Idle musings

    On Friday, 22-Mar-2019, my wife, her parents, her paternal uncle and aunt and I set off to Chikamagalur for an extended weekend break. This blog post captures my experience during the break. As usual, I have avoided names of people. Pictures of people are NOT available in this blog post. Please contact me if you want to see group photos.   I plan to upload several pictures . So hopefully, in terms of words, this blog post should be a lot "lighter" than some of my usual long blog posts !   We set off on 21-Mar driven in an Innova. In the journey to Chikmagalur and other journeys in and around the town, one feature was the humorous conversation between my wife's father and his brother. The jokes and funny remarks followed each other. My wife was not to be left behind ! All our journeys were finished in an extremely pleasant manner, with all of us joining in the spirit of fun ! Picture 1: Traffic was lesser than what I had expected on the Friday mor...

A couple of months ago, I finished listening (and reading !) to "Les Misérables", a classic novel written by Victor Hugo, in my commute to and from work in the bus. I ended it with a slight sense of regret that I had missed reading him all these years ! The story is magnificent ! Earlier, I had listened and read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". That novel was my introduction to Victor Hugo. I like it almost as well as "Les Misérables". This blog post shows my view of these classics. ** NOTE: I have written details of the stories below. If you would like to read the books for yourself, please DON'T read any more of this blog post. ** THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame provides details of the plot and context of the novel. I like the way that the characters like Quasimodo and Esmeralda are described in the novel. Quasimodo is not only a hunchback, but is also partially blind and deaf. Esmer...

It was in 2004 that I purchased the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig. I am a quality assurance professional since 1996 and continue to be extremely interested in my job ! I got to know that Pirsig's book was about quality. Naturally, it made me pick the book up. When I read the book for the first time, I must confess that I quickly skimmed through some of what I thought were the "boring parts" in the book. Since then, I have read the book again a few times. The book has grown on me, particularly the boring parts ! My latest reading started on or around Independence Day in India, i.e. 15-Aug. In the book, Robert Pirsig has described two journeys: one is a physical one, with his son and friends on motorcycles and on feet, hiking in the mountains. The other is a mental one where he explores different attitudes of people and discusses abstract concepts. In my first reading, the physical trip narrated in the book attracted me m...

My wife and I visited U.K. from 07-May-2018 to 20-May-2018. I have begun this blog post on 28-May-2018, exactly a week after we returned. Just yesterday, my wife remarked: "The U.K. trip was like a dream come true !" We had planned a trip to Kolkata last year, but that did not happen. As the departure day neared, we hoped and prayed that this trip would be successful. Thankfully, it did turn out well, leading to my wife's comment. We saw some "must visits" during our trip, particularly in London. The surprise was in the rest of the tour, which threw up unexpected sights and experiences. One example is the wonderful flowers that we saw in front of the "Experience Barnsley" museum and the Barnsley police station. The flowers in front of Barnsley's Police Station and museum were a sight to behold ! When we arrived in Barnsley, we were a little weary. The sight of these flowers refreshed us immensely ! The rest of this blog post discusses abo...