A review of the Blog: with focus on the period Oct-Nov 2025

 

Should I count this, I would have written 29 posts, all but nine of those written in the last two months. So we have been picking up steam indeed. I have restarted writing my IRL diary too. One would think that these two would compete for attention and time, but they are in fact in synergy. Great! 

Should one read (I use one for I know that rarely anyone does read this blog, much less read multiple posts of this blog) my posts from these two months, they will notice not the absolute chaos but one thread of patterns too. Like the emergence of the earliest life forms in primordial sludge.

 It starts with a poem 'Is my room too full? ??'. I had yet another fight with my mother over her sending stuff. I think it is only with a position of privilege that I can think this is a problem. While space is an issue, I have never been able to put forward that I am a grown, independent man now and don't need to be taken care of. The Vatsalya is sometimes a bit suffocating, I know it may sound a chochla, but I still think it is important. I was also in a bad spell mentally at this time. I think that shows up in my Hindi poetry trilogy that ends with पूर्ण समर्पण- एक हुंकार दीवार के आर-पार, indeed, total surrender (and support, love and gaalis from DD) did help me recover, and I feel great now. Well,  it was Chhath and Diwali and the festive atmosphere too. What I jokingly call the Lauva Bhaat exodus is perhaps the best anti-depression retreat. One can't just be depressed in this atmosphere:

As Chhath ended, I tried to read a Horror book, I can't seem to get into the genre in books or games or even films - but it was bad. It was also the first GR review I xposted here. It think some of the longer reviews might feature here. But if the review if in much detail, say like the two part one on Makers of Modern Dalit History [Part 1] [Part2]. These are not full reviews, but were some of the thoughts that occurred to me while reding the book. Compare this to my actual GR review. And mind you, this is one of my longest GR reviews. This blog is more suitable a medium posting my thoughts, while GR is much worse for deep takes. Unless you are Sajith Sir, just look at these monsterosities of a review he posts on GR. That man is a legend, but I am not. Hence this blog. That noone I know reads this, or even know of it makes writing my honest thoughts much easier. In an ideal world I would be linking this in my short GR reviews, but thats not a step I am willing to take yet. One day. Not today or tomorrow though.  And as november was about to rise like the late winter sun, came I introduced the charector of R Sir to the blog. This would have sounded much less parody like if I ever had a single dedicated reader, but it is what it is. 

November is a series time and started with four book reviews, two of which were advanced mathematics related to my research, both came from GR though. Then came, what can be at best loosely, call mediation cum review cum musings on a Bill Collins poem.  This was followed by hot takes on Poker Face.  Winter for me is both the month of seriousness as well as that of love, and I had to make the case for later here. A keen reader (I have previously concluded absence of an even stronger statement- absence of any readers itself- rendering this sentance  vacuously true) would observe sprinkling of my academic lore and Easter eggs and worries in side these posts too, hence inferring my fomer designation of the season. 

Then as the month proceed, NISER atmosphere grew darker. It's the seminar and end semester exam season. Unlike the Cold in Jatani which is fleeing, coming and going in waves, this mental atmosphere is unwavering. It only grows darker till your seminar. After which it's too much of a relief, rendering you unable to do much for sometime. Which is one reason I am writing the post as of now rather than preparing for the Harmonic Analysis exam on 2nd of December. We were taught the subject in a totally non rigourous ways and the exams are rather like memorizing and then vomiting out the assignments. Totally unlike Advanced PDE course whose worry (and then triumph) promoted two whole posts here. Another two posts came from my seminar, which also went well. 

Well, that's it. A review of all the posts. Once I was in too much of must-write-something mood. In June 2024, I wrote two posts on consecutive days and that was it. I think we have came a long way from then (Yes I used the We for me and the non present readership), there is no pressure to write now. It comes naturally. I think the craft will sharpen itself soon enough. Hope the new month brings good stuff for the blog, but more importantly for the real life. This blog is some kind of a retreat, but the real world needs to go to the washing machine and take my clothes out. That I must now. 

काम पूरा हुआ? Happily Ever After का भ्रम

 किसी भी बड़े काम को छोटे छोटे कामों में बात लिया जाए और फिर क्रमबद्ध तरीके से करें तो आसानी होगी। ये एक जग प्रसिद्ध उक्ति है। मुझे कभी तर्क समझ नहीं आया। आखि़र तो काम पूरा ही करना है, और मनोविज्ञान तोर से तो यदि हम एक काम कर लें तो एक आलस्य आ जाता है। अभी 4 दिन पहेली सेमिनार हो गया , तब से एक नया काम नहीं हुआ अपने लिए। DD और नई लड़की जिसका ज़िक्र एक दफ़ा किया था उनका थोड़ा ज़्यादा मदद किया। बाकियों का भी इधर उधर कुछ। लेकिन रूम में झाड़ू भी लगा दे ये नहीं होता साहस। आगे क्या पढ़ना है कुछ रखें हैं, लेकिन ये मोहिम भी यहीं तक सीमित है।

