Author: Abhinav Bhatt

  • So I recently did few things aliens related

    I recently watched the movie “Disclosure Day” (and also watched “Don’t Look Up” and “Project Hail Mary”) and also read the book “Contact” and here is what I feel about them.

    Not sure what is it with media content these days, one cannot remember it for a longer duration. Everything feels transient.

    I am sure I am going to forget these 2 as well: The movie and the book both. Not because they are not in anyways not worth remembering. Both of them are. And due to nostalgia and inertia, I was hooked by both of them. But because I came across them so late in life. Disclosure Day was released in June 2026. So it is not late but the movie itself could’ve been released 20 years late. Contact, released in 1980s (which is as far away from Now, as World War 2 was in 1980s) is considered a milestone in itself but I happened to read it 10 years after watching Interstellar.

    Coming to the point: We have seen so many things inspired from Spielberg himself and watched enough Cosmos related shows inspired from Carl Sagan himself, that novelty is missing. Though, if one is enough open minded, certainly they both are quiet moving. I should not club both but since I did already, here is my short take on both, respectively.

    Disclosure Day
    Disclosure Day

    Disclosure Day was a good movie. But not great. The cliffhanger ending was certainly the best part. We did see brilliant action sequence involving the chase and the train which reminded me of classic Spielberg. But Disclosure didn’t give me closure.

    Contact by Carl Sagan
    Contact by Carl Sagan

    Contact is something to re-read, specially the part about how would the world react when an Alien Civilization would be at our doorstep. But would we actually react this way or it would be like the movie “Don’t Look Up”? I think the latter.

    Only if “Project Hail Mary”‘s premise (I should rewatch this surely) becomes real, that Earth’s days are indeed limited, only then something would happen.

    Otherwise, in general, going by the newscycles nowadays, general nihilism about everything would shock us negligibly if we get to know that we are not alone.

  • 40 Points to Ponder

    40 Points to Ponder

    Here you go:

    1. If you ever get an opportunity to be close to nature, nothing else can top that. (don’t sleep in Jungle though)
    2. Education is paramount to whatever you would do. In our society, degrees matter.
    3. You can never keep everyone happy. Somewhere someone will get pissed off by your actions or inactions.
    4. You can choose whom you want to keep in your lives and whom to ignore. Reassess frequently.
    5. Aging happens. One can control only some aspects of it. Rest you cannot.
    6. Some core habits of yours will always help you no matter how difficult the world around you becomes. For example: Punctuality
    7. Nobody has time to read your lists, your lines, your paragraphs, or even your blog. It doesn’t matter. Do it for yourself.
    8. Writing is one of the best habits one can have. As they say: If you can read but don’t, you have no advantage over those who can’t. Same goes for writing.
    9. No matter how much you evade, politics would catch you somehow.
    10. Some people will always have an impact on you, even if you want to avoid them by all means.
    11. Your health is only in your hands. Nobody else would make you healthier or unhealthier. Only you can.
    12. Don’t sleep with grudges by your side. Wake up with a smile.
    13. Reading is a good habit to have. But don’t let anyone make you believe that it is the only way to learn.
    14. Listen to music regularly.
    15. Try your best to not harm anyone else.
    16. Always be humble towards others. You may show off if you have something to brag but needn’t overdo.
    17. Nobody really thinks about you as much as you do in your head.
    18. If you can learn a musical instrument, that would really be good.
    19. Don’t ever mock someone for something they cannot change. For example: their physical traits or their lisp.
    20. Learn from others. Learn from people you don’t like.
    21. Don’t assume things. pehle instemaal karein fir wishwaas karein.
    22. Never reveal all your truths. Keep some handy for right time.
    23. Learn basic life skills like driving, swimming, etc. which includes learning more than 2 languages.
    24. Travel when you can. Let some experiences shock you both negatively and positively.
    25. Be passionate about something. But don’t go crazy about it. Don’t make it your whole personality.
    26. Play with kids. Help elderly.
    27. Try all kinds of cuisines. If you have some limitations, it is okay. There are still a lot of things to taste.
    28. Being a vegetarian, and saying No to alcohol is fine. Otherwise is also fine.
    29. Tell people what you feel about them without regret. Regret about the way you told them if it didn’t end properly.
    30. Nostalgia is a waste of time. Life is very short.
    31. Try to wake up while you are dreaming. Or try to do something absurd within your dream, if you can.
    32. Learning about Space can keep you grounded.
    33. Faith is a tricky subject. But humans usually cannot function without it. Some go extreme and it is always safe to avoid those.
    34. Fiction might have same impact as Reality sometimes.
    35. Some bad experiences might shape your worldview permanently so try to hold your beliefs as fluidly as you can. Always be open to be challenged and changed.
    36. Some joys are beyond explanation. Like becoming a parent.
    37. Everyone will leave eventually. Or you would leave someone when time comes.
    38. Fail. Fail multiple times. But always give a try.
    39. The best place to experience everything all at once is India. It is like living in past, future, present and everywhere.
    40. Always stay optimistic. It is not the end. Even if it is, there could be something else coming up next.

