War Drums Fade

Its been an eventful few days on the geopolitical front. After India blew up some wheat fields in Pakistan, Pakistan fighterjets  lured their Indian counterparts into a dogfight and shot one of them down, capturing the pilot. Some of us peacniks felt that having one of our pilots in Pakistani custody would force the warmongerers to pipe but it was not to be. Today, news came in that Pakistan would be releasing the captured pilot as a "peace offering".
It seems like we won't be going to war, which is a big relief. Our rightwing government will inevitably paint this as a victory. I don't know if this will help or hurt their chances of reelection later this year, and I am too jaded to give it much thought. Trying to make sense of this crazy world is a fraught exercise. And, predicting what will happen next is a mug's game.

War

So, India carried out an airstrike in Pakistan, and irrespective of the damage caused, their ability to penetrate deep into Pakistan airspace is being touted as a victory. Pakistan says it detected the incursion and its own fighter jets chased the intruders away, who dropped their ballistic payload to make a quick getaway. From the Indian side, the estimated casualties range from 300 to 700. The strike obviously had the U.S.' blessing as Trump had warned that India was about to take a "very strong" step.
We may never know the whole truth about the number of dead/injured because it is in the interest of both sides to lie. Both sides want to play the provoked predator, not the aggrieved prey. 
The public discourse has become so jingoistic that pacifism isn't a tenable position anymore. It is all quite depressing. One can only hope that Pakistan continues to play it down and India stops foaming at the mouth and doing idiotic stuff like trying to kick Pakistan out of the cricket World Cup. But, with right-wing nuts in government in India, there is no guarantee that they will stick to the charade. They can be relied upon to stumble into a rapidly escalating game of strikes and counterstrikes that will end up in full-blown war. That might seem far-fetched. Direct wars between two large powers are messy, expensive and enormously disruptive to capital accumulation. But, we don't live in a textbook neoliberal/neoconservative world  any more and those rules don't apply. Who would have thought that the successor to that world order could potentially be worse?

Night Concert

Last night,  I attended my first music concert. It was an evening concert at a farm a few hours away from Mumbai and my friends and I opted to stay over at the farm. I had heard of the band that was playing, but I wasn't a big fan of them. That didn't change over the course of the evening, but the whole experience was worth it. It was more of a visual than an acoustic treat for me--especially watching people who were really into the music. A few years ago, the cynic in me would have dismissed them as wannabes, and I would have found the concert experience alienating. Now, I would like to think I am much less judgmental and open to other ways of being. And, that change showed even in my interactions with the people I had come with. There were five of us and I was meeting two of them after years. I hadn't hit it off with the two on previous occasions, which is why I hadn't bothered to keep in touch. Not that there was any hostility, I just felt I had nothing to talk about with them. But, this time around, things were different. I was able to interact with them in a much freer and open manner. Not that we will ever be fast friends, but the spectrum  of friendship is broad and accommodating, and they have found a place on mine.  

Leopard Trails

Today,  I went for a morning jog in Yeoor Hills and ended up at the same panoramic spot to catch the sunrise as last weekend, but with much more trepidation. Last week, a leopard was spotted in the parking lot of a mall in my hometown which isn't in close proximity to any forested area. And I was lurking in a wooded area on the edge of the leopards' natural habitat. Surely that was asking for trouble from leopards who seem to have become very brazen. It suddenly occurred to me why  I hadn't seen anyone else at sunrise point last weekend. Maybe they were keeping away out of fear of leopards, as leopard-man run-ins become increasingly common. I was in half a mind to skip the sunrise but it proved too difficult to fight the temptation since I was so close to sunrise point. Also, I had two men for company today so I felt safer. On my way down as well, I ran into a villagefolk gathering firewood at regular intervals. Since all the people I encountered were significantly smaller than me in stature, I felt that any leopard would go after them rather than me.
Is this how women feel when they are in secluded spots, except that they fear men rather than leopards? And, they do sigh with relief whenever they see another woman, as the sight of other humans relieved me?