दरअसल कुछ सफल हो, जैसे ये सेमिनार या पहले भी कोई परीक्षा, तो जो अंदरूनी सुकून आता है और आगे काम में मन नहीं लगता । इति समापन । ॐ शांति शांति शांति। लेकिन ये सब फ़िल्मों किताबों की बाते हैं कि Lived Happily Ever After | असल में तो एक ही यात्रा अंतिम है, एक ही धाम मुक्ति धाम। उससे पहले किसी मंजिल में नहीं है आराम। आखिर आराम हराम है। लेकिन हम शायद हरामखोर ही हैं। कठोपनिषद्  में भी अंत और मोक्ष के बारे में कुछ ऐसा ही कहा गया है, स्वामी सर्वप्रियानंद से यूट्यूब पे देख कर पढ़ रहा था एक समय। लेकिन बीच में छूट गया तो छूट ही गया। अब देखते हैं, फिर से चालू करने का मन को बहुत है। शायद ज़ेनो की भी गलती ये ही थी कि को काम को भाग भाग में तोड़ देता था, आत्मा एक है और कर्म का हिसाब भी अथक हो रहा है, तो शायद जीवन को भागों में और काम को उपक्रमों में नहीं तोड़ना चाहिए।

Post seminar debriefing

 वर्षों तक वन में घूम घूम, बाधा विघ्नों को चूम चूम
सह धूप घाम पानी पत्थर, पांडव आये कुछ और निखर
सौभाग्य न सब दिन होता है, देखें आगे क्या होता है

-Ramdhari Singh Dinkar in Rashmirathi


If I may be dramatic, and being dramatic is what I suppose I am at least entitled as of now, and quote Dinkar, yes, my luck has woken up. And woke it did, at 1600 on the 25th. Yes, the 25th I called dreaded on the day itself. It has been kinder to me that I had been to it in times of tension. Even when ungrateful, I have somehow still been treated kindly, I have been a lucky man most of my life. In this way, at least. Well by topic was nice too, I got to show an image from a news article titled Solar Eclipse 2019 in India: Best Places to Spot the Annular Solar Eclipse in India   in a maths talk. It does look beautiful. 

Dare, and that I will for I am on my entitlement period as abovementioned, I say it looks better in the slides. 

Ek aur https://t.co/XdKn8B4h3w pic.twitter.com/ml7WF8y3l6

— Aryan Kumar Prasad (@Aryan_AKP) November 27, 2025

Gloating over what I call aesthetics (my lack of taste of which will be clear from the Blog's theme) and success aside, lets go over the talk. There were faces I didn't expect to come. Like last semester, R Sir made an unexpected entry. But this time, like in my Seminar for his class and unlike the RKHS Seminar in April, he was more content and fine rather than bewildered and bored as one normally sees him during talks. This was the highest praise I got from the seminar. This trumps multiple audience members and 2 committeemen letting me know that my talk was good. Even Panchalli, of the-algebraist-taking-advanced-PDE fame, said that it was the most entertaining talk of the session and the only one where she did not feel sleepy, even if I understood nought. My talk did not have elaborate poetry or such, or jokes or gimmicks as some love to add. The most "gimmicky" thing was the photo of the Solar Corona to explain why the Corona problem is called so. But blame Newman for coining the term. This one ain't on me. 

My narrative structure did work, it seems. But one committee member, better known as Fatakeshto for his in-seminar antics, he told at the end of the talk that "you promised to take us to Kashmir, but took us to Daringbadi. I was not bad, but misleading". But I still think the talk would be too bland without the "clickbait" of the Kashmiri Corona Problem.  Estimates are dry, pure estimates might catch the fancy of some, but I think motivation, and mind you I ask of no dastardly "real world" applications, for estimations are needed. And hopefully, next semester, I will be completing reading Carleson (1970) , with of course help from Garnett which unlike Duren has actual complete proofs., and take the committee to Kashmir, but only if  तुने मुझे बुलाया शेरा वालिये, मैं आया मैं आया शेरा वालिये . That's it, hopefully no more seminar talk for six months. 

Pre Seminar briefing

 The dreaded 25th has arrived. There have been no 'gentle reminder' but my guide has already announced my talk before:

Dear all, 
This is an announcement of a math seminar by an integrated MSc-PhD student. The details are as follows.
Speaker: Aryan Kumar Prasad
Date and Time: 25-11-2025, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM.
Venue: SMS Seminar Room.
Title: Zeros and Factorization of Bounded  Analytic Functions
Abstract: In 1962, Lennart Carleson solved the Corona Conjecture, a major problem concerning the maximal ideal space of the algebra of bounded analytic functions on the unit disk. Carleson proved the result by solving an equivalent analytic formulation known as the Bezout problem, or the reduced corona problem. The proof relies on precise estimates of the moduli of bounded analytic functions, which in turn require an understanding of how these functions vanish. In this talk, we will derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for the zeros of a bounded analytic function and construct the canonical factorization using Blaschke products.
All are cordially invited.

Slides are also made, the report submitted and printed out. Mocks given. What remains is the actual talk. This blog post, the bound on whose maximum readership will not be above 5, is just ranting, venting and procrastinating. 

I have tried a different approach to the seminar this time. Narrative based. Starts with motivation, develops the machinery, and states some estimates without any proof (they are in the report though) and even lays out a roadmap for completing the proof of the Corona Theorem a la Wolfe.

 The meat of the talk that develops the Blasckhe products is the part I found most unsatisfactory. The theory is nothing much advanced, even Rudin and Convey have it (but I will swear they were absent when i was looking for them). The "big brain" proofs are the equivalence of Corona Problem nd Reduced Corona Problem as well as the two estimates, neither of which will I be proving. I can only hope to make "motivation" masaledar enough to suit the bland basic complex analysis I am serving.

