The army of sauces – keeps life interesting for these kids.

Sunday evening I make Tacos with Baked Beans. The hard shells costed 150Rs.

On chess.com I try to figure this 4 player chess game. Couldn’t. Over the weekend was playing blitz games. Trick is not to watch your points – and be ok to lose. Then it is lot of fun. I was not looking at the time and was losing because of time outs – even though I had captured the opponents queen. Next week will try to increase my speed. 

Sunday morning I go running around the layout. Planning to run 30 minutes daily around the layout. 

“ It is the most extraordinary, alluring and thought-provoking of all the ways in which quantum mechanics has been interpreted. In its most familiar guise, the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) suggests that we live in a near-infinity of universes, all superimposed in the same physical space but mutually isolated and evolving independently. In many of these universes there exist replicas of you and me, all but indistinguishable yet leading other lives.” – Quantum Magazine

Back in August 2018, one high school girl in Sweden, Greta Thunberg, stopped going to school on Fridays, and instead sat in front of the Swedish parliament with a placard which said “Skolstrejk för klimatet” – School Strike for climate.

In 2019 – she travels to US, on a boat – because Flights are the environmentally most inefficient of all transports, and travels around the country – in a Tesla – lent by Arnold Schwarzenegger nevertheless – speaking in Colleges and climate forums and irritating Donald Trump – the joke that turned out to be  true – President of USA.

You are planning at work, at your desk – a nice foreign trip for a week for this summer vacation – your kids and yourself are bored of going to Malls and the Beaches and Hill Station. 

During lunch break your colleague is talking about the new SUV he has purchased which has lot of gizmos and you are now hating the mini SUV you purchased just couple of years back. It does not have lot of the new features – and thinking – I can still dump it while it has a good resale value and purchase this new SUV.

You come home, but the food your cook made does not excite you – it’s this same old stuff. You tell the family, oh lets put in the fridge ( which will be thrown out tomorrow ), lets go to the new restaurant that is opened in our layout. 

That other universe – is still going on right now – wrecking the planet with mindless consumption and the human satisfying his personal desires mindless of the suffering the earth and the environment have to endure.

You should be happy you are in Greta Thunberg’s universe. It is good for the planet and thereby you, its inhabitant and other co-inhabitants – the plants and animals, all can live a better life.

You are now working from home – if you are the privileged .5%. Thanks to you the roads are now empty and those who have to travel to work for their living can travel quicker and with less pollution and stress.

You now have to find ways of entertaining your bored family – plan something for the weekend in the confines of your home. Have food at the dining table 3 times a day and talk of previous vacations, or the next vacation after lockdown – and not knowing – this is the best vacation ever. 

The mini SUV you had purchased a few years back – is gathering dust – just like your friends new SUV – tank full but no where to go. 

You start cooking and relish all the meals made at home. The initial days of lockdown where you badly wanted to eat some dish from your favorite restaurant – that urge is not there anymore. Now you see that the same restaurant is open, but you are not interested in ordering food anymore. 

We are all in Gretna Thunberg’s universe.

We should all be happy! 

I was still battling server issues. The load on the server was not just going down. Even starting 20 EC2 instances did not help. It was making it worse – and slowing the site and app further.

Monday morning I started with Angamardhana + SMM on the terrace. While doing the yoga+kriya I get an insight – I am not kidding – perhaps the memcache is failing on heavy load.

After standup I test my theory and it turned out to be true. When Memcache fails, all calls start hitting the database – and hence the load. Increasing more EC2 instances, was making more memcache failures, and more database load.

By noon the issue is resolved. App and site are back to their super fast mode. I am jumping with joy here – and no one to tell. I go to tell San, but she is in the middle of a long meeting with the Sales heads – they are strategising the Life time ERP free the competitor is touting. 

ADDA’s P&C Team ( People & Culture – we do not call ours as Human Resources ) – arranges for Mangoes. 

 And today Liquor shops open all over Karnataka. Lot of videos circulate of people standing in long lines. Someone had taken the Bahubali snippet where the statue falls down ( India Economy ) – and how a drunkard ( Bahubali ) comes and resurrects it.

San and I step out post lunch time to see how our area is doing. There are 2 liquor shops and still long lines were there! The grocery shops however were empty and the neighbourhood chaat shop was having Pani poori packets. They didn’t have the masala though.  We pick up 3 packets.