Remains of the Day

Today,  I met a former colleague for lunch. He and another colleague used to be my post-lunch walking companions so we ended up spending a lot of time together. We didn't have much in common except our workplace but turns out that is enough to keep conversation going. Our jobs required us to be chained to our desks for most of the working day, so the walks were a good change. I remember feeling quite light and free during those walks. When our company went through a downturn and there were layoffs and troubling management changes, having people to whine and joke with played a huge part in keeping morale high. Even if we were on a sinking ship we would sink together.
The company we used to work with emptied out pretty quickly after I left. From around 20 people in Mumbai, now they are down to just two, one of whom is a former walking companion. News is a boom-bust business but it is still difficult to get used to the speed of the booms and the busts. I don't miss the business, but it taught me a lot and, on the whole, I enjoyed myself there. And I made friends that I am still in touch with.
One of my first blog posts was about ephemeral friendships--friendships that are a result of shared circumstances--and close friendships that are based on a resonance of personhood. Both not all friendships that develop in shared circumstances are ephemeral. Some lay deeper roots. Maybe because I am closer to colleagues from this particular company because that was my longest professional stint. Maybe because it was a period of rapid professional growth for me, and these colleagues were fellow travelers. Maybe they remind of me where I was and how much my life has changed since. Maybe all of the above.

Them and Us

Its been almost a week since a bus carrying Indian paramilitaries were ambushed by a car bomb in Kashmir, killing nearly 50. 'Patriotic' Indians quickly reacted--Bollywood sent Pakistani actors packing, portraits of Pakistani cricketers were covered up or removed and India may end refuse to play Pakistan in the cricket world cup. Obviously, I am disturbed by these events. The few Pakistanis I have met in England were indistinguishable from Indians. This is not a blog post about the politics or the political repercussions of terror attacks, especially so close to a crucial election.
My point of rumination is to what extent can individuals be held responsible for the (alleged) actions of their state. And, can one oppose the ban on Pakistanis while supporting the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) campaign against Israel as well as the apartheid era boycotts against South Africa. Yes, apartheid was the official policy of the South African state. Similarly, expanding settlements on Palestinian lands is the official (unstated) policy of the Israeli government. And the power differentials between the two sides are apparent.
However, I am not a fan of holding individuals accountable for the actions of their states. There is no state which doesn't have blood on its hands, although its true that some have more than others. But, is it reasonable to expect individuals to pressure their governments on threat of a boycott? Boycotts seem to only strengthen the chauvinists on either side. And, many people just want to get on with their lives. Political activism is not everyone's cup of tea. Does being born in a repressive state oblige  a person to take up political activism? Not all personalities are cut out for political activism and I don't believe that there is no other way to make yourself useful to the world and the people around you.

Ways of Seeing, Knowing and Telling

As my first research interview was ending, I tried to pump my interviewee for more contacts. He, as someone who seemed to love to toot his own horn, was reticent. I saved face by saying that I would contact him once I had honed my research focus, and could he please refer me to more people. He readily agreed.
Later, it occurred to me that I would possibly never be able to explain my research question to him. We come from different epistemological frameworks. One of the first things he said to me was that people from technical/engineering backgrounds are capable of mastering any subject, and asked me if I agreed. I was sure I didn't,  so I mumbled something incoherent. We have such different ways of seeing and ways of knowing that neither would he appreciate my analysis, nor would he see my topic as worthy of analysis. For instance, a journalist I used to know back in the day badgered me for a draft of my prize-winning paper as she was working on an article on a similar topic. I reluctantly agreed to send it to her and told her that I welcomed her feedback. I knew I wouldn't hear from her again and I didn't. She was looking for a straight paper on whether a particular policy move was good or bad and how good or how bad. None of that flaky post-modernist stuff (I am definitely not a post-modernist, but such distinctions are lost on positivists--who believe in a concrete knowable reality even in the social sphere).
It  is easy to lose heart when you are an anti-positivist in a field dominated by positivism. But, there are several advantages to it. Firstly, it makes you more open to new ideas and people since you are marginalized yourself. Secondly, it pushes you harder in your research and make it accessible and relevant to people who don't think like you do. Silos can be echo-chambers, as you are surrounded by people who have an interest in agreeing with you as there is a unspoken quid-pro-quo that you will agree with them. Maybe not on research findings but at least on the ways of seeing and the ways of knowing and the ways of explaining. Being among people who don't see and know like you can be bracing because it keeps you on your toes. Of course, they can also dash you to the ground if their criticism is mean-spirited, so it is important to choose your company well, at least when you are in the process of thickening your own skin.

