Was a struggle to get to office today

I had actually gotten ready by 09:30 hours IST, but only just reached office now, at nearly 12:00 hours IST. The problem was that my phone had not juiced up with the Sharge charger, because the contact point is a bit finicky. As I was picking up smokes at the tapri, the phone died entirely. Had to return the smokes, come back home, and juice up my phone. Used this time to smoke one. Then when the battery charged up to around 15 per cent, by which time it was 10:15 hours IST, I left my home, purchased the smokes again, and booked the cab. 

There was an insane buildup of vehicles at a traffic light at a T-point close to where I stay. There was a complete logjam with vehicles unable to move in any directions, and more vehicles were coming in from behind. My cab took almost half an hour to reach me, but fortunately had taken me back home from office a couple of times and was sure that I would not cancel. The cab only reached by by 10:55 hours IST. Then I reached office, grabbed a tea, and began work now. 

In about 1/2 an hour, a cab is coming to pick me up for an event in Chhatarpur. Going there and coming back will take upwards of three hours. I am not sure if I will come back. The plan was to get here early, belt out my quota of stories, grab lunch and then leave for the day. That looks like it is not happening. So I will see what to do now. 

About a really long day

 I was going to call this about a really long today, but the day was so long that it stretched out over two days! So I am going to do this in chronological order. 

06 Feb 2026 01:00 hours IST

I am trying to sleep but unable to do so. I know I need to wake up early in the morning. Instead, I am elbow deep in reading up on the Lyman Alpha Forest, which is a series of spectral absorption lines caused by interstellar clouds of pristine hydrogen gas, that appears as a forest because of the expansion of the universe. Confusingly, the Lyman Alpha Forest refers to not just the spectral lines, but also the tenuous web of neutral hydrogen in intergalactic space that permeated the universe in its infancy. Every time I use the word universe, I am acutely aware that we have no way of knowing or defining what it is, and if it is in fact, a universe. There will be stars for trillions of years, but in a few billion years anything other than the local group would have faded out beyond the horizon of our observational capabilities. Cosmology of a science cannot exist for any new species that emerge. Humans will have to rely on the observations of today to conduct studies trillions of years into the future, if we survive. To those future humans, the universe would be as our scientists imagined it a century ago, without galaxies, no oases of stars, just a fairly homogenous continuum. The universe would be a galaxy. At some point, I must have drifted off to sleep. 

06 Feb 2025 05:30 hours IST 

I wake up. Grab a brush and put a little make up. Go down to the local shop that opens at 05:30 hours IST, operated by the old man named Chaurasia and presumably his kids. He has big glasses. Takes any notes, no matter how torn or busted. Very kind and friendly guy. Reminds me of the old aunty below Ghansoli. Her husband used to operate the shop too, also very old. Died suddenly. Chaurasia has a few decades in him yet. But yeah, mortality has a strange habit of suddenly staring you in the face. 

Anyway, got a nice 50 Rs bottle of coke and smoked up a J, but by then it was 06:25 hours IST, so I abandoned a half smoke J and ran out to grab a cab. 

O6:31 hours IST

I catch the Uber and reach the airport at 7:01 hours IST. Uber continues to act up, thinking I am in Ghatkopar or Kurla still. Anyway, ended up in Delhi Airport, T3, Air India flight to Mumbai. Rehan from IGN met me at the queue outside. I got in first, and he took forever to clear the first security barrier for some reason. I waited a bit, got impatient, and decided to go into security check. I forgot my wallet, keys and hoodie on my person, had to go back and remove all of that again. Then got through, and had a smoke at the smoking lounge, where that push button machine just failed to light my fire. Dumb contraption. 

