Year Marches On…

I’ve been going on about not visiting a new city on my wedding anniversary since 2023. So the obvious question that arises is what all cities did we visit before then. And the obvious answer is this post. Let’s start!

2013: Goa – It was what is generally called the “Honeymoon” trip. It was described here.

2014: Shri Dungargarh – It was what is generally called the “Paper” Anniversary and we spent it in my hometown. One of Her friends who couldn’t make it to Our wedding, made it to this celebration.

2015: Taipei – It was what is called tired of anniversaries in two years. She came to Taipei from Guangzhou during this time and we spent time exploring the city of Taipei.

2016: Siem Reap – It was the first “international” trip on our anniversary. We enjoyed it a lot as discussed here.

2017: Hualien & Tamsui – It was the time when my postdoc was ending at NTU so we didn’t venture too far from Taipei. The first trip is showcased here and a snippet from the second:

2018: Kolkata – It was the time when we were expecting Sakura so we just stayed put where we were.

2019: Darjeeling – It was the first trip with Sakura on our anniversary and she definitely enjoyed it with us as seen here.

2020: Bangkok & Krabi – It was the first (and most probably last) international trip with Sakura on our anniversary (just before Covid-19 and associated travel restrictions hit!) and she was joyful on this trip as well.

2021: Kalimpong – It was the one of very few possibilities and we were glad that we took this trip.

2022: Jaipur – It was our first trip as a family in Rajasthan and we covered a lot as discussed here.

2023: Udaipur – It was our second trip as a family in Rajasthan and we covered a lot as discussed here.

So that is all the decade worth of travelling collated in a single blog post. It is also worth re-iterating that just because we stopped travelling at the end of January doesn’t mean we stopped travelling altogether! To make up for that deficit, we have been travelling a month earlier (near the end of December), so for the last two years, I could as well make these entries:

20243: Chennai & Mahabalipuram – It was our first trip as a family in Tamil Nadu and is showcased here.

20254: Madurai & Rameswaram – It was our second trip as a family in Tamil Nadu and She hasn’t made an album for it so nothing to showcase here. It was a nice trip overall, though certain elements could have been avoided in hindsight.

Anyway, I won’t bore you with nothing in particular anymore and leave you with two shers of Dr. Nawaz Deobandi.

दुश्मन हमारी हार पे खुश थे बहुत मियां
लेकिन हमारे दोस्त भी कम खुश नहीं रहे

Dushman hamaari haar pe khush the bahut miyaan
Lekin hamaare dost bhi kam khush nahin rahe

Enemies were overjoyed with my defeat
But my friends' joy was no less sweet!

वो हमेशा यही कहता था की तुम बेहतर हो
मैं समझता हूँ की वो शख्श बहुत बेहतर था

Wo hamesha yahi kahata tha ki tum behtar ho
Main samajhta hun ki wo shakhsh bahut behtar tha

That one always did insist that you are better
I realized that that person was much better!

–नवाज़ देवबन्दी (Nawaaz Deobandi)

Where will you travel this year?

Early Learnings

January in 2025 hasn’t felt like January’s of other years. For once, a month has felt like a year. So, on the 1st of February, I would like to share with you all the lessons I have learnt in the last 31 days.

First lesson:

That gifting books you haven't read yourself can be a risky endeavor. During Christmas last year, I gifted a set of award-winning books to someone. These books were actually on my own wishlist, and I hadn't had the chance to read them before gifting. When the new year began, I finally read them myself and realized that they probably weren't the best fit for the recipient after all. They likely didn't enjoy them as much as I had hoped. This experience taught me a valuable lesson: it's important to only preach what you practice. Sharing personal recommendations or gifts should come from a place of genuine experience and understanding. This way, you can ensure that the recipient will appreciate and enjoy the gift as much as you intended.

Takeaway:

Always make sure you are familiar with the contents of the books you give, so you can genuinely recommend them to others.

Second Lesson:

Not directly urging people to take actions, except in situations involving my children or within my reporting line at work. This lesson hit home when I decided to meet a friend visiting from another city. My enthusiasm inadvertently prompted other friends to travel long distances, all while navigating Bengaluru's famously hectic traffic. It made me aware of how our well-intended actions can create situations where others feel compelled to follow, despite the inconveniences.

Takeaway:

Always be mindful of how your actions and decisions might unintentionally influence others. Reflect on whether you are subtly pressuring people into actions they wouldn't normally take if it weren't for your involvement. By thinking aloud and considering the broader impact, you can foster an environment where everyone feels comfortable making choices without undue pressure.

