I am gradually taking off my blogs from blogger/blogspot and moving them all to my personal domain.
http://thecoolsun.whybenormal.org/ will be the location where I will be blogging, from now on.
Thanks for staying with me all this while. You are all most welcome to come to The New Cool Sun.
Signing off,
Sands.
I was at a dinner ‘party’ this evening. Some meetings/conferences happening at the office and the guests and we went together for dinner.
It was a really terrific restaurant. Funnily, they had everything there apple-related. On the walls, there were artificial apples hanging. At the entrance, there was a HUGE machine which could juice hundreds of apple in a go. Their wifi-netword was “Apfel-net” (Apfel is the German word for apple).
And yes, it went much further to the following level.
They had even the toilets done with apple themes! How about that?
And well, the dinner was mostly fun. One of the guys wanted to try out the eggplant dish, because he liked all about it, except the eggplants! So, he asked for it without the eggplants. (this stupid joke got repeated enough that I was royally bored with it)
Every one in the group had some special demand regarding the food. The waitress, was extremely accommodating and very friendly. Needless to say, I *really* liked her! :)
The service was excellent and the food was fantastic!
(Some day I should take my SO to this restaurant.)
And, at the end of the day I became a savior too. One of the guests hadn’t checked in the hotel and the reception was closed by the time we reached and his reservation wasn’t of much help. With my German skills, I managed to secure him a room without trouble.
So, it was an altogether very nice evening.
And I am sooooo tired now. So this is good night from me.
Signing off,
Sands.
Most of us are uncomfortable when (it looks like) someone is judging us. Well, we use the term “judging” only when the evaluation is not the way we desire. But when it comes to others, most of us aren’t reluctant to judge (of course, when it is our “assessment”, it has to be good, right?)
On Thursday, we watched the latest installment of Twilight saga – “Breaking dawn – part 1”. I was not planning to, when I got out of office. But then she suddenly had the idea and we headed to the theater near home. (And watched it in German)
It easily qualifies for a spot in the bottom ten movies of all times. Still it was good that we went, for, she was extremely happy that we went for the movie.
So, there you have it – a good reason to judge me. If that’s not enough, I can also tell you that I’ve read the whole saga – I wanted to know what the fuss was about and failed to find the cause for the fuss.
Signing off,
Sands.
Not being regular, here on the blogosphere, is not the way to go. I should get back to writing. And I think, yes, I will.
For a long time I wasn’t sure why I am not writing. Two major things coincided with the downfall of the frequency of posting and like any other idiot, I assumed that one of those was the reason for my lack of writing. (I know, correlation doesn’t equate to causation)
Apparently, it appears now, something else, of which I was oblivious, was (and is) the real reason.
The situation would not change for at least 6 more months. But I have already taken long breaks and I should get back to writing.
Here is my attempt to break the long break. More will continue…. soon.
Signing off,
Sands.
“This year we didn’t have a summer; Next year we may have one” – forecasted my colleague this morning.
So very true – the summer didn’t have any sun. There was a day in July when I had to turn the radiator (room heater) on.
After the frustrating rainy months, we decided to make a trip to random places. Incidentally, I came to know at that time that an acquaintance lives in Heidelberg (just 110km away from home).
Saturday – about noon – we started. The forecast did say about overcast and showers. Well, as 
But before reaching the church, we stopped by the side of the vineyards. From the roadside, the vineyard(s) stretched till the horizon.
The grapes were tender. But that didn’t stop us from having some though (sour grapes). Making photos weren’t a part of our plan – just ride and ride and ride. So, all we had was the iPhone and she did take some pictures anyway.
Note: A curious thing – in that region, almost every village has the name ending in “heim”.
So, here I stand by the side of Rudra – that’s how the bike is called.
(I am not supposed to publish any ‘long haired’ pics. But I am going for a haircut in 2 days, so I hope to use that as an excuse for putting this online.)
