Caffeine

 Caffeine is good. Humanity owes much to it.

Coffee, tea, yerba mate, coca cola - whatever your poison. 

With coffee, we are spoilt for choice - filter coffee, all the espressos and lattes, instant coffee - some of which can be very good. 

But as everything, coffee is about timing. When to consumes as much as what to consume.  Much as it happened in history.

Speaking of history, listen to this - Conquering the Night: The History of Coffee (youtube.com)

Our coffee epiphany happened in Utuado, Puerto Rico. Ergo, I will basically be partial to PR coffee forever. 

Cafe Gran Batey - this shall forever be the benchmark for us. I would go back to PR just to visit this coffee farm, meet the very lovely owner-farmers and buy some of their beans. 

Revenge of the Kadipatta

 One of the first things to hit the hot oil and impart its flavor.

One of the first things to be noticed as “this isn’t the sabji”.

And definitely the first thing taken out of a plate of poha.

Kadipatta has had enough. 

Bring on the mixer grinder and let the bastard grind you down with chilies, coconut and kaali mirch.

Ab nikaal kadipatta, bhosadikey. 

I, the mighty leaf of Indian cooking, have let loose the dogs of war. 

Iska swaad maaney Ranti Nasha. https://youtu.be/V3KVxT0xbMk?si=APrrHar3-bn8hIdA

India's Founding Moment

 This book is frustratingly enlightening. 

Frustrating because it was written by an academic, possibly for other academics - the language he employs does not make it easy.

However, and this is crucial, if you persevere through the academese, the incidents, concepts and people discussed here, give us a perspective that is fundamentally crucial to understanding Indian democracy as it was created. 

So, as we celebrate India’s T20 World Cup win, here is to a better understanding of why the Union exists. 

Make Cycling Great Again

Like the horse, it became an instrument of leisure and not of cheap, carbon free transportation for short distances.

It became the target market for all kinds of specialized merchandise that you could buy to make it more “pleasurable” and “efficient”.

There’s many an app that can tell you all your vitals were jacked up and you were at the peak of human performance while giving the public a view of spandex butt for many miles. 

Does no one just go for a bike ride anymore? In normal clothes? Cheap ass way of getting around like it used to be? Just to get some wind in your hair and enjoy the sunshine? 

I guess we deserve to sink in the rising oceans. Whilst wearing our lycra and checking Strava stats. 

Ridiculous.

Aham Brahmasmi

 Schopenhauer defined the Will as a “blind incessant impulse” that dictated the existence of both organic and inorganic matter. In human beings, the Will manifested itself in the form of a desire. Put simply, the Will is the ultimate, singular, and undefinable object of our most primordial instincts.

This irony, said Schopenhauer, was the root cause of all suffering. In Buddhist fashion, he argued that — in order to be truly at peace with ourselves — we had to break with the Will and the things that made us human.

Music is different from all other artforms because it alone is an expression of itself rather than something else. Notes and melodies, unlike phrases and colors, do not try to represent anything but can instead be appreciated simply for what they are. Schopenhauer believed music was a direct manifestation of the Will itself.

Consequently, when we listen to music, we feel as though we instantly connect with a higher truth, whatever that truth may be.

Well worth reading the original article - Schopenhauer: why music is the greatest and noblest of all artforms (bigthink.com)

Anyone who has grown up in an Eastern civilization and / or been exposed to Eastern schools of thought, can immediately and innately relate to this. 

As Indian Ocean the band puts it, “vileen ho jaaneka philosophy hai ….”. Loosely translated it means being immersed and one with the universe. 

So, whatever piece of music you are listening to, if you have ever had that moment of your stomach knotting, your lips and hands quivering, and tears liberating themselves from your eyes, maybe it is because, it is stirring the primordial soup of whatever it is that drives Us.

Slough

Boston Massachusetts in the US of A has a rich and storied history. Of glories and of fuck ups. MBTA, our home-grown transit system, is one of those massive fuck ups. 

So, to this Hall of Fuck-up Fame, I want to welcome the station of Slough which is far enough away from London that the good habits and standards from London haven’t affected it. Who needs good signage, update maps and helpful staff when you can make do without. 

