Movie Recommendation: Coolie

I don't think I have seen a lot of Rajnikanth movies, So I don't know what's a quintessential "Rajni" Movie. But if it's anything like Coolie, I can understand the craze. Coolie is a thoroughly entertaining watch. The story's no citizen cane, it has its fair share of plot-holes and unwanted twist; but its the actors and a fluid screenplay that keep the movie engaging. The film seldom skips a beat.

I particularly enjoyed Soubin Shahir's performance, along with ofcourse Rajnikanth who at this point just exhumes screen-precense (and why wouldn't he, it's his 171th movie) the guy has his is own aura.

Anirudh Ravichander has perfected the art of giving music to the Lokesh and Atlee genre of movies. The music is cut from the same cloth as Jawaan, and Vikram, and Leo but it's still got fresh elements. Particularly enjoyed Mobsta, Powerhouse, I am the Danger, and Coolie Disco. Great songs.

I don't know what's much to say about this movie, apart from the fact that it's hella fun to watch. If you're having a bad week like me, Coolie's the perfect stress buster, filled with old-school ethical heroes who take the people first approach, so their victories feel personal.


Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.5 stars for the movie, and an extra 0.5 for the soundtrack)

Tariff and Taarif have the same word root.

My latest discovery is that the hindi/urdu word Taarif -- which means praise has the same root word as Tariff - which is taxes.

Tariff (English) -- Taxes: Arabic (taʿrīf “notification, definition, schedule”) → Italian (tariffa) → French (tariffe / tarif) → English (tariff)

Taarif (Hindi / Urdu) -- Praise: Arabic (taʿrīf “notification, making known” → “commendation”) → Persian (taʿrīf “praise, commendation”) → Hindi/Urdu (tārīf “praise, compliment”)
Two words that sound similar, have similar roots, but have such different meanings. Words and how they travel is fascinating.

You're missing out if you don't try Shojin Ryori food

Love Cha-Ya in SF. Love the concept behind Shojin Ryori, the Japanese traditional Vegan food. Moreover it's the balance of flavors that blows me away everytime. Nothing is too spicy, too salty, too sweet or tooo sour. It's all perfectly balanced food that's light on the stomach and satisfying to eat. I'd eat it any day.

Coolie is all entertainment

Proper review tomorrow, but Coolie is complete entertainment. Banger soundtrack, Rajnikanth pulling off things only he can pull off, Soubin Shahir in sublime form and a movie that's just thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. I loved every bit of it, especially the back story.

Two similar Stairways

Is it just me or does the Doe Library Main Stacks' stairway looks similar to the Vatican's stairway. I wonder if that was the inspiration?

The Doe Library Stairway


The Vatican Stairway

Discovering a new artist while walking in SF

Was walking in SF the other day, and discovered this really interesting and colorful mural on the wall of the San Francisco Proper Hotel. A couple of google searches later, I discover that this is a mural called "Untitled" by an artist named Alicia McCarthy.

McCarthy's work is inspiring, and the fact that she decided to donote half the fee to charity is pretty commendable too. I loved reading about the Tenderloin Murals.

Coffee and Croissants

Vegan Coffee and Half a Croissant on a table in evening sun light.

The Vidit Film Archive is taking shape

I love collecting physical media. Great Indie movies or the ones produced by smaller producers, often fall through the cracks when it comes to streaming services. Plus, if you want to reference them or take notes, there's no way to screenshot and annotate them. There's no ownership of media on the internet. Physical disks, are another story all together. My personal collection that I fondly call the "Vidit Film Archive" is taking shape again after a good 20+ years of having mostly VCDs and some DVDs; I'm finally moving to better quality video.

Workflow for writing large blog posts

Follow up to previous post. Here's my workflow for writing bigger blog posts. Takes about two weeks to make them, and it's a lot of getting ideas down into something readable. So yea, when folks read my posts it means a lot.

What it takes to write a Big Blog Post

Slightly meta post today. Posts of the Day are easy. I just spend 5 minutes on them and that's it. But bigger posts, they take a lot more effort. I first do rough drafts, then I created a post outline, write down the post, then I design the graphics for each of the elements in the post, combine it together in a post, create social media assets, and then publish and share it with folks.

It's a lot of painstaking effort and usually with minuscule rewards. But I am determined to share my learnings.






