ProcrastiBlog

I only just realized that my fellow intern Vijay is my doppelganger. (Or perhaps he is the Christopher Conway of Earth-A.) Hair: check. Glasses: check. Height (impossibly tall): check. Smile: check. Blue checked shirt: check.

So physically, we're identical. Only I'm all pinkish sweetness and light, and he's pure brown evil. I like Okkervil River; he likes Aphex Twin. I like Dre; he likes D. On Monday night, he was chased by a pack of wild dogs; at the same time, I was NOT being chased by a pack of wild dogs. (Wild dogs hate evil.)

Fate has a plan for us. He must be destroyed.

I grew accustomed to them in GNUstep. I came to depend on them in Gnome. Somehow, I can live without them on my Mac. I can't live without them in Windows XP. Too many damn windows!

Gigpad
GoaGroove.com
Jam Mag
Indian Guitar Tabs - Music Talk
Bangalore Rock community on Orkut

Problem solved.

The fridge and the washing machine have returned, but the furniture is still missing. I may have exaggerated the situation in my previous post: they did take all of the furniture, but they didn't leave us with nothing. In particular, we still have our beds and the kitchen table, and they brought us a new couch and one desk for the living room. There are two desks and several small tables still missing, so that, e.g., I have to keep my alarm clock on the floor.

nowrunning.com
Explocity.com (does not include The Forum, seems pretty much incomplete)
PVR Cinemas (home of Gold Class Cinemas at The Forum) (won't let me log-in to book)
INOX (at Garuda Mall) (won't let me browse showtimes)
Collective Chaos (film society)
Bangalore Film Society

Is it possible to book online? PVR has a booking website, but I'm not sure how it works. Tickets by SMS? Home delivery? (Why can't I pick them up at the theatre?)

Anybody have pointers to other screenings at Nani Cinematheque?

[UPDATED 6/4/2006] More info and links.

There are no bless-you's when you sneeze around here. It's disconcerting. It shouldn't be. I think even the most religiously observant (and I am not) would concede there's no real necessity to invoke God every time you get some dust in your nose. (OK, perhaps the extremely observant would not pass up an opportunity to invoke God. Nevertheless...) I don't believe in God, and I don't believe a sneeze represents habitation by evil spirits or some loss of vital essence, but I believe very strongly that somebody should say "Bless you" after I sneeze! (I'll settle for a secular "Gezundheit".)

Journey to Lalbagh

Autorickshaws in this city have an infuriating tendency to: a) refuse to take you to perfectly reasonable places, b) try to convince you to pay a flat rate or a surcharge, even though they have meters, and are legally required to use them, and c) ask you to please pay them a little extra after you've arrived, when you've already argued over the meter before you started.

In the case of (a) you're basically screwed, you just have to keep asking until someone says yes. In the case of (b), they usually relent if you insist, but not always, and you may find yourself taking the long way around to your destination. In the case of (c), you can just hop out and tell them to shove it, but you shouldn't expect exact change to be forthcoming.

Today, I had at least a half dozen drivers refuse to take me to the City Market outright, and another handful refuse to take me on the meter. I got into one rickshaw whose driver refused to take me unless I would stop at a jewelry store along the way. I ended up walking all the way downtown (about 2.5 miles, as the crow flies) to the India Coffee House, where I enjoyed several cups of light, sweet coffee (the first decent cups I've had in this country).

I am not one of these people.

Instant coffee is surprisingly acceptable when you have no other options. The espresso machine in the office makes a barely tolerable cup of weak coffee. When I first arrived, you had to memorize the morphism:

Black coffee = Hot water
Large black coffee = coffee w/ milk
Espresso = Milk

Since then, somebody has helpfully annotated the machine.

Problem solved.

* Shout out to Rich Hall.

Apparently, I had to come all the way to India---and spend a week and a half eating daal and chapati---to find the titular ultra-Atkins snack. Incredibly yummy, but also fairly nauseating.

I've posted some photos of a wedding taking place down the street from me, right this very minute. When I walked up to the gate, camera in hand, a man in a uniform invited me to come in and take a closer look. As I walked back out, the same man told me that taking pictures was "against their culture" and looked kind of upset. This was strange, because there was a professional photographer and videographer standing right there. I apologized, and told him I hadn't understood. But here I've gone and posted the pictures anyway. If anyone is offended by this, or knows for a fact that this would offend the relevant persons, please let me know and I'll take the pictures down.

If anyone asks, I'm from Denmark.

Nope.

Well, yeah. Lots of dogs.

I haven't seen any monkeys yet. (I'm looking at you, Kedar.)

There really are cows in the streets, but not very many. It's unclear who, if anyone, owns them or why. I haven't yet seen a cow and had my camera at the same time.

When your (quite nice but fairly stern) yoga teacher asks you to close your eyes and join him in a Sanskrit (?) prayer, which option is more culturally sensitive?

1) Concentrate on your breathing and keep your mouth shut, or
2) Mumble along semi-phonetically and try to follow the melody.

I've been trying Option (2), and I feel like a jackass.

Dad, mom, and baby boy. All riding together. On a motorcycle. None of them have helmets. This is a common occurrence.