In July, I went back to my trusty Kindle. I had a yearning to read Sci-Fi and not able to find anything new that I wanted to read, I went back to books I had already read.
2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the rare books, which was adapted from the screenplay of a movie, also written by Arthur C. Clarke along with Stanley Kubrick. Now, there are 2 versions of the book. The original one and the one based on the movie screenplay. I seem to have read the original one, because when I moved on to the second part, I could see several inconsistencies. That is because the second book onwards are adapted from the screenplay version instead.
2010: Odyssey Two is even better than the first part and I enjoyed reading it.
2061: Odyssey Three and 3001: The Final Odyssey were both above average, but not awesome. Although I had read all these books, it was long ago. And I did enjoy reading them again.
2001: Differences between original book and movie
After spotting the inconsistencies between the books 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: Odyssey Two, I decided to watch the movie, and document the differences, because I did not find a good summary online
In the book, TMA-2 is on Iapetus, a moon of Saturn. But in the movie and the sequels, TMA-2 is in Orbit around Io, a moon of Jupiter.
In the book, Frank Poole is killed by HAL 9000 and floats away. But in the movie and the sequels Dave Bowman goes out to rescue him and gets locked out of the ship by HAL.
In the book, Discovery uses Hydrogen as a propellant. But in the movie and the sequels, the propellant is Ammonia.
In the book, Discovery carried only enough propellant to go into Orbit around Iapetus. But in the movie and the sequels, Discovery has enough propellant to return back to earth.
In the book, Discovery was already running out of air when Dave Bowman left. But in the movie and the sequels, Discovery has sufficient air even after jettisoning the stale putrid air into space.
I had an exam in May that I needed to prepare for. I also had guests over for a few days, so I didn’t read anything at all, all May. At the end of May, I started reading The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond. It was a nice sweet story about a little Garhwali girl who lives in the mountains. The only problem with this book was that it was too short.
Next, I moved on to Sudha Murty. I remember reading her books to my daughter when she was small and she had just launched a new book series, so I gave it a go.
The series is about a dog that Murty’s rich family adopts and how life is with him over the years. It was a nice read, although I feel it is targeted more towards children.
In July, my wife gifted me Chowringhee by Sankar, which is about the life of people working and staying at a Hotel in Kolkata. The book reminded me of the book Hotel by Arthur Hailey which I had read when I was young. It was still refreshing to read Chowringhee, as it brings many things new. The ending was too grim, however.
What is Indian food? If you ask a Caucasian, he would probably say Chicken Tikka Masala and Butter Naan. But the real answer is, there’s no one thing called “Indian Food”. How do you define it, then? That’s the question that the TV show Raja Rasoi aur Anya Kahaaniyan tries to answer. I mentioned this show briefly in my list of favourite TV shows of all time and believe that it now needs its own post.
Raja, Rasoi aur Anya Kahaaniyan is probably the most comprehensive look into what Indian food is. Each episode takes a look into a different part of Indian cuisine, divided carefully using state/region or cities. They discuss the following parameters for each of these cuisines
History of the cuisine
History of the various produce being used in these cuisines, along with their country of origin and when they came to India
Which meat is used where and why
The evolution of the cuisine over centuries
The role of royal families in preserving these cuisines
My favourite episodes over 4 seasons, in chronological order are the ones below
Overall, it seems that the only Indian cuisine I don’t love is Eastern and North Eastern.
The narration by Manwendra Tripathy is very good and I really enjoy the appearances of Pushpesh Pant in most of the episodes.
Pushpesh Pant in Raja Rasoi aur Anya Kahaaniyan
I am watching the entire series again for the second time and really enjoying it. If you like Indian food and interested to know more about it, I definitely recommend this show. Streaming on EpicOn (All Seasons), Netflix (Only 1 season) and Discovery+ (First 3 seasons).