It was then it started to pour – almost like never before in Germany. We simply got drenched. We cancelled our ‘food plans’ @ “Worms” – cool name for a city, eh? Went straight to Heidelberg.
The rain came again – with all its might – during our way back home. It was foggy all around (and great sound effects from lightning/thunders). It took almost double the time to reach home. After the rain, I was starting to worry that she might fall off the bike of some hypothermia or so.
Needless to say, I was extremely cautious, we reached home all safe and decided: “Never are we getting back so late. If we are on bike, be home before it is dark”. The experience really did scare us (and prolly taught a good lesson too). :)
I’ll be flying to India by the end of this month. So, for another bike trip, we’ll have to wait till the end of September – when I am back gain. Hopefully, we’ll have some good weather then.
Signing off,
Sands.
Life is really nice. There are, now and then, small tensions of life. But really smooth life is. For some time now, I had totally cut back on social gatherings and stuff.
I am totally back to watching documentaries - just finished Secrets of Super Brands - really nice set. Reading books has taken backseat for now, but I read more magazines.
BTW, The reason I came over here now is to share two little links. I found them both during my morning reading. Here they are..
a) Incent - a back formation
b) Half closed or half open? (you'd have to recollect your math-notation-skills for this)
And now, I am gone after wishing y’all a LOVELY day and a wonderful weekend.
Signing off, Sands.
The day, today, has been so far (it’s not even 8:30 in the morning) really eventful.
I was up at 5:20 to take and see off MG to/at the railway station. On the way back, while speaking to mom, I heard about some unpleasant news.
Then when I reached home I was stinking – for I had cooked+had Asparagus last evening (asparagus and Holland sauce – wow it was, but the stink next day is intolerable).
And after a real detailed shower I headed to office.
Before I proceed, some info: Last Monday when I took my cycle, it had flat tyre. Not a very bad one – if I pump it full, the pressure stays easily for half an hour or so.
I have all the necessary things to fix it, but I didn’t. There is even a cycle repair shop at two minutes distance from office. I didn’t take it there.
My solution was to carry around a pump. The pump became – more or less – a part of my cycle itself. (Have I told you that I never lock my bike? so, if someone wanted to steal it, now is the time, they get the bike and the pump – the full deal).
So, today, when I reached work, Mr. MusclyCalf (he plays football a lot) came to my office and offered me this. (Yes a tool kit to fix the flat tyre).
And said, “I’d been seeing you do this pumping business every afternoon when you go for lunch and in the evening when you go home. You could use this to fix the flat tyre”.
I felt a bit ashamed. At the same time I was quite happy too, for we have a quite family like atmosphere at the office! :)
And I guess, this means that I come of as a person who doesn’t take things offensive. (or an idiot). I believe it is the former! :P
Signing off, Sands.
Indian government doesn't want Indians to see/know the boundary between India and its neighbors as perceived by the world. Indian gov. either is sure that their view is the only right view or doesn’t want people to know others’ points of view. Sad.
The image is Economist's apology/note to Indian readers, for the censorship India enforces on its print edition. Funny right? "We think, our Indian readers can face political reality".
For the real deal of the fence problems, go here. (I think Economist is a little partial towards India - perhaps the love of democracy and all are the reasons.)
Signing off, Sands.
PS: By the way, you'd see LOL and OMG in this blog now on as they're proper English words now. (yeah, as if my English is so proper).
Well, a little post to prove to myself that I haven’t forgotten how to blog. With win-live-writer and all, it is quite easy to blog – all it takes is a single click to open it, then type in the matter and hit “publish”. Yeah, I still remember.
Anyway, I am off again. Before I go, I wish you a wonderful day and give you this little flower - (someone said: Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower) – you find the sunshine and freedom by yourself.
Signing off,
Sands.
I generally have a mental block to say that I am tired. I like to be energetic all the time and almost always I am energetic too.