Slough, I am sure you feel out of place, an outcaste even, in the excellent public transit system that runs greater London. We in Boston with our piece of shit transit would gladly embrace you. 

Whenever you can be bothered, that is. 

Carnival

 Go on the Ferris wheel. It will be fun. 

I was dreading it from the moment his mom had told them they were going to the travelling carnival that had pitched up on the open grounds close to the house. 

Maybe she wanted to get out of the house. Have something different to do. 

You boys go on the giant wheel and then we can get some makkey ki roti and sarson ka saag. 

My dread had started seeping in hours before it happened.

When I and my brother stood in line for the wheel, the diesel smoke reminded me of the fact that I had been thinking about it all day. 

I climbed into the wheel - the small enclosure seemingly like a prison and not at the same time. 

As the wheel got faster and faster, the dread kept rising. 

And then I popped. My lunch and the evening snack were on the floor of the prison. 

My head kept spinning. I had to get hold. 

When the wheel stopped, we jumped out as quickly as we could and ran away. 

Never looked back. 

Found mom - I asked her to take me home and comfort me. Never leaving her side. 

She sat with me as I washed and recovered. 

With disappointment brimming her eyes. The saag and roti that she dreamt of. For days. \

She had no stomach for it anymore. 

Neither of us spoke on the walk back home. We could see it in her eyes. 

The dimly lit streets were familiar and strange - they looked like distant cousins of the daytime view. 

Dad came home from work - tired and weary. Mom served him food and set our plates. She got some too. 

That night she didn't tell Dad everything that happened through the day. Or what happened in the afternoon soap operas. 

She did not ask him for his opinions on the social ongoings. Or the family budget for the week. 

That night she closed her eyes and lay still until sleep found her. 

Thrive to Survive

 So, if F1 is quite boring as a live sport - why are people interested? Where can you go get your fix?

One the former, I don’t have any answers - maybe it is the drama. Given the rise of reality TV and accessibility it brings might explain some of it. I haven’t a clue. 

But I would hazard that most of these fans will eventually leave - you cannot manufacture drama in something that is not based on generating drama. If F1 makes that pivot, I am out. 

One the latter question, there is definitely good news. 

So many race series around the world are thriving and offer excitement - we are spoilt for choice. 

I would proffer World Endurance Championship (WEC) and NASCAR as the leading contenders. 

What makes WEC exciting - traffic. I kid you not. Multiple categories competing at the same time on the same track at different speeds. Traffic is exciting. 

And NASCAR - well - it’s the drafting and the crashing and the fighting and the crashing and the burning and the crashing. YeeHawwwwwwwww!

And if that is not enough to give you your adrenaline fix - try these: Motogp, World Rally Championship, Indycar, Touring cars (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), Japanese SuperGT) and the various junior Formula series - F2, F3, Formula Renault etc. 

Drive to Revive

 Formula 1 has reached a whole new audience because of the Netflix treatment in Drive to Survive. 

And I am happy about that - no question. 

These new fans are now discovering the best kept secret about F1. 

It is boring. It will put you to sleep. 

The races are processions - and you already know the winner. 

We saw it with Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton and now with Max Verstappen. 

I have been watching F1 since 1996 and this has been true since then - A big rule change of any kind is followed by a dynastic performance by one team. 

There will be an odd exception here and there - but the fight to be top dog is decided outside the racetrack. 

The team that wrangles the new rules the best - will have a champion. 

So, what keeps me interested? It’s the technology. It’s always been about technology. 

From the aerodynamics to chassis dynamics to electronics to race strategies. F1 is at the pinnacle for each one of these. No expense spared - so far. 

The budget cap might have a small impact on it, but F1 will still remain at the bleeding edge of automotive technology. 

If you find your jollies in the geekery of engineering, F1 is definitely for you. Siempre. 

All Tool, no Futz

 Photography has been a hobby as long as I can remember. 

With time, cameras got better and so did some of the photos. 

My time would be spent wrangling with the camera settings to get it to obey me. Sometimes I almost got it right. Being of limited talent and all that. 

Taming the Manual mode felt like being creative. Setting up the buttons and dials to be just so. Ooh those custom settings and dials work so well. 

