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. 

On Writing Everyday II

 Write something worth a damn. Write something that requires you to tear a chunk of your soul away and leave it dripping, bloody, on the page. For my amusement, or your amusement, or her’s. Put something of yourself into the process. Get some skin in the game. If you don’t, you might as well be writing press releases. Life is too short, and the opportunity afforded us by this marvelous community and platform is too good to squander it on typological masturbation. Fuck me with your stories. Please.

- Gary Rogers's "Write Something Worth a Damn"

Just yesterday I wrote a piece on writing everyday, and I write on the same topic today too. Unoriginal and uninspired sure, but at least I am writing on consecutive days - A first on the blog. I did say that "I will be looking at Writing Prompts now" but because the laziness, I didn't. At the very least laziness did not stop me from writing this very boring blogpost. It could have been worse, all the self-hate of yesterday might have drawn down in procrastination. 

Anyway, it seems that faith of this blog is to be a very loosely kept diary ( I have tried keeping diary before, never lasted more than a week.) But that will be an improvement over it being nothing. Unlike yesterday I keep no bitterness writing this piece despite it being even more lame than yesterday, a good thing? Might it be "करत-करत अभ्यास के जडमति होत सुजान । रसरी आवत-जात ते सिल पर परत निशान ॥" in action? If yes, then ts surely a good thing. On other hand I have now tried reading more and more blogposts. I liked 'High-Speed Rail in India' and 'Why I Keep a Research Blog' today. Adding the links here with barely any readership on an unindexed website will not do any good to these already popular blogs, but I guess it will be easier for me to find them again and perhaps one day even write a post inspired by them! 

On writing everyday

 If you are looking to build a habit, then what you write isnt as important as just writing. Some of the hardest part is just sitting down to write and letting the words flow. This advice is just for that part. Once you actually start writing, then you make improvements. But just like you cant edit with whats not there, you cany get better at something you cant do!

-/u/SuperSailorSaturn 

 When I announced the purpose of the blog, I hoped to have written semi-frequently on the blog, maybe twice a month. But in almost half a year I have written but a single short post. And it is not the deep ramblings I had assumed but just a short voting experience in this election. I still strive to write every day, ever since I read this blog. 

I don't know the point of this blogpost itself, is this self-torture? Somehow there have been readers from Hong Kong, I don't know what they find in the 3 posts I have written here. But they have read, and I have not written more. I need to write. This makes no sense from a "flow" POV. Sentences are disjoint I, can't write no good. Even Tao says to write down even new maths. But I can't. 

I find solace in the quote at the top, it is the beginning that is most difficult. I sometimes begin to write, only to be bogged down in research. I find those moments very enjoyable if you remove the pressure of writing, but they take enough time that nothing ever gets written (or I learn how I don't know much on the topic, and my inability to honestly write so). But sometime back I forgot the research I did, I want to make those giddy moments permanent in my writing and help others by offering what I discovered in an easy consolidated form. Sadly it never comes through. 


I will be looking at Writing Prompts now, let's see if that cures anything. Not hopeful at all though. Not hopeful.  

My Year in Books: 2023

 Another year has passed since I started keeping my record on Goodreads. 2023 was a year of change for me, I moved out of my house for the first time to join Integrated-PhD at NISER.  Undoubtedly, these transformative experiences must have left its mark on my reading journey. Anyway, let us start with some stats that GR provides. 

Books read: 98
Pages read: 33,813
Average Book Length: 345
Average Reading: 2.8



The year started with finishing Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies which was a 5/5. I really do need to buy the other two books in the series. Next was Joad's Guide to Modern Thought, which was my first review of the year. Quoting from the review:

  My edition is a reprint of 1947 edition, so "modern" in the title may be misleading now. The book primarily focuses on the impact of certain scientific discoveries, including some pseudoscientific concepts such as ghost mediums, on philosophy.

 I have no idea why the book has an average rating of 3.89/5. 

I read Basic Income: A Transformative Policy For India which converted me to a pro Basic income (as far as Micro Implications are considered, I have yet to study macro implications in detail.)  A compelling read that should be on the must-read list for Economics and Public Policy courses. Another book related to policy was Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India. It is written by the son of the current CJI and the grandson of another. Found him a bit biased in the direction I thought he would be, but a fine book nonetheless. Lidl & Pilz's Applied Abstract Algebra was a great book I read for the course in Discrete Mathematics. I hope my research in future would be in a related direction. 

