Abhinav Bhatt

Reading in 2020

Spider-Man leaning on concrete brick while reading book

Goodreads.com runs the yearly Reading Challenge year after year. One has to commit to reading a certain number of books in the year to participate. There is no award but it is just a personal goal. Reading more is a goal for me as I very strongly believe that people whom I consider smart, are also well-read. Mind you, that doesn’t work oppositely (if this is a word). Every year, I have tried to increase the number of books I read than the previous year. And like how always it happens, life happens and your promise runs out of gas. So, as is shown below, I have never been able to reach even 12 books in any year since I started tracking this. Shameful indeed! But over time, I have read more Non-Fiction than Fiction. Real-life is thrilling enough nowadays. Also, a good Non-Fiction would be as captivating as any fictional book if you have an interest in the topic. In any case, storytelling would rule in any book there is.

I might not have read the most number of books. But, I have read the most this year. Seriously a lot. Not books per se, but medical articles. Just going by the variety of topics read, it ranged from Haematology, Diabetes, Sarcoma, Immunotherapy, Dendritic Cells Therapy, Metastasis, Obesity, Pneumonia, and of course, Covid-19. And many more horrible but widely prevalent things.

Committing to reading gives a tangible goal. There is no compulsion but like they say, without a goal, you cannot score. If one could balance between how much content one wants to consume, through watching and through reading, and how much content, one wants to generate, that would work out the best. That would always be a struggle though but I wish to be in the group that wants to create more than consume.

I think my plan for next year would be to not go by what’s trending to read. But, I would go into what exactly I want to know about.

Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash

Recent Book Reviews

So I recently read: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

So I recently read: Churchill’s Secret War

MeMe; So I recently read: The Selfish Gene

So I recently read: Atomic Habits by James Clear

J

Stay home till it’s cured, they said. Don’t go out yet, it’s still really bad. Try to stay sane, mental health is serious, don’t go mad. So much has already happened, it is indeed a tad bit sad.

I obeyed, duly complied, stood at one place, didn’t move. I understood the implications, nobody had to try too hard to prove. I submitted myself and kept myself grounded. Kept washing my hands every 15 minutes, nobody had to shout as I was self-hounded.

So I recently watched: Disney-Pixar Soul

If you have been through a lot in 2020, like everyone else, you aren’t alone. But if you want to end the year on a positive note, I suggest that you watch the new Disney Pixar movie ‘Soul’. It makes a great Christmas/New Year movie which can be watched with your family. It is available on Hotstar in India. Here’s my review:

I don’t have to comment on the sheer genius of animators of Pixar as we all are fully aware of that fact. But I just wonder how could someone think of and write such deep philosophical ideas. Then convert that into an animation movie with a range of visual imagery. Then still make it highly entertaining by keeping you hooked for an hour and a half.

Synopsis

Soul is about a School Teacher who wants to become a professional Jazz musician. However, he has to be content with just being a Teacher. Then something happens with his life which takes him places. The journey teaches him some lessons. That’s all I can convey without spoiling anything. I especially liked the fact that the majority of the characters you see in the movie are African Americans which fits the Jazz and Music part of the movie. Not that it is critical, but it just enhances the beauty of the soul of the movie.

If you have already finished watching, we can talk further.

My Take

I also recently re-watched ‘Anand’ which is one of my most favorite movies of all time. The movies are highly different but the underlying message is the same. We tend to live either in past or wait for the future to happen. That doesn’t really allow one to live in the present. For the regrets of the past, and the expectations from the future, the now gets lost. There are several small joys just everywhere. But we want to take all the burden possible and just get buried under that. I guess we need constant reminders that Now is more important than anything else. Soul is such a light yet deep movie that makes you think about such stuff. The end goal is lucrative, but who knows our state of mind when we reach there. Past is gone so what’s the point of sweating over it.

To keep the soul happy, just live on.

My other recent movie and shows reviews.

But we don’t celebrate

From Netflix’s Comedians in Cars getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais:

“Auschwitz, December 25, 1944

In a dark, dull, and desolate dorm, cramped with many thin, malnutritioned, ready to give up faces, a Schutzstaffel kommander enters.

He announces, “tis the time and the Fadar Christmas tells me to release you all. You can go now. All free and ye shall now enjoy the wonderfulness of the festivities!”.

Everyone’s face is about to lit up when a man at the back of the room says, “But… We don’t celebrate Christmas!”.

Everyone does a collective facepalm and scene ends.”

Not a Foodie

selective focus photography of baby holding wooden cube

Before I try to disintegrate the etymology of the gastronomically stupid word ‘Foodie’, let me just put it out there: I like food. I have an interest in food. I eat food every day. I have never fasted in my life. I am not planning to fast unless I want to try the kewl intermittent fasting. I can eat any food of any taste and I consider food anything as long as it wasn’t breathing oxygen or had legs or fins or wings or gills or scales or eyes. And, if I have to, my life motto is: I would eat any food whatsoever if the need arises, but I hope it doesn’t but if it does, I am game.