But last week, at work, I felt kind of exhausted. The work is really enjoyable and I put in my 100%, and towards the end of day Thursday, I felt like I was burning myself out. Then for some reasons, I didn’t have enough sleep of that night and Friday, afternoon, I felt really burned out.
So, I spent the two days of weekend to rejuvenate myself.
The weather being good, I went out on a very small/short bike trip… by the side of the river flowing near my home.
Sunflower looks like this in winter! :)
I was not the only person who enjoyed the weather..
On the way, there was a stable! (with three horses)
Now I am all set for the coming week – during which I know, I have to finish loads of work.
Taking the weekend for relaxing, leaves me with so many unread RSS feeds, non-replied emails and unfinished “letters” and other business – all of which I hope to catch up (and finish) in the coming days.
Wishing you all a lovely week ahead..
Signing off, Sands.
I read the following in “The Hindu”
It is obviously in our interest to be on the right side of the new forces that will emerge to prominence in Egypt. They will remember who supported them in their hour of history and who sat on the fence.
I am not a diplomat, I don’t know a lot of such things, but with a little bit common-sense (which I think I do have), I think that the author would be on the side of a rapist if the victim doesn’t have a way to get the justice (or in other words, the rapist is in power!).
Well, this issue need not be like an assault on a person. But then, I would think we could refrain from being involved rather than being just opportunistic. (Should India support a military coup against a democracy if the military side is going to get the power?)
I don’t think that a newspaper shall promote any article like that. Sure, the rest of the article might say something totally different. But.. honestly, I didn’t read it with much care, after seeing the above.
In case you want to read the opportunist article, go here.
Sands.
PS: In this specific case, people seem to be right and they also seem to be having a better future. But the latter shall not be the reason to support them.
Life is beautiful… It’s been a long time since I sat back in my relaxing-chair and said this. But now, I am actually sitting back in my ‘relaxing chair’ and relaxing to the core.
I guess, I could enjoy a real good massage though… my muscles all could enjoy some stress-relief. Well, that’s now a little too much to ask.. and a little less probable to come-by.
Life’s been good. The “thaaLam” (rhythm is the equivalent word in English, but not quite right) is restored. Now, I am living life… yeah, KING SIZE. Just for one and only one person me, why do I need so much of luxury? I don’t know, but it is good to be so. Perhaps, all I miss in my little home is a small fire-place – you know? – just to complete the picture.
So, after spending a little fortune, I set up a new home. All I need now are some guests. Or may be some girls whom I could bring to show-off! :P
Having a nice respectable place for books, was a must. Initially I was satisfied with some “billy-look-alikes”. But how can that be good enough?
So, another trip to IKEA helped me get these nice two Expedits.
As you can see, there are still some books near the dining table, in the old shelf, looking for better place.
Well, again, it is more or less a dead investment to have a glass-top dining table, when I prefer sitting in the couch and eating while watching something.
Still, you know? No compromises..!
Hmm… pretty much the most happening place in the apartment. Reading or talking or watching something happens always on this couch. Why not, dinner too.
I’ve always wanted to just put some wonderful books on the couch-table for the visitors to read … not exactly to read, but to turn pages and have some factoids. And here I have nothing less than “Information is beautiful” – a wonderful (beautiful) book, full of factoids.
Now, a little place for the serious me.
It’s been quite some time I had normal “snail mail” correspondence, which I MISS. Hmm, it is mostly computers there, but they are not the priority stuff, but the pens and ink are.
A lot of papers from the past 3 months (letters/notices/last-warnings to send something) are all lying nearby, needing attention – which they all will receive from me, soon-ish.
And here, finally I introduce the latest addition to my living room which makes it a small home-theater.
Yes, one little projector. I sit in the couch and watch documentaries or films or anything of my choice. It’s a bliss!
Now, some of the things here just don’t sound like me at all. I always want to have posh settings, but you all know that I get bored quite easily. Investing so much time, money and effort in an apartment isn’t like me. What is the point doing all this, if I would get bored with the apartment soon?
