Bharat Space Conclave 2025

 I am right now typing during the coffee break of Bharat Space Conclave to appear smart. Im in a squished up corner seat. Pallava Bagla actually came in and grabbed a seat next to mine, but I lost it when I stepped outside to blow my nose. The pollution in Delhi is really bad. 

The seats here at the FCCI conference room are very low in comparison to the tables. Typing at such a height is pretty uncomfortable and I have actually never done that before. The air conditioning is also particularly cold, and the lights are frizzling with some krr krr noise continuously, which is very irritating if you pay attention to it. 

Coming here was a pain. I picked a priority booking. One Uber driver picked the ride, waited a long time, then started driving off elsewhere only. The second guy made me wait and cancelled just as he was crossing the signal to reach me. The third driver finally picked me up, and got me to the venue late, but I did not miss much. 

They served bonda and samosa with chutney, as well as cucumber and tomato sandwiches with cheese for breakfast. The bondas were in tremendous demand and got over before I even got to them, leaving me with only the samosas. Considering how racist North Indians are, they sure do love South Indian food. The mint chutney was really delicious. If there is one thing that these industries and government type facilities really figure out, it is how to make good, healthy food. Eating is definitely a priority for these guys, you can tell from their tummies. I am sure lunch is going to be awesome. 

The krr krr noise is fading in sputters. 

I really wanna have a smoke, but there is no smoking zone nearby, the next talk is already ten minutes late and I do not wanna go all the way outside the building. 

The Townscapes of Dreams

After documenting dreams for over 10 years, I am now convinced that dreams have a semi-persistent geography that can be mapped. This geography overlaps with some locations that I know in the real world. And as I am writing this stuff out, I can vividly remember at least some of the locations. 

[1] Is the home of my childhood. In my dreams, this location still resembles the way it was over 20 years ago. There is no clubhouse, and no buildings around, all are surrounded by greenery. The rooms are larger in the dreams, but these dreams are fading. My house is actually on the other side from the house where most of my dreams take place in, which is actually a mirrored version of my house, and belongs to my neighbour. [2] Is my school, and again it is larger in my dreams, with a bigger main building. The fixtures on top resemble the Louvre Pyramids in my dreams. 

Now coming to 3 and 4, which are the sites of most of the dreams. 3 is Joggers Park, which is much more denser with vegetation, almost a forest area. There is a big depression in the middle, with multiple walkways and ponds. The park is much, much bigger in my dreams than in real life. As kids, we spent most of our vacations in this park, waking up early in the morning just to go there. There is a convoluted monkey bar, as well as a playground in a sunken area, which may be why I dream of a depression in the middle of the park, a connection I made right now. I enjoyed climbing and standing on the swings, and once got mildly hit by an uncle after I drove away their kid. I was a naughty kid. We used to take our toys and play in the park till breakfast, and then return after lunch for another long session. Looking west from the park are the Yeoor Hills, in the direction of the black arrow. In my dreams sometimes, I see leopards and big cats descending from these hills, which is visible behind the park, and actually behind the school as well. A lot of my dreams take place between [1] and [4].

[4] is the location of my new home, that I moved to in 2000, just before my high school graduation in 2003. The building is taller in my dreams, with another smaller building in front of my house, which really does not exist. There are more buildings in the complex in my dreams, arranged in a circle. The play area behind the building is also expanded with many additional facilities and a playground. My apartment in this building is really interesting, it has a marbled bathroom leading to a terraced balcony, with plenty of pots and even a small fountain and pool within the house. There are iridescent flowers in this indoor garden. Outside, the house has a balcony, with tiers of habitation below. 

The dream additions include enlargements, layering and complex and unlikely fixtures. This dream house is sometimes connected to a massive building that seems like it is under construction, with some poor people living in large pipes as well. This seems to be inspired from an under-construction building next to my office, where people are living by the way. 

Now, my new home in New Delhi is a terrifying place in my dreams. There are locked doors within my house that open up into other people's doors. I feel exposed in an environment that does not provide adequate privacy. There is a secret corridor at the end of my home that opens up into a row of doors. Each of the houses are labyrinthine and occupied by people who do not exist. The ground floor resembles my old-new home in Panchavati [4], with a playground and a complex beneath. There are additionally commercial layers in the lower floors in the Delhi version, which is truly a scary place. So scary that in the first two years, incidents of sleep paralysis was common. 

All this makes me convinced that dreams have a geography, that can be mapped to real world locations. 

Two weddings

 I just finished attending the weddings of two friends. One took place in Thane itself, where I was hoping to meet my old building friends, but only one of them was there. That one had great grammable locations, and lot of great food. It was held in Hiranandani One Park mostly, and the location has a long route that goes around the whole colony to reach the clubhouse, but there is also a short route from the gate to the right that goes directly to the Clubhouse. This one was fun because the food was great, and got to spend some time with old friends. 

