Month: August 2018

  • Arrow of the Blue Skinned God

    Jonah Blank

    If you read the book solely for the connection to mythology, you might come away disappointed. It happened to me for most of the book until I framed it as a travelogue which happened to connect to the Ramayana and its principal characters in quite a few ways. In that frame, barring a couple of questionable occurrences, (“feni in Kerala” made me wonder whether calling Bruce Lee a cricketer was actually sarcasm) it does a wonderfully lucid job.

    The book was published in 1992 and it is always a pleasure to travel in time through books because, to quote the author, it “presents a picture of a certain place at a certain time, as seen by a certain person at a certain stage of his own life”. It is quite an interesting time to read this because 1992 was a landmark year for the powers that govern the country now. I’m referring to the demolition of the Babri Masjid. That’s where this journey starts.

    I think the problem was in my expectations. I thought this would be a linear journey – both in terms of the chronology of the events in the Ramayana, as well as in terms of covering the geography featured in the epic. It doesn’t work that way. While there are definitely quite a few interesting explorations of the geography, the book is more a study on the deep impact that the epic has even today in the life of an Indian. Not just at an individual level, but the societal, cultural, and political aspects as well.  (more…)

  • Brooks and Bonds Brewery

    The last time we were in Koramangala 100 ft Road, a fancy crane without any accompanying construction work caught our attention. Turned out to be an accessory for Brooks and Bonds, which I later realised was a microbrewery. So we absolutely had to plan a trip. One fine, windy Sunday, we did just that. The place has an industrial theme with the beer making process also becoming part of the decor. The elements include everything from meters, gauges and wheels to construction equipment. All of this is apparently spread through three floors and a rooftop though we could only manage to see one, since we were told the rooftop (and presumably the other areas) were open only in the evenings. We sat outside and had to manage with a standard table until we got those high stool ones along the edge that gave us a nice view of the Koramangala skyline.

    collage 1 (more…)

  • The abstraction of trust

    Usually, I use evolution. But that indicates a forward movement, and in this case, I am not so sure now! I had a thought on how the notion of trust in transactions has changed, and felt that I should document it, even if it’s in a super simplistic way!

    1. It began with a producer/consumer – consumer/producer relationship in the form of barter.

    2. A central currency suddenly opened up trade and now it could just be producer – consumer

    3. That also meant that a middleman could enter the system, hence a producer – seller – consumer (more…)

  • Stories of your Life and Others

    Ted Chiang

    I’m a fan!
    One of the reasons I like science fiction as a genre is because of its ability to broaden thinking horizons. This is speculative fiction at its best! Each of the eight stories is different yet wonderful in their own right, because they explore realms not just with imagination but with humaneness.

    What makes it even more fascinating is that unlike the usual hits in the genre, none of the stories are set in the future. In fact one is based on the Tower of Babel, another is more aligned to steampunk and the others seem more an alternate present than an alternate future. What is common among all these though is that the reader doesn’t really feel the temporal shift. Somehow the author normalises it in the first page itself! (more…)

  • Vapour Brewpub and Diner (Sarjapur Road)

    A microbrewery is compulsion enough for me to travel to any part of Bangalore, even Sarjapur Road. Some people are not completely in control of their faculties after a few beers, craft beer works for me the other way. That probably explains why I forgot that two of my least favourite microbreweries outside of that hideousness called 3 Monkeys exist on Sarjapur Road. In my defense, our visit to Vapour in Indiranagar, despite the negative reactions we had heard, wasn’t bad at all.

    So one fine cloudy Sunday, we chose to travel to Vapour. The place is huge, and while we were there, the alfresco section was kept closed. Predictably, they tried to squeeze everybody into the areas they had kept open. We got ourselves a table on the upper floor. The decor is very lively, despite the distraction of a giant TV. They had a DJ as well. There was a buffet available, but we chose a la carte.

    collage 1 (more…)