The Post in Question is published on my other blog here.

TIAT Place is a fun event to attend

Attended a Creative Technologist's meetup yeesterday, it's called "TIAT place" short for the Intersection of Art and Technology. Fun event with a lot of cool design / maker-ey stuff presented. I loved how each person went through their design process in detail for projects that were side hobbies at best.

The Event happened at the Internet Archive (yes! It's a physical space), which in itself is a fun venue. The central auditorium feels more like a church(!?). I find the whole event fascinating.

Creative Technologists are a small clique in the Bay Area, they don't advertise about the events much, but once you get in, they seem generally cordial and everyone kinda knows everyone else. What's interesting though is that these people aren't really pursuing creative technology in their day jobs, which makes me wonder how many Creative Technologists are actually working as creative technologists; and why then is this such a clique. One of the most annoying habits of Silicon Valley designers is just how performative their "attitude" is. They'll intentionally be hard-to-grab attention, hyper confident in their own work, and follow a "I will only really listen to you if you're a proven designer" attitude to conversation. The nice ones happily strike up a conversation; and they're the ones staying in touch with.

Some pictures from the event:

The feeling of nothing is sufficient

In the last 8 months, job hunt has been stressful yes, but it’s the feeling of “no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, it’s just not enough” that’s stuck with me and it’s soul crushing.

There's always a deadline, I am always last minute to it, because I have been doing so much else, yet at the end of the day, It seems like I am not doing enough to fulfill my goals.


P.S. Attended the second tiat place event at the Internet Archive today, and it was refreshing to go out and meet more creative technologists. But more on it later. This is foreshadowing tomorrow's post.

Movie Recommendation: Elevator Pitch by Alexx Zaki

Alexx Zaki's debut short film Elevator Pitch is a timely take on the process of job-hunting. The process is robotic, de-humanising and soul crushing. Alexx does a great job representing it in few words. The actors are terrific, they show a range of depth in such few words. Watch out for the "hip-VP", that person conveys so much in a single dialogue.

Highly recommend spending four minutes of your time on this terrific short film.

P.S. I must disclose, Alexx is one of my best friends, so I am inclined to enjoy everything they make; but even so, this is an unbiased, honest take. I have already seen this short twice.

Sunsets

Just some beautiful sunsets with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

Music I'm listening to in 2025

With good Hindi and Tamil music in short supply these days. I have shifted to listening to more Punjabi music in the last couple of years. Really enjoying the works of Sharry mann, Amrit Mann, Prabh Singh, and Zehr Vibe apart from the usual suspects.

Here's my playlist:

The Illusion of a good Pizza

Went to Doppio Zero, one of SF's only few AVPN certified Pizzerias, basically one of the few Pizzerias in SF that can claim that their Pizzas match the Italian standardization body's strict requirements for what's a True Neapolitan Pizza. I have my doubts on that.


This Pizza looks great. It looks like a true Neapolitan Pizza. The Cheese and the preparations are on point, the pizza tastes great too, the sauce is balanced (just crushed tomatoes) and flavours on point. But it's a heavy pizza, in fact too heavy for what a 12" Neapolitan Pizza should be. The after-taste is not great at all. It's not easily digestable, the crust is too doughy and not fun to eat.


Look at the gluten net, it's too dense! This isn't a great pizza at all!

How do I know this? I made a very similar mistake about a week back. The Pizza looks great. But does the Pizza have the right impact on our stomachs, maybe not.

To be fair, this is nitpicking and I am a bit of a Pizza purist here. This is a practice popular across SF, and Doppio Zero is one of the better ones. But I believe a good traditional neapolitan pizza is the one that's easy to digest, not the one that looks the part.

Go small and build communities

Philz is about to be sold to a private equity firm and this is not a one-off occurance. All popular local-coffee roasters from SF in the last two decades that raised a bunch of money, have met a similar fate. They were great, they became popular, they grew, they raised money and then couldn't grow enough so are now being sold to bigger more evil companies.

This is what I call the indie to medium sized sell-out arc. It doesn't just happen in the world of coffee, it happens everywhere there are indies. Indie software comes to mind, which has the same arc. Food is the other obvious one.