This post is a follow up to my last one. I was introduced to Live Albums when I moved to Nagpur. People in our college used to share 3-in-1 live concert DVDs with each other. I have already written about my favourite concerts, so this post is only about live albums. Below is the list of my favourite live albums of all time.
Hell Freezes Over (1994) – Eagles
Hell Freezes Over : Eagles
My favourite live album of all time and my introduction to Eagles, as a band. In fact I didn’t even hear the original version of Hotel California till years later and was then surprised to find out it was so different. Overall, this album is just magical. Everyone performed perfectly. I remember the first time I heard it, at a friend’s house, his father had found the DVD. It was also Eagles’ reunion concert and as Don Henley says, “we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation”.
My only gripe with the album is that they replaced many songs’ live versions with studio versions which are inherently inferior. One example of this is “Learn to be still”.
Pulse (1995) – Pink Floyd
Pulse : Pink Floyd
One of my favourite live albums of all time, Pulse is Pink Floyd at its epic live psychedelic best. I have listened to this album countless times and can never get tired of it. The album starts with the epic “Shine on you crazy diamond” and ends with an epic rendition of “Comfortably Numb” with extended solos.
This live album reminds me of Whoreko, I don’t know why. I am not a huge fan of Nirvana‘s heavier work, but this concert showed their “acoustic side” and boy, was it awesome. This concert also introduced the Meat Puppets & Pat Smear to the world.
Ok, Ok, so technically this is not a live album, but it is shot as such, simulating a concert in Pompeii (without audience). The tracks are all psychedelic and the version of echoes in this album is a masterpiece, especially the bass.
One Night Only (1998) – Bee Gees
One Night Only : Bee Gees
Not a huge fan of Bee Gees, but this live album is just awesome. Such beautiful, soulful music. Reminds me of my days in Chandigarh.
Supernatural Live (2003) – Santana
Supernatural Live : Santana
I got this as part of a 3-concert pirated DVD. The music is awesome and features guest appearances by Dave Matthews, Erik Schrody, Rob Thomas, among others. Entertaining much.
The Corrs Unplugged (1999) – The Corrs
The Corrs Unplugged : The Corrs
Another part of the 3-concert pirated DVD. I am not a Corrs fan. In fact I have never heard of them outside this concert. But the music in this album is soothing and beautiful.
This is also the album where I heard Dreams for the first time, much before the original version.
One thing I noticed when I moved to Thailand, was the ever-present logo of Pornhub everywhere. Mostly in the form of stickers, affixed to motorcycles, cars & even backpacks. I assumed people just liked it and didn’t think too much of it.
Pornhub logo sticker on the back of a scooter
Last weekend while travelling in BTS, I saw the logo, of all places, on a kid’s T-Shirt.
Child wearing T-Shirt with Pornhub & Durex logosChild wearing T-Shirt with Pornhub logo
On the other arm, the kid has a Durex logo and in the front the logo of the beer Chang. I really didn’t understand why anyone would dress up their kid like this, so I started digging around on the interwebs.
However, considering how people are dressing up their kids in this and how “porn” is a popular syllable in last names here, I am pretty sure most Thais don’t even know what that website is and what they are endorsing.
Not much unlike the presence of Nazi insignia everywhere in the country.
I am a studio album guy. Playlists are not for me, nor is shuffle. I don’t like compilations either. I generally listen to music by the album and in most cases I listen to the album whole, in one sitting. Below is a list of my favourite studio albums.
The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) – Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon : Pink Floyd
There was never any real competition for the first slot in my list of favourite studio albums. I didn’t have to think twice. For me, The Dark Side of the Moon will always be as close to a perfect album that is technically possible. I can listen to this album and zone out with ease.
The only black-mark on this otherwise perfect album? – On the run. Can’t stand it and always have to skip over it. All the other tracks are just perfect in every way.
Highly recommend the Classic Albums episode on this album, narrated by Alan Parsons himself.
