Diamonds and Rust

Void

2008-03-26T02:12:00.013+07:00

Proxima Centauri, belonging to a small cluster of three stars, is the nearest star to the Sun. The distance between the two can be calculated in the following manner:

Light travels 300,000 kms in one second. Hence in one minute it travels 300,000 x 60 kms. In an hour, 300,000 x 60 x 60 kms, and in a day 300,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 kms. Hence, given a normal non-leap year, a light year (i.e. the distance traveled by light in one year) amounts to 300,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 kms.
Now, the distance between Sun and Proxima Centauri is 4.22 light years, which is therefore –
4.22 x 300,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 kms = 39,924,576,000,000 kms
i.e. around 40 trillion kilometers.

This is an overwhelming number, quite difficult to perceive, given normal scales of distance in human imagination.

Till now, the fastest spacecraft ever having escaped from Earth’s surface is the Pluto-bound New Horizons (launched in January 2006), with a speed of around 75,000 km/hr. And with this speed, the time it would take to reach Proxima Centauri is –
40,000,000,000,000 / 75,000 = 533,333,333 hours,
which is 533,333,333 / 24 = 22,222,222 days,
which is 22,222,222 / 365 = 60,882 years.

Voyager-I, which was launched in September 1977, has pushed into deep space, and with its current travel speed, would take 72,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri. Unfortunately, its machinery would continue to work only till 2020, i.e. a mere 12 years from now. Technically, it is impossible for any machinery or being to last for this period of over 60,000 years, and that’s the greatest difficulty faced by interstellar travel. (A number of faster travel mechanisms have been proposed here, although none of them could be tried out yet. )

However, rather more importantly, these figures give a fair idea of what a vast void exists between our Solar System and the one closest to it.
We are talking about just two stars here, and that too, within the same Milky Way galaxy. The Universe consists of around a hundred billion (100,000,000,000) galaxies and a hundred billion stars within each of them. That’s ten billion trillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars. It’s hard, really hard, to think of such a vastness.

The above facts give rise to varying thoughts –

The most common one: on existence of life and intelligence elsewhere.

I believe in the Supreme, but what exactly is it? How does it handle such a huge cosmos? How does it look after the billions times billions living beings (if not the ones living across all the planets in this Universe), and the factors, interconnections and inter-relationships that affect their lives?

What’s Astrology, which is based upon the idea that planetary and stellar positions (all of which are hundreds, thousands or millions of light years apart) play a crucial role in determining the life of a human being living in a planet called Earth?

Is this Universe real? Is it really the way as seen and perceived by us? Or is it just built on uncertainty, as happens when we go to the sub-atomic levels?

What are the fourth or higher dimensions? How do they ‘look’?

I’ll probably study more, and ponder more upon these in the days to come.

The last two months

2007-10-18T00:44:00.002+07:00

Haven't been blogging for a while, so here's a quick-n-dirty synopsis of the last two months: I am no longer in Jakarta. Things were getting hazier around the beginning of September, and at the hint of a fade-out (which was made quite obvious one afternoon by SH), I decided to look out. Thankfully, recently the PTT contract had been signed, and my old-time buddy RS was looking for people to work in that project. So, took the plunge. It was not really a great feeling to leave Jakarta, but anyway...

Packed my stuff on the weekend of 8th September, my 'Iron Maiden' E was kind enough to visit my apartment 10 o' clock at night, just the day before I was supposed to leave, and pressed tons of clothes for two long hours. Thank you, E; I won't forget this favor. MB was in town, he was a co-joinee in the new project as well, so we took him to visit Top Gun. By the way, since I were to leave Jakarta, I had been visiting TG more and more frequently those days. Also went to Jaya Pub for a few hours, they were celebrating their birthday that weekend.

CANDLES & CAKE AT JAYA PUB, AND GANJIL, ROCKIN' THEIR WAY THRU THE NIGHT. IT'S THE SAME BAND THAT PLAYS AT OSCAR (jl. falatehan) ON FRIDAYS.

We were supposed to leave for Makassar (or newly known as Ujung Pandang, situated in the Sulawesi island) on the evening of September 10th, so I transferred my baggage and all into SC's room, and just took one week's stuff with me. It was nice to visit a new place, a new island in this archipelago. Work-wise, it was an interesting start, full of workshops with the customer, but life-wise was a bit boring, since everything had closed down for Ramadan. And it would remain so for the following one month. It would be worthwhile to mention here that while we were in Makassar, there was yet another strong quake, rooted in Sumatra, but felt quite heavily in Jakarta. This was more intense than the previous one. ST, my colleague, who used to stay in the same hotel in Jakarta, had become so paranoid of higher floors, that he slept in a sofa (absolutely crunched up I believe) at the hotel restaurant for the next few days.

We finished the workshops and returned to Jakarta after a week, spent the weekend in SC's apartment, watched the dusk setting down from his balcony (left), did the usual night-outs and set off for Bandung on the night of September 16th. The cab driver was a great Hindi-movie freak and continuously played Bollywood songs of the nineties.

Have been in Bandung for a month now, and have started to like the town. Weather-wise its cooler than Jakarta, and hospitality-wise warm. No traffic jams, but sometimes it's a pain to get hold of a taxi. The bars had closed down for Ramadan, but have started to open now. The street just across the hotel is full of them, so probably I wouldn't have to hitch-hike to Jakarta on Fridays. It was Lebaran last weekend, and the newspapers say that a million people have traveled in to Bandung to spend their holidays. It's kids galore all over. And are they cute!!

I wish I knew more people in Bandung, and hopefully I will, eventually.

