>8 years old argument

>When Ritesh quoted from Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, I immediately knew that an 8 years old argument is going to be restarted.

This is what Ritesh quoted:

You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other.

In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a Motorcycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness …

To which Vishal says:

I had to reconstruct the quoted phrase: replace car with motorcycle and motorcycle with running /walking The central argument still holds – You are closer to nature while walking/running as compared to riding a motorcycle.

I disagreed with Vishal back then. And I disagree even today.

Vishal, you’ve got to come out of the words that Robert Pirsig has used and try to feel what he is trying to say. It is the kind of stuff I tried saying in 44 hours of biking nirvana.

It is not about being close to nature. It is not about speed. It is not about whizzing past the other objects. It is about a lot of things coming together and creating that Nirvana like feeling.

Try walking down to Pondicherry damn it!

>Life, Bangalore and Traffic

>In this post, I am going to do a novel thing. I am going to repeat myself…

I have cribbed once about the traffic in Bangalore. And I am going to crib again.

Bangalore traffic has gone bad to worse and worse to even-worse. I think from even-worse, it can only go to worst.

So, why am I cribbing? Because this tuesday, I spent three and a half hours in my car just to travel to office and back. Now, that’s A LOT OF TIME.

If you are planning to move to Bangalore, reconsider your decision. It’s expensive, noisy, polluted and god-damned chaotic!!

>Da Vinci Code

>Just finished reading Da Vinci Code. (Yeah, I am usually late on catching up with the happening books. I am yet to read my first Harry Potter).

No doubt it is an extremely well written book. I just couldn’t keep it aside after I started reading it. However, I think towards the end, the author just couldn’t handle the enormity of the plot and in order to lead to a very very dramatic end, created some really large holes in the whole plot.

A couple of them are here:

1. Why did Teabing involve Opus Dei for his work? He just needed one guy who could drive and shoot. He could have hired anyone for that. The Church and Opus Dei were involved just to make the plot of the novel much grander. So that people feel that there is a REALLY REALLY BIG conspiracy going on here. Well, Brown couldn’t justify it in the end.

2. If Sophie’s grandmother and brother were alive and safe, why the heck did Jacques sent them on treasure hunting the first place. Ultimately, the long and bloody search led them to Sophie’s family. If Sophie hadn’t found them, they would have anyway come to Sophie to tell her about her family. In short, the whole reason for which the novel was written didn’t exist.

I think Dan Brown just messed up in the end.