Arvind

During the lockdown I did teach my nephew for a couple weekends, and that took effort - I used to prep exercises for him, and gather practice examples etc. The most difficult part was to come up with a structured plan, given that almost all of my chess learning has been very unstructured and random.

Sounds exciting!! What will you be teaching?

I think the closest parallel I have to this is chess. Like, I've been playing for 20 yrs now, and am better than 70-80% of the player base [online stats, but translate fairly well to irl], but I'd have to do homework myself if I were to teach a beginner.

Whatt?! Howw

Which city? I heard it's raining in Hyderabad and TN.

I need bookmarks!

Binge watched so much stationery content all Sunday. No wonder I had a dream last night in which someone gifted me a bunchh of Lamy pens for my birthday ;_;

[It's tomorrow by the way, so please feel free to gift me a Lamy Safari rollerball pen 🥰]

Gundu

Link pls

Random but I absolutely love the chandelier at the smallest banquet at the Taj here. Has so much character and looks so cool, unlike the bland af chandeliers at the larger banquets of this hotel.

DOS screenshot of a deer in a moonlit snowy landscape from Sierra On-Line’s 1986 "A Computer Christmas" holiday ecard.

Attention software enthusiasts! Check out hidden gems handpicked by Internet Archive staff: blog.archive.org/2024/12/02/s...

Also, consider supporting Universal Access to All Knowledge: archive.org/donate/?orig...

Make Some Noise For The Desi Boyz Pritam, KK, Bob · Desi Boyz · Song · 2011

open.spotify.com/track/71s7tZ...

Randomest earworm I've woken up to in a while

Rail Gaadi, Rail Gaadi: My Experiences with Railway Food - The Locavore Having spent much of her childhood on trains, Aarthi Parthasarthy—a self-proclaimed “railway kid”—reflects on her family’s favourite stations for tasty food, her father’s knowledge of the intricate ca...

I wrote about food on Indian trains - about my being a ‘railway kid’, my father’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of trains, and the range of flavours and experiences, from preparing packed food to ordering meals to discovering local cuisine on the platforms.

thelocavore.in/2024/11/26/r...

Now I get my mom's urge to overhaul and change the furniture layout and wall decor every couple months XD

In complete contrast, I almost never change my room's layout because of how disorienting it is every time.

Normally I'd be thrilled about my birthday in a few days

but the fact that approval for my leaves for the upcoming Thanjavur+Chennai trip is conditional on me tying up a bunch of loose ends for January weddings — is real dampener on the pre-birthday hype.

Kaam karne ka mann hi nahi kar raha, hatt

Cross stitch of a pikachu with balloons tied to him flying like the Pokemon yellow intro

Have another cross stitch from last year. Pikachu used Fly!

Oneteen, twoteen? The origins of ‘eleven’ and ‘twelve’ Reading time: 5 minutes November, at time of writing, is ticking out its final few hours, and with them, the eleventh month of 2024 is giving way to the twelfth. Aside from the awkward mismatch in …

For the end of November, shortly before the eleventh month became the twelfth, I wrote a piece all about those two numbers.

Why does English have the words 'eleven' and 'twelve'? How do they relate to 'one' and 'two'?

And what does Lithuanian have to do with all this?
dannybate.com/2024/11/30/o...

It's amusing how Rafi Sahab's voice [paired with RD Burman's music and Anand Bakshi's lyrics of course] can immortalise a absolutely nothing film like Abdullah with a song like Maine Pucha Chaand Se.

Been playing in my head all day. Kya aawaaz, kya lyrics, uff 🤌🏼

Several branches that are mostly bare of bark. Where there is bark, it is mostly covered in various lichens. Center in the photo is a pale sea green lichen that has branching fronds.

Sinewed bushy lichen on today's walk. I don't see this often amongst all the regular lichen.

“The Uttar Pradesh police, in an affidavit submitted to the Allahabad High Court, has accused our co-founder Mohammed Zubair of ‘endangering the sovereignty and unity of India’ through his social media posts. This pertains to an FIR filed against him for a tweet highlighting hate speech by Yati Narsinghanand, a person facing multiple FIRs for his communal hate speeches. The section invoked is BNS 152 (Section 152 of the Bharat Nyaya Sanhita), a new avatar of the colonial-era sedition law. Critics have long warned that this provision could be weaponized to stifle dissent and target voices critical of those in power, just as sedition laws were misused in the past. Zubair’s case is a stark example of how these fears are becoming a reality. This affidavit is yet another example of how state machinery is being used to intimidate individuals and organizations committed to exposing hate and misinformation. Alt News remains steadfast in our mission to uphold truth and accountability in public discourse. The case will be heard on Tuesday, and we stand in solidarity with Zubair as he faces this relentless legal intimidation. We urge all supporters of free speech, independent journalism, and fact-checking to continue standing with us in this fight.” 

In solidarity with my former editor who continues to face harassment by law enforcement in India ✊🏽

Read the full statement from the newsroom at Alt News:

Half my gallery is filled with just pics of street cattos I've had the fortune of meeting, and briefly befriending. The cats of Kolkata kept me sane during my 3 horrid years there. Aur Bombay me toh khoob saare dost mile hi 🥰🥰

Hey #BomSky another #ShoreWalk this week. Check #MLOM's insta for more details, or book tickets here: www.townscript.com/e/december-1...

#Bandra #Mumbai

Ponds!

Important to remember that this is systemically Google's fault, an early iteration of contorting one's content to satisfy an algorithm, and AI will probably make it worse

No please!! We pirates are a patient and a resilient bunch. A better alternative will pop up soon enough.

I'm waiting a bit more eagerly for a working Spotify mod by then XD

YouTube video by Geeta Dutt - Topic Hum Aap Ki Ankhon Mein

music.youtube.com/watch?v=UAlf...

Today's earworm to start the day with. Absolutely love that you can just hear Rafi sahab's and Geeta Dutt ji's smile throughout this song 🥹🤭

Side-note but just look at that gorgeous serif typeface on the thumbnail!!

Not sure I'd be qualified to but sure, why not

Lil fellas remind me of Exeggutor, hehe

Which makes it all the more infuriating that some people saw all that in the form of the Internet Archive and their first thought was to assault it, dismantle it and make it inaccessible.