The tension this time is unlike before. I might have said before that I was more worried about the presentation in R Sir's class. That turned out well. But I was worried about a last minute change and in aew of R Sir there. For today, I think my work itself is not worth anything. I am not afraid of $\epsilon$ or $\delta$, the problem is, I am not getting much after boring the committee with those. Also, I do think I am rather unprepared to deal with questions if someone asks me more regarding the Gelfand theory implications. 

I should not waste my time here and get back to those functions. I will just leave you with my thoughts, which Nana Patekar perfectly delivers:

Advanced PDE Seminar Advanced

I previously noted the tention regarding the internal assessment for the Advanced PDE course. Today it happened, and it was a job well done, and satisfying enough it was. What was supposed to be a 20 minute disaster became a 2 hour learning cum satisfying experience. 

As noted previously, once again it was Krantz who came to my rescue. And on top of that I even prepared notes. Yes, me, the one who needs a scribe to do rough calculations, wrote down notes myself. Full 12 pages of monstrosity it is. It was, for I need now to rewrite it and submit it to R sir. 

The entire talk was like an actual teaching experience with an argumentive, attentive, eager and open audience. It was unlike previous seminars which were an anxious perfomance to a largely don't-care audience with some troublesome elements sprinkled in between. It was teaching. Teaching like R Sir. Teaching as if the teacher cares if the subject. As do the audience. Board work, matters. Pace of writing, matters. Knowing what to erase, matters. Giving references, matters. Knowing which step is the key, matters. Teaching can be an art as well as a science. To quote Snape on Potions, it is a "subtle science and exact art". Well, it can be. We all know what it can be at its worst.

Chalo, talk done for this sem too pic.twitter.com/wyoKoaZyYq

— Aryan Kumar Prasad (@Aryan_AKP) May 2, 2025

I think it is probably one of the few times R Sir appeared to be almost happy with any student. I made a silly silly mistake regarding some domain, was caught and panicked. Instead of the usual R Sir we all love and fear, he took on the stage and worked it about on the spot with me. That he did. Unbelievable. Even consulted me about it. He has an heart, it's just not open to public. 

Anyway R Sir was satisfied with my work, I have no need to give another attempt or attend other's second and third attempts. All this modulo submission of giving the assignment next day that is.

सेमिनार से बड़ा सेमिनार, Advanced PDE की मार

 हर 6 महीने में सेमिनार देना होता है। 25 को फिर देना है, पहले भी बोले थे। कल उसका ही mock है। तीसरी बार देंगे इस बार तो उतना, यदि बंगालियों की भांति बोले तो, चाप नहीं आ रहा। अच्छा है। शायद आदत सी हो गई है अब। लोगों के सामने बोलने में शायद पांचवीं कक्षा से ही डर लगने लगा था। कारण अज्ञात है। अब ज़हर का नाम जान के क्या ही फायदा? नहीं फायदा तो है, Anti venom शायद सब का अलग होता है। थेरैपी का शायद ये ही फण्डा है। ज्ञान होना चाहिए ये सब का भी। 

लेकिन ये ज्ञान recommended श्रेणी में है, सेमिनार आवश्यक है। उसका मोटा मोटा आ ही गया है। उससे खराब दिक्कत तो लेकिन Advanced PDE में है। हाँ बहुत अच्छा विष्य है, वर्कशॉप भी जा रहे हैं। लेकिन जैसे उस वर्कशॉप की चिन्ता है वैसे ही अब course के लिए भी लग रहा है। 

अधिकांश तो आर सर के विष्य में अधिकतर मेरा काम चल जाता । उनका जीवन बुनियाद में ही समर्पित है । अच्छी बात है। गणित शब्दों या अंकों (Number Theory करने वालों भाइयों के लिए एक सावधानी) को इधर उधर करना और एक equation या वाक्य गढ़ देना नहीं है। क्लर्कगिरि नहीं है ये। रामानुज क्लर्क थे, लेकिन जब ये नौकरी मांगने गए तो Ramanujan: The Man and the Mathematician ( मेरी समीक्षा) में लिखा गया है कि उसने कहा लिया कि

 Ramaswamy Ayyar: It is too bad. If you become a clerk in any of these offices, your mathematical abilities will soon dis- appear. I do not want to sin that way.