Well, the answer is there in one of my older posts. For the new-comers: wait and see.
Signing off, Sands.
I am being extremely lazy… Whether it be cleaning my room, doing laundry or replying to my emails… I am not doing!
I go to office in the morning and try to do kickass job (which I think I do) and get back home to my medium-comfortable-couch… and spend the whole evening on it.. sometimes reading… sometimes watching some old sitcom.
I think, this is the effect of having the feeling to relax for a couple of weeks after the PhD. I have to get up from this. I have to start being active (you see, I am starting to get back to blogosphere)
But all the same, even when I tell this, I think I need to do NOTHING for the coming few weeks.
Perhaps my friends are getting angry at me…. for I don’t even properly reply to their emails (or pings/calls).
When I look back, this is what I see
April : finishing the thesis and submitting it.
May : Submission needed me to stay away from teaching during the first few weeks of teaching, catching up with it.
June: India, the dark chapter of my dad’s demise
July : Backlag from June (work-wise and also the emotional drag)
August: Finishing the semester work + catching up the pending work
September: Finalising the thesis, defense, the logistical things
October: India, orchestrating relocation and stuff … WHOLLY packed.
November: New city, new life, new work, relocation
And December, I am here, starting to relax! I hope hope hope that my friends do understand when I am taking this month completely off. Unless someone REALLY needs me for something, I am just out from this world for sometime. (I stress this point of friends, because I feel a “little” guilty)
So far, I am enjoying the job. It’s nice to have time-limited working hours, unlike uni. which was more or less flexible – meaning it took a lot of my “mindspace”. But I have to see how long will I like this… I like multi-dimensional way of living… mixing things up.
Life’s good! Great food, great place to live, ample entertainment…. I am more or less living a little dream – a world where I live without much constraints…!
This is/was a quick post… will be back with more on current affairs and what I think about “life” in general! :) [also, that would be proof read]
Signing off, Sands.
PS: Lethargy is awesome… but I need to get up! :P
Oh well, so many things happened in life during the past 6 months..
All about those will be written as time goes by, in my future posts. This post is mainly for a few photos.
After moving in to the new apartment, I had to have some new furniture. So, I decided to make them… yes, I bought the ‘raw-materials’ and tools and started making some.
Working with chisels and saw wasn’t as easy as I had imagined - mainly because of the noise (I didn’t want to annoy my neighbors)
The first two photos are of “something” I made for the kitchen.
Every single time I took the chisels, I was reminded of Perumthachan (and his son)
Here is a small thing I built, and fixed on the wall… and a foldable table. I knew, I didn’t want to move it around.
So, it is fixed, but one can fold it back when not needed.
And now, I shall show you some pics from this years snow.
Two cycle tracks on the snow and the city’s yellow light on it. |  |
 | How would I go without leaving footprints? ;) |
On my way to office…! |  |
 | I am still on my way… |
I have to cross this little “river”. :) |  |
Well, that’s all my dear fellows.
You all have a lovely time! Till very soon,
Signing off, Sands.
I haven’t written in a long time. This is not going to be a long post either.
The reason is that, I am now Dr. Sandeep Sadanandan and the transition from Mr. to Dr. took quite a bit of work. (Plus some personal reasons)
Now, I am back to normal speed of life. (Even though so many things happened in the past 2 months or so)
Expect me to be regular again.
Signing off, Sands.
Listening to “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away”. How lovely a song it is!
“I don’t know” is a good answer when you really don’t know what is being asked/discussed. Don’t you think so? At least I do.
But many prefer to give half-baked ill-informed answers/opinions when they are asked something. And guess what? that drives me mad. I don’t claim that I know everything about anything I know.
I know only very little. But unless I am quite sure, I won’t be commenting about anything. Oh yes, there are human errors everywhere – I am not above/beyond them either. So, I do cut some slack for everyone. (who do I think I am?)