10:50 hours IST

It was soon time to board, and the flight lifted off at 08:35 hours IST from Delhi, and landed on time at 10:50 hours IST in Mumbai. I was seated way at the back, got boarded first and deboarded last. It was literally the last row, which I am never taking again because I heard everything while three people pooped. I was scared water would leak out onto my bag, which was beneath my seat. Oh, I had packed light, as usual, no carry-on, and the bag was a tiny one too! Rehan, as usual, had carried his camera and tripod as well. Both Delhi guys next to me as usual had zero consideration for the guy in the middle seat. They were all elbows and knees. The food was good, methi-mirch paratha with paneer bhurji, bun and pav and strawberry yoghurt. Which they had given some cashew-badams! The guy on the left when to sleep. Both had their arms and legs spread out, like Vitruvian Men with aircraft-induced arthrogryposis. I read the magazine, the quality of airline magazines are really great, but pity they do only one a month! So if you fly twice in a month, you have to read the same stuff, also on the return flights lol. Now as I was walking to the exit, I saw four other journalists from Delhi apart from Rehan, including someone called Mirchi, and this guy from Times Now, that I really need to find out the name of, because he also writes for Digit. 

Rehan only knew Mirchi. There was another guy wearing a Ubisoft bag, that I saw sitting close to my seat, and also on the flight back. I am sure he is also a journo but I didnt see him at the event lol. Wonder who that guy was, should have just talked to him. Anyway, I am jumping ahead. 

The event was at Lalit. The other people went to get some kind of a cab, I head out on a solo adventure! I walked around the airport, and found this tea seller who has occupied the same corner for IDK how many years, ever since I first remember the airport and smoked, so at least since 2008! He seems to be one of those timeless vampires types who never seems to age a day. Anyway, I had a nice leisurely smoke, walked to the Hotel, and guess what, these other people with their fancy cab for 750 metres only reached after my relaxing detour. They insisted on doing a security check for some reason, all of them, in line, after I told them that the event was somewhere else entirely! Anyway, we are all creatures of habit I suppose, or people just like to do things by the book. 

I had checked out the location, so I helped them reach the place. There was vada pav and poha available. I immediately had some poha. One guy was sleeping on the desk. There was this waiting room where people were talking I spoke to Vaidy and an influencer from Hyderabad, Vimal Chintapatla. He has a great YouTube Channel, and did a lot of work on his own, starting in 2016 with How To videos. He focuses on laptops and audio gear now. Then I went out for another smoke. 

12:15 hours IST

My seat next to Rehan was occupied by none other than Rishi. Because of the prompting by Karan, I went up to him and said 6-7 IRL. That was one of the peak moments of the day. I knew this is brain rot. Then I met Sheldon! It was like a Firstpost reunion, because Rehan, Sheldon and Me met all together after a long time. Sheldon snapped a picture and sent it to Anirudh. So on one side there is the Firstpost reunion, but simultaneously, there is also the Digit reunion. Mithun apparently had some adventures with Sheldon in foreign lands. Soham, who is the Executive Director of Brand and Editorial Strategy at MySmartPrice was there, along with Satvik, an intern who joined Digit just as I was leaving. Then there was Swapnil Mathur, the PR manager at Nvidia who got us all together. So there was the Digit Team on one side with Mithun, Soham, Satvik, the guy from Times Now and me, and on other side there was the Firstpost team with Sheldon, Rehan and me. I just realised that I was the bridge between two worlds.  

Image Credit: Sheldon! 

Apparently the Digit office in both New Delhi and Mumbai have been consolidated. The Ghansoli office has now moved to BKC. The Sector 2 office in Noida has now moved to Film City. Im jumping a bit ahead though. Anyway, one of the journos there was from Times Now who also publishes in Digit, it is a strange new world after the Times takeover.

12:30 hours IST

I signed an embargo. That is the reason why I am being extra careful and putting this up after the Embargo time, even though this post has nothing to do with the event. I signed two embargoes actually. Anyway, this super secret event took place, which was the Indian launch of the Nvidia cloud gaming platform, GeForce now. I quickly played some games, checked it out on a tablet, a thin-and-light laptop, and a thin-and-light laptop with Loonix, then said my goodbyes. I was going to have lunch at home, not at a five star hotel!

