Have been reading one of my favorite authors: Philip K. Dick. The book is - The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I am still working my way through the book. I have read a few of his books but this is the first one I am reading, wherein he gets into religion and such. Like almost all other PKD’s works, this one also involves the use of drugs.

In classic PKD fashion, he questions reality - a reality that we all perceive around us. It reminded me of the arguments presented by Morpheus, Oracle, the Architect, and of course by the Merovingian. The simulacrum, the hyperreal as Jean Baudrillard tried to describe it once. My initial reading of the Upanishads gave me the feeling that those early philosophers were working on the same thing.

Back to PKD. In the book, he describes a psychotic/ hallucinogenic drug called Chew-Z which evidently lets a person to live his/her life again and again as he or she wishes. So far, the caveat has been that the guy who sells the drug, Palmer Eldritch, seems to be in control of everyone’s so-called reality.

Anybody who has listened to Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb or Echoes on repeat play when one is suitably drugged or drunk will understand this loss in perceiving the real and the gain in perceiving the real.

Late night work last night. Woke up late this morning. 6.30, I think. Oh well.

Made calls in the morning. Felt like a fool an hour later. Felt like a kid who is given a wonderful kayak and who instead of paddling out into the ocean and enjoying the sunset, bitches about how the colors of the sunset are not the right hue. Oh well.

This story of my lack of understanding could have been a short story with morals in the Amar Chitra Katha. I wished life was like the ‘Connect-the-dots’ pictures. Unfortunately, unlike those pictures, life’s pictures do not have numbers to make the task easier.  Oh well.

Sat the day in front of TV watching Lord of the Rings. Such a moving story. Should read the book sometime. Oh well.

In the lab now, trying to work. Maybe I will head down to the Scripps Pier and watch the sunset. Say thanks for the wonderful people in my life. Since the mood is a bit low, I will also mope that SK is not in my arms when I watching the sun go over to the other side of the planet. (Take that Copernicus!)  Oh well.

I wanted to do so many things today. Well …. mainly run programs to try and figure out why my protein structure will not refine. The day and the work is going too slow and I am getting pissed at myself.

I have stayed away from the blog for a long time too. Anyhow. I got a couple of requests: gaalis for surviving in Bombay. I will most certainly do so …… soon. Haha.  Kulti for now.