Notes

I read Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott a few weeks back and was amazed by how the author has managed to convey so much in just 80 odd pages. Even though it was written in 1884, it is still very relevant. And it conforms to our fear that as a society we haven't progressed a lot in the last 100 years. He talks about inequality and discrimination based on gender, class, physical appearance, bigotry and the fear of encountering new belief systems or knowledge that does not conform to our knowledge and belief system. After reading Flatland, I realized that we as a society haven't made substantial progress in more than a 100 years to counter inequality, discrimination, and bigotry. And more often than not, when we come across an idea that opposes our world view, our first reaction is to fight it. The Oatmeal has also covered how we react to the opposing point of view  here . In this feature, he builds on a study  that says that opposing views trigger our primal instinct of fig...

South India has given a lot of things to the world. A truckload of engineers is the first thing that comes to mind, apart from compensating for the literacy rate of UP and Bihar. Also, a couple of languages and beaches and holy sites. But in my opinion, the greatest gift from South India to the world is breakfast food. There is so much variety - Dosa, Idli, Vada, Appam, sambhar, chutney, etc, etc, etc. But with a lot of options comes the responsibility to choose . Choosing Masala Dosa meant, not choosing Idly and Vada and vice versa. A part of me died every time I had to make this tough choice. And I used to go through this  Chooser's Remorse (similar to buyer's remorse but caused by what you could not buy) every single time until I discovered a unique offering called the Mini Tiffin . The opportunity to eat Idly, Vada, Masala Dosa, Pongal and Sweets in one single breakfast felt like Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled together with the 4th of July. I will not hesitate to p...

This year, I decided to get back to writing after a long time. I always feel like writing about things that I come across  on a daily basis . So this is just like a  personal diary  on the internet :P. The target audience of this blog is just me. I was looking for something to write about and I came across a post on twitter which said that book reviews are a great way to start writing. And here I am. I found Bad Blood in Bill Gates' list of books to read. I finished reading Bad Blood a few weeks back and it felt like a long read. I didn't know that it is  not a  fiction until someone told me when I was 100 pages in the book. This is a measure of how unrealistic the story is. And I felt that it changed the way I read the rest of the book. This story is about Elizabeth Holmes, a Silicon Valley darling, who wants  to be  the next Steve Jobs. She is a 19-year-old dropout from Stanford who comes up with an idea to revolutionize the way blood te...