About Today and Yesterday

 So started off yesterday in the morning, headed out to the National Media Centre to pick up passes for the AI shitshow. The passes were not available so they told us to wait till 2:00 PM by which time it would be available. Many people waited. It is a nice place with a computer bay for journalists from PIB to work. I found a nice little corner with a plug point and bashed out four copies. 

Then I went and had lunch at Saravana Bhavan. The one next to Amudham and Janpath had a queue outside it, so I just walked past to the one at CP. I had 2 Idlis 1 vada combo and watermelon juice, which filled me up to the brim, then went to Pragati Maidan. Gate number 1 was packed, too many people. Walked a bit to Gate number 7, less crowd, but manageable. People waiting in line were brainstorming on how they could do things better. 

Found my way to Bharat Mandapam, entry was closed. So I went elsewhere. Took some photos of the people milling about the food courts, that were not accepting UPI btw. Then saw that gate 5 was closed, and encountered a group that emerged with the sole aim of getting out of the Summit. The staff were clueless, one lady was referring to the exit as the entry, other people only knew about their own instructions, nothing about the layout of the venue, or what was happening anywhere else. We eventually discovered that Gate 1 was the exit and got out. 

The National Science Centre was right next door, so I visited there! Posted all this on X, then headed back to the National Media Centre. It was about 4:00 PM by this time, but no passes had come. They said it would arrive by 6:00. Around 5:00, they did show up, there was some chaos as everyone tried to get their passes at once, it settled into a line, I got mine and hightailed out of there. Uber was repeatedly asking me to pick from one of the gates, but I had already selected my pickup point. I just took the metro and came to Kailash Colony, which is a good way to go to the Venue I guess. Getting out of the Venue is a pain! 

Got dead tired, was dead tired today as well because of all the walking. Went to office, bashed out my copies and came home. Had orange juice, more orange juice, curd rice, pongal, and took adequate rest. The plan tomorrow is to go to office early tomorrow, wrap up the work and then head to the Summit. Really want to see the exhibition now. 

Also Im all on my own on Google News. Lets see who else copies haha.  

About Today

 Today, the journey to office was uneventful. I forgot to change the pickup location, so my Uber driver made an unnecessary U-turn and I crossed the road twice. For lunch we had gone to Panditji ka Dhaba in Raipur Khadar which is at an excellent location, is on the first floor and has open views of the street on three sides. There is a table for big parties on the inside. The food was really good, we had a paratha, mix veg, butter naan, butter roti, dal and chawal among three people. Food was good and filling. 

The main topic of discussion was the paper on the Simuverse by Evangelos Katsamakas. A colleague was insisting that the ideas proposed for operating a simulation, such as research or education were anthropocentric. My point was that it does not matter what the specific use case is, what Katsamakas is essentially exploring is a different perspective, not a philosophical one about the nature of reality itself, nor a physical one where the universe is a 3D projection from a distant 2D surface, one on the economics of simulating universes. I explained that just the idea of sustainable activities cannot be a uniquely human approach, that even gods will be constrained by energy use and conversion, and that the paper was actually just saying that simulations, irrespective of their purpose, can be thought of as one of three possibilities, a one-off project being undertaken for a specific purpose (the actual purpose does not matter here, can be no reason or a mad civilisation), a service that is offered as a subscription for users, and as a platform that allows for multiple users to interact in the simulated universe, a setup which would have network effects. 

The discussions grew out of two stories I had published, one on News9 and another on my site, Starbullet.in. 

Finished most of my work with only about an hour to go. On Sundays, they do the pest control in office which stinks up the place. Taking a break right now because they just came around. 

Dream Diary SGNP metro edition

 So this morning saw some weird dream where I was travelling in a metro rake through SGNP, going over the treetops. I saw a tank and some classic car outside the window, but there was some problem with the rake. First it went in one direction, left behind a few cars, then it started going backwards, and shed a few cars as well. I remember being frustrated by the journey because it wasn't going where we wanted. The frustration woke me up, which was the whole point of repetitive dreams that don't go anywhere and make you feel stuck I feel, another form of nightmare to wake you up, only it is frustrating instead of being scary. 

Was a nice metro though, something like this can be experienced in the airport line, especially if you go all the way to Yashobhoomi. 

The Story of Ravinder Gujjar

 So Ravinder Gujjar is a customs officer who is great at profiling, or spotting possible smugglers based on their face, and out of a healthy amount of self-love he has picked his own nickname as Santa Claus. Gujjar's father, two brothers, one sister, mother, paternal uncle, paternal uncle's wife, paternal aunt and her husband were all in the Central Excise or Income Tax department. 

