Entries tagged as life
Milky Way
Posted by Raj Shekhar in
My take on life
Monday, August 13. 2018
Looking at the milky way is an enlightening experience, especially if you know some of the science behind it. The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our solar system. The milky color visible from earth comes from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The view that we get of the galaxy does not even include phenomenons that we cannot observe: gamma-ray bursts, pulsars, black holes Looking at the milky way and contemplating how vast the universe is and how unique our blue dot is, is a very humanizing experience.


revisiting the play Julius Caesar as an adult
Posted by Raj Shekhar in
geek stuff, My take on life
Friday, June 2. 2017
I have had to read and take an exam on the play Julius Caesar. This had meant that I was forced to read the play and not see it performed. I had always assumed the play Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to be about the death (and life) of Julius Caesar. I got a chance to see the play performed by OSF and it has led me to question some ideas I had about the play.
Cassius was not Brutus's puppeteer
One of the impressions I had about Cassius was he was the villain in the play and he was the puppeter who was controlling Brutus's opinions about Caesar and inciting Brutus against Caesar. However, as the play progresses, it becomes clear that Cassius was not a scheming villain and he was perfectly happy to give Brutus the role of the leader of the assassination plot. This is very clear when he wholeheartedly agrees to not bring Cicero into the plot.
But what of Cicero? shall we sound him?
I think he will stand very strong with us.
Let us not leave him out.
No, by no means.
..
..
O, name him not: let us not break with him;
For he will never follow any thing
That other men begin.
Then leave him out.
The next time this happens is when Cassius warns Brutus to not let Marc Anthony speak
Brutus, a word with you.
Aside to BRUTUS
You know not what you do: do not consent
That Antony speak in his funeral:
Know you how much the people may be moved
By that which he will utter?
By your pardon;
I will myself into the pulpit first,
And show the reason of our Caesar's death:
What Antony shall speak, I will protest
He speaks by leave and by permission,
And that we are contented Caesar shall
Have all true rites and lawful ceremonies.
It shall advantage more than do us wrong.
I know not what may fall; I like it not.
Another scene when this shines forth is the argument that Cassius and Brutus get into at the battlefield and Cassius offers Brutus his sword to kill Cassius. This way the argument ends shows Cassius
Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come,
Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,
For Cassius is aweary of the world;
Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;
Cheque'd like a bondman; all his faults observed,
My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger,
And here my naked breast; within, a heart
BRUTUS
Sheathe your dagger:
Be angry when you will, it shall have scope;
Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour.Â
Was the play about Caesar or about Brutus?
The other thing that stands out is that it is a little difficult to say Julius Caesar is the protagonist of the play. A lot of the play centers around the internal struggle that Brutus goes through before and after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Â There are monologs where Brutus tries to resolve his doubts about assasinating his friend and a man who trusts Brutus.
One part that stands out is towards the end of the play, when Brutus comments on how good his life has been
My heart doth joy that yet in all my life
I found no man but he was true to me.
I shall have glory by this losing day
More than Octavius and Mark Antony
By this vile conquest shall attain unto.
Even his enemies respected Brutus.
ANTONY
This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
This is in sharp contrast to the life of Julius Caesar who was assasinated by people who were close to him and thought of him as a tyrant.
Quote from "The Stranger" by Albert Camus
Posted by Raj Shekhar in
My take on life
Monday, December 19. 2016
My dear,
In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that ...
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger - something better, pushing right back.
Truly yours,
Albert Camus
Is it the start of the American apocalypse?
Posted by Raj Shekhar in
My take on life
Tuesday, November 29. 2016
From The Intercept's article "Donald Trump Will Be President. This is What We Do Next.", this section captures the most dominant thought I have:
Be not downhearted.
Don't give up. As bone-chilling as this moment is, it also proves that no one's in charge and just about everything in America's up for grabs. After all, Bernie Sanders looks like he's appearing in a role where the casting notice read: "Male, 70s, white, must look exactly like the caricature of a socialist from 1980s right-wing agitprop." Yet from a standing start he almost beat Hillary Clinton.
Young Americans are extremely progressive, so much so that Frank Luntz, the GOP's top pollster, says it should "frighten every business and political leader." To some degree we just need to engage in a holding action until they're running things.
Despite having no resources other than lots of cell phones with the Twitter app, Black Lives Matter has done more to blunt police brutality than anyone in the past 40 years. There should be classes taught around the world about how they're doing it.
However, there is a section of people who might be harmed by the administration. There is no easy way to predict what the targets would be and how they will be targeted.
it's real hard to be free
Posted by Raj Shekhar in
My take on life
Monday, July 6. 2015
Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That's what it's all about.
George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that's right.
That's what's it's all about, all right.
But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace.
Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are.
Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.
