India Habitat Centre

 Visited India Habitat Centre to deliver a signed copy of Jug Suraiya's book to my dad's old friend Nikhil. There was some Unani fair going on, where entry to outsiders was strictly not allowed, at least that's what the board said. I had a chance to look through the stalls, just some old bored people trying to sell herbs and stuff. 

I just saw some Dyal Singh College kids being college kids, and missed my days at SIES. Went past a Tibetan museum that I would like to revisit again. There were also some posh school kids at the Air Force School, and saw a bunch of drivers sleeping in their cars with AC on full blast. Really, such a waste of fossil fuel all around. 

And probably, taxpayer money. 

Anyway, after handing over the book, as I was coming out, I saw this glorious bird screeching on a lamp post. I do not know if it is an eagle or a kite. Anyway, I took a photo, and this Nepali guy lazing around in a patch of grass (Delhi has a lot of patches of grass where people just lie down), smiled at me knowingly, as if something mundane in his surroundings was elevated by my appreciation of it. I smiled back, and came home. 

The Plumbing Goblin

The Goblin in the pipes does not have a mind of his own. He is a spectral mirror, taking over the cerebellum and the auditory cortex when you are not in absolute, conscious control of them. The Goblin in the pipes is an agent of bedlam, chaos theory in action, transforming the random gurglings of water running down the pipes into a subliminal babble. You can hear him just after you begin to sleep, and just before you gain consciousness, muttering in gobbledygook, urging to the surface forgotten fears and unimagined anxieties. 

The Goblin in the pipes is just noise, not quite white, not quite brown. Deep and literally guttural, it is as if the pipe itself is trying to speak through the language of water, but cannot form the words and sentences or guide them with considered thoughts. These gaps are filled in by random neurons firing between the brains, partial recognitions of phenomes and phrases. Between the water and the neurons, emerges the Goblin in the pipes. 

It is the fear of the unknown, the struggle of filling the gaps of comprehension, that provides a trigger and a platform for the paranoia, suspicion and dread to express itself. The Goblin feats on the suppressed psyche, seeding fright and amplifying agony. The Goblin sits nervously laughing, while you thrash around in your sleep, unsure of what is gripping you or whispering you ideas from beyond the dark void. 

PS, I tried to go for round two, but it didn't happen, simply hovered somewhere between consciousness and sleep. So I decided to wake up and write this down. 

Dream Diary garbage rainbow edition

I was flying in this one. 

It started as small hops and jumps, and I flew straight from Thane to somewhere east of Powai, but not Andheri. Then I decide to head back, and jump into this place right around Bhandup, where there is a big festival going on for Krishna. There are a bunch of youth hanging from ropes from a giant pole that everyone swings around. It is known as a giant stride, but this giant stride was really giant, like as tall as a building. 

(I have never seen or used this thing before, although I had come across it, I had forgotten about it. I am pretty sure my brain invented it on its own)

This giant stride does not have single ropes, but pairs of ropes with a swing between them. It also has a ring on top, like the cycle or monkey stride. Only with a lot many more jagmag ropes. 

All the people using the youth are dressed up like they are playing dandiya. One of the girls tells me by name "Aditya, you are not invited to this party". I don't respond, but leave, I use the swing to launch me back into the sky. While yeeting, I wonder where I know her from, and try to place someone who lives in the area, but do not come up with anything. 

I am flying towards Nahur, when out to the west, I see this huge bank of really black, dark clouds rolling in. On the ground, I can see large pools of black liquid also beginning to submerge the lower floors of the city. It is more like oil than water, or maybe sewage. In any case, it is black and shiny. I get really scared, and fly into one of those terraces of a building that are generally inaccessible. Just as I do, someone, I cannot see the person, closes the iron door and walks away. I then look westwards, waiting for the bank of clouds to hit me. I am a bit worried about how to get home later, as I have not taken my phone or wallet with me. But right now, there are muuuch bigger things to worry about, such as staying alive. 

The world goes dark. It is raining, heavily. Small flecks of black rain, full of soot and pollution. It stinks, and leaves behind some black particles with every drop. The entire city is flooded up to the first three storeys. Buildings start falling down and collapsing. Mine does too. I jump out and start flying just as it does, and I see an older couple struggling too. 

I levitate them, while I myself fly into the terrace of another building. There are buildings collapsing all around. Then, the one we are in collapses as well. I tell the guy, "Don't worry, I got you." I fly while falling with the building, and making sure no one is hurt by levitating them. Couple runs away, without a word of thank you. 

I make another hop, and things are clearing! The whole thing is over suddenly, there are just pools of water on the ground and garbage deposited everywhere. I land at a field where people are burning piles of garbage. The burning garbage piles have circular rainbows around them! Similar to glories, but much more defined. Out in the background, there is a huuuge rainbow across the city. It is so beautiful that I wake up. 

