Centennial Park in Ellicott City, Maryland is a nature lover’s dream. It’s a 337-acre park surrounding Centennial Lake. You can go around the lake on a 2.5 mile paved loop to explore the park – home to a variety of wildlife. On the walkway, you will also find an arboretum planted by Howard County.
It’s one of my favorite spots to unwind.
(Feb 2023)
This beautiful winter view of the Presidential Range overlooking Cherry Pond can be found on a 5.0-mile out-and-back trail in New Hampshire.
The Presidential Range is a mountain range located in the White Mountains of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Containing the highest peaks of the Whites, its most notable summits are named for American presidents, followed by prominent public figures of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Presidential Range is notorious for having some of the worst weather on Earth, mainly because of the unpredictability of high wind speeds and whiteout conditions on the higher summits.
[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Range
[2] www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/new-hampshire/meadows-…
[3] www.nhfamilyhikes.com/hikes.php?hike=Cherry%20Ponds&f…
In today’s day and age, we are often found grappling with information overload. How often have you thought “My brain needs to shut down for a while. I can’t take this anymore.”? People who are into creative work often feel stressed by the lack of ideas, the “block”.
A writer sits down to compile a report and feels bogged down by the research needed to put together a reasonable-length article. An artist stares at a blank canvas waiting for a creative spark. For me, I get swamped by the open-access research papers released every day. People are working rapidly and creating ideas but at the current rate it feels impossible for an individual to sift through all of it, internalize it and be able to recall it when needed in the future. In my area of research, it would be fair to say an arXiv.cs.CV paper from May 2019 would be considered stale knowledge today. For those who might not know what arXiv is, it is an open-access archive in physics, mathematics, computer science and other fields. It is a system of distribution which promotes rapid dissemination of ideas compared to the traditional journal peer-review system. To give you some numbers, there are 63 new entries in cs.CV today which is a sub-sub-category.
For someone without any strategies, he/she has to sift through 63 titles today and decide which might be relevant to his/her interests – maybe 5? Then read and understand 5 of them, but distill the most useful ideas – maybe 1 paper? But doing that every day for 5 years of your PhD? That’s a strategy bound to fail. Fortunately, people have been actively thinking about these problems and some solutions which provide you with basic strategies exist.
Now what about your own approach. Every day I try to navigate in this potpourri of information, I try to think of better strategies to control the information flow and calm your brain down. Last week, I listened to the The Building a Second Brain Podcast from hosts Tiago Forte and David Perell which talks about 10 strategies to save your ideas, organize your learning, and dramatically expand your creative output with digital note-taking. Because I connected with the ideas in this podcast, I thought of adding a bit of my own experiences into the mix and write about it. In each article I will try to summarize one strategy. I hope some of these come in handy in your work spheres.
We are taught in school – every assignment, homework and answer must be original. Copying from others is not permitted. But borrowing is notably different from plagiarism. Creativity doesn’t come out of nothing. Before starting creative work, it is beneficial to spend a lot of time gathering and noting down your ideas and the ideas of others. The creative flow comes easily when you are surrounded by all these ideas and you start organizing, collecting and distilling them into your own words.
“Our creativity comes from without, not from within. We are not self-made. We are dependent on one another, and admitting this to ourselves isn’t an embrace of mediocrity and derivativeness. It’s a liberation from our misconceptions, and it’s an incentive to not expect so much from ourselves and to simply begin.” says Kirby Ferguson in his TED Talk.
Examples of borrowed creativity exist in all forms of art.
Ferguson talks about Bob Dylan borrowing his melodies and lines from folk songs.
As the Nobel Prize winning poet T. S. Eliot wrote in one of this essays “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”
But you might be wondering – won’t I be called out for stealing? The lesson here is that to be a thief you can’t ignore the part “make it into something better, or at least something different.” or as once someone said “the height of originality is skill in concealing origins”.
Allow me draw an example from film here.
