Let’s start with the obvious. Brad Pitt has managed to give the performance of a lifetime in Ad Astra. There are many scenes in the movie when he just emotes, there is nothing else going on in the entire frame, just him in focus with melancholic colors of space and science providing the stage. . . . Read more

"Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest w . . . Read more

There is something special about Spiderman. Though not the most powerful superhero, he is unmistakably charming, with a good sense of humor, which was probably why his movies were the ones to launch the modern superhero genre. And because he is not so grim and serious, somehow the same characteristi . . . Read more

I used to love watching Ted Talks, but of late I think the institution has very much lost its way and its originality and has become overly preachy and full of generic platitudes. It is great then to come across a Ted talk that I feel happy to share. It has helped me a lot during my grad school to b . . . Read more

HBO is bringing out a remixed version of the Watchmen and it brings back some very fond memories. When I first saw Zack Snyder’s Watchmen I had never heard of Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman. I had seen Snyder’s flashy, extreme slo-moed, over the top 300 which, if nothing else, was an enjoyabl . . . Read more

I recently saw this fun video about the tension between clarity and mystery and the role of this tension in creating good design. It made me think about giving a math talk. I think the element of mystery is often neglected when one prepares a math class or just a math talk. It is understood that unl . . . Read more

I haven’t used any Microsoft product since I came to the US. I fleetingly toyed with the idea of using Windows 10 but having seen the glory days of Windows 98 I just could not tolerate this monstrosity. I stumbled upon this article about the silent resurgence of Microsoft as the world’s . . . Read more

Sherlock Holmes was perhaps one of the first non-school books I have ever read. My first books were goosebumps, nancy drew, hardy boys and then I graduated to Sherlock Holmes and LOTR. I mostly read Sherlock in the summer, when I would have a lot of free time and would often be traveling to see my e . . . Read more

Never buy an Apple product which is not in stock. I made this mistake and it took over a month to get this Macbook Air and its not even the greatest model in the world. This would have been fine had they told me it was going to take a month to get the laptop, but instead every 3-4 days they would se . . . Read more

Life is profoundly sad. It is filled with loneliness, with regrets, lost chances, sad memories, words you can never take back, friends you’ll never see again, fractured pieces of your Self floating across the ocean of Life. But on the stage, you forget. You forget the profundity and the seriou . . . Read more

Russian Doll is a modern day interpretation of the Groundhog Day. While the theme itself is quite cliché and played out, Russian Doll brings in Netflix’s awesome production to create a mostly enjoyable series. With eight short episodes this is basically the length of a long movie, perfect leng . . . Read more

Short form improv is the most popular form of improv, thanks to shows like Whose Line is it Anyway?. In some ways sketch comedy like SNL is closer to Short Form than Long Form. Short form scenes are shorter (2 mins) with a much stricter structure and hence short form improv is easy to perform on tel . . . Read more

"Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, but arrogance is." -Three Body Problem Of the Three Body Problem trilogy, I immensely enjoyed reading the first book and had to drag my way across the other two. The first book has a very beautiful structure. It is intensely gripping with very ho . . . Read more

This 301 class is about game, the backbone of all Improv scenes. We talked about the importance of setting up the base reality. We started with a warm up called the Robot Game. This game involves two people and these are the only lines they’re allowed to say Player 1: I am ... Player 2: I am . . . . Read more

We talked about how it is possible to play a character that is either close to you, completely opposite of you. Both are completely valid options to play. And by making choices for what character to play, the character itself can become the game in the scene. The important thing is to make strong ch . . . Read more