14:08 hours IST

I catch the cab home. Exhausted a bit, so nod off to sleep. It takes a little more than an hour to reach. I'm seeing more metro construction. Majiwada is a bigger clusterfuck than before. My mom is surprised. My dad is too, but he goes back to sleep. I have a luxurious hot water bath. There is no geyser in Delhi, the Landlord is scared of water and electricity in the same room, despite my flat being a barsatiya, with the water essentially seeping through the wires all the time. My old cosmetics are still there, so I finish a facewash and a body scrub! Me and my dad then go to the Audumbar house and return all my stuff that was stashed for the renovation. I deposit them in the interior of my bed, hopefully safely. My mom makes food, its potato sabji with very little capsicum and carrot, and saaru. Easily the best meal in the year, which includes last. I have it with lots of ghee. Then I help my parents with some Amazon support ticket problem. I have to explain to them that kindness, politeness, and encouragement are all useless here, not everything works through emails, and that it is best to be clear and communicate the facts without getting emotional in such cases. Anyway, too soon, it was time to leave. 

18:09 hours IST

I leave for Delhi. Nod off on this ride as well. IT takes quite a while, nearly two hours! I reach the airport just a bit before 8:00. Someone jumps ahead of me because she is getting late. I patiently wait my turn. The security guy was not satisfied with my driving license. When I showed him my Press card, he asked if it was the south wala TV9. I said yes, that very one. I dropped my PAN card, driving license and press card in all the hustle bustle, but picked them out and went on my hurried way. I had to throw away a cigarette I had gotten at the Skyscanner event, as well as a lighter that I purchased outside Lalit for 25 bucks. The lady either was a smart upseller or only had the jet flame lighter. Anyway, this time I correctly shed everything at security check, and at 8:15 I am at the gate! 

The boarding had started, and I was on the last section. It was a fancy new wide-body Airbus A350-900 plane with a really cool in-flight entertainment system. It had movies, audio shows for entertaining kids without screen time, music, a map view with a pterosaur showing the flight, a map view for adults showing top and follow views, as well as contextual info such as air and ground speed, and elevation, casual games such as Poker and Angry Birds, and my favourite which were live views from cameras mounted on the base and top of the plane. Unfortunately, the optical low-res cameras did not capture much light in the night. 

I was enamoured by the in-flight entertainment system, but someone was watching something smutty, someone was watching Pokemon (a grown adult male), someone was on meditation music, someone else was watching a reality show type thing, and my neighbour moved to the Marathi movie Like and Subscribe. I felt like I was intruding on the personal space of a lot of people. Air India has a beautiful safety video incorporating dance forms from across the country, but I prefer getting it from the people, as it feels more direct, something you will remember, because both the crew and the passengers are invested in each others safety. Felt bad when the crew was just standing there while professional dancers did their job. I was enamoured by the screen for a bit, but the WiFi was not really working. I put on a demo cycling through the various map visualisations and read a book on Marine archaeology!

The food on the way back was better! They had rajma rice and potato bhaji, same bun and butter, a gulab jamun and Californian Walnuts! Got home, walked out, smoked in the smoking lounge outside T3. That thing also had another useless cigarette lighting wire contraption. There are now different lines for Priority and Go at the airport. You have to provide a long six digit pin to get the ride. Apparently the system was changed 3-4 months ago. 

Feb 6

06:31 hours IST - 07:01 hours IST, Iskon Temple to Delhi Airport T3

14:08 hours IST - 15:16 hours IST, Lalit to VV

18:09 hours IST - 19:52 hours IST, VV to BOM T2

Feb 7

00:15 hours IST - 00:55 hours IST, Delhi Airport T3 to Iskon Temple

About Today

I have already written out a detailed entry for Friday, when I got to visit Mumbai and Thane as well... but will have to wait till tomorrow to publish it... for reasons. Anyway, this is probably the last time that I am going to be posting from this machine. This is an ExpertBook B9, given to me for review back in May 2024, but Asus forgot to take it back! The base has warped a bit, and the fan is struggling and noisy, but otherwise it is running just fine. I really liked the juicy OLED display, and may buy a similar device myself! I got a call today that they wanted it back, something I was not expecting, so I have to wipe the device now. There is some data on the device that I have to take out, so cannot wipe it right now in office. It served me well, but its a good thing that I never really personalised it or added stickers, which would have been a task to remove now haha. Welp, time to get my personal laptop repaired. Once this goes, it will be the first time since coming to Delhi that I have fewer than two laptops in my home. This is my primary gaming laptop, but fortunately, I will soon have access to two cloud gaming services. I just really hope that Warframe is available on them. Maybe I will go to Nehru Place tomorrow itself to repair the laptop, it is long overdue! 