अब उनपे देवी नामगिरि की असीम कृपा थी । लेकिन अय्यर साहब की बात हम आम लोगों पे वैध है । आर सर जैसे लोग हम शोधशास्त्रों को इस क्लर्कगिरि के जाल से बचाने में लगे हुए हैं। कई बार इसको इतना श्रेय मिलता नहीं, श्रेय दूर अपयश मिलता है। लेकिन ये सुकर्म है, आवश्यक है। हम 3 ही छात्र है इस विष्य में । तो internal के 13 अंक के लिए सब को एक एक सवाल present करने दिए हैं। अब सवाल सुन ही लें, Integration by parts on   ${H^1 ({\mathbb{R}_+}^2)}$ और Trace map के Image पे है। हमारी किताब में है दोनों। हम Kesavan की Topics in Functional Analysis and Applications ही पढ़ते हैं कक्षा में, इसमें ही 2.8.1 और 2.8.2 देना है। मुझे 2.8.2 का दूसरा भाग मिला। लेकिन इसमें त्रुटि है, और चोटी मोटी नहीं, पूरा का पूरा proof नष्ट कर देने वाली। बहुत ही basic गलती है, जिसका derivative ही नहीं उसे Schwartz कह रहा है। अब इतना ही गलत होगा ये थोड़ी कोई सोचेगा। हम भी सोचे नहीं थे । आज present करना था, उसके घंटे भर पहले जाने की क्या कांड कर रहा है किताब में। घबरा उठे । जल्दबाजी में  Strongly Elliptic Systems and Boundary Integral Equations में जवाब मिला । कक्षा की और जाते हुए ही पीडीएफ फाइल मिली। आज तो गए भईया। मेरा नंबर दूसरा था। लेकिन जब चालू की पांचाली (नाम बदला हुआ) तो बेचारी को 20 मिनिट जो मिले थे, उसमें तो कुछ नहीं हुआ। एक घंटे में भी कुछ हुआ नहीं। फिर पता नहीं किसकी महर थी, shayad मंगल है न आज, नॉनभेज त्यागने का फल है बंजारबली से, लेकिन R सर ने कहा कि तीसरा होगा। उसका तो चालू करने से पूर्ण एक बुनियादी सिद्धांत पे रोक दिया। दरअसल वो, मैं और किताब भी एक छोटी सो चीज़ को नज़रंदाज़ कर रहें थे। लेकिन सर से नहीं छिपता ये, कैसे छिपे? निठरता तो घोल पी गए हैं। आस रखे थे कि हम लोग भी अब तक कुछ चरणामृत की भांति पिए होंगे। नहीं लेकिन खड़े उठे आज तो। नहीं उठे। उनको न वाक्चातुर्य से मतलब है ना हि एकान्तप्रयास से। कई दफ़ा तो बाहर चले गए कहके कि तुम लोग आपस में बात चीत कर लो । अब परसों मेरा है। सेमिनार, जो 300 नंबर का है, उससे ज्यादा इसमें, 13 नम्बर का, से डर लग रहा है। लेकिन सच कहे तो इसमें सीख भी अधिक रहे है। अब चलो 2 दिन ईश्वरीय कृपया से मिला है तो अच्छा है। तो Krantz की Partial Differential Equations and Complex Analysis में भी छान बीन किए, और मिला। ये सबसे मंगनी किताब है मेरी, फेलो बार काम आई अभी। सही है। लेकिन इस आदमी का काम बहुत व्यापक है। मेरे से भी बहुत मिलता जुलता है। एक न एक बार इससे मिलना है। 

अगर PDE की किताबों की बात हो तो महाविद्यालय में बहुत सी पढ़ी । Partial Differential Equations with Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems ( मेरी समीक्षा), सिंह-शर्मा की Partial Differential Equations for Engineers And Scientists, Sneddon की Elements of Partial Differential Equations ( तस्वीरों ), Amaranath की An Elementary Course In Partial Differential Equations ( मेरी समीक्षा),  लोकनाथ देबनाथ की  Linear Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers, Raisinghania ये सब तो भाई नहीं। Coleman की  An Introduction to Partial Differential Equations with MATLAB पे प्रतिक्रिया तो अच्छी लिखी थी, लेकिन कुछ याद नहीं आ रहा। छाप तो कोई नहीं है। और तब तो अपरिपाक्क था। फिर से देखना होगा, ही था क्या। डिस्ट्रीब्यूशन Theory से तो था नहीं, मतलब असली गणित के तौर पे तो निकम्मी ही है। अब खैर, हर किताब का एक पाठक होता है। इन सब का मैं न था। कोई न कोई होगा। अभी तो चिंतना मेरे इस सेमिनार को हे, और उसके बाद अलसी वाले सेमिनार की ।

मदन महीने वाला जाड़ा आया

 ठंड आ गई है फिर से । लोग अक्सर जाड़े को मौत वगैराह से जोड़ते हैं, लेकिन मेरे लिए ये ही मदन महीना है। असल बसंत का अनुभव तो मुझे रघुवीर सहाय की भांति ही होता है ये 

और यह कैलेंडर से मालूम था
अमुक दिन अमुक बार मदनमहीने की होवेगी पंचमी
दफ़्तर में छुट्टी थी-यह था प्रमाण
और कविताएँ पढ़ते रहने से यह पता था
कि दहर-दहर दहकेंगे कहीं ढाक के जंगल
आम बौर आवेंगे
रंग-रस-गंध से लदे-फँदे दूर के विदेश के
वे नंदन-वन होवेंगे यशस्वी
मधुमस्त पिक भौंर आदि अपना-अपना कृतित्व
अभ्यास करके दिखावेंगे

सच कहा जाए तो दिल्ली में तो सारे ही मौसम ऐसे निकल जाते। इधर ओड़िशा आके ही थोड़ा इन सब पर गौर फरमाया जा रहा है। महानगरों में ये कहां ही संभव हो पाता है। नहीं, तो नहीं ही सही। ये एहसास अन्दर कुछ जगा देता है, लेकिन जीवन तो दिल्ली बंगलौर का ही भला है। इससे याद आया दिसंबर में एक वर्कशॉप के आई बंगलौर जाना है, उधर से आके घर दिल्ली भी । Stochastic PDE विष्य है। Prerequisites का अभावअनुभव कर रहा हूं अभी से । पीछे पलक्कड़ गया था, तब पूरा अनुभव हुआ था उसका । लेकिन इधर रहे के न सीखने से अच्छा तो उधर रह के न सीखना है ना । कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते । 

