkata, the (supposed) grand and noble megacity. I have ranted about this city many-many times, especially during the only 1 unfortunate year in my life that I stayed here. But that was more than 15 years ago and since then, I have never stayed here more than a couple of days at best (My shortest trip was a few hours long).
Because of the holiday season in Thailand, I decided to go visit my parents for slightly longer and re-analyse this city to see what has changed.
Full disclosure: Even within Kolkata, my parents stay in an objective worse location, so my point of view may be skewed compared to people living in more affluent areas.
Nature
Kolkata is quite green, compared to other cities in India. Especially the area where my parents live, there are many trees around.
Palm Trees & Greenery
At one point of time, Kolkata was dotted with ponds & lowlands. In fact many of the neighbourhoods names end with “pukur”, which means pond. Over the years, these ponds have been paved over and lost to eternity; leaving only their namesake “paras”. However, there are still some around, in the less affluent areas.
Cleanliness
There’s no way around it; Kolkata is the filthiest city I have had the misfortune of visiting. There’s trash and filth everywhere, even the fancy neighbourhoods. No one gives 2 shits about cleanliness.
Filthy streetsFilthy buildingsSo pretty na!Look at this trove, treasures untold
People openly spit on the streets, throw their garbage anywhere they want.
Services
If you want to get work done, Kolkata is not the right city for it. Mobile services are one example. Banking is the biggest one. I already discussed how I spent shit loads of effort doping paperwork to convert my SBI account to NRO. What came of that? Zilch. They just sent back everything without an explanation. This time, when I went there to close my account, they were quite annoyed to start their working day on a negative note of account closure.
Private banks are not much better. I required some services around my Home Loan, so I looked up “Loan servicing branches” of my bank and spent an entire morning visiting them one by one and they all refused to help me. They would either say “we can’t do this, go to xxxx branch”, or simply “We have never done this before, we don’t know how”. Eventually I did find a very good branch to assist me and my work was done.
Similarly, calling labour to your home for repair work is a nightmare with them not coming on time or not showing up at all.
One particular example. I needed to update some details on my Aadhaar card. So I looked up a list of Aadhaar processing centres across the city and went on a (seemingly) easy mission. Here’s what happened
New Alipore Useless Post Office
Attempt 1 – Hobe na (Won’t happen, no explanation given)
Attempt 2 – Ekhane hoye na (This doesn’t happen here)
Eventually, I had to go to the main office 26kms away, where my work was done reasonably fast.
Transportation
Transportation in Kolkata is a proper shit-show.
Road Transport
Kolkata people have a special affinity towards honking. Almost all the cars would start honking a few seconds before the lights turn green. Some cars even keep honking while the lights are still red. There’s honking while overtaking and especially when there’s a traffic jam. The first few nights, I could even hear the honking in my dreams.
Typical sound on Kolkata roads
If you drive your own car, it is a nightmare. People have no sense of discipline and you need to do all you can to keep yourself from getting hit. Very-very stressful experience.
One funny thing I noticed was the affinity of Kolkata Traffic Police towards road barriers.
Random Barrier on the roadA Random Barrier on the road
The traffic police like to strew road barriers randomly on the streets (In the middle of major roads) with no explanation. You are driving along, minding your own business and suddenly there’s a barrier blocking your way and you either have to brake to a stop or swerve. I really don’t understand why this is. Not like the traffic is very fast here to begin with, why slow it down even further?
Random Barrier on the road
At traffic signals, the traffic needs to divide itself into 2 streams on the left and right sides of the barrier. Crazy.
If you decide to take a taxi, best of luck with that, too. Uber in Kolkata is notoriously bad. Every time I get a taxi, the driver calls me immediately after and tells me to cancel the trip and pay them cash. It is not even a one off incident, every time I call one, I go through 4-5 drivers who demand cash and cancel when you refuse. The cars are filthy inside and stink. The drivers also resist turning on the AC unless you keep pestering them.