To me the problem exists with the notion of infinite growth. This very American idea of "Go Big or Go Home". What if that's not the right approach. Not everything needs to keep growing to the point where it either controls everything or sells out to someone else who does. I also hate this phrase because it's often used as a way to tell me how my own work as an indie is insignificant and will never be as big as the likes of big players. So what do we do to fight the demon of "Go Big or Go Home"?

We "Go Small and Build Communities". What does that mean. Here's my proposition:

Minimalism is anything but simple

Was at a bookstore today, and saw the book covers of some "Penguin Archive" books. They're supposed to be minimalist text based covers with just two colours (white and red) and a single font. Yet, these covers convey so much information.

Minimalism is anything but simple. These are minimalist covers for sure. Are they simple? Definitely not. Which makes me wonder about What exactly is minimalism. Is it the "absence of clutter? or the presence of only what's essential" (I'm Referencing Jony Ive's views on simplicity here). I think it's the latter.

All Dreams must end

Final evening in Berkeley today and incredibly sad to leave the city.
Berkeley was a literal dream come true. Ever since I visited the city for the first time in 2017, I have wanted to study in Berkeley. The university campus was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. So much greenery, the walkabilty of the city, the perfect weather. Everything about Berkeley was blissful. Alas, Berkeley didn't have a Masters program for Design. So for the longest time it seemed like that it would just be a dream.

Cut to 2019 November, I had just started giving a thought to pursuing my Masters. I looked at Berkeley again, no program. Sadly. I kept looking for a Masters of Design program in Berkeley every 3-4 months ever since. That's how badly I wanted to study in Berkeley; and one day it showed up. Berkeley had started a Master's of Design program, for designing emerging technologies with a focus on social good / social justice. It was the perfect fit. Exactly what I wanted to pursue. Exactly what I where I wanted to study.

So I joined the program in the Fall of 2023, and the next two years have been a literral dream come true. I had the best academic experience of my life. Wrote a thesis that was personally fulfilling. But more importantly met the kindest and most awesome people, whom I have the privilege of calling my friends.

For the first time in my life, I wasn't explaining myself. My friends understood where I was coming from, and not only that, some of them were in on those crazy ideas tooo. I blurted to a friend once "I know I am a bit crazy for thinking like this.." somehow, for some reason, they didn't think it was crazy at all. I realised I had finally met people who saw the world like I do, who were also marching towards what I aspired the world to be.

I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to spend my time in Berkeley with. But as is with all dreams in life, they must end. And so 8 months after graduation, my lease in Berkeley has finally ended, and I like my friends must disperse to other parts of the world. Will I miss Berkeley? Yes! Was it one of the best times of my life, that I will cherish forever? Yes!!

India draw the series 2-2

What an incredible series to watch. So many intense moments. Could've been 3-1 for either of the team. But just how both England and India fought for victory in this series needs to be cherished.

Today's win for India was special, when I woke up to 35 runs for victory for England yesterday, I was sure this is gonna be a cakewalk. But Siraj and Krishna, what an incredible spell this morning under pressure.

Loved watching every second of the series, no regrets of a terribly broken sleep cycle. :)

Nature

Got distracted by the nature, on my walk back home. Got some great photos.

The wicketkeeper crisis of early 2000s

After Nayan Mongia retired, the Indian cricket team was in a bit of a Wicket Keeping crisis. They played no less than 9 different wicket-keepers in a span of 5 years. Starting with MSK Prasad, Saba Karim, and ending towards the end with the more charismatic Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik (the only one in the long list that survived beyond a handful of ODI matches). But safe to say the time between the summer of 2000, and winter 2004 was a moment of crisis for the Indian team.

Here's the list: 

1. MSK Prasad (debuted after Mongia’s injury in 1999) (17 ODIs) 
2. Saba Karim (34 ODIs) 
3. Vijay Dahiya: 19 ODIs: October 2000 to April 2001 
4. Sameer Dighe: 23 ODIs: January 2000 to August 2001 
5. Deep Dasgupta: 5 ODIs: October 2001 
6. Ajay Ratra: 12 ODIs: January to July 2002 
7. Parthiv Patel: 38 ODIs and 25 Tests: Famous for being one of the youngest players in the team, debuting at 18; and sledging Steve Waugh! 
8. Rahul Dravid (kept as a part-time keeper mainly in ODIs, including the 2003 World Cup) 
9. Dinesh Karthik: Played his first ODI in the summer of 2004 followed by a test in Australia tour to India in 2004 October / November. 

