Sauvik Biswas

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Listening habits: Finite resource for infinite music Image from Audiogen Hub Music as a disposable commodity # When mp3s invaded the collective consciousness of our society, it gave birth to something no one had foreseen before. The availability of infinite music at the disposal of one’s fingertips. The key word here is “disposal”. Indeed, an instance of a file can be classified disposable commodity - the loss of a file inside an environment or system meant nothing as long as it could be replaced by an identical copy of itself prior to its loss. Of course to be disposable, a commodity must be replaceable easily without spending much resource (time, money, etc.). The threshold of what can be considered a disposable resource thus differs from person to person and from environment to environment. Listening habits: Sound quality vs. convenience of portability Long ago I had written why I prefer listening to whole albums. My approach to listening hasn’t changed much. However, I am from a lesser group of the population. The majority consumes music in a very different way. Convenience of portability # The idea of revisiting this topic stems from my listening to lectures by Andrew Scheps. You can listen to one of his presentations here - [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXbH-yzGNfg[/embed] The talk is quite technical in nature. It talks about the various streaming services and the audio quality they deliver. It is surprising that most of our discoveries happen on 128 kbps compressed audio since YouTube, the largest online music repository, has 128 kbps audio stream for anything that’s not 720p or 1080p[1]. CN Remix: A good intent ruined by (possibly) the worst presentation So far, PepperScript has released two books in their CN Remix lineup, each containing three stories, based on the “Cartoon Cartoons” shows. I was a kid in the 90s and thoroughly enjoyed these shows. As an avid comics / manga collector, it felt good that some Indian publisher was licensing the comic strips. Hoping a nice nostalgia tour, I ordered these remixes. When I opened the books, visually, it was a nightmare for me. Let me clarify. These are not reprints of the official comic strips published by DC (and the occasional one-shots by IDW). Instead, these are screengrabs of TV episodes with word balloons and onomatopoeia inserted. The cheapest tea I've had in recent times. My sister holding the cheapest tea that I have seen in recent times. We had already sipped half of it. For the price of only two Rupees, the taste and quantity was more than what I had expected. Day 12: The Finale Indian Railways as a viable sleeping dock # In Dimapur, we ended up spending the night at the railway platform waiting room. The actual sleeping time was spent in a 3-tier AC compartment of Intercity Express between Dimapur and Guwahati. We reached Guwahati at around 5:10 am. It was dark outside unlike Kohima which receives the first bursts of sunlight at around 5:00 am. The waiting room at Guwahati was less than ideal place for us to spend two hours time. I ended up finishing my morning chores even though the toilets were dirty and the basin was clogged. Day 11: A glimpse of Naga lifestyle An identity card can be used as a cutting tool # In Kharagpur, the collage competitions had a strange rule. No cutting instruments were to be used. That included scissors, knives or identity cards. The last example of a cutting instrument made little sense until today. We felt hungry and the breakfast wasn’t ready at 8:00 am[1]. Nandy had a pound of local cake and we decided to have some slices. We did not have any sharp objects in our bag owing to airport baggage regulations. Instead, we used my identity card. Day 10: Heritage of Nagaland A really cold night indeed # Yesterday was a very cold night in Kohima. The blankets provided by our Hotel (Galaxy) were insufficient. By 2:00 am in the night, the temperature had fallen to about 5 degrees[1]. There was a time I was shivering underneath the blanket even with my hoodie, tracks and socks on. We couldn’t stay in that hotel for another day. The check out time was 12:00 pm. We decided to pay a visit to some tourist spots nearby. Day 9: From the heat of Dimapur to the darkness of Kohima A short walk around Dimapur’s commercial area # We took a small walk around the New Market and Hong Kong market area of Dimapur. The market area is just like any other small city. The shops give away the fact the Dimapur residents have good purchasing power as compared to their neighbours. There are roadside, nondescript shops, too that sell more affordable stuff. A busy and narrow alley at Hong Kong market, Dimapur. Day 8: Finding the cheapest and the most comfortable way to Nagaland On the move # Staying in Shillong was expensive. We had already decided to move to Dimapur. There were a few buses that could take us from Shillong to Dimapur but we decided to forego them in favour of a more comfortable train journey from Guwahati. For that, we had to leave Shillong early. We bid adieu to Gowri Shankar, took a shared taxi out of Shillong and made our way to Guwahati. Day 7: A tourist trip in Sohra and back to Shillong How much mod can a Maruti 800 take? # I had written earlier that Shillong and Sohra practically commutes in Maruti 800. Gowri Sankar pointed out that the following vehicle, which belonged to Heprit, is actually a Maruti 800!!! This is a Maruti 800!!!!!!!! Heprit’s scooter is as colourful as him. Tourist spots in Cherrapunjee (Sohra) # There are quite a few tourist spots in Sohra. These are well maintained. The access points to these places, as well as those inside, have been re-landscaped in order to allow the tourists to enjoy the views. Before leaving for Shillong, we decided to stop by two spots as tourists and not like backpacker-travelers. Bit, the same guy who took us to the concert earlier, escorted us to a viewpoint for Nohkalikai Falls and Arwah Caves. Nohkalikai is nothing more than a stream during the winters - a distant shadow of its monsoon form that one can find plastered on a tourist helpdesk or a hotel in Sohra or Shillong. During our stay in and around Sohra, we often came across groups of school students who have come to visit these places as part of an excursion. These kids often come in buses and dance to really loud music. Next time if you hear loud music and cheering inside a bus that passes you by on the streets of Sohra, you know who they are.