Race Trace

Posted on September 1, 2010 by manuscrypts

Anything is possible when you are young. Then you get older and the thing about getting older is that you don’t need everything to be possible anymore, you just need some things to be certain.

For some reason, this line from Brick Lane (movie) stayed with me. Age might be a number, but we are alive for a finite time frame, and therefore it has its own significance. I think, more than age itself, it is to do with motivation. There does seem to be some relationship between age and motivation levels. Of course that’s quite a generic and simplistic statement, since there are many subjective factors that play important roles.

At different stages we’ve different short term purposes. What these then also manage to give are specific motivations. From getting good grades to the bigger car to the fancy vacation and everything in between. Sometimes they serve as motivation and sometimes as means to the motivation. To reach somewhere or to remain somewhere. Sometimes we run the world’s race, sometimes we run our own.  In both cases, there is a certain amount of hard work that goes into the race. We can bring luck into this context, but I wouldn’t still like to trivialise the effect of one’s efforts. Like I wrote a while back, in the context of my friend R, it is difficult to grudge a person his success when you realise the toil that has gone into it. I read this excellent speech delivered by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang delivered about a year back, which dwells on efforts and doing what you love.

But I’ve also seen that sometimes the efforts are made and the results don’t show. Maybe it has to do with the direction or the efforts themselves or maybe its to do with perseverance. What does one, them motivate the self with? I’ve also noticed, from experience,  that when one resets one’s ‘race’, and tries to figure out a purpose outside the parameters of routine and conditioning, motivation is quite a tough job.  A bit like trying to find an answer to a question you don’t clearly know. Motivation is after all, dependent on the purpose. Thankfully, there’s something else that Hugh MacLeod has captured beautifully.

unfulfilled potential

The mind can will itself to be free of others’ expectations, but can it hold its own against the ego, which has expectations of the self. The fear – if that goes, what motivation exists? Except for the need ‘for some things to be certain.’ And that somehow is existing, and not living?

until next time, track shuffle?

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Plan B

Posted on August 29, 2010 by manuscrypts

Actually it was quite a Plan A, since we’ve been hearing good things about this place for a couple of weeks now. (She insists I heard it from her first) And when pork and beef are involved, we usually have less of planning and more of execution.

Plan B is on the ground floor of the same building as Hae Kum Gang, on Castle Street. Here’s a map to help you get there. As always, remember that Castle Street is a one way, and you cannot enter it from the Brigade Road side. Parking is relatively a simple task.

Plan B has quite an attitude, and you can sense it as soon as you enter.  A lot of it is to do with the decor and those cool posters, and some of it is reflected in the nomenclature in the menu too. I was impressed enough to click a few snaps. (click to enlarge)

I thought the branding behind the bar was done on a manhole cover, but I can’t be sure. The snap, unfortunately, didn’t turn out good. The place has a buzz about it, and its got less to do with Knopfler, REM or Axl Rose and more to do with the bright ambiance, and the people.

This is the menu that ensured we got there. We were in a bit of dilemma on whether to start with pork or beef, but since pigging was the theme of the visit, Chilli Fried Pork it was. The soy sauce didn’t make its presence felt much, that was a good thing because the chillies could dominate. Excellent dish, I only wished it had been brought sizzling hot, we got it almost lukewarm.

Meanwhile, we’d also (uncharacteristically) ordered a couple of interesting drinks. D ordered a Ruddy Mary (l) and I asked for a Diesel. (r) The Ruddy Mary has tomato juice mixed with beer with a dash of lime. Diesel is a mix of lager and cola. Interesting mixes, but in both cases, we felt the beer flavor proved to be too dominant. The drinks might have had more of a distinct character if the other flavours played a stronger role. But a good experiment, nevertheless.

In the main course, beef and pork shared points, and chicken, perhaps for the first time in this blog’s history, was completely ignored. D ordered a Grilled Pepper Beef Steak, which she was quite happy with. The rice seemed buttered and different from the regular kind, and went very well with the steak. The sauce had permeated the meat, and though it acted tough with the knife, chewing wasn’t a problem. Even though it was well done, I think a steak knife was warranted. Also, the pepper sauce was a little too subtle. But despite that, the dish is worth a shot.

I asked for a ‘Pigs in a Thermal Blanket’, a cryptic crossword kind of name for cured, spicy pork in a burger bun. Spicy it was, and the mayonnaise provided with it complemented it brilliantly. Those with a thing for greasy food will love this one. I did. In both dishes, the fried potato was a stand out item. Thanks to all of the above, we were quite stuffed, and asked for the bill, declining dessert.