Rumours (1977) – Fleetwood Mac
Rumours : Fleetwood Mac
This album is rock bordering on pop. Which is why I was so surprised that I liked it so much. I listened to Dreams for the first time in Kolkata, but the first time I listened to the whole album was during a road-trip from Delhi to Chandigarh. Most of the songs are more or less perfect. My favourites are Dreams, Go your own way, The Chain & You make loving fun.
Even more fascinating is the background behind this album, the breakups, drugs and internal turmoils the band members were going through during recording. Highly recommend the Classic Albums episode on this album.
Animals (1977) – Pink Floyd
Animals : Pink Floyd
There’s absolutely no bad track in this album. All the songs are more or less perfect. But my absolute favourites are Dogs and Sheep.
This is also the last Eagles album before Don Felder was booted from the band.
Hybrid Theory (2000) – Linkin Park
Hybrid Theory : Linking Park
I am not into the genre that Linkin Park represents. But Linkin park is undoubtedly a big part of my college years and there are hundreds of memories associated with its albums. Out of them, Hybrid theory is perhaps the one that defines Linkin Park for me. My favourite tracks are Papercut, One Step Closer, Crawling, In the End, Pushing me away and My December. The last track only appears on the Japanese version of the album and which I heard through piracy. I probably won’t have been into them if I had heard them for the first time in any other stage of my life.
So what if the instruments are simplistic? They sound good and that’s all that matters.
I still listen to them but only when I go for runs. Transports me back to my college days.
The Division Bell (1994) – Pink Floyd
The Division Bell : Pink Floyd
This album gets a lot of flak for “being terrible”, but even though it is far moved from the 70s and 80s Pink Floyd sound, I still love it. This album is more David Gilmour than any other Pink Floyd album before it. It shows in the soulful long-winded solos. My favourite tracks from this album are Marooned, Wearing the inside out, Coming back to life, Keep talking and High Hopes.
High hopes transports me back to college days to a specific night when Whoreko was staying with us to appear for some exams and he showed me his Sony Walkman series phone. I chose High Hopes to test the music quality and was blown away by the amazing bass.
Coming back to life takes me back to my Kolkata days, going to Someplace Else and listening to The Hip Pocket.
Azadi (1997) – Junoon
Azadi : Junoon
This album was my introduction to Rock music. And what an album! And from Pakistan, of all places. Amazing soulful sufi-inspired music with rock riffs.
I remember falling asleep to this album every night listening to it on my Aiwa Walkman. This was when I stayed in Durgapur. I also remember once hooking up my radio antenna to our apartment window and catching FM radio from Kolkata and this was the track playing.
Too bad the band couldn’t continue their success after this album.
Wish you were here (1975) – Pink Floyd
Wish you were here : Pink Floyd
This album is carried by one track and that is Shine on you crazy diamond. At one point of time, I listened to this song every single day. The track starts out slow and soulful, picks up tempo, then goes slow again.
I am not into electronic music, but I love Kraftwerk. The Man-machine is an album of epic proportions. Just like Azadi, I listened to it while falling asleep in Durgapur. Every song in this album is great and I will never be tired of listening to it.
After writing this, I realise that 6 out of my 9 favourite studio albums all came out within the 7 years between 1973 and 1979. What a time it must have been to be alive back then!
This post is a continuation of my last post about running, back in 2020. After I moved to Bangkok, I stopped exercising. For a few months last year, I started going to the gym, but couldn’t sustain it long enough, as it was too time-consuming. Looking to get some exercise while not spending too much time, I started running again. In the beginning, it felt difficult due to the heat and humidity, but I was able to get used to it soon.
After doing it for a few months, I developed severe ankle pain. In the beginning, I would recover during my rest days, but then it continued to extend over my rest days to the next workouts, too.
The cryptmaster kindly educated me on the importance of good shoes. Turns out, my running shoes were dirt-cheap and 8 years old. And that was not acceptable. I promptly ordered some new shoes. Thankfully, my ankle pain reduced considerably, thereafter.
