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.

Provocation

When you have a new idea, you're bound to have provoke people. You're bound to get a strong reaction, because it's new and unheard off; so people don't immediately know what to say to it. Sometimes I feel it's important to have that, because the opposite of this is no interest, indifference, i.e. the idea having no impact at all.

And it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's a very natural thing. When people hear new ideas, there'll always be some that connect with it, there'll be some that disagree, and then sometimes there'll be people who feel attacked by the idea and a strong visceral reaction to it. Such a strong emotion to me is the validation of the idea. For something that results in such strong an emotion, is actually forcing people to think about things, including their axioms and assumptions. To me that's a win, if what you've got to say, is a result of well researched, honest, and disciplined practice.

My Desktop Organization Strategy

So the way I organise and keep my desktop clean is, I take all the desktop files and store them in a folder titled Desktop Files followed by the current year, month, and date; I then move that folder to a folder called "Desktop Files" in my Documents directory. Creating this rather temporal map of all my files.

Essentially something like this: Documents > Desktop Files > Desktop Files 2025 07 17...



The funny thing is, I was talking to a friend yesterday, and they mentioned that they use the same strategy for cleaning their own desktop. And I have heard this from at least one other person (whom i can't remember right now). What a funny coincidence that two people independently reached at the same organisation concept.

Curious if anyone knows if this filing system has a name. If not, maybe I should write a design thesis on it and name it after myself. :P

Perks of daily public transport commute

Just finished a book in less than 7 days. This is the fastest I've been reading in a while. I've read 8 books this year, and gonna start my 9th book tonight. IMHO, that's just been possible this year because I have spent so much time on BART and Caltrain this year. Commuting for work, commuting to network, commuting to save money. Public transport is great for just sitting and reading.

Atlantic Hotel's the name of this book, written by João Gilberto Noll and translated by Adam Morris. IMHO it's an "OK" book, it tries to be dark and mysterious, when it's really just a meandering tale spoken from a first person narrative. I liked how the first person narrative is followed in such a disciplined manner. Sadly, don't have much opinions on this book. Good read, may make for a fun crime caper, but I wasn't particularly blown away by it.

Why hustling is not important to Mastery of Craft

So Zomato (the Indian food delivery company) launched a new ad campaign recently, very much styled visually like the Crazy Ones ad. They got some of my favorite icons to present in the ad, and they had some cool visuals. It's all fine and well, but their messaging was rather disappointing. They seem to be promoting people to "Hustle" to be successful.

Now this seems like a common misconception amongst people, the idea that if you work yourself to the bone, if you devote your life to your work, have sleepless nights etc, i.e. you hustle, only then can you master your craft. As someone who has tried doing that and as someone who has seen the downside of the hustle culture, I can tell you that this is a bullshit practice.

What makes you master your craft is not hustling, it's hardwork combined with humility, patience, perseverance, and sanguinity. It's the willingness to be humble enough to recognise that in the grand scheme of things our work is insignificant, but how we conduct ourselves, how we are with the people around us, and how we show up when the chips are down; that makes us be better at who we are and what we do. Doing this repeatedly, is what makes us master our craft, not, living in the hubris that the more work one puts in, the more it makes them entitled to successes in life.

Ad in question:

India's loss at Lord's today

I'd be remiss to not include the devastating defeat India faced at Lord's today. What makes the defeat so devastating is not the fact that the team practically collapsed, but it's the fact that despite all adversities we came so close to winning the match (just 23 runs away!) and yet lost it to an odd ball that spun backwards!??!! I've never seen a leather ball spin backwards, and hit the stumps with such accuracy. Siraj's dismissal was comical, unfortunate and sad at the same time. It makes the defeat sting even further.

Not to add to the fact that this loss is juxtaposed with the famous win from 4 years ago, when Kohli and the boys gave the British batting lineup "60 overs of hell" in Kohli's words. Well we got pretty close to exactly that this time around. Batting wasn't easy on day 5 at this Lord's pitch and Carse, Archer and Stokes didn't make it any easier.

But the loss is also a reminder of two very important life lessons that I've grown to learn the hard-way: 

1. You may do everything right, yet end up on the losing side and face failure. Hardwork and diligence is no guarantee of success. 
2. There's hardly ever one failure point in a failure. We didn't lose this match because of Siraj's unlucky dismissal, we lost it because the dropped catches, the 61 extras across both innings, the unncessary run out of Rishabh Pant in first innings, all these things added up. 

Anyway, hopefully the team will bounce back. I've been pleasantly surprised by the young-ish team's performance this year. They've shown a lot of grit.

What makes a great Pizza?

Years ago, I was at a Pizzaiolo training at the AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the standardization body that protects the Neapolitan Pizza's authenticity) and the chef / my instructor for the day, answered a question on what defines a good pizza. If you see the AVPN rules for a Neapolitan Pizza, you'd think it'd have something to do with water content or the region from which the tomatoes come from, or the flour. But the chef's answer was extremely simple.

