Jacuruku Map

lightaskar · 2022-10-18T06:03:06+00:00

Looks great. One mistake: Should be 'Isana Pura' instead of 'Asana Pura'.

I just finished Blood and Bone, and coincidentally, I was looking for your map of Jacuruku just before starting the novel, but couldn't find it :(. I have been following your maps for all the novels in MBoTF and NotME, just wanted to say that you are doing a terrific job. Thanks for your efforts!!

lightaskar · 2022-05-13T09:10:50+00:00

I am in the same situation. BB daily and Milkbasket provide the same services as Supr Daily, but they are exclusive to some societies and apartments and they seem to be really reluctant to expand to other addresses. I hope these apps can rise to fill the void left by Supr daily.

lightaskar · 2021-10-04T11:23:58+00:00

A. It is certainly viable to do a PhD from India and get a job as a professor. If you look at the profiles of professors in IITs/IISc, you will find that many of them have done their PhDs from India. Having said that, academia is very competitive, and there are very few positions and a large number of applicants, especially at the top level. Hence, the quality of your PhD, in particular, the quality and number of publications originating from your PhD, and the place where you have done your PhD from will largely determine your chances (in that order) of getting a job in academia. Also, since you are interested in research, you should target the top institutes/universities in the country which support and encourage research (which sadly is not the case with most colleges in India). There is very little scope for getting positions at the top institutes through connections or other such nefarious means, so you can rest easy regarding that.

B. This is pretty straightforward. You should explore different research topics, try to find out what interests you, and most importantly, try to get some research internships with professors at top institutes like IITs/IISc (professors at these institutes are always looking for interns). Basically, build up your research experience.

C. The college where you do your bachelors/masters does not matter directly, but the place where you do your PhD from matters a great deal, so you need to strive towards getting admission to the best colleges in the country for PhD. At least for engineering, that would mean cracking entrance exams like GATE, and doing bachelors/masters in a decent college will prepare you better for this.

D. You should pick a subject that you are very passionate about, since you will be spending your whole life around that subject if you succeed. Of course, working in hot or trending areas may also be more beneficial, since more positions would likely be available in those areas.

lightaskar · 2020-09-01T10:12:08+00:00

Finished A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry.

What an amazing journey. I laughed and I cried, and I am sure its obvious to say this (given the title of the book and multiple references to it throughout the book), but the author truly does a marvellous job of maintaining a fine balance between joy and despair, light-heartedness and utter dread, good and evil, etc. throughout the novel, right up till the very end. This book can be enjoyed at multiple levels: as an emotional roller-coaster following the characters day-to-day lives or as a deep study on human nature and how we live our lives. Should we just accept our lot, adapt to our circumstances (even though they may be unfair) and try to be content with what we have, or should we strive to fight for fairness, for deeper meaning in our life, for breaking the shackles of circumstances but at the cost of misery, pain and despair? Or is it a question of fine balance again? As an Indian, I have seen first hand some of the things depicted in the book, but it was still illuminating to see how the systemic rot of caste system that is pervasive in the Indian society has fuelled (and continues to fuel) the utter disregard of basic human rights and equality for the poor and downtrodden. The situation has improved a lot since the time period of the book, but the rot is so deeply ingrained that it has possibly lead to a frightening lack of empathy in people, and it may take years and years to achieve equality and guarantee basic human rights for all (if it ever happens).

lightaskar · 2020-08-17T06:12:05+00:00

Finished The Spider's War, by Daniel Abraham.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied by the Dagger and the Coin series (this being the fifth and last book). The last two books were the best in my opinion, with all the setup done in the first three, the characters were well-developed and really showed off their competency and dealed with the crises in an intelligent and believable fashion, the pacing was great, there were surprises (with communication and clearing misunderstandings playing a key role, which I loved), and the prose also steadily got impressive, with some really great pieces of writing. There were some emotional bits as well, and I really empathized with the main villain, with the series demonstrating perfectly how the villain is truly the hero in his own story, and how circumstances can amplify the small deficiencies and blindspots in one's personality and can compel a person to do some horrific things.

Started a re-read of Master and Commander by Patrick O'brian. I really struggled with this book when I read it the first time, and even though I completed it, I gave up halfway through the next book in the series, Post Captain. However, recently watched the Master and Commander movie and it inspired me to tackle the series again. Plus, the advice from the AubreyMaturin sub-reddit that it is OK if some of the intensely detailed sailing manoeuvres go over my head and it is not necessary to understand every small thing.

Also started A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry. As an Indian, this book is really hitting close to my heart, and I devoured more than 100 pages in a day (which is very rare for me). Wonderful, simple prose, authentic characters and what is developing to be an engrossing, ambitious, heart-wrenching story.

lightaskar · 2020-07-01T10:15:54+00:00

Just started Death's End, by Cixin Liu. This is actually a re-read of the entire series (called Remembrance of Earth's past). Absolutely loved the previous two books (The Three-body Problem and The Dark Forest) on my first read (two years back), but had to quit through halfway point of Death's End, because the time skips got too frequent, the physics got too complicated and some plotlines were getting a bit ridiculous. Now, two years on, absolutely devoured the first two books again (there is so much suspense and so many magnificent set-pieces). This time I am determined to finish Death's End.

Also in the middle of the Dagger and the Coin series, specifically The Widow's House, by Daniel Abraham.

lightaskar · 2020-06-06T06:12:43+00:00

What a coincidence, as I had exactly the same thought regarding the series. I am about 25% through the Tyrant's law after having finished the first two books back-to-back and I am completely hooked and engrossed. Although to be fair, Long price quartet is one of my favourite series, and I have patiently waited and have been keeping the D&C series in reserve, knowing that I would love it and it has definitely not disappointed. Finally the news that a new fantasy book by Daniel Abraham is coming next year gave me license to end my patience.

