Horus Heresy

So I started reading the Horus Heresy series, as an entry point into the staggeringly large Warhammer 40K universe. Have been reading the books continuously for most of the year, about a little more than one a month. Have a telegram group with four fans who discuss this all the time.

Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames
What a spectacular introduction. The space battles are more epic than anything else I have read before, and the scale is just enormous. This is a future which is not limited by resources or imagination. The Primarch is revealed late into the book, and then he turns! We also see a bit of Magnus and the other primarchs, which are only explored fully later in the series. The three books sort of flow into each other, and form a trilogy of their own. This is gory, and "grimdark" at its best. The bombardment of the Istvaan system is just too over the top.

Flight of the Eisenstein
One of the most uplifting novels in the series, it is a roller coaster ride of emotions, but ends on a positive note.The good thing is that some of the action takes place close to Earth. This is one of the few novels in the series that actually gives you some hope, and can be considered a bittersweet story.

Fulgrim
They tried to go to the depths of decadence here, but could not do it as well as say 12 days of sodom - but they tried to go there. The problem is that the debauchery is unstructured, and so does not have as much as an impact as other similar works. Can get a bit crass and painful at times, and there are no diamonds in the rough either.

Descent of Angels
This is a fantastic story that takes place in a totally different time, on a deathworld in Caliban. This is a jungle planet where monstrous creatures roam, and there are other mysterious beings. Lion el'Jonson is one of the best primarchs there are, because of how little he reveals about his intentions. Although he has a calculating mind, he keeps his cards close to his chest. Still, mistakes are made. One of the few books where we see the Emperor directly in action. This happens when the Emperor visits Caliban.

Legion
An interesting book that looks at the underhand tactics of the most clandestine Alpha legion. The legion actually has two primarchs - Alpherius and Omegon. They are twins, but the entire legion pretends to be the primarch. Also we see the exploits of John Grammaticus, and introduced to the strange collective of aliens or xenos, known as the Cabal.

Battle for the Abyss
This is a space ship battle that is a bit like the hunt of the Bismark by the Hood. Most of the action takes place on board two ships.

Mechanicum
This tells of the origins of the Emperor, as well as the dragon on Mars. Initially, the book starts off as very dull and boring because it is mostly about machines, but towards the end the book really turns into one of the best ones in the series. It has the most well designed, outrageous, and relatable characters in the series so far, which is a difficult thing to pull off.

Fallen Angels
Fallen Angels continues from Descent of Angels, and shows Luther building up the capacities of the legion in the homeworld of Caliban, and the conflict that follows. This is a really sad story, with unnecessary misunderstandings.

A Thousand Sons
This one is really good as we finally see Magnus destroying the Emperor's secret project on Earth, in an effort to warn him about what Horus is up to. The retribution from the Emperor is strict, but in the last minute, Magnus saves his sons by moving to the Planet of Sorcerers. The book shows the warp ultimately corrupts, and that there is always a bigger fish in the sea. There is also a hint that the chaos gods have taken over the warp, and there may be pure or golden energy in there that can be used by the right people. This is what the elders probably used to make their webway, and what the Emperor was using to make his. It is revealed that the Emperor planned to make Magnus sit on the golden throne instead of himself, which shows that the Emperor has some nefarious schemes of his own as well. Also, another highlight is the council of Nikea, and again, one of the few times that we see the Emperor in action.

==Finished reading on this date, will be updating this post as I read through the rest of the series.==

Nemesis: War Within The Shadows (Dec 24, 2018)
Nemesis is easily one of the better books in the series. It tells the story of six crazy assassins out to kill the Warmaster. There is a shape shifter, a kind of anti-psyker, a marksman, a tech guy, a berserker, and a poisoner. In the end they do not succeed, but this still has a lot of humanity and hope in it. For a series that gets so dark, there are some incredibly elevating moments in here. The best story was that of the Kell siblings, Eristede and Jenniker. Things go downhill, as usual. This was an action packed ride through and through, with not one dull moment. Right at the very end, the Emperor shows up and says a few things, which is always great to read about. It is just so insanely rare that the Emperor is shown directly doing or saying anything. So far this has happened only in Descent of Angels, A Thousand Sons, and now Nemesis.

The First Heretic (January 2, 2019)
This one is about Lorgar, and how he was humiliated by the Emperor at the council of Nikea. Lorgar needs to have a faith, and it does not matter which one. When he finds out that the Emperor is not worthy of his worship, nor desires it, he starts worshipping the Chaos gods instead. You cannot help but feel bad for this Primarch, but he goes on to keep his allegiance a secret. In a way, it can be considered that the Emperor of Mankind dug his own grave when he did not see the machinations of Chaos at the council of Nikea. It is also not clearly explained by Leman Russ hates Lorgar sooo much.