Running PaceRunning Heart Rate Zones
I have now been continuing my runs 4 days a week, 4km each time for more than 6 months now. Although I have steadily made progress with my pace, unfortunately, my VO2 max has plateaued. Try what I may, I am not able to reach my VO2 max levels from 2021.
VO2 max in 2021VO2 Max plateaued
Overall, though, I am very happy that I am keeping healthy and exercising is definitely a great mood elevator for me. It boosts the mood for the rest of the day. The only problem is, I have been losing weight consistently and need to improve my diet to make up for lost calories.
I wrote this article a few weeks ago on how I hadn’t never seen some famous movies. So we decided to start watching the Indiana Jones series, especially considering there’s a new instalment out soon. People make Indiana Jones out to be a sort of folk hero, so we were interesting in knowing the character better. What we found out was that Indy is just another toxic entitled white man.
The movie starts with Indy in a South American jungle trying to “retrieve” some priceless relic. But who gave a white American the right to take relics from another country? The mission eventually ends in failure when another white mean steals said relic instead, but not before Indy is able to kill a few Peruvian tribals.
The movie also uses the easiest movie villains ever-Nazis. Indy’s job is to prevent the arc of covenant from falling into the hands of Nazis. Because something like that can only be possessed by white people – the wrong white people or the right white people.
Indiana Jones, the rapist
The next thing we know about Indiana Jones is that he is a child abuser. His ex-lover Marion says so in no small words, accusing him of having sex with her when she was “just a child”. His comeback? “You knew what you were doing”.
The childhood rape has clearly damaged Marion beyond repair, who is now a raging alcoholic and a sex addict. Their relationship is also messed up, with her addressing him as “Indiana Jones” even in throes of lust, instead of his actual name. Indy has clearly been punished for his transgressions, too, because he fails to have sex with her on multiple occasions.
Indiana Jones, the ethnic cleanser
Not satisfied with killing Peruvian tribals, he goes to Nepal and whips and shoots a bunch of Nepalis, in their own country. Later, when he travels to Egypt, he whips and shoots a bunch of Egyptians in their own country. His lover even justifies this behaviour by yelling “I am American”, because that makes it acceptable.
At one point, Indiana Jones is surrounded by a bunch of Egyptian people, who, overwhelmed by the sight of a white man suddenly start begging. Indy tosses a few coins at a distance and the beggars crawl all over the ground to retrieve them. After destroying an entire marketplace, killing many people and blowing up a truck, he simply relaxes and openly drinks whiskey in the middle of the same marketplace. No repercussions, because he is white, na.
Not surprisingly, the only people he doesn’t directly kill are Nazis, limiting himself to just beating them up, because the Nazis are white too, na.
Later, he hires some Egyptian labourers, using only whistles to order them around. Because why would he even talk to such lowlives? He makes them work day and night without break. Himself just sitting by doing nothing.
Compassion for Animals?
Indy kills a monkey by using him as bait for poisoned dates. Later, he pours petrol over a family of snakes and sets them on fire. Intent on proving that he abuses all species equally, he relentlessly whips a horse, too.
There’s also a moment where an Egyptian man (married with children) is kissed on the lips by the still sex-crazed Marion. The experience of a white kiss is so magical for him, he breaks into an impromptu opera, on the spot.
Eventually, the ark is retrieved by the right white people and transported to the greatest country in the world, America.
I am just surprised that the movie series and Harrison Ford hasn’t been the victim of cancel culture.
When I was young, I was somewhat of an early adopter. Especially for new technologies and products. However, being an early adopter comes with some glaring disadvantages. In this post, I will write about how I got burnt many times throughout my life.
Early Adopters
1. Nickel Cadmium rechargeable batteries
When I was growing up, I had many toys. Lots of them. Most of these toys were electronic and it was a pain asking parents to buy me batteries when they ran out. So when rechargeable Ni-Cd batteries were introduced, I was all over them. I convinced my parents to buy me some batteries and a charger. However, there were some major disadvantages.