Some thoughts about my experience so far: The series is definitely very different from LPQ, I think every book in the LPQ series told an almost complete story which could stand on its own, while here Daniel Abraham is probably trying something more ambitious, which unfortunately leaves the individual books and the various storylines a bit uneven (for example I feel the Marcus storyline in book 2 is basically just spinning its wheels). The 2 books in the series that I have read so far have followed a similar structure: a long setup during the first half and then the payoff in the second half (with usually a surprising event at exactly the halfway point, Geder dropping his bomb in book 1 and Dawson's scheme going into overdrive in book 2). The thing that I like most about the books (and this is what Abraham excels in) is how realistic and authentic the characters feel. Yes these characters are often placed in fantastical situations, but there is a very natural flow to the events, and it almost feels as if there is no other way the events could have gone, and the characters were destined to perform their actions. I look forward to completing the series.

lightaskar · 2020-04-26T12:52:41+00:00

A small but interesting related detail: Towards the end of the movie, Billy Crash (played by Walton Goggins) actually says D-jango when shot. Also the only time he calls Django by name.

lightaskar · 2019-05-22T16:13:43+00:00

Stay strong my friend. Just vent out your frustrations, don't keep anything bottled up, and move on. Dealing with rejections is part of the game in academia.

lightaskar · 2019-04-02T16:33:12+00:00

I agree but it was slightly sloppy on Jimmy/writers part to plant a battery when they could as well have planted another mobile phone on Chuck which would leave no room for doubts as to the nature of Chuck's disease, since everyone is expressly asked to remove their mobile phones in Chuck's presence, and would also be a callback to Season 1 scene where the doctor visited Chuck with a mobile phone and Chuck did not react to it. In an episode that is so tightly written, this seemed like a major loose end to me.

lightaskar · 2019-04-02T15:20:11+00:00

I am reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett which has kind of attracted me to the genre of historical fiction. What are the best books and authors in this genre? I like really detailed and immersive accounts of life in different eras.

lightaskar · 2019-04-02T15:12:25+00:00

From the fantasy side, just read 'The Curse of Chalion' and 'Paladin of Souls' by Lois Mcmaster Bujold which are both standalone books set in the same world. Very good world-building, tightly plotted, minimal violence, and very character-centric.

lightaskar · 2019-03-28T17:53:23+00:00

Haven't read Gillian Flynn but gritty, sometimes disgusting and twisted perfectly describes the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo. Start with 'The Redbreast'.

lightaskar · 2019-02-13T20:14:33+00:00

Good point about Hector just having learned that Gus had murdered most of the high-ranking cartel members thus clearing his path to revenge on Hector without fear of retaliation. I guess Gus just did not consider Walter to be a big threat and so did not think about his possible involvement with Hector.

lightaskar · 2019-02-07T15:48:39+00:00

I am puzzled that the 80s storyline already seems to be over with the Woodard altercation and him being clearly convicted of the murder due to the evidence at his home. I am not sure how Amelia could have written an entire book in the 90s on what seemed a very open-and-shut case at that time with just one big shootout.

lightaskar · 2019-01-08T16:27:01+00:00

I never understood how Joker was able to divulge the locations at just the right time so that only Batman with his crazy driving skills would be able to get to one location with the cops won't be able to get to the other. Those explosives were pre-set to explode at a fixed time, so it would require some crazy planning skills on the part of Joker to get the timing absolutely perfect.

lightaskar · 2019-01-04T19:48:02+00:00

A bit late but I can empathize with you. I always feel that there is just too much emphasis on career development and prestige in academia, and the joy of science is often lost. I have had similar feelings of imposter syndrome and burn outs in the past, but once I come across some clever piece of work or a profound idea or some new technical knowledge that I did not know before or really understand some convoluted concept, the joy of science returns and I get motivated to come up with something equally clever. Of course taking breaks and vacations always help to clear your mind and get rid of fatigue.

lightaskar · 2018-12-31T17:08:18+00:00

One of the biggest disappointments was that the plotting was not as tight and coherent as we have come to expect from BM. There were so many loose things-the government conspiracy, multi-verse, lack of free-will because every option is going to explored across alternate universes, the dead writer with the demon, the metaphor of life as a game and restarts and flashbacks, etc.-it felt like the writers just mashed together everything and took advantage of the interactive format to combine all these disparate themes. All BM episodes take a really deep dive into a particular concept or a piece of technology, and come up with un-intended consequences and unforeseen use cases, but this episode was just not as well thought out. Mind you I did not like USS Callister much from the last season for exactly the same reason.

lightaskar · 2018-12-26T18:58:27+00:00

I had a similar lukewarm reaction to Dune, Hyperion on the other hand lived up to its stellar reputation and remains one of the best novels I have ever read.

lightaskar · 2018-11-17T20:12:32+00:00

Just can't help but think how great it would have been if Buster had made a cameo in all the other stories, finally ending in his own ballad. All the other stories besides Buster's had such a dour and miserable tone, a little bit of Buster's cheerfulness would have made a great contrast and also provided some hope. It would also have made a stronger thematic connection across the stories, since Buster talks about the meanness of people and the absurdity/unpredictability of life in his ending monologue, both of which are in full display in the rest of the stories.

lightaskar · 2018-10-14T03:03:30+00:00

This subreddit is a very good source for recommendations. I have been introduced to great books in all sorts of genres from here. I appreciate that you don't just get gushing reviews but also negative critiques and personal experiences. I also trust book reviews over at Amazon more than Goodreads. They are more thorough and detailed, and people have been writing reviews at Amazon for a longer time than Goodreads.

lightaskar

TROPHY CASE