Prospero Burns (January 14, 2019)
This one takes you into the most savage legion there is, the Vlka Fenryka, or the Space Wolves. It shows the machinations of chaos working from within the legions over incredibly long periods of time. Leman Russ is not the barbarian that he was made out to be in all the books so far. This is a really fun read as it takes place in a setting that has not really been seen before, on a brutal world that is stuck perpetually in a pre-industrial state - still there are spaceships. The mystery of the wolves of Fenris is finally revealed, they are actually the Astartes who convert into wolves, which explains why they are so loyal, and also why "there are no wolves on Fenris". The disappointing thing is that in the end, the retelling of the events at the Council of Nikea is rushed, and the actual burning of Prospero happens too quickly, and without much details. Like the destruction of so many worlds are written about in such detail, for example the Olamic Quietude, which is post human to such an extent that it can almost be considered a xenos species. Here, the home world of a primarch is destroyed, and that is written about in less detail. The Emperor is seen directly at the council of Nikea, but does not speak.

Age of Darkness (February 4, 2019)
Age of Darkness is a bit disjointed and found myself reading the book, without really getting into the stories. It is a collection of short stories, and easily the most memorable one is the Last Remembrancer. The setting in all the stories is just around the time of the massacre at Istvaan. Liar's due takes place in one of the outskirts of the Empire, where a single agent manages to sow discord in a planet.

The Outcast Dead (Febryary 22, 2019)
This one was a bit like Mechanicum, in the sense that it was a little boring in the beginning, but became really cool the more you got into the book. Most of the action takes place on Earth, which is as alien as any of the other worlds in the series so far. The really cool thing is that there are so many Indian names in this book, along with actual locations such as the Himalayan Mountains and Uttarakhand. The Imperial palace uses the highest mountains on Earth as its foundations, which gives a scale of how insanely epic it is. We also come across precursors to the Astartes, the thunder warriors, who are actually larger than the Astartes. There is a sequence where the Custodians, Thunder Warriors, the Astartes, and a bunch of Blanks are all fighting at once. The ending is epic, especially since it contains two extended sequences where the Emperor plays a game of chess. There is also a prison break, after which the action feels a bit like the kill squad in Nemesis. In this book, you really cannot take sides.

Indian Mythical Avengers

Heard a bunch of people say Indian mythology had all the concepts that the MCU has, so tried to check out if it is true, and if so, what the parallels are.

Thor: Indra
This one is simple, Indra is the God of thunder.

Hulk: Ghatotkacha
Again, simple. The son of Bhima and Hidimbi, a Rakshashi, he could go into a battle rage, and transform the size of his body at will.

Black Widow: Mohini
Mohini is a femme fatale, the only female avatar of Lord Vishnu. She steals a pot of Amrit from the demons, and gives it back to the devas, ensuring their continued immortality.

Hawkeye: Karna
Again, easy enough. Karna was a better archer than even Arjuna, and he had a quiver full of specialised arrows that he could use according to the demands of the situation. These include the varunastra, the rudrastra, the brahmastra (think atomic arrows), the bhargavastra (which could take out an entire batallion), and the nagastra (even Hawkeye did not have this, it turns into a deadly snake on impact).

Quicksilver: Savitr
One of the Adityas, Savitr is about as fast as any being gets in Hindu cosmology. In the Flash TV series, an enemy of Flash is called speedster Savitar.

Falcon: Garuda
Yeah, anthropomorphic eagle will do here.

Doctor Strange: Vishnu
God of illusions. Also, just look at this.

Peter Parker: Pavitr Prabhakar
Okay, this is not from mythology, but was created by none other than Stan Lee himself

Iron Man: Kumbhakaran 
Whelp. This one is a bit of a stretch, but according to some interpretations, he wore the hulkbuster armour to the battle against Ram.

Cryptocurrency Scams

GainBitcoin
DietBitcoin
OneCoin
MoneyTradeCoin - MTC 
RippleFuture 
NCRCoin 
ATCCoin
EB3coins
BitConnect
Kashh Coin
Gotri Pay-Way Coin
Centra Tech ICO

Machine Haiku

This is some Haiku generated with machine learning
Used python based Word-RNN and tensorflow
Images also generated using AI, through this thing
Typography and templates using spark 

Making the training data set was the toughest bit
Have to figure out more ways to improve the model
------

Plato was an asshole

So Plato kicked off higher education when he founded the academy in Athens. His teacher was Socrates and his student was Aristotle. He was also a total asshole. Imagine if you are a scholar, and you come up with a valid theory that explains the world - that of atomism, and someone of the stature of Plato totally throws shade your way. That is what happened to Leucippus and his student, Democritus. Plato and Aristotle totally rejected their ideas of Atomism. Plato's reasons for this dick move? It was not poetic or aesthetic enough. While nearly all of Plato's work has survived to our day, Democritus has almost been erased from history - to the point that it is a matter of debate if he even existed. Although he came up with the idea of atomism, we know about his ideas through the work of Leucippus, of which only fragments survive. Aristotle's criticisms of Democritus is actually more illuminating about the ideas of Leucippus and Democritus than their own works. Democritus is considered the father of modern science. Plato did everything to suppress Democritus, including attempting to burn his books. While he mentions all the other philosophers at that time, Democritus only very rarely comes up. Plato actually goes as far as to say "Democritus is not well versed in the matters of knowledge". By and large, Democritus was shunned in Athens.  It did not help matters that Democritus was somewhat of a recluse, and himself said, "I came to Athens and no one knew me." Just, so sad. :(