अब ये तो हुआ इस साल का । लेकिन मेरे लिए सच ही मदन महीना है ये । घर से 2023 से निकलने लगा । उसी साल मेट्रो में लाजपत नगर में चढ़ने वाली रेखा–नयनी थी। 2024 में वो टोपोलोजी वाली। 2025 में अभी हफ्ता भर की ही बात है, तो नहीं लिखूंगा। "डीडी" (अंग्रेजी में DD लिखे तो अच्छा लेकिन हिन्दी में अटपटा लग रहा है, लेकिन अब क्या कर सकते हैं) इस बार का भी देख के जान ली है। वही है जो जानती है, उन तीनों को खुद नहीं पता कि मेरे मदन महीने को सार्थक करके के लिए ये हीं रतिदाईं हैं । प्यार हुआ लेकिन कभी इजहार नहीं हुआ । अब, बकौल  दुष्यंत कुमार के:

ख़ुदा नहीं न सही आदमी का ख़्वाब सही

कोई हसीन नज़ारा तो है नज़र के लिए

अगर ग़ज़ल से नीचे आए, और मुन्ना भाई एमबीबीएस के वाफ़िक बोले तो -  फिर क्या अगले दिन अपने मोहल्ले में ऐश्वर्या आई । 

लेकिन टपोरी नहीं है हम और न ही मेरी शून्यप्रेमकथा के ऊपर आज उपदेश देने आया हूं मैं। निष्कर्ष ये ही की ठंड मेरे अंदर कुछ जगा देती है। विद्यालय में कुछ बारहमासी परंपरा वाली कविताएं थीं, उसमें ठंड का कैसे वर्णन था याद नहीं, लेकिन most likely मेरे ये विपरीत ही होगा । ठंड से याद आती है हर Saturday मसालेदार खिचड़ी की, जमे हुए नारियल तेल की और भारी गरम मुलायम रज़ाई के अंदर सोने की । 6 ऋतुएं में से ये ही मेरी मनपसंद है हालांकि 6 नहीं, 3 ही मानता हूँ मैं –गर्मी, जाड़ा और मानसून। भाई मुझे तो ठंड ही भली। 

Poker Face: Less-than-anticipated-but-still-good beat?

 

I have recently started watching webseries. Started with Sitcoms, the first one was How I met your Mother. But am now diversifying a bit. Poker Face is one which I liked. The leader charector is a human lie detector and often gets involved in murder cases which require her skill to unravel. I will confess that I was looking for a Poker themed show when I can across this show, but the comdey-mystery did get be hooked up. I ended the first season and it was genius.

For much of the first season, Charlie the lead character was on the run, living off her car. Many episodes were set in rural Texas. This is a part of USA I seem to be discovering a lot recently. Sheldon is from here, and as such both Young Sheldon and Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage is set here. Recently, I read 'I was a Teenage Slasher', it didn't work for me but the description of the country life was vivid. And now Poke Face, the loke star state reaches out to me. There is a small, but as of now very distant, possibility that I may land a Postdoc position in Texas. But thats something I can worry about in like 5 years, for now, more pressing carrer update is having a seminar on 25th of this month.

Simon Helberg, more familiar to me as Howard from The Big Bang Theory and Loki lookalike, plays a FBI agent and he is indeed a good actor here too. The lead actress, I will confess that I don't recognise her from anywhere, is simply fantastic. The way she walks and talks just makes Charlie seem a real person. 

Come season 2 and a few episodes in Charlie doesn't really have much reasons to be on the run. Can't settle she prays, and we all go with it. Well the intresting thing is the varied location and situation and sections of contemporary American populace the show offers a world view into. And Charlie is not a investigators for hire, it is only that she keeps finding herself into such situations. A normal episode is normally non linear, Charlie is missing for about 25% of it and then we get a recap of the entire show from Charlie's POV and we get to know how she was connected to it. I really like this structure, a quater of each episode is just a new world. And like a spiral model of reinforced learning, we come back. This non linearity of narration is something I loved about HIMYM. This video explaining why it's spinoff failed does a much better job of saying what I want to say. 

But the absence of Charlie (and her powers) from the beginning of each episode that made the narrative unique now seems to have oozed into the entirety of the season 2. In many of the episodes the ability to detect Bullsh*t, as the captions put it, is only tangentially involved. In fact, some episodes may have been without Charlie but anyone else in her place and it won't have went much different. I will not say it is bad. It is good, entertaining, brilliant at times even. But still, as a blog puts it "This is not the Poker Face we were sold." (btw Good and more importantly active blog that I found today, read the review of the First part of the second season too.).

It is like the SJG book stripped on horror elements, it is good but could have been better. It is getting a flush on the river rather than the straight flush that was promised. I will not be continuing with the series as such. Bullsh*t! Okay, but this is not a reccodemndation I'll give to anyone. Bullsh*t! Okay, Okay, I still love this, the directors and writers are good. I need more of them, as I do of the lead actress. 

I - a straightener a la Collins

 I recently started Billy Collins' Horoscopes for the Dead. It has been on my TBR list since 2021! I don't remember why or what prompted it to be on the list. But should I be asked to hazard a guess, it would be my roughly semi-annual urge to appreciate, understand or at least read English poetry.

The Romantics and the Ballads are fine, but it’s free verse that I normally struggle with. Poetry by and large has been absent from my reading this year. I think the only one I read was वर्जिन: काव्य संग्रह, which, while Hindi was in Free Verse and more akin to the Modern English poetry rather than the Dinkars, Gupts and the other Rashtrakavis I hold in regard. Now that I look at Goodreads, the last poetry book before that was मधुशाला which I read in 2024. I started reading both these years ago but managed to finish them when I did only. But indeed Bachanji was a treat, to be savoured like expensive wine. 