Perch Revisited

This morning, I went for a jog in the hills on the edge of the city. Later, I went to my perch to catch the sunrise. All the previous times I had been there, I had about a gaggle of fellow sunrise-catchers for company. The more spiritual among them would chant 'Om' as the sun broke over the Parsik hills that castle Thane city from the East. But, today, I had no one else for company. I thought maybe the haze that hung over the city had dissuaded the sunrise-catchers. I had scant hope of seeing a sunrise through the smoky fog but stuck around nevertheless for the view and the solitude.
It is quite a panoramic sight and I haven't seen anything as beautiful in my city. On the left is the dense tree cover of Yeoor Hills. On the right, the city is laid out in what seems like vertical layers--starting from a settlement immediately below, followed by a field, another settlement, the highrises cloaked in haze and finally the Parsik Hills. As I have written before, from this perch, my claustrophobic, smoky, maddening hometown feels benign. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. But this kind of fondness doesn't push you towards the object of your fondness. In fact, the fondness is contingent on the distance. Thane city from a distance seems much more manageable than when I am in the thick of it. Maybe the same can be said about my relationship with India, although I don't want to open a can of worms here that will keep me up for the rest of the night. 
Another reason I am glad I stayed back despite the haze is that I was actually able to catch the sunrise. When I was least expecting it, the glowing orb bobbed up from behind the hills. And once the sun had definitively risen a crowd of trekkers arrived at the spot. That was my cue to make myself scarce. 

Evaders

I'm back home a day earlier than planned for a lunch date with friends tomorrow, which might not materialize. I am trying to be sanguine about it, but I admit I am having a hard time. There is no conceivable reason why someone would play hard to pin down when it comes to a plan with friends they have known for about twenty years.The only explanation is different people have different norms for communication. I am someone who doesn't have a single unread email in his inbox and likes to respond to messages and emails immediately (Of course, the rules of dating communication are a whole different game --here, I am only talking about non-romantic contexts). I  have friends who read a message and then respond hours later. I don't know how they remember to respond to a message if it is no longer flagged as unread but I am guessing they have a mental filing  system which prompts them.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. It is easy to interpret the actions of "evaders" as stemming from a lack of consideration. I am also aware that most people have a more active social life than I do. Since I am not a social person, I value my less frequent social interactions more and I am aware that that is not the case for most people. But, the way I see it is if you feel someone is constantly evading (not avoiding) you for no conceivable reason tell them if they are important to you. And, if they are not, make a conscious decision not to bother about it. Yes, since I am not very social, I won't have alternative plans if someone goes AWOL on me at the last moment. But, over the years, that has become less and less of a problem for me. I have also become more reticent about chasing people who are not good at keeping in touch without being bitter about it. Maybe it is age, maybe it is do with has happened over the past two years. 

Wheels Slowing

My meeting  didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I am glad that it happened. At least now I got a sense of what to expect from my interviewees, which is not very much. I won't be in a hurry to fix up more interviews. It was important to take this step to prove to myself that I was not avoiding interviews because I am not a people's person. Now, I know I can step on the gas if I need to.