7.5 on Richter Scale

2007-08-10T00:37:00.000+07:00

Honestly speaking, I am a bit more excited and overwhelmed than most of my friends and colleagues, after undergoing the experience of "feeling" an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale, thereby being classified as "Major". It struck around midnight, i.e. exactly this time yesterday, and I was sitting in the same manner, at the same place, looking at some website of least importance. All of a sudden the room started moving, not vigorously, however with considerable speed to make me realize after 3 or 4 seconds that it was an earthquake. Then it slowed down, but the movement continued, this time in a swaying fashion. And I could hear creaking noises from near the wall. Picked up the receiver and called up SC, and we both agreed to leave the apartment immediately.

Probably this is called panic: I was not sure what all to take with me. So i just picked up my cell phone and the door key, wore my shoes and left my room, which is on the 20th floor of this building. There was some commotion outside, and I could see few people (probably belonging to the Middle East) who were not sure whether to take the elevator or where to go down from. Elevators were definitely to be avoided, so we took the stairs. There were people all over, and I was suddenly scared of a stampede. (Later I realized that lot many people are required for a stampede to happen). Anyway, strangely, there was no indication of the level number from the fifth floor onwards. I tried to make an exit from the staircase and saw that its level 1 above the ground, so one more floor to go. There were a bunch of people, with a dark man and his girl with a towel wrapped around her body.

Finally, we reached the ground floor, and left the apartment. Found some of my friends there - SC, SKT, others. (Pic: Outside the building, at around 1215 hrs. Normally at this hour, no one is seen here, but yesterday was an exception.) All of us were pretty much overwhelmed. The next one hour was not of much consequence, except everyone narrating what he or she was doing when the earthquake happened. Now that we all were out, we were not sure when to go back, or whether to go back at all. There were loads of questions in my mind: What's the source of this earthquake? What's the magnitude? How are things elsewhere? Is there an aftershock coming? If yes, when? When would it be safe enough to go inside? The hotel authorities informed that they are in touch with the Meteorological department, and its still not safe to go inside.

So we decided to play some pool, and walked down to Pasar Festival, only to find the pool bar closing down. Bought some bottles of water, and came back. Incidentally, no one there were aware that there had been an earthquake. That's the difference how things are felt at the ground floor (where the pool bar was) or at a height of above 15 floors (where I and my friends were). It was around 0130 hrs and the crowd had thinned down. The hotel authorities informed that the Met Dept had confirmed that there won't be any further tremors or quakes, atleast this night, hence it's safe to go back.

Hence we came up, and I entered my room to find it exactly as I had left it, just with the clock which is placed on the top of my TV, displaced by around 4 inches to the left. I was inquisitive to find where the creaking noises came from, so checked up the walls and ceilings, but couldn't see anything.

Even though I went to sleep at around 0200, subconsciously I kept thinking about another one coming. Later I heard that others have felt the same.

(Pic: Crack in the wall, half covered by a torn wallpaper. Taken on the 18th floor of my office building, rumor has it that the crack was caused by yesterday's quake. However, no one knows for sure.)

The following things to remember if it strikes again:

- To carry my wallet with me. Otherwise I would be left with no money.
- To carry my cell phone.
- If time permits, to carry my passport.
- Have an 'earthquake-buddy', who will be the first mutual point-of-contact if there's an earthquake. (So that both are aware, and not missing anything out. A 5 second call should be enough.)

Three weeks back

2007-08-04T18:12:00.000+07:00

Captured these photos the night before leaving for India for a two-week vacation. It was a Saturday, and I was supposed to be stand-by at office for the night, which (quite fortunately!) was cut short by a few hours, so I was able to sign off at 01:00 AM. Dumped by stuff at the hotel, and headed to Top Gun for a few drinks.

GO GET IT, C! IT'S THE LAST SHOT.

THE INDONESIAN NEW-AGE ELVIS

Recent ventures

2007-07-14T23:46:00.000+07:00

Have been frequenting two places lately: BuGils and Top Gun.

I got introduced to BuGils via KK. It's situated at Taman Ria, Senayan, and is owned by a group of (mostly) Dutch men. Even though it's location, behind T.G.I Friday's, makes it obscured from the main road, the place seems to be quite popular with European and American expats.

THE POOL TABLE AT BUGILS, AND ONE OF THE PRETTY BARMAIDS BEHIND THE BAR, SERVING HEINEKEN.

The music is better than other places I have been to; sometimes they have live band playing Rolling Stones and stuff (though I am yet to visit on a live-band-night), and if, just in case, you don't like the music, or want to have a conversation with your friend or loved one, you have the option to sit outside in the open area with the pub on one side and a lake on the other. The food is good, alcohol is moderately priced and the bar-maids are cute.

Top Gun, like its neighbors, is more of a pick-up joint, probably the most popular one in Jakarta. Located in the middle of Jalan Pelatehan, its always crowded and noisy. There are two pool tables, and have seen some really good pool players at this place. The girls are not really good looking (they charge accordingly), alcohol is moderately priced, and if you get bored, you can quickly hop down to My Bar, One Tree or Oscar, bars situated in the same lane.

THE JIVING FRIDAY-NITE BAND AT TOP GUN.

SE K800i

2007-07-09T23:38:00.000+07:00

A gift to myself, for no obvious reasons:

SONY ERICSSON, K800i
Camera resolution: 3.2 Megapixels
Some cool features: auto-focus, 16x digital zoom (but gets choppy at that level), xenon flash, allows one to take pics in black&white mode, sepia tone.... and I can send the pics directly to my blog, provided I have a GPRS connection.

Just an ordinary pic, will post more as and when I capture them.

Pizza Hut at Plaza Semanggi just before closing time. The pizza arrived before I expected it to, and the vanilla milk-shake was fabulous.

Thanksgiving

2007-06-07T23:43:00.000+07:00

MZ left last Tuesday. Normally we give farewell gifts to the one who leaves, but here it turned out to be otherwise. Before leaving, she handed over the following to me, which I truly cherish:

Remainings from a Jack Daniel's and a Johnnie Walker Red Label Whisky.
Kispray liquid required to iron clothes.

A packet of ready to cook mushroom soup.