But when I hear half baked ideas and see half assed effort to be informed, I react badly. Especially when the hard-earned facts and irrefutable logic are ignored. Perhaps I should mellow down a bit.
After my “Bookshelf Dilemma” post, I decided to get an e-book reader and have it in my hand already. Yes, an amazon Kindle. So far, I have liked it a lot. All the same, I should say that I haven’t read even one complete book in that. But since my vacation is to start next week, I am keeping my reading postponed till then.
A few days before Kindle, I had bought an iPhone too. I am quite satisfied with that gadget as well. I am quite pleased with it.
NOW, coming back to ignoring facts and going with ill-informed opinions. This is perhaps why, I cannot understand “creationists”, the reason I don’t understand superstitions, or blindly religious people. Well, apparently, people simply refuse to think…., which is so sad.
Anyway, today I am not going to talk/write about beliefs. I shall just share some lovely videos I came across.
Thanks to Pramode sir, for bringing this (Deconversion) to my notice.
Then, there was this debate I saw online – whether church is necessary or not. It is a playlist of 5 videos – worth watching.
Now, to an entirely different topic: Vegetarianism. I became a vegetarian, more than a year ago, and stayed so, faithfully. The choice was mainly philosophical and there was a small part of the question which I hadn’t answered. During my vacation@home, I think I will be revisiting the whole issue – all over again.
Signing off, Sands.
PS: Sometimes you don’t know – “whether you like the person because of his ideas or you like his ideas because you like him” (my example is Stephen Fry). Something similar is – “Do I like those parents because I like their kids or do I like the kids because I like their parents?”. There is a malayali family in Munich which I simply adore – parents and two little girls.
PPS: It was Keralasamajam’s Onam celebration on Saturday and I (and MG) painted something for the stage. Here they are:
That is where an ebook reader (eReader) comes into picture. Shall I go for one? or not?
An eReader would kill all this fun. So shall I not get one? But then I’ll be missing the technology train. (Which I never missed with netbooks, smart-phones, iPod, iPhone, etc.)
All the bullets above add up to less than 10 percentage of what I love about books. What I want really is the content. So, wouldn’t it be great if I can carry around my collection in a little handheld device? (claiming to give the perfect-reading-feel)
I don’t know. I was (am) quite confused about it. What if I don’t like it after the investment? Wouldn’t it be a waste? What if I do like? Won’t I move away from the good-old-smelly-books?
I spoke with a fellow-reader (RG) and she recommends to take the plunge. I have nothing to lose. And if I don’t like the device, I can give it to someone. Yes, sounds reasonable enough. Still… but… Hmm…
So, take the plunge? or not?
Signing off, Sands.
PS: The title of this post is shamelessly taken from this post @ Within/Without, which provoked my eReader thoughts.
And yesterday, I went to the bookshop (well, not that I don’t have enough unread books in my collection). I went to buy “The last lecture” for a friend (Nth copy of that book I was buying). And I bought a book for me as well (you know Tyler Cowen of MarginalRevolution? – his Infovore book)
While in the train back home, I sat opposite to a lady who was reading. I took the new book, opened it and inhaled directly from the pages… it felt so good - the pleasant smell of the new book. I looked up to see that she was looking at me and smiling. I smiled back, and knew that we had the ‘reader-to-reader’ rapport between us.
If only she were in my age-league, I could have had a bit of flirting flow! :P (I soooo wanted to know which book she was reading – try “Judging a girl by her cover”, slate magazine)
The moment she moved, I took it and was just very happy! And as the sender asked me to, I did feel very much bear-hugged!
Now, the bitter things: Why do people put their close ones through guilt trips to make them do things against their own wishes? It is being used by so many people, and comes in different flavours – that disgusts me.
Why don’t people follow the minimum manners of removing the hear/ear-phones while speaking to someone? Why can’t you simply remove your tainted-glasses while talking to someone. Don’t you think, looking into the eyes is an important part of any conversation?
