Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Quick Egotism
- I am going to watch the new HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie this Friday. I am soo looking forward to it. I am skeptical about its quality, but I am such a big Douglas Adams fan that I just have to go on the first day irrespective.
- I had the bestest Indian food in Silicon valley yesterday at a place called Dasaprakash. Crispy dosa, lovely chutney and fresh idlis reminescent of Vaishali in Pune. If anyone of you ever comes to Santa Clara, be certain to look around San Tomas and Homestead.
- I finished reading the Da Vinci code. Thought it was rather interesting. It got reallly slow in the end and I skimmed through many pages in the end. It is extremely instructive at some points and bordering on pedantic at others, so the movie screenplay writer wont have such a great time. I wish there were some way to know the truth about Mary Magdalene, but well maybe we will never know.
- I am reading George Orwell's 1984 now. Now that's a really well-written book. I think the idea that George Orwell is trying to convey is not only that communism is stupid, but compared to a communist society, capitalist nations are Utopian. It is a tad depressing at some points so far, but I think it is fairly fast paced. Also there are some really memorable one-liners... I am planning to post my collection up here when I am done.
- I am going to watch the new HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie this Friday. I am soo looking forward to it. I am skeptical about its quality, but I am such a big Douglas Adams fan that I just have to go on the first day irrespective.
- I had the bestest Indian food in Silicon valley yesterday at a place called Dasaprakash. Crispy dosa, lovely chutney and fresh idlis reminescent of Vaishali in Pune. If anyone of you ever comes to Santa Clara, be certain to look around San Tomas and Homestead.
- I finished reading the Da Vinci code. Thought it was rather interesting. It got reallly slow in the end and I skimmed through many pages in the end. It is extremely instructive at some points and bordering on pedantic at others, so the movie screenplay writer wont have such a great time. I wish there were some way to know the truth about Mary Magdalene, but well maybe we will never know.
- I am reading George Orwell's 1984 now. Now that's a really well-written book. I think the idea that George Orwell is trying to convey is not only that communism is stupid, but compared to a communist society, capitalist nations are Utopian. It is a tad depressing at some points so far, but I think it is fairly fast paced. Also there are some really memorable one-liners... I am planning to post my collection up here when I am done.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Incompletitis
I've been bogged down by this strange ailment ever since I was a child. I don't know the root causes of this condition but I just don't seem to be able to finish things.
Take my last few attempts at reading books. I read about half of 1984 by George Orwell... I liked the whole premise of the book and the way it is written, but somehow I havent been able to complete reading it. Too many things happened (moving to CA, new job and the like) in the interim and the book just slipped from my to-do list. Currently I am reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci code but I think the pace at which I am reading it has been rather slow. The most I can give it is about an hour to two daily. When I try to read it late in the night after work, I tend to nod off rather easily and I have progressed less than 30 pages on most nights. Ofcourse thats in the absence of TV, which eats up most of the 4 free (yet awake) hours I get everyday. I started reading Harry Potter but lost the book mid-way and never found out how the story progressed.
My father used to call me "Arabha-shoor" in Marathi which translates literally as "Start-Brave", or someone who is really inspired at the start but whose enthusiasm dwindles faster than the speed of light. I took up Tennis and left it in 6 months. I started going to NCC when I was 8 and then put a halt to that in 4 months. Even during my bachelor's I remember, I had great trouble to get to the last pages of a chapter. Some parts of any chapter never got the privelege of being read by me. I started every chapter with renewed fervor but never really followed it through all the way.
If anyone else has experienced this, do let me know... would make me feel a lot less like an anomaly.
I've been bogged down by this strange ailment ever since I was a child. I don't know the root causes of this condition but I just don't seem to be able to finish things.
Take my last few attempts at reading books. I read about half of 1984 by George Orwell... I liked the whole premise of the book and the way it is written, but somehow I havent been able to complete reading it. Too many things happened (moving to CA, new job and the like) in the interim and the book just slipped from my to-do list. Currently I am reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci code but I think the pace at which I am reading it has been rather slow. The most I can give it is about an hour to two daily. When I try to read it late in the night after work, I tend to nod off rather easily and I have progressed less than 30 pages on most nights. Ofcourse thats in the absence of TV, which eats up most of the 4 free (yet awake) hours I get everyday. I started reading Harry Potter but lost the book mid-way and never found out how the story progressed.