भावुकता अंगूर लता से खींच कल्पना की हाला,

कवि साकी बनकर आया है भरकर कविता का प्याला,

कभी न कण-भर खाली होगा लाख पिएँ, दो लाख पिएँ!

पाठकगण हैं पीनेवाले, पुस्तक मेरी मधुशाला।

He is said to have written it before he started drinking. I may not have the "लोहू में है पचहत्तर प्रतिशत हाला" (seventy-five percent alcohol in my blood), still, I would use the "पाठकगण हैं पीनेवाले" (readers are the drinkers) as the basis to defend my right to employ the wine metaphor.

Anyway, the goal was to read more poetry. And so I am.

Billy Collins is the sort of poet I don't normally get. He writes like one speaks, no rhymes, no metre (or at least the one whose cadence is less noticeable). No heavy use of alterations. But this everyday speech flow and the poetry grounded in everyday life are what made it more palatable. After reading this, should one be disapointed at the lack of vakchautya, he will at least not be completely lacking in what happened. The hidden कवि कहना चाहता है कि may be not so hidden, but that's charming in its own way. This book is a bit soothing even when grief is a major theme.

Anyway, this is not supposed to be a prescription of what I like in poetry. I just happened to resonate with one of the poems. 'The Straightener', which can be read here (I myself am unclear of the legality of hosting a poem from a book in a personal blog as she did, but whatever).  

I love to organise my desk in my office. Some piles are arranged by thickness, but by width, and some by colour. The piles themselves are organized by utility. I just love to do it. No, I just love to complete this, to overcome the inertia is much hard. But once I start, its just peace. Once in a while, I will reorganise DD's desk too. It feels like Shramdaan, Karmdaan, Kaarseva. The peaceful feeling while organizing is there too when I do it for myself only. I remember during class 10 matrix exams making timetables and stuff meticulously. Tracking down every 15 minute chunk, with many chunks reserved for tracking itself!That were the days indeed. Anyway, back to the poem. 

Never tomahawk, lantern, and spyglass.
Always lantern, spyglass, tomahawk.

Yes indeed. Once decided, things are set in stone. I can be the greatest Lakir ka Fakir at times. I love self imposed rules. If I had some legal background, I could feature among the absurd anecdotes in Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy (my GR review here). But actual babudom is torture to me. Foucaultian-poststructuralist-imposed-structural-violence should I refer to Akhil Gupta's Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India (the book unirnoncally uses the terms, more can be read in my GR review here). The view is supported by the "I" in the poem too it seems:

And if I can avoid doing my taxes

Only if we all could do so, I am not an anarchist. I once read (and did a GR review of) von Mises' Bureaucracy. I agree a lot with him, self imposed rules are not the same as those imposed by the punitive backing of the state. I am currently reading The Bureaucratic Phenomenon which seems to diagree with this view of Mises, but I am yet to see his complete thesis and have just started it.  But at the very least i am no anarchists, I am for a strong state but at the same time hate the Babudom to its core. I don't know what I I am exactly, I feel a bit like the protagonist in English, August: An Indian Story. I feel like him in a lot many ways and I think I will pen down those thoughts once in a while. That I must do, but I must write a thousand other things. But this is somewhat more serious and personal than others. 

Sociology and fictional IAS babus aside. Back to the poem. The "I" in the poem too must feel the same tranquillity that the I do in real life. He too shirks social and legal obligation and prefers to straighten things out. The "I " has 

a note from a girl I was fond of.

As did I! It was a note saying we shall study Topology after we have lunch (separately). She planned things with me in writing! It was on my table for many months.  DD discovered it once and had a lot of fun teasing me. Good for her, I give her much pain, she can use this distraction. I have given over that girl now, but did the "I" in the poem ever express his feelings? Or perhaps he already did and it was reciprocated, and the note was a witness of that hence kept on the table as a trophy. Or maybe it was just an innocent note like in my case, kept as a reminder that he must act or perhaps a memoto. We will never know, but I hope the best for the "I" in the poem. He seems to be doing well. In fact:

Today, for example, I will devote my time
to lining up my shoes in the closet,
pair by pair in chronological order

and lining up my shirts on the rack by color
to put off having to tell you, dear,
what I really think and what I now am bound to do.

The rhythm of "tell you, dear ... what I now am bound to do" sounds so much better than it would have without the "dear." I don't know if there is a technical word for that, but perhaps it's not important. I can just enjoy it as it is. Maybe. The itch to know is too strong. Straighten, I must. But perhaps now. I will keep some things absolutely straightened out, and some will be the most convoluted. Like my thoughts, like this very post. I don't know perhaps it is that I can't tame my thoughts that I cut off artificial physical sacred zones that must be straightened out? Okay, no more pop self Freudian (?) diagnosis. Off (to straightening out my desk). 

Review: Applications of Harmonic Measure (The University of Arkansas Lecture Notes in the Mathematical Sciences)

Applications of Harmonic Measure (The University of Arkansas Lecture Notes in the Mathematical Sciences) by John B. Garnett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Typesetting of the book is more of 70s Soviet Russia rather than the first world of the 80s. As clearly indicated in the title, the book is not about Harmonic measures but rather their applications. Still, it is one of the better introductions to them, perhaps only Conformal Invariants: Topics in Geometric Function Theory was a better book explaining them when it was written (and which, to be fair, I only discovered for Garnett cites them here). Only Krantz's The Theory and Practice of Conformal Geometry beats both of them. Garnett's own Harmonic Measure couauther many years later is not good either.