A bunch of sachets containing tea, creamer, sugar, and don't know what.
Few pages of a Bahasa Indonesia tutorial.

Books:

"Not a penny more, Not a penny less" by Jeffrey Archer
"The Necklace and Other Short Stories" by Guy de Maupassant
"Five Great Short Stories" by my favorite Anton Chekhov
"The Overcoat and Other Short Stories" by Nikolai Gogol
"The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories" by Mark Twain

and the environment friendly Body Shop bag that contained it all with the following written at the back:

"This bag won't be around forever... Unlike other plastic bags, which can take upto 500 years to degrade, this bag will have broken down within a year. And without harming the environment. Containing 30% Cassava starch, this bag consumes less petroleum too. But please reuse as much as like before it's gone...."

Thank You MZ, and cheers. :-)

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Good News: Got a broadband LAN connection in the hotel for all the office employees, so I'll be happily getting rid of my wireless Netzap soon (claims to be broadband, but gives 40Kbps on average).

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To the short lady with spects who was being so patient in teaching my two left feet to dance salsa: Terima Kasih, Ibu. I'm sorry I couldn't go last week due to prior engagements, but would surely visit this week.

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Knocked down the pins at SpinCity Bowling Alley, EX - Plaza Indonesia last night. It was a night-out for the project team members, and we (PL, SC, KT, me) got a box of chocolates for being the noisiest team. :-) Thanks, JS, for organizing this.

Hit X-lounge in Plaza Semanggi after midnight together with KK, PL, SC, and it was good to catch up with GT who's been here for two weeks. It was ladies night, and the place was filled with near-high-school chics (and their boyfriends), the beer was OK, and SC & GT's table-top dance was overwhelming.

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Amazing Grace

2007-06-03T19:38:00.000+07:00

Had been to the church yesterday (thanks, MZ, for letting me go with you). Being born in a middle-class Bengali Hindu family, there's no reason why I would suddenly visit a church for the Saturday Mass, but anyway, I went. I went because I like the vastness of the hall, I went because I like to close my eyes and listen to the choir singing gospels, I went because I find peace in there, I went because it makes me remember my schooldays.

And at night, looking up at the sky, I remembered...

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see."

Congratulate me ...

2007-05-29T00:16:00.000+07:00

... on my one month quit.

I have been drinking occasionally, but was completely out of touch with cigarettes. And I congratulate my friends from Quitnet who reached this or some similar milestone today. And to those who blew it off, you can always give another try.

Riverside Walks

2007-05-17T21:34:00.001+07:00

Traffic-wise, Sunday mornings are noticeably better than weekdays. Hence, speeding towards the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, somewhat light-headed, I was trying to gather my thoughts on the previous three days, which had been quite jolly and fun: MZ’s birthday on the 10th, performance by the local band in Planet Hollywood on the 11th, and the night-out in X2 on the 12th, the links above pointing to MZ’s page where we have more details.

This was going to be my third visit to Singapore, for collecting my work visa for Indonesia, and possibly the last trip to take place in the foreseeable future. Just after checking in at the airport, I was stopped by a bunch of kids from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Indonesia, who mildly interrogated me on my whereabouts, expenditure statistics while I am here in Indonesia (interestingly), etc. Having asked for any suggestions I might have on the city and its infrastructure, I expressed my concerns on the surging traffic, and the need for underground or overhead trains. I also advised that there’s a need to focus more on spoken English to get into international markets. I haven’t got a clue on where this piece of paper containing my comments would eventually end up, but it was nice to meet up with this jovial bunch, with their smiles and rainbows.

_____________________________________

My first destination after reaching Singapore was unplanned. It turned out to be Little India, down the neighborhood, which I had hardly explored in my previous trips.

It’s a veritable Bonsai version of India.

SLURRRRP ... SWEETS! UNBELIEVABLE!

T'SHIRTS ROCKED WITH PICTURES OF HINDU DEITIES.

Strange it was, and nostalgic too, to read the much coveted Bengali script in this faraway land, and listen to a female voice trying to promote the latest Singtel tariffs in that slight Bangladeshi accent. I started to think of the very few people from Bangladesh I’ve actually come to know in these three odd decades, even though my ancestors belonged to that land, and wondered how things would have been if outcomes from political decisions made around the late 1940s would have been different.

MATRI-BHASHA, IN A STRANGE LAND.

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My next destination was Esplanade, “theatres on the bay”, and to get there, I decided to take the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit: underground railway system commonly used to travel across Singapore). The basics are like any other metro railway system, but here they have a deposit charge which is refunded back once the destination station is reached. Traveling this way is cheap and convenient, hence, most of my subsequent hops were via the MRT. In fact, I also ended up helping a man and a woman to get back their refunded deposit: an achievement worth mentioning.

WALK-WAY TO THE MRT STATION

A SNAPSHOT OF THE ROUTE-CHART, COPIES OF WHICH ARE ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE INFORMATION COUNTER.

It was 7 o’clock in the evening, and Esplanade was 5 minutes walk from the City Hall MRT station. The next show of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Phantom of the Opera’ (much advertised) was at 8 PM, and I arrived at the ticket counter just to discover that all tickets were sold out three days ago. However, I witnessed a strange and beautiful form of art being exhibited in the theater lobby, called “Superstring”, which is a series of single continuous line drawings, by an engineer turned sculptor named Joshua Yang.

A SUPERSTRING, DEPICTING THE CRUCIFIXION.
THE CLOSE UP BELOW SHOWS THE CONTINUOUS LINE DRAWINGS.

I started off to catch the next train to Clarke Quay. One has to pass through the Raffles City Shopping Centre to get to the City Hall MRT station, and I was happy to find a DVD of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” in the HMV music store. In the distant past, I had made two futile attempts to get this video, one in Bombay, back in 2005, where I purchased a 2-VCD pack, brought it home, and opened the seal to find one CD missing. The next one was in 2006 in Bangkok, where the catalog in one of the cheap DVD outlets in Pantip Plaza had the movie listed, but later the folks came back saying the DVD is not available.