And then that Chocolate Mousse neon repeatedly winked at me. D promised to share, and we ended up ordering one. It was quite decent, nothing spectacular, but that’s more because of my preference for really strong chocolate than anything else.

The service is prompt and generally excellent, and the owner does the rounds, adding to the casual and pleasant ambiance. Unfortunately, when he got to our table to chat, the pig and its greasiness prevented me from even offering a handshake.

The meal cost us just less than Rs.1050, including a 5% service charge. I’d highly recommend a visit – for some awesome pork and beef, some neat experiments with beer, and a wonderful ambiance.

Plan B, #20, Castle Street, Ashok Nagar. Ph: 9739902745

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Collective bargain

Posted on August 25, 2010 by manuscrypts

“The way they speak about dinosaurs now, a few years later, that’s how they will talk about the mill workers”, says a character in City of Gold, a Hindi film by Mahesh Manjrekar, adapted from a play by Jayant Pawar. Its based on the Great Bombay Textile Strike. A decent movie, with some great performances and with its share of stark realty, though parts of the second half had a Bollywood melodrama hangover. I guess the response at the multiplexes (many of which are ironically what the mills gave way to) wasn’t really great either. But it was a story that had to be told.

The subject has interested me earlier too. To be precise, in 2005, my last official trip to Mumbai. The office was at Peninsula Center, and when I looked out through the windows, I could see a few chimneys. I wondered enough to come back and read up a bit. I was curious because amidst the RGV underworld flicks and the contemporary images I had of Mumbai, this seemed to be a part of history that had never figured in conversations. A legacy that seemed to be buried in the collective consciousness.

A single movie might not really be enough to cover the individual lives that were affected, though it does try to portray a microcosm. But as the line in Frost/Nixon goes “You know the first and greatest sin of the deception of television is that it simplifies; it diminishes great, complex ideas, stretches of time; whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot.”

Though it is said in a different setting, and context, the connect I sensed was legacy. How a person is perceived by a later generation. Artists have their paintings, actors/directors/crew have their movies, politicians, sportsmen/women have their auto/biography/memoirs, authors have their books, musicians have their music, they have a better chance at being remembered by a larger number of people, long after they’re gone, a better chance than us, the commons. A  collective’s legacy would be the place and time they lived in  – the larger picture, their collective actions, the people who became popular, the events that shaped the future. What happens if a collective chooses not to remember, or chooses to remember only parts? Who does it matter to then?

until next time, decadent chronicles

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Oh, numb!

Posted on August 23, 2010 by manuscrypts

While I was handling the high frequency burping that signifies the completion of the meal above, my phone rang. It was an ex-colleague, but more importantly, dear friend and a fellow mallu. I picked it up, expecting a loud ‘Happy Onam’ from the other end. She was working, and wanted a person’s number. I wished her a happy onam, and without missing a breath, got a “Oh, I forgot” response.

That perhaps typifies this generation of living-outside-Kerala Malayalis. That’s a generalisation, of course, and a huge one at that, because thankfully, I know many of my fellow Keralites who religiously go home every Onam, come what may, and have a blast. But as every Onam passes, I can feel it slipping away.

Ten days of holidays – a cousin reunion, the hustle and bustle of a sadya preparation, to a day taken off from college to visit a relative’s house for the sadya, to figuring out which new movies are being shown on the telly for Onam and scanning the papers for a restaurant that serves a good sadya, obviously it wasn’t just me who grew up.

I suspect that it might not get any better, and as a statement in Malayala Manorama went,  I might even get used ‘eating a sadya in the mind’. This generation still has its (mostly office) pookkalams and the sadya. For those that come later, the sadya will perhaps just be a meal by itself.

until then, happy onam :)

PS: The legend, the Ram Gopal Varma version, and the tag.

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Rendezvous

Posted on August 22, 2010 by manuscrypts

A rendezvous that took quite some time, though its just a few minutes away from home. Rendezvous Euro Restaurant is on 80ft Road, right before Barista. Here’s a map. Since there are enough side lanes around, parking is not likely to be a big problem.

Its more a friendly neighbourhood place than anything you’d come halfway across town for. But that also means that whenever I’ve passed by, I’ve seen it completely packed. We reached there a bit early, a little before 7.45. That, and the rains meant that we were among the first to arrive. But by 8.30 it was getting filled fast.