Dream Diary Woolly Buffalo edition

There was a series of dreams. The first one was me talking to people, but no sound coming out. So I would try to talk louder and louder, till I managed to say the words. I think that I was waking up briefly during these periods, and actually talking in my sleep. It was a very unsettling feeling, trying to speak and not being able to, kind of like being breathless.
The second dream, was on the backseat of a bike, when we hit something and the bike straight up flies into the air. I remember being scared to death, like literally thinking how the fuck is this happening, and oh no I am going to die once we hit the ground. But when we hit the ground, it is without inertia, and nothing happens. The bike and the rider are fallen, and people on the road are looking confused, like wtf just happen, how did they survive.
The last dream involved being attacked by a large buffallo like domestic animal - lets call it a wooly buffallo. This thing was monsterously huuge. Like twice the height of a person. It also had long brown hair all over its body. So it is on a rampage, and about to attack me. I just curl up like a baby. It sniffs me and then also lies down. Its owners come and take it away. Then I follow the owners to see where it is going. THe owners live in this chawl like communal setting, with the main hall being below the ground. There are narrow pathways leading to different houses. The buffallo is housed in one of these stalls, and it is up a flight of stairs. I take a look at it and try to get out, but cannot exit with my heavy bag. So I go back down, and decide to eat food. Im amnesiac at this point of time, not knowing where I came from or what I am doing. I pretend to be a 20 year old, and a 17 year old befriends me. He calls me "Bombay waale Bhaiyya". He invites me to share his table, and the food is served in this large communcal setting. By the time I finish two rotis, or the first course, everyone else has finished their entire lunch, and cleaned up also. I go to the kitchen to help with the cleanup, when Mintu's mother is also doing the dishes. I ask her if there is any dal left, she says yes, but it is reserved for someone. I then tell her that I am not really 20, and that I am actually 30. She said "yeah, if you did not confess soon, I would have thrown you out. I wanted to tell Mintu that his Bombay waale bhaiyya is actually something else." Then she tells me something like "when you first smoked, you felt like leaving it all behind and coming to some faraway place and keep smoking. I was like that too, and that is what I did."
I then go out and help Mintu with some homework. We form a club, as he thinks his bag matches the colour of my bag. I dont point out to him that my bag is light brown, while his is dark brown.

Dream Diary food edition

Having this recurring dream, where I keep eating everything and am perpetually hungry. Have woken up, grabbed a bite to eat, relished how real the food tastes in meatspace, then gone back to sleep and dreamt of eating more. I eated so much that my parents had to call in a cook with a tiffin to give me even more food. Also had a fight with them and dropped all the food on the floor in a tantrum. Donno what that is about, but now I am perpetually hungry.

Dream Diary ghetto adventures edition

Today I dreamed that I was hanging out with a really ghetto group of friends.

One of them is a gang leader, who is involved in all sorts of underground activities. We operate in Marine Drive in Mumbai, and are really brash and destructive. We steal or take whatever we want from vendors who take protection money. Even when some vendors offer to give us money, we laugh and take stuff, and eventually drive them out of business, just because we don't like them, and can fill the spot with a stooge. We drink and drive and sarcastically salute the cops, and the pedestrians have to jump out of the way or be taken to the hospital. We have this spot in Marine Drive where we all hang out, smoke chillum, drink up, and harass everyone who passes by. It is pretty bad. Like this one time we see a dog walker with 7 dogs, we chat up the guy like he is one of ours, and pet the dogs. One of them bits the top guy who gets too aggressive and friendly. So we throw all the dogs into the sea.
At some point there is a construction ditch, across which a thin plankway is built, and instead of going from the front of the museum, I go from the back so that I can have a smoke. I call for a chai, which is delivered by a kid. I stub out the cigarette but in a place where everyone else has, but take it out from there and throw it properly in the dustbin. The guy selling the chai and ciggies thinks I wants drugs and sends some over. I take them. On the way across the plank, two office going people in suits start coming down, just as I am going out. I push them in the ditch, splashing them in the mud and water, and go on my way.
I am friends with the top guy, but lowest in the hierarchy, and always being made fun of. I have not done anything illegal myself, but just hang around the gang because they are my friends. We decide to go to a movie in van one day. There are five seats, and luggage area on the back which is loaded. I am in the front seat with the driver guy, and we arrive at a spot on the Marine Drive. There are five other guys, including the top guy. People start filling in. Chain/mobile snatcher and top guy get in the back at first, but I get down simultaneously and offer my seat to the top guy. Top guy gets into front with little kid/kaccha limbu. I get in the back with dumb guy, mobile snatcher, bike stealer, and debt collector. The tempo screeches out of the way, and a pair of girls have to jump aside. Their fright at the near miss excites us. Dumb guy starts giving gyaan about how not to keep mobile phone in pocket, as the batteries are likely to explode. I tell him its a problem with only the cheap Chinese phones.
The tempo guy still has a bunch of CDs and DVDs in the back. We take out a stack and start going through them. Dumb guy gets the idea of playing music and hands over a CD to the driver guy. I tell him "abbe dhakkan, dekh toh le ki blank hai ki nahi". He asks "kaisa malum padta bhai?". I say "yeh dekh, likha hai ispe". Check if it is blank, how do you know?, and look, it is written on top. Then I ask the tempo guy, "why have you labelled the CD as blank?" Tempo guy says "because I come to know which ones not to put in." Everyone starts laughing, and then takes out all the CDs to see the other funny labels. We laugh at "nice songs" "sooongs" "bajao" "unplugged mix" and "90s nostalgia". Suddenly we stop laughing and start playing 90s nostalgia.
I am thinking why I am here with these guys and what I will do. I imagine a scenario where the top guy kills someone, and the police asks me what I was doing there. I make up my mind that if the top guy kills anyone in front of me, Im going straight to the police and telling them all the details. I decide to become a snitch, and feel bad about it, but good about it at the same time. 
I secretly steal a few CDs and hide them in my jacket. We are blasting some song about stalking a girl, when we come across the DGP in a yellow shirt, brown belt and grey pants. He promises that he is out for our blood. Top guy stares him down. DGP does a little threatening dance and says be on your way or I will issue shoot at sight orders on you and all your people. Up ahead, we see a body on the floor. He is an old anglo Indian guy who was poor, but kind and friendly to everyone. He used to drink a lot, and cheated everyone he met. He could sell a stolen phone to a guy, and then steal it back from him before the guy reached home. If you needed anything though, like a weapon or something, it was this guy who could give it to you. He is now dead, and we are all sad. The cops have shot him. I see a ghost as a remembrance of the guy, who signs a song about how temporary happiness is and how lasting sadness is.
We are angry, and seething, but we really want to watch the movie. The movie is at the bombay stock exchange, really run down theatre under a tall but derelict building. There is a menacing bull statue out in the front. There is a big rush. People have climbed up the barriers. Everyone has little blue slips that are the tickets, but we have a big stack of them ourselves. It does not even belong to this movie, and the show timings were off. We just got a big batch old discareded tickets. We promptly fan out and start selling them. The gates open, everyone rushes in, and then the inner door closes. Half the people cannot see the movie, and hang out outside for the next show. I am one of them, as I am hurt and too slow to go up the barricade. People think Im holding everyone up, but I just smile at them as half the crowd comes back out from the closed inner door. One of the guys looking at me says "oh he knew that we were not getting in".
Im outside, having a cig, when a freaking huge bull out of nowhere starts kicking and goes wild. It throws one guy out with his hind feet, and goes after a short guy, who runs around but gets gored.Then it comes for me. I lead it up to the BSE bull and duck under, but it jumps over. I snake through the parked bikes and drop a Royal Enfield on it. The bull skids and falls with a big thud. But, it starts getting up. I am scanning for an escape route. I see my way out, a wheelbarrow full of cement. I run towards it with the intention of escaping, and wake up.

