Author Archives: iluvryuzaki

Akira Toriyama: A Tribute to the beloved creator of the Dragonball Series

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It has been a while since I have penned something. So, I am not sure how many this will actually reach, but in what transpired this past week, I have no choice but to write something, say something … for this is too powerful an event. Akira Toriyama, the beloved creator of the Drgonball Series passed away from this world, and into what he would call The Next Dimension. I was full of grief, and I cried uncontrollably with a heavy heart.

Dragonball Z had a profound influence on my childhood. Watching it was one of the defining moments of my childhood and it helped shaped who I am today. My introduction to it happend in a curious way. I was in school, I was told by my teachers to go sit in the front row for a few days. I sat next to this guy who I had seen in class but I was not very familiar with. We talked for a bit, and out of the blue he was excited and asked me if I was going to watch Cartoon Network this weekend. I asked why. And he said incredulously, ‘Saiyans are arriving! Saiyans are arriving!’. I looked at him puzzled. Huh? He said again, ‘Dude Saiyans are arriving! Saiyans are arriving!’. I had no idea what Dragonball Z was or who these Saiyans were. I even thought this guy was bit of a crackpot. But anywho, I ended up watching the show that week… and I was hooked.

The whole show was magic. Entertaining as hell. I was lucky to have it caught it in it’s initial stages, only a few episodes in, in it’s first saga (season)…’The Saiyan Saga’. In essence it is about Goku, who is a Saiyan (a different race of people, inhabitants of another planet called Vegeta) but grew up on earth. Unlike saiyans from his home planet who are always hungry for fighting and destruction, Goku is more of a protector. The saga is about saiyans discovering Goku is on earth but instead of capturing and ruling the planet he has become a peace-loving human (although he has still trained well in the martial arts). So the saiyans seek to come to earth to knock sense into Goku as well as eliminate the humans. The saga is about how Goku and his friends (including his young son who plays a key role), train and support each other to defeat the saiyans against the most incredible odds. Goku’s own son is trained by Piccolo, a green-coloured inhabitant from the planet Namek. Perhaps this in itself is a powerful lesson to us all, inhabitants of different planets could make it work and live in harmony, so we on earth belonging to different races, different as we may be can as well.

The series also introduced one of the greates anti-heroes of all time and my favorite …the saiyan prince Vegeta. ***(spoilers ahead, skip the next paragraph if you wish)***.

In fights that are incredibly mind blowing and transcendental and involve overcoming impossible odds and ultimate team work, our friends from earth eventually beat Vegeta and gang. Vegeta is spared his life and in the future becomes an integral part of the show (as well as my life).

The martial arts in this show were just sick (mind you this is 25 years ago – an entire generation of anime and movies were all inspired by the Dragonball pheonomenon). The plots amazing. Couple of the sagas (Android and Cell Sagas) involved time travel and the treatment of time and parallel universes was refreshing and something I had not seen before – it was how shall I say it… well ahead of it’s time.

Ultimately the show was entertaining with characters that I (and millions of others) would fall in love with. It is in the end a show about hope against all odds. It taught me so much about life. My childhood days had their share of pain. DBZ was a shining light. It would also lead me to the rest of the the anime world. To the likes of Death Note, Naruto, Samurai Champloo, Psycho Pass, Attack On Titan and a plethora of powerful experiences that would infuse energy and a new sense of purpose whenever I was down. DBZ and anime have always been my real parents. They have always been there in the darker phases of my life. And I will continue to cherish them. I bought the latest manga post the latest DB Super episodes to stay in this world.

And all of this is because of you sensei Akira Toriyama. Thank you! Thank you with all my heart. Thank you with all my soul. Thank you for everything! You will never truly go the next dimension. You will always live on in the wake you have left behind in your creations.

Flatten the Curve: How long is the Coronavirus going to affect US?

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These are unprecedented times. I think people are waking up quickly (some faster than others) that the coronavirus threat is very real, and it is not just something happening to someone in some obscure corner of the world. It is everywhere. In the absence of a vaccine or cure, the next best option of social distancing has been first recommended and then required in most parts of the world. In the US we are in a 15-day period of advised social distancing and depending on which state you are, the strictness and enforcement varies. For the most part the country has come to a pause. All businesses and workplaces have closed and only grocery stores and restaurants (with takeout and delivery only) have been allowed to function. Currently the question on everyone’s mind is when do things get back to normal? When does the economy reopen? When can we start meeting people like we normally do again? The answer is probably what you may think it is. No one knows exactly for sure. But we are not completely in the blind and given what we already know, we can make an educated guess and that’s what I would like to do.