DISPLAY OF THE SEASON SCHEDULE OUTSIDE THE ESPLANADE

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Reached Clarke Quay around 9:30 PM. In a milieu of colors, voices, boats, and lovers, this place was lively as ever. Sitting by the waterfront, or walking hand in hand, you may sing along your life’s verses to your lover. Or if you happen to be there alone, like me, you can just look at the dancing red and gold molecules on the water surface, in Brownian motion, make up a love song in your mind, and then looking up at the sky sing it to the one you love.

CLARKE QUAY: COLORFUL AS EVER

It was getting late, and as my last destination for the day, I ventured to a Bangladeshi restaurant in Little India, and whetted my appetite with dalpuri (yet one more variation of the Indian bread) and pathar mangsho (mutton). The dalpuri was cold, but tasted so heavenly.

THE RESTAURANT SERVING INDIAN, PAKISTANI, BANGLADESHI CUISINE, SOMETHING WE WOULDN'T READILY SEE IN INDIA OR THE OTHER TWO COUNTRIES.
...
DINNER SERVED.

The shops were closing down, and it was time for the traveling hobos to return home. Singapore was clean, dustbins boasting of turning the city litter-free, but this place was a remake of “India”, in look and feel, with known dialects coming from a distance and hundreds of paper pamphlets lying scattered in the street, unwanted, aimless, wondering where to fly next when the wind blows strong.

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Day two: Submitted the documents needed to obtain my working visa, and returned to the hotel to learn that they would not be able to extend my stay till the evening, as all rooms were fully booked in advance. That was 12 noon, the normal time for checking out, and my flight back to Jakarta was at 9:15 PM. So I threw back my bag behind the shoulders and walked up to the nearby Fragrance hotel. Dumped my stuff, and decided to pay a surprise visit to my colleagues in Singapore. It was good to see PP after almost one and a half years. She was full of smiles as ever, and suggested I have Singaporean Chicken Rice for lunch. Thanks, PP, it was delicious! Next, we were off for a cup of coffee, and it was difficult to find a place as it seemed a common norm for all to have a post-lunch coffee session.

IT WAS RAINING WHEN I VISITED THE OFFICE FOLKS. AND LATER, SPOTTED THESE SINGAPOREAN T.V. CELEBRITIES OUTSIDE THE COFFEE SHOP.

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By now I was quite adept in traveling by the MRT, so caught one and emerged at Orchard road. The next few hours were spent in walking down the road, sneaking into shops, taking photographs, getting astounded by the saxophone player by the roadside, taking more photographs, buying some stuff which are not readily available in Jakarta, (like an oil-control face wash for men from Bioré), and eventually getting a quick massage from a Chinese masseuse at Far East Plaza.

MOMENTS AT ORCHARD ROAD

'HOUSE OF CONDOM' IS A MISNOMER FOR THIS SHOP SELLING SEX ACCESSORIES, AS WE CAN SEE (PIC ON THE RIGHT), THE STUFF THEY HAVE HERE IS PRIMARILY MEANT FOR WOMEN.

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Sunset was nearing when I decided to pay a parting visit to Clark Quay, where the lovers had not yet arrived, and the boatmen were busy cleaning up their boats for the early evening tourists. My stay in Singapore had been satisfying. I looked at my watch, then at the river again for the last time, turned back, and started to walk.

Ctrl-A Ctrl-C Ctrl-V ... and a few tweaks to change the flavor

2007-05-07T23:38:00.000+07:00

Here's an article from the "Opinion" page in today's Jakarta Post (May 7, 2007):

And then once again in the front page of the "Business" section of the same edition:

Some facts:

The same article, word by word, appears twice in the same edition of the daily post.
The title has been tweaked a little: In the "Opinion" page it is: "Does Asia need a euro? It's a laughing matter". Whereas in the "Business" page it is: "Asia needs a euro? It's still a laughing matter, for now".
Certain words have been changed, for eg. "ASEAN" in one has been transformed to "Asean" in the other.
Name of the author, William Pesek, is unchanged. (Would have been more dangerous otherwise.) However, one mentions "Bloomberg News" to be the source, whereas the other just says "Bloomberg".
I could not find either of these in the online version of the newspaper.
Neither of the titles are perfect copies of the original Bloomberg, which says "Asia Needs a Euro? It's Still a Laughing Matter".

Graffiti

2007-05-06T16:57:00.000+07:00

Spotted near Plaza Indonesia...

BLINK, WHOEVER YOU ARE, I AGREE WITH YOU MATE.

The Road

2007-05-04T16:38:00.000+07:00

This part of the road, adjacent to our office building in Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto, normally remains uncongested, except extreme conditions, like flooding. The reason being a traffic signal a mile behind. From the top, the road at times resembles a video game I had tried to play long time back, with 5 lanes and speedy cars. And there's a person (whose control is in the hands of the player) who has to cross that busy road. It was one of those games quite frequently played to kill time. Playing such games can be therapeutic, and let this thought remain confined there, because, to me, it's quite an unpleasant idea to try this out in real life.
[Photo Courtesy: SC's Sony Ericsson W850i]

More Pre-paid in AsiaPac

2007-05-03T18:54:00.000+07:00

The latest news is of PT Mobile-8, Indonesia, with 2.02 million subscribers. 91% of Mobile-8's revenue come from prepaid subscribers. This speaks a lot about the general psyche of the populace in this region, primarily the fact that they want to have more control on their expenses. Subscribing to postpaid services don't give this facility of monitoring their balance and spendings.

Prepaid services translate directly to real-time rating and charging mechanisms, and when combined with attractive schemes and offers, what's needed is a sophisticated (and complicated) system with the ability of offering these services and at the same time assuring that revenue is not lost, either to the subscriber or to the service provider. Advent of mobile broadband, HSDPA/HSUPA and content-oriented 3G services demand an increased number of integration points with the 3rd party content providers, meaning further sharing of revenue.