The Odessa Steps sequence is one of the easily recognizable sequences in film. It’s first on-screen portrayal was by Sergei Eisenstein in the 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin which portrays an incident from the First Russian Revolution. A hair-raising part of that sequence involves a baby in a stroller falling down the steps.
And this is a stairway scene from the 1987 crime drama The Untouchables directed by Brian de Palma (director of Scarface starring Al Pacino, Mission: Impossible among others.)
Do you think this is stealing? Or borrowed creativity? Both are revered pieces of filmmaking. Let me know in your comments.
In this world of copyrights and patents, there also exists a feeling of protecting what we think is ours. Steve Jobs famously said in 1996: “Picasso had a saying — ‘good artists copy; great artists steal’ — and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” Fast forward a few years to 2010 when Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
In the modern world where protecting one’s ideas is backed by law – not what the core guiding principle of the law was (US Patent Act of 1970 calls itself – “An Act to promote the progress of useful Arts”) – it might seem a measure to stymie creativity. We must not stop borrowing but get better at doing something different with what inspires us.
References:
Since I have moved to the US and gradually matured, the conversations between me and my parents have evolved in their own way. Often times, my mother would ask me, “When are you finishing up and coming back home?” I would never have an answer to please her. And when I would ask her “Why don’t you come and stay here for a while?”. Her usual response would be, “What will we do there alone at home all day? We don’t have any engagement.”
A few days ago I rode with a jolly old man who welcomed me into his car. The app on his phone displayed Chinese characters and the navigation lady was fluently speaking – possibly in Mandarin. I started talking to him and he struggled to comprehend and respond in English. It was clear that he’s not fluent in English. But I persisted and listened to him intently. Having emigrated from China 4 years ago, he said he has been driving around people in his cab for 1 year now. “Do you work at Google?” he asked me. I was confused. Then he proceeded to show me that my destination was close to the Google campus in Mountain View. I replied that I don’t.
On asking, he told me that he’s from a place close to Beijing in China and he moved here to San Jose with his wife close to his daughter. It was quite intriguing to see such an elderly immigrant, having stayed in this country for such a short period of time, making his own living driving around people in a new country.
He would have guessed by now that I hail from India and when I told him that he remarked with glowing eyes, “I love Indian music and movies.”. Shortly after, we reached our destination and I got off. I was left thinking – this person has found his own engagement in a new place among new people. What do you think your engagement is? Your work? It’s very likely that you’ll end up working somewhere else in a few years doing something different – something which your employer asks you to. That’s quite difficult to own up as one’s engagement. Your vacations? How soon after you get back from a vacation that you feel like going away on another? Is there something you gravitate towards when you wake up late on a Sunday and have the whole day to yourself? Something that engages your mind so much that hours feel like minutes and you end up feeling fulfilled at the end of the day?
Something which you plan to do when you are alone at home all day?
We haven’t said much about our cab rides in a while. Well, as I said in my previous post, getting into a meaningful conversation needs that spark, that openness from both ends and sometimes everything doesn’t come into place together.
Guess what! After quite some time searching for that spark, today I found it. We were beginning to wonder whether we will have any more stories to share with you. But no, life always presents opportunities if you keep your eyes open.
I had a mid-term examination today and I was running late. Expecting a short and uneventful ride I requested an Uber. I think for the first time ever in the US, the driver cancelled my ride and Uber asked me to request again. My next request was assigned to Forest – like in Forest Whitaker, not Forrest Gump!
Forest came in a beautiful light blue sedan and as I was walking to the car from my doorstep, I saw him moving around the car and opening all the exits one after the other. As I moved closer, I could see him – a man in his seventies, white hair and moustache with a pair of glasses on. He immediately greeted me and I could feel the positive energy, enthusiasm and goodwill in him – just from that short exchange. He said he had a tall passenger for his previous ride and so he had to re-adjust all his seats.