Today was a hazy day, but I still managed to blaze through my story count. I am swapping duty tomorrow for Friday, just so that this guy can come and comfortably pick up the laptop. An important embargo is lifting tomorrow, which is a pending copy that I will have to post tomorrow. 

Say hello to Akshit

We went to the terrace for lunch, and I was shown a nice corner where we could smoke. Apparently, people used to smoke up here also at one time. There was a giant destroyed dish antenna, that looked like something you would encounter in a post apocalyptic future. I had to get my lunch packed from the ground floor, while my friends ordered in. I also had Chilli Cheese Toast in the evening, which is a bit spicy. People feel that it is overpriced, and apparently people have previously yelled at the Rasa staff for serving only one slice with the Chilli Cheese Toast. There was also some kind of Townhall at the canteen because of deteriorating service, so the staff were all a little bummed. 

About Today

 Today morning the tea lady at the cemetary made me wait for nearly half an hour for tea. She was in a talkative mood and was tealking to another customer who was not even paying attention, he put his headphones and was lost in his phone while she continued to talk to him. Her attention turned to me and she told me about how the cost of Indie mint had gone up to 15 rs and that well-educated people do not haggle like the poor people, and paid 150 rs for a packet at night after she had closed up the shop without blinking. These two people were desperate for smokes, and insisted that she sell them a packet even after she had packed up her shop and stashed it in the cemetary by 22:30 hours IST. 

Then she told me that well-cooked chai is better, and the other dude walked off without paying for his purchases. Then she told me about the story of Itnu, a boy who was missing for 1.5 months and had turned his phone off. He is about 25-26 years old, and his family people had come to the shop showing his photo on the mobile, and they had left behind his number. She believes that the boy had visited the shop over the past month. 

Then I came to the office and bashed out my eight copies by 18:44 hours IST. After that me and a friend headed to Urban Kasba, but it was closed so we went to Midnight instead. The cover charge has come down from Rs 150 per person to Rs 50 per person. In places such as these the system is you buy your own booze, pay a cover charge, then order something, along with mixers and glasses and whatever. We had an involving conversation about plate tectonics, the journey of the Indian subcontinent across the Tethys Sea and a mystery of how a diverging fault showed up in Tibet despite most of the faults being reverse thrust faults. In this conversation, I was asked to tell the complete story of the formation of the Himalayas, which I will do so now. I was able to say this whole thing out aloud, and my friend, who has a masters in geology said that the explanation was acceptable for someone who had not studied geology. 

About 13.5 billion years ago, the universe was produced in the Big Bang, with most of the matter and antimatter instantly annihilating each other. A small imbalance led to a marginal portion of matter surviving, which was mostly in the form of hydrogen, with trace amounts of helium, lithium and beryllium. The first stars were massive balls of pristine hydrogen gas, that collapsed under the influence of gravity, living short and fast lives, producing the heavier elements such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. The Sun is a third generation star, rich in heavy, metallic elements that collapsed from a dense knot in a cloud of molecular gas about 4.6 billion years ago. The planets in the solar system were assembled in the material leftover from the formation of the Sun. The temperature and heat gradient blew away gases and ices from the inner solar system. This resulted in rocky worlds such as Venus, Earth and Mars forming in the inner solar system, with gas and ice giants in the outer solar system. The Earth has a differentiated interior, with a core rich in iron and nickel, a convective zone of molten rock known as the mantle, that drives a super continent cycle on the solid outer crust that lasts between 300 and 500 years. The Indian Plate broke off from the eastern part of Gondwanaland between 130 and 120 million years ago, and started a journey across the Tethys Sea, initially accompanied by Madagascar, that splintered off around 90 million years ago. The Indian plate was bisected by the Narmada seaway in the west and the Godavari seaway in the east, and India travelled over a plume of mantle, leading to excessive volcanism in the deccan plateau, playing a role in the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Between 60 and 40 million years ago, India collided with the Kohistan-Ladakh island arc in the neotethys sea, the region which is now Ladakh. The Indian plate then slammed into the Eursasian plate, leading to thickening and fracturing of both plates, with the Indian plate subducting beneath the Eurasian plate. There was peeling underneath the continent, with ripples and fractures caused by the low density rock of the Indian plate floating above the mantle, putting upward pressure from beneath the Eurasian plate. This resulted in the formation of the Himalayas, a process that continues till this day. 

