http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blogfeed/Blog Feed of latest blog entries.enThu, 29 Oct 2026 13:11:22 +0000http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/blog/careless-sharings/toolsmithing/573I haven't been writing much lately. Life is to blame, and I too. Now, it is hard to write, and yet the mind says we must. So we do. Even if it spews garbage. That is the way, there's method to this madness should I embrace it. {: #2 .d-none} {: .img-fluid .img-fluid .img-fluid .img-fluid alt="Aesthetic Blasphemy | Image of a man shaving a yak and explaining a long rationale" src="/static/media/uploads/sketchplanations-yak-shaving.png"} [Source](https://sketchplanations.com/yak-shaving) {: #1 .text-center} I've barely written a blog-post in eons. I fell out of it, although I did not mean to. But that is how change sometimes occurs - one suture coming undone at a time. You think you still got it, but that is just you. The moment you try to put your mind to it, it draws a blank. Another part of the brain lets out a guffaw - 'told you so!' That, it did. {: #3} A long time back when I used to write on [Blogspot](https://aestheticblasphemy.blogspot.com/), I yearned for a place with more control. It was around 2012. Because I knew how to code a little, I set out to build one for myself. Fortunately, at that time, I had the foresight that I run the risk of spending too much time to code the blog that I might not write it anymore. Surprisingly good foresight for that time and age. I wrote regularly. Then, it slipped away. {: #4} I wrote the code, then looked back at it and thought it needed more. I wrote some more. Soon, it was all about taking one room down and creating a new one. I've noticed that in the physical world, once you have a house or home, you always keep doing something to it - maintenance, renovations, additions, and sometimes, rebuilding. The one doing it sometimes forgets to live in that house since they're always working on the house. The analogy here is exact. I dug up a term for this with AI's help - Yakshaving. {: #5} That's right. AI's help. This iteration of design, I worked with AI to get here fast. I always wanted little minions to do the work for me. They seem to have arrived at the scene but not in the way I had imagined. I had imagined I'd build one - minions, or Jarvis (from Iron Man). But the mega corps got there before me. Now, they're selling their minions for a premium. I must still build my own minions. What does a human want? Mastery over their time? The desire to control what I build and what serves me and mine is still as strong. That's what I've been doing in myriad forms. Although it sometimes seems like I'll be there last, but then, I would have done it in my own time. {: #6}http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/blog/careless-sharings/toolsmithing/573http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/book-reviews/fiction/book-review-the-silent-patient-by-alex-michaelides/572Alicia is an inpatient in a facility for the mentally unfit convicts after being charged with her husband's murder. She hasn't spoken a word since the incident, but for the painting titled Alcestis, which she did a week after the incident. Theo is the new psychotherapist trying to break into her mind and make her talk. The Silent Patient is a debut novel by Alex Michaelides. It follows the stories of Alicia and Theo through the narration of Theo and excerpts from Alicia's journal. [](https://amzn.to/4m7mnR8) ISBN: 9781250301697 Alicia had been an artist known for some of her photorealistic paintings before she was accused and convicted of the murder of her husband. She was found standing near her dead husband, in shock, and a gun with her fingerprints near her. Her husband had been tied up to a chair with wires, and was shot five times in the face. Alicia's wrists were slit, and she hadn't spoken a word since. One week after the incident, she drew a self-portrait titled Alcestis. Alcestis refers to the central character and the name of an ancient tragedy by Euripides.  In the play, Alcestis sacrifices herself in place of her husband, is revived, and stops talking completely despite the reunion. Given her silence, Alicia was not put in prison. Instead, she was admitted to The Grove, an institution for the mentally ill. Theo is a psychotherapist who joined the facility to try and break into Alicia's silence. His relationship with his wife also seems on edge as he suspects infidelity on her part. He tries to investigate and fix both his life and Alicia's as the story proceeds. The story is narrated by Theo. It tends to mix two storylines, the one of Theo, where he is trying to get Alicia to talk and also reminiscing about his past, and the other storyline that emanates from the journal entries of Alicia.  He had an abusive childhood, which, as he discovered, was the case with Alicia as well. Theo often goes beyond the protocols of his profession in trying to get Alicia to speak, even when others in the institution warn him that she's a *silent siren*. This made me wonder, no matter how hard one may feel the urge to save some stranger, this is beyond normal and seems like there is some vested interest. There's a recurrent theme of wounds from childhood determining the way our present selves behave, and the psychotherapist's role in helping overcome that. Theo relates a lot of incidents to what he endured in the presence of his father while growing up, and contemplates his fate in this context - his choice of partner, her attitudes, his healing journey with his therapist, Ruth, and how he related to Alicia in her circumstances. I don't know much about how the psychotherapists are supposed to work, but the way the author Alex describes it through Theo feels a little arcane, counter-intuitive, and poignant: > "...And to my surprise, tears would be collecting in her eyes as she listened. This may seem hard to grasp, but those tears were not heres. They were mine. At the ime I didn't understand. But that's how therapy works. A patient delegates his unacceptable feelings to his therapist: and she holds everything he is afraid to feel, and she feels it for him. And the, ever so slowly, she feeds his feelings back to him." But, of course, I am no therapist (and the author trained as