Nitin Khanna

I was once described as a philosopher programmer. I think I'd like to describe myself as a lifelong student.

The Death of the Author

there is, however, someone who understands each word in its duplicity and who, in addition, hears the very deafness of the characters speaking in front of him-this someone being precisely the reader.

via The Death of the Author by Roland Barthes Full Text, Downloads, Cliff Notes, and Essays.

 

This text, pointed to me by Dan on ADN (which was in response to this article posted there by Matthew) reflects what I believe about writing today – that in as much as we want to give meaning to the text in terms of the context of the author, the real meaning can only be derived by the reader himself. The same is true, in my book, about any art – paintings, sculptures etc, where it is not the artist’s life, times, societal pressures or addictions, that define the true meaning of the work, but the impressions it makes upon the viewer that truly reflect the value of the art. Continue reading →

Blog Merry-go-round

Using WordPress but tired of MySQL?

Want to have a fast, static blog?

Use Jekyll.

Using Jekyll but want a better UI?

Use OctoPress.

Using OctoPress but want to use Python instead of Ruby?

Use Hyde.

Using Hyde but want to use Dropbox to hold your files?

Use Pelican.

Using Pelican but want good search, analytics and plugins?

Use WordPress.

 

Good thing I’ve been on WP all along and intend on staying here.

 

Short Story: The Last Human

The beings gathered around the deck. Anticipation was high and there was a buzz of chatter about their next destination. It was somewhat of a surprise because even though they knew what it was called and where it stood, very little was known about it outside the circles of the tour company and the people who had discovered it. The buzz died quickly when the steward came around to the deck. All eyes turned to him expectantly and he cleared his throat before announcing,

“Ladies and Gentlemen, you are travelers from far or near, across the galaxy and some even beyond. In these past few months, we’ve shown you some remarkable places. You are no ‘alien’, pun intended,” some chuckled, but the steward continued, “to the variety of amazing adventures that our galaxy has to offer. We’ve been to moons ravaged with volcanic activity, we’ve dived into dying stars about to erupt into supernovae and we’ve seen the tombs of cultures long gone, but none of them have come close, in absurdity, to what we are about to witness on the planet below us. You might think that you’ve seen everything, but you’ve not seen anything till you’ve seen the largest museum in the galaxy!” With a flourish, the steward waved his hand and the ship’s motion sensors detected that as a command to open the viewing screen on the far wall. Everyone scurried to the wall of embedded diamond, which, while protecting them from harmful rays of the dying star nearby, also enhanced the view of the planet below them. What they saw below was an astonishing sight. The entire planet was covered with white plaster and buildings covered every single square inch of land and water that was visible from space. They had seen city planets elsewhere in the galaxy, but they were all dirty, alive beasts that shipped in goods and beings and shipped out laws or product, being vast industries of some kind or the other. But this planet was deathly serene. There was no movement, no sound, not even a space ship coming out of the place. It was dead. The steward started speaking and everyone turned their attention towards him. Continue reading →

How to end a story about a war – Lessons from World War Z

So I saw World War Z a few days ago. It turned out to be a better story than I’d anticipated. I expected it to be either too soft or too macho, but it struck the right balance. After I finished the movie, I realized that there were some lessons in it for me, specifically, about writing fiction.

The story is about a war, a war against zombies. Quite simply, it’s a war that cannot be finished in one book, one film or even one lifetime. That reminds me, I have to compare this story to how Resident Evil handles war. Continue reading →

Short Story: A moment

She looked back, slightly annoyed. The pedestrian light had turned green the second time and her friends had still not shown up. It didn’t matter much, it was summer time and they were free the entire afternoon to do as they pleased; but she didn’t like waiting. As the cars came to stop in front of her, the lead was taken by a black sedan that was a hybrid between a luxury car and a sports car. In other words, it was beautiful. She didn’t care much for cars, but if it was flashy, it was awesome and this one fit the bill. Her eyes rolled to the driver and she was stunned. There sat one of the most beautiful men she’d seen in her life. His jaw looked like it had been sculpted by God patiently. His hair fell on his cute face divinely. He smiled slowly as he sung along the decently-volumed music from the car stereo. The windows were down as he was enjoyed the summer wind, which caressed his face and ruffled his hair playfully. He looked grown up enough to be in a job and much like his car, he seemed to be the perfect blend of business-like seriousness and boyish charm and  recklessness. Her mind was in disarray with emotion. She was instantly and forever, in love with him. He embodied everything that she’d thought of in a gentleman and hero.

As she swooned, thinking of romantic getaways and unexpected surprises, he smartly, suavely and nonchalantly, lifted a hand to go through his hair, as any perfect man would, and then, quite surely, took a finger of the same hand, to poke into his nose. He cleaned up a bit and simply discarded the refuse with a flick of his fingers. She smiled. Not all dreams are meant to be.

The futility of dieting: Sandra Aamodt at TEDGlobal 2013 | TED Blog

Apparently, there’s no point in my dieting. I just need to chew better.

“giving yourself permission to eat whatever you want, slowly, and without distractions, paying attention to how your body feels when hungry or satisfied, and letting hunger determine when you’re done”

Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt reveals how the brain regulates body weight, making dieting futile and often counterproductive.

Link

You Won’t Finish This Article Either

Just today, I was having a discussion on ADN about how there’s too much noise on the Internet and if I had the choice of a broadcast medium, I’d go with newspapers. Some time after that, I noticed the link to an interesting article on Slate about how people are not reading entire articles on the Internet and are just skimming through, or even just reading the headline, and tweeting the link if they like the headline or an eye-catching photo.

At this point, it’s my duty to inform you that this is a post about Social media, sharing, reading on the Internet and is a bit of a rant, so if you’re not interested, you’ve already left the article. I’d also like to tell you that I wanted to name the article – “Dealing with loss, of Readers” but that seemed rather grim and I wanted to mimic the Slate headline, because it’s just that good. There’s another reason that I’ll tell you later about. Continue reading →