Life in 13 March 2022-14 Aug 2022

 

15 Aug weekend is a long weekend this year. And I intend to make the most of it to get back to my blog updates which have been pending for a while.

- NYTimes Wordle and crossword - 

When Wordle got acquired by NYT, it was already a daily habit. I soon bought the Games subscription and since then, have been fairly active on Crossword, mini-crossword and  spelling bee. My Wordle stats are decent, having lost only one so far.  Crossword - I am fairly decent at Mon/Tue ones and attempt other ones with autocheck on. Sun one takes 2-3 hrs. Overall, I love the whole gameplay thing. 

- Puchka & Taco - 

I love playing with them. They are amazing. I love the fact that whenever I come home, Taco is at the door to greet. Puchka stays hidden but she can see me. Love that they make this noise in the morning to get food. I love designing random activities for them and then for them to go at it. 

Album of 2022

- Office parties :)

As office opened up, we decided to get together with colleagues and go to different locations. So far, we have gone to 

• Bowling at the Grid followed by party at Biergarten
• Ironhill - thrice. Farewell of a colleague, a team dinner and a team lunch
• Bombay brasserie - Another team's lunch that we got self-invited.
• Irish house
• Black Pearl Kadubeesanhalli 
• Hilton whitefield - CEO's India visit 
• Prestige Oasis - Kanishka' office colleague party at his grand villa 
• 
  

Family parties

• Bombay brasserie - Mother's day celebration
• Chung Wah - Kanishka's mummy bday celebration
• Xochi - Aarti/Anshika's bday celebration. 
• Arvind & Kanishka's bday celebration at home
• Authentic Andhra restaurant - Father's day celebration
• Fisherman's wharf - Dinner with Aarti
• Home - Papa's birthday celebration
• Elan Home - Rakhi celebration

Parties with Kanishka

• Ironhill
• Irish house - Kadibeesanhalli
• Fenny's kitchen and lounge - Koramangala
• MG/Brigade road - walking + street food
• Broadway HSR

Some venues are repeated because Kanishka has a list of places where I have been and she has not been and vice versa. The idea is to get places off her list asap :) . I also have a similar list and it is getting longer :) 

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Travels & Tours

Mumbai - Office trip - for hiring. But also did a city heritage tour via Heritage tours, attended an Atul Khatri performance, walked on Marine drive, had amazing Pizza at Pizza by the bay. Great outing!

Meditation retreat at Bodhi Zendo and Kodai - Big thanks to Parul for pushing us to sign up for meditation

Trip to Shillong 

An upcoming trip to Delhi is planned

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Books

The Wheel of Time - Book 1 - The Eye of the world

By Robert Jordan

Found it so-so. For the first half, it seems like a giant rip-off of LOTR but after mid-point or so, it gets its own arc. I am ok with chosen-one protagonist tropes but I do not like a bit if they get there without going through the phase of learning/challenges. To me, the end here is something of that sort. 

ABSOLUTE POWER - Inside story of the National Stock Exchange’s amazing success, leading to hubris, regulatory capture and algo scam.

By Sucheta Dalal, Debashis Basu

Loved it. Highly recommended!

This was on the reading list ever since I watched Scam 1992 last year. More so, when the news came recently on the chief of NSE getting her instructions via an online Guru etc. Before we get to the scams, this is an amazing appreciation book on the coming up of NSE in India. It covers the adhoc-ness of then BSE, challenges in setting up NSE, its noble objectives and how somer really good people came together to do their best work and in the process set up a world class trading exchange!

But power corrupts and one unpunished deed leads to another. The regulatory authority has to be vigilant, action swift and the price of not doing the right thing is always very high. Hats off to its authors. 

Dune Messiah 

By Frank Herbert

I for some reason did not like it. It lacked the flow that Dune had for me. New concepts like Ghola seemed more mechanical and there was a weirdness in visualizing them. There are elements of Dune but not too many. Maybe, I will try the third one :)

The Sun and her flowers

Milk and Honey

Poems by Rupi Kaur

I am a fan-boy :) . She belongs to the saare-gunaah-maaf league. I have read both of her books, front to end, at-least twice now. This is also now my number one gift item to give!

Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From

By Tony Joseph

80% read. 

Part of my non-fiction reading streak. Early Indians traces the migrations of pre-historic humans to the geography that we call India now. Using genetic research which is able to point out patterns of human migration over years, the book is very lucky to come out at the right time. At the heart of it, it basically argues that there were two migrations coming out of Africa spread apart by few decades which is basically an Ice-age in between. It is by far the best account of origin of Aryan race, Dravidian race and where we all came from - which is, as we all know, from Africa. 

It is fascinating read. Tony breaks the complex scientific paper articles into an easy to follow language. Must read for fans of history. 

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Movies & TV

Lincoln Lawyer - TV Series on Netflix - 3/5

Guilty pleasure, legal drama :)

Reacher - TV Series on Prime video - 3/5

Same - guilty pleasure - this one I enjoyed more than I hoped I would :) 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Series ends - 5/5

This one goes to my top-10 ever. Dard ki dawa hai yeh :) My goto series when I am not well. 

I love the goofiness in the series. Love the characters, the desire to laugh, the over the top heists, cool side of police, do-gooders doing good. Made by the same team who made Good place. This one is for the ages!

Modern Family - Series - 3.5/5

I do not know why I like this one but I do. Motley characters going through daily life experiences, creating a goody-goody vibe. I may not re-watch it, may not recommend it but it is something that I love watching with my meals. I am currently on season 7 and I like it. 

Big Bang theory - Series - 1.5/5

May have binge watched upto third season. I absolutely hate it. I do not know why I went to season three. Maybe Sheldon's idiosyncrasy made me curious but it gets so much repetitive.  Also, beyond a point, it is obnoxious to live with him, to watch him.  I can not empathize with a person who depends on others for basic life things, no matter how smart they are. Sorry, cannot do it.  Also, this is even below Friends for me.

Succession -4/5  

(Season 1, 2 & half of season three)

The reason I am half of season three is that I do not want to binge watch and end the excitement. It did not start well but once I understood what this is, it is very fascinating. Ultra-ultra rich people are ass*** and are so up in their heads that they have no idea what happens on the ground. I really like the sets that they come up with - bachelor's party, or birthday party or yatch party, or a fundraising dinner. These events are so obscene that they do not look appealing either. 

But the series is a gem, again a series of characters not known before but perfectly cast for this.  Narration includes corporate manoeuvrings which are interesting but more than that, it is just the greed, the sense of entitlement, the lack of any empathy, it just makes riveting TV. 

Some good cinema - https://arvindbatra.blogspot.com/2022/08/good-cinema-2022.html

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Among other things - 

- Applied to renew my tourist Visa for US. Appointment coming up. 

- Took  Puchka & Taco for their annual vaccinations - Puchka did not come to me for a month after the visit. 

- Kanishka & I got booster-vaccinated

- Went to a play - Tajmahal ka tender at Ranga Shankara - Decent. 3/5

- Lastly, we had a grand Holi celebration this time !

Good cinema 2022

The wheel has turned now. I have joined Sorcesse camp to claim that Marvel/Super-hero movies are not that good anymore. Last decade belonged to them but I do not enjoy them anymore. I have missed good story based movies, good drama offering real emotions. And with this, I turn to Mubi, the awesomest streaming platform that no one knows about.  

Shiva baby by Emma Seligman - 3.5/5

A Shiva is a jewish mourning ritual. The film takes place during the course of a lunch-Shiva where the lead protagonist has to confront her relatives, ex-lover, sugar-daddy, all at the same time. It is uneasy to watch, uneasy to see the breakdown in real time, seething with so many emotions being discussed - career, relationship, parental expectations, peer group, desires, self-preservation, anger all unfolding in 60 mins of a brilliant screenplay. It takes effort to watch the latter half since the tension is just too much. Ending is hilarious though :)

Worst person in the world 4.5/5

 Reprise 3.5/5

both by  Joachim trier

I am now a fan of the movies of Joachim Trier. They are brilliantly crafted, edited, and has a unique perspective on dealing with humanity. Worst person in the world is so far my favorite. There are montage sequence in both of his movies which are just amazing. Both of these films are part of his Oslo trilogy of which I am yet to watch one. But, this is cinema as it should be, as it used to be. 