Anyway, I didn't even understand his question, but he said that I had provided him with the answer. I then went home, and had fun with my neighbour and his pets, including an adapted cat. Both me and the guy realised that there was a cat who would sneak into our homes and look at us when we came back home from inside lol. Poor cat died. Anyway, good day. 

Done with Work

 Just blazed through all my allocated copies in three hours. Now I have to waste five hours. I intend to use it to write for my own site. Dark Matter and Neutrinos apparently interact, which is the biggest science news for now, but people are more interested in space weather and some precursor to cancer drugs that can be produced using domestic plastic waste. 

I discovered a strange hack to getting on Google News. You do not need to be early to do this, even if you file a relevant copy late, Google News brings up all the previous copies, along with the new one that you posted. Both of the copies filed above are stories over a week old, and Google News surfaced all the previously filed copies just because I decided to provide comprehensive coverage, and ensure that no science news gets missed from my platform, News9. I also finished up all pending copies today, so I am very happy. 

Akshit has suggested getting crayons and a colouring book, and sitting and colouring at office once we have finished work. It is an interesting proposition, but I do not want to really do that lol. I would rather sit on an empty desk and stare purposelessly into space or twiddle my thumbs. 

These corps are crazy. Cops are pig bitches. Fuck the Police. Crops are great! 

Ordered printouts from Blinkit

 So yesterday night I got too late to get home and the print shops had closed. Flying tomorrow to Mumbai and flying back the same day. I could have gotten a ticket back on the next day, and stay a night, but somehow I like the idea of flying in and out to an event better, and I like to fly light. It is going to be a long day, so I will be carrying my laptop. Will go back home and pack today. 

So, was planning to check in and get the printouts today morning. Air India gives only one seat for free, and mine was the middle one in the back row for both flights. Im not paying extra for a freaking seat, will sit between two fat old men, no problem. The print shop (in Delhi, the shops still have 'Photostat' boards in front of them) was closed yet again, and my Landlord has an overpriced print shop as well, which puts him in conflict with a lot of customers because they typically discover the high prices only after printing. 

One time he went all racist and filled the years of a Nepali calling him Chinki and where you have come from lol. The casual racism shocked me, but I could not do anything right there, so had to stay silent. Did not want to simply yell back at him in a volatile situation and make it worse. So I never take printouts from him as revenge. 

Anyway, so I used Blinkit on the way to work. The document uploading process is complex and unreliable. The interface is also confusing for when you want to upload multiple files, and get multiple printouts of each file. Took me essentially half the trip to get it right and order. But, the timing was pretty perfect, I got to work, had a smoke, and the delivery partner arrived. Smooth. Only small hiccup is that the location of the partner showed somewhere else even though he was right in front of my face. So the GPS is unreliable. 

The Uber app is still acting up, and still showing me in Mumbai when I am in Delhi. I have to first set the location, then edit it on the map. Today though, the driver was right where I made the booking. He dropped me off somewhere else only though, but I did not complain, I walked for about half a block to my office. Some woman in a car honked at me and gave me eyeballs for no reason. People in Delhi are idiots who honk just like that hahahaha. 

Fuck Delhiites. 

About Today

 I destroyed my clean streak by drinking beer yesterday, and staying up late. Feel like doing it again tonight... will see. I was late to office though, and I do not want to be. Want to come in on time, that requires me to wrap up quickly and crash. So will try to do that today, and if I cannot do it, will stop. 