Let’s start with the basics. We keep hearing the phrase ‘Flatten the Curve’ a lot, but what does it even mean? The curve here refers to a graph of the number of infected people by the Coronavirus versus time. Obviously, the number of cases were initially zero (at a good time when no one was infected), and then started increasing. As the virus continued to spread, more people caught it and the graph started rising. Let’s look at China’s graph.

China Curve
(Source: Worldometers)

Towards the end of January, China started testing extensively. In about ten days, the number of active infected cases had been identified to be around 20,000! In twenty days, the number of cases had doubled to nearly 40,000. This is a rising curve. Somewhere around Feb 17th, the number of cases reaches its peak. Notice the days between Feb 14th to Feb 20th (the ones marked in orange between points B and C) where the curve is not rising sharply anymore. In fact, it is becoming flatter, and beyond Feb 20th, we see a drop in the number of infected cases! The implemented shutdown measures are working, the curve has peaked and then flattens and finally falls. For the curve to drop (which signifies that the number of infected people is reducing), it must first stop rising sharply and then start flattening. If we test extensively and quarantine well and take good measures, the curve will not be a sharp, tall one but one which peaks lower and is more flatter in nature which means that the rate of increase of the number of cases is lesser (the virus is spreading less quickly), and the peak is lower (the maximum number of people the virus affected is lesser). This is why flattening the curve is important. The graph below provides a good understanding.

 

Healthwise

(Source: Healthwise)

As of March 25th, the infected number of cases in China had dropped significantly enough that China feels it can reopen its economy. All this tells us a few things:

1. Social distancing and shutting down the country along with imposing travel restrictions work. China was very strict on this and enforced it well.
2. It took China around six-eight weeks to recover.

China has begun to reopen the economy in phases, and we can all hope and pray that there is no relapse and that the number of infections drop to zero. One could now think that China being a larger population and the source of the virus probably had it the hardest and other countries will not face the same wrath of the virus. This is probably what most of us thought initially and perhaps why some have not taken this seriously. That assumption is simply wrong. Case in point being Italy where the virus hit very hard. And if you had not already heard it, as of today (March 27th), USA has the most infections (85,000) in the whole world. This should hopefully be enough to wake the remaining people up. The curve has begun to flatten in Italy. South Korea and Hong Kong did a commendable job in flattening it very quickly. India should also be applauded for quick action. As of this writing India has 800 cases (compared to a population of 1.33 billion) and has enforced a strict 21-day national shutdown and for the most part people are taking this very seriously.

Now let’s look at USA’s graph:

 

USA

As can be seen, the curve has not even begun to flatten. And it is still rising! If we compare it to the Chinese graph, we are somewhere between points A and B. If I must guess I would say somewhere around the middle. We can’t be sure exactly where between A and B we are because we don’t know where the curve will peak. But where the curve peaks and where it flattens and how fast all this happens really depends on two things:

1. The government steps up the number of people being tested. It stops the spread by quarantining the infected and treating them effectively.
2. People take things seriously and don’t wait for the government to enforce stricter rules. From beach parties in Florida to even people in NY parks playing basketball and other team sports and hanging out in large numbers etc., people are still not doing it. It means we might not beat this soon.

If you thought life can go back to normal after the 15-day period ends in March, know that this is not the case. It is not even going to be a week or two beyond March, it is going to be much longer. If the economy for some funny reason is restarted before people are treated and the curve flattens, we are looking at potential chaos and unpredictability and undoing any good the 15-day period did. Ad hoc measures will not do. The virus will not die because you gave it respect and ceased to do things for 15-days, it will continue to do what it does. It is up to us to react well. Bill Gates has suggested severe national shutdown for six-ten weeks. That sounds like a good idea. A national shut down is something which US has still not done, policy on the strictness seems to vary from state to state which does not make much sense. The reasoning may have to do with where the impacts of the virus have been higher and which regions are denser but that does not matter. Even in states where the number of cases is lesser currently, it can all change very fast because the virus spreads exponentially. It does not make sense to do halfhearted measures and be stuck with this for several months. Might as well do everything possible and hope to turn things around quickly.

The Chinese shutdown was nationwide and included sealing off the initial epicenter Wuhan along with 15 other cities where the virus hit hard. Testing was extensive and they handled the hospitalizations and quarantining very effectively. There has not (yet) been any sealing off areas hit hard in the United States and there has been a shortage of testing along with equipment.