one). Without demarcations, the boundaries between storylines often blur, and it is easy to confuse the past for the present. I suspect that is intentional, the objective being to confuse the reader a bit in a sort of premonition. There are subtle misdirections to throw the diligent readers off the smell. However, it is executed well. The story flows easily and the surprise dawns on me as the storylines merge into the present eventually. The turn of events feels like a lot of it had been a long time coming. Some, not all. Most of the essential pieces were tied together eventually. It reminds me of the lyrics from Chris Issac's song 'Wicked Game': "*It's strange what desire will make foolish people do*". The work is a light read. It had a good amount of thrill to keep me hooked till the end. P.S.: The link on the image refers to Amazon and I may earn some commission should you buy it by following the link.http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/book-reviews/fiction/book-review-the-silent-patient-by-alex-michaelides/572http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/scoops/harvest/salt-oil-sugar-and-gluten/571I recently tried baking bread (for the first time) at home. The tutorial I followed instructed me to add the flour, water, and yeast, mix, and let it rest before adding oil and salt. Some other tutorials had not done it this way. I wondered why. I discovered that the tutorial I was referring to nearly followed the [Autolyse](https://solobaking.com/what-does-autolyse-mean/) method, where the flour and water are mixed and allowed to sit for a while before adding anything else later. This activates amylase enzymes that enhance gluten development, improving the dough's extensibility. {: #5}  {: #6} [Source: Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-bread-on-white-table-o6Dd2Ix695I) {: #7} The activation of enzymes occurs when the proteins in the starch (glutenin and gliadin) bond together to form the gluten network after absorbing water. This can lead to better texture and quality of bread. Why not add salt and oil? Oil, being fat, coats the proteins and protects them from absorbing water. This reduces the hydration and, consequently, gluten formation. Salt disrupts the enzymatic activity, which hinders gluten formation. Sugar is hygroscopic (absorbs moisture) in nature and reduces the amount of water made available to the proteins; this also reduces gluten formation. It is wonderful how different ingredients interact differently to have a similar effect of reduced gluten formation! {: #8}http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/scoops/harvest/salt-oil-sugar-and-gluten/571http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/learning-experience/dispatches/sansara/569In the Temple of the Tooth relic at Kandy, there's a chamber that documents how the tooth of the Buddha came to that place. Along with it is the story of the rise, the fall, and various attempts at the resurgence of Buddhism on the Sri Lankan island. Today, Buddhism is the state religion in Sri Lanka, while various other faiths coexist mostly peacefully. However, in that chamber, coupled with the narratives scattered around in the National Museum in Colombo, the artifacts in the Gangaramaya temple, on top of the Sigiriya Lion rock and other places, is the story of the corruption of the religious order, inklings of political struggle, and the various attempts to rectify, purify and put things back in order. The pattern is reminiscent of the usual arch of how things happen when humans are involved.  Prayers at the Temple of the Tooth Relic Sri Lanka has beautifully maintained roads, and people mostly drive safely. From what I could sense from the limited contact that I've had with the locals, most of them are kind. People in [Ladakh](https://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/learning-experience/dispatches/turtuk/566) were also kind. It could be sampling bias, Buddhism, or simply that humans, on average, aren't a bad lot.  Temple of the Tooth Relic, Kandyhttp://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/learning-experience/dispatches/sansara/569http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/learning-experience/dispatches/turtuk/566"How high would that mountain be, bottom to top?" We took a stab at the height of the mountain in front of us. "Could be over a kilometer!" one of us took a wild guess. The property owner Mr. Ghulam Hussein suggests it is over three kilometers!  Climbing up to Upper Turtuk on foot had fairly tested our acclimatization. We weren't going to climb the mountain anyway. But it stands imposingly in front of the village(s) of Turtuk. On one side, we can see the place where the Karakoram range meets the Himalayas, and India meets Pakistan (Baltistan). On the other side, the valley opens up into a larger valley of Shyok and Nubra.  Mr. Hussein informs us that Turtuk has crops in both the seasons owing to its lower altitude, compared to Leh. AND, that it is one of the few places where Buckwheat grows, and that he'd treat us with a breakfast based on it. We weren't disappointed!  During the conversation, I ask about their views on being separated from Pakistan and becoming a part of India. I tell them how some elders sometimes claim wistfully (when discussing corruption) that British Raj was better than the current lot. He answers assuringly that he has never heard any of the people regret becoming a part of India. While the tour operators in Leh suggest that Turtuk should be a day tour based out of Sumur, I think Turtuk merits an overnight stay at the very least. The Stone Palace is a cozy stay on the edge of upper Turtuk overlooking lower Turtuk, and the property owner, Mr. Hussein is a wonderful host and a story teller.  The place itself is beautiful with all the elements of Ladakh in one place - the colors of Apricot trees, Poplars, the rocky and snowy mountains, the clear blue waters, a bottomless blue sky.  And not to forget the natural cold storage site where the community owns and stores perishable items such as Yak butter in the safety of the naturally cold store. Just being outside in the area feels a few degrees colder than the surrounding areas. http://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/learning-experience/dispatches/turtuk/566