Rendezvous has a warm dimly lit ambiance, with some good retro music in the background. Nothing elaborate in terms of decor and furniture, but neat and a great place to sip a beer and watch Koramangala life passing by. The menu is mostly Continental, with some Chinese options too. You can take a look here.

The rain meant that we had to start with a soup. D and I shared a Mexican soup pot and my sis asked for a Cream of Chicken. Our soup, though described as a broth, was quite thick and creamy , and had salami, chicken and boiled vegetable with some cheese, that added a little zing to it.

We skipped the starters and the Chinese options and got busy trying to choose from a range of steaks, pastas and burgers. I asked for a Chicken Crepes, D ordered a Peppered Chicken Pasta and my sis ordered a ‘Gold and Red’ burger. The Crepes were conspicuous by their absence, but the tangy mushroom sauce, and the spicy mashed potato ensured that I wasn’t left too disappointed.

The missing component continued in D’s Peppered pasta, so D did a DIY with the pepper on the table, but apparently it still remained bland.So this turned out to be a disappointing choice.

My sis’ Gold and Red burger turned out to be a mixed bag. The Gold half, which had cheese and salami was apparently good, but the Red half, with a cold chicken salad was given a cold shoulder. She also felt that the salad may have been her age. I was the only one not complaining much. No comments on the lines of ‘you eat anything’ will be tolerated. Hmmph. I was too stuffed for dessert, though there was even a marble cake, and the others weren’t too sure what would land up on the table.

All of the above cost us just over Rs.700. The service was quite prompt. I think it serves as a good hangout joint, so this goes into a no gain, no pain category.

Rendezvous, 15/1, 80 ft Road, Koramangala 4th Block Ph: 25631177

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leg godt

Posted on August 18, 2010 by manuscrypts

Sapphire (toys- retail chain) opened a store in Koramangala recently, and lies on my route to practically anywhere. That means that giant Lego display and I stare at each other almost everyday now.

Lego and I go back more than a couple of decades. As always, no age jokes, okay? 1984, to be precise. Remember, I wrote about it in ‘The Foreign Object‘? Like I’d mentioned then, the loot from dad’s US stay was rationed out over a long period of time. Perhaps the only part that was exposed completely in the beginning were Lego sets.

The first set had arrived by a special package even before my Dad or the suitcase reached Indian shores. This was a trailer set, literally, and included a motorcycle too. But the real treasure was the lengthy catalog that came along with it. I quickly set about marking the ones that I wanted and sent it back to Dad.

Now, I suspect that my Dad, from whom I have inherited my skills, being the kind of shopper for whom a ‘milk and bread’ trip to the local grocery store is a mammoth effort, because of the number of choices that present itself, must’ve extrapolated my interest, seen a huge range of Lego sets, and decided that nothing served as gifts to my cousin set (both sides of the family) better, though the age bracket was anywhere from 2 months to a decade. That meant that when he returned, the suitcase had a disproportionate range of Lego sets, and I wangled, via sulks/sobs/means of affection, the right of first choice, and a cancellation of the original, carefully made, catalog choices .

In later days, I began to wonder whether it was a choice I might’ve been happy without, because each set had something I really wanted, and despite my arsenal of negotiating tactics, I wasn’t allowed to open the boxes and ‘exchange’ pieces. After various levels of filtering, I finally kept a digger-tipper combo, a medieval catapult, and a medieval castle set. My medieval set soldiers only had swords, shields and spears, and I hated missing out on the one with bows and arrows, but it was all about box sizes and number of pieces.

Though I was a stickler for not mixing up the pieces in storage, they were allowed to be social and mingle during playtime, and the four sets often gave rise to space crafts which were launched with catapults. (#2 kind of behaviour here) The magnum opus, thanks to a Star Trek/ Space Station Sigma overdose, was a space station, with motorbikes, driven by medieval soldiers, and defended with swords and shields. The tiny spears were also taken to school regularly as part of a superhero costume – they fitted between fingers nicely and could be pushed out using the palm for super-punches. Of course once the punch landed, the spear was pushed back and the palm hurt, so it was discontinued.