Wheels Turning

Finally, there is some movement on my PhD research interviews. About time, since I was beginning to get discouraged. But, a visit to the RBI Archives yesterday and a phone call to an old contact yielded some useful contacts. I was not sure if I was prepared for interviews since I haven't figured out what I really want from the interviews. But, sometimes, it pays to look before you leap. In this case, the worst that can happen is it will be a waste of my time and a chastening experience if the interviewer finds my questions silly and/or me ill-prepared. I am trying to keep in mind that I am not a journalist anymore and this is not a media interview. I am going to this meeting for new ideas and some mutual brainstorming rather than getting the interviewee to say something newsworthy. As my contact told me this morning, I am not on a "fishing" expedition. I need to be in a different frame of mind to do academic interviews, and that will come only with practice and reflection. I wish there were more resources on the difference between journalistic and academic interviews. Maybe I should try harder to find them. At the same time, I don't want to devote too much mental space to my interview techniques at the cost of substance. Ah well, like most things in life this is a balancing act between two dualities--form and substance, in this case. 

300

This is my 300th post but I am not going to blog about it because I don't remember what my 200th or 100th post was about. And if I cannot look back  and reflect on the journey what is the point of blogging about milestones.

Today, I attended an lecture at the RBI Archives. The lecture was long and boring but I was hoping to connect with the lecturer and some of the attendees for my research afterwards. To raise my profile among the speakers, I decided to ask a dumb question. I don't have a fear of speaking in public but anxiety has a way of creeping up on you when you least expect it. I found myself shaking as I asked the question. I have an inkling why but that is a topic for another (or several) blog posts. The only thing to do when you are faced with mild anxiety is to power through it, and that is exactly what I did.

Sextortion Emails

Yesterday, I got my university's news bulletin which had an item warning us not to respond to a sextortion email that some colleagues had received. Apparently, the email subject line contains an old or current university account password to freak the recipient. It demanded a ransom in exchange for footage of the recipient watching porn on their computer. One of my colleagues, who is in her fifties, and has never watched online porn, got the email. My sister had got a similar email last year.
It almost seems that such emails target people who have never watched online porn. Maybe they figure that regular porn watchers are not easily shamed. Unless they are into really dodgy stuff. While we are on the subject, I should inform you that porn websites are banned in India. As I was telling my colleague, this is peak irony. One would figure that a people renowned for their tech savvy and their almost obsessive fondness for porn would find a way around the ban. All it takes is a Virtual Private Network to get around the ban. There are free VPNs available or you can buy one for a few hundred rupees if you want a reliable connection. How do I know? Because Spotify, the streaming music  service, is banned in India, I need a UK VPN to be able to access my account. Or, maybe I am a consumer of online porn. You pick whichever reason you fancy.

Rich Inner Life

I was reading an article today about the sleeping habits of people from different walks of life when I chanced upon this quote: "you have to have a very rich inner life to be a baker". The woman who was quoted has a working day that starts at 3:00 a.m. and ends at 10:30 a.m. on most days. When she is baking, she is usually alone, which she enjoys. The phrase 'rich inner life' stuck with me and I wondered what my definition of it would be. I would say it entails relying on passive external stimuli--books, movies, articles, any form of art--to give life to a vibrant inner world made up of thoughts and emotions. When I googled the phrase, I found that someone on Quora has defined it as when thoughts and impressions are mostly enough to make us happy and satisfied. I slightly disagree as I believe building a rich inner world requires engagement with the outside world, but of the passive kind. There is a reason solitary confinement is considered one of the worst forms of torture.
Looking back over the past two years, I realize that I have been actively  seeking a rich inner life. It hasn't been a conscious choice, and if it were maybe I wouldn't have made it. It could be seen as disengaging from the external world, which is a privilege only a few can afford. At a time of grave political injustices and upheavals, it could be seen as a cop-out. On the other hand, it could be argued that it is an effective coping mechanism. Or that having a rich inner world and actively rather than reactively engaging with the external world are complements, not substitutes. This is a tough one and I see myself pondering  over it in the days, weeks and months to come. But, I firmly believe that we are first responsible for our own happiness and then of those in our close vicinity. And, if that involves building a world of one's own and spending an inordinate amount of time in it instead of chasing worldly pleasures which can be terrible for the environment and for those less fortunate, is that such a bad thing?
The song that comes to my mind is 'A world of our own' by The Seekers, with the 'we' substituted with 'I' to make it relevant to my current situation.