Worst person in the world is about a woman who is still in the process of self-discovery. No sure what she wants, she goes from one relationship to another, one area of work to another until she lands herself where she should be. The process of self-discovery is messy, irrational, confusing, unreasonable but it is amazing to watch.  Couple of sequences stand out - one in the lead runs through the entire city to meet her fling where the entire city is frozen except her, the other one when she meets this fling for the  first time. It is so fresh.

Reprise is story of two friends, both writers, one successful and another one not. This leads to jealousy, self destruction, support and many other emotions, narrated brilliantly by the director. 

Power of the dog by Jane Campion 4/5

Jane Campion of Piano fame, of making movies which are brilliantly shot, scored and delivered to perfection.  Also, featuring Jesse Plemons who has a habit of showing up in almost half of amazing awesome productions coming out of US (I am thinking of ending things, Irishman, Braking bad), he is like the new-age Brad Pitt :) . And a celeb in the form of Benedict Cumberbatch to make it appealing to broader audience. It is a western but not a western. It is a love story and not a love story. There is a sense of awe that goes with the movie, a grandiose feeling, much like when I saw There will be blood. But this one is more subtle, more guarded in its message. Watch it for amazing cinema

Top Gun: Maverick by Joseph Kosinsky 4/5

Yes, I love good action movies made with panache. Many Tom Cruise movies are like that. Top Gun was known for its flair. It continues on this one. A well crafted mission, solid action sequences, edge of the seat masala, victory in the end, this one has it all. What I have always loved about Top Gun movies is how do you make movies about these fighter planes interesting where all you can do is get a view from the cockpit but they manage to do so brilliantly. These should be study in themselves. Also, a unique thing about is that the villian is called 'rogue nation', no name calling, no unnecessary bringing in Arab/Russian/Chinese  countries. Focus on the set pieces and enjoy the film. 

True Detective - Season 3 

Just brilliant storytelling. Three story lines, interwoven. Characters etched so well, played brilliantly as well. Thriller storylines at its best. A notch below season 1 but still very very good. 

Bodhi Zendo & Kodai - June 2022

37 years after our birth, Kanishka and I decided to celebrate our respective birthdays by going to Zendo meditation. We took the night train to Kodai on 8th and celebrated Kanishka's midnight birthday inside the train where we slept off, on side berths :) . Our return was slated on 13th dec evening and then we celebrated my birthday inside train, where again we slept on side-berths. 

Bodhi Zendo

Located near the Kodai, at a small hillock, it has great views of surrounding scenery. The venue itself has well maintained gardens, open walking space and quietness that is generally missing. 

Day 1 - 

We arrived just before lunch. The sesshin on first day starts at 6 pm. After that, the expectation is to go to a quiet mode. There is an intro session where in you go and select your place to sit, grab many cushions to make it comfortable and learn some common practices. Library also opens up for an hr for you to checkout books for couple of days, however, it is recommended to not do any reading once the sesshin starts.

Also, everyone is expected to do an hr of chores every morning. Chores are allocated a night before. Chores include cutting vegetables, verandah cleaning, flower decoration, gardening and so on.  Vegetables are mostly sourced from their own vegetable garden and food is home-made, made with a south Indian touch. No processed foods. Desserts are fruits or some sweet preparation. 

Day 1 meditation was only for an hr. It was ok. Each meditation session has pre and post rituals. Most pre-rituals are bowing to the Buddha, three times. Post-meditation ritual is reading from the small booklet which contains short poem-like stanzas. Some contains Japanese mantras as well. 

Day 2/Day3

Each day contains five hrs of meditation. Starting at 6am,  first hr is meditation. Followed by breakfast and then daily chores. Both Kanishka and I were assigned verandah cleaning. It was good work. Next meditation is at 1030 am, followed by a talk by the zen master. After lunch, there are meditation sessions at 4 pm, 6pm and one after dinner at 8pm. There are enough breaks in between but overall, the day is packed with enough rest. 

My meditation experience was overall ok. Zen meditation sessions are 20 mins each with some walking-meditation in between. Walks in between provides much needed blood circulation to legs. I did struggle to get to a blank state but it was manageable. My bigger challenges were to sit without backrest.