Between these weddings, I met some old friends in Matunga, Thane itself and Chandivli. In all, I was just spending a lot of time with very good friends. I also met some old colleagues at the Yacht Club in Bandra, and got properly drunk on that occasion. 

For the other wedding, we drove down to Pune. This was a fun ride with a pit stop at the old Highway MacDonalds. The girl on the counter gave us complimentary cookies with our cold coffees and strawberry shakes. That drive was a lot of fun. We had booked an AirBnB in Baner of all places, which has turned out to be really happening now. I also checked out the new apartment my friend picked up which has a spectacular view of a construction site. I spent a good half an hour watching a pair of JCBs load up a bundle of metal rods onto a long trailer. 

The guy also had a racing wheel setup, as well as flight controller gear for Boeing and Airbus planes. The Airbus console was procured through a startup in China. That was a lot of fun too. We spoke about Indian Games, board games and for some reason, Ancient Apocalypse. 

The venue of the wedding was close to where the Expressway ends. It was on a river bank in the middle of some fields, an ideal location for the Groom and Bride who are both into organic farming and living in harmony with nature. Got to spend a good two days with friends, and it was a lot of fun. I had great, deep conversations with everyone, either about our personal lives, or ecology, or the relationship between humans and the natural world, and it filled me with hope that all my friends are conscious residents of the Earth. 

Now going back to Delhi and feeling like what I am doing with my life, living away from my friends. But I also like the independence, and even the anonymity of living in a city where no one asks you what you are doing, and you can make your own plans without having to listen to other friends. Anyway, speeding across the country right now, watching a far-side sunrise. The roads all over the country are great once you get out of Maharashtra. 

Bus journey from Mumbai to Delhi

The travel time between Mumbai and Delhi used to be over 30 hours, it has been reduced to around 22 hours, and a bus can make it around 27 hours now. The route is through Jaipur, Ajmer and Surat, with possibly a transfer or a seater to all of these. 

The problem is that the coordinators cannot give you a location to the exact place. They will say the name of some hotel on the other side of the road, or some dhabha that will be impossible to spot on Google Maps. It is a pain getting to the right pickup point if you don't know it already, and this is made doubly complex by the fact that the Delhi people do not know the local places in Mumbai at all. 

My bus got rerouted, which resulted in a lot of problems for passengers. The Uber fare from where you are to where the bus is can actually bridge the gap between a bus fare and an air ticket. Still, after all that it is totally worth it just to experience half of India rushing by. The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular, but unfortunately you have to wait till mid-day to see the Sun if you are on the wrong side of the Bus. 

Here again, the sleepers are designed in such a way that there are twin seats on the right side, and single seats on the left. This means that solo travellers are always better off on the left, unless you make a strange ass booking and share a bay with a random. 

05 Feb Filament Eruption

 

AR 3981

 

Underdark 43

We look around and find a stream, seeming to be magical hydraulics that goes towards the North. Tsui takes a bath while I cautiously check out the water. We set up camp for the night. Aracockra does flyaround and comes back. Tsui is already asleep. I will take a long rest. We walk west and eventually hit upon a path, and we follow it west for seven days. We come upon a little hut, that is adjoined to a decent-sized farm growing a bunch of winter vegetables with a little pond attached to the hut as well. It is about to be noontime, there is smoke coming out of the chimney, a little glow from the windows.

A very old woman walks up with a big basket of vegetables towards her hut. Old woman invites us to eat. The old woman tries to tidy up, makes us comfortable, heads over to kitchen and starts preparing some teas and hands it to everyone. Her name is Marine and her daughter Selene who married Eric and has an Inn in Manderdeesa. I have two great children. 

Then people talk to each other that I know nothing about. Im dreamwalking and see Tsui and 1319 contemplating the stars, Pyro loses appetite and tells 1319 we need to go to Koham. Jimbo gives Creek some cloak. We come to a town with a solitary guard at madredisa. Wascerly Wabbit. Its a large town, bigger than Kohan, but not so populated. Pyro trips and falls down, but no one knows what caused Pyro to trip.

We go to the Wascally Wabbit, Selene and Mark seems to have forgotten about their kids. We see footsteps headed towards the tavern from the gate, six go one way, one goes towards the tavern. We map out the entire sewer system. We go back to the Wascally Wabbit and do an FBI style investigation of whole place. We find a place to hole up in and go through a series of horrible dreams. We wake up with five people in the room with a drawing of a mysterious figure in a sun-lit land.