Bottom line: If we do like the Chinese did, we might be able to beat this in two more months. Expect the life that you are seeing right now (and possibly a harder version of it if the government tightens the screws), till at least the mid or end of May. Given that the testing has not been that extensive, there has not been a national shut down or sealing off regions, and a lot of people are still being reckless, this could take even longer. This is not to scare you; this is to help prepare you (and me). Make plans to care of your physical and emotional health. Do workouts at home, go for walks where there are less people (and even then, follow the guidelines of 3-6 feet away from people) or go cycling. Text, talk to people over the phone and video call often. Social media might finally be truly useful to help people stay connected. Form plans for your life, this a very good time to sit and think. It is a great period to pick up meditation. If you are living with someone, that helps with not feeling socially isolated. If you are living alone (like me), then having one or two people you can meet physically, every now and then will be a good idea. Balance the social element while being very precautious. Currently I am meeting just one other person, my neighbor and the only person he is meeting is me which reduces the odds of either of us getting infected (or transmitting infections to someone else) while having some human element and maintaining our sanity.

We are in this together and it will be a while. It can be faster if we help each other out and act sensibly.

Movie Trailers: A Lost Art?

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I am sure many of you are pumped about the new ‘James Bond: No Time to Die’ and ‘Fast and Furious 9’ trailers that just released recently. I am excited that the trailers were released, but I am not excited about the trailers themselves. Let me explain. A trailer being released sets up awareness (in some cases hype) for a movie and gives us information on when the movie is releasing so we can mark our calendars. And this is all good. The problem though, lies with the trailers themselves. They are far too long nowadays! They are not trailers anymore, they are spoilers. They show you the best scenes from the movie straight up. I know of comedy movies where if you saw the trailer you would have been convinced that it was going to be a hilarious ride, but you walk out of the theater with the realization that all the jokes were actually embedded in the trailer and the movie had nothing new to offer. I saw a trailer of a romantic movie (I forget which one), wherein they show how the romance starts, i.e., how the couple met together, the magical times they share, the surprising conflict that ensues and drives them apart and finally the denouement where they get back together. I thought the movie looked good and had I not known exactly how things are going to play out I may have seen it.

From what I remember, the trailers being made more than a decade ago had it right. They were shorter and smarter. They intrigued me without revealing everything the movie has to offer. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore. The trailers of yesterday are the teasers of today. The reason could perhaps be the increased competition movies face against each other (heck even a great TV show rivals a movie nowadays) or that budgets have gotten bigger. So, the primary goal becomes to sell the movie, not the audience satisfaction. Hence the need to dump every good thing within the trailer in the hopes that people buy a ticket. But it can be counterproductive too – just like what happened with me and the romantic movie.

In any case the way I deal with this now is quite simple. It takes me about 20-30 seconds while watching a trailer to understand if this is a movie I am going to watch. If the answer is yes, I shut down the trailer. If I am in a movie hall, I simply stop paying attention and look away from the screen. If I realize after the 20-30 seconds that this is not a movie I am going to watch, I continue watching the trailer. I might as well use all the reveal to my advantage and enjoy an entire movie in 3 minutes while I can!

I am going to keep this article short – just like how our trailers should be.

Book Review: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

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(spoiler free review focusing more on the general flavor of things and my own overall experience, like all my other reviews)

I was excited to start reading ‘Red Seas under Red Skies (book two of ’The Gentlemen Bastards’ series) for two reasons. The first being that it was a sequel to one of my favorite novels of all time, ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’. The second one had to do with the fact that I was having reading blues which I have talked about in my previous post. I was about fifty pages into the book and loving it and was confident I would finally finish a book effortlessly. I did end up finishing it, but it required a lot of effort.

The novel starts off superbly. Locke and Jean are in a gambling tower, where advancing to every floor above requires you to prove your proficiency against opponents in gambling games. The difficulty of the games gets harder as you proceed upwards, for you face more experienced players but so do the rewards of winning; the whole concept being akin to a video game. Their aim? To pretend to advance to the top and gain the trust of the people within the establishment, while what they are looking for is not just winning money through advancing in the gambling games but rob the whole place itself. How interesting! But the initial excitement tends to die out after a while. Multiple sub plots are being introduced and the story begins to advance extremely slowly. The book enters new waters, quite literally. For Locke and Jean somehow find themselves doing a crash course in how to be a pirate (or appropriately how to pretend like one).