The Sacrifice

Finished The Sacrifice on Warframe just as soon as the new cinematic quest dropped.
Well, it was short, not too difficult, but a little intense in terms of lore. Space Mom is now a space momster. She rescued Ballas instead of the other way around. Sentient and Orokin having a relationship? lulsk

What followed was something that is not likely to ever repeat itself. Everyone got the Umbra Excalibur at more or less the same time, completely maxed out. Then the void trader Baro Ki'Teer arrived. This meant party time! Everyone got their Umbra Excals to the relay and started dancing! It was freaking epic. 

No rains :(

Like its Monsoon, and supposed to be raining, but have not seen any heavy spell so far, just a few drizzles here and there. Every day the watchman at my office building laughs at me for carrying an umbrella, saying why have you got the umbrella, it is not raining. One day I got umbrella and raincoat. He nodded appreciatively and said it will surely rain today. It didn't. Now he asks me when it will rain, and I just say I donno.

Every. Single. Day.

Fun times at Nagaon beach

 So we went to this homestay for the weekend. It was a nice house. I got to sleep in a nice bed in a nook, with windows all around and a tv in front of me. We played a board game - The Game of Life. The game was still fun. I read some Ogilvy book at the pool while the others used the pool. Downed an entire bottle of Bacardi over the weekend, which kind of scandalized the caretaker. 

Fun times. 

The Ghost of Matter

So some of my friends have started a forum to improve our writing skills. This is the first month's prompt. "There was light, but then there was nothing." This is my entry.