Funnily I remember most of these players, Deep Dasgupta, Ajay Ratra, Vijay Dahiya and the likes. Why so? I had a knack of collecting player info when they debuted as a way of winning at Cricketer's Atlas (a game similar to Atlas that me and my brother played when we were young) and as you can see there were a lot of wicket keeper debuts when I was a tiny kid trying to beat my elder brother at a game. But I digress.

The crisis continued until MS Dhoni started playing for India. The wicketkeeper who would not only surpass his contemporaries but go onto to be the best wicketkeeper-batsman the country has ever produced, infact even more influential and successful than the stalwarts of the time, Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher.

This unique moment of crisis in the Indian cricket team before Dhoni arrived and changed the game forever, has some interesting parallels with the Indian team's current captain crisis. The Indian team has struggled to have a stable captain post Kohli and in the absence of Rohit Sharma for quite sometime now. In T20s we've tried it all, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, you name it. ODIs have been stable under Rohit Sharma, but we're staring at a void in tests too. Putting faith in Subhman Gill, but also in the presence of a strong personality Gautam Gambhir as the coach, someone who's not hesitant to shake things. So will Gill be the long run captain? Hopefully. But I wouldn't be surprised if we look around for a bit, until there's someone as good as Kohli or even bigger.

Maybe it'll be a while till we find a stable team combination, and a stable captain, but I find it interesting that the crisis is in some ways similar to other crisis the team's had.

The City of Berkeley has a lot of different trash cans

My afternoon hobby today? Spot all the different kinds of trash bins installed in Berkeley. Very interesting to see all the different styles they've gone through. Arranging them in what I think is the descending order of recency (oldest first).

When the vicious cycle doesn't stop

Saw Udaan yesterday. One of the best movies to come out of India in the last 20 years. Arguably one of the best ever. It's such a deep and well meaning drama, that exposes the violence against kids in the country that's normalised in the name of "strict parenting". I thought the movie was excellent and gave it a rare five star rating on my Letterboxd.

But then I saw that the average rating of the movie was just 4.0. which made me think, that some people actually hated it? So I went and checked the reviews, and sure enough some people actually hated the movie, and why? because they sided with the parent in the film. A lot of these people would be my age, they grew up in an environment where this was the norm, and yet, somehow they're insular to the fact that this is wrong. Instead of breaking the cycle of violence, they think it's somehow "necessary". Not particularly surprising, but shameful nonetheless.

Resilience Lessons

Was on a walk this evening and stumbled across this plaque that sits right in front of my old Applied Resilience classroom, the Cal Memorial Stadium (Yes, that class used to take place in one of the small rooms on the ground floor of the stadium).

What a great quote to be in front of a class that's literally trying to teach resilience. A great reminder for me too. Sadly the class is no longer going to happen in the stadium, but I feel this plaque and the stadium were the spirit of that class. What's a better reminder than sports that failure is inevitable, and so is the redemption that follows that.

Also, reminded me of my dad, he was a very resilient person; saw and overcame many failures in his lifetime, and sometimes it'd be his words of encouragement that would be enough for me to overcome my own struggles. Miss him every day.

The Summer of formulaic movies

What do F1 (English, 2025, Sports Drama) and Saiyaara (Hindi, 2025, Romance) have in common?

They're both highly formulaic movies that reuse age old tropes. There's nothing new in either of the two movies. We've seen sports dramas like F1, a dime a dozen; to the point that people have compared to every other car race movie they could think of and found similarities (Yes, even Pixar's Cars). Saiyaara too, offers nothing new. The tropes are all too familiar, we know how the film ends; there's hardly a surprise element in the movie.

So why are they not terrible films? Why did I enjoy both of them very much? I think because the mind craves comfort, and this summer's been particularly rough. Watching a well made formulaic film is so much more fun than watching a poorly made experiment of a story. And both these films are particularly well made movies of their genre. The acting, the cinematography, and the music are all top-notch for both of these movies. And I love that about them. Liked both the movies, highly recommend.

Learning something new every day

This Pizza looks great, but the intensity of the leopard spotting and the smallish size indicate two things that went wrong today. I was working with some leftover dough, and took it out of the refrigerator at around 11AM. Re-balled it, and let it rest for another ~3 hours so it got back to room temperature.