He said, that the best Pizza was one that was easy to digest (you shouldn't feel bloated after eating it, you shouldn't have to rely on a fizzy drink i.e. when it leaves a dry aftertaste) and that used simple but fresh ingredients; in other words a pizza that wasn't hiding its poor quality produce under multiple ingredients. Ofcourse, to make an easy to digest pizza you need a well fermented dough, you need it to have a minimum amount of hydration (65% by bakers fractions is usually the suggested hydration) and shouldn't over / under bake your pizza. To get fresh ingredients, well, you get fresh ingredients.

As simple as it sounds, the process is extremely challenging and one that is hard to perfect. By the said metric, I've had a good pizza in very few places, in fact some of the famous Pizzerias in Naples, fall flat in digestibility. My favourite places are 50 Kaló (Both the Naples, and London locations ), La Notizia 94 and Gino e toto Sorbillo (Naples).


50 Kaló: I admire their craft and hospitality. Their Marinara and Marinara Reinforzata are exceptional, the tomatoes are fresh and the flavours simple. This is the quintessential Neapolitan Pizza. Perfect representation of the flavours; and they scale very well! I had the opportunity to visit both their Naples and London outlets and both of them had no compromise on the taste!

La Notizia 94: When you bite into this Pizza you don't even realise it's vegan, it's so soft, and so full of flavour that you never realise that there's no cheese in it. The dough is perfectly fermented, the pizza is perfectly baked with the right amount of leopard spotting and the flavors are perfectly balanced.

Gino e Toto Sorbillo (via Del Tribunali, Naples): It's the classic ~100 year old pizzeria. Big lines, big brand name (and yes, the taste varies between outlets, their pizzeria in Milan was less than ideal); but the Pizza I had at their original location in Naples was fantastic. Another vegan pizza, and another Pizza where the quality of the dough and the freshness of the tomatoes was so impeccable, I barely thought about anything else.

---
P.S. Fun Fact: The plural of Pizza is Pizze.

Almost Gray Scale

Fascinating how almost all of these images (barring the fourth one) are naturally shot without any filters and yet appear gray scale, with just about a hint of color. I really enjoy taking pictures that have a lot of natural patterns.

The idea of Making and Learning vs Learning and Making

I was at an event this Thursday, and an idea struck me. I think the people who make first and then learn have a greater chance of innovating and making cool products than the people who spend a lot of time learning, and then making.

Don't get me wrong, I still value the desk research and user interviews in the process of making something and they remain important parts of the design process. But here's an example. How would you design a UI for a mythical ambient computer that doesn't exist yet. Let's say it's got a projected display. It sits on a desk and it works as a study companion. Design Thinking handbooks will tell you to follow the double diamond process before you put pen to paper, you must do the user research, you must conduct interviews, you must follow the heuristics, you must do X, Y and Z.

Here's the catch. None of this exists for the said platform yet. Now what? Well you make something and then test if it's working. You gotta start from Making and not learning when doing something radically new. You have to be humble enough to make big changes if it's not working. But it's important to follow your instincts, and put your idea to paper, even a sketch to me is an act of making. And then you must show it to the people who will use it, learn from them, adapt to their needs. And that's how you build out something new. Double Diamond fails here.

The biggest problem with the Double Diamond is the lack of trust in a designer's instincts and knowledge. Ideas aren't isolated, they form from a variety of experiences, it's important to acknowledge those experiences to truly understand a problem and possible solutions. Pretending we know nothing about something doesn't help. Starting with a sketch, a paper prototype, an idea of how the solution looks like doesn't hurt anyone. Show it to people you're designing for, then dive deeper into the problem.

Having something to begin with is so much more effective for learning than just mindlessly meandering in different directions. The risk with such meanderings is a) Spending too much time researching and too little making. That leaves less room for iterative learning, and b) conforming to our own biasis.

Just my two very rough cents. Make first, and then learn. But learn for sure.

Pain au Chocolat

A couple of years ago, I was in Europe, and had the opportunity to have one of the most delightful breakfasts I've ever had. A Pain Au Chocolat at this vegan cafe in Zürich (Roots), and it's the best Pain Au Chocolat I've ever had.

Two years on, I've been to Europe once more, and I've spent some time in US. I have not been able to find better vegan Pain Au Chocolat (Pronunciation Tip: | pan oh shoh-ko-lah |) anywhere.

Just thinking about this today, as reminiscing the delightful breakfast, as I was craving for one and struggling to find anything that comes close to it.

Wandering...

Went on a short walk in Berkeley hills yesterday, wandered astray into the fire trails just to see if the road lead to the other side of the campus towards the Botanical garden. The route was a bit of a dead-end, but I discovered some really good views, which are even better on a sunny day. Sometimes wandering is fun! Especially if the city is so beautiful.