There are a few problems I found with the book. For one despite a great start, it starts to become too long winded. You are clueless as to what direction the story is taking. In the first book, we were introduced to our beloved characters and their backgrounds, we knew what the stakes were, who the villains were and what Locke and Jean ended up eventually aiming for, i.e., revenge. It is hard to say what this one is about. It did not even feel like it was setting up the stage for future books. We see a lot of characters being introduced and I think it is unlikely we will see any of them again. I felt unsure who to root for. This book felt more like a standalone story, albeit one that loses pace with time.

There are too many interludes which are essentially reminiscences, all in the beginning of the book. It broke the rhythm of the story for me. Maybe they could have being spread more throughout the book. Perhaps Scott was aware enough that the interludes were getting to be too many, that he appropriately titles the final one as ‘The last reminiscence’. Almost sounding like, hang in there reader I know I am testing your patience but bear with me.

I found a lot of ship and ocean jargon (Locke and Jean are pirates in this one like I mentioned before) being hurled at me constantly, not something I liked. It would require me to use a dictionary to understand in depth what was being referred to (ex: parts of a ship, ways of managing it etc.). I mostly skimmed those parts, but there are too many of those. It generally surprises me when authors take a very specific topic (in this case ships and navigation) and use terminologies the reader is unlikely to have encountered before. I for one don’t mind a small word list at the end of the book, along with their meanings to help with this. It may seem odd, but I have seen it done before and it works (ex: in the book ‘Eragon’, if I recall correctly).

The last hundred pages of the book is where things start to get really heated up. This reminded me of the first book which had a great ending and the pace being fantastic towards the end. This is classic Scott Lynch fashion. There is a major twist towards the end, one that will tug at your heart strings. But enough with teasing spoilers.

While this book is not great it is still a decent read. The first one remains my top fiction books of all time. I have also invested time and energy, so I will still definitely pick up the third novel of the series. The plan is that he will write seven novels for the series and I am a sucker for epic fantasy series spanning multiple novels. Generally, with long series we tend to figure out what the overall plot is about. Ex: Hogwarts life and adventures aside, Harry Potter is in the end a fight against a Dark Lord. Even after finishing book two, I don’t see a broader plot (only hints). All that said, this remains a brilliant series with tremendous potential. Last, I checked Scott had done a George RR Martin by making everybody wait a millennium for the fourth novel of the series, which at this point is not out yet. But I still have the third one to read so I am not too worried about that. I hope this one delivers.

 

Overall Book Rating: 3.5/5

Interesting Phase in my Reading Habits

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In the past three or four years my reading habits have changed. For one I have had to read a lot of academic texts because I am in graduate school. After studying for four hours and more on an average every day, there is only so much energy I have left for reading fiction. Consequently, my fiction reading has dropped considerably (and I do not like this one bit). Secondly and this is perhaps more important, I have started second guessing myself – a lot. After having exposed myself to lists like, ’100 must read books before you die’, ’50 best novels of the twentieth century’, I have tried to consciously change the genres I read. Along with the other things impacting my life what has resulted is that I am preoccupied with questions like, ‘What should I be reading as a reader? What is it that will make me a well-rounded reader? Is there a better way to read books? Should I be giving more careful attention to details I tend to skim through? Should I change the pace at which I read? Should I be reading a book from cover to cover?’ These questions have taken the center stage and what has happened is that I have picked up books and not finished them. This is not just a rare occurrence for me, it is a new one. And to add to that I have had too many of these recently.

What these ‘lists’ tend to do for me is make reading like a job. Like a to-do list. But reading for me was also about discovery! The process started as soon as I walked into a bookstore, randomly picked up a book which caught my eye and then finished the book at home (and occasionally marvel at how smart I was that I had the foresight to spot a rare gem). But if somebody has already found these gems and compiled a list of them, that takes away half the fun. This and asking myself too many questions have made the reading experience different for me.

I do not know whether a term exists but for me this phase has been something of a ‘reader’s block’. It has taken a while for me to realize that what I should be doing is just reading. Forget lists. Forget how it is supposed to feel. Forget asking myself too many questions. But simply read for the reason I got into reading, for fun and without agenda. And I am delighted to tell you that I have started doing the same again.

What do you guys think? Have you ever experienced a similar phase? Is it possible you experienced this if not in reading but in something else? Maybe in writing? Maybe at work? I must mention, the openness to change is a positive one, but I think when we force it or try too many changes at the same time (which I was doing), it kills the experience or the natural enjoyment one derives. I think change should be organic. You want to add on to things that already exist, you want to experiment, not replace them entirely.