I am flying to Mumbai on Saturday. Need to get the tickets printed before that, though it is not necessary. Plan to travel light, but it is not possible to travel too light because I need a notebook. Will figure it out. I have travelled like that while going to events, but people look at you weird if you are at an airport with just a notebook. IDK why people have time to judge the most randomest things. 

I did not do my quota of eight stories today, but that is fine, I am giving myself time, and logged out of work PC a good half an hour before the timing of my shuttle. I also closed all the work tabs on my personal laptop, which have been open for years. Right now this Blogger tab is the only one open, and it has been years since I used a single tab on my browser. Feels good man, reminds me of the time when there were browsers without tabs, and you actually had to open multiple windows. NeoPlanet FTW! 

I wonder why desktop software lack flash screens now, they used to be such a cool thing. One story I wrote today that is doing well is about the stick man aurora. I am imaging some ancient human tribe looking up at the sky and seeing this awesome apparition. Unfortunately, Gemini did not do a good job of rendering it, repeatedly turning the plasma cloud into something else only, either too colourful, or too incoherent. I also wrote about an interesting study on Biophobia, where people, especially in urban areas are increasingly displaying aversion, fear or disgust towards plants, animals and nature. 

The parents today are just so over protective, that they do not allow their children to play in the mud, hunt for eggs, climb trees, or keep butterflies as pets. I know some parents who do, but these people really are biophiles, people who love nature. What can I say humans are idiots. 

Another very weird thing happened in the morning today. Uber suddenly logged me out, and would not allow me to book, and kept showing me around Vidya Vihar and Kurla for some reason when I was in Garhi Market in New Delhi. It also would not allow me to book without clearing some past due, that I forgot about, but the payment method was not working through the app. Uber Support is very good on X, where you can directly ask the question instead of choosing from preset options, that may not even list your problem. They got it sorted out, the unpaid ride was two years old! From Jan 25, 2024! I do not know how it remained like that, or even if it is the same account. I am very careful about maintaining my rider score, and this has a lower one than my other account. Also my previous rides list disappeared! IDK what happened, also for the first time I think I used Ola. It was not bad! 

Some days ago I had caught a cab from Okhla to Home, and my battery died. The cab driver had a special kit in his dashboard, with connectors for all types of phones. He was more worried about my battery than me, and he made sure that I came to the front and juiced up my batteries, and then - this is the weirdest thing - insisted that I pay using UPI! He was the first and only Uber driver I have met who preferred UPI over cash, and this guy happened to meet me when I had the cash, which I usually do not! Then the Uber guy who was bringing me over today was also particularly worried about my battery, even though I paid him at the start of the ride itself. He moved on only after I reassured him that I will be able to recharge the phone at the Office. I guess since their whole profession depends on it, Uber drivers empathise with riders with low battery lol. 

Akshit got drunk yesterday and took a holiday today, telling people that his parents were visiting. Good thing I did not take a holiday today, but it came close, did not feel like waking up today. He has started making 'hmm hmmm' noises to mimic and make fun of the noisy fan on my laptop. I have to whack him on the head for that. I have to be careful about the dates of the flight, will see if I can get the printouts today itself while going home. The flight is early in the morning, and I really hope they send a cab. The rickshaw driver yesterday who took me home was driving very slowly lol. 

Oh yeah, the lift was a pain. Need to wait so long to go either up or down. There was this one funny frustrated guy who was pressing the button repeatedly preventing the lift from going up. Then he began pressing the button even when the button was already pressed, doing absolutely nothing. Even in corporate offices there are idiots who press both the up and down buttons. Sometimes, people just remain uneducated, illiterate and dehati, cannot remove that dust in the brains. Then there was another guy, who seemed a bit confused, who was repeatedly pressing the fifth floor while he was on the fifth floor. He then remembered and got off just as the doors were closing, causing one woman to exclaim in exasperation and impatience, and another guy to leap forward and vigorously press the door closing button. This woman, was a smartass who had just two floors before said the problem is not with the lift, you are getting impatient, when another woman complained about the lift taking too long. I feel like some people just like to make noise and wind from their mouths for no reason.