As he reversed the car to start the trip, we had a short exchange about the correct way to pronounce my name. He asked me at least a few times and was very eager to get it right. I liked how effortless and soothing his words were and I could already sense something interesting coming up in the next few minutes.
He asked me about my academics and how things are going. He correctly guessed my major which I think is not too difficult to predict considering the current demographic of the United States. He went on to talk about his son-in-law who graduated from Johns Hopkins with a masters degree in computer systems and now has a satisfying job at NASA. He was curious to know about my plans after graduating – whether I would want to return to my country or stay here.
One other thing that happened in the meanwhile was that he also guessed that I’m from India. Forest then asked me “Which part of India?”. I replied “East. From Bengal”.
He said “I love Indian culture and Indian food. I would like to visit India someday. I haven’t met a single American who doesn’t like Indian food.” All this while, I was thinking about our dinner at Chutney (http://chutneymd.com/) last weekend. I remember Oindrila remarking about the presence of people from different countries of origin at all the tables. We were possibly the only Indians there. And if you haven’t yet tried Chutney out, please do. Being an Indian myself, some of my friends ask me about the authenticity of Indian food in US restaurants and I would say I highly recommend Chutney if you want authentic Indian.
What Forest said next has kept me thinking since morning and was the single most important push for writing something after a long time. He said “I think that is why the Anglo-Saxons colonized your country. They fell in love with your food.” We shared a round of laughter. My trip ended soon after and we parted ways after a warm and firm handshake.
I wondered how true his statement might be and I did some digging myself. It seems that “Britain did indeed get the hots for Indian curry”.
The lucrative spice trade prompted various European powers to establish their presence in India, either through trading companies or colonisation.
A 19th Century account records the British in India eating curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Curry became so popular, an 1852 cookbook
However, the bloody revolt of 1857 changed the British attitude towards India. Englishmen were banned from wearing Indian clothes; recently educated public officials disparaged old company men who had gone native. Curry too ‘lost caste’ and became less popular in fashionable tables but was still served in army mess halls, clubs and in the homes of common civilians, mainly during lunch. “At the beginning of the 20th Century,
After 1971, there was an influx of Bangladeshis following the war in their homeland, particularly to London’s rundown East End. Many entered the catering trade, and today they dominate the curry industry.
The UK now celebrates National Curry Week every October. Although curry is an Indian dish modified for British tastes, it’s so popular that it contributes more than £5bn to the British economy. Hence it was hardly surprising when in 2001, Britain’s foreign secretary Robin Cook referred to Chicken Tikka Masala as a “true British national dish”.
Today there are more Indian restaurants in Greater London than in Delhi and Mumbai combined (Fact check required).
Though I have chosen to leave my country to get a good education, I still see how my culture fills gaps in the lives of people all around the world and it makes me answer with ever more fervour the next time someone asks me “Are you from India?”.
Sources
Dreams and desires – aren’t they fascinating beings? Don’t they form the grand scheme of things in our survival? What are our lives if not just a search for the direction to guide us towards them?
Someone once told me, “Original ideas are pretty hard to come by.”
Well, there are times when I ponder and daydream about ideas.
I see people, people whom I care about, toiling hard every day on their own paths – some grand, some modest – but driven by dreams nonetheless.
I have always thought about the reasons why a person beginsto admire somebody else. When does he start feeling an attachment to another human being? My guess – it all starts with a conversation. Speak to someone for hours and it leaves you feeling enervated but then you meet a stranger for a few minutes and it feels like you just can’t stop talking.