    P.S.: It is not my 40th Birthday today. But I was planning to do it since a few months when it was. Thanks to https://x.com/Camp4/status/1992958445885198805

  • Year 2024 Summary

    Year 2024 Summary

    When one doesn’t write much, starting something new takes the most mental toll. The cursor blinking on a blank page is daunting. The best way to get over it is to write about that feeling itself. Easy hack.

    So, here we are, the year 2024 is coming to a close. Here’s a short summary of life in 2024.

    Good Parts

    Becoming a Distinguished Toastmaster

    This could’ve been a separate post in itself but the fact that it isn’t sums up the feeling I have about it. For someone who was not really considered a great public speaker, achieving a DTM is a big deal for those who are in Toastmasters. For others, not so much obviously. But the fact that I have achieved this feat in 8 or so years (after kind of restarting with Pathways), it does feel like a coming of age. Through Toastmasters, I got a chance to meet so many various kind of people with varying talent but a common feeling of appreciating others in public. Appreciating others is an art but in Toastmasters, this is in its ethos. I am proud to be a member and prouder to finish the highest educational award one can get in it. I still think that there’s a long way to go for me to be called a Proficient Public Speaker but at least now the collywobbles are in control. Thanks to everyone who have been with me in this journey. Special thanks to a few folks who thought it was funny to mock my speaking style thinking I didn’t really notice it.

    Parenting

    Although I wrote about it already but this deserves a lot more because each day is an experience and learning. No matter what you can do for your kids, one always feel like they’re not doing enough. My kid has now entered teen-age. Teen is 3 in Hindi. The experience nowadays is a good teaser for how actual teenage is going to be after a decade. In short, I don’t know how to convince her to do what I say. I am going to keep repeating this phrase forever I think.

    Bad Parts

    Aging

    I wanted to first have a bit of salt and pepper instead of sub-continent cricket pitch but what’s the fun in that?

    Larry David said in one of the seasons of Curb, he didn’t believe in praying because he was bald.

    Heh, thanks to Bengaluru water, general stress in work, and environment, I am balding faster than getting gray hair. Also, due to the pandemic mindset, physical activity has been tending to zero. Overall, the feeling is not great. But we cannot control it so entering the fourth decade will be done with enthusiasm instead of somberness. A lot has been said about it but when you grow, people you grew up with grow older faster. That is something I think about more than anything else.

    Ugly Parts

    Obesity

    Instead of writing about it, it is better to do something about it. Let’s circle back after a few months.

    Work-Life Balance

    Honestly, and frankly, I don’t really get working remotely. It is not good for anyone. All we needed is an option to work remotely in case needed but as per my 5 years of expertise in this field, working from office and switching the mind off after the day was ideal. This wave-particle nature of WFH and Return To Office is stupid. I’d rather be given stress face to face instead of someone slacking me about it.

    Things I consumed this year

    The list is not too big though.