Close the door, light the light
We're stayin' home tonight
Far away from the bustle and the bright city lights
Let them all fade away, just leave us alone
And we'll live in a world of our own

We'll build a world of our own that no one else can share
All our sorrows we'll leave far behind us there
And I know you will find there'll be peace of mind
When we live in a world of our own

Oh, my love, oh my love, I've cried for you so much
Lonely nights without sleeping while I longed for your touch
Now your lips can't evade the heartache I've known
Come with me to a world of our own

We'll build a world of our own that no one else can share
All our sorrows we'll leave far behind us there
And I…

P.S. My blog is an integral part of my rich inner world

Price Theory

One of the hallmarks of a successful businessperson is knowing what to charge a customer and the mirror attribute of knowing what to pay for a product or service. Being able to judge how badly a customer wants or needs a product can go a long way in offering a price that they will agree to pay. I distinguish  a businessperson from a salesman because the latter might not always have the authority to offer large discounts. But, of course, good salespeople are glib talkers as well as good people-readers. I remember when I joined a new company about eight years ago and my editor asked the head of sales to guess my age. The editor was expecting him to be surprised by  how  young I was but the sales head guessed my  age accurately. When it was our turn to  be surprised, the sales head simply said that being in sales, it was his job to read people correctly.

With the advent of technologies, individual people-readers might become less sought after. The busloads of personal data that technology companies are hoovering up can be used to create detailed profiles of customers to predict what a particular customer may want at a particular instant in time and giving them option  of  purchasing it instantly. I have written a paper that touches on this point. But, the biggest use of personal data, I believe, will be to set prices. We may soon reach a stage when individual prices are personally tailored (within bounds, of  course, else there would be a public uproar). The biggest difference between shopping online and shopping in a physical store is that in the latter every customer sees the same price tag. In an online store, that is not the case. Maybe in the future we will reach a stage where every price is individually tailored depending on the customers' ability and willingness to pay. Of course, this would  be hugely controversial. Rich people are quite savvy when it comes to these things and would not take to being soaked kindly.  

One way of getting around potential allegations of discriminatory pricing is framing every price as a discount on the marked price. So, some people could be offered a greater discount, some a lesser discount.

Our Home in Pune

I am in Pune now, the city where I spent four forgettable years in engineering college. But even as my disenchantment with the degree course grew over those four years, so did my fondness for the city. I have been coming here since I was child. My grandparents built their post-retirement home here, which was incidentally completed two months after I was born. There is a photo of me when I was about a year old sitting on the garage porch with my sister and booth of us have wide smiles on our faces. Mine is toothless, of course, and hers is missing a few teeth. For some reason, I am wearing white polka-dotted tights with a frilly waist, which it later occurred to me was a hand-me-down from my sister.
I realized how much I liked my grandparents' home only after my parents built another home on the adjacent plot that used to be the garden, and my grandparents moved into the new building. The old building oozed character from every nook. It had a hall with a high ceiling and a ceiling fan with a stem that was about eight-feet tall. Both bedrooms looked out into the hall and there was a winding staircase too. And of course there was a good-sized lawn at the back which was filled with fruit trees. Perfect for a little boy to ramble in.
Pune, back then, was known as a pensioner's paradise and the suburb where my grandparents lived was even quieter than the rest of the city. It was a haven from the heat, dust and noise of Bombay.
Over the years, all  that has changed. Pune is now an IT hub and as our luck would have it, the mammoth IT park is not very far from my grandparents' place. It is no more a pensioners paradise--it is teeming with young IT workers and no one even their wildest dreams would liken it to a paradise. But is still feels like a semi-haven at least. The pace of life is not as fast as in Bombay, it has a slightly rural feel to it, there is a lot more space and the weather is better than Bombay, which is not saying much. And, my grandmother lives here so I am always happy to visit.