It's quite evident that, down the line, streamlined applications, flexible not only in supporting varying services, but also adaptable to changing network infrastructures, will emerge as market leaders.

Spidey-3

2007-05-02T19:05:00.000+07:00

Spiderman has grown up, as is evident from the theme of the latest in the series (#3). As many others (mighty Superman, or Anakin - the Skywalker [Star Wars Episode]), our friendly neighborhood Spidey is also on the brim of giving in to the temptations of evil. Nothing new, it's been there since Adam and Eve, but the fun is to see how they come back from falling off the cliff and get ready for the next sequel.

Planning to watch it tonight, let's see.

________________________________________

PLANET HOLLYWOOD LOBBY: EXPECTANT VIEWERS BEFORE THE SHOW.

Planet Hollywood was packed, but managed to get two tickets for myself and S. The show started at 21:40, and apart from Spiderman giving in to the evil forces and subsequently coming out of it (which was rather too quick), the "3 of 3", to me, appeared nothing more than an extension of "1 of 3" and "2 of 3". Maybe I had been expecting something more unobvious. Moreover, the movie is unreasonably stretched to around 140 minutes, and both me and S were on the verge of dozing off near the end.
Overall, good to watch it once, atleast for the heck of killing the urge.

S SHOOTS 'EM BAD GUYS DOWN BEFORE GETTING IN THE THEATER.

[Merely an attempt to document the night-outs in MZ's absence.]

For my friends from Quitnet

2007-05-01T18:34:00.000+07:00

Quitnet is one place where co-quitters like me should go while refraining from the puff. Compatriotism takes a new dimension at Quitnet. If you're feeling hopeless to the point that you're thinking of giving the bird to all the resolutions you've made, then make a post at Quitnet. Thousands will be there to hold you by the arms, give you strength and keep you from breaking the quit. My friends from Quitnet, they are simply wonderful. They make this life so worth living. If you slip, and give in to the craving, they don't throw stones at you. They ask you to start from the scratch again, because, to slip is human. May God bless them, and may more people learn to be like them, thereby making this world a better place to live.

Refrain

2007-04-30T14:53:00.000+07:00

Two days back I went Cold Turkey again. The first time was in mid-2004, around the time I started with this blogging business. Neither blogging, nor my quit, could go on for long. Then it was again during early 2005, and went on for 3 months.

So here I have my quit again. And trying to be a bit more regular on blog as well. This time, I won't call it a quit, rather say I'm just refraining from tobacco, alcohol and caffeine for a while.

Deaf and Dumb

2007-04-25T14:23:00.000+07:00

[An old one, written sometime around end 2002.]

A common hour
A winter night
The city, Calcutta.

They were together
Their state, naked
Their love, deep
Their passion, silent.

A convoy passes by
Its siren claiming alert.

And tangled up in love
Neither of them hears it.

New Release - D&R v2.0

2007-04-24T13:46:00.000+07:00

So I have finally settled on this template, which I picked up from the blogger workshop website. The original template looked like this:

I changed the background and text colors, fonts, did some formatting to decrease the line gaps, brought in the links from my original page, and there it is now, more like the way I wanted it to be.

The basic layout would remain the same, I quite like it, though some minor changes might keep on coming in now and then. There's a new set of links now, in the left pane, pointing to the music I'm listening to. Have to do it manually though, doesn't get updated dynamically :-). Thanks to esnips, you can just upload/find your music there and listen to it in real-time streaming mode.

Happy Morning Blues

2007-04-23T00:07:00.000+07:00

Toddler puppies on the road,
Lorries full of junk and load,
The paper-boy just dropped his pocketful of news.
And what's your views?
I sing to you baby the happy happy morning blues.

Pass the wine, don't be afraid,
Breakfast's being served by the barmaid,
And she doesn't care who's winning now or gonna lose.
It ain't no use.
So I sing to you baby the happy happy morning blues.

Buzzhead kid, he had a gun,
Shot 'em all in the morning sun,
Then killed himself, bleedin' from some ol' time bruise.
Well, that's the news.
And I sing to you baby the happy happy morning blues.

Met Rip Van Winkle, he was walking down.
Said "Wassup, Rip?". He said, "Lookin' for a clown,
Who can pay my taxes without a frown,
And take my girl around the town,
While I'm busy sleepin' there, way way down."

"Finish this song, 'tis takin' too long,
It's time now for another song,
And anyway it's evening, boy", says my girl, now loose.
So wear your shoes,
I just sing to you baby the happy happy morning blues.

Morning Glory

2007-04-20T12:42:00.000+07:00

This blog doesn't contain many pictures. So here's one...

Makeover - D&R v1.1

2007-04-19T20:00:00.000+07:00

Lately, I didn't really like the look of my blog, and started to search for a new template. Blogger offers a few, which are either too common, or somehow not suitable for holding diamonds and rust. Among them, the one I liked is being used by a friend, and I don't want to be charged with plagiarism. I, however, found some sites that offer templates for download, the top ones being this, this, this, this, this, and this. But these guys, called Wordpress, have 150 templates on their website.

The look of my page is changed now, though temporarily. The color combination is good, but I don't like the picture/design on the top left. I don't understand what it is, or is trying to portray. Neither do I like the font. Once I have a template of my choice I'll change it again. Maybe I'll start up writing a template of my own. Thanks to the free tutorials out there.

Tonight

2007-04-18T22:07:00.000+07:00

(Or, misapprehensions of a desolate lover)

Tonight,
I don't mean the world to you.
Acquaintance.
Common talk.
Like common salt on your dining table.
But, my love,
A night will come
Silent of them all,
When you will think of me
While writing your next poetry.

