Writing

It is Crazy, the times we live in. I, in the comfort of my home, in my pajamas, ordered today a bag of fries because I was too busy to walk up to my kitchen, wash some potatoes, peel them, slice them, add a little bit of oil and chaat masala and toss it in the air fryer that sits In that kitchen. It arrived in 19 minutes. It ARRIVED in 19 minutes from the time I ordered it. That is so much faster than if I’d gone to the place, ordered it myself, waited for the order and then picked it up and came back home to eat it. ...

There’s this thing I need to get done by August 22. A person whose inputs I’ve come to really value said I need to get the first cut by Aug 06 if I’m to realistically get the final cut by 22nd, so that gives me just a day to go. Where I am in the process- I’m still being a little clandestine about the whole thing, so I am going to publicly talk about it in code. Maybe as a recipe for something to be baked or cooked. ...

Didn’t work much today. Did some stuff that was pending at home though. Had tea at an administrative office. Got extremely drenched after probably more than a year. Oh and also started watching “The Indian Detective” starring Russel Peters late today. I’m on episode 2. It’s a cringe-y, cliched-jokes-filled piece of mindless production so far. But then again…it did make me get to episode 2 at least. The “detective”-ness is still very much in the making but Russel Peters is alright. Anupam Kher is bearable and somehow they picked all the worst Hindi speakers to speak Hindi while shooting in Bombay. Good stuff guys… ...

Started learning about the Supply Chain domain today. It’s pretty interesting. I’ve worked on Time series data in the past, but to see this play out in a logistics domain is extremely fun. The thing that stuck with me the most was the realization of how complex something as trivial-seeming as an order fulfilment at McDonald’s can be - right from procurement of raw materials, all the way down to me getting my fries 5 minutes after I’ve ordered it. The course is called “Time Series Forecasting Using R” and I’m looking forward to learning more. ...

Today, I’m experimenting with a new way of logging. An incremental account as opposed to a summarized one at the end of the day. Morning log - The plants did not require watering today as it rained heavily last night for quite a while. Breakfast procured, tea prepared and work has begun at an honest, early hour. A good, hopefully productive 2 hours to go before I am interrupted by other humans….unless I indulge in distracting myself before that. I also began reading my 5th Agatha Christie novel today - Poirot Investigates - Short stories involving the duo - Hastings’ and Poirot’s cases. The similarities between them and Watson and Sherlock of the Conan Doyle persuasion isn’t lost on me. But of course, this subject of comparisons has been of interest for decades to bloggers and literature students across the world. One read I found particularly interesting as I looked up the internet to support my immediately preceding comment was this - https://dirkdeklein.net/2018/04/13/when-arthur-conan-doyle-looked-for-agatha-christie/ .I must read up more on ACD’s “occultist” practices. But perhaps, that’s an activity for a later time. Off to work now.

The day began with the watering of them terrace plants and flowers. I know I intended to find out the names today and have failed as expected. But now I know there’s a Hibiscus plant there, some curry leaves and one lemon plant. It’s definitely a lack of attention to detail as far flora is concerned. I’m able to appreciate the beauty en masse . It’s the individualities that is still posing some trouble. I will persevere. ...

The first weekend since I began this daily journal of sorts. What I forgot to mention in yesterday’s log was that the night before, late-ish, I’d lugged the wooden study table I’d been using downstairs. I hoped to do it noiselessly. I was unsuccessful but to their credit, my neighbors, if they’d heard a table being dragged against granite and tiles every ten seconds, ignored it all. But I digress. The table that now occupied its old location in my bedroom upstairs was employed today to its fullest as I arranged on it meticulously all the items that had previously been located on the floor but had to be reaccommodated to allow for said table. ...

I tried to work today but I didn’t really succeed in the attempt. I did a little but not as much as I would have liked. I think the amount of work over the preceding two days had taken quite the toll on “the old noggin”, as Wodehouse would put it. Anyway, before long I found myself at the latter half of the 16th hour of the day and went on my daily walk, today in the little park in RBI Layout. Also scheduled at that hour was a “bookish” discussion between two people organized by some-other-people that I’d signed up for. The rest of us who were not these 2 gents were to be spectators with some minimal butting in allowed. I joined a few minutes late and for a little while felt quite like an alien from a different planet being dropped in the middle of a war with no equipment and no intimation of who the two sides fighting are and for what purpose. I gathered over the course of one circuit of the park that one of them was talking about a book that changed his life and the book had something to say about the power of the mind to fix the ailing body or some sort and the other guy had a sort of vicious vehement way about him, straightaway pooh-pooh-ing the whole notion. Now I must mention that both these chaps were very familiar with each other and their shared history was the reason they were chosen as the people to discuss today. It turned out to be a decent enough discussion to listen to on a 45 minute evening walk, but it did end up with me left in serious doubt if I would much enjoy interacting with either of them if I had to at some point. ...

I continued listening to Cabin Pressure today and completed it. Not much of an accomplishment since there were only 12 episodes of 28 minutes each. It’s a testament to how good of a show it was that I was listening to Episode 6, Season 2 and I remember feeling bummed out a little when I realised it was the last episode on the playlist, with the third season not yet in sight. ...

Today I heard about this delightfully hilarious BBC Radio Sitcom called “Cabin Pressure” voice-starring Stephanie Cole, Roger Allam, Benedict Cumberbatch and John Finnemore. Every episode is titled a place on the map indicating where they, the chartered plane and its staff, are or are flying to for that episode and the short but funny misadventures they end up having. I only started listening to it because of Benedict Cumberbatch, but I found myself most drawn to the character Roger Allam plays - Douglas Richardson, First Office at the MJN Air. I shouldn’t really have been surprised at how a radio show made me laugh so much, because I do love a good dialogue and witty banter and this show is full of those. But I was pleasantly surprised at the frequency with which this continued to get me going. I remember there was a point on my evening walk when I was grinning broadly as I walked along the rather short circuit in RBI Layout’s park and it suddenly struck me that the reason no one was staring at me for what I can only assume must be a very goofy grin is because we’re all in a pandemic and are wearing masks that save us the embarassment of revealing our satisfied expressions that we cannot explain to everyone on a walk. ...