The roads are also all littered with ugly billboards.
Fugly billboards everywhereA typical road full of billboards
Curiously, most billboards in Kolkata are either for gold jewellery, political ads or house construction material (TMT bars, pipes etc).
Public Transport
Why use road transport you ask? Why not use public transport? Because that sucks balls, too. Kolkata people keep boasting about how they had the first metro in the country, but fail to mention how it has failed mostly into disrepair and has seen little expansion in decades.
Where else in the world can you find a metro with a frequency of 50 minutes between trains?
50 minute interval metro
Where else in the world can you find a metro which doesn’t run on weekends? When my parents first told me about it, I thought surely they were misinformed or joking. But no, it is true.
In short, going anywhere in Kolkata is a struggle, whether you are rich or poor. We all suffer equally.
Food
Restaurant Food
Food in mid-end and high-end restaurants in India is quite costly for the value provided, but no different than the rest of India.
The good part is, there are many good restaurants and delivery is ever-present and fast.
But restaurant food is not what Kolkata is known for.
Street Food
Street food is where Kolkata really shines. It is cheap, delicious and (mostly) hygienic.
Others
Kolkata has many malls, but they compare nowhere to Delhi/Bengaluru/Mumbai mall standards.
South City Mall, Kolkata
However, the character of Kolkata lies not in the malls, but in the by-lanes.
By-lanes of Kolkata
Airport
Kolkata airport international terminal is the lousiest airport terminal I have been through. Unlike normal airports, both sides of a check in counter are named the same alphabet, but used by different airlines.
To make things more difficult for everyone, the displays above the counters don’t show flight information, but propaganda on how the airport is the “best improved” airport ever.
Guess which flight it is
The immigration counters are sparsely staffed. When I travelled, there were 2 babus manning the counters.
The security check area has only 2 lanes.
2 lanes of security check
The duty free section (as pcthepathfinder aptly said) looks like a stall at Pragati Maidan.
Kolkata Airport Duty Free joke
Bengali Airport Fight
Overall, I am glad to turn my back to this city and go back home.
Time travel has been a popular trope for decades, in books, TV shows and movies. It is not uncommon to see people going back and forth in time and being heroes (or dicks) in general. Recently I have been reading up on and thinking about the scientific aspects of it.
After doing some research and reading up various journals, here are my thoughts on time travel:
Time travel to the past
I am a firm believer of the notion that time flows in one direction and it is impossible to reverse the flow of time and “travel” into the past. As such, the various temporal paradoxes are null-and-void. It is impossible to go into the past and change what has already happened.
The biggest proof? If this was possible, someone from the future would have come to our present or past and left evidence.
What I believe you can do is “look” into the past. You can do that today when you look at distant stars. Whether you can see past events at places not far away (like earth)? I am not sure but I don’t think so.
At some level, I feel comfort in the fact that the events in the past are set in stone and cannot be changed.
Time travel to the future
I believe time travel to the future is possible, but not in the way you think. It is a well known fact that gravity and velocity influence how you perceive the passage of time. Such effects have already been observed, albeit at a small scale.
So technically, you can travel (say) 10 years into the future at the cost of only 1 year of your personal time. But, as per the previous topic, this is a one way street. When you do this, you leave behind your time forever and cannot go back.
This was beautifully demonstrated in the movie Interstellar, in which, due to their close proximity to a black hole, the protagonist travels 14 years into the future from the reference frame of earth, at the expense of only 45 minutes of his personal time.
Again, none of this is science fiction; all this has been repeatedly confirmed by experiments. At this point, it is not a physics problem, but an engineering problem. Will take a few massive leaps in spacecraft propulsion technology and all this will become everyday affair.
Mathematical Predictive Time Window
You know how you can calculate (on paper) that when one billiard ball hits another, what path they both travel? You can do that with 3,4 balls, too. As you scale up, the problem becomes too difficult to calculate on paper, but computers can do this at a much higher scale already.