This is so accurate! Only time Paint 3D has disappointed me, had to use Photoshop.

Then I start thinking about how podcasts are the best form of entertainment as it leaves you to do something with your hands and eyes while still consuming the content. It is the only form of entertainment that does that I think... like of course, that and radio plays lol.  And music. 

I was tempted to just go back to sleep, but I am glad that I saved this one. 

Dream Diary Bangalore House Edition

At the early part of the dream, I am in some big building, the bottom of which is a public restroom. I go there to dispose off garbage, but my garbage bin itself gets stolen instead of being emptied by a machine and returned. I keep looking for it, but cannot find it, in this big public toilet that is basically like a subway station. 

(IDK why I keep dreaming of transport facilities with large public toilets, maybe I am confusing the two in my head)

Anyway, there are lot of people coming in, lots of rioting and shouting, and it seems the place is being invaded in large swarms. There are so many poor people coming in (they seem to be climate refugees) Then there are some breakout bands, that are walking with linked arms and in groups and one of them catches me and tells me come with me. We link hands, and we push through the surging crowd, and get outside. On the way, we trample over or push aside people, and we are really going against the flow, but we manage to do it by sticking together. 

Then end up at Bangalore house with a whole bunch of people. It seems to be like a safe house where a lot of people are jumping in. I have this big bag that I am trying to protect with lots of expensive gadgets. 

It's in ruins, the back side of the house has acquired some new junk. There is a metro car shed right behind the house. There are electronics and equipment scatterred all around. Within the house, there is some religious ceremony going on. 

We go in and sit, and we start watching an action movie. The movie is being played with a projector in the middle of a hall, with people sitting on both sides. There is a chase sequence, some biker guys zoom in from the left and go towards the right. I go to the side room, where all the bags have been kept in the abandoned bathroom, which looks like the remains of the homa. At this time, there is on the news that riots have broken out and that a curfew has been imposed, and large gatherings are not allowed outside. More people stream into the house. 

Then I look to the left and see this massive mob of monkeys coming. I run back outside and tell everyone that there is a massive mob of monkeys coming. Some men and boys head out with sticks and other instruments to hit the monkeys. Those who chose to do it are all wearing those old slippers with only a soles and a knob, dhotis and the sacred threads. Some of the older men are wearing banyans. All of them have tikas. 

After a while there is news on the radio that the riots have been contained, but the curfew measures are harder, and that a whole ton of arrests have been made, with people being carted off in over 100 police vans. 

But the monkey problem is escalating, and I feel like I need a smoke. 

Then I deliver a dialogue straight out a movie, like a hero, "Give me a laathi for the kothi".  A bunch of ladies in sarees unanimously tell me, "take one!" while pointing me to a room full of the weapons of the defeated. I see a whole bunch of bows and arrows strewn around, some sticks, and a very big, curved pole. Some of the weapons have blades or clubs on them, and I ask the ladies what it is about. One of them says, "apparently there is a panther around" I pick the pole and head out to thwack the monkeys. The arrows are blunted, they look like this one I have hanging at the side of my wall:

But the front of the house is pandemonium, it is also crowded with people, using the house as a safehouse. One drunk man tries to steal some cigarettes and is thwacked away, which is straight from a scene of Gol Mal. I have a packet on me, but need a lighter, which I manage to flick. 

There are snails, squirrels, mynahs, peacocks, bulbuls, crows, pigeons, sparrows, chameleons and a whole bunch of other urban creatures. One creature is struggling upside down, and I set it right, and it turns out to be a softshell tortoise. Again, I try to take photos with my phone, but unfortunately, I cannot capture the  images, or switch between cameras, which is when I realise it is a dream, but I let it happen without going lucid. I simply explain to myslef the camera is buggy and switch to that theory instead of this is a dream. 

(This is something apparently you can do, continue dreaming and convince yourself it is real, even after realising that it is a dream) 

I leave the turtle alone and go to get rid of the monkey problem. After walking towards the back of the house, I come across some guy who is letting people borrow a lighter, so I head back, return the stolen lighter, for which I am thanked, and then come back to the guy and light my cigarette, then head to the back of the house. On the way, I pass a few rooms that have partially caved in, are caked with ash, and have furniture strewn around. 

At this point we hear the announcement that there has been a shoot at sight order given to anyone breaking the curfew. 

At the back of the house are two abandoned trucks full of electronics. There are weeds and overgrown plants everywhere, and right above are two crisscrossing metro lines. The surroundings are tightly packed with buildings, but this is a little patch of green. Except on the west side, which is a sprawling green landscape of rolling hills, but not clean hills. They are covered in thick vegetation, making it impossible to traverse through them. 

