Random. Rambling. Revival.

Hello, there! Well that is one way of starting a post when you don’t have anything set in mind and the objective is just to ramble on. Life has seen its fair share of ups and downs since I last wrote a blog post with the real intention of writing one. The last 2 posts that you see in this blog, posted towards the fag end of 2018, were originally posted in Facebook and I posted the same here in order to avoid a blank in terms of the no. of blog posts in 2018.

I sit and wonder how our preferences change over the course of time. Our priorities change and things that were prominent once, no longer feature in the prioritized list of things to do. Certainly, opinions change too. With the boom of social media, I have learnt from personal experience that it’s best to keep our opinions to ourselves, as far as possible, rather than air them in social media.

One strong opinion that I had 2 years ago, crumbled over the past few months. If you remember this post, you would know how much I adored this city of Bombay, back then. A few people told me then that since I was living close to my place of work, I was saved from the brutal experience of travel in Bombay, especially during the monsoons. This year, the monsoon rains set a record and they certainly tested my patience on more than one occasion. I now strongly feel that it is not okay on the part of Mumbaikars to take everything in their stride and move on like nothing happened. The city certainly needs an infrastructural revamp to keep up with the growing needs of the exponentially growing population. Having said that, I should also acknowledge here that there are more infrastructural projects in the works in Bombay than in any other city in the country. The pace of the projects need to be improved.

Writing reviews for films is something that I started by chance. Over the course of the last 3-4 years, it is something that my friends and followers in Facebook have come to associate me with. I was surprised to know that some friends and family members, even in the US and the Middle East, decided on films based on my reviews. This cheered me up. At the same time, it also made me more responsible as it was important that I give out unbiased views. I try my best to see a film as a film. As a form of entertainment. I try to present my views as a layman would. I succeed and I also fail. In some cases, some biases do creep in, subconsciously. I am human, after all.

A sea change that has happened over the last 3-4 years is the transition from the big screen to the small screen. Here, I mean the transition from laptops to mobile phones. With the advancement in mobiles, I rarely use laptops outside of office, these days. Mobile gets every work done for me. But this also means increased risk of health issues like eye strain and neck pain.

One certain thing that mobile has done to me (and many like me) is that it has created enough distractions that my actual reading (non- screen reading) has dropped dramatically. This is something that I am ashamed of and I crave for the guy who used to sit with his books for hours together, completely forgetting the fact that there was a world outside. It helps that my wife reads every day, despite using the mobile extensively. This has kept me vigilant of the fact that I have many books waiting to be read. I hope it’s only a matter of time before I turn the corner on this front. Let’s see.

I think I have rambled enough for a post to revive a blog. I am not going to promise anything to myself or my readers, but I feel I should use this blog more frequently to ramble on about random stuff, if not for anything, but at least to keep the writer in me alive and kicking, outside of Facebook. That would do for now. In my next post, I wish to write about some interesting podcasts that I have been listening to, lately. Hope it materializes soon. Adios, amigos! (caught on to that bye-bye phrase, thanks to my new Boat Rockerz Bluetooth earphones which sign off that phrase when turned off).

A year end summary - as usual

Summing up a year is an exercise I quite enjoy doing. Biggest highlight of the year was, of course, getting married. 😊 It's been an enjoyable journey and have to say, by all means, this has been a good year, both personally and professionally.

In terms of my interests, I certainly could have done more - be it writing or watching movies or reading. But no regrets as I kept myself engaged, nevertheless.

Watched 38 movies this year - down from 61 last year, but that's ok. The following were the movies that I enjoyed the most this year (in no particular order):

1. Bohemian Rhapsody

2. 96 (Tamil)

3. Vada Chennai (Tamil)

4. Padman (Hindi)

5. 2 Point 0 (Tamil)

I did miss out on a few good movies and I hope to catch them soon. Prime amongst them were Pariyerum Perumal (Tamil) and Mahanati (Telugu).

Reading has certainly taken a backseat this year. I sincerely hope to correct this in 2019. Let's see.

Fitness goals were reached in the first half of the year (cue Wedding), and all the weight lost was regained in the 2nd half of the year. 😜 Anyway, this is one area for me to focus on this year.

The year had considerably less travel compared to the previous 2 years. The most memorable travel was the trip to Mauritius, post our wedding. Hope to travel to more (new) places in the coming year. Let's see.

One thing I ask myself at the end of every year is whether I have improved myself as a person (in all aspects) over the previous year. If the answer is yes, then that's progress. Happy that I've progressed this year. Hoping for the same to continue next year too.

Here's hoping for 2019 with all the things stated above and more. Cheers! 😊

Wish you all a very happy new year! 😊

The Extremities - A bit of Geography

The below post is based on an update I posted in Facebook, a month ago.

A bit of Geography:

I came across this question recently: What is the furthest that you have been in your country in terms of latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates in all 4 directions?