A Modest Proposition

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How terribly inactive have I been! Blame it on the burnout that comes from being in graduate school and my own laziness. Well that has to change. And yet, the work levels are only increasing for me making it harder to be active here.

This then is a modest proposition. I plan to write at least 20 articles in 2019. But why not aim higher? New Year, new resolution, new me – about that time to make promises. But we hardly ever keep them do we? So, to avoid promises I cannot keep, to avoid unnecessary self-imposed pressures, here is the goal. I will write at least 20 articles in 2019. I also want my blogging to become something that is laid back and relaxing, hence the modest aim.

In fact, I am going to take the pressure of myself further by counting this as one of the articles (man, I am smart)! Nineteen more to go!

Update: Spectacularly failed on fulfilling this. So no more modest or immodest propositions from me 🙂

On USA and India: Part 1

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   I will soon complete five months of living in the US, and I have a few things to share. In a way a lot of us Indians growing up in big cities have already tasted the Western culture vicariously – what through our following of the TV Shows, Hollywood movies, American foods, celebrities, books etc. It should not have been such a big leap living in the US. Well it was for me. Primarily because I have never lived away from home (most people I know have had this experience). I would also soon find that in the US you do your own things. No cook to help you with the food, no maid to clean your house, no one to do your laundry and no one to wash your dishes. No, in US you do everything on your own. An American lady uber driver once told me,” I wish I was in India. They say I would live like a queen there.” The irony of being a developing country was not lost on me.*

img_2715
Me after landing in USA

Oddly the one area I thought I would find it really easy here namely – food is where I am having a rough time adapting. In India if you would ask me what my favorite cuisine is I would jump and say Italian. The pastas, the pizzas…yummy, yummy. That along with American burgers etc. which I was sure to find at every other street and I knew it would be a blast. I thought it would be easy. I thought wrong. Turns out my craving for Indian food is beyond! (When did that happen?). It seems I would soon get bored of sandwiches and pizzas and burgers. I thought it was so cliché when people said they miss mom’s food when they are away. Well it ain’t no cliche, it is the ultimate truth of life.

It is an interesting journey. It is apparent that the people of US are pretty well mannered, social and generally amiable. I found that most Americans are quite emotionally intelligent (and increasingly I think that this is generally enough in life to get by).

Another aspect of USA that is really enjoyable is the weather. The US weather is so kaleidoscopic and vast in its scope and range. And fall, fall is amazing. There are a lot of trees here and lots of trails you can walk in. Between different cities there is a lot of green life so to speak. A refreshing change.

So those are some of my thoughts on USA (so far). Well, what do Americans think about India? The views are all over the place: ‘All Indians smoke hash’ ; ‘ Urdu is the commonly spoken language’ ;  ‘Most Indians are Muslims’ ; ‘ Half the Indians are poor’; ‘India is a mystical place.’ Now while some people have a positive outlook on India some of the opinions are simply factually incorrect (Ex: India is one of the peaceful nations in the Middle-East). Clearly the common perception about India is as diverse as India itself. It seems however there was unanimity about three things:

  1. Yoga is from India and it is amazing.
  2. Indian food is spicy
  3. Indian marriages are arranged.

The first one I am proud of. The second one is a given. The third one…well. It was thrown at me by another uber driver**. The question was how can you marry someone you don’t know? I jumped to give my opinions on that matter. I said, now hold on, it’s not like that. But wait! Why was I defending a concept I did not believe in myself? It seems I found myself on the back foot often, defending notions about India. Indeed however, how much about India do I know myself? My knowledge comes from living in a big city and it is not very reflective of the humongous piece of land that is India. Often I showoff what a unique nation India is, each state having its own language and culture. The listeners are shocked. They say that is like different countries. Indeed that is why when I am asked to summarize India I find it difficult. These are things that make India unique. These are things that make India beautiful.

(to be continued)

*Of course It would hit me much later that perhaps for these reasons i.e., having people who do things for you is what contributes to India still being a ‘developing’ country.

**They are my unexpected source of interesting discussions.

Tech Overkill and the Ensuing Paradox

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   It’s been a while!

