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Samosa of Memories

One of my favorite snacks is the samosa. What’s not to like? Crispy flour shell, spicy potato filling (with the occasional rude interruption by an errant green pea) - it’s the perfect accompaniment for a kadak chai or a strong coffee. I particularly enjoy having samosas from my college’s “North Square” - a plaza of indeterminate geometry, located vaguely to the north side of the campus, serving up treats. The person making the treats knows me well by now - I don’t have to tell him to add extra sweet chutney on top of the samosa! The plaza has many trees - and benches beneath the trees. On a summer evening, as the sun begins to set, it’s a beautiful place to sit and enjoy a snack. You can watch the masses of students and even the occasional professor unwinding after a long day, enjoy a soft breeze and admire the glint of the sun through the canopy of foliage. It’s also a time and place that lends itself well to contemplation. Usually, I engage in very high-brow debates - whether Virat ...
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Homesickness

     The summer is perhaps the time that all college students (myself included) look forward to all year. It is the time we go home, the time we can temporarily forget the challenges of academics and the rigors of college – and just be kids again. I get about a month for summer break, and it’s a month I waste in pursuit of happiness and a vague sense of having “accomplished” something – a truly enjoyable pursuit, and one I recommend everyone try out. This summer, I alternated between cooking my ageing GTX 1050 and cooking the clutch of Dad’s 20 year old Bajaj bike, interspersed by periods of cooking my other laptop’s RTX 3050Ti and chewing through the free trials offered by cloud providers. It was a heady mix of frustration, triumph and petrol – just the way I like it. One of the chores I have at home during vacations is to source milk for the day. I choose to do this by taking out our old Indica for a spin, heading to the second-closest supermarket, and picking out the m...
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An (un)professional, (un)serious, (un)scientific and totally unbiased comparison of the Airbus A320ceo and the Boeing 737-800

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I have a very short 1100km commute from home to my college. As much as I'd love to set a new endurance walking record, time constraints and bodily limitations usually force me to search for alternative means of transport. The iron roads of the Indian Railways are dependably undependable, especially when the fog rolls in as winter snuggles into it's covers up North. So, this time, I chose to fly from home to college. This simple task was made complicated by Pratt and Whitney's PW1100G Geared Turbofan Engines being not so hot, so it would involve 2 flights, and a 6 hour layover in between. However - the aviation enthusiast in me was delighted. For, the aforementioned GTF engines had forced my friendly neighbourhood airline IndiGo to wet-lease  aircraft from a variety of sources - Corendon Airlines, Qatar Airways and SmartLynx Estonia, as far as I know. This meant that the ordinary hop in one of any A320/A321neos could now be accomplished on a veritable smorgasbord of options!...
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The Perils of Productivity

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After a busy and exhausting set of end semester exams, I got an extra day off before my final exam - German. I decided to be productive - and attempt something I had not before - write a compiler. Writing a compiler is one of the most common projects that CSE students take, and I found writing assembly code fun this semester - so I thought, why not try writing my own compiler? I booted up my Linux machine. Gathered the resources. Kept snacks at hand - and immediately got stuck. The guide I was using (for writing a Python compiler in Python) required me to update my Python installation to Python 3.11 - no big deal. I did it, and started following the tutorial. I finished writing the first part - a tokenizer - and now, began following the steps to test it.... Error after error kept popping up. Looking back - I should have stopped here. But I did not - I went to everyone's favorite source of programming knowledge - ChatGPT - and began finding solutions. After a couple hours, I was fru...
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Train bound thoughts....

 And the train marches on into the night Through the peaceful morning, into the scorching noon  On a lonely metal road, with nowt but the unending flow of electric poles for company Towns come and go, lives passing by in the blink of an eye The steady beat of the wheels against rail like the heartbeat of a marathoner The passengers sleep and dream While the train marches on into the night... Time stands still here Just a waypoint enroute Bearing silent witness There - a sudden burst of sound Watch as I'm passed by A split second of light and sound And Once again, no one's around Time stands still here
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Chetta - two coffee

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As a child, one of my favourite pastimes was the consumption of good quality tea and coffee. So, when I moved to Chennai for college, I was eagerly awaiting easy access to quality Tamil filter coffee - maybe even Kumbakonam degree coffee. Day 2 at the hostel, and I enter the mess (quite groggily) at 7 am. I make a beeline for the counter dispensing hot beverages, and am instantly awake. In lieu of coffee decoction, I am confronted with a dark, burnt tasting liquid that resembles the 'liquid smoke' seasoning used in barbequing more than coffee. Despondently, I fill up my glass halfway with the liquid, and add some milk and sugar. When mom calls, I grumble over the phone, complaining about the inaccessibility of the most fundamental staple of life - filter coffee.  Switching to tea did not result in a better outlook. The tea was overly sweet, and lacked any flavour which could demarcate it from sweetened and heated milk. Something had to be done - the great Beverage Quest had beg...
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Exit left, pursued by a bear

  Daniel Ricciardo has been unceremoniously booted from Formula 1. For non-fans, this may seem like an inconsequential piece of news, but to me - it is devastating . A quick intro on Daniel for everyone - he's an Australian (ex)F1 driver, known for his daring late braking overtakes and an infectious positive attitude. He started his career in the top flight of F1 by beating the then reigning champion Sebastian Vettel as his team-mate. His statistics of 8 wins, 3 pole positions and 17 fastest laps may not seem impressive, but as any keen F1 fan knows - numbers don't tell the whole story. In a sport that is filled with high octane drama (much of it made up), his constant cheerfulness was, to me, the antithesis of all the vitriol thrown around in the F1 fanbase. If you started watching F1 in the recent past - you may wonder why he got the title of the 'Honey Badger'. Let's rewind the clock. The year is 2017, at the Italian Grand Prix held at Monza. Daniel's chasing...
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