The approach is purely deterministic, but a small introduction is made to the probabilistic approach and references are provided should one be interested. The applications are interesting, but in case they are in Krantz's or Ahlfors' books, the exposition there is better. Still, a many of the applications first (and in a couple of cases only time) appeared in monograph form here and as such the book has its value.

View all my reviews

Review: Theory of $H^P$ spaces

Theory of H[superscript p] spaces by Unknown Author
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book is cited as the only other (non-probabilistic) proof of Hall's Lemma from his 1937 paper. It was also perhaps the first book to contain Carleson's proof of the Corona Conjecture. The book however is very lax in places, harmonic measures are not even defined explicitly. It makes no use of Distribution theory and Greens' Function is treated like an actual function.


For Carleson's Proof, one should instead refer to Garnett's Bounded Analytic FunctionsBounded Analytic Functions. He follows the latter approach of Carleson and ditched harmonic measure for an alternative proof from the lecture in Proceedings of the 15th Scandinavian Congress, Oslo, 1968. Garnett have two books on harmoic measures- Applications of Harmonic Measure (The University of Arkansas Lecture Notes in the Mathematical Sciences) and Harmonic Measure , but both are lacking the Hall's Lemma. As for the other content in the book, Introduction to Hp Spaces and Banach Spaces Of Analytic Functions have much better exposition.

View all my reviews

Makers of Modern Dalit History: Further Thoughts (2/2)

 Earlier I wrote my initial thoughts on the book.  Earlier I had read only the Introduction and the chapter on the first maker Ayyankali. Now I have read about Babu Jagjivan Ram, Dakshyani Velayudjan, Gurram Jashuva, Guru Raidas, Sant Kabir, Kanshiram, President KR Narayanan, Sant Nandanar, Jhalkaribai, Jigendranath Mondal, Adikavi Valmiki, Ved Vyas. Who remains are Sant Janabai, Phule, Soyarbai, Saheed Udham Singh and Babasaheb. There is also a 20 page conclusion which I cheaters ahead and have already read. 

The initial impressions of being a non scholarly work is further cemented. I might have not even heard about many of them, but could not see the complete lack of any sort of negative feedbacks on the more recent political figures like Kanshiram and Narayanan. 

One will never get to know that this is the Kanshiram of मिले मुलायम कांशीराम, हवा उड़ गए जयश्री राम fame. It is not merely that Guru Prakash is not showcasing his pro-BJP bias he holds as a spokesperson of the party elsewhere, the thing is that even the most neutral observer will have to accept that this slogan is a defining moment for Kanshiram. Hiding this is not the truth, it is white washing (or Saffron coating as some of Kanshiram's most hardcore and fanatic followers may argue) of history. This does not benefit anyone. This does not suit anyone. This is just plain disrespectful to the reader. This is just, bad. Too many examples of this in the book, and that too from the limited ones I know. I am afraid what unknown unknowns are out there. I really wanted to learn of Babu Jagjivan Ram. He is indeed much undercredited, his caste was perhaps a big reason for that. Emergency (2025) (my review here) made him a cartoon villain. But the authors made him a saint. The truth is for no one it seems. The other most glaring omission is that when President Narayanan gave an award to Ang San Sui Kuu when the relationship with the Military Regime in Myanmar were excellent and it caused an diplomatic spat resulting in suspension of joint anti terror operations. One may argue (and in my view naievly, but still can't) that this is an example of his idealism, him being a working president and commitment to compassion all of which have been argued in the book but without any example to show us. Talk of don't show, tell. Or perhaps the fact that he had a Myanmari wife could have been mentioned as that may have influenced his actions. But, alas, the authors have no time for such critical thinking. As they don't have the same for editing or a second reading. There are still random bits and bots about completely unrelated things in many a biographies. And chronological order is still amiss. They love to randomly insert tangentially related Swami Vivekanand quotes (Theu have got the complete works and now must justify costs it seems). The only good is that they finally managed to cite Badri Narayan (in relation to Kanshiram). The choice of people is also very confusing. Why Ved Vyas or Valmiki are here, I have no idea. I have not read the chapter on Saheed Udham Singh but am prettty sure the being Dalit is not the main market of identity for him.

And then comes the conclusion. Oh boy. I should have started with the conclusion to see how bad the book actually is. It ends with a 4 point life lesson !!!! Clearly I can only take life lessons from a book only if the authors make a 4 point summary of such. There are also further some more biographies of contempt Dalit leaders. Here too, Bahin Mayawati is not to be found nut you can find Meira Kumar. The nepo daughter of Dy PM is clearly more inspiring than a nothing to CM Kumari Mayawati story. Perhaps the only part where I can feel that the political leaning may have affected it. Meira Kumar is a non factor, but Mayawati is a sleeping elephant. And if you aren't the Mahawat, don't let people like the elephant.

 Anyway I would not be doing a third party of the review here. Only a short non detail review on GR. It is just not worth the effort. 