The editorial on New Indian express shines light on the uncomfortable truth of the Migrant Labourers. I felt guilty being the beneficiaries of their work.

I write a short story – And all fell down – Achu Charu are not happy with it. I post it in my college group – they are not happy with it. It does trigger a debate on capitalism. We discussed various models – like an ideal one which is a cross between a Wikipedia and an Amazon. 

Evening we have Pani poori. 

Morning I do the weekly weight check. It is mixed this time. Mine has gone down by half a kg to 71. Last week I did not touch any chocolates or sugary mock tails these kids make now and then. It helped I think. 

First half I work. 

Post lunch catch 8 miles – Biography of Eminem. Lose yourself is one of the pump songs I listen when I feel down. Loved it.

Later we see – Intern – Robert De Niro and Anne Hathway. Beautiful movie. When I grow old I want to be like Robert De Niro!

[ Image credit : https://www.instagram.com/davidyarrow/p/BiXY1KlHH2c/?hl=en ]

10 million died from coronovirus – a new strain of common cold which spread across the globe.

In the beginning many were in denial. It will only affect the elderly. The Western capitalistic economies thought – this is awesome. > 60 year olds are a burden to healthcare and social security budget. Let the virus take them out of the system – economy which is tanking at 2% growth can grow up by a few decimals.

The virus killed the elderly who were deposited in old age homes. It looked like a success. The western countries allowed the virus to spread. They relaxed the lockdown because the economy was tanking.

In populous 3rd world countries in Asia and Africa – the multiple chain lockdowns couldn’t stop the virus. People living on a day to day earnings all died of hunger and Mal nutrition. The Governments supplied food – once a day meal – to the poor. But the Govt ran out of money and commodities.  

Then the virus mutated. It started targeting children and young adults.

Towards the end of 2020 – the most vulnerable were not the > 60s, but the < 20s. 

Schools and colleges shut down permanently. 

Old age homes were mostly empty – across the world. 

By mid 2021 – < 20 and > 60 were mostly gone. A few survivors in this age were still left. Those who had not yet come in contact with the world or they had really strong immunity or had very special anti bodies which could resist the virus.

Unfortunately the scientists who could have taken advantage of these antibodies to create a vaccine – they were all dead. Most of the hospitals have closed. Permanently.

The virus again mutated, having decimated children, the young adults and the elderly population.

There was mass depression. Mass suicides were the norm. 

Concerts across the world started happening – the very last concert. There were booths were one can go to get infected with Covid and die. 

The worlds human population has dwindled. Just over a billion. 

All human activity has come to a standstill. Animals were multiplying everywhere in hordes  – just like how humans had multiplied everywhere.

Snake bites, leopard attacks, stray dogs – turned into wolves – roaming around and attacking humans – became the norm. Animals out of hunger broke out of the zoos – and started multiplying. 

Urban Concrete Jungles became the home for the animals – all big and small.

The few human survivors tried to create barricades around their cities. But it was of no avail. The animals like Leopards, Panthers could easily circumvent all the defenses .

Elephants and Rhinos could just push them aside.

Human population has dwindled even further. Just over a million now.

Where one could look only animals were there. All human activity has ceased completely. 

The virus has stopped its work, but now the poor humans with no special skills like other animals wait their turn to die. Either dying of hunger, or water borne disease or being mauled by a small predator. 

By end of 2023 – the species called Homo sapiens became extinct. 

Monday April 27

Sufi resting the whole world on her nose.

Sufi loves to sleep under tables

Charu gives finishing touches for this cauliflower Chinese dish

Kidference in progress

Saturday evening we have Pani poori

Prithvi and I go for a walk on the terrace. Here is our balcony from the other side. Its a tropical forest.

Middle of the week – San gets to know of two of our employees helping out people near their locality. She sends 5000 Rs to each of them to help them out.

Rs.1000 will help a family of 5 people for a week. Here is the update we got from one of the employees. 

I took Prithvi for the once a week supply shopping. He was stepping out after 2 whole months. He picked 4 bottles of Bitter Lemon Schweppes.  I did not see the price – apparently it was a wholly imported beverage – and each one was Rs.125. Felt guilty that here we are splurging on imported stuff, and families around the country are going hungry.

We decided not to buy any more of these stuff. And step up sending money to people who are helping others. 

Here are some funny forwards we got this week

Continue reading Week 8 – Coronovirus →