— Easy Rider
Thoughtstream 2013-08-13
Posted by moblog in
My take on life, today
Tuesday, August 13. 2013
The difference between a hipster and a geek
This is the major difference between a hipster and a geek: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love.” When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER.”
Hipsters On Food Stamps, Part 1 has a line that precisely captures what I think about obsessively posting pictures of food
There's plenty of attention to style, to identity, and regression to our most primitive instinct: eating, fetishized.On buying
An Interview With Craigslist's Notorious Google Glass Hater
I hate commodity fetishization. I don't mean that in the Marxist sense. I mean the process of deriving of pleasure from the purchase of commercial goods above and beyond the actual value or utility of the product.
visa interview in Chennai
Posted by Raj Shekhar in
My take on life, work
Wednesday, March 21. 2007
Yesterday I had to go to Chennai for my US visa interview. Chennai is
a really sucky city, it sucks even worse than Bangalore . Here is
an account of the process.
Documents required
The vfs-usa.co.in site has a list of documents that you require to bring along with you. If you filled the visa form at the vfs-usa.co.in site, you would have received a printout of the forms D156, D157 and an appointment letter mentioning the data and time of your visa interview.
I had packed in all the required documents the night prior to my departure to Chennai. Due to security concerns you are not allowed to carry mobile, CDs, music player or any electronic device into the consulate building. However, you are allowed to carry books and one polybag with all your documents inside. These people are really serious about security - do not bring any stuff which is prohibited. You will not be allowed to carry it inside no matter what.
Since books were not on their Do not carry list, I took along a printout of the MySQL Internals manual for my inflight entertainment.
Reaching there
The American consulate is located in Anna Salai. Once you get down at the airport, you will find a government operated prepaid taxi counter there. They will charge you 240 Rs. (rupees) for a taxi to the American consulate. The people manning the counter were able to understand english.
Since I was returning back to Bangalore the same day, I had not made any reservations in a hotel for my stay. The taxi driver knew the place and he dropped me infront of the consulate gate. The guards there guided me to the gate through which the visa interviewees had to pass.
Passing time
I reached the consulate by 0900 though my interview was at 1230. There was a average sized queue at the gate. I liked the queue managment system at the Chennai consulate. The guards called out the interview time that was mentioned in the appointment letter and people who were scheduled at that time moved ahead in the queue. Since my interview was scheduled atYou will 1230, I roamed around in the streets to pass time.
It is really a hard job to pass time in Chennai. There were no parks or malls in the nearby area. Since I did not know the city well enough, I did not want to wander far off from the consulate.
After killing nearly two hour, I got into the queue at 1100 hours. I was allowed into the consulate at 1300 hours.
Pre-screening of the documents
Once you are inside the consulate, you have to wait to have your passport, forms D156 and D157 verified. The officers check if you are missing something. They are quite efficient. You have chairs available once you get inside the consulate.
By the time I reached the pre-screening counter, it was already 1430. Unluckily for me, the photograph on my form was not of the correct size. The officer at the counter asked me to get a proper sized photograph and come back again in an hour.
There is a market near the consulate and the shopkeepers there understand english and hindi. I asked around and quickly located a place to have my photograph taken. It was a seedy place and the photographer charged me 200 Rs. for four correct sized photograph. My guess is that he charged me at least thrice the price I would normally have paid.
I hurried back to the consulate and showed the guards at the front gate that I had been rescheduled for my interview and I had originally been called aat 1230. He kindly allowed me to go in without waiting in the queue.
This time around I did not have a problem in the pre-screening part and they asked me to go in for my visa interview.
Visa interview
There was quite a crowd waiting for their visa interview. However, the queue managment was again good here and no one was complaining. There were enough chairs around, so waiting was not too much of a hassle.
You first had to get your fingerprint taken and then stand in a queue to have one of the officers interview you. I was quite apprehensive about the interview as I had heard quite a lot of stories about the randomness of the visa interviewers in rejecting the visas. However, I was quite surprised. The visa interviewers gave perfectly coherent reasons for the rejection of the visas. They were direct, but polite in their rejections. They asked pertinent questions and I do not think that hassling the visa interviewees was their aim.
When my turn came, I was asked a few question about why I was going to
US and told that my visa has been spproved and I would receive it in
2-3 days . I was quite happy and came out of the consulate. The
process ended at 1700.
Back to Bangalore
My flight was at 2125. I killed time till 1830 and then took an autorickshaw to the airport. He charged me 150 Rs. and dropped me at the airport by 1915. I walked inside the airport, found an empty seat and tried to get some sleep. Since I had done lot of walking that day, my feet were killing me. I took off my shoes too and then tried to get some more sleep. Pretty soon the boarding for my flight was announced. I got into the the aeroplane, flew back to Bangalore and was back home by 2300.
All in all, it was a tiring experience, but a productive one.