Initial Thoughts on Makers of Modern Dalit History

 Many many years ago, I used to watch Caravaka Podcast religiously. Originally, during the pandemic and just afterwards. It was from here that I first came to know of Guru Prakash Paswan. He was a fresh voice in the Dalit discourse, BJP leader and dyed in Hindutva. Like something Badri Narayan talks about in his Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation (My GR Review here, the book should be read despite the low rating). It was from this podcast that I came to know of Guru Paswan's books, which I started yesterday. Only recently I have started to look into myself from a caste angle (which is OBC in some states, SC in some, but GEN is what I use on forms).

But the book doesn't really hold up as of now to my impression of the author (No offence to Ramabadran but I don't have much knowledge of or opinions about him and will sometimes use the author to refer to Guru Prakash only). And to be fair, I have just read the introduction and a small first chapter, my opinion may or may not change as I progress with the book. 

This book is no academic tome, sharp criticism or groundbreaking research and makes such explicit in the introduction itself. At the end of the day it is but to familiarise a general audience with these great figures. But still, the book is amassing citations on Google Scholar. I can only hope that the derived works' authors are aware of the book's scope and citing in keeping that in mind. But I have seen worse, and will expect such.

Before proceeding, I would justify why I should write a review (critque?) at this stage when I do plan to cpmplete the book. I think a GR review puts it best:

पुस्तक से परिचय कराते हुए लेखक ने एक लम्बी भूमिका तैयार की हुई है, जहाँ आपको पू:री पुस्तक का परिचय हो जाता है। यदि आप आगे न भी पढ़ें तब भी आप पुस्तक के बारे में ठीक ठीक जानकारी प्राप्त कर लेते हैं।

The 30+ page introduction is the longest and most important part of the book, dare I say, Bahujan of the Book. So lets get started. 

On page (viii), it clearly states that

we would like to state that profiles that the reader will find in the book are a combination of historical facts, stories that people have told about them over generations

So yeah, not an academic tract. Which, by itself, should be no problem. But then they go on and cite people like Suraj "Afro-dalitism" Yedge. No thank you. I prefer not to cut copy paste critical studies from halfway across the globe to study my own society. To be fair, some Subaltren Studies language has been adopted too. But given the political background of the author, I find the omission of  Badri Narayan intresting. The introduction tries to paint a broad painting as well as supplement it iwth data. But it didn't really gel well here. On the data front, the fact that during land the biggest, most glaring injustice to us have been that less than 0.5% of land redistributed agricultural land was given to SCSTs. In an land obsessed, non georgist society where agriculture is a mollycoddled tax free activity where the supposedly divine "Annadatas" (Only type of producers that the Nehruvian morality can tolerate) are showered upon my honest taxpayers' money, this means that this chunk of society prettty much lost on this part of the social welfare schemes. Combine this is what next to non existent land market, means that these misdeeds comitted 70 years ago can't be corrected now. This leads be to wonder if my own views on laws that restrict sales of land like those in Jharkhand needs updation? I am all for free market treating land as any other commodity, but quite evidently one side lacks market power here and a case for government intervention can be made. But that is another issue, and I don't know much about it at hand so let's drop that. 

The passages on Dalit litrature, expression and capaltilism where intresting and I did learn a lot from them, and had to add even more references to my TBR. Eleanor Zelliot is mentioned but thankfully the misconception that she was the first to do a PhD on Ambedkar is not repeated. I really disliked that the author couldn't decide if every Dalit is severely oppressed, fearful even to walk on the road (Knowing Guru Prakash, he himself is an exception to this rule and must be self aware of this fact) or an increasingly being accepted into the mainstream society. There is no need for hyperbole in the oppression olympics commentary when the reality itself will appear hyperbolic. This is just not done. You push away people like this. 

Finally moving to the first chapter. It's about Ayyankali from Kerala. Never heard of him, so yeah, great. Will actually learn something. But the writing is like of generic biography, there is no "voice". I needed to reread it to finally gasp that he was born in 1863, one can skip that line and willm never know what time period are we talking of. He is from the Pulayar castes, which were basically in a system of chattel slavery. They were porbabited from using "I" is conversation with so called forward castes. Casteism errors the very shelf of the depressed. They are made to belive they are less than human. This is not something I ever heard of. While there is a decent refrence section, I found the actual writing of the chapter amateurish and in need of editing. I double checked that it's a Penguin book and still can't belive noone flagged writing of the chapter. Events and even sentences are repeated in 2 or 3 paragraphs. Thrice is Ayyankali nominated to the Sree Moolam Popular Assembly (while its powers and structure are never even hinted at) for the first time across four paragraphs. And we never find out how he actually broke the shackles of slavery cum casteism. But there is all the time for quating Mandela and even a paragraph about  Y.B. Satyanarayana's memoir about casteism being present in India. What a shocker! And the author that the audacity to preface that with 

To understand the significance of his contribution, it is vital that one understands the circumstances under which Ayyankali fought for the rights of the oppressed. (Pg 3)

 This comes exactly a page after saying that status of the Pulayars were literally that of slaves. But yeah we need a vague sentance from a memoir set in Hyderabad about placement of houses to understand the circumstances. 

These things somehow diminished the seriousness that could have been there. Especially when the chapters are short, this one beging 6 and a half pages excepting the refences.

I will continue with the book, it is not a heavy read anyway but don't have much high expectations. But perhaps I am being more critical than I need to be, afterall this did lead to me writing this post, I am debating by priors on the caste based restriction on land sales as well the how-in-the-world-did-I-even-not-know of Pulayars' condition. Anyways, will read it. 

Also happy birthday to me I guess.