Brown Motion

 Oh what does a covidised homebody to do?  Esp mua that does not partake in the omnipresent social activity of FB or IG or its ilk. Read or research or watch the telly of course.   In doing the aforementioned research on random things in the whole wide world using what else but the www I stumbled on a documentary produced by the BBC.   That docu series happened to be scratching me where it itches.  A passion of mine - perhaps inculcated in me by my late father who was a train buff and loved timetables - train travel. Thanks to a silicon valley invention called Youtube I can now board a whole bunch of train journeys without leaving my bed. They are broadcast under the larger brand titled ' Great Railway Journeys'  but are localized versions based on which part of the world the protagonist on the show is traveling. I have so far watched a few called -  BBC's Great Canadian Railway Journey Great British Railway Journeys  Great Continen...

It has been one fantastic Swedish movie after another.  In this case the title is actually the opening scene of the film. It describes a 100 year old man called Allan in an old person home who decides to abscond from his own birthday party.  What happens after he manages to exit from the window of his nursing home is the subject of this weird tale. His encounters take him literally and figuratively on a voyage beyond imagination in which he meets and dines and dances with luminaries and dignitaries and blows up things along the way. One explosion leads to another and interspersed in it are a whole bunch of people screaming.  It is hilarious in its narrative and the outrageous scenes that unfold somehow keeps the viewer glued to accept it all as if it is entirely possible. Written and directed by Swedes it is the second gem of a film since I saw the one titled 'A man called Ove'. As with Ove this film too is being planned for a Hollywood version release starri...

In Austin Texas.  I hung out in the lone star state for few days this month for a conference on the subject matter that pays my bills.  But there was lot of action outside the programmed event.  Clearly it was more fun. My last trip to the deep south had been over 15 years back.  Austin was on a road trip from Galveston to Dallas - sort of a detour if you will.  It is the state capital.  It has a few things to see and do.  Other than visiting the state capitol building, which is an impressive architectural feat I did not remember much.  I decided to fix it. With all the fixings.  First came tacos.  On a food truck.  Corn made into dough called Masa, rolled and lightly cooked on a griddle or pan yields tortillas which topped with grilled and marinated meat (pig, cow, fish depending on how you lean) from the animal (depending on your mindset you can go exotic and get intestine or brain or head or hoof or tongue or stick to ...

You arrive at Ngurah Rai International Airport if you fly from outside the country.  The airport is named for an Indonesian freedom fighter who fought the Dutch that ruled this archipelago for 300 plus years. The airport is in Denpasar also the capital city of this island.  Located 8 degrees south of the equator the climate tends to be tropical year round and when we visited this summer it was largely hot and humid during the core hours of the day with heavy downpours at night.  Unusual this time of year since July is a dry month.  That said it is a very green island shaped life a fish swimming left to right with a hammer at the bottom representing the resort towns and beaches where we stayed. The island residents are Hindu although the Balinese flavor of Hindu are much different than the ones that claim to be so elsewhere in the world including India.  For one they are devout and seem to have a temple for every three blocks.  In fact for a population ...

What the dickens?  As I troll the internet to plan my upcoming adventure in the Indian sub-continent I am flummoxed by the reality of trying to book travel arrangements in stark contrast to the advertised ease of doing business enabled by the so called IT revolution (that has apparently revolved the country in to a new orbit). I suspect the revolution went full circle (or 360 deg to the trigo minded) and not much changed except now my local telecom company found a call center in Ghaziabad with weirdos that accent their original name of Santosh to Steven and cannot answer any question in a meaningful manner. Take the case of booking airline tickets for domestic travel.  After entrusting personal data to the gods behind the screen I was about to make the payment when I found that my US issued Visa was not acceptable to the vendor.  No explanation online - just a strange message indicating that transaction is unable to be processed (after momentarily showing a scree...

This year around Christ's birthday we decided to visit the opposite coast.   Being California residents it is a hard sell but we wanted to enjoy it with our daughter who had never been to the Sunshine state. So we spent a week doing the usual - cover as much terrain on land or water - and soak it in along with the abundant sun.  So we began a loop around the state by starting out at the eastern shore in Fort Lauderdale just north of Miami.   It is not as busy as Miami in terms of the population or the variety of food or sand under your feet.   But offers some beachfront cruising opportunities to gawk at spendy (an informal term I use to describe items that are priced purely based on intangible worth which is mostly anything that is not-functional) items and people. Sampled some very interesting chewy biscotti and a sort of French sounding pastry that was quite alright.  Food in any shape and form to me is not spendy - it is just nutrition in a...

I am back. In one piece. Tired and jet lagged. Yet after having added a couple more countries to my roster of places I have been to. Singapore was the first stop. I am not sure how I would describe this place. It is a city, country, megapolis, metropolis, cosmopolitan melting pot (talk about the humidity and heat) all in one. It is mostly clean - I mean you can drop your egg on the boardwalk and can proceed to eat it type of clean - although I assume you would pay a hefty fine to drop said egg on boardwalk in the first place. Not that I experimented but I did fall asleep on one whilst waiting for a technological marvel in the form of a laser light show on water, outside an expensive hotel. The trip was part of a quickie two country visit that also incuded the adjacent nation of Malaysia. Hectic in many aspects 10 days is barely the vacation time we could squeeze but it was very enjoyable and I highly recommend a visit for the unvisited. What strikes one from a background ...