Interesting question. After a wee bit of research using Google Maps, here's my answer:

North:

Northern-most point in India (within our control (LoC)) is Indira Col in Siachen Glacier - 35 deg 40 min N

Northern-most point accessible to civilians is Turtuk Village in Ladakh - 34 deg 51 min N

Northern-most point that I have been to - Nubra Valley in Ladakh - 34 deg 36 min N

South:

Southern-most point in India is Indira Point in Andaman & Nicobar Islands - 6 deg 47 min N

Southern-most point controlled by India if you consider our research stations in Antarctica is Maitri - 70 deg 32 min S

Another research station of ours in Antarctica is Dakshin Gangotri - 70 deg 12 min S

Southern-most point in mainland India and that I have been to is Kanyakumari - 8 deg 4 min N

West:

Western-most point in India is Guhar Moti village in Sir Creek (Narayan Sarovar district) in Gujarat - 68 deg 2 min E

Western-most point that I have been to is Ahmedabad - 72 deg 24 min E

East:

Eastern-most point in India is the town Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh - 97 deg 24 min E

Eastern-most point that I have been to is Kolkata - 88 deg E

When I expand the scope of this question to the whole world and not just India, I realized that the North and the East points remain the same for me. Western-most changes to Dubai (54 deg 56 min E) and the Southern-most changes to Mauritius (20 deg 30 min S).

Meanwhile, the highest point that I have been in (India or abroad) is Khardung La Top in Ladakh (5359 m high).

Fascinating, isn't it? I really love the fact that the Google Maps has started projecting the map in a globe form instead of Mercator projection.

On that note, I'll try to write about the cons of following the Mercator projection, sometime soon. Hopefully.

For now, let me part with cheers to Geography and to the awesome Geography teacher - Sujatha Ma'am, who taught us the subject in our school - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, RS Puram, Coimbatore - and instilled a love for the subject in us. Cheers, ma'am, if you ever stumble upon this post.

A year that got me ‘a dear’

It’s the end of the year and time for my end-of-the-year post. What surprises and saddens me at the same time is the fact that this is just my third post this year. I’ve been saying that I have to write more, but mere talking never helps in this case. It’s the action and not the words that count. Well, having given myself a tight slap with the previous sentence, let’s move on to other things.

The year has been good to me in more ways than one and despite the occasional lows, there’s very little cause for complaint. Let me break the big news to those few of you who don’t follow me in any social media platforms but here. I’m engaged. Yes, you read that right. That explains the title of this post. :-) I can shout and make it dramatic like Monica Geller, but let me leave that part to my fiancée, who, by the way, is called Monica. Well, not quite. She’s Moneeka, but yeah. It may seem like quite a coincidence for those of you who might have read my previous blog post. Well, that post was a figment of my imagination and quite rightly, my fiancée observed that the girl in that post was too idealistic to be true. Ha ha. No pressure, darling. Jokes apart, with that big news in tow, I guess I am allowed that bit of room for excuse for not keeping up with my promise, atleast on the writing front. I did write a small poem to break this news to the world. You can read it here. So, yeah. I have my excuse. ;-)

The year actually started with me taking up that challenge of watching and reviewing all Oscar – nominated films before the actual awards ceremony. I did win that challenge and that set me up for what could have been a more productive year, writing-wise. I did review quite a few films in Facebook. It is just that the intended blog posts didn’t happen. Also, I started off with a ‘Sports 50’ post to list out 50 sportspersons who have given me the greatest joy of watching/following sports. Even that series is stuck and is yet to move on from its second post. 

I happened to read the testimonials that my batchmates had written for me in my IIM Kashipur Yearbook. It throws some light on what I was and what my goals were a couple of years ago. Things have changed since then. And people change too. There is a very prominent mention of a book that I had promised to write, in most of those testimonials. Though always at the back of my mind, that book is yet to materialize. A person known to me challenged me to get that book out before a girl walks into my life. Though that seemed to be an interesting challenge then, now I have realized that I will not write something for the sake of writing. I know I will write, but it shall take its own sweet time.  The fact that my fiancée also reads and looks forward to my writing is a motivation in itself to write. So yeah, better some action than empty words.

Credit should be given, taken rather, for reviving the reader in me. Thanks to JK Rowling, I was able to read like I used to once –for hours together, lost in a world between those pages. I re-read the entire Harry Potter series in the hope that I’d start reading a lot again and that worked like magic. I’ve read some 14-15 books this year, apart from the HP series. This is quite an improvement from last year when the score was 3. 

I really do not know what else to write in this post, except to muse over the fact that I’ve finally written a post after long. There are quite a few things that I want to write, but in my quest to write a well-researched post, I’ve stopped musing or rambling with a personal touch. That’s what I’ve done here and that’s what I feel I should continue doing. Just start writing and muse over things in mind and voila, we have a post. That’s what we have here. 

To you, the reader, if you’ve patiently read thus far, I wish you a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year 2018. May all your wishes be fulfilled in the year ahead!

-Ashwin Murali

PS: Writing a blog helps in many ways. My fiancée and my in-laws-to-be learnt quite a lot about me through this blog. It probably helped them ‘okay’ me, I guess. :-) So the next time someone questions you on the merit of writing a blog and what good may come of it, show them this post script. ;-)