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Showing posts from February, 2025

The Quiet Loss of an Old Habit Can a Head Massage Soothe the Modern Mind

 I am 45 now, and as the winter chill settles in, a simple act—oiling my head after a shower—triggered a cascade of memories spanning three decades. When I was a boy in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, the ritual of a weekly, sometimes daily, head massage with oil was as common as breathing. My favorite was the potent, earthy scent of mustard oil . I remember visiting our local vaid ji (traditional practitioner), who stressed the importance of this practice, lamenting even then that fewer people were keeping it up. Fast forward to adulthood, and my simple habit met the sharp reality of changing cultural norms. My wife, from a different background, and her circle found the idea of oiled hair "un-stylish." Even when I switched to the fragrant, dark luster of amla oil, the gentle teasing and continuous pressure to conform chipped away at my resolve. Now, my cherished ritual is relegated to an occasional, quick application, washed out within hours. Where Did the Oil Go? As I drov...
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An ILS Approach After 14 Years – A Journey Through Time and Skills

  Shooting an ILS approach after 14 years. It was on Microsoft flight simulator, but it was worth knowing, it was consoling to know that I still know the things. I decided to fly out from Lakefront airport, as I was familiar with the environment. I decided to fly out to Gulfport airport which is just over 50 nautical miles from Lakefront airport at New Orleans. It was the flight path which was flown by me when I did my first cross-country flight. I asked for an IFR clearance and it was given as cleared for Gulfport airport as filed asking me to climb to 3000 feet. I was on runways 18R and decided to keep the climate foggy to get a real feel of using the ILS approach. I put in the throttle and climbed out, after a positive rate of climb I made a left turn to 067 degrees. The GPS showed that the airport was 54 NM from here. Since it was all white outside there was not anything to look around except to track the instruments. It was easy to maintain the altitude however, it was difficu...
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15 Years Journey of Using Flight Simulators - Microsoft Flight Simulator Steam Edition and X-Plane 11

  Few years back, nearly 10 years ago, I purchased a Microsoft flight simulator steam edition. I dared to purchase it as it was within my budget.  It cost me nearly INR 900, I was living in Anandpur Sahib at that time and the internet there was really slow.  I ordered the game online, even though I had little idea of how it would work, and what this steam edition was all about. Till now, I was only aware that computer games are available on CDs and I didn't know that they can be downloaded from the internet.  It took more than one day for me to download that game. The MSFS was 30 GB heavy and getting that much data from the interest back then and in a secluded place like Anandpur Sahib was something in itself. I was actually 10 km inside in the interior of Anandpur Sahib and BSNL was the only service provider at that time. Unfortunately, I did not realize that my laptop was not made for it, as there was no graphic card in it. My laptop was a basic office laptop from ...
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