Much later, the Lego sets were passed on to cousins who were more than a decade younger. The stories remained, pushed back, as a life was built. And these days, when I see the Lego display, I am tempted to go in and check out the sets, maybe they have those Star Wars sets here now. Wonder how much they cost now, never had to wonder about that, back in 1984.  The price of growing up.

until next time, toys are us :)

PS: Lego owes its name’s origin to leg godt, Danish for play well

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Magnolia

Posted on August 15, 2010 by manuscrypts

One of the biggest contributors to Koramangala’s food-and-mouth epidemic is the 80 ft Road, which has more than a dozen (underdone estimate) outlets that cater to all sorts of tastes and wallet sizes. This week, we decided to drop in at Magnolia, whose earlier version existed in a quaint house very near to its current location. When coming from Sony World junction towards Sarjapur Road, cross Wipro Park, and you’ll find Reliance Fresh on your right. Magnolia is on the top floor of the same building. Here’s a map. Parking shouldn’t be a problem at all. We reached by about 7.30 and in half an hour the place was almost full.

Magnolia has indoor as well as terrace/semi outdoor seating options. The latter is rather dim, but with the kind of weather Bangalore’s been having, its an awesome place to be. The only snag was that the photos turned out to be quite like those ‘paranormal activity’ photos. See. (that’s the soup!!) :( We could’ve maybe got it right with some tinkering, but since the focus was on eating and the required material was right in front of us, being photo-foppish wasn’t a priority. Magnolia serves Thai and Chinese cuisine, (menu 1, 2 – this is the last printed one, the prices are higher by about Rs.10-20 now)  These days, we devoutly devour the former cuisine, thanks to Aroy for the Thai-in.

We started with the ‘Thai Chicken & Lemon Grass Coconut soup’. Even considering the Mallu bias towards anything remotely coconut, this is a great soup. Its almost the Tom Kha soup, but slightly thinner and without the Galangal. The lemon grass flavour was just right, and not overpowering, and except for the rare chilli, not very spicy either. Definitely recommended.

Next, we resisted the dim sum call and moved on to “Leg Mai Kai”. Even Google didn’t help me figure the name out completely. The closest is Loh Mai Kai. I thought it must be the iron-rich version of our dish but it turned out to be rice based. The ‘leg mai kai’ is roasted chicken with red and green pepper and turned out to be a reasonably good choice. The red and green pepper actually complemented the tending-towards-bland chicken instead of performing their regular role as space fillers. Maybe you could try the Crispy Chicken Chilly Honey, it does sound good. :)

For the main course, Chicken Pad Thai with cashew nuts and as per their suggestion, Thai Chicken and Bamboo Shoot Red curry. The Pad Thai was quite good, though the cashews were conspicuous by their absence and the tamarind flavour was really subdued. The Red curry was awesome, mostly because the coconut overruled every other flavour that might have been there, except for the spiciness. The quantity of lemon grass was slightly overwhelming though. While it goes best with rice, this is a reasonably good combination too.

The dessert options aren’t much. The service is great, and very prompt. All of the above cost us just over Rs.700. Definitely worth a visit when you need to go beyond the regular Chinese options around Koramangala.

Magnolia, #37, above Reliance Fresh, near Wipro Park, 80 ft Road, 3rd Block Koramangala. Ph: 41102222

This review happens to be the 50th one in Koramangala. It is also the 100th restaurant review on the blog. There is a reason why we chose Magnolia. More than 7 years back, when a newly married couple made Koramangala their home, and relied on Mars Chicken Delight, Lazeez and some others like Szechuan Garden, which don’t exist anymore, for their gastro-adventures, they saw Magnolia, the big cars parked outside, and wondered how many of their dine outs would have to be sacrificed to afford a visit.

They picked up enough courage one day in June, and though were quite intimidated by the place, and the chopsticks presented to them, managed to have a good meal for about Rs.350, which they still considered costly. A lot of things have changed since then – they now have a blog that has a hundred restaurant reviews, for starters. They have changed too, as has the locality they once lived in. But its heartening to note that some things haven’t – despite many halfhearted attempts, chopsticks remain a strict no-no. :D The post is for that couple, and for the life and times then. Thanks for reading. :)

PS. A new design. Much thanks to Arun and especially Mayank for the help against cruel Microsoft ;)

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Moth-eaten

Posted on August 11, 2010 by manuscrypts

The Mothman Prophecies, a 2002 film (based on a 1975 book, which is supposedly based on real events!) starring Richard Gere, is about a town that has several people experiencing paranormal events. Gere tries to get to the bottom of it, and as part of his research meets an expert on the subject. There is an interesting conversation between Gere’s character – John Klein, and the expert – Alexander Leek. The snips that interested me -

Alexander Leek: If there was a car crash ten blocks away, that window washer up there could probably see it. Now, that doesn’t mean he’s God, or even smarter than we are. But from where he’s sitting, he can see a little further down the road.