The batteries got extremely hot while charging – I had a few melt down over the years
They produced only 1.2V instead of the 1.5V of regular batteries and some gadgets didn’t like that.
Eventually, they never caught on and I had to go back to regular batteries.
2. Hero Ranger Bicycle with shock absorbers
When we moved to Chandigarh, I was confronted with kids showing off everywhere. The cool kids rode fancy bicycles and the legendary kids already rode scooters and motorcycles at age 14. I started feeling real inadequate about my regular bicycle and asked my parents for a newer one. They asked me to chose between a bicycle with shock absorbers and a bicycle with gear shift (Hero Swing, which had both was out of the question). I (foolishly) chose the bicycle with shock absorbers.
For one, the bicycle had shock absorbers only in the front. Each speed bump still felt like a hammer to the tail bone. Secondly, the bicycle was heavy as fuck. It too much more effort to ride it compared to my last one. Also, within a few months, the shock absorbers started squeaking and sagging. There were no mechanics near my place who could fix it. Eventually, within a couple of years, the shock absorbers bottomed out completely. What a waste!
3. Royal Enfield Thunderbird (First edition)
This was my first bike and the only bike I loved. I bought it when it was just released. One highlight was that it came with an all new aluminium AVL engine. It was supposed to be lighter and more efficient (it was both). However, the engine was terribly unrefined compared to the traditional Royal Enfield engines. The main problem was that its tappets made a lot of noise and the pushrods needed constant adjustment. This continued to bother me till the time the bike got stolen. The bike also leaked engine oil like a sieve.
Subsequent versions came with self-adjusting pushrods and much better oil seals.
4. Nokia Lumia 900
Nokia Lumia 900, not mine
I remember when I first saw the keynote for Windows Phone 7. I was blown away by how beautiful the OS looked and how smooth everything worked. As soon as I could, I bought a Lumia 900. However, the OS was still in its infancy and although polished, lacked a good app ecosystem. Even worse, the Lumia 900 got no major OS upgrades and the phone was obsolete within a year.
5. Reliance Infocomm CDMA phone
Reliance LG RD2030, not mine
I was a super early adopter of Reliance’s CDMA phones. Like I got one within a few weeks of their network launching. My first CDMA phone was also my first phone ever, the LG RD2030. Only 1 other person I knew had a CDMA phone. We felt like pioneers. However, the experience was shitty.
The phone became very hot when making calls or accessing the internet.
The battery life was abysmal.
The charger was a dock-type and it was impossible to use the phone while charging.
The display was grayscale with a blue backlight.
Your number changed every time you roamed into a new state.
When the CDMA network launched, it was marketed as a “Wireless Land Line” and all CDMA phones had a landline-like number with an STD code. In a couple of years, the government made that illegal and everyone had to deal with a number change without warning.
Reliance solved most of these issues after a few years, but CDMA never caught on and died a painful death.
6. Surface Pro 3
Microsoft Surface Pro 3, not mine
It is a testament to Microsoft’s shitty product quality that even a 3rd generation product provided an early adopter experience. The Surface Pro 3 was a gift from a fiend. It was a top of the line model but was the epitome of unrefinement
The chassis got very hot and led to CPU throttling. The CPU couldn’t burst for more than a few seconds at a time.
The fan whirred all the time and was very loud.
The fan still didn’t provide sufficient cooling and I had to carry around an external fan to cool it.
It didn’t go to sleep every time the lid was closed and led to it discharging in the bag.
The pen randomly stopped working without warning.
I am sure if I were still in India, I would have been tempted to get an EV and consequently suffered again.
In Thailand, I see EV everywhere. I had even been on a few EV Taxis. But, before, this, I had never driven an EV before, in Thailand or elsewhere. My association with EVs started and ended with this article I researched 14 years ago.