   Some one once said a lot of the modern technology kills the romance out of many things. He could not be more right. Stargazers once fished their telescopes to the skies and skimmed constantly to spot rare events like the death of a star. It was a time-consuming process but an enjoyable one. But now this can also been done automatically by computers! Our generation is an interesting one, we have witnessed many technologies from their inception to a point now where they have invaded every sphere of our life.

   It must have been in fifth grade when I got a computer to play games. In my seventh I was introduced to the marvelous world called the internet via a 56Kb* Modem…56Kb! What it mean was that my maximum download speed was a lowly 2Kb/sec. Never mind the long 2 minutes it took to actually get started. Never mind the droning siren like noise the modem made while it was getting connected. Never mind the frequent disconnection issues. Still back then it was all magic. I remember that at night the internet speed would be faster. My brother and I tried to make the most of this. We would leave an anime episode for download at night and then hopefully by morning it would be done. This was an 8Mb episode, mind you. But alas it was not so simple. The internet disconnected frequently. So to get past this we would get up every 2-3 hours at night and go check if the episode was still downloading. And we would be excited when it was done. The size of the video was a mere thumbnail and the quality was not altogether great but you know what? We had a blast! That 8Mb episode is a far more fond memory than even the 1 Gb blu-ray rip of today. Nowadays the video quality is blu-ray/HD and you can download a GB of data in under 5 minutes. Nowadays you can also find almost any movie you ever wanted. But being spoilt for choice is not necessarily a good thing.

   The apple analogy comes to mind. If you had just one apple you would eat it, savor it, relish each bite. But if you are given a basket full of apples and told to finish them suddenly each apple seems far less tasty and it becomes like a chore now. That is the way I feel when I see the choices for Movies/TV Shows/Songs/Clothes/Books and almost everything we have today. That is the way so much of tech is today. Automated, uber fast and far too reaching. Clothes are increasingly being bought online. Whatever happened to the actual shopping experience? Even groceries are now being delivered home…it’s downright crazy! (And ironic that a lazy guy who would not do much of these things anyway has to point it out). Try out and return clothes. Basically don’t step out of the house! I think this one beat everything – The Flying Barber – the barber comes home to cut your hair.

   Travel is set to go to digital through augmented reality in the next decade. That day ain’t far where you wear 3D headgear and you can be teleported to Paris (not literally). That’s right…just remove all the romance. This then is the paradox of the world now. Tech is helping all of us, I am not questioning that. However the technology overkill is actually making many experiences less exciting; this in-spite of the fact that it is providing us with so many many many more experiences than earlier. Abundance of options within seconds is not really making (some of) us feel overjoyed. It is making us indolent, further from reality, confused and less satisfied.

 

*To the uninformed 1 Kb stands for 1 Kilo-Byte. 1 Mb a Megabyte i.e., 1000 KB. One Gb is a Giga-byte i.e., 1000 Mb.

Why Harry Potter has an edge over A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones)

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got21.jpg

I loved the Harry Potter (HP) books and movies. I have just started reading the books in ‘A song of Ice and Fire’ (ASOIAF) series but I have watched every episode of the TV show Game of Thrones and am very familiar with the world created by George RR Martin – in short I am entitled to an opinion. True that the worlds are so different that’s its quite unfair to do so. But such comparisons have crept up. In some ways they were unavoidable because of the cultural phenomenonHarry-Potter-Logo-Wallpaper-HD-3 both have become in the last 15 years. My comparisons are more of a response to people who proclaim ASOIAF is better with funny arguments and I will try and debunk each of them.

1. ASOIAF is a complex world, HP is not.
2. HP Characters are black and white, while ASOIAF are gray.
3. HP is too comfy and feel good…and never gets gory like ASOIAF.
4. HP is predictive. But with ASOIAF You don’t know what to expect next.
5. The HP books are just a great escape. That’s why everyone likes them.

1. ASOIAF is a complex world, HP is not.

The first is true but HP world is fantastically complex. Where else before did we see so much magic in a world. Where newspapers spring to life; where a sorting hat decides where students go; where wizards have their own sport! Hogwarts was the creation of a genius. There is magic…so much magic. The story has so many arcs to it: friendship, coming of age, struggle, fighting against the dark forces, mysteries, riddles, ghosts…there really is SO MUCH and yet nothing feels out of place. There are stories like ASOIAF and the Stormlight Archive that seem because of the narration as more complex than HP – perhaps they are – but I attribute that to the number of elements involved. HP is not just complex, it’s bloody complex.