At 2, even if the dough had gone back to room temperature, the gluten was far from reformed. So when i set out to stretch the dough, it didn't stretch as far, and the dough ball, even though it felt at room temperature, was still a bit cold which resulted in a very intense leopard spotting, not ideal for a Neapolitan Pizza.

That's learnings for the next session! :)

Xanadu

Discovered this word "Xanadu" recently, which means something like "an idealized place of great or idyllic magnificence and beauty"; and I've been thinking, what would such a place look like for me. And two things come to mind.

First, I spent a couple of days, earlier this year in this small town called "iso-syote" (just on the edge of the arctic circle, in Finland), in a cottage, secluded from humanity, covered in snow; and to me that's idyllic beauty. Calm, serene, peaceful, and full of nature.

Second, are Persian rugs. Why would someone think of Persian rugs when they think of Xanadu? Persian Rugs symbolize perfection to me. Their value lies in their imperfections. To me there's no Utopia, there's no Xanadu. The Utopia we live in is the world we accept as a whole, including its imperfections, just like Persian rugs.

A glimpse into how I prep for Pizza

Here's a glimpse of how I prep for Pizza. Dough Proportions are tough, especially the yeast. This thing helps me make accurate measurements so I can prep my dough. Not the prettiest app that I've made and I want to make a ton of changes to it before ever shipping it, but for now it just works for me.

Berkeley in the evening

What makes Tendulkar so uniquely great

Inspired by a rather juvenile twitter thread that claimed Tendulkar's contemporaries would've scored more runs if they played as many matches as him. People don't realise, that's the whole point of the "Godness" of Sachin Tendulkar, he not only performed consistently, he performed consistently for 24 years of his career, that began at 16, and ended at 40. No player has ever done that. What gave Tendulkar his longevity, is his adaptibility. He was adept at adapting to the changing format of the game, the changes his body underwent, and the changes in the game that his body demanded once he was over 35.

He scored his first ODI double century at ~37. Most cricketers lose their hand eye coordination and retire at 35. Tendulkar hadn’t even peaked at 35, and to top it off, he still scores in the odd old people tournament, as if he's just shy of 30. He hasn't lost any touch with his form. Tendulkar's records may be broken (Root is well on track to surpass him as the highest test run scorer), but his mastery is unmatched.

The problem with GenZ Discourse

I have a strong dislike for how millennials (my generation) talk about Gen-Z. The condescending derisive tones reek of insecurity. I am tired of my instagram feed being filled with "jokes" on Gen-Z's inability to work in corporate or their "funny" slang. A recent Hollywood Reporter headline reads like this "but something amusing is happening inside cinema halls: the Gen-Z is crying.". This is craziness. Can we stop observing Gen-Z like they're lab rats and start talking to them.

Because if people spend an iota of time with "Gen-Z" they'll realise that they're just as emotionally mature as everyone else, curious, sensitive and genuinely funny. In contrast, it's the people my age who've been disappointing meet ups lately. When I talk to people who are my age, and working in corporate America, I see the soul sucked out of them. The conversation are either boring, or teetering on the verge of insensitive.

Anyhow, don't feel like stoking any fires here. I personally think "Gen-Z", "Milennials" are just another set of meaningless labels people end up giving to each other in trying to feel secure about themselves. The discourse of being condescending towards them is even worse.

Almost Golden Hour

I just love how the light is selectively illuminating parts of the building. Perks of being near a hill, I think these were the last remnants of sunlight before the sunset. Almost after Golden Hour I want to say.

A good way to re-heat New York Style Pizza

I usually try to have fresh-Neapolitan Style Pizza (which should technically be un-reheatable) but I ended up with some extras of a New York Style Pizza today, which is thicker and easier to re-heat. But what's the correct way? If you just microwave it, it loses all its moisture and becomes rubbery which no one would like. Same for an oven as well.

I figured I'll ask ChatGPT for this, and I actually got a really good suggestion i.e.

1. Put the slice on a pan, or skillet and heat it for 2-4 minutes, until the crust gets "crisp". 
2. Add a couple of teaspoons of water, to the side of the Pizza (not on top) and cover it with a lid.
3. Heat until the chease begins to melt a little. 

Very interesting idea, which IMHO works because it infuses the pizza with the hydration it would otherwise loose from the re-heating process. That's actually a pretty smart idea. Not sure who came up with it (because obviously, GPT is trained on something!), but it's ingenious.