Now imagine a computer powerful enough to calculate/predict the path and behaviour of individual atoms. Now, if you were to build a sufficiently powerful computer that can predict the path and behaviour of all the atoms on earth, you could easily predict the future and see what is going to happen days, months and years into the future.
Similarly, if you reverse the billiard ball concept, and you measure what speed and angle each ball is travelling at, you can predict the starting position of each ball (and the cue stick). Extending this concept to extremely powerful computers, you could theoretically look back in time into the past.
The Roadblocks
There are however the following problems with this concept:
Measurement : Measuring the position and movement of each atom instantaneously is almost impossible, because by the time you measure them, these parameters have already changed.
Storage : If you were to store the data of each atom (1 bit), even with the most efficient storage mechanism, it would require a like-for-like atom in the computer. So to store the data of each atom on earth, you need at least a computer with the same number of atoms. To simulate the whole universe, you need at least another universe.
Free Will : All of this assumes that a living creature’s behaviour is purely a product of the neurons firing in the brains, in turn their behaviour at the atomic level. Which also assumes that everyone’s behaviour is pre-determined and there’s no such thing as free will.
Recently, I participated in a 10k running event organised by Srinakarinwirot University called SWU Run Together ‘24. It was my second 10k in Bangkok.
My last 10k didn’t go too well because my knees started seizing up around the 5km mark. Which was strange, because I regularly run more than that on Sundays without issues. So for this race, I re-evaluated my tactic. Instead of matching pace with everyone else and running slow, but consistent, I decided to run faster at my natural pace but slow myself to a walk for 50 metres every 500 metres.
Luckily, this tactic paid off and I finished the race with much better numbers than last time.
Amazing Thailand vs SWU Run Together 2024 statistics
Amazing Thailand vs SWU Run Together ‘24 splits
Amazing Thailand vs SWU Run Together 2024 HR Zones
Overall, this run wasn’t as well organised as the last one (They couldn’t completely block traffic and we had to dodge between cars), but was more fun, because it included climbing up (and down) some flyovers and bridges over khlongs.
As you can see above, I finished the 10k almost 20 minutes before the last one. My heart rate also stayed consistently at the higher zones.
My only regret? Missing a sub 1 hour 10k by 48 seconds (As per the official race results; my watch started tracking early).
Maybe next time?
SWU Run Together 2024 participation medalSWU Run Together 2024 participation medal
I have had a long relationship with alcohol, full of ups and downs. When I was young, the “ups” far outweighed the “downs”. Nearing 40, that is unfortunately not true anymore. It fucks up my sleep pretty badly and the after effects get worse every year. Notably, 2 very bad recent experiences recently led me to take steps.
Many times, I have tried to drink in moderation, which is all well and good before one starts, but after a few, everything goes out the window. After wondering why I do something that causes so much grief, I decided to give up on alcohol altogether.
What Next?
The most difficult part was, I had been conditioned to hold a bottle or can while doing certain things – watching TV, sitting on my balcony. And it felt weird to do these things empty handed. So I decided to swap alcohol with non-alcoholic drinks.
Drinks, but without alcohol
So now I have stocked my refrigerator with non-alcoholic drinks. Eventually, I would wean off these, too, as they have lots of sugar. One particular drink I really like is Bundaberg Root beer. Everyone around me seems to hate them, but I can’t get over how tasty they are.
I had assumed that the hardest part would be social events, but it is much easier to tell people you don’t drink (No one tries to coerce you) than to say you want to stop drinking after a few (Come on, just one more). For pure booze events, I decline them altogether now.
As of today, 1 month sober and counting, I notice these changes in my life:
I am spending less time in bed on weekends, but still waking up more refreshed and have more energy throughout the day.
I am not waking up to pee in the middle of the night anymore.
I have more energy while running. Especially, my weekend runs now feel much easier.
