Da Black Mamba

A Bay usque ad Mare

2007-05-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Of elvii, paris hiltons, beer-chuggers, bong-smokers, nekkid people (tastefully covered with monokuro boo here in this blog), potheads, very small people with haight-ashbery street markers, borat, google-recruiting and what not - 7 miles, 60,000 people - Bay to Breakers, SF 2007.

more pictures here.

Louis Malle

2007-05-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

laurent chevalier. 2007. pencil on paper. blackmamba

ok, so we spend insane amounts of time watching these films, but never write about them. (no, we really want to write about cinematography ... but never do ... anyway). So figured might as well post one iconic image from films that are close to our heart, every week. first in the series - Le Souffle au coeur (Murmur of the heart) - for no good reason.

April 16, 2007

2007-04-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

This post is not about the deadliest mass shooting in American History, the Virginia Tech Massacre. Instead this is about how we are affected by incidents like these and worse. Why some gain more importance in the media, while the others languish in the unseen corners of our psyche?

Most people I know were shocked by the allocation of real-estate on the front-pages of newspapers. How does one decide what is worthy of a larger font and photographs, interactive personal histories, and what is not?

There is more to this biased attention than meets the eye. It is not just that Americans were killed in VT. America does not mourn thousands of its fellow countrymen(though significantly less than the number of Iraqis) who die in Iraq the same way. All they get is mourning on the public radio, once a week, where their names are read out between two news segments.

One reason for the shock and empathy in the case of VT is the fear that it could have been me, my family, my son or daughter, my friends. This is a university classroom, people are struck by the fear that if it could happen here, it could happen at their workplace, grocery store or parking lot. I think, this motivates the interest people are taking in this tragedy, more than they are willing to admit. And case in point, some of the most popular desi blogs have posts that detail the Indians who were killed at VT, while making a respectful but brief mention of all the others who died. Why? Is this a bias? Or is it just that we have accepted that we are wired to be more concerned about our people?

As a child, when I watched movies set in Europe or America in the early 1900s I would always wonder, didn't these people know that India and so many other countries were struggling for their freedom, there were famines and people dying everyday. How could one explain the indifference these characters display? They just care about their shallow insecurities, parties and fishing. But now, when I look at Darfur or Iraq, what have we done?

But then again, I do agree, at least in some cases, indifference is the least/We have to dread from man or beast, especially after seeing the havoc uninformed, insensitive meddling can result in.

There are so many cynical ways to look at why this particular tragedy has gained more prominence over many others, but lets not even go there.

Also read - Indifference.

Hanami

2007-03-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hana (flower) + mi (see)

scent of plum blossoms
on the misty mountain path
a big rising sun

Matsuo Basho

Yes, it is that time of the year again ... when you drive out of your garage, tiny white petals get swept away from your path. And when the wind blows, a shower of white petals cover the path again.

And what is better than not having to even get out of bed to see such lovely mountains framed by these beautiful flowers.

[All images shot from my bedroom window.]

Other rooms with a view - [1] & [2].

My Action Hero from the Land of the Rising Sun

2007-03-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

Everybody needs an Action Hero and mine is from the other Land of the Rising Sun.

No place is safe and no person is trustworthy – for a woman. It isn't just the faceless man on a nameless street that is a threat, even a classmate in the confines of her own high school could be a harasser. It is at times like this that solutions like building a (physical and emotional) cocoon around women to protect themselves lose all meaning. There has to be a place where one can be free and open to new experiences – for that is where life unfolds and people grow.

This is the story of Sunanda, my Action Hero. Sunanda was a year ahead of me in high school (I was in 10th grade then). She was a tall, intelligent, beautiful girl with an infectious smile. I had bumped into her quite a few times in school. But it was fighting that brought us together. :) We went to the same Karate Dojo, twice a week. And over a year we had been sparring partners a lot of times and had gone through many a grueling (to us, then) long run, frog jump or pushup session. Those were times when I could only envy her toughness, and her ability to always leave me with more welts than I could ever manage to inflict on her.

The incident that made her my hero however occurred not at an evening session at the Dojo, but one sunny morning, about quarter to nine, at school. There were still 15 minutes before the entire school met in the quadrangle for the morning assembly. I was at my desk, wrapping up some homework problems (perhaps) or maybe chatting with friends. Since my seat was next to the window, I looked out and saw Sunanda standing at the far end of the corridor on the first floor [1], where both our classrooms were. She was looking over the playground, with kids running around, playing etc. Suddenly Rakesh (her classmate, who rode the same airforce shuttle – a school bus of sorts) appeared and tried to smooch her [2]. I am still in awe of her amazing reflex – she immediately swung her arm and gave him one tight slap – one so hard – that I could see blood splatter from his mouth though I was about 10 meters away. He was in so much pain and such shock, that all he could do was stand there stunned and unable to move.