Next, I was in the mood for some Hindi (I often have periods of reading Hindi Literature) but found both Raag Bhopali and काशी का अस्सी were much overhyped and did not live up to their reputation. The same was true for Way Beyond The Three Rs, Rise of Modern Japan and Bhārat: India 2.0 read during the same period. 

Next were some books which could be called to be aligned to Pro Hindutva ideology. As in often the case with such books, I had to read Kautilya on moral hazard, poverty & systemic risk and Mathematical Method of Sanskrit Grammar both of which were products of Quackery. In fact I think I read a lot of quackery this year which must explain the low average rating. This is when I read Vikram Sampath's most talked about Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924 which I think will become a classic. I have already ordered the second part in Hindi but have had not the time to read it yet. Interesting is that I finished the book on 7th July while started in May. This means I was reading it throughout my BSc and entrance exams. How I read it this long when the college library did not allow reissuing of the book? Its all thanks to the symbiotic relation me and Aman Kushwaha had (thought I have left to believe the scales were heavily tilted in my favour.) Anyway, the biography have left me further in awe of Hindutva. 

The next book worth mentioning was Grokking Algorithms An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People. Initially I read it to prepare for interview at IACS (wherein for unknown reasons I managed to get AIR 1 in the written exam.) Although due to network issues (and honesty I had no heart to join even if selected since I already had the offer letter from NISER) I did not give the interview, the study of algorithms is quite interesting. 

A literally life changing book was Monika Halan's Let's Talk Money: You've Worked Hard for It, Now Make It Work for You. This finally got me to think about money, the fact that in a few months I have was to be given a stipend by DAE to live on my own is what led me to read the book. I have bought Let's Talk Mutual Funds and started reading it, and have also started to invest via Mutual Funds (#SahiHai) and done a NPS too. 

With money matters settled (theoretically) and a Int-PhD offer letter in my hand, Imposter syndrome (I hope its just a thing in my mind but you never know...) kicked in and I began binge reading PhD advice books. Most of the are focused on labs sciences or s*cial "sciences" and none based in the Indian context, but one have to make do with what was available. 57 Ways to Screw Up in Grad School and Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School were genuinely funny. A Field Guide to Grad School (Despite her ideological leaning which sweeps much into the text), The Professor Is In and Grad School Essentials were helpful, at least in views of the first year me. Next I read श्यामला दंडकम् with a not so good translation, I planned to memorize it but got too busy and neglected it lol. 


Upto this point, a majority of books I read came from library of my College (or via LibGen.) I did not notice at that point but SVC library is very well stocked and it was a joy to randomly find books in it. In comparison to it, NISER library is nearly empty, possibly due to the much more focused nature of the institution or due to the small time it has been since its establishment. But anyway, the SVC library is much missed. The first book I finished from the new library was My Numbers, My Friends: Popular Lectures on Number Theory, not really much interesting. 

When I went back home in September, I took A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with me. Parents were quite angry (Faltu ka wajan leke aa jate ho) but it was worth it. A big 5/5. Another classic I read was The Return of Sherlock Holmes, almost 5/5 but a 4/5, which is my first Holmes novel. Continuing with classics, I tried to read a Hindi translation of Swami Vivekanand's Rajayoga but the translation did not work for me. I later read the English original. At year ended with the banger named The Three-Body Problem. 

A very few words on the Blog

A look at my reading list would have helped justified the name of the blog - बहुश्रुतस्य परिभ्रमान् - the ramblings of one who have heard a lot. I hope to write randomly on random topics I become obsessed with at that time in the blog. 

Goals for 2024

• 52 Books
• 3 Books in Hindi
  
• 2 Books in Sanskrit or on IKS
• 1 Book in Odia
  
• Finish "3 Body Problem" series
• Read at least one work of Swami Vivekanand
• Complete Volume 2 of Vikram Sampath's Savarkar
• Read Rise and Fall of Rome Vol I
• 3 Books for "Ideologically Opposite" Camp