But I am not a ‘Foodie’. What is a Foodie really? Someone who likes eating? I think a Foodie actually means one who cannot control themselves from eating out. They don’t cook themselves, because if they did, then they would have respected food. Their tongues and nostrils are home to billions of taste sensors and buds which are at least 2-3 more than any other sane food-eating human. Their nose has been to places and the tongue has seen it all. And I mean everything! They are folks who can eat anything in any quantity. Like 1000 Gol-Gappas and all. That means Foodies are food abusers as they don’t respect food. They take advantage of the food. They maul food if I want to be polite here. Even Animals eat only what is needed by their bodies. These people who call themselves foodies are enslaved by food actually. They are not connoisseurs of Food. Rather they are victims and might need help.

Anyway, this year I have not eaten out much. My last order of food was in March 2020. I survived the rest of the year fine. Being a Foodie doesn’t make you cool. Creating food does. Cultivating food does. And respecting food as a decent human being does.

Talking of food, firstly I feel hungry now. Secondly, I am yet to read this book though but this podcast of Krish Ashok with Amit Varma was mind-blowingly fantastic which was enough motivation to buy it, if not for knowing Krish Ashok’s decade-plus of blogging as one of my inspirations. It had enough amount of Science served with a mouth ravishing platter of dishes explained that it generated an enormous appetite to learn more about food and how to make it taste better if served in the right quantity.

Photo by Colin Maynard on Unsplash

Stop the jokes right now itself

We still have time. You remember, last time we made jokes about how Indians have strong immunity that nothing can make us sick. And see where we are right now? A new strain has come. From the UK. Another even more infectious has come from South Africa. Even kids are susceptible now. The vaccine might nullify it (or might nullify it in 6 weeks) but who knows? Each joke might be costly. Why jinx it?

Not kidding.

Here’s a plug to my old post which might give you some guidelines.

Do’s and Dont’s for Jokes in these times

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

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Acronyms can GFT

A rant is due from a long time. Here it goes:

One time I had a dream. It was somewhat like this:

I woke up from deep sleep, got ready, and went out to buy something. As soon I reached a shop, I asked the shop owner to give me something. He asked me ‘What?’. I repeated what I wanted. He seemed to not understand me. I kept on telling him but he kept on shaking his head as if I was speaking another language.

I came back home and picked up my phone to call my friend. The friend picked up just after 1 ring. I said something. But he didn’t seem to get it and he said ‘What?’. I said something again. Again, he kept saying ‘Hello!?’. Irritated I cut the phone and I thought that I will text him instead. I messaged him. He replied back ‘Have you gone nuts? What are you typing? What does it mean?’.

I checked what I had sent him. I also realized what I was saying on phone. And what I said to the shopkeeper as well.

It was all in acronyms. I was speaking, writing, texting all in Acronyms. All in short forms with no regard to grammar, receiver’s state of mind, decency of humanity but GM, HRU, TC, TX, and so on. It was a nightmare. It indeed was a nightmare!

Acronyms. We all are surrounded by them. They have taken over us. They have been there for some time. Since people started to write, they also found ways to shorten what they wrote in the beginning. They have morphed a bit, changed a lot, evolved sometimes, and stayed the same. They have seen it all. They are coming to get us. They have stuck around long enough to irritate one and all. If they haven’t (oh sorry have not) irked you yet, they will.

What would one do with the time which one saved by not typing full words? FYI, GNU stands for GNU’s Not Unix (!). ANT stands for Another Neat Tool. PIN code could have been called just Code but no! OK has been On Kerosine or some time it was for All Correct or now just K. Can you get past a day when you are not hit by one or the other acronym someone created because they were too busy to write it wholly out? Moreover, who approves these short forms? Shouldn’t there be a law to approve them first so that they become universally acceptable first? Shortening words or transforming words happen with time, but when did PTO become ‘Personal Time Off’ from ‘Please Turn Over’? I say let’s take SMH, AFAIK, RT, ID, and so on, wrap them around, etc., and then throw it send it to Wuhan’s Abandoned Wet Market or bury it under some Internet Cable in some sea.

But you say, there’s a Glossary? Haha, no you should be sorry to have explanations given explicitely for previous blunders.

What would one do when the country’s Prime Minister himself is an acronym enthusiast?

PostScript: Just google “Acronyms Seriously Suck – Elon Musk” if you have some time saved by sending across acronyms instead of full sentences. Obviously, you don’t have any time saved. So take this instead.

Photo by Surendran MP on Unsplash