This is when the dream looks really picturesque and cinematic.There are some people smoking, smoking up, and doing their own things, scattered about. I go to one end, and see some people venturing out beyond the walls of the house. A metro rake comes in and parks itself at the carshed, and the guy gets out and leaves. I suspect that the metro authority has been dumping garbage in my house. 

There is a girl standing on some abandoned vehicle just outside the complex, looking up at the metro rakes running overhead. I say "this looks so post apocaltospitgpsid" (I cannot pronounce it), and she responds, "that's right, it looks very post apocalyptic". There are hues of blue and purple in the sky, layers of low lying clouds that the skytrains are passing through, and junk strewn all around the wasteland. 

I then go about appreciating the tech used in the metro carshed, when Im hit to the side of the next by three darts. There is some other androgynous person, let's call them Y, who initially starts as female, but turns into male by the end of the movie. They have elfin features and smirk a lot, and shot me with the arrows. I ask if it is poison, and she says no, and that she expected me to divert it because of all the talks of electrodynamism (exact word used in the dream, I know it isn't one). 

(This is perhaps a reference to a scene from the climax of Adam, which I watched a few days ago)

I respond with a "you witches!" which I think is very smart (In the dream) and we all head back towards the back of the house, where I bump into another person, let us just call her X (not a real person). X hugs me and we talk in low soft voices, catching up, she says "you have become better", IDK if she means physically or mentally, but in the dream I sense that we have not met for 10 years or so. She is the girlfriend of Y. Y takes out a tablet that looks like an old Sony Mavica camera like the one Akshaye Khanna uses in Taal, merged with the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, and takes a series of photographs. 

Tarzaning

 Maybe there was some special argot of the teenagers emerged in the late 1970s where they combined with "-ing" to make hinglish present participles, or Hrishikesh Mukherjee was incentivizing words decades before Joss Whedon came up with buffyspeak. Either way, it is kickass, and is one of the things Im going to start incorporating in my daily vocabulary. 

If you are soching what im bhoking about, you should be dekhing Gol Mal. It was years ahead of its time. And really good nataking. 

Like the most common one is banaoing, but why don't we use more in our vocab? 

Then there is the song, "Ek Din Sapne Me Dekha Sapna"... that right there is the concept of Inception, in song form! The genius of Hrishikesh Mukherjee is clearly far ahead of Christopher Nola, at least temporally, and I sound like one of those cultists gushing about Gunda on a seedy forum, but so be it. 

Rita Coolidge. Bread. George Baker Selection (Paloma Blanca). Asha Puthli. 

I really like Ram Prasad Sharma though. He really is Purshottam, or perfect man. He is in tune with sports and music and pop culture, and equally is well versed in Kabir. Hats off to this dude, he is not like Urmila, studying history and forgetting it. Literally translating to reading history and forgetting it. Practically translating to "byhearting" history and translating it. 

Then I really like the chase sequences in old Bombay! Even in Don they were epic. It is so awesome to see havildars in shorts! hahahaha. Till a few years ago, you could still see those in Bangalore. 

Keshto Mukherjee just had to enact pulling a chillum in the middle of struggling to Patta Kat Loonga. Epic. They don't drink water, they don't drink alcohol, they drink something else. HAha. Kya joke maring. This movie is definitely utsahing smoking weed. 

The bestest thing was when the photographer with the Rolleiflex says smile, and smiles himself!  

They couldn't or didn't want to write around the fact that in the end it was Ram and Urmila that ended up together. If it was released today, I'm sure there would be a #boycottgolmal trending on twitter, but not going to go too much into that :D

There are a few things I didn't like though. It is the subtext. 

First of all the movie suggests that in order to completely please the father in law, and the wife you need to be have a split personality! That threat of marry me or suicide... I don't know where it was coming from. It was like a Schrodinger's threat, you never know if it was legit till it happens (it does not!), but that is a horrible question to ask, only when one is too involved in a movie that clearly should not have used such an unnecessary story trajectory for the pure purpose of entertainment. Pure-ish, I really think they were trying to tell a story here, and not just for the sake of entertainment, but for reaching out to a youthful community and validating some of their beliefs and thoughts. It is a window into how my parent's generation was when they were kids. 

People often ask who is the villain in Gol Mal, and it is such a clean movie without any bad actors. The thing is, there is a demonisation of tradition going on, as if the timeless wisdom of the ancients is somehow at odds with the new discoveries. This sets up an unnecessary conflict, between an ageing civilization and a developing one. It forges a narrative, a world view, that we have to let go of the inertia of culture to embrace whatever it is that the lack of one affords us. This is a dangerous path, and if anything, we are seeing a return to roots all around the world, a primal call to find a way connect with who we truly are, and how our brains work. In fact, I really think this is the exact path that has resulted in many backward looking societies emerging around the world today. We may taking to paleo diets, neo shamanism and yoga, but underlying all of that is still a struggle to get back at... I really like the opportunity of using this phrase... the heart of what was lost. 