What did not go well was that Kodai is a cold-place and I did get catch slight fever/cold. This led to more stress and lack of enough concentration to focus on meditation. But, it was not that bad either.

Bigger challenge came with the ritual-istic part of Zendo. I have always ran away from forced reading of mantras. These reading materials were borderline gibberish to me. Some made sense, some not at all. Forced rituals like the night gong-ceremony gave it a cult-ish feel, like a scientology cult. Forced bowing down, that too thrice, made me question things even more. 

Overall, my meditation sessions were okay-ish. While I do understand that expecting aha moment in three days is not practical, there was enough quite for me to calm my mind but enough traditions for me to not enjoy the good parts without getting worked up.

Food was good. Coffee was bad :) . One other good part is that you wash your own plates, that too on a natural made soap solution. There are four sinks - one to rinse the pate, one with soap solution to clean, one with warm water plain to clean plates, one cold water to clean again. This was good innovation. 

Day 4 

Day 4 was the last day with couple of hrs of meditation followed by public QnA with the founder of Bodhi Zendo. The QnA was revealing to me. It kind of confirmed what was being signalled over the previous three days - that Bodhi Zendo is actually a religion. A new-age religion, claiming to improve upon the existing ones, but it still has its worshipping-ish tendencies and it did not look like that there were any controls on it would not become cult-ish as it grows. It still expects blind faith from its devotees, has enough circuitous responses to keep things vague, draws on general good principles but then it hides the graver undertones underneath them.

There is a duality in Zendo - that ordinary way of life is the path to a happy life; live in the present, and be aware of the present, be mindful of what you do. But at the same time, the meditation, rituals, tend to signal something else. One story narrated in one of the talk-sessions shared that one Zen-master was actually a good-for-nothing person who came across another Zen master at his home and left his wife/children and became a Zen-disciple. I am not sure how they are able to rationalize/celebrate such masters. 

I do respect folks who found this useful, found this to be their calling but as science says, it should not be beyond critique. And it is ok to let it be faith-driven and then be beyond questions but it should be called-so. 

On Day 4, we also did a long walk down from Zendo to below market below to explore local cuisine there. While food was so-so, the walk was good and walking up and down a hill is always delightful. 

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We got free from Zendo post lunch. Lunch was open for talking with each other. It was good to catch-up, many folks came from BLR. There were many non-Indians in the group who were staying for a longer duration, many of them came from Auroville, some said to escape the summer there. 

Post lunch, our plan was to go to Kodai, another 45 mins away. We stayed at Kodai resort hotel which is a great place to stay, right next to Coakers walk which is a decent place to walk offering great views from Kodai hills. It is evident why Britishers were attracted to Kodai, to escape the Chennai heat. 

In the afternoon, we did a long-ish walk - Coakers walk, botanical garden, shopping near Kodai lake. We went back to hotel to rest couple of hrs before heading for dinner which was okay-ish. 

Kodai is like any touristy-hill-station now, crowded with more vehicles than space, commercialised, little less than others though. 

Day 4 - 

We booked a full day tour to something known as Village tour which includes a Pine tree forest break, visit to Mahalakshmi temple which is 1000 years old, visit to Sheep farm, boating at  Mannavanur lake. Weather was good and some sceneries on the way was good. Mahalakshmi temple is located in a village which is painted by different colors and is a scenic delight. Sheep farms also had a rabbit farm - a typical govt facility which should be better maintained.  Boating in the Mannavanur  lake was good, more so, because it is surrounded by all forest nearby, no habitation.

We drove from this tour to the train station - Kodai road which is 2.5 hrs away from Kodai. Along the way, we stopped at the South Indian restaurant - Eden Garden where the food is yum! served on banana leaf.

Kanishka also packed few plants to get them back to BLR. 

Before leaving Kodai, we also stopped at their bakery - Daily bread pastry corner, a chance coincidence since the bakery opens only between 3-5 pm. The cakes, breads, and everything was amazing! Highly recommended. 

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Overall, a decent change, a new experience, a new hill station. A check box of Zendo done, birthday celebrations done. 

Also, an Indian railways ride after a long long time. It is more nostalgia than actual fun now :)