Weekend..

Saw 'Casino Royale', sketched, read trashy romance novels, cooked for friends, read more trashy romance novels..

I was cooking after a really long time for guests. The normal cabbage side dish and the dal turned out to be better received than the malabar curry I labored over.

Casino Royale -perhaps I will write a detailed review. After weeks of lethargy, I am inspired to write.

phantoms in the brain

A voice piped up a casual 'hi radhika' a few days ago. I was on the phone and when I turned I saw this person, a very familiar face, but I just could not place him. I drew a blank as to where I had met him, what his name was, whether I knew him well.. Complete blank.

I pretended I was on a busy call, gesticulated I'll talk to him later and asked for his email id. A variation of the old and dumb, 'how do you spell your name' ploy.

I just finished reading 'Phantoms in the brain' and I was wondering what this signifies. Maybe I saw him very often so the visual reinforcement was there, but there was no supporting data - perhaps I didnt know anything about him to make associations and thats why I failed to 'remember' him.

What an amazing book though. It left me with a feeling of bereftness. It was almost like I lost my sense of identity. If I were to suffer a stroke in some significant part of the brain, my personality could undergo such a change I would no longer be 'me'. What is me today, perhaps a serendipitous confluence of wiring, could change in a fleeting moment. Made me want to rush out and buy a helmet.

Railway booking

Had to sit for about an hour to cancel a ticket. Jayanagar booking office had my favourite 'multiple servers single queue' model. No stress of always finding the other queue moving faster and a truly first come first served model. They have chairs to sit and you keep shifting which seemed ungainly initially, but left me thoroughly appreciative by the end of the hour. I couldnt understand the logic behind the pooh bear and mickey mouse stickers adorning the walls. Even some plain vanilla print-outs about the Indian Railway, some impressive numbers and factoids would have been better.

"No chance", was the repeated answer the booking clerk gave to a lady who started off with the 20th and kept going up to the 25th for the date of journey. It is a bit surprising that we made a muddle of something so busy and were running the risk of bankruptcy. I hope Lalu turns his attention next to the horrible Railway stations. If he fixes that, he could definitely give a run for the low cost air carriers' money.

Ryder cup

US has lost the cup again.

Near my office there is a golf course. I see a surprisingly younger crowd there sometimes in the morning or afternoon when I walk past, looking rater wistfully, I should add. Whatever happened to the middle aged men with pot bellies and bald heads?
The other unexpected sight is the group of women labourers in multi colored saris fixing the grass.

I read PG Wodehouse - Golf stories. I still laugh out loud despite reading for the umpteenth time whatever yarn the Old Sage spins.

Reading the mind

Very interesting read. At some point we would be able to replace any body part seemlessly without any degradation of service. Nothing could highlight our understanding of the working of the human body better [sans the brain of course]
I should worry more about a head injury I guess than getting 'locked in'.

So lets see what else do I need to be immortal now - I have my DNA, I need a memory download and upload and maybe the Mind-Algorithm specific to my DNA I guess.