Mind-sucked

2007-04-17T10:47:00.000+07:00

There's nothing to keep
There's nothing to throw
There's nothing to wear
Nowhere to go
There's nothing happening
Or coming soon
The sun is gone
And there's no moon
And there's no darkness
Nothing in my head
There's nothing at all
The music is fuckin' dead

The Naked Age

2007-03-30T18:54:00.000+07:00

It's quite a remarkable fact that out of around one hundred million (100,000,000) unique species inhabiting Planet Earth today, human beings are the only one to wear clothes. I think the main reason why our ancestors took up clothing is to protect themselves from the weather, and not due to shame or modesty as proposed by various sources and institutions. We and our surroundings presumably would have been quite different if we, like all our co-inhabitants, wouldn't have worn clothes.

It doesn't always imply that technologically advanced species would wear clothes. Steven Spielberg's ET, though capable of displaying extraordinary powers, was naked. Think of how much money one spends in his/her whole lifetime on clothes, not only in buying them for him/herself, but almost an equal amount as presents for friends and families. Being naked, we could have spent this money on various other things. Textile industry wouldn't have been present had we been naked. There wouldn't have risen a need for laundries and tailors. Had we been naked, we could have had options to explore other fields as well, which could not develop considerably due to the presence of clothes.

Primarily, being naked would have required ourselves to protect the skin against cold, heat and rain. Given the technologically advanced species we are, it's quite amusing to think of infrastructural differences - more underground subways than roads on the surface. The surface being preserved for residential, industrial and agricultural purposes. In technologically and economically developed countries, air would be maintained at a controlled temperature.

Economically it would have been difficult to maintain a controlled environment for the entire land surface of the planet. Hence, tropical regions would have been more densely populated, the density gradually getting sparse towards the poles. To keep ourselves accustomed to the weather, and be spread across the planet at the same time, we would have been much more prone to migration. Mobility would have been a cause for the survival of humanity. There would have been fewer subdivisions among regions, meaning fewer number of nations, who would have been more cooperative and tolerant towards each other. Maps would have been considerably different. During November-January and May-July, when the sun is over the tropics, people would have tended to move more towards the equator where the temperature is moderate. And towards the tropics during February-April and August-October. Due to this need for movement, traveling would have been more a commonplace thing and hence, less regulations on immigration issues. Possibly, by default, every human being would have been considered to be a citizen of not any specific country or region, but of this planet as a whole! Also, there would have risen a need to manage land and property by a centralized body, rather than being owned by specific individuals.

Fashion designing would presumably have been present on a large scale. Human beings would have beautified themselves using body art, tattoos, jewelery, body-piercing, different body-hair styles. Salons would have also offered exotic styles of arms, legs, chest and pubic hair. 'How we look' would have meant different. We would have been more conscious of our bodily looks, and maintained proper diet and exercise to stay in shape. In fact, the absence of elastics and tight fitting clothes would have made human physique structurally a bit different from what we are today.

We wouldn't have been the same psychologically. Inhibitions would have been considerably less or totally absent. Nudity, being non-secretive, wouldn't have been something to fantasize about. Maybe there would have been more depth and truth in a fantasy. We would rather think about the voice of the other person, about his/her personality, various positions to have sex with him/her, about his/her facial expressions and movements when he/she reaches orgasm. Would there have been less love? I don't think so. Aborigines love too, don't they? Probably they love more than we do. Sex would have been more prevalent and accepted. Forced sex would have been non-existent or extremely rare.

Evolution and Being complement each other. Since humans have not chosen the path towards nudity, and have evolved since ages with clothes, it's very difficult to predict how things would have been without them on. Possibly, we and our lives would have taken an entirely new direction than my thoughts above.

Edge of Chaos

2007-03-26T10:28:00.000+07:00

Last evening Darmint Cafe celebrated her first birthday. Instead of balloons and colored papers, Darmint was decorated with white plasters, bandage, saline and blood vessels. As my friends from the cafe explained, this symbolized a wounded society. A country, whose government is not being proficient enough to support against poverty, regular natural disasters, plane crashes (two in a month this time!), to name a few. And yesterday's celebration was a sign of protest against the powers that be. Most of the music that they played were in Bahasa Indonesia, but some Bob Marley numbers which were chipped in between hinted the pulse and flavor of this celebration.

Among the peace loving people of Indonesia too, I noticed the threshold being crossed. Human beings, essentially, like to stay and be happy in their own small world. They are not much bothered until a limit is reached, which essentially happens due to the initiative of a small group of power-loving people. What pisses me off is the lack of efficient organizing capability among leaders, not necessarily of countries, but even of private sectors or students unions for that matter. Till the time this mismanagement remains within limits, everything apparently stays in order. Chaos takes over once that threshold is crossed. The same thing happened at Nandigram, a small village in West Bengal, India, where villagers were shot down by policemen and party cadres according to instructions from the state government. The villagers obstructed against setting up a special economic zone at the place where their cultivable lands lay. This industrialization, if properly planned and organized, would have possibly changed the economy of West Bengal (and Calcutta for that matter) to a large extent. But what happened is that at a crucial junction the order broke up and chaos took over.

Lately, it seems, the tolerant mass of the United States have started to organize demonstrations against Mr. Bush and his government. After four fucking years of the war! Possibly this was expedited after the Democrats took over the Congress this year. There too, the edge of chaos has been reached.

Chaos Theory is all about crossing this threshold, thereby upsetting normalcy. It happens everywhere, nature being the best example. The Butterfly Effect (a primary proposition of the Chaos Theory) says the fluttering of a butterfly's wings in Taipei can result in a tornado in New Mexico. [Wiki: Small variations of the initial condition of a nonlinear dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system... Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different.] Even families are not devoid of this theory. Global warming! Lately some words are being spoken, but who knows.

In 'Jurassic Park' (the book, not the movie), Michael Crichton wonderfully demonstrates the inconceivable repercussions that may take place once the edge of chaos is crossed.