2. HP Characters are black and white, while ASOIAF are gray.

One common complaint is that the characters are not very gray. ASOIAF has made characters gray. HP starts when eleven year old Harry and his friends enter Hogwarts. Just how gray do you expect eleven year olds to be? They ended up breaking half the rules themselves (in spite of Hermione) and they each have conflicted emotions as the series progresses. Ex : Hermione stuns somebody so Ron could enter the Quidditch team. There is friction between their friendships at times. Everything is not hunky-dory.
What did you want them to do – go cut somebody with a knife over dinner in the great hall? Would that make it realistic? I don’t think so.
While we are still talking about the kids, Draco Malfoy is the classic gray character among the school mates. He is always bad-ass and yet when those moments came when he could have made himself a monster (before Dumbledore’s death for example), he quivered. He had some sanity deep down.
What about Snape?  And Dumbledore himself turned out to be a quirky character no?
It’s a classic good versus bad tale. That’s just the way it is. That doesn’t make the characters black and white. There is a difference. All characters have their own degrees of flaws. Just don’t assume that the definition of gray means to slit somebody’s throat every now and then.

3. HP is too soft and never gets gory like ASOIAF.

Yes it is feel good but don’t you want to feel good ? The feel good is very genuine and not forced by people trying to look cute. You like them because of the friendships, the adventures , magic, puzzles and Hogwarts! HP is primarily targeted toward a younger audience (observe here that it was equally well received by parents and grand parents alike). That is the genre it is in. ASOIAF sticks to what it is and never tries to mellow things down which is good for the spirit of the series and perhaps you like this feature. It is a good basis for liking one series but not for belittling the other. It is like going to a vegetarian restaurant and expecting a good chicken meal!

4. HP is predictive. But in ASOIAF you don’t know what to expect next.

Yep we don’t know when the next book in the ASOIAF is coming out do we 😉 On a serious note, what rubbish. It had become an obsession to predict how HP would end in the final book. Hundreds of critics gave their opinions and predictions using hints and their own intuition. But how many could predict Snape’s true story ? Or Dumbledore’s past ?
Or frankly who even expected Dumbledore to die in book 6? Or Sirius in book 5 ? Or that Ron’s rat was actually wormtail ? Or Crouch’s secret ? To call it predictable is insulting how intelligent the books actually are.

5. The HP books are just a great escape, that’s why everyone likes them.

Firstly I dislike the word escape for any fantasy, ASOIAF or HP. Both are fantasy works. They are meant to take you to different worlds. But why are there no other better escapes in other works? If the story was shallow, a smart reader would not feel they were escapes…he would feel foolish. If it is a great escape, it is a bloody good one.

So what does work for the HP series? Here is what I think:

1. JK is a better storyteller than Martin.

There is consistency in the HP series. Last I heard A Dance with the Dragons was heavily criticized for not moving the plot too forward. Martin’s style is to be descriptive but sometimes he tends to be over romantic about either the sex or the killing at the cost of the story.
There was no such catastrophic mistakes in HP books…ever. Even if it got a bit slow (book 6) there was still so much happening and so many loose ends being tied and it was more racy than ASOIAF. Seriously so much build about Winter and it hasn’t even come.

Update: It seems winter has finally come 🙂

2. Harry Potter blew everyone’s mind.

The world was something new, something fresh and so exciting and magical (agreed that while the concept of dark lords and wizards itself was not, the creation of an entire parallel universe and the incorporation of all these  concepts definitely was). One which you could touch and feel and almost live in.

3. It is feel good.

I remember being in a poor state of mind when I read Order of the Phoenix and it was so comforting and a great relief not because there is cute happiness all around but because the story was always moving forward, puzzles were exciting, the interaction between the characters was fun – these kept me gripped. I am not sure ASOIAF would have the same effect with its dragging and often morbid theme.

4. Harry Potter brought the magic back to books.

It quite simply changed the entire book world on it’s head. Hundreds of Thousands of copies booked even before the release date (mine included ). People from other languages learning English just to be able to read those books. It was not just a great book series that was widely acclaimed , it was an unprecedented phenomenon. It was not a small series, mind. It was not just a couple of books that did well. Each one of them did. Even after the hype.

5. Book for all Ages.

It is sad to classify it as a children’s book and that is what I feel when see Eragon, HP in the bookshelves of children. Fantasy is a better word. It appealed more in fact to the people in 20s and 30s not to mention the 40s and 50s…and yeah basically everyone! This is rare for any series. Any world with magic etc. can be shunned by a more adult audience but HP was loved. It was endearing but it was also very intriguing, adventurous and exciting!