My father used to call me "Arabha-shoor" in Marathi which translates literally as "Start-Brave", or someone who is really inspired at the start but whose enthusiasm dwindles faster than the speed of light. I took up Tennis and left it in 6 months. I started going to NCC when I was 8 and then put a halt to that in 4 months. Even during my bachelor's I remember, I had great trouble to get to the last pages of a chapter. Some parts of any chapter never got the privelege of being read by me. I started every chapter with renewed fervor but never really followed it through all the way.
If anyone else has experienced this, do let me know... would make me feel a lot less like an anomaly.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Lymphocercoma of the... knee
I went for a 10 mile hike on Saturday. It was an amazing climb to these mountains south of San Jose called Rancho San Antonio. I met some like-minded fitness-conscious Indians (and a chinese lady) and I had some of the best conversations I have had in recent memory. There were some biologists in the group and the field is so different from the trite engineering I am familiar with, that it produced a lot of stimulating discussions.
Unfortunately I descended the hill very rapidly that day. Both Devang and I had some pain in our knees from that trek. Unfortunately I followed that up with the alpine ski machine at Gold's Gym on Monday. I joined Gold's last week in my effort to become leaner and fitter but thats a whole different saga. I ended up hurting my knee and the doctor told me today that I have patello-femoral syndrome. Essentially my knee cap is rubbing against the bone below. It is also called runner's knee apparently. It is rather astonishing that a chubby athlete like myself chanced upon this malady.
So I am writhing in pain for a large fraction of the day and the doctors from Kaiser Permanente are being fairly nice. I forgot to tell them that my parents are physicians too... Likely I would have got some preferential treatment from them. A lady dracula at the lab sucked out many vials of blood from my veins. When I asked her "Are you from Transylvania or something?", she gave me that cute but queer smile sans fangs.
My dad ofcourse as usual is the genius among doctors worldwide. He told me which muscles to exercise and instantaneously it had a soothing effect on the damaged knee. It's only when we lose the function of some minor organ do we realise the magical creations that our bodies truly are. For a second I even start wondering if evolution could really have engendered such a masterpiece.( I am not a Bible-smacking christian from the South btw!) Another wonderous thing is how a miniscule 200mg tablet can ease the troubles of a 162 pound soul!
I went for a 10 mile hike on Saturday. It was an amazing climb to these mountains south of San Jose called Rancho San Antonio. I met some like-minded fitness-conscious Indians (and a chinese lady) and I had some of the best conversations I have had in recent memory. There were some biologists in the group and the field is so different from the trite engineering I am familiar with, that it produced a lot of stimulating discussions.
Unfortunately I descended the hill very rapidly that day. Both Devang and I had some pain in our knees from that trek. Unfortunately I followed that up with the alpine ski machine at Gold's Gym on Monday. I joined Gold's last week in my effort to become leaner and fitter but thats a whole different saga. I ended up hurting my knee and the doctor told me today that I have patello-femoral syndrome. Essentially my knee cap is rubbing against the bone below. It is also called runner's knee apparently. It is rather astonishing that a chubby athlete like myself chanced upon this malady.
So I am writhing in pain for a large fraction of the day and the doctors from Kaiser Permanente are being fairly nice. I forgot to tell them that my parents are physicians too... Likely I would have got some preferential treatment from them. A lady dracula at the lab sucked out many vials of blood from my veins. When I asked her "Are you from Transylvania or something?", she gave me that cute but queer smile sans fangs.
My dad ofcourse as usual is the genius among doctors worldwide. He told me which muscles to exercise and instantaneously it had a soothing effect on the damaged knee. It's only when we lose the function of some minor organ do we realise the magical creations that our bodies truly are. For a second I even start wondering if evolution could really have engendered such a masterpiece.( I am not a Bible-smacking christian from the South btw!) Another wonderous thing is how a miniscule 200mg tablet can ease the troubles of a 162 pound soul!