We all have the opportunities to meet strangers like these -some pass on the chance and some take the leap of faith. Every once in a while,we take cab rides which take us from our source to our destination. On quite a few trips, my mind is preoccupied with a lot of thoughts – thoughts mostly about how I am faring in the grand scheme of things. Occasionally, I look around and see this person entrusted with the responsibility of taking us safely to our destination, the contraption he’s stuck in for hours on end and the way he has made it a way of life. Sometimes they speak first, sometimes youlisten to these stories to say – about their lives, their experiences, theirfailures. They share with you a piece of themselves and often they are so valuable that you keep it forever within you on your journey. This is my way to bring to you some of these stories which we carry with us and to let you know that once in a while it doesn’t hurt to take that leap of faith, to open up and soak in the experience. This is my original idea and I hope I can reach out to you in some way or the other. I hope you carry this with you on your journeys.
We were enjoying ourselves at a friend’s place. It was Thanksgiving and we were part of a wholly satisfying evening. But it had to end at some point. We had to take leave and embark on our journey back home. And that night, as a lot of other nights, we entrusted the responsibility of driving us safely back home to a cab driver.
It was late in the cold night in Downtown Baltimore and we hurriedly jumped up in the cab. There were three passengers in the car – Oindrila, one of her friends, and me. Theycomforted themselves on the rear seat while I sat in the front. We had a minor hiccup when we realized that one of the doors was not properly shut. The man who was driving seemed to be in his early sixties, an African-American with a wrinkled, unshaven face and with a cap on his head. When the door indicator of this dash alerted him about the mistake, he politely asked us to check which door was open. We found it and once it was closed properly, we took up speed towards our destination.
A few minutes into the ride I started noticing the dash of the car. Right before me, I saw two photographs attached on top of the glovebox. On the left, the photo showed a handsome young man in his twenties dressed in a blue suit and white shirt with a blue cap on. It looked like the attire of one of the wings of defence, but I wasn’t sure which. Right next to it was the picture of an old man who looked like the person driving the car.
I was curious. I asked him about the man in the photo on the left. He seemed excited to tell me “That’s me, back when I was in the AirForce.” I was drawn into his story right away and wanted to know more. Hewas kind enough to continue saying more about him.
He got enrolled in the Air Force right out of college in the 70s and his dream was to fly a jet. But in his long tenure of about 10 years, though he visited places like Germany and Thailand, he never got the opportunity to train for flying one. Sadly, he was a passenger. “I have been a lot of places and what I saw is that there’s love all around”, he remarked.
His tenure at the Air Force ended and all the education he had was in Business Administration. He dreamed of going back to college to pursue studies but he life drew him in a different direction. He pursued photography. I was fascinated because I am an amateur photographer myself. We heard how he spent a lot of years doing fashion and clothing photography. He did not really like the darkroom, he said. He never liked playing with all the chemicals and the whole process of developing a photograph. “It’s mostly digital today”, I told him. He agreed and then we spoke about how some photographers and filmmakers still shoot on film today. I was thinking about all those articles I have read about Christopher Nolan using IMAX cameras and encouraging distribution and screening of movies on film. He said at the end of his professional life, he worked on a project which piqued his interest a lot -restoring old photos digitally.
Photography is such a subjective and nuanced art form. The same scene can be captured by two different people in completely different ways and somehow so often one seems so much more appealing than the other. He told us about the enchanting nature of imagination and creativity – there’s so much new to bring to this world.
We were nearing the end of our trip and I guided him with the directions to our home. He parked the car right in front of our house and I realized that all this while we didn’t know each other’s names. I asked him his name. He said, “Create. Create, like in creating something new.” I thanked him and got off, still intrigued by the name.
This was my humble attempt to share one of those innumerablestories we all keep within us. From today, Oindrila and I are going to share those pieces of other people’s journeys we have within us. I hope you like them and the next time you are looking out of the window sitting on the back seat of a cab maybe, just maybe, these stories motivate you enough to take the leap of faith and start a conversation.
It was the month of April. Spring was drawing to a close. She was taking away my motivation to continue until the end of the semester with her. Just when a smokescreen was building up, an opportunity to clear it presented itself to me.
Ajinkya invited me to a potluck at his place – the guests of honour were Christina and Andreas. Yes, if any of you are thinking about the title of the post right now, you are in the right direction. They were our Greek guests.