End of the Week

Its not often that I feel glad the week has ended but today is one of those rare occasions. It wasn't a bad week, it was just not a very productive one. What's worse is I can't even say I didn't achieve everything I had set out to because I didn't have a clear-cut plan. I am at that stage of my research where I am trying to figure out what my research is really about. Since I am more than halfway through the duration of my PhD that might sound alarming. But the nature of my research is such that one seeks the research questions and answers simultaneously.
This week was spent in doggedly feeling around in the dark for the light switch that would illuminate the path to the next stage of my research. So much of this project is showing up even if you are not feeling particularly inspired. Having faith that just sticking with the project will open doors or at least windows. Just like yoga or blogging, where not every session has the desired effect. Even when you feel like you are not making progress because progress is not linear and it is cumulative. This, of course, doesn't mean sticking to your research strategy, no matter what. Its not about having faith in one's research approach, because one should not be wedded to a particular  idea or approach. Faith and openness go had in hand. Inner faith makes you more open to the external world. Faith in what, you may ask? In yourself, in the trajectory of your life, in the calling you have chose, in your destiny. Who says scientists lack faith?

Liam Neeson and Revenge

A Hollywood actor who is promoting a revenge-themed movie recently talked about how he wanted to kill a black man, any black man, after one of his friends was raped by one. His two points presumably was about how vengeance is a powerful force and how all of us are consciously or unconsciously racist. That interview drew strong reactions. Some people applauded him for his frankness, which curiously came just when he was promoting a movie. Others lambasted him for trying to pass of such repellent views as acceptable with the justification that he was feeling vengeful because his friend had just been raped. After all, if the rapist had been white, it is unlikely that he would have thought about killing a white man, or himself. Some people said his views exposed how black men, especially, are routinely dehumanized while others pointed out. Others pointed out that simply by voicing such feelings, he was leaning on his privilege as a white male.
I don't know where I stand on this one. I believe most of us are racist to differing extents, but that doesn't give the racist system we live in a free pass. It is because it is difficult not be in a racist system, and the same holds true for any other form of discrimination. But the other point is whether to talk about uncharitable, or even violent, impulses that we are ashamed of. Is it better to air them or keep them to ourselves? An obvious ground rule is whether airing them will do more harm than good to the target of those impulses. But that of course is not easy to figure out. Another way of looking it is we cannot control our thoughts, only our actions, so why valorize our thoughts so much? Just because you feel like murdering someone doesn't mean you are actually going to do it. 

Fullness Threshold

I just read an article which said that a PhD in education sciences (presumably in the U.S.) takes 13 years on average. And, here I am trying to finish one (albeit not in education) in three years. On some days, such as today, it feels like a tall ask. But, I feel like with a project such as mine, where the end-point is not obvious, an end-date is required because otherwise the project can go on forever. An end-date is a rough mental marker for when to stop and what to leave for later projects. Of course, just because the end-point is not obvious doesn't mean I can simply stop writing when my time runs out. As I have written before, I aim for a feeling of fullness that comes with a writing job done to my satisfaction. This goes for even a blog post, so, naturally, the expectations and "fullness" threshold is much higher for a PhD thesis. And, of course, I hope I reach my fullness threshold before I reach my "fed up" threshold. For the paper I just submitted recently to a journal, the latter came before the former, but fortunately the two were quite  close to each other so I could submit without a guilty conscience.
When people ask me if my PhD is on track, I don't know what to say. If only there was a track with clear milestones. But, that wouldn't be any fun in my discipline. There is madness in the method and in laborious stretches such as where I am right now, I try to remind myself of this maxim. 