………………….

Alexander Leek: In the end it all came down to just one simple question. Which was more important – having proof, or being alive? Trust me. I turned away years ago, and I’ve never looked back.

John Klein: Didn’t you need to know?

Alexander Leek: We’re not allowed to know.

…………………..

Alexander Leek: Their motivations aren’t human.

John Klein: Alright, then. What do they want?

Alexander Leek: I have no idea. What you really want is to know… why you?

…………………..

John Klein: I think we can assume that these entities are more advanced than us. Why don’t they just come right out and tell us what’s on their minds?

Alexander Leek: You’re more advanced than a cockroach, have you ever tried explaining yourself to one of them?

…………………

Now, I’m sure conversations similar in meaning to these have appeared in other movies or books, but that doesn’t make this any less interesting. Though in this context, the entity being discussed was more alien, the discussion could still apply to what we consider God, or for the sake of discussion here – a creator. (architect for Matrix fans) Humour me, and forget evolution for a while.

Leek nailed it when he said the ‘Why me’ part. The search is that – ‘what am I doing here, really’ though the question manifests itself in many other ways – meaning, purpose, secrets of the universe, life and death etc. Sometimes the argument that one is not meant to know is quite compelling. I read an article a few days back in the TOI, coincidentally, written by one Jonathan Leake. To quote

Some of the greatest mysteries of the universe may never be resolved because they are beyond human comprehension, according to Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society.
Rees suggests that the inherent intellectual limitations of humanity mean we may never resolve questions such as the existence of parallel universes, the cause of the big bang, or the nature of our own consciousness.
He even compares humanity to fish, which swim through the oceans without any idea of the properties of the water in which they spend their lives.

I wonder if that also applies to the ‘God’ question. But when the unexplainable happens, when I sit there awed by the stars in the night sky, when I pause for a moment and try to figure about where this is all going, and the inevitability of it all, it is frustrating not to find any answers.

Meanwhile, I’m not sure how much of research has been done on the cockroach’s brain (can’t open this completely :| ). But sources on the net say that its brain is ‘spread around its body‘, and the question of whether it has emotions is unresolved. Unfortunately for us humans, it is known that we have an ego, and can’t understand why all of it can’t be explained to us. We’re the chosen ones, isn’t it? And we need closures, we’re uncomfortable otherwise. And so the search must continue, irrespective of the result.

“Is it the gods who put this fire in our minds, or is it that each man’s relentless longing become a god in him?” ~ Virgil, Aeneid

until next time, roach ka lafda ;)

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13 Spices

Posted on August 8, 2010 by manuscrypts

I really would find it difficult to name that many, but hey, its the name of a new restaurant in Koramangala that serves Indian, Chinese and a bit of Continental. Its located right next to erm, Chandni Chowk – yup, that’s in Koramangala too, before Sony World, when coming from the NGV/Forum side. :D (map) Parking is not much of a problem, mostly because of Chandni Chowk’s ample resources.

We reached there by around 7.45, and in about half an hour, the place was full. The ambiance is quite interesting, because its as though they had lounge/fine dining in mind – colours, furniture, decor, and then realised that it’d be a more regular restaurant. So its now brightly lit, with a red/white/black decor and decent use of the available small space, though the wall to wall cushioned seating means that the space between tables is minimal.

Though the menu has three cuisine options, its not really exhaustive on any front, but having said that, it does offer a lot of options in the Indian and Chinese portions. The former has half a dozen veg starters, more than double that in the non veg section (chicken, mutton, fish and prawns), plenty of gravy options in veg and non-veg and biriyani/roti/naan/kulcha to go with it. The Chinese section has soups, starters and about half a dozen options each in veg and non veg dishes, and rice/noodles. The Continental part consists of a few salad and pasta options. Its closer to ‘also there’ than a specialty, at least in terms of number options. We decided to go with the Indian part, the soup being the only exception – to keep the Chinese happy.

The Lemon Coriander soup was delicious, but I think they should have one of those ‘red-colour-chilli warnings’ for unsuspecting folk. Actually for the suspecting folk too – I, for example,  have this very silly habit of adding pepper before I have even tasted it. You’ll like this one if you like your soups really spicy. The coriander part was slightly subdued though, and a chilli flavour somehow dominated, I thought. But I’d still recommend it, just don’t take the name seriously.

