Brownian thought space

Cognitive science, mostly, but more a sometimes structured random walk about things.

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Location: Rochester, United States

Chronically curious モ..

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Marketplace

Pune has grown to include nearby villages. So we now live close to the Pashan village, which has a colorful Sunday marketplace!

  • Bangle shop: the women sit like they are at school. Instead of a blackboard, there is that wall of bangles, and this haggle-and-trial session lasted at least an hour

  • Dried fish shop. I didn't really know there were shops of this kind! The shopkeeper saw me with the cam and asked me to take a pic :)

  • Vegetable shop: Gourd Section. I won't pretend I know ALL the names...


  • Fast food stall: Mainly deep-fried stuff that should keep the carb-watchers busy.

  • Veg shop redux: with the local temple in the background.

Brother & co.

Almost a picture blog, this.

Me and boo


My brother and his son in front of my bro's office building..

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Pune people

Pune is full of interesting people. They might not be able to send bricks to sleep with thought alone, but interesting nevertheless.
One of the people responsible for getting me started on a career in science. This last time I visited his office he had a snake on his table.

  • Sonalee Hardikar, creative mom
What does one do after a B.Sc. in Chemistry? If you're the kind of Puneite Sonalee is, you gofor mass communications, spend some time learning wood-carving with Buddhist refugee nuns somewhere in the Himalayas, study at and then teach at the marvellous National School of Drama in Delhi, and then set up an intense and very beautiful exhibition in the cultural heart of Pune. Digitally manipulated pix.


This is GIMPed... :)

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

More Indian strangeness

Pizza. It’s gone past the Italian variety and the American variety and evolved into a distinct species. Including Chicken Tikka Masala pizza and, my favourite, sheek kabab pizza with fresh coriander and onions

Cricket. Miserable Indian form. We lost 4-0 of a 5-match series (1 was rain-washed) against South Africa. Consequently, the issue was raised in the Indian parliament, and it’s been going on for a couple of days. Yesterdays the Times of India had a mid-page twin columns on whether or not parliamentarians ought to discuss cricket while in session.\

Food. Went to an interesting restaurant last night. "Continental" dishes, chicken tikka, nans, mexican quiche, carribean grilled chicken, shepherd's pie, and desserts like tiramisu. Here's a bit of the menu.

I wasn't brave enough to try the pasta... the al dente scare. Otherwise the food was good - excellent; although the chef was quite generous with the garlic.

Autorickshaws. My mom and aunt went to buy stuff, and their autorick ran out of petrol, so the person got them another one. Except, this other autorick had 3 kittens sitting underneath, so they had to wait till a bunch of schoolkids took them out and carried them away...

Friday, December 01, 2006

Riots again

The riots are spreading. Yesterday people torched the Deccan Queen, probably my favourite train anywhere :( Turns out the guy who vandalized the Ambedkar statue was drunk (so he says). And not politically affiliated at all. Of course not. Never. Doesn't happen.

Car park :)

I learnt driving a car in the Fiat Premier Padmini, with the gears behind the steering wheel when I was ~17. Since then I've hardly driven at all, but I guess it is early parameter setting, and the fact that I play video games, I feel great driving around the Pune traffic! Here is a sample from a tight parking spot: Of course power steering and floor gears play a part :)

Baby nephew

Here he is :)