And that, was a glorious moustache. 

Daal baati choorma mama bada soorma

IDK what that means, but someone said it and I found it funny. I find a lot of things that someone says funny. 

Anyway, was headed to an interview, and I was thinking about something, and I have been thinking of late that I do not have much original thought, it is just a gestalt of what I have read or watched, easy formed opinions that I just have attached myself to, waiting to recycle them again in a social setting. 

But then, at times, I really can think! And I do not know where those thoughts come from. 

So I was headed to the interview and was thinking... fear is such a beautiful thing, if you embrace and explore it, it is so stunning where it came from. The fear of being devoured by a wild beast, or a poisonous serpent or falling off heights, cannot possibly be something that is passed on culturally through learning or experiences, these are too deeply embedded in the human psyche. Similarly, it cannot be a survival mechanic evolved from the creatures that survived! How it would have evolved is, randomly, some organisms were scared of some things, and those that were scared managed to survive! Then the trait was inherited and passed on over millions of generations. 

Now... this points to some capacity of imagination or anticipation of really primitive organisms, our ancestors, at the genetic level. It is not a reaction to some actual threat, it is just a perception of the threat. As Darwin puts it in The expression of the emotions in man and animals, "I put my face close to the thick glass plate in front of the puff-adder in the Zoological Gardens, with the firm determination of not starting back if the snake struck at me; but as soon as the blow was struck, my resolution went for nothing, and I jumped a yard or two backwards with astonishing rapidity. My will and reason were powerless against the imagination of a danger that had never been experienced." 

He goes on to add, "The violence of the start seems to depend partly on the vividness of the imagination, and partly on the condition, either habitual or temporary, of the nervous system. He who will attend to the starting of a horse, when tired and fresh, will perceive how perfect is the graduation from a mere glance to some unexpected object, with a momentary doubt whether it is dangerous, to a jump so rapid and violent, that the animal probably could not voluntarily whirl around in so rapidly a manner."

Now we know more about neuroscience, and can understand parts of the brain where the fear response is encoded, partially in the cerebellum. The networks that form the pathways for fear signals are actively being investigated for the development of new anxiety reducing drugs. 

To think, that the same process has repeated itself in all creatures, from dogs, to horses to humans, as well as some shared heritage with our common ancestors is really incredible. I then went on to wonder what dogs and snails dream of, and tried to reach into some domain of consciousness that was simultaneously both ancestral and primitive, with my imagination conjuring up visions of small rat-like creatures scurrying about in the shadows of dinosaurs. 

Somewhere, deep down, we may still retain the vestiges of a genetic aberration that made these rodents fearful of reptiles. I just wish that humans were gifted with sufficient cognition to explore the recesses of their brains as easily as reading a book. 

Dream Diary Grindr scroll edition

So I wake up to some guy yelling my name. I do not know him. I go to the back of my house where there is no window in meatspace, but there is one in the dream. I look out and see that it is raining heavily, and the water levels are rising, and all the people in the building are having a discussion about it through their balconies and windows. I am not wearing any clothes. The upwindow neighbor lowers some clothes for me with a rope, saying grab it, in case yours got wet. 

I cannot find my own clothes, but there is some shirt. Now I have just heard this guy's voice, and there is a bell. I head out, there is a man sitting on a LaZBoy in the living room, and the door is open. Outside people from the building are rushing up and down. Some imposter neighbor uncle dude asks me if the clothes were comfortable and I say I don't need it, and hand it back to him. He then runs down the stairs, when another real neighbor guy goes up and asks about the clothes. I ask him if he, the real neighbor, was the one who gave them to me. Real neighbor guy says yes. I tell him, but I just gave it to some other imposter uncle dude. Real neighbor guy says, it's okay, I know who that imposter uncle dude is. 

I go back inside, still needing to find my pants. That is when I realise, it is not my house at all. LaZBoy man says "You have enjoyed my hospitality long enough, now you need to leave." I say I will just go back inside to the bedroom, grab my clothes and leave. Now I am really worried about how I got here. I cannot remember the night before. The guy tells me, "you have to be more careful about your behavior with women." 

I go into the bedroom, looking for my pants and finally find it. As I am wearing it, a couple walks in. The woman is laughing at me. The man takes out a scroll from Grindr. It is some kind of a valued customer token. He starts reading out from it. I panic and wake up. 

So some recurring themes here, one is waking up in a new place, and another is losing clothes. There was no cake. 

