Sad day

Dr. Dabholkar was assassinated today morning. I haven't followed his work closely but had listened to a few speeches by him long ago and was impressed with his skepticism and tact of handling questions. People who cannot handle intellectual battles, take weapons in their hands. So much human potential is wasted in the name of religion, it's sickening.

Again I cannot but contrast the situation in India with other countries. Noted skeptic James Randi is celebrated across the USA and rest of the world, whereas we fail to publicize people who are doing similar work in India. If Bill Maher were to perform in India, talking about God, he would sure need an army of bodyguards.

We are tolerant when we should be intolerant and vice a versa. But I have faith in the future, blind one, you say? 

random encounters

So I'm at a purse/bag/pouch and assorted paraphernalia shop buying things for sisters and aunts. When I reach the counter and start taking the money out of my wallet, the owner asks - 

Is that your father?

What a cute question. 

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One thing had surprised me a lot when I heard it from an Indian friend. He said, usually, Taiwanese people take bath at night just before going to sleep. I was like whaa.. Reasoning I was told was that they take their sleep quite seriously and want to feel totally clean before wandering into the dreamland. 

One day, I asked a Taiwanese colleague about it. He confirmed it. Then I asked, "do you ever take bath in the morning at all?" He gave a classic reply - 

Only when I'm lazy.

Typhoon aftereffects

Taiwan witnessed a strong (135 Km/Hr) typhoon named Soulik, on Saturday, 13 July. 

At our place, wind started to blow like a maniac after midnight. Lights went off for a fraction of second multiple times. We felt safe in our apartment, but some people were not so fortunate 

"I was very worried, I couldn't sleep the whole night because the sound of the wind was so loud and my building was shaking almost like there was an earthquake," Taipei resident Josephine Lin told AFP. 

Two people died, several got injured. After Taiwan, the typhoon proceeded towards China where the causalities were far greater. [For more.]

In the morning I went around our place to see the damage. Lots of tree had felled. The local sports park is going to need a lot of cleaning. See pictures below (click to enlarge)- 

Beautiful, eh? I enquired here for its identification.
Let's see if we find out its name.

While we are on the subject of rains and winds, I'll leave
you with one of my favourite sounds on the FreeSound
community. Enjoy!

Observations in Taipei

So back to web logging. Let's see how long this streak goes. Meanwhile deactivated my FB account (Yes We Can!), been active on Quora, G+ and a mostly passive reader on a multitude of StackExchange sites recently. Trying to bring all my friends to Quora and G+. At first it felt good not to waste time on FB, but as days passed reached a state of procrastination-work equilibrium. Morning newspaper routine is replaced by checking hot questions on SE, following up with new updates on Google reader and daily gems on Quora such as How much will it cost to deliver a pizza to the International Space Station?

• Kids make the same sounds while playing as in India. If you are listening from a distance, you cannot tell whether they are speaking Chinese or Hindi/Marathi from the tone of it. Also it seems small kids make the same sounds all over the world.
• Polite bus drivers who greet with Ni Hao (Hello!) when you get in and Xiè Xie (Thank you!) when you get out.
• Most people here don't like window seats in buses. All of them will take the aisle seats (edgehog is the word). Could be because the space between seats is less than normal.
• When I paid (quite handsomely) a visit to the Eslite bookstore I was surprised to see Chinese translations of all the English bestsellers at about half the price of the English ones. Felt sorry that I can't read Chinese, would have saved so much money!
• Wind blows real hard! The whooshing gale sounds make getting asleep easy.
• Everybody is busy on some social network. Buses, trains everywhere. Well, a few of them read a book too but a majority are busy online. There is a ubiquitous V sign that youngsters use when they post pics on FB.
• Local vegetarian food is tasteless, or to be PC let's say differently tasty. So many tea brands on shelves, sadly, none of them taste like they do in India. A post about food later.
• People have bizarre English names. A person I know is called Airforce. Beat that!
• Road work is very quickly finished. If they are digging a ditch in the morning, by evening you are likely to see it done and all covered up again.
• People don't remove shoes/sandals when going inside temples!
• Many people ask Are you vegetarian because of religion? I don't argue and say yes. May be they have a view that vegetarianism has something to do with Hinduism. I wanted to say, No, it's because I'm not used to it and am nauseated by the thought. May be I should tell it next time, at least they will not think that Hinduism is restrictive.

You might also like to see a cartoonist's view of Taiwan A few things that make me marry Taiwan and Only in Taiwan

I thought of finishing each post with a good piece of music (that I did not compose).

Enjoy this remix of Jeeves & Wooster theme! Be patient until 0:48.