    Books

    The Anthology of Balaji: A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future by Eric Jorgenson. – 3.5 stars

    Timeline by Michael Chricton – 3.5 stars

    So I recently read ‘The Complete Maus’
    So I recently read ‘Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!’
    So I recently read: Same as Ever
    So I recently read: The People of Indus
    So I recently read: THE BEE, THE BEETLE AND THE MONEY BUG
    So I recently read: Factfulness

    TV

    What we do in shadows – Excellent overall. Review some other day.

    Succession – Excellent overall. Review some other day.

    So I recently watched: Barry

    With a hope of writing more, wishing the reader of this post, a Happy 2025 to you and your loved ones. Enjoy more, worry less.

    Header Image is AI Generated, as if this needs to be said even.

  • So I recently watched: Barry

    So I recently watched: Barry

    A hitman wants to turn his life around and become an actor. But his past keeps creeping on to him from behind and he gives hits after hits, from bullets and not with his acting career.

    Making dark comedy is such a delicate task as one wrong move can totally change the tone of the whole show. I think, Barry nails this fine balance and comes off as one of the best shows I have seen. It has comedy in equal proportions as the brutality of violence in others.

    Although past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, the creator of the show features someone who has written Seinfeld and Silicon Valley. The highlight is of course the lead Bill Hader who is mostly known for his gags in SNL. It’s amazing how comedians deliver the best tragedies. No wonder this show was called Breaking Bad of Comedy. All the ensemble cast is just brilliant too.

    I have generally liked the movies of Coen Brothers, and shows like Fargo. This fits right with them.

    Comedy has become so rare these days that one really has to really dig deep into the abundance of nonsense present across OTT services. I am glad that I found Barry. Highly recommended.

  • So I recently read ‘The Complete Maus’

    So I recently read ‘The Complete Maus’

    I will get to the point straight. ‘The Complete Maus’ by Art Spiegelman is one of the best things I have ever read. I wonder why didn’t I read it long ago. For those who haven’t, the premise of the graphic novel is that Arthur (the author/illustrator) is talking to his father Vladek Spiegelman through some months/years and writing this very book. Vladek is a Polish Jew and a Holocaust Survivor.

    Art describes Jews as Mice, Nazis as Cats, and other nationalities also as anthropomorphic.

    The relationship depiction of the father-son duo is absolutely terrific. I mean, I could go on about how relatable this is and how truthful it might be across the world, but I don’t really want to go there at this moment.

    Despite having watched plethora of World War 2 related movies, included some of the best works like Schindler’s List, Son of Saul, (and even Inglorious Bastards), this take still shakes you to the core when Vladek describes what happened back then. How he and his wife Anja got separated, met again, again got separated and eventually sent to Auschwitz and somehow survived, is thrilling, moving, emotional, and leaves you hopeful.

    Even thinking of what some people had to go through gives one shudders. Although World War 2 is now something which happened 75+ years ago, humans haven’t really evolved and time and again we come across similar behaviors. Reading this reminds one of the horrors again.

    The highlight for me is however the relationship between the writer and the father who has been so much. I strongly strongly recommend everyone to read this. This is one of the best out there.

  • So I recently read ‘Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!’

    So I recently read ‘Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!’

    Sometimes you come across some books rather late in life (relatively) and wonder why you didn’t read this earlier!

    This book is one of those books. ‘Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman’ is an autobiography of sorts. It has chapters from Physicist Dr. Richard Feynman’s earliest days when his curiosity led him to experiment and eventually becoming a scientist, to his stint in the Manhattan Project, and his teaching days and general philosophy in life.

    Nobel Prize winning scientist Richard P. Feynman was one of the most interesting characters the field of Physics has produced. He was referenced a lot in ‘The Big Bang Theory’ but I didn’t take notice. But when he made an appearance in the movie ‘Oppenheimer’ playing bongos when the Trinity Test was done, I thought to delve into this book I had only heard praises about.

    The title of the book is perfect because some of the stories are absurd. It can also come across as eccentric or even arrogance but one needs to read it objectively. For instance, when the Nobel Prize was announced for Feynman, he jokes about how weird he felt accepting it and meeting the royalty of Sweden. His relationship and general opinion about Humanities are very relatable even today as the world is trying to react to the advent of the Wokeism culture.