Next, we tried the Malai Machili tikka. This one gets very high marks for presentation. The fish is Hamoor (Arabian Fish – Hamour says the web) and it did seem marginally different from my other fishy acquaintances. The cream marinade was really good, and the only suggestion I’d make is to have a stronger mint chutney to go with it, so that it can complement the dish better.

We started the main course with a Murg Khandari, an onion and chilli kulcha, and a masala kulcha. We chose the chicken dish because its description claimed a unique mix- pomegranate juice, curd, brown onion paste, and tomato puree. It proved to be unique in taste too – tangy with a sweet kick in the end, thanks to the pomegranate seed, I think. The masala kulcha was decent, but the other one barely had any chillies, so wasn’t much fun.

Though the portion sizes were quite decent, we were still hungry, and decided to try the second chicken dish we had noted earlier – Murg Badam Pasanda, with a cheese kulcha. Calories be damned. The Badam pasand was creamy and finger-licking good in that slightly sweet way that white gravies have (though this one is more yellow). The kulcha was only just about okay though. In between we also had a regular lassi because though there was  a mango lassi listed, we were told that it was (canned) juice based, not fresh. The lassi was topped with badam and had what we thought was a vanilla essence flavour. Slightly thin for our liking, but reasonable enough. We skipped desserts since the options were the usual ice cream based suspects.

The service is very prompt, and though we thought our second chicken dish would take time (since we placed the order much later), they actually got it soon enough for the meal to be seamless – surprising because the crowd had picked up by then. The place is quite small – enough for you to see what people at most of the other tables are eating, but despite that constraint, they have done a decent job. All of the above cost us less than Rs.700. So its definitely worth a visit, for good food and excellent service.

13 Spices, #898, 80ft Main Road, 6th Block, Koramangala. Ph: 40953881

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Back to eternity

Posted on August 4, 2010 by manuscrypts

Despite being a Star Trek fan, I happen to think that Time is the final frontier, at least in the horizon that I can see. I find it quite intriguing that, though it might be looked on as a tool for tracking, I can perhaps not account for most of my lifetime. I don’t mean the large picture, I haven’t lost it totally yet, but specific minutes. Take for example, the last hour and account for all the thoughts that rushed in. I would find it difficult.

If you close your eyes, and allow your breath to be the only meter, the perspective of time undergoes a shift. Meditate a bit, and its easy to see. Easy to see that even the measurement of time – years to seconds and beyond is our  construct. But it is so ubiquitous and enmeshed in our lives that it seems as though it is a constant and only we change. It requires dramatic events for us to pause and note the passage of time. Kahlil Gibran has said, ‘Perhaps time’s definition of coal is the diamond”

Meanwhile, I wonder if all the information about those unaccounted for minutes is stored somewhere in my brain, and is just not deemed enough to be of any priority for me, and hence seems inaccessible. The tools that consume me these days – most specifically Twitter, and more recently, Foursquare, also help me keep track of what I’ve been up to, and when it works the same way for everyone is when there is an information deluge, and that seems to be something we find difficult to handle. Something that we have discussed before. There is a toon I found (here) that correctly describes the way a lot of us seem to be functioning now

Clipboard01

And in another example of how man is shaping his own evolution, I read about companies like Lifenaut, which  ultimately aim to create humanoid robots powered by a backup of the original human’s brain. (via @pkaroshi) The first step is to create a digitised version – an avatar, and give it enough data for it to mimic the original human. It makes me wonder whether we will be able to create ‘consciousness’.

And that makes me think a bit more – by the time, we are technologically advanced to create it, will we have forgotten what consciousness is? Which also begs the question whether we have ever understood it at all, when we are not even mindful of the minutes of our lives? How does one define it? So many reactions which seem pre-programmed when one thinks of it, actions and reactions more out of habit than any conscious choice being exercised.

So yes, with all of the work happening at a rapid pace, (do read) I think its more ‘when’ than ‘if’ – that we will become immortal, and time, from a future point of view, will become immaterial, because the future will be infinite. But we still may not be able to undo what we did a minute back. Where does that leave us? To quote Pico Iyer (from Abandon) “God has to be understood in the context of everything that is not Him”. But that is a different discussion, I guess. Its only that with every advancement that humanity makes, and in that process also usurps things once attributed to divinity, I begin to wonder where that leaves our versions of God?

until next time, time.ly links :)

PS. I tweeted sometime back, even if you never read an Asimov work, or never plan to, this is one that you should read. The Last Question.

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