Good Bye Lenin!

2007-03-23T18:32:00.001+07:00

This movie revolves around the happenings in a small East-German family during the unification of the two Germanies. Alex, possibly in his twenties, lives with his mother and sister in a place surrounded by communist ideals during the pre-union era. His mother is a staunch socialist and is separated from her husband, who lives in West Germany. After a sudden incident, she suffers a heart attack and goes into coma. She remains in this state for eight months, in which their country undergoes a vast transformation: the wall is demolished, the two Germanies are united and capitalism takes its toll in East Germany. She 'wakes up' from her sleep in a changed world. Alex, the son, afraid that his mother might suffer another attack, keeps this reality a secret, and does whatever he can to make her believe that nothing has changed and it's still the old East Germany she knew eight months back.

It's reality, still with a flavor of fiction, but not too much to spoil the essence of facts. Perfect art. What a movie!

Nothing

2006-04-25T01:09:00.000+07:00

Diamond, Sand, Rust, Diamonds, Rust, Sand, Diamonds and Rust. That's all there is. That's all there is. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Colors Of Love

2006-04-23T01:14:00.000+07:00

The color of love is red
Your skirt
Your polka-dot shirt
Your spent night's unmade bed.

The color of love is black
The night that follows me
The ghosts that follow you
Or whatever you lack.

The color of love is blue
Are you in the bathtub now?
With the stranger who knows you well
And maybe he loves you too.

The color of love is white
You in your wedding dress
And I a fool
A fool
To think of you tonight.

~o~

'The Heart Of The Matter' by Graham Greene

2006-04-18T01:55:00.000+07:00

Few authors, essentially European, have an ability of analyzing human nature in a superbly intricate way. He puts it on the table, observes it, dissects it, takes it under the microscope, observes it again and writes the results down. That's what Graham Greene has done in his novel, 'The Heart Of The Matter'. One of the reviews quite truly states:

"I read some comments by Greene about the book ... He says that the book the critics and public read is not the book he was trying to write. Despite himself, he has given us a terrific book ..."

Some parts of the book: actions, thoughts, characters, sentences wonderfully resembled my own life, thoughts. It was indeed a pleasure to read this book, Mr. Greene.

A much belated letter of gratitude to Leonard Cohen

2005-09-08T02:44:00.000+07:00

Dear Leonard,

After being pulled away intermittently by distractions, like bad times in an extended love affair, I finally was able to finish reading your novel, 'Beautiful Losers'. How many times have I thought of starting it all afresh, and thank you Leonard, for giving me that chance. You wrote of a 'second chance' in the last pages of the book, and I selfishly assume it to be aimed towards someone like me. After all, I'm just a mediocre student. Maybe I'll be in a better position to write something more meaningful after reading it again, and rereading it.

All the events and characters seem to be so far off from me now, they've departed, they appear unclear, like those faint stars being covered and uncovered by a slowly drifting night cloud. I never intended to take seriously the happenings in your book and match them against common behavior, as I consider 'Beautiful Losers' to be a novel in its truest sense, where plausibility doesn't hold any meaning. I knew I would be at a loss to read the novel with a critic's mind.

Thank you for writing this book, dear Leonard, and contributing to the history of a Novel.

Sincerely,
S.

The Bookshelf

2005-08-19T12:41:00.000+07:00

No reasons not to write lately, just didn't feel like it. Lets just leave it that way.
Uncomplete.
Unexplained.

Let me list down some of the books I read in the last couple of months after finishing with Holger Kersten's "Jesus lived in India":

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown: I believe the only reason for this novel (as it is said to be, in my opinion the book doesn't come anywhere near to one) to gain global acclaim is the exposure of the fact that Jesus Christ's was married to Lady Magdalene. Nice scoop to make your work a bestseller!

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco: Too heavy a book for someone like me. The vast knowledge possessed by Eco and the extensive research work, combined with the capability of story-telling is what makes this novel a classic. I see myself reading it once again, more slowly and patiently, ten years down the line.

The Company Of Women - Khushwant Singh: Maybe I needed a light read, but I regret having chosen this book for it.

The Diary Of A Young Girl - Anne Frank: Nice read. Emotional. Makes me wonder why human beings are like the way they are.

Roots - Alex Haley: Makes me wonder more about human beings and why they at all came to exist. Product of an extensive research work by an African American to find his roots back to Africa more than two centuries back. What appealed to me is the honesty, simplicity and naturalness in the relationship between a black-skinned human being and another, just to be destroyed eventually, and without any good reason, by a white-skinned.

Presently reading Testaments Betrayed by Milan Kundera: Driving me to read better novels (real literary works in terms of art, which can be categorized to add to the history of a novel), and listen to more good music.

Bharteeya Blog Mela

2005-02-14T20:03:00.000+07:00

Last week's Bharteeya Blog Mela (Indian Blog Fair) is up.
Thanks Patrix!!

JPJ

2005-02-05T21:46:00.000+07:00

John Paul Jones is one of the lesser known band members of Led Zeppelin.
Alex Reisner's Led Zeppelin Site reports:
"Partly through musical boredom—the bass remained a misunderstood and thoroughly underrated instrument in those dark ages of British rock—and partly through a desire for artistic adventure, John Paul started to investigate keyboard instruments. He’s played church organ as a lad, so he already possessed the rudiments of keyboard expertise."

JPJ started off with bass and organ in the first albums of Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin I-IV, 1969-1971). In 'Houses Of The Holy (1973), Physical Graffiti (1975) and Presence (1976), he played bass, mellotron, synthesiser, organ, piano, grand piano, synthesiser piano and synthesised bass. He was back to bass and organ in 'In through the door' (1979), and we see him playing bass and piano in 'Coda' (1982).

Bass still remains one of the most difficult and least understood of all the musical instruments. And let it be that way! It's safe and better for bass guitars and bass guitarists to remain out of the reach of the multitude, who call themselves music-lovers, and quite determinedly pronounce 'bass' as 'baass'.