    What I liked the most was his approach to understand anything! Rote Learning which we suffer from thanks to our educational system has been criticised a lot in this book. He stresses on not remembering definitions or terms, but understanding the concepts.

    On a totally different spectrum, he details his adventures of learning new languages, traveling to Brazil and Japan, and being a frequent to pubs and making friends and girlfriends, as if a comedy show is being played out. It would actually be a very interesting one if someone adapts to a biographical TV show.

    I enjoyed reading this and would like to read other non technical books of his. I have also heard a lot about the Feynman Lectures where his Physics Lectures were videographed. Anyways the interviews of Richard Feynman are equally interesting.

  • Adding my podcast to the millions out there today

    Adding my podcast to the millions out there today

    Here are all the links for  your consumption (next you know the drill like, share, subscribe)

    YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkUh-KUiNVmW9GyGISDxZP5AonIfqLwXE (All (and only) 6 episodes are available already. Tudum!)

    On Audio Only Platforms, each episode will be released on Thursday Morning. 1st one is already out:

    Tools Used

    • Canva for all the cover art and animations
    • Microsoft Clipchamp for stitching videos and audio
    • Zoom to record video interviews
    • Spotify for Podcasters as the Podcasting Platform
    • YouTube for hosting and sharing

    Special Thanks to my Toastmasters Club Folks for allowing me to do this

    More thanks to these people for inspiring me to do this project

  • Just a stone’s throw away

    Just a stone’s throw away

    Dropping your kid to school for the first time is an experience in itself.

    *wait I will continue this in a minute after taking a deep breath and seems like something is in my eyes*

    It is slightly easier if the pre-school is just a stone’s throw away but leaving them there on their own is like someone grabbing your intestines and twisting them a bit gently.

    We have been prepping her for a year by showing the school to her so she didn’t face any difficulty in adjusting to the place.  Just being a new parent and adjusting to not seeing her around is challenging. Handing over your biggest asset to strangers and then trusting them fully is something to learn. You think you can focus but your mind keeps going back to school. imagining if your kid is safe there or did you just hear her crying?

    When I was sent to a school I know I must have cried buckets. Kids nowadays are built differently. Even schools are built differently and aren’t the same old dingy lit dungeons where a dragon (the teacher) is sitting there to split you open and gorge on your insides. Now they are airy, well-lit, and full of attractive toys to lure your kids. I hardly heard any teacher shouting at kids. And as I stay *literally* opposite that school, if they do shout, I will get her back instantly. *Eminem’s mockingbird song comes to mind*

    As I write this waiting outside to pick her back up, the teacher told me she vomited after crying a bit but she is totally fine now.

    I don’t know how to deal with such stuff.

    Photo by Michał Bożek on Unsplash

  • So I recently read: Same as Ever

    So I recently read: Same as Ever

    There was always an ongoing joke when I was growing up that if the weather forecast says it would rain, it definitely won’t rain. If they say, the day will be sunny, high chance that it will rain cats and dogs. Fortunately, the accuracy of weather prediction has come a long way and it is indeed really accurate nowadays. But forecasting remains a funny topic.

    I spent the majority of the last 3 years working in forecasting for retailers. The algorithms take historical sales and inventory data and after applying a bunch of data science models, generate forecasts for the next few seasons. When it comes to retail, it is generally safe to assume that for mature market societies, patterns generally repeat seasonally. Thus, the forecasts more or less are pretty accurate. Of course, when drastic events happen, all forecasts go haywire but even those are nowadays taken into account and predictability takes into account such shocks and comes up with good predictions.

    You cannot apply forecasting easily to many other things like Share Market, although people try their best to do so. Gambling and Betting on Sports play on human emotions and greed more than luck and forecasting abilities, I think. Another field that deals with prophecy is Astrology. It is beyond me that horoscopes are given such a big place in newspapers and people take pride in being from such and such zodiac signs. I can go on and on about this but let me not digress.