Why do people simply go ahead and use someone else’s computer, without asking? Don’t they know it is called “personal computer” and the meaning of “personal”? (Applicable to books and other things too)
And finally, why am I being so touchy? ;)
Signing off, Sands.
I was with muggle-girl, in the train, when she remarked about our co-passengers – “Why do they all look like they’ve lost something?”. I looked around, and it was so true. Except a lady with her kid (and us too), EVERYONE in the train was so gloomy. Why oh why?
It was just 10 in the morning.. not that they are all tired after a long day’s work (not that any excuse can be entertained). I wanted to get up and shout – cheer up people, cheer up!.
(On a different note: have I mentioned that Beatles songs are great? Yes they are - listening to them now. I’m happy just to dance with you..)
Then you have to go back and hunt the whole page for that word, and will be surprised to see that the word really did exist in the page?
I had a similar moment in the morning. I thought I saw some Indian word in the ad, which I saw for only a split of a second on the info-screen. I had to wait till the ad was shown again.
Remark: I happened to look at these words, instead of her cleavage????. Am I that boring?? 
Well, readers, the last few posts were a bit heavy for my blog. Hence the light weight post today.
And, I am gradually getting back to normality – hyper-activity and such.
Signing off, Sands.
PS: That (beautiful) lady was showing off her iPad and I was properly ogling both.
Recently, I had a conversation with Eva Maria – a German lady who is staying in Kerala and collecting data for her doctoral thesis – “Resistance of regional-medical-systems against globalisation/allopathic medicine – in the light of naturopathy in Kerala”. I took a while to grasp what she’s doing and the scope of this post doesn’t cover that. :)
She told me, when she visits some villages in Kerala, they tell her – “Kerala is the best place on the planet [to live]”. On asking back which all places they know to have such an opinion, they say, they haven’t ever been away from their cute lovely villages. So much for “informed opinion”.
I wonder, how many proud mallus know that the Kerala-tagline “God’s Own Country” itself is not original. [LINK]
And you know what? Indians tend to make this “we are the best” comments about almost everything [Facebook-Group].
To make it worse, we cannot even accept a bit of criticism. Once, in a group, I was telling [non-Indians] about some flaws and faults of Indian system, when this friend from Bihar told me [shouted] (in Hindi) to stop telling about the bad-things back there.
No society is going to grow if they cannot accept their own flaws and discuss with others to see their blind spots.
WE ARE FLAWLESS attitude spans from culture to technology. Indian culture is the best EVER. Home grown technology beats everything else (Remember Ramar-Pillai?).
A word about Indian culture – the colours, variety of food, festivals etc. are some of the best of it.
At the same time, don’t tell that a system where women are second class citizens is good. I simply won’t be able to understand the “goodness” of a dowry-based-arranged-marriage-family-system. Let’s not even talk about the caste-based classification of people.
I am not exactly patriotic; It’s your choice to be or not. But don’t let patriotism blind you. Please don’t.
And my dear Indian readers, if you still think we are the best, see where India stands in these global ranking systems: Satisfaction with Life Index (India:125), Quality-of-life index (India: 73), etc. We are not exactly at the top of these lists, are we?
So, there must be something which we are not doing right. (And others doing it right?)
There are many great things about every place/system. It is the same with India too – lot of great people, things, places, traditions, etc. But please try to have informed opinions; and be open to criticism.
And wouldn’t it be the best if we know what our faults are and get the best from wherever we can? Life will be happier, world will be a better place to live.
Signing off, Sands.
PS: Also, don’t think that this “attitude” is completely Indian, for I have seen people who say their system is the only good system around (have you spoken with newly-imported-Chinese students?).
PPS: People who are proud of the age-old beliefs/traditions/customs would shamelessly say that the hard, non-bendable, non-criticisable rules in Qur’an were written for 6-7th century A.D, and are not applicable now. (But that argument doesn’t apply to own faults, right?). Having majority support, or having been functional for ages shouldn’t support any system. Let changes happen, for good.