Plans for making my favourite sweet dish to take to the party got spoiled. All because I didn’t plan it well. As Katherine Paterson said, “a dream without a plan is just a wish.” I had nothing, so I ended up taking a pack of sweets bought from the store. I felt terrible.
I walked to Ajinkya’s place and I was the last person to reach there. I saw him making Amrakhand and I realised food was ready as well. Everybody asked me what did I bring and all I could say sheepishly is I came to help you all. I could see eyes rolling but I had no courage to respond.
Ajinkya introduced me to his guests and as usual, it took me some time to explain how to pronounce my name. We talked briefly and then we gathered for dinner. There was Paneer curry and two different preparations of Chicken on the menu. Along with them, we had Jeera Rice and Rotis. Since I have been here in this country, the appreciation of food which was already there in my mind has somehow elevated itself. I loved the food, enjoyed it and I hope Christina and Andreas did too.
After dinner, our adda started taking shape. Everyone was curious about our new friends. So, all sat listening to them with rapt attention. We listened to Andreas’ medical school days, how he decided not to continue and dropout and about his love for trucks nowadays. He told us things about the human body which only people who have access to cut open bodies could know – things which don’t seem obvious from an external view reveal themselves on closer inspection. Isn’t this true for a lot of other things in life as well? Christina shared her stories about studying math, and how she shares her education by teaching other kids.
We looked at both of their native places in Greece on Google Maps – Thanks Google! We listened to the story about how one of their family members was a sheepherder and ended up losing all his sheep due to carelessness. Christina told me about her favourite Greek TV show. We learned how Greek letters are pronounced incorrectly by English speaking people and the correct way to pronounce them. One thing led to another and after a while, we were making requests to Christina to write our names in Greek on a piece of paper. It was really fascinating for me, learning about the intricacies of a different language. Who will forget those pictures of Santorini you grow up seeing. Andreas shared with us the story of his first attempt at deer hunting. The whole process of claiming a vantage point, patiently waiting and when the time comes, being adept at finishing.
We talked late through the night. It was well past midnight when they decided it was time to take leave. We bid our goodbyes. Christina invited us to a barbeque at her parents’ place later next month.
I walked back in the darkness – to home – the unopened packet of sweets dangling from my fingers.
A few days ago we were thinking of ideas to spread the word about the new venture we have embarked upon. During our intense discussion where ideas were going back and forth just like the tennis ball would in a Wimbledon Final featuring Roger and Rafa, we decided to add some new dimensions to this project.
Soon enough, you all will get to see something new. Because we started this as a place to share our experiences in this country – primarily travel tales – we are going to continue sharing these stories with you.
Something you people might have missed (probably because I didn’t tell you yet :D) is that Oindrila loves to write, sing and paint – write stories and poems, sing Rabindra Sangeet (she’s mad about it!) and paint beautiful pictures. So, we are going to share all of that content, some of which haven’t seen the light of day yet, with you.
You might be thinking “what about Aniruddha?”. Well, I love telling stories with pictures. How often have we been told in our childhood that “A picture is worth a thousand words” without being shown a single picture which conveys that feeling? Well, I’ll try my best in adding some meaning to that expression. I’ll share some of the photographs I take – sometimes along with the story behind it or maybe not? Maybe you all can tell me what you think about them – I guess a thousand words will suffice.
So stay tuned folks! There’s more to come.
April 8th, 2018
Does it involve music and dance? Drinking? Lots of tomatoes? Or colors? Yes, probably it involves some of those elements but mostly it’s a celebration of natural beauty.
Do you agree that this looks beautiful? Take a few moments.
The festival commemorates the March 27, 1912, gift of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City to the city of Washington, D.C.
This being my first spring season in the country and the fact that I live so close to D.C., this trip was on my bucket-list for some time. Plans were made and delayed but eventually, I ended up accompanying my new housemate Jianfeng to DC last Sunday. We started our trip from the L’ Enfant Plaza Metro station.