If there were to be a competition in India among the most corrupt families, then Ravinder Gujjar's family would always come first. Gujjar had been listening to stories of their corruption since childhood, and developed a hatred towards the system. That is why, on the first day of joining Customs only, he had decided that he will never take even a paise of bribe ever in his life, a promise that he keeps to this day. He is not especially respected in his family, and everyone thinks he is a little mad. 

But Gujjar is not crazy at all. He is a soft-hearted romantic, and his love story is also a bit unique. Within 15 days of joining, Gujjar took a liking to a pleasant, homely girl who worked in the duty-free shop called Meenakshi. Meenakshi also liked Gujjar a lot. The two would go on breaks together and drink at the tea shop on the runway canteen. Meenakshi did not know at that time that Gujjar was doing this because tea was expensive at the airport. Meenakshi's parents liked Gujjar because he did not make a demand for dowry, and decided to go for a court marriage. On the day of the marriage though, Meenakshi did not show up, because she understood that Gujjar intended to live his life on his meagre salary, without earning on the side through bribes, and it was not just a show. On that day itself, The End happened to Gujjar's love story. 

You can find out what happens to Gujjar in Taskaree on Netflix. 

About Today

So came to office early in the morning today at around 10:00. There was no problem in booking the cab. There was another cab waiting for me to take me to an event in Lalit. I came to office, quickly filed a copy, and caught the cab. 

On the way, a Microsoft embargoed story came up, that I quickly did and scheduled for 12:00. The sun was too bright and overpowering the screen, so I struggled in the cab a bit, but I got it done. Had to swap out the images later at the event. 

The event was great, got to know the whole development of technological banking infrastructure in the country. 

1987 - the first ATM launched in India

1990 - Credit Cards introduced in India

2002 - Internet banking gets introduced

2010 - Mobile Banking gets introduced

The food was particularly good because they had kosambri! Two other journos asked me why I was having kosambri and I explained that it is a native dish that is not easily available in Delhi. So they also ate and enjoyed! Was fun, there was Abhinav from Times who was supposed to come back with me, but he booked his own cab as he had to make a couple of pit stops. I was happy to learn that the guy liked my DVDs as well as the Dmystify supplement that I wrote for Digit. 

A couple of days ago at the Asus event there was this irritating guy who was constantly doing plich plich with his tongue while I was taking photos. Dude wait a bit lol I just need five minutes, then you take as many photos as you want how you want. But he didnt do that I think he wanted to needle me haha. 

I came back to work, and belted out more copies, mostly for IIT Bombay and IIIT Hyderabad. Was a good day, now headed back home early. 

About Today

 Today was also a struggle to get to office. I think I really should start using the metro in the mornings, but cannot do so tomorrow because I plan to reach office before the metro even starts. I need to belt out the eight copies by 10:30 or so because there is an event and hopefully lunch at the Lalit. If I do not finish the copies in the morning, I will have to come back to work. 

Tomorrow is a cheat day because even if I show up to office, my attendance gets marked and I get a comp off, but I will not be working the whole day. I was pretty preoccupied the whole day, as last night I finished off most of the day's work between 20:00 hours IST and 00:00 hours IST, that required me to do six copies. Two of these were very involving, one about the American Pronghorn that is a favourite of Joe Rogan, and another about the Simulation Hypothesis. I was brimming so much with ideas about the latter that I also wrote a completely different story about it on my site. I am still not satisfied though, and may do another story on just the Simulation Hypothesis or the Holographic Principle, as I have primarily focused on the Simuverse here. All of this is even without exploring in detail how just investigating the simulation hypothesis can cause the universe to crash, if we are, in-fact in a simulation. 

Anyway, now I have about six minutes left before I can wrap up and leave. Felt good to come to work and then prioritise my own site first. I spent most of the day, till lunch in doing that story. My neck is still paining a bit from the sprain yesterday, especially when I sleep on my right side. Will have to find a way to get into a comfortable position that does not stress my body. We also had fun in office with a TV News Generator that I cooked up, that is making everyone laugh! We just put in all the terms in it that makes it to the news, asked it to mix it up, and generate dramatic news! I cannot believe Gemini was up to the task lol. 

People were like this is enough, you should sell it to the news team, if you ask for footage on any of this you will get, and reporters will also line up to scream for hours on all these 'stories' hahahaha. The state of news is pathetic, and my time is exactly up! 

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.