More time thinking about gear and acquiring more gear and finding faults with said gear. 

Bob Kramer, a master knife maker and Hugh Brownstone, a street photographer (from who i borrow the title) pulled down the veils on this nonsense for me. 

A knife is a tool - the goal is good food. 

A camera should be invisible - what is important is to capture a moment and realize your vision for it. 

A tool is something i use to achieve an end goal. 

The tool, in itself can be interesting and beautiful and indulgent. Even be a work of art. Like a Hasselblad.

We can argue Android vs Apple till the cows come home and die and become beef to be consumed. 

But that is not the goal. Enabling human endeavor is.

Tools should be invisible and weightless in the pursuit of that goal.

How well can the tool get out of the way - that is the rubric by which any tool should be judged. 

Daffodils

 As the only poem that I remember from school, the association is instantaneous and overwhelming. 

…… For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

- From “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth

Pic location: New England Botanical Gardens, Boylston MA. 

Epilogue: SUV Glam

 Glam metal confused and splintered the metal music industry. 

But it did not deter true creatives and real diehards.

In the relative silence of the underground, the people who loved the music went to work. And from those wonderfully weird depths of darkness sprang forth a beautiful fountain of art. 

When glam was ready to roll over and die under a mound of cocaine and hubris, the curtains revealed a veritable feast - Grunge, Nu-metal, Black, Death, Doom, Progressive, Tech, Folk, Kawaii etc. - a sub-genre for any adjective you can think of. 

As the wise Eric Martin Ain put it, “…there are many many more shades and colors to darkness than just black….”

Today metal is creatively fecund and well. And that gives me hope. 

At some point, the world will see the foolishness that is the SUV epidemic. 

And when the SUV’s eventually fuck off into the back halls of posterity - because something else becomes popular, what kind of vehicles and automotive solutions will take its place? 

What shapes and sounds and capacities lie in the beyond? What modes of propulsion?

I cannot wait for the future already. An SUV-less future? Maybe not.

But a less-SUV future. Let's fucking go.

Boston Marathon 2024

 It’s the day to ship off to Boston - we welcome spring and athletes from all corners of the world.

For the authentic experience, you have to take the T.

We love something because it has faults. It is fallible. That makes it human. And so is the case with the T. 

It’s like a crazy spouse - one that might try to kill you. Might even succeed. But will always love you. 

                                              

No - these are not extras or amateur entertainers; these are athletes participating in the marathon. The Wheelchair and Para categories are the ones that set off first and then get to the finish line the quickest. 

Proves that running isn’t fast enough on a consistent basis. Wheels are better. But what the hell.

                                                 

Of course, we have to reach Boston and pahk. and it does not mattah if you don’t touch the tahmac. Everyone pays to pahk anywhere. Who do ya think you aah? A blimp?

                                    

We had a lot of fun is what we want to portray on social media. In reality, it was all fear and loathing and consistent foreboding. 

                                                

And some nice sights on the way back home. Only looks good when the weather co-operates. And when tourist naff is absent.

So, how do you like them apples?

Never go full glam.

 If you are younger or more musically discriminating or just uninterested in anything 80’s, you wouldn’t have heard of this term called glam metal. 

And instead of burying you with a trash heap of words to describe this car crash of a musico-sartorial movement, please stare at the below image - overexposure might burn your retinas and kill some grey cells. 

Potted history: somewhere in the early eighties, Van Halen and Motley Crue were putting out good music. But people were more interested in their fashion than the guitar solos and good song writing. 

One thing led to another, music was kicked out of the car and had to take a cab to the beauty salon. This epidemic of hair spray is what eventually came to be known as glam metal. 

This music was so popular that other music went underground. Many squillions of dollars were made. 

Most of it - erm, almost all of it was utter garbage. Because it had nothing to do with good music. 

If metal music has a foundational trauma in its history, it is glam metal. Trust me, it was difficult to even write this. 

I wanted to use this movement as an analogy - to address a car buying habit that is following something similar. The rise of the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).

SUV’s came from military vehicles - roughly speaking. The idea was to make cars rough and ready to take any terrain. There was enough interest that civilian models were made - think early Toyota Land Cruisers, Willys Jeep, Mercedes Benz G-wagon. 