Posters from an unreleased art project

Been working on a little art project, whose release seems to be "delayed" indefinitely. We'll see when it sees the light of the day, but until then, I have some cool posters to share from the project.

A very stylish Vada Pav

Is that a five-star restaurant serving a Vada Pav? No it's just the local IKEA's food court having a very good lighting and wooden interior. I think this was one of the cheaper, and value for money Indian snacks I have had in the Bay Area.

A Shift in movie preferences

I used to enjoy dark-gritty thrillers, and serious subjects a lot. Some of my favourite movies of the 2010s were Omerta, Gangs of Wasseypur, Raman Raghav 2.0; my favourite shows included Mindhunter and Westworld. I was admittedly a sucker for anything dark and thought provoking. There was a certain kind of thrill to these movies.

My dad--my frequent co-participant in movie nights, absolutely hated these movies. His favourites were old-school actioners like Raees, or love stories like Dil Toh Pagal Hai or even Jab Tak Hai Jaan. It's not like he didn't like anything dark, but his threshold for dark was Drishyam or perhaps Talvar. I remember this one time, we went to watch Tamasha together, and his reaction in the first half was absolute disgust! :D (It wasn't a dark movie, it was just way too preachy for him)

I always wondered, how come my dad who was practically as big a movie buff as I was, never really enjoyed serious cinema. I asked him once, and he told me it was age; at my age he, too saw the niche Hindi and (some) international films. But something changed a few years ago. After his passing, gradually I drifted away from the kind of movies I enjoyed a few years ago. My favourite genres now are the entertaining crime capers and old-school actioners; I seldom watch anything too dark now. While I do like the occasional serious movie like Gargi, or more recently Stolen. I just don't feel the same urge to watch them as I did when I was a few years younger.

Am I turning into my dad? Most likely not. But to me, I understand his perspective way better now. At some point, the tumultuous nature of life catches up. Life itself can be so grim and gritty at times, that watching the same when you're desperately trying to unwind feels like a chore; at that point you want something light hearted, something fun, something that makes you forget the quotidian troubles. A dark-crime drama about a stolen child, no matter how good it is, hardly satiates that appetite.

Patterns in a Bollywood musical

This year I've been watching a lot more older Hindi movies, early 2000s, late 90s cinema; back when songs used to be a big part of every Hindi movie, regardless of the genre. Something I've discovered during the process is that each film has ~5-6 songs that fit a pattern. The pattern being:

Song 1: Introducing the male lead
Song 2: Introducing the female lead
(Optional) Song 3: Introducing any other main character, who plays a significant part
Song 4: Pre-Intermission act change : This is an up-beat song where; in love stories this is just before the conflict is introduced
Song 5: Post-Intermission song : The only purpose of the song is to act as a loo break for people who weren't able to go to one during the break
Song 6: Pre-Climax song : Raising the beat of the film before the final act. Usually happens 30-40 minutes before the end of the film.
Song 7 - 9 : If the filmmakers are feeling particularly generous, they'll add different songs at the beginning and credits too and maybe add another song post-intermission if the film is longer and needs a change of acts.

Some examples:
Movie: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
1: Opening Credits : Tu Bole Main Bolun
2: Introducing the Male and Female Leads Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi
3: Pre-Intermission, change of act: Pappu Can't Dance
4: Post Intermission song Nazrein Milana
5: Additional Conflict Song: : Jaane tu Mera Kya Hai
6: Pre-Climax: Kahin Toh


Movie: Kal Ho Naa Ho
1: Introducing the Male and Female Leads Pretty Woman
3: Pre-Intermission, change of act: It's the time to Disco
4: Post Intermission song Kuch toh Hua Hai
5: Additional Conflict Song: : Kal Ho Na Ho
6: Pre-Climax: Maahi Ve

The Berkeley clock has been fixed

A few days ago, I discovered that the UC Berkeley Campanile clock on one of the faces of the tower was broken. Happy to report that as of this week the clock's been fixed. I walk by the campanile almost every day, and it's so fascinating to see that it took them this long to see the broken clock and fix it.

July 7, 2025: The clock facing the North Gate shows incorrect time.

July 18, 2025: The clock is now showing the correct time.

Bagel Art

Boichik Bagels is excellent btw.