Third Lesson:

Not to label one person's choices as better or worse than another's. As people grow older, their priorities and preferences naturally evolve. Some may seek out comfort and stability, finding solace in a routine that brings them peace. Others might feel the need to take a break and step back from the pressures of life to rejuvenate and reflect. Meanwhile, there are those who remain driven, motivated to push themselves harder in pursuit of their goals and ambitions. It's crucial to recognize that none of these paths are inherently right or wrong. They are simply the diverse choices people make as they navigate through different stages of their lives. These decisions are influenced by various factors such as personal experiences, aspirations, and changing circumstances.

Takeaway:

The most important takeaway from this realization is that as long as the choices people make bring them happiness and fulfillment, and they don’t cause harm to others, those choices are perfectly valid and acceptable. This understanding fosters a sense of empathy and respect for the individuality of each person's journey. It encourages us to support one another, regardless of the different paths we may choose to follow, and to appreciate the uniqueness of our diverse experiences.

Fourth Lesson:

Humans, in their essence, are inherently flawed, and perfection is an unattainable goal for anyone. While nobody is perfect, there are some people whose beliefs, values, and outlook on life align more closely with our own. These connections resonate deeply with us and foster a sense of camaraderie and mutual understanding. It's perfectly acceptable, and often necessary, to gravitate towards those individuals whose values and beliefs mirror our own. Surrounding ourselves with people who share our core principles can provide a supportive and enriching environment, allowing us to thrive. Conversely, it’s also okay to distance ourselves from those whose values significantly diverge from ours. This isn’t a judgment of their character, but rather an acknowledgment of the importance of aligning ourselves with people who positively contribute to our well-being and personal growth.

Takeaway:

The most significant takeaway from this realization is that our time on this planet is finite and precious. We must choose our companions wisely, investing our limited time and energy in relationships that bring us joy, support, and fulfillment. By selectively nurturing these meaningful connections, we can cultivate a more harmonious and satisfying life, enriching our personal journey and the lives of those around us.

The picture below has nothing to do with the post but reminds me that Sakura-chan has recently made some cacti for me using Lego.

Another Year Ends…

…as usual. This time the number was 2024.

Let us recap my “predictions” for 2024 from last year’s post and see what all came true!

• January: For the first time in a decade, my Superpartner and I did not go to a new city to celebrate our wedding anniversary. TRUE

• February: Sino-Taiwan war started finally! FALSE

• March: Our grand tour of Rajasthan started. FALSE

• April: The grand tour continued since the war had jeopardized our plans to visit Taiwan. FALSE

• May: Back to Bengaluru for a new academic session. TRUE

• June: Puerto Rico became 51^st state of USA. FALSE

• July: I finally published a paper that I’d been working on for the last two years! FALSE

• August: Rishi Sunak attacked. FALSE

• September: John Oliver dies. FALSE

• October: Nobel Prizes announced. TRUE

• November: World population decimated due to Rovid-24. FALSE

• December: This blog ends due to obvious reasons. FALSE

So almost nothing came true! But Ian Hislop was involved in a couple of incidents this year…

Anyway, let us make this list a tradition and I review 2025 on a pro-rata basis:

• January: D. Trump did something sensible which made America great again.

• February: Coldest temperatures ever recorded in Rajasthan.

• March: My daughter for the first time found an exam hard and scored bad.

• April: I spent the entire month enjoying winter in Rajasthan instead of visiting Taiwan.

• May: Back to Bengaluru for a new academic session in the hottest month of the year.

• June: UK’s economy collapsed despite K. Starmer’s best efforts.

• July: I finally published a paper that I’d been working on for the last three years!

• August: Paul Merton attacked and WW III started in earnest.

• September: John Oliver died and WW III at its peak.

• October: Nobel Prizes not announced due to WW III.

• November: World population decimated due to WW III.

• December: This blog ends due to obvious reasons.

Proper 2024 Review

Algorithms, Algorithms, Everywhere…

One of my sisters/cousins sent a book to me this year during Dusshera, which is titled “Algorithms to Live by” by Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths. Its subtitle is “The Computer Science of Human Decisions”. I have now finished reading it, which made me think this can be another post for my blog and that’s why we are here.