Fair enough. In combination with low fuel prices, people wanting to avoid the minivan-suburban image and growing life expectancies, SUV’s went from a niche to a booming market. 

The companies saw the trend and got their grubby hands on the concept. Zeitgeist.

                                    

From a niche market, to essentially every car being sold in the US these days. 

So now you have many many SUV’s - small and big. Tall and less tall. 5 and 7 seaters. Bulky and bulkier. Hybrid and ICE and EV. 

In the process, SUV’s practically killed off the sedan, hatchback and minivan. And created a whole army of brick faced unrecognizable facsimiles that even the manufacturer wouldn’t be able to tell apart. 

Of course, there are good ones here and there - but the vast majority are unengaging, gas guzzling, tire and brake and tarmac chewing phatboy road cloggers driven by people who are uninterested in cars and think that the arrival of a new baby has to be celebrated by a buying an SUV. 

And the car enthusiasts, and small car buyers and the true eco-conscious were left stranded or bankrupted. 

Many squillions of dollars were made.

In short, the SUV went full glam. And just like glam, eventually, it will crash, burn and be denounced.

Basic Rhythms

 We all find life lessons and values in things that we are attached to and like. 

I found some of mine from musicians, who, on the whole can be a tricky bunch - some with very questionable motivations. 

But there is always gold to be found - happy listening. 

Mike Mangini talking about why being open minded is the most important thing for any artist.

Chris Adler on his “why” for playing drums.

Gaining Blood

 Did you travel outside of the USA and Canada in the last year?

Yes. 

Where to?

India. 

Oh, that’s bad news. You cannot donate blood for 3 years because you lived in a malaria endemic area. 

But I asked the hospital about that, and they said you just need a 3-month deferral if you were traveling through and not lived there. 

Right, so when did you come back? 

6-Jan-24. 

Ok, so Feb, Mar, April. Yes, that is 3 months. 

~~pokerfaced

So, I think you can donate. When did you visit India before that?

Last year. 

So, you visit India every year? that might cause a problem. 

No, last year’s visit was after 5 years of not visiting. 

Ohh, so 5 years. That sounds alright. it should be OK.

~~pokerfaced

I did not know donating blood had a possibly mathematical-ethical gray area. But there you are. 

Maybe that is why vampires went extinct - no blood was exchanged for fear of lawsuits. Oh well. 

A Plea

Here is an idea for smartphone makers to add value - like actual value. 

Don’t give us gimmicky camera modes that become outdated in 2 days. 

Or worry about how big a notch is on the screen. 

Give us a concert mode. 

Yes - a concert mode, which lets the owner of the phone not be an absolute dripping douchebag to fellow concert goers. 

Allow me to explain. 

Your screens are too bright. I know you want to challenge the capricious sun for lumens per square centimeter and down here on earth you even succeed. 

But it becomes a naval searchlight being focused at my goddam face when it’s a dark concert hall. 

You already have us humans hooked to our dumb phones so badly that we have to check them every 5 seconds, lest a rat run away with another slice of pizza without us seeing. 

And the hamsters that we are, we are prepared to violate every bound of human decency to follow our lizard brain. 

The fact that it drives some of us to have murderous thoughts about our neighbor, suggests that we have gone too far. 

Ergo, the concert mode.

In this mode - the phone will never ring. Or buzz. Infact, it will be airplane mode without the option of connecting to Wi-Fi. 

The screen brightness will go to Nokia 3310 levels. Barely readable. And the screen will be grayscale - none of them colors hanging about. 

The flash on your camera is de-activated. And your camera will only take 3 images for the duration of the concert mode. 

Here is the real secret sauce - the more fidgety and screen check-y you are, the longer the screen will remain in blackout. Not even the clock will show. 

So, if you check your phone every 2 mins, your phone will go dark for about 1 hour in concert mode. Lookey at phone every 1 mins, and it will be 2 hours. So on and forth. 

And if the owner identifies as an Indian male above the age of 45, this mode will wipe the data in your phone clean off if you even so much as take it out of your pocket. 

It’s only fair, to protect the rest of us and in the long run, the owner himself.