    I recently read Morgan Housel’s ‘Same as Ever’. He surely is one of the most known writers nowadays who knows how to drive a point using stories. His earlier book The Psychology of Money was also a best seller and is often quoted. He explains, in this book, that no matter how much we can predict and play with numbers and emotions, some things never change and that is Human Behavior. Time and again, people do the same things, make the same mistakes, learn from the same mistakes, and the cycle goes on. Societies or individuals go through cycles of ups and downs and initially, we forget what we did then but later we realize. It tells that the world remains unpredictable and human attempts to tame it remain the same. Mediums might change but the primal urge to react to things hasn’t evolved much since our ancestors also reacted and adapted to changes in the same way.

    It might sound pessimistic but rather the book strengthens the belief that if we have got into trouble, it is also the human ingenuity that can pave the way forward. I felt that it encourages us to experiment and use previous knowledge to come up with new solutions because even if nature cannot be predicted, people’s behavior remains the same.

    As I mentioned earlier, I have been following Housel’s blog https://collabfund.com/blog/ for some time and all his writings and storytelling are highly enjoyable. Like ‘Psychology of Money’, I recommend ‘Same as Ever’ as a compelling book about the psychology of people.

    [AD] ‘Same as Ever’ by Morgan Housel can be bought from here:

    https://amzn.to/3utIv3z

  • So I recently read: The People of Indus

    So I recently read: The People of Indus

    To atone for the crime of watching the movie ‘Mohenjo Daro’, that too alone in a theatre, I will read 2000 books related to Indus Valley Civilization, I had promised. This is 1st of such.

    Just kidding. There are not many interesting books about Indus Valley Civilization anyway.

    Growing up with Comics and working as a graphic designer for a few years, if something is presented visually, it naturally becomes interesting and appealing, as far as I am concerned.

    The People of Indus: and the birth of civilization in South Asia by Nikhil Gulati is one such wonderful book which presents information visually through the medium of cartooning about the advent, the peak, and eventual decline of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). I came across this book in one of the Podcasts from Puliabaazi.

    History is assumed to be taught in such a bland manner that most people think of it as a boring thing. I, however, was blessed to have good school teachers who tried their best to make it interesting, within the constraints of the school syllabus and the time allowed. Also, thanks to my grandfather who had translated a number of books related to history (or rather decolonization, as they say, to be specific), my interest always remained aligned to learn more about history. But, all the books mostly had text. There have been a handful of photos in black and white as if nobody had access to a color camera ever. This book certainly piqued my attention as for the first time ever history is shown in a medium I enjoy.

    What this book does is to enhance the knowledge about IVC by presenting various aspects about how life could’ve been between 3000-2000 BC. It goes through the familiar seals and mini-statues of the IVC. It also talks a lot about how that civilization interacted with the other nearby civilizations like Mesopotamia and the gulf. It goes into detail about one peculiar aspect that IVC has had no signs of any battles and the hierarchical structure of the society was governed by commerce.

    I liked the aspects that it touches daily lives, the commercial as well as social processes and the possible languages of the period. It doesn’t try to extrapolate information and shows the evidence as they are.

    Since I have had some interest about this so some facts were already known. It didn’t shock me, if I was expecting that. But it does expands the knowledge horizons and acts as a good refresher certainly.

    It’s interesting that even now artefacts are found across the north and western plains of India and sadly some of the major sites are now in Pakistan. Rakhigarhi chariot, fortunately was found near Delhi. Aryan Migration/Invasion theories are being challenged regularly with more and more studies being done which suggests that Indian DNA has been generally the same across the subcontinent even though people try to divide us. As far as the mystery of the language of IVC is concerned, that is yet to be deciphered which keeps some secrets as secrets. I recently also read an article that they might not mean anything religious at all, although Shiva has been mentioned on the seals sometimes. Anyways, theories will change as we become better at genes study and archaeology gets more traction.

    I enjoyed this book and hope that it might trigger others to start showing mundane concepts graphically, thereby making them interesting. Surely, if this is shown to school kids and young adults, they would be more inclined to know more about Indians from the bye gone era which still has impacts and make us what we are.

    This book can be bought from Amazon from this link [ad]

    https://amzn.to/48aoa0Y