You might be asking yourself what is this book about and should I get one too. I will answer both of your questions. The answer to the first question is what you might expect. This book discusses algorithms that may be useful during certain events in one’s life. The events can be anything from something special like going to a casino, to something mundane like sorting your book collection, to something regular like parking your vehicle, to something exciting like planning guest seating at your wedding, to something dumb like finding a life partner (or a secretary), to something as practical as scheduling your everyday tasks. The answer to the second question is why not! Here’s a quote from the book that recommends this decision:

We can hope to be fortunate – but we should strive to be wise.

What this seems to mean to me is that we may be fortunate in enjoying certain outcomes once in a while but being wise is something that will guide our approach that will (more or less) guarantee favourable outcomes regularly. This book will make you worldly-wise about which approach to take in various situations to maximize favourable outcomes. Fortune can come and go but wisdom, once acquired, is always there to guide. Through life and death. So it is time for

Your Wise Decision

The Colours Within

It is quite nice that Japanese animation movies are being released in India nowadays with increasing regularity. Last week, we went to watch a “musical” anime called “The Colors Within”. It was a simple slice of life anime with fun and funny elements all the way through. Three kids meet over their interest in music and form a band out of the blue and get an opportunity to perform at their school! That’s the simple plot of the movie and the music is quite catchy. Sakura & Snehil haven’t been able to shake it off yet. Specially the rhyming words used in one of the “rock-ing” songs: Amen & Sōmen!

Anyway, more than the music, I got interested in one of the philosophical discourse between the main character (one of the three kids) and her teacher about a prayer. The main character is shown a few times sitting in a church and reciting a prayer asking God to grant her “Serenity to accept things I can’t change”. In the last of such scenes, the teacher notices her and asks her why does she not recite the full prayer! The teacher then completes the prayer (rather the first stanza) with two more lines whose paraphrasing reads “Courage to change things I can” and “Wisdom to know the difference!”.

That third line makes all the difference in that prayer. I feel the first two lines may be used to justify any behaviour but the last one puts the onus back on oneself. Much like it’s my responsibility to complete the post quota on this blog and I have the wisdom to know that I have the courage to get that done.

One more month to go

Art & Craft

Apparently, my daughter’s English teacher has asked all her students to bring a mini dictionary to school. So, as any sensible father would do, I gave my daughter a dictionary from my own childhood. I had used it during my schooldays and is most definitely (at least) 25 years old. Its plastic cover has suffered a lot of wear and tear but its pages feel almost new. So nothing really hinders its usage.

  

She was all right with her new possession and started taking it to school after her Diwali holidays. She must have introduced it as her father’s and her “friends” must have made fun of that. Anyway, after a couple of days, I asked her if she was using it much during her classes and she said yes. But she also revealed that she found a small piece of paper with a sketch on it. She claimed it must be my work and her “friends” must have made fun of that too! I asked her to show it to me and here it is:

I don’t really remember drawing this sketch of a character from Dragon Ball Z. If I’m not mistaken, it’s a Namekian named Dende. But the background problem of Physics / Maths suggests it must be my handiwork! I am not known to have doodled in my classes but then there must have been some specially dull ones or free ones. Nice one, if I say so myself.

Happy Diwali

Till the bitter end…

As I wrote in this post, Sakura and I had planted 3 sunflower seeds. We were all excited when Sakura got a “grow your own sunflowers” kit as a gift. We opened it carefully, mixed soil & coco-peat pellets, filled this mixture into the included yellow container (which Sakura decorated creatively with stickers & stuff), and sowed the three seeds as instructed. We watered them regularly but only one of those seeds germinated. And after 6 weeks of taking care of it, we bid that sapling goodbye today. Here are some details about this sad journey.

Week 0 (20/07): We were eager to see the 3 seeds germinate into 3 little saplings. On the morning of 5th day (25/07), we witnessed one seed had broken through the soil cover and sprouted two leaves proudly standing nearly 2 cm tall. Sadly, the other two seeds never germinated. The rest of the story follows this single plant.

 

Week 1 (27/07): We watered regularly and by regularly I mean everyday, keeping the soil wet but not soggy as instructed. We kept the sapling in the sunshine during afternoons for nearly 3-4 hours daily. (We do not have a place that gets enough sunshine during the morning hours and which is suitable for keeping the plant too.) It sprouted two more leaves and had grown half an inch taller but I forgot to take a photo for this week to document its growth.

Week 2 (03/08): We continued to water the little sapling, keeping it in sunshine, etc. It had sprouted two more tiny leaves between the two newer leaves of the past week and had grown half an inch taller.