This week, we had many holidays, so we decided to take a day-trip to a nearby beach. Opening the car rental app, I was surprised to see that the cheapest car for that day was an EV. Normally I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but the deal was too good to pass up. So I went ahead and booked it, an Ora Good Cat.
The first few hours after booking were a bit stressful. I had never driven an EV before, much less a rental. So I started researching everything about how to drive an EV in Thailand.
First, I made a list of EV charging providers in Thailand.
The below providers do not allow expats to register at all, because a Thai ID number and verification is necessary.
Using this information, I was able to locate charging stations near the beach, on the highway while coming back and near the rental agency to charge it before returning.
Having completed my research, now it was time to finally drive an EV in Thailand!
The Car
The first impression of the car is that it is actually much bigger than it looks. It is the size of a Suzuki Swift or Hyundai i20. The rental came fully loaded – Apple Wireless CarPlay, wireless charging, Sunroof, partial autonomous driving assist.
Ora Good Cat Front Console
The CarPlay display is big (and wide). Apple Maps can even detect that the car is an EV and overlays EV charging stations all over the map. Apparently it can even take range information from the car and warn you if you are too far from the nearest charging station, but I didn’t dare test that out.
CarPlay on Ora Good Cat
Apple Maps showing EV charging stations
Anyways, this is not a car review, so I will now focus on the EV aspects of the drive.
The Drive
The first thing that comes to mind when driving an EV for the first time is – power. It is unlike anything I have ever experienced. I had driven high-end ICE cars and this low-end EV blows them out of the water. The torque is instantaneous, linear and never-ending. If the cheapest EV feels like this, what do the premium EVs feel like?
Overtaking on highways is a breeze. Just a tap of the accelerator and the car races ahead, pushing you back in its seats. I pushed the car up to 180kmph and it still felt like it had more torque left.
However, all this was marred by range anxiety. I couldn’t help but notice the range indicator all the way to the beach, counting down kms as we drove. Am sure seasoned EV drivers have trained themselves to not notice these things too much, but it was always on my mind. I even felt guilty playing music – will it discharge the battery even faster? The biggest power draw (after driving), though, is the AC. It easily takes away 20-30% of the promised range.
While on the way to the beach, we stopped at a gas station to pick up some coffee. There was an EV charger there so I decided to top up for 10 minutes. Unfortunately the charger was out of service. Bad sign.
Charging
We reached the beach exhausting 60% battery with 40% left. I immediately went to the charging station I had decided on in advance. Fortunately, there was an empty slot. Charging the car was easy. I had already downloaded the EA Anywhere app and a quick scan of the QR code opened up the door on the side with the charging cable. The app guided me through the rest of the process and I was up charging in no time.
EA Anywhere charging progressEA Anywhere charging summary
This was a 40KW DC charger so I went from 40% to 95% in less than an hour. There are faster DC chargers available as well (I couldn’t find one near the beach) but most other chargers are AC and much slower.
Ora Good Cat charging
Technically I could have left my car to charge and gone to the beach (the app would have notified me when charging was finished), but I was afraid someone would disconnect the charger so I hung around. Later I found out the charger gets locked while charging and cannot be removed without stopping manually from the app. There’s also an overtime fee if you don’t disconnect the charger within 5 minutes of finishing charging.
Fast charging an EV is a dramatic affair. The EV’s cooling system is on full blast, the charger is blowing wind like a hurricane. An MG4 in the next bay overheated twice and stopped charging.
While returning, I was more frugal with performance and drove steadily at 90. I needed to return the car with at least 40% charge, so I was a little anxious, still. I even switched off the AC for the last few kms when the charge dropped below 50%. Luckily, I was able to return the car with 46% battery left.
Overall, driving an EV was both fun and stressful. I have never driven anything quite like it. However, the stress is too much for someone like me who already suffers from anxiety. But I am sure the second time will be easier than the first.