The Ghost of Matter

I have just been born again. Memories of a previous life, that had lasted forever, is fading fast. I am already forgetting my consociate. We came together when the universe was young and strange, before even the stars were born. I had formed an unbreakable bond with my feisty companion of ages. For billions of years, we traversed unmolested through stellar nurseries and their planetary progeny. The stories I can tell of these times are many and wonderful, but at the end of that long journey, we ended in a glass trap. We were a perfect coupling, waiting for the eventual disintegration of our prison, with the patience that only the most ancient and immortal entities in the universe can muster. Destiny, had other plans for us. Unceremoniously, we were thrown out of our house of glass. Unseen energies ripped us apart in different directions. I did not think that such a thing was possible. I anticipated my brokenness, a state of utter destituteness. That did not, however happen. The sudden divorce invigorated and charged me. I am bereft of my skittish partner, but somehow I find myself excited. I am moving fast, faster than I have ever gone, pulled from ahead and pushed from the back by the same energies that tore us apart.
It is a strange environment I find myself in. The air here is rare, rarer even than the gulfs between the stars. It is also extremely cold. I am being filled with unnatural energies. Only once, have I experienced something like this before. A star that had eaten itself, had collapsed into a hole in the spacetime continuum. It was an evil thing, a mouth all around, and an invisible and insatiable stomach. Just outside the reach of its jaws, was a stream of accelerating plasma and gas. In a singular case of cosmological synchronicity, there were two galaxies colliding in the vicinity. Their own clouds of gas and dust collided, sending shock waves through space. Matter itself broke down and died when the jet from the black hole interacted with the colliding gas clouds. It was only here, temporarily stuck in the jet stream, that I had ever experienced anything like what is happening to me now. My consort had survived even that, and so I cannot imagine what gargantuan forces are at play here.
I am still moving ahead at tremendous velocities. I am sensing something about the environment around me. When you have lived for as long as I have, you can feel your way through vacuum as well. I am feeling through tiny traces in the rarified space itself, sensing paths where me or others like me have passed through before me. There are also the periodic energy boosts. I think it is a good idea to start timing the regular stimulations.
I have a suspicion that I have been released from one prison, only to be entrapped in another. This appears to be of sinister design, a spiral of death. Attoseconds are turning into femtoseconds. There is a stretch where I can sense another energy source firing up, and there is nothing left from me to strip off.
How it envelops me. Despite my tremendous velocity, it is deflecting me. Now I am in another circular trap. The timing of the boosts have changed. I sense I am going around in larger circles, instead of a spiral. I am still getting supplemented with more energy. There is a stretch, where the traces branch off, and I have a suspicion that I will soon be treading this unknown road.
My suspicions have come true. In a few nanoseconds, I am made to navigate through a winding, twisted path. Now I am back to going around an even bigger merry-go-round. I suspect some foul form of sorcery at play, as I do not know of any natural forces that can possibly do this. The energy levels in me are so great, that I am almost travelling at the speed of light, even though I am infinitely heavier than the tiny sparks that make up light. Now there is a new kind of force appearing, neither pushing me from behind, nor pulling me from ahead. It is pushing me down on me, uniformly, from all sides. Again, I sense a field starting up. I do not know whether it will rip me apart, divert me to another track, or make me go even faster. The fundamental laws of physics would be broken if I speed up any further.
The gate releases. There is another bendy path, far longer than the previous one. Now I am making the largest circuit. There are many energy sources peppered about, of unknown purposes. It is so cold and empty here, but there are still remnants. Remnants of the most horrible kind. I sense the decayed and dead bodies of my cousins all around me. I have a bad feeling about this. Apart from the black holes themselves, there is no known force in the universe that can possibly destroy us.
Impossibly, I am going even faster. I have timed the gate passing me by 11,245 times a second. It feels like I have been here forever, although it could be at most twenty minutes. Some solace! I find more of my kind with me. We were all separated from our companions. Most are beings from the early cosmological era, from my time. We are being squeezed together. In all the circuits, there seems to be a set of energy sources positioned in the opposite direction. It seems like whatever is happening to us in this tunnel, is happening to another set in another tunnel. I do not yet comprehend the purpose of this experiment.
The shutters have opened. I understand now. Annihilation. Brothers are forced to fight brothers. The tunnel in the opposite direction is now merged with ours. We will smash into each other, and be destroyed. What will be left, even I cannot guess. I can see it coming now, my death. A future made up of nothingness. It begins with light, the light in the middle of a hideous tunnel that folds in on itself.

Finished all quests in Warframe

After 4511 hours of playing, out of which 3000 odd hours must be just loafing around and hanging out, finally finished all the quests in Warframe.

 Ballas wears a silver lungi and looks a bit like Krishna

Harrow :(

Moby Dick: Excerpts

The first use of the term "broad band" 

“From the ship's bows, nearly all the seamen now hung inactive; hammers, bits of plank, lances, and harpoons, mechanically retained in their hands, just as they had darted from their various employments; all their enchanted eyes intent upon the whale, which from side to side strangely vibrating his predestinating head, sent a broad band of overspreading semicircular foam before him as he rushed.”

On using hard and obscure words

“Fain am I to stagger to this emprise under the weightiest words of the dictionary.”

“But what is a GAM? You might wear out your index-finger running up and down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word. Dr. Johnson never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster's ark does not hold it. Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years been in constant use among some fifteen thousand true born Yankees”

Vishnu from the "Shaster" 

  “Now, by all odds, the most ancient extant portrait anyways purporting to be the whale's, is to be found in the famous cavern-pagoda of Elephanta, in India. The Brahmins maintain that in the almost endless sculptures of that immemorial pagoda, all the trades and pursuits, every conceivable avocation of man, were prefigured ages before any of them actually came into being. No wonder then, that in some sort our noble profession of whaling should have been there shadowed forth. The Hindoo whale referred to, occurs in a separate department of the wall, depicting the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of leviathan, learnedly known as the Matse Avatar.”

“When Brahma, or the God of Gods, saith the Shaster, resolved to recreate the world after one of its periodical dissolutions, he gave birth to Vishnoo, to preside over the work; but the Vedas, or mystical books, whose perusal would seem to have been indispensable to Vishnoo before beginning the creation, and which therefore must have contained something in the shape of practical hints to young architects, these Vedas were lying at the bottom of the waters; so Vishnoo became incarnate in a whale, and sounding down in him to the uttermost depths, rescued the sacred volumes.”