Dream Diary Cake Edition

And of course there was cake. The dream ended with a fake cake actually. There were two old computers, kept in the basement of college, I went to operate one, and it turned out to be fake. Bells went off, confetti was showered, people gathered, was crowned the idiot, face plastered with the cake and it was a celebration. With samosa and chips. 

Getting to college though, required a trip on another long series of rails, and I was tethered to it by the chest with chains! And I was holding a kid in my hands too. Basically we were watching a concert of a Carnatic Rock band (It was an unspecific one, new people again), and the crowd kept building up, while I kept shifting to a better and better vantage point, till a whole group of tribal people left, through a gap in the chain link fence, allowing me to sit on a platform with this kid I was babysitting. Which was good because the kid had just gotten into a wrestling match with another kid, and we had to break them apart, I could not handle the kids to harshly, but could not allow them to continue fighting either. 

Anyway, so we are just sitting watching the concert when unexpectedly I start moving on this chain relay, It goes around the stage, and through a series of abandoned buildings. There is a wooden stopper as the chain moves up a building, between two buildings, down another building, through a wide open space, before ending up in the college. Through the journey, I have to keep tightening the chains as they are perpetually on the verge of slipping. 

So bunch of things going on here. First thing is that at a subconscious level, Im having a bunch of dreams about community... what's missing from our lives are the bands and tribes that our ancestors had. This is the reason why everything from the Rotary Club to Biker Gangs are structured in a certain way. Everyone needs that structure I feel. 

Second thing is Im having a lot of dreams about roller coasters... or basically getting picked up by a carriage on rails at an unexpected point, and being attached to it precariously. IDK what that is about. 

But at least there was cake! 

Everything is cake. The cake is a lie.

Just saw a bunch of episodes of this Netflix show called Is it Cake? 

I normally do not like cooking shows at all, but the energy in this one is just so wonderful. It is silly, over the top and has a really friendly atmosphere. Learned some things. 

Wagyu Stake - deep red, also some terms such as marbling, intramuscular fat and fat layer. Too much info for a vegetarian. 

Dirty Chai - chai with a shot of espresso. wtf. 

Tiltscape - the negative space in cakes that make it look real. this is a totally invented term. 

Fuble - I like this one more than tiltscape. Up for a definition though. 

Really like the format as well, does not seem like a 40 minute episode. It's like 120 minutes went by in no time, that's two hours I don't have! 

Playing Assasin's Creed Valhalla Dawn of Ragnarök, and still dying at Surtur, but I at least got him down to half health today. 

Gave up and started on Medieval Dynasty. 

Need to jump into Warframe to check if I have Zhuge parts for Speedy, but too tired to do it now. Gonna have a smoke, watch the last few minutes of this episode, and then hit the sack. Dead tired, which means good dreams. I'm gonna pop up in the night, and blog those too! 

See you on the other side. <3 :) 

-=-s=0=3=-=e- =w3-= -=3-=r-= 3- =3-=-2=-=d-f=d0=fg=w9=30r

Dream Diary Muh Me Dhoka Edition

Took a nap with the specific intention of having a dream and was richly rewarded. 

First there was this nasty little dog that just bit me and bit me again and wouldn't let me go and while it did not hurt, it kept its vicious little fangs embedded in my hand, till its owner had to pry it away by applying toothpaste to all of its teeth that made it release its hold. The dog then transformed into a human, and started following me. 

Then I was in a harden, which was a tomb complex and one of those big gardens in Bengaluru. Everyone seemed to be friendly and easily talking to each other. There was this one person who asked a landscaper, how about we put a really big Indian mythological statue, and make it look like an action figure, and can you make a temporary one like that, which you can add and remove as and when you want. The landscaper was this artistic little woman who said no, we can give you four rollable vinyls that can cover five or even eleven storeys of these buildings around (had to be Bangalore), at the cost of just making a statue, and it will cost more to store it when it is down. 

I wanted to say, don't ignore the demand of a customer, and that a Indian mythological statue in the style of an action figure would be really cool. 

One from a group of coffee drinking entrepreneurs turned towards me, nodded, agreed with me, then asked his other friends about the same things. While some agreed with him, most did not. They then started discussing Shark Tank India pitches, with one of them saying that the entrepreneurial scene in India is really changing, and some one will find a way to make these big installations cheaper. 

I then went and sat on a toy train, on the outside, and was handed a survey to fill up, which I did. The dog who had turned into a human was next to me, so I gave him the survey, which he filled out. It was a competition benchmarking survey for bringing features to a new app, only, I could not figure what app it was, just had a long list of features and if people liked this feature in this app. I do not remember the questions. Doggoboy finished his responses, I had extra pens, so I gave the survey taker extra pens, the finished doggoboy response, and sat down to finish my survey. People were looking at me strange when I was sitting on the engine of the toy train, with two trains in parallel. 

My toy train began to move. It seemed like a permanent fixture. It quickly went really high, dropped down, through a 360 loop, parallel to a sandbox in the sky full of kids who stared but did not wave (I did not wave too), a turn to the right, then what looked like the background staging area to an amusement park, just scattered props, plastic sheeting on walls, barebones lighting, and the train was still going. I was holding on to plastic, netting, whatever I could this time, and with my dangling legs, I picked up a foam goat statue with a balloon in its mouth. Maybe it was a lamb, I dk. Back to the park, past a grand old woman who found it appropriate to come to the garden and instruct kids how to play correctly, past a playground, up through some well maintained gardens, and turning a right back to the starting point. I pick up my goat, and jump through the second train, where everyone laughs at me and asks if I enjoyed it. I say yes, then hop through, to go back to the first toy train, which has now stopped. 

Inside are a bunch of people, who talk to me as if they know me, even though I do not recognise them. I ask them if they were in the train behind me when I was sitting on the engine. They say yes. I respond with a sarcastic "oh great", which makes everyone burst out with laughter. One of them, a couple right next to me are laughing particularly hard, and the guy says "I used to be sarcastic like that" and the girl says "Oh yeah, we used to printout our text messages and use it like a fax machine, and in that form, the text sounds really sarcastic, like what even is 'muh meh dhoka'" The hindi phrasing causes some of the non-Hindi speakers to blank out. 

I was contemplating suggesting "Betrayal in your Face" as a plausible explanation, when I wake up.

Of all the dreams that I have lost, I am so happy I wrote this one down. 

Accurate. 

Dream Diary saboteurs edition

Okay, so in the dream, there is a secret society of Indian citizens, who without the support of official machinery, execute a number of daring, adventurous and funny missions into Pakistan. It has a caste of really interesting characters. 

There is a tourist couple that pretend to be from England, and pretend to be art collectors. They keep "rescuing" artefacts and smuggle them out of Pakistan, and build a secret underground roving museum that is invite only, gives out artefacts on lease, and funds the rest of the operation. 

There is a brother and sister pair who are secret assasins, taking down high value targets, and making the deaths look like accidents. 

There is an ape, a big black ape that looks a gorilla but more normal shoulders that causes the animals in Pakistan to sabotage infrastructure. This can range from plumbing, to fibre optic cables, to television antennas. Like even the pigeons poop strategically on the aircraft and so on. 

There is a psychologist that convinces violent people to move off into remote areas and spend inordinate amounts of time "training", and always being unconvinced about their abilities, no matter how good they get. 

There is a media magnate that engineers a competition among news services to cover ridiculous and inane stories before and through the advent of the internet, dull the scientific temperament of the population, and make blue sky research appear impossible or irrelevant. 

I go around infiltrating supply chains, making sure that the agricultural and industrial sector is always producing bad quality produce and products. 

The co-ordination is super high tech though, it is like we have both time travel and a hivemind. I was not sure if we were all the same person or just a tightly knit group. While I saw the actions of the other teams and characters in third person, they seemed like avatars in the dream, like avatars of time travelers from a future hivemind. 

Was fun, it was like I woke up after watching a movie. Before sleeping watched 83 and played Assasin's Creed: Valhalla. 

Dream diary crazy predator edition

Trigger warning: Description of sexual violence

So I was picked up in a truck that was falling apart. It was really grimy and dirty, with loose floor boards everywhere. In dreams you feel it sometimes, without any obvious dialogues or actions. The driver was a predator, one who looked like a dirty beggar living in the streets, but better than a homeless person. Basically, the hero from Pushpa. Then suddenly I found myself in a rickshaw, driven by a dark black violent right winger, with dreadlocks, black sunglasses, a ginormous beard, a well oiled mustache, and a wide toothy smile, with saffron flags on both sides of the rickshaw. I asked him how I got transported here, and he told me that he had picked me up. I said it was just like a dream. 

That's the second time in recent memory that I have dreamed of consciousness dawning on me in a sudden, unfamiliar environment, where I have no memory of what led me to that place. Here though, the consciousness was a switch, with a perceived memory gap in the interval, but really there was not one. 

He dropped me off to a meeting with a lady. Somehow, we both understood the other had been abused without even communicating it. She told me that only a few people understand. I asked her what happened, and she said it was from when she was very young, she was the daughter of diplomats and had to travel around, and I forget why but she abused the embassy stamps. Her abuser got her to share photos of her dolls in various photos. 

Later, I think it was similar to the activities of the Kilgrave, which really brings to the surface the psychological hold and manipulation of predators. Unfortunately, I am stuck with only the first seasons of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, although I got through the Defenders and Daredevil before the series were pulled from Netflix. Waiting for them to come back on Hotstar+Disney, along with Kenobi.  

This has some crazy subtext that I need to read or understand at some point. Anyway, now I am going to put in a few hours at least into Dawn of Ragnarök. 

TC, bye. 

Flew in to Delhi and its hot!

I just flew in yesterday night. Had to spend a good hour at the airport and was very sleepy. They make it so difficult to find out which gate you need to get to, and this time mine was at the very edge of the airport, gate 40B. There was a last minute change to gate 41A, which was right next to it. I had a Bacardi White which was listed as "Bacardi Premium Rum". While waiting, I got some nice shots of the landing planes. 

Then after boarding, the family that sat next to me had forgotten to do a web check-in, and so the father was seated one row ahead of the mother and the kid. The kid was crying about the family having to split up in two rows, but the mother was good at handling the kid. The airhostess asked me if I would switch seats, but I said no because I wanted the window seat. 

I really wanted the window seat, and the crying kid did not bother me at all. It eventually calmed down, good for it. The family did not ask me to switch seats directly, but did as a girl who was sitting just ahead of me. Found that strange. I was almost tempted to give the seat if the dad would take photos from the Samsung S22 Ultra, but that was a complex contract to negotiate, so I chose to stick to my seat! 

Didn't get great shots anyway, except for a sea of rolling clouds. 

Got an Uber back from the airport. I did not do the whole thing of agreeing to pay him by cash and meeting him outside. Now I am comfortable with the entire process of check-in, security check and booking the Uber at both the airports, as well as the places where the food is good (the food is always bad everywhere, better to eat on the plane itself). Was dead tired by the end of the night, and could not put in a few hours into Assasin's Creed: Valhalla Dawn of Ragnarök. 

Well, okay. I probably should have switched the seats. Boo hoo. 

Today was exceptionally hot! I learned about the stack effect, where the higher storeys of houses are hotter because of warm air rising from the bottom. The stack effect is not because homes being piled on top of each other, but closer to how air moves around in a chimney or smokestack, which is derived from a root that is closer to pole, rod or the English stake. Also, my house is south facing, presumably the vastu shastra from ages bygone where the north facing walls and fences were higher to keep the invaders at bay. It was not a successful approach considering the tombs of the invaders that are scattered across this city, often reusing broken down Hindu and Jain temples. Point is south facing homes are hotter for some reason, and I am both on the top floor and in a south facing house. 

I had to abandon clothes, and will require a new wardrobe made up of ganjis and shorts if this continues. It was so cold just a few weeks ago! Delhi really does have extreme temperatures. Even in the hottest summers, while trekking up the harshest treks, I never perspired in Maharashtra! I fancied myself to be something of a Targaryen, unaffected by heat, but Delhi is hell. 

I can see all the fat people around me struggling in the heat, sweating like crazy, even though the humidity is not that high. Poor fat people. Ha ha. 

Hahahahahaha. Nearly naked man laughing here. I need to get hydrated. 

Dream Diary Helmet Vape edition

 So I don't remember much right now, posting the dream a few hours after it happened and I went back to sleep. But I managed to draw a visual. There was this woman in a motorcycle jacket and a white helmet with a vape. The helmet was a bit more futuristic and elongated, but this is close to what I saw. 

Photographing the Moon

So I snapped the moon with the S22 Ultra yesterday night. Used a tripod, between 20 to 30 per cent zoom the image became much clearer. Did not expect that. 

Going to Delhi on a flight in less than half an hour. This is going to be fun. Hopefully I will snap some nice pics from the plane. It is taking off just before sunset, and landing at night. 

First time in a mumbai local

I haven't really told this story to anyone. Something came to mind when I was going through old stuff I had written. I had journalled the first time I had travelled on a Mumbai Local, to my cousins' house in Santa Cruz. 

Only, it wasn't. 

That was around 5th or 6th standard I think. I absolutely hated Marathi tutions. It was a few months after visiting an Ashram in Melekote. I stole my mother's coin purse, a loaf of bread, a bottle of water, and set off with a plan to run away from home and go live in the Ashram. I took a bus to Thane station, purchased a ticket and went and sat in the compartment. It was a small piece of pink card. A kind uncle asked me if I was travelling on that ticket. I said yes. He said that it was a second class ticket. So I went to the second class, found a seat, and went all the way to VT. 

I was looking around for the Express train to Bengaluru, and found out that it would only come the next morning after asking around. I contemplated spending the night in a train that had come into the station, and had all its lights turned off. I was just walking around wVT. There, something really scary happened. A short guy with specs, but who looked decently dressed came up to me, asked me if I was lost, and then urged me to go with him. I said no, and got scared. Then I just got in a train back to Thane. 