Playing With Words

It never ceases to surprise me how much social sciences research depends on fluency in a language. Some social science research strikes me as playing with words--putting a slightly different spin on a conceptual term and passing it off as a contribution to the literature. As an aside, isn't it interesting that we often refer to an existing body of research on the subject as 'literature'? Also, the starting point of most research projects is a "literature" review.
How does one separate nuanced research from a play on words? One tends to dismiss research that one doesn't understand as a play on words. I came across a journal article today and I couldn't decide whether it was brilliant or faff. I was able to grasp some of the author's arguments, but not all. This is a perennial problem with  purely theoretical research. With empirical research at least you are saying something concrete about a real-world phenomena. Which is why examples are so useful. They are an age-old teaching tool, but I think they should be used more in research as well. Cases where a new concept seems like a play on words would be helped if the researcher can give an example where his concept is applicable and another where it is inapplicable. I understand precision can sometimes come at the cost of nuance, but surely intelligibility must be of primary importance,  ahead of nuance.

Meta Blog

I have promised to not write too many blogs about blogging, but this one is a meta-blog with a difference. Instead of writing about how great blogging is, this one is about how unsatisfying it has been for the past 10 days or so. The same goes for yoga, the other tool in my wellness box. It has been days since I wrote a blog which feel full and satisfying, and I wonder why.  Come to think of it, the past few days have not been very satisfying, mostly because I have been under the weather and have stayed mostly indoors. Blogging is about coming home after a full day and reflecting on the day, so when are your days aren't full, obviously blogging is not very satisfying. Now my blog is not a log of the day's events, and I often reflect on thoughts on ideas that didn't necessarily come up during that day (I keep an inventory of blog ideas that I tap from time to time). But, when you are unwell, your mental juices flow at a more leisurely place, which is probably why blogging has seemed like such a chore these past few days. The thing I have realized about other wellness tool--yoga--is that its not a magic wand that brightens up a dull day every time, although on rare occasions it does work that way. But, having faith in the practice, and returning to the mat even when it feels like a drag, has definitely helped me. I have the same attitude towards blogging. We instinctively know what practices/relationships/perspectives serve us well even if we lack the intellect to understand or the vocabulary to articulate how exactly they serve us.
 I am glad that I have managed to keep up the practice of blogging and have compensated for the lack of inspiration by writing shorter blogs. Tomorrow, is a new week, and as I am feeling better, I am hoping that it will be a physically and intellectually productive week. And, as it happens, I am satisfied with this blog post.

My Book Collection

I own many more books than I thought, which I only realized as I was going through the cupboard in my bedroom this morning. My personal collection is nowhere near as large as my parents', but I still have a good 50 books. When I am in Bristol, I prefer to either borrow books from the public library or read them on Kindle. I have limited space in my AirBnB and moving books there would add a measure of permanence to my living arrangements in Bristol which I am not prepared for yet. I am not a big one for decorating my living space. My apartment in Bombay didn't have a single piece of decoration and my room in Bristol just has photos of my family and a naughty poster gifted by a dear friend. My books are the only personal effects that would mark a space as mine. If I decide to make my home in England and fate permits me to, I will move my books there. Until then, my books will stay here. 

Cough For Life

It is Day 7 of my sore throat and I feel no better or worse than on Day 1. My Mom has had a cough on and off for a few months now and my usually indomitable Dad has also fallen victim to it. When it was coming on I knew it would stay for longer than I wanted it to but not as long as I thought it would. I am not trying to be cute with the wordplay--a cold is one of those maladies which feels like it will stay with you for life. It is usually mild enough to keep your faculties unimpaired enough to feel all the misery it has to offer and to reflect on it. It is also one of those ailments that will normally not shorten your life, which perversely makes it seem worse as one would have to bear it for longer.
I have not been seriously sick in the past two-and-a-half years (knock on wood) and just twice in my entire life time (thanks, dengue fever). One of the main reasons I dislike being indisposed is I can't exercise or at least not enough to get the endorphins swimming. But, I would prefer to be indisposed with a cold than with an injury any day because coming out of an injury, one is super-nervous about doing any exercises that might cause repeat injuries.