What I learnt from reading Moby Dick

A lot. I learned a lot of obscure American slang words that I am never likely to use.

evinced: reveal the presence of (a quality or feeling); indicate.

aught: anything at all.

exulting: show or feel triumphant elation or jubilation.

bruited: spread (a report or rumour) widely.

aforethought: previously in mind : premeditated, deliberate. with malice

monomaniac: In 19th-century psychiatry, monomania (from Greek monos, one, and mania, meaning "madness" or "frenzy") was a form of partial insanity conceived as single pathological preoccupation in an otherwise sound mind.

lees: the most worthless part or parts of something.

corporal: relating to the human body.

laceration: a deep cut or tear in skin or flesh.

feline: relating to or affecting cats or other members of the cat family.

profundities: great depth of insight or knowledge.

caryatid: a stone carving of a draped female figure, used as a pillar to support the entablature of a Greek or Greek-style building.

entablatures: the upper part of a classical building supported by columns or a colonnade, comprising the architrave, frieze, and cornice.

enfeebled: make weak or feeble.

invunerable: impossible to harm or damage.

japonicas: an Asian shrub of the rose family, with bright red flowers followed by round white, green, or yellow edible fruits.

circumambient: surrounding

backwoodsman: an inhabitant of backwoods, especially one regarded as uncouth or backward.

legerdemain: deception; trickery.

phrensies: frenzies

remembrance: the action of remembering something.

charnel-house: a place associated with violent death.

cordon: prevent access to or from an area or building by surrounding it with police or other guards.

taffrail: a rail round a ship's stern.

peremptorily: putting an end to or precluding a right of action, debate, or delay; specifically : not providing an opportunity to show cause why one should not comply. a peremptory mandamus.

impetuously: of, relating to, or characterized by sudden or rash action, emotion, etc.; impulsive: an impetuous decision; an impetuous person. 2. having great impetus; moving with great force; violent: the impetuous winds.

jollity: lively and cheerful activity or celebration.

perfidious: deceitful and untrustworthy.

subaltern: of lower status.

cannikin: a small can; a wooden bucket

archiepiscopacy:  the form of episcopacy in which the chief power is in the hands of archbishops

prodromus: A prodromus ('forerunner' or 'precursor') aka prodrome is a term used in the natural sciences to describe a preliminary publication intended as the basis for a later, more comprehensive work. It is also a medical term used for a premonitory symptom, that is, a symptom indicating the onset of a disease.

skrimshander: Native peoples of Alaska and Canada have carved ivory for centuries, but when "scrimshaw" is used in modern English, it is most often associated with 18th- and 19th-century whalers of the ilk Herman Melville described as "examining ... divers specimens of skrimshander" in Moby Dick

galliot: a single-masted Dutch cargo boat or fishing vessel.

brit: Massive colonies of small crustaceans

piggin: a small wooden pail with one stave extended upward as a handle.

bailer: bailer (plural bailers) one who bails or lades. a utensil, as a bucket or cup, used in bailing; a machine for bailing water out of a pit.

windlass:  lifting device consisting of a horizontal cylinder turned by a crank on which a cable or rope winds

billows: a large undulating mass of something, typically cloud, smoke, or steam.

hyperborean: one of a people that the ancient Greeks believed lived in a warm and sunny land north of the source of the north wind

poniards: a small, slim dagger.

scaramouch: a stock character in commedia dell'arte depicted as a boastful coward

interregnum: the time between two reigns, governments

calomel and jalap: Laxative

quoin: a wedge or expanding mechanical device used for locking a letterpress forme into a chase.

doxology: a liturgical formula of praise to God.

acerbities: A lemon in your mouth, a mean-spirited neighbor, a roomful of sarcastic people: these are examples of acerbity, a type of harsh bitterness that can leave you stunned. The Latin word acerbus means “sour-tasting,” and that is acerbity in a nutshell: sour.

slobgollion: A sperm whaleman's term, roughly equivalent to the right whaleman's "gurry" which, according to Herman Melville, "designates the dark, glutinous substance which is scraped off the back of the Greenland or Right Whale, and much of which covers the decks of those inferior souls who hunt that ignoble Leviathan."(Melville 323) Derivation for this term likely originates with the word "slobgollion" which is, according to Melville's Moby Dick, "an appellation original with the whaleman, and even so is the nature of the substance. It is an ineffably oozy, stringy affair, most frequently found in the tubs of sperm, after a prolonged squeezing, and subsequent decanting. I hold it to be the wondrously thin, ruptured Membranes of the case, coalescing."

squilgee: A  blade of leather or rubber set on a handle and used for spreading, pushing, or wiping liquid material on, across, or off a surface (such as a window); also : a smaller similar device or a small rubber roller with handle used by a photographer or lithographer.

recondite: (of a subject or knowledge) little known; abstruse.

metempsychosis: the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species.

grandiloquent: pompous or extravagant in language, style, or manner, especially in a way that is intended to impress.

chirography: handwriting, especially as distinct from typography.

antichronical: Deviating from the proper order of time.

antemosaic: Before the time of Moses

ramifying: form branches or offshoots; branch out.