Confused!

2005-01-31T17:25:00.000+07:00

Adlai Stevenson once said

"A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular".

The quote has confused me to no-end, and I don't understand how to interpret this. How does one's safety get challenged if he or she is not popular?? I, for one, like to maintain a low profile, and remain submerged below the surface as much as I can. And I am safe. I mean, to be quite open, I don't find any reason to be unsafe. But again, this does not make me feel I am living in a free society. That, I feel, is an entirely different domain altogether.

Maybe I am getting things wrong. Someone please try to help me understand this. Ok, I won't think anymore and rather concentrate on something else... something a bit more uncomplicated.

Pardon me.

2005-01-24T16:31:00.000+07:00

Using this strange thing known as The Internet, I can think of (rather, dare to) publicize something written by me, and that too, at absolutely free of cost. Unbelievable!! In my college days, I never wrote anything other than love-letters and half-known answers in the exam booklet. My friends, who wrote better than many of the established authors and poets at that time, could never reach out to a larger audience, and had to remain restricted in reading out their works to patient listeners. They neither had the money, nor the scope, to publish their work. I don’t know where they are today and whether they make use of the Internet. Maybe they’ve become tired of looking for readers and write the manuscripts just for themselves. If I meet them someday, I’ll definitely ask from them and publish some of their writings here, which I surely believe, would give some pleasure and relief to readers who have to bear the pain of reading poor posts like this.

It's time for better browsers

2005-01-18T16:05:00.000+07:00

Microsoft Internet Explorer sucks more than the three-toothed Himalayan leech. Still it is the most widely used browser on the planet, whatever the reasons might be. MS Windows users who are kind of pissed off with IE and have started to feel the need for a better browser may choose among Mozilla Firefox (which I strongly suggest), Netscape or Opera. These have some remarkable features like full-screen view (Opera), pop-up blocking (Firefox), easy installation of missing plug-ins (Firefox) or multiple tabs in a single window (Firefox, Opera). Most importantly, if you are designing a web-page, you get to see what you want to see using these browsers. And they don't give you messages like 'This program has performed an illegal operation...' and close down all the open browser windows when you just try to kill one.

Congrats!!

2005-01-14T16:12:00.000+07:00

Congratulations to Mr. Michael Moore and his team for bagging the People's Choice "Favorite Movie of the Year" Award for Fahrenheit 9/11. I salute Mr. Moore for making this movie and the people of the USA for voting for it.

Keep it up!!!

The Hitchhiking Game

2004-08-27T18:11:00.000+07:00

A mind game that starts between a couple on the first day of their vacation of two weeks, turns getting sour.

In the Hitchhiking Game, another brilliant short story from Milan Kundera's 'Laughable Loves', the young woman becomes the hitchhiker, and the young man becomes the stranger who has picked her up from the roadside. The game continues till the end of that day, and both of them, at one point or the other wish to stop the game, so as to "return" to their original selves. But somehow, quite fortuitously, the game continues, and the sexual relationship between the two takes the shape of a power struggle. The game drags on, becomes bitter, still drags on, and ends with the end of the day, changing the perspective both had for each other. The meaning and implications of the "game" for both the young man and the young woman are also based on the traditional virgin/whore dichotomy, whereby women are categorized according to their sexual behavior as either "good girls" or "bad girls".

Nobody Will Laugh

2004-08-27T18:07:00.000+07:00

That's the first story in Milan Kundera's collection of short stories, Laughable Loves. The protagonist, is the author, is a writer, and the story begins with the receipt of a letter from one Mr. Zaturecky, who requests him to write a review for an article. The author finds the article utmost crappy, and not even worth the half hour of inattention he gives to it. He, however, is not able to slam this on the face of Mr. Zaturecky, and starts off with a lie, which in turn gives rise to a series of lies, miscommunications, and misunderstandings between the author, his girlfriend Klara, the authorities of the institute where the author used to gives lectures, Mr. Zaturecky, and his wife, leading ultimately to the loss of his apartment, his job and his girlfriend. All that was started with lightness, and with an intension of a subtle humor, led to the complete loss of the author's personal and professional belongings.

But that it was indeed started with some lightness gives the author some solace.

Simon and Garfunkel

2004-06-24T15:41:00.000+07:00

The 'simgar' mailing list of yahoogroups contains lots of valuable info for Simon and Garfunkel fans. The other day someone posted a link to a recent interview at npr.org. As if the song itself was not sufficient, the interviewer came up with 'Tell us something about The Sound of Silence....' What more do you need? Well, Paul was patient and considerate in his reply, and after listening to what he said, I realized that the 'something more' was really needed.

Paul Simon: "I wrote it when I was 21 years old, I wrote it in the bathroom of our house in Queens, with the lights off and the water running. That was the atmosphere that I liked."

Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

Another excerpt from the interview: Paul Simon on hearing one of his songs in an unlikely place.
Paul Simon: "I was on a trip down the Amazon river, and we stopped in the middle of nowhere at a tiny little Indian village. Now we were walking around the village and a girl was sitting in a room with no windows. And she was playing the guitar. So we stopped to listen, and I said, I know a song that you know, and I played El Condor Pasa. She knew it and she sang it in Spanish, of course. And then I said, you play a song, and she played The Sound of Silence. It was impossible to explain.... we didnt speak the same language. We were communicating by guitar.... and anyway, just the shock of it..... "

Cold Turkey

2004-06-23T18:30:00.000+07:00

Refraining from 'that one' cigarette is proving to be pretty difficult at times. The craving continues to show its (ugly?) grimace intermittently. The feeling of constant dizziness becomes worse when clubbed with a day of non-stop brainwork. What a combo!!!

People say deep-breaths and water reduces craving. Well, no help for me.

First post

2004-06-23T17:12:00.000+07:00

Just checking stuff out...