 

Week 3 (10/08): Very much like week 2. It had grown half an inch taller and the tiny leaves had become a bit more prominent. These were exciting times but we also started seeing the oldest two leaves turning yellowish. We were a bit disheartened and started wondering how to increase the sunlight hours or if decreasing the amount of water would help too.

 

Week 4 (17/08): We started watering it on alternate day as the soil was remaining wet longer and the weather was mostly cloudy. Sunshine hours had decreased drastically too! No new leaves sprouted and the older leaves started looking unwell too. This crashed our hopes of seeing the plant grow any further and even impossible to see any sunflowers blooming on this plant.

 

Week 5 (24/08): We kept up watering on alternate days and showing it the Sun whenever possible during the cloudy & rainy days of this week. The plant was definitely not doing well and we wondered what had gone wrong. Did the sand not have the right nutrients to start with? Were the seeds not good enough? Did we mess with the water? Or sunlight? We will never know the full answer.

 

Week 6 (31/08): Nothing much will happen regarding this plant now so here’s the log book which we kept during the last month or so.

In the aftermath, we have bought some indoor plants (Aglaonema Commutatum / Silver Queen), which apparently require no maintenance and need to be watered only once in 10 days. Let's see how these plants fare and whether we can see them around for long.

Get Your Own Plant

Snail as a Pet?

We noticed a small creature crawling away from the area where all the BigBasket delivered stuff had been present just a while ago. It was barely a centimeter in length and half of that in height. It was our first time seeing a snail this small! We placed it on a spinach leaf (which was one of the items just delivered) and moved it out to the balcony.

Snapped quite a few photos and a video. These were then edited to make 2 videos each via two video editors: GoPro’s Quik Video Editor (on my Nokia G60) and Microsoft’s Clipchamp (on my Surface Pro 7). Enjoy these videos and let me know which one(s) you liked the most!

   

Edited by Quik on NG60

   

Edited by Clipchamp on SP7

Snail

Encore! Encore!! Encore!!!

I wonder. I respect.

तुझे सोचें तो फिर सोते कहाँ हैं
हम इतने बे-अदब होते कहाँ हैं

Tujhe sochen to phir sote kahaan hain
Ham itne be-adab hote kahaan hain

Sleeping while thinking of you, never so
Am I being that discourteous, never so

बयाँ करते भी हैं तो दिल की हालत
ये आँसू आँख के होते कहाँ हैं

Bayaan karte bhi hain to dil ki haalat
Ye aansu aankh ke hote kahaan hain

They do describe but the state of the heart
Do these tears belong to the eyes, never so

बनाना पड़ते हैं हिम्मत से अपनी
सफर में रास्ते होते कहाँ हैं

Banaana padte hain himmat se apni
Safar mein raaste hote kahaan hain

Our own courage has made them possible
Else this journey and such roads, never so

तेरा होने का वादा कैसे कर लें
हम अपने ही कभी होते कहाँ हैं

Tera hone ka waada kaise karle
Ham apne hi kabhi hote kahaan hain

How do I promise of being yours
Have I ever been one’s, never so

–वसीम बरेलवी (Waseem Barelvi)

I’m speechless. I’m overwhelmed.

नहीं बदलेगा, बदला कुछ नहीं है
मचाओ शोर, होता कुछ नहीं है

Nahin badlega, badla kuch nahin hai
Machaao shor, hota kuch nahin hai

Won’t change, nothing has changed
Make noise, what’s done is nothing

मैं शर्मिंदा हूँ, आज अपने किए पर
मगर कल का भरोसा कुछ नहीं है

Main sharminda hun aaj apne kié par
Magar kal ka bharosa kuch nahin hai

I am ashamed for what I’ve done today
But what about tomorrow, it is nothing

उसी के पीछे पीछे दौड़ती है
जो दुनिया को समझता कुछ नहीं है

Usi ke peechhe peechhe dauDti hai
Jo duniya ko samajhta kuch nahin hai

It keeps running behind them
Who think the world is nothing

कनारे तक ही अंदेशे हैं सारे
उतर जाओ तो दरिया कुछ नहीं है

Kanaare tak hi andeshe hain saare
Utar jaao to dariya kuch nahin hai

All doubts come till the shore
Get in and the river is nothing

–वसीम बरेलवी (Waseem Barelvi)

I’m in tears. I’m in ecstasy.

Waseem Barelvi at Shabd 2024

How about the previous one?