There were very few witnesses to this event, a few of her classmates and a stray audience, liek me, who happened to be looking out the window, at that exact moment. But this did end pretty badly for the boy (suspension from the school etc). There were speculations as to why he did something this stupid and it turned out to be a dare, some petty bet with his friends, who had egged him on to go kiss her. This is in my mind a more serious problem - how women, even your own classmates are so easily objectified.)

She was an instant hero in our school, and to say the least - our Dojo [3]. But the rest of the world did not think so (or so we were told). We were asked to maintain her anonymity, for knowing who she was would (supposedly) only encourage other (hooligans) from trying to harass her on the streets!

She might not be Rosa Parks, but to all of us who saw her that day, she showed us the power of standing up and hitting hard at the hideous face of harassment wherever it loomed.

[1] The 2nd floor in the US

[2] Well, I need to explain that this was not a standard occurrence at our school. People might have held hands or kissed each other in some remote corner, where such “dark deeds” did take place, but there was no room in our school campus that allowed such behaviour,...

[3]All that our Sensei had to say was, “Why didn’t you use your perfect roundhouse kick, while you were at it?”

[4] On a slight tangent, here is David Unger's hilarious, informative (but ouch) report on a Krav Maga school in LA.

This story is part of the Blank Noise Project Action Heros Online.

One Ring to rule them all

2007-03-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. (listen)

We have a new Ringbearer too!

And as with any new ringbearer, we are now at a loss, which ring shall the bearer bear?

All you wise ones, which one rings the bell, for you?

Narya Blondie

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly theme - Ennio Morricone

Nenya Waterboy
Evian Waterboy - Rock You - Queen (orig)

Vilya Austin
Austin Powers Theme - George S. Clinton

Dhyaan and the Art of Oxford* Maintenance

2007-02-08T21:07:00.001-08:00

Did you know - Zen is Japanese for Chan (in Chinese), which is Dhyaan in Sanskrit?!

* While on Bael Gaadis(bullock carts) - could not resist this PJ from Munnabhai

MUNNA BHAI : Circuit, bole toh yeh Ford kya hai?
CIRCUIT : Bhai, gaadi hai.
MUNNA BHAI : Toh phir, yeh Oxford kya hai?
CIRCUIT : Bole toh, simple hai bhai, Ox mane Bael, Ford mane gaadi. Oxford bole toh Baelgaadi.

Baawre Dhun

2006-11-30T19:02:00.000-08:00

Rarely do I continue to love a copy after seeing the original. But what are rules worth, if you don't break them?

Dheemi Dheemi from 1947 Earth is among my favourite songs made in Hindi cinema. I have so been in love with the raw tenderness (and Hariharan's voice, Rahman's music, Nuttgen's camera, Nandita and Rahul's innocent romance that oozes from the screen, oh, everything).

Dheemi Dheemi (on YouTube)

Betrayed, is exactly how I should have felt when I saw Raindrops in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Raindrops (on YouTube)

But, all copies are not equal. Transplanting the essense of a classic, halfway across the globe and making it work so beautifully, is art in itself. They have done a great job in keeping the most important elements - two beautiful people. check. excellent composition. check. great voice. check. beautiful tones and camera. check. Seriously, what the world needs is more copies of this kind.

Thanks to Kundalini for linking to Baawra Mann (from Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi), that brought back memories of these two wonderful songs.

Note to self: Refrain from having a single song on the playlist - which one ends up playing 9 hours straight (while at work). That song (aka my precious) this week has been Baawra Mann (mp3).

Death by Chocolate

2006-11-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

The black-bottom chocolate pie from epicurious. The most wonderfully decadent pie I have ever made.

Down the Memory Lane

2006-11-19T23:43:00.000-08:00

Ajeeb aadmi tha woh
Mohabbaton ka geet tha, bagaawaton ka rang tha
Kabhi woh sirf phool tha, kabhi woh sirf aag tha
Ajeeb aadmi tha woh

(He was a strange man
He was a song of love who wore the colours of rebellion
Sometimes a flower, sometimes afire
He was a strange man)

- Javed Akhtar's Ode to Azmi.

Kaifi Aur Main is touring North America. An extremely well-executed ode to Kaifi Azmi. Shabana Azmi reads her mother Shaukat Azmi's writing (Yaad Ki Raah Guzar - Down the Memory Lane) and Javed Akhtar reads Kaifi's poetry. And some amazing songs performed by Jaswinder Singh (which makes the show worth it even if you are only familiar with Kaifi's bollywood lyrics).

You get to know Kaifi, the diehard romantic (who wrote the entire script of the movie Heer-Ranjha in verse), Comrade Kaifi and Kaifi - the little boy from Azamgarh, who wanted to be a poet, whose child-like humor brings chuckles, (for instance, when he describes the song-writing process in films, where the tunes are set and then the poet is asked to fit a poem to the tune, he compares it to digging a grave and then finding a body to fit it, and goes on to say, how his bodies were known to fit just so) :) . And the intense sensitivity and pain, in the poems about his paralysis (where he compares himself to Sita and the lines of fate on his palms to the Lