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. 

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. 

About Today

Today was a good day at work for everyone. People got their salaries a day late. People were telling each other that they got the 'credited' messages and shouting to each other across bays that 'salary aa gya'. A whole bunch of people are going to get drunk tonight, and people have applied for leaves tomorrow also. So, tomorrow is also going to be a great day. I just hope that there is less shouting in office. I paid off, and shut up my landlord, who was asking me for 2000-1000 Rs like my friends do at the end of the month. 

Yesterday, I was walking to the station when an electric rickshaw picked me up. I wanted to walk but did not have the heart to say no to him. I tried the popular Japanese probiotic Yakult for the first time. This was one of the celebratory things ordered by a colleague to celebrate the salary deposit. The bottle looks like the small, fat dick of the Laughing Buddha, and whatever is inside tastes like something coming out of such a dick. Therefore, drinking Yakult is gay, hence proved. 

In the evening, I gave a very sad party to two unwilling colleagues, at a McDonalds in a food court that opened near office. There is also an Udupi Uphar coming out there (which a colleague read as Achar Uphar for some reason), hope it opens soon. We just had two strawberry juices and a large fries. The other two were reluctant to eat or drink anything despite repeated prompting, and actually I did not want anything too! Classic Abilene paradox. At least we got to bitch about Happy Meals and how McDonalds lies to little kids by saying the meals pack in a toy when it is actually a book! Fuck You McDonalds with a peri peri potato fry. Akshit remembered how the toys from McDs were long lasting, and how his parents entertain any kids at home with the toys, which are the only ones to have survived for so many years. 

He also told me some funny things. Apparently while crushing hash, some people would deliberately deposit some in their fingernails, and then extract them to put them in a bidi. I had heart of an anta, which is the smallest unit of smokable hash. A smaller unit is a chanta, which is half the amount of hash you would put in a j or a chillum. Now I heard of the head of the fly, or makhi ki sar, which is a tiny granule of hash that you can apparently smoke, presumably to get a nanodose or a placebo kick. Such people deserve to be kicked fr real, with a leg. 

The second funny thing he told me was a joke on a Freudian Slip. While putting in the dateline, which is and really should be known as the placeline as New Delhi in an article, I ended up writing New Scientist. My work friend said "That is a Freudian Slip, where you replace a word with mother". It is a joke. He said mother instead of other. Haha. Fuck that shit. 

Got a fuck ton of post-budget quotes from deep tech, AI, Fintech, Agri, VC leaders, NGOS and random companies that I never heard of, and then deleted them all promptly. If I have not heard of your company, I am not carrying your quote, sorry lol. I need to go on a rant against Windows one of these days. I also hate browsers saving urls for Web 2.0 sites, which is very irritating. Every time I open up Netflix, I end up in the same episode of The Rookie, every time I open up Spotify, I end up in the same Joe Rogan episode with Graham Hancock and a poor, battered skeptic, and every time I open up X, I ended up on the same post that I posted long ago, because that is just what the browser remembers. Come on Vivaldi, at least you can do better than that! 

I like fat men, because the identity of a fatty is going to be a fatty no matter how much they earn, what they achieve in life, and how much of a pedo they are. Also, after Epstein, pedos are essentially any rich fucker. GG Epstein.  

Rohit Shitty is such a dumbfuck

 Rohit Shitty has built an empire on exploding cars, gravity-defying stunts and cheesy dialogues. Even his pyrotechnics are plagiarised. He is a master illusionist, and his biggest magic trick is serving reheated leftovers from Hollywood and packaging it as high-octane entertainment. He thinks his audiences are idiots without exposure, and maybe they are, but what does that say about your shitty, unoriginal films? He should not be allowed to waste film, and should be banned from cameras. The worst part about Rohit Shetty are his fans who lap it up. His entire filmography consists of the greatest hits of other people's work, and it is time someone called you out on your unoriginal bullshit. 

Yeah laugh all the way to the bank, it is bad karma for a lifetime that you are sure to suffer in hell. Dilwale was a patchwork of pilfered scenes. The high-speed car racing sequence was lifted straight from Mission: Impossible 2. What I feel sad about here is he made SRK and Kajol, two legends, copy Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton. The one minute date scene was copied from How I met Your Mother, where Ted does the same thing with Stella. The cop universe is a frankenstein. Singham taking down goons in the warehouse is lifted from Red. Singham 2 has sequences copied from Mission Impossible 3, complete with the hanger-on stunt by Cruise. Shitty is just a con, and at this point just a tribute band. 

Then there is the Golmaal series. Golmaal 3 is a remake of Khatta Meetha, which itself is a blatant copy of Yours, Mine and Ours. Shitty adds in shit from marathi films and itnernational comedies as well. Chennai Express copies from Mission: Impossible again, and Simmba copies from Temper, and Sooryavanshi copes from Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru. Shitty embodies everything that is wrong with Bollywood, formulaic drivel that prioritises box office numbers over artistry. When og directors such as Nolan or Spielberg forge worlds, Shitty squats in them. The audiences need to really wake up and demand something better. The worst is when Pathan copied from Jackie Chan Adventures. I mean really? You are copying from a kids cartoon? How low can you get. 

Now I have no interest in watching Shitty's Shitty Shit, but Volvo drivers across the country only have Shitty DVDs. His response to critics is that poor people like my movies. Go fuck yourself in a flying volvo lol. Fuck this, I don't want to give this dumbfuck any more bhaav. This is all the Shitty I want in my life. I am done lol. 

Plato really was an asshole

 If you know about Plato at all, you are probably a starry-eyed college student seeking some kind of enlightenment in the musings of ancient, old, dead people, clutching a dog-eared copy of The Republic like it is the goddamn Bible. This ancient Greek windbag was not some enlightened sage, but he sure was the father of western philosophy, which is as hollow as it is convoluted. Plato was an elitist, manipulative, censorship-supporting grumpy grandpa whose thoughts have poisoned the firangis for millenia. Frankly, someone needs to really call out this overrated hack before another generation falls for his pseudo-profound bullshit. 

Let us start with his magnum opus. The literal classical definition of a utopia, a society where the masses are herded like sheep by philosopher-kings, who alone possess the divine wisdom to rule. Plato actually spits on democracy, that should be a news flash for most. He watched Athens execute his mentor, Socrates, and then decided that the problem was not mob justice or the kangaroo court, but the unwashed plebs having a say. He actually critiques democracy as a stepping stone to tyranny, comparing it to a drunken party where chaos ensues because everyone gets a vote. Nobody even asked him for his opinion! 

Plato was born into Athenian aristocracy, and was sucking on his silver spoon by lecturing on virtue. He invented the concept of 'I am smarter than you, so shut up and let me decide.' This is literally the playbook of every dictator from Stalin to the Orange Turd Pile Sub-human Nobel Beggar. According to his Theory of Forms, the real world is just a pale shadow of perfect, eternal ideas floating about in some metaphysical ether. The chair that you are sitting on is not real, but the idea of chariness is. Basically, Plato devalues everything tangible, art, science and human experience. What a condescending prick! 

Plato was responsible for building the first ivory tower, which the intellectuals occupied for centuries while contemplating their beautiful navels. Plato also advocated for a rigid caste system, which is basically a form of eugenics. He suggested breeding humans like dogs for optimal traits, and lying to the masses with 'noble lies' to keep them in line. Karl Popper in The Open Society and its Enemies claims Plato's ideas inspired Hitler and Mussolini, and I believe him. Plato wanted to ban poets from the city-state. What kind of asshole fears imagination? 

Plato was actually a wrestling nickname and he was born as Aristocles. He came from wealth and privilege, in case we did not mention, at a time when the world was a far crueler and brutal place. He idolised Spartan austerity while living in Athens. What he did to Socrates was mean and cruel. Fuck Plato! 

Women were vessels for breeding philosophers. In Timaeus, the soul reincarnates downward from women or animals if it fails. This misogyny is not even subtle. Modern education still force feeds his cave allegory, teaching people to distrust their own senses. Plato's asshole legacy is rigid ideologies, anti-democratic populsim, and well, smug intellectuals who are the absolute worsest. 

In conclusion, fuck plato. His philosophy is just elitist escapism. For those who are flash-banged by him, there is no fucking cave. 

Stupid Landlord

My landlord keeps calling me from different numbers and expects me to pick up. I guess he has had too much experience in people avoiding his calls lol. Today is the 1st and I have to pay him, but I cannot unless my salary gets deposited. 

I really want to explain to him that I have a life, I do things in my time, and I am not sitting around waiting for him to call. Also, that I do not take calls from unknown numbers. Also, I don't take calls, period. At least 90 per cent of calls are not good for you, they are usually people who want something, that will be of no benefit to you. 

Spent a lot of time yesterday writing a detailed copy on Hubble Tension. The budget today morning was a bit of a bummer as there were no points on space, and very little on science. And it got over quickly, the whole newsroom was so prepared. It was eerie to walk through an office where everyone is watching the budget. The different video feeds were slightly off, some were using headphones, but many were not. IDK how people can function in an environment with so much noise pollution. 

When to the Taste Of Madras to consume two small puny vadas without sambar, which was my lunch, dinner and breakfast for today. Had idli-vada yesterday at this place called Raju Vaishnav Dhabha, that is right opposite the Iskon Temple in Delhi. This place gets as crowded as Carnatic Cafe or Juggernaut during the weekends, and the food is twice as good, priced at less than half. At least their chutney is gattier than the other two. 

Done with my work, and have about an hour and a half to kill. Will prolly go write something for Starbullet.in. 

I have also stuck a nice fake 500 Rs note on my desk. I have seen removal marks, so at least two people have tried to take it, discovered that it is fake, and have pinned it back lol.