It was late at night, I took a bus to Pawar Nagar and was walking home around 11:30. Then some neighbourhood aunty found me, grabbed me by the hand and took me home. They were saying it was some maternal instinct that had made her find me. 

I never told anyone where I went, or what happened. I had a doctor's check-up. People were looking for me in cars, during the time I was missing. The principal told students not to run away in the assembly the next day. There were rumours that I was abducted by aliens in Siddachal. 

Lol. 

Not aliens, but almost, maybe, by a creepy short man in rounded spectacles. 

So that was the first time I travelled alone in a Mumbai Local. 

Dream Diary Vangador edition

 So Im In my old dead grand aunt's home, and there is some big wedding party going on. She is alive, and asking me to keep my shoes in the right place or something. Both of my pairs that I have in Delhi are under some furniture in the living room for some reason, even though they are normally kept just inside the door in the verandah. I find two left shoes for some reason, and do not find the right shoe. 

This is the second time I have dreamed of losing my shoe. Sure there must be some dream meaning, but also, they are 34K 3D printed Adidas Alphaedge 4D Star Wars Edition... and I think using expensive sneakers does affect your dreams to some extent. 

Then I get a call from my friend and Im suddenly transported to the compound of a housing society outside Tikujiniwadi, and Im drinking with Alaap. I tell him, I have no idea how I landed up here. He tells me, what man, I called you and picked you up. You wanted to go to Banglore, but I said no, don't go, let us go and drink some Killian's beer. So I got a four pack, we came here, and we finished it. I have more at home, we can go there and continue drinking. I then ask him who is that, pointing to a guy in blue and white shirt, who is trying to make a really drunk girl stand erect. He says, "Oh that is Ankit" (It is not any Ankit I know IRL) and that is his gf Kuldeep (again, know no such person). Kuldeep passes out from being drunk and Ankit carries her to the car. He waves and drives away. For some reason, I look for something within the building compound. The security guards do not drive us away. Someone exits from the building. I go back outside, and ask Alaap to drop me home, which he does. 

Im sitting and thinking (still in the dream), how I would re-do my life if I had a second chance. I resolve to eat more when I was a kid instead of throwing it away. (I was a slow eater, and the breaks were too short for me to finish, so I would throw away the extra food every day.) Within the dream, I felt bad for all the wasted lunches that my mom had lovingly cooked and packed for me. I also resolve to be a better friend, and study harder, and win in quiz competitions. By this time, my wishful thinking within the dream have started manifesting as the dream itself. Im in the Bournvita Quiz Contest, answering questions, and winning too. Then suddenly Im sitting watching myself on TV, and it switches to the Five Star Junior's Quiz Contest, which is like Mastermind, but for kids. Shivakumar, one of my friends is answering the questions. The quizmaster asks him "What is common between Lata Mangeshkar and Celena Jaitly?" and Shiva answers in a thick south Indian accent "vangador" (I don't know the meaning of the word, and it was in Tamil, not Punjabi). The background goes red and he is eliminated and the lights go dim. The quizmaster is saying something about thinking before answering, and I wake up. 

As an explanation for the question, on Clubhouse quizzes, the quizmaster has to make the questions un-google-able, and one of the tricks used for this is to ask what is common between things. For example, what is common between Fanaa, Jannat 2, Boss, Kurbaan and Guide? 

Keep reading to find out :) 

Paradise bubbles

 

Handwriting and Growing up, because I feel like it

Repost + postcards

So taking full advantage of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. There is something really compelling and therepeutic about handwriting your experiences. Think I am going to be doing more of this from now on, at least for a few days. Typing is much faster, so you have less time to deliberate! For some reason, I tend to revise what is hand written, if only to form the letters better. 

There are some postcards later, just putting it out there for the universe, in particular for any residents of Kepler-186f. 

The Magician

 Got this card at a reading! 

First of all, the leopard is my favorite card. This is a major arcana card and has the sword, the cup, and the infinity logo along with the five pointed star, which according to the fresh out of the box reader Shiv, represents a balance between masculine and feminine energy, with the top of the star being masculine and the bottom being feminine. 

Cute leopard tho. 

The reading by the guidebook says:

Self-Empowerment, Action

The magician is a card of boundless, expansive energy. Whereas many of the Major Arcana cards deal with stillness or aspects of the mind... this card is all about action, action, action. It's time to see yourself as the wildcat - embrace his speed, grace and abilities. Don't be afraid to begin. You have the power of all four elements within your reach. Now is the time to use them. 

In other news, I got the deck for myself ^^. It is the Wild Unknown Pocket Tarot. 

Qutb complex part deux

 Photos from the Galaxy S22 Ultra at the Qutb complex

This is smith's folly, a sixth storey of the Qutb Minar

This artiste was practicing in the excellent acoustics of the Bhool Bhulaiya