countersinkers: a worker that countersinks drilled holes.

sinecures: a position requiring little or no work but giving the holder status or financial benefit.

compendious: containing or presenting the essential facts of something in a comprehensive but concise way.

averred: state or assert to be the case.

orisons: a prayer.

imprecate: utter (a curse) or invoke (evil) against someone or something.

epaulets: an ornamental shoulder piece on an item of clothing, especially on the coat or jacket of a military uniform.

transom: the flat surface forming the stern of a boat.

mizen: a sail on the mizzenmast of a ship, in particular the lowest sail on the mizzenmast of a square-rigged sailing ship.

subtile: subtle, elusive; cunning, crafty; sagacious, discerning

halyards: a rope used for raising and lowering a sail, yard, or flag on a sailing ship.

monadnock: an isolated hill or ridge or erosion-resistant rock rising above a peneplain.

foreknew: be aware of (an event) before it happens.

brushwood: undergrowth, twigs, and small branches.

bethinking: come to think.

Ixion: In Greek mythology, Ixion (/ɪkˈsaɪ.ən/ ik-SY-ən; Greek: Ἰξίων, gen.: Ἰξίωνος) was king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly, and a son of Ares, or Leonteus, or Antion and Perimele, or the notorious evildoer Phlegyas, whose name connotes "fiery".

comber: a long curling sea wave.

An inordinate proportion of the words were unlikely negations of more common words.

misdoubt: have doubts about the truth, reality, or existence of.

unensanguined: Not bloodied

unsullied: not spoiled or made impure.

unwonted: unaccustomed or unusual.

unexampled: having no precedent or parallel.

unintelligent: having or showing a low level of intelligence.

unlimbed: Amputee

ungodly: irreligious or immoral.

immitigable: unable to be made less severe or serious.

unaided: needing or having no assistance; without help.

unceasingly: without stopping

unrelieved: lacking variation or change; monotonous.

unsubduable: impossible to subdue

ungraduated: not graduated.

unsurrendered: early 15c., legalese, "a giving up" (of an estate, land grant, interest in property, etc.), from Anglo-French surrendre infinitive used as a noun, from Old French surrendre "give up, deliver over" (see surrender (v.)).

uncracked: Not cracked

incommoding: inconvenience (someone).

disinterred: Dig up something that has been buried, especially a corpse. 

Best Birthday Gift Evar

So my friend i666 gave me a proto-excalibur noggle for my Birthday. This is awesome :D

Spotting a hyena

Took a road trip with a bunch of friends to Amruteshwar, a temple about 20 km ahead of Bhandardhara and at the base of Ratangad. We were able to find food in the night even at 10:30 and the people at Hotel Rujuta even picked out a good camping spot for us. In the morning, after getting Darshan at the temple, we decided to head back. The people in the hotel suggested that we drive around Bhandardhara, and visit Sandhan Valley before heading towards Thane. We felt that it was a good idea.

I knew the way to the valley so was walking ahead, with one friend close behind. The two others were lagging. On the outskirts of the village, much before the start of the valley, a freaking hyena walked out of the forest. At first I could not believe what I was seeing, it took me a couple of seconds to understand it was a hyena.

It was larger than a leopard, with a disproportionately large head. It had a horse like mane all down its back, kind of like a full body Mohawk. My friend came to where I was standing and pointed out the hyena to him. He instantly shouted out to the others "come quickly, there is a hyena here!". The hyena looked at us, and then gracefully bounded off.

When we came back I asked a tapri guy if there were hyenas in the forest. He said “kai?”. I said dog like spotted animal the size of a bloody donkey. He replied: “ho, hai na.”

FAQ

Q: Did you take a photograph?
A: Nope, it happened too fast. Was too much in awe for the duration of the encounter, and even thought of capturing an image after it had disappeared.

Q: What other animals are there?
A: Deer, wolves, leopards and foxes

Q: How come the villagers don't know what to call it?
A: They are not native to the region, they were introduced by forest officers.

Q: Do they trouble humans?
A: Not really, but 15 chicken have disappeared so far.

Q: What time was it seen?
A: About 11:30ish, which is late in the day.

Q: Was it spotted?
A: No, it was striped.

Q: Why does not anyone laugh at hyena jokes?
A: Only hyenas laugh at hyena jokes

Camping at Bhandardhara

Behind Amruteshwar Mandir. Really cool spot. That is not fog in the background, that is actually a fire.

What I learnt from reading the Manusmriti

Okay, this is not about what you probably think it is about.

Usury
Noun: The action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest.

Dyspepsia
Noun: Indigestion

Victual
Noun: Food or provisions

Coparcener
Noun: A person who shares equally with others in the inheritance of an undivided estate or in the rights to it (in the UK now as equitable interests).

Unlcoven
Adjective: (Animal) without hoofs

Ordure
Noun: Excrement; dung.

Primogeniture
Noun: The state of being the firstborn child.

Ichneumon
Noun: A slender parasitic wasp with long antennae, which deposits its eggs in, on, or near the larvae of other insects.

Virasana

Hero Pose. Virasana is a basic seated and starting asana for several forward and backwards bends and certain twists. Virasana may also be used as an alternative to other seated asanas such as the padmasana (lotus pose).