A detour to the Enid A. Haupt Garden (That’s Jianfeng)
We embarked on our long walk, passing the Washington Monument on the way, and a full tour around the Tidal Basin.
Well, he was very eager to take this perspective shot. Lots of trial and error paid off.
Edge of the Tidal Basin
We got some amazing shots that day.
The Green, The Pink and The Bare. All in harmony.
Jefferson Memorial (as seen from the other end of the Tidal Basin)
After the stroll along the banks of the basin, we ended up inside the Jefferson Memorial.
More than 700,000 people visit Washington each year to admire the blossoming cherry trees that herald the beginning of spring in the nation’s capital. (Source: Wikipedia)
We still had some time on our hands and also some energy left inside us. So, we decided to explore more. We were hungry and decided to try something from the array of food trucks which line up just in front of the Washington Monument (foodies please don’t miss them!). After some rest, we were on our way towards the White House.
The “House of Cards” feeling.
The White House
One interesting thing to notice was that there were a few demonstrators outside who were just sitting there with banners describing their pleas. “Free Tibet”, “Gun law discussions” were a few among their agendas.
More flowers to make you feel happy. 😀
Sources say Mayor Ozaki donated the trees to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and also celebrate the continued close relationship between the two nations. Also, on December 11, 1941, four trees were cut down. It is suspected that this was retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan four days earlier, though this was never confirmed. In hopes of dissuading people from further attacks upon the trees during the war, they were referred to as “Oriental” flowering cherry trees for the war’s duration. Suspended during World War II, the festival resumed in 1947 with the support of the Washington, D.C., Board of Trade and the D.C. Commissioners. In 1952, Japan requested help restoring the cherry tree grove at Adachi, Tokyo along the Arakawa River, which was the parent stock of the D.C. trees but had diminished during the war. In response, the National Park Service sent budwood back to Tokyo. If these are the facts, it’s quite amazing that relations between them continued to be friendly considering the events of World War II and the effect it had on the citizens of USA and Japan.
The White House was our last stop as both of us were quite tired. We returned home. The sudden trip turned out to be a rewarding experience.
12th November, 2017
Well, this should have been up long back. But, nevertheless doesn’t it feel good to revisit memories. Today is one of those days when I am feeling like going back in time a bit.
This was her first trip to my place at Baltimore, Maryland. It was a four day trip and we took out one day to visit Washington D.C. We had the wonderful company of our friends Karl and Wan Ting. It was a cold Saturday morning and we woke up early, dressed up in warm clothes to be ready for the breezy weather outside. We hopped on Karl’s car and drove to the College Park metro station where Wan Ting was waiting for us. On our way, we stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts outlet and had some breakfast. Once inside the station, we recharged our metro cards and walked to the platform and weathered the cold breeze for some more time while we waited for the train to arrive.
A 20 min train trip took us to the Union Station at D.C. Up the elevators and we were on the streets of D.C.
First stop, the National Gallery of Art. (Interesting fact. While writing this, I found out that this building was designed by I.M. Pei, the same man behind the Louvre at Paris. Any folks remember the John Carpenter’s episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Haha! I wish we get to visit the Louvre together someday.)
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| Pope Innocent X c. 1650 (Circle of Diego Velazquez) |
The Tenth of the 13 saints named Innocent. Well does he look innocent? You decide.
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| Portrait of a Lady (German 16th century) |
Portrait of a Lady reminded me of Khushwant Singh’s short story Portrait of a Lady.
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| Portrait of a Man c. 1507 (Hans Schauffelein) |
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| Ill-Matched Lovers (Quentin Massys) |
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| Courtesy: Flickr |
After being engrossed in art for almost an hour, we decided to take some rest and sat near the Mercury Fountain in the Rotunda. We waited there looking at all the tourists flocking together and waited for our friends.
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