6. Characters are Personal and their relationships are dynamic.

Any good story is about characters. I think every one of them, the students, the professors, the death eaters was so developed and all their lives well knitted together.

7. HP has so much of everything.

There is adventure, there is thrill, there is elements of intrigue expected of a fantasy, there is love, there is poetry, there is comedy and it also has it’s share of whodunnits. And each of these is spectacularly implemented.

Ending note

I hope my tone in this article is not mistaken. HP is not flawless and I really like ASOIAF. It is another step in being a more rounded reader. The world is pretty original and killing was actually quite common in the worlds similar to the ones in which it is set in (medieval times for example).
What I don’t like is the perversion that come with these books. Gore and deaths are one thing. They add a necessary dimension which makes them believable but the perversion in the books at times makes me want to quit them. If Tyrion dies, I pull the plug on this series.

 

A Wave of Life

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We have come across this unique entity in some form or another, sometimes on a daily basis. It is the enigmatic ‘sine wave’. I call it enigmatic because I think it encompasses in it a lot of secrets and has well…philosophical implications:

Sine Wave - Green Reflection Removed

Does the above ring a bell? Remember the heart beat or pulse monitoring machine? This is the kind of thing they display (roughly speaking).

Some background info (skip if you have a decent understanding of waves):

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(Background)

A wave is an entity that carries information or a signal. Sound waves are one such example. So are light or radio waves.
The essence of a sine wave is this: It has crests and troughs or you could call them simply as ups and downs; or to and fro motion about an axis. Mathematically ANY Wave function can be represented as a sum of some sine waves.

Let us see how we arrive at the ups and downs. Take the heart for instance. For simplicity let us think of the heart as being a sphere with a certain radius. It pumps blood so it is constantly expanding as well as compressing itself…there are cycles. There is a normal state of the heart (in which it is just its proper size, neither expanding nor contracting) around which the cycles happen. Let us say I am able to catch the heart (not literally) at its normal state, just before it is about to expand. I call this as my start time or time t=0. I will now measure the radius of the heart at this instant. I will also measure the radius of the heart an instant later (making a note of the instance) and as expected the radius will be larger (since the heart is expanding). An instant later the heart will be bigger and hence my radius will be too…and this goes on until the heart reaches the peak of the wave (or up). Next it begins to compress so the radius falls until its normal position after which it continues to fall because the heart is now shrinking even more than its normal until it reaches a minimum where the heart and the radius are at the smallest and this marks the lowest peak (or down). After this point the heart begins to grow again and so on. If you were to plot a graph with the radius of the heart on one axis v/s time on the other axis you would get a sine wave!

Note: This is not to say that this is what hospital machines display. No one is interested in the radius. It displays the electrical activity but the concept is similar. I have taken a few liberties like assuming the heart is a sphere but yeah I am just trying to get the concept across.

(End of background)
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Back to the topic now:

Ups and downs, downs and ups. Cycles. Hmm. If in a similar way I were to plot the intensity of light at different points of the day. Then I would get say sometime where the sun’s light is the brightest (i.e., the up…mostly some time during mid day) and sometime at night when the light is absent or it is the darkest (i.e., the down…around midnight) and the other values would be in between. So if I plot this data I might roughly arrive at…the sine wave!
It is all around us really. The day and night cycle. The breath. The heartbeat. The pulse. The tides of the sea. The light waves. The sound waves. The cyclical nature of things is universal!

They are all the variation of some sort of sine wave or simply a wave.
And perhaps this phenomenon is internalized within us in multitude ways. Perhaps this logic could be extrapolated to ourselves? Our states of mind perhaps? The highs and lows. Happiness perhaps? Highs and lows. So luckily it means that if we are down for a while it wont be long before a up wave hits us and life becomes good! So keep going! (of course we should be vary of the other way around…and not be carried away completely when we have our highs!) . In another sense it is a law of averages. Everything evens out. As an optimist I would hope for highs everyday but the fact also is – it has not happened (yet). But of course I will keep trying!

I am likely going overboard with this. But while we are at it let me make a daring speculation: do we experience the highs simply because we had the lows before and we will have the high after? And are we experiencing a low simply because what follows will be a high…and for it to be a high this has to be a low?

I know…taking too many liberties but something to think about. If everyday was the same would there be highs and lows?

Which reminds me of what Ted said to Barney in How I Met Your Mother, “If every day is legendary, no day is legendary!”