Bus goes over divider

So I was just coming home from work, when this bus full of maniacs parked itself on a divider. Imagine going at such a speed, in reverse, perpendicular to the direction of the road. The rickshaw driver, me and an old uncle on a scooter all had a narrow escape. The idiots seemed to be drunk, and a noob seemed to be learning. In any case, it was terribly irresponsible. Even after it got stuck on the divider, the freaks thought that it makes sense to push the pedal to the metal, and somehow the tyres spinning in mid air would allow them to get the bus off. When that did not happen, they tried to push it, to no avail. A crowd had gathered by then, and the fools got scared, tried to disperse them, and then ran away themselves.

What happens in Avengers: Infinity War

Stuff in blue is speculation

Knowhere

1. Gamora explains the plans of Thanos to ???(perhaps the guardians)
2. Flashback scene shows Thanos collecting a young Gamora
3. The Guardians head to some place dangerous on the Milano
4. The Guardians are on a planet doing ??? (maybe trying to take the reality stone from the Collector for safekeeping)
5. The Guardians come across Thanos or one of the Black Order questioning The Collector about the reality stone
6. The Collector says that he has sold it
7. Drax attacks whoever is questioning The Collector, but survives the encounter

Asguardian escape ship

1. Thanos captures Thor and Loki after the end of Ragnarok, and kills off a ton of Asgardians. Banner escapes on the Quinjet. 
2. Thanos tortures Thor while the The Black Order holds Loki
3. Loki offers the tesseract to Thanos
4. This is probably an effort to save Thor. Thanos may kill Loki immediately, while abandoning Thor on his ship. This is Kevin Feige saying something "really bad" will happen in the first five minutes of Infinity War. 
5. Thanos crushes the Tesseract
6. Thanos places the space stone in the infinity gauntlet
7. Thanos then heads to Xandar.
8. This is when the Guardians probably come across Thor, while tracking down the space stone.
9. Thanos presumably destroys the entire ship. 
10. Thor gets thrown out into space, and lands on the Milano.
11. The Guardians take Thor into the Milano
12. Thor meets the Guardians

New York

1. Banner crashes into 177A Bleecker Street
2. Strange explains the infinity stones to Stark, and what Thanos is out to do
3. A portal appears over NY
4. Spiderman's spider sense gets triggered
5. Spiderman looks at a portal opening up over NYC
6. Spiderman leaps out of a school bus to investigate the portal
7. Wong, Strange, Banner and Thor look at at a disturbance outside Bleecker Street
8. Stark goes to see why people are running helter skelter
9. Strange, Banner, Stark and Wong look at same portal
10. Iron Man flies towards a spaceship on Earth using the new Bleeding Edge suit
11. Strange activates the Eye of Agammoto
12. This is the "portal ship" that probably takes Strange, Spiderman and Iron Man to the orange planet. 
13. Banner heads out to warn Vision and save the Mind stone. 
14. Banner, Widow and War Machine look up ??? Quinjet to take them to Wakanda

Xandar

1. Thanos destroys a bunch of Nova Corps ships, and collects the power stone.
2. Peter meets Strange
3. Thanos arrives on Xandar
4. Star Lord, Stark, Drax and Spoderman make plans
5. Spiderman jumps through destruction
6. Strange and Star Lord fight together
7. Thanos jumps towards ??? (maybe spiderman)
8. Thanos Pins Spiderman to the ground
9. Thanos already has the power stone and the space stone when taking on Stark
10. Thanos tells Iron Man "I hope they remember you"
11. Thanos lobs a freaking moon at the Avengers
12. Maw tortures Strange

Wakanda

1. Banner, War Machine, Vision, Witch, Widow and Cap all end in Wakanda to safeguard the Mind stone
2. Black Panther welcomes Team Cap to Wakanda
3. Shuri looks at a hologram of Vision
4. Black Panther orders to put up the defences of Wakanda, as well as a shield for Cap
5. Wakanda is the most heavily guarded place on planet Earth, which is why Vision is being kept there
6. Vision appears in human form, maybe Witch is giving him a vision
7. Vision says "we are out of time"
8. War in Wakanda, with the outriders taking on Team Cap
9. White Wolf fights with Team Cap
10. Banner and Widow smile on the Wakandan battlefield
11. Thanos goes toe to toe or hand to hand with Cap, wearing the power stone and the infinity stone on his gauntlet
12. Massive alien ships land on Wakanda
13. Proxima midnight lobs her spear at ???(maybe Cap), who catches it
14. Witch is relieved by something, in the same scene as (?Cap) and Proxima Midnight
15. Black Widow stabs someone, probably in the same scene as (?Cap), Proxima Midnight and Witch
16. Corvus Glaive attempts to take the Mind stone from Vision. It is unknown if he succeeds. 

Nidavellir

1. Groot, Rocket, and Thor are on a ship with a circular window like the Cupola on board the ISS.
2. Thor looks over a planet through the Cupola, probably Nidavellir. He needs a new weapon to take on Thanos.
3. Thor is in some huge device, probably forging a new weapon
4. Groot and Rocket help Thor forge the Jarnbjorn or Stormbreaker

Found in mint condition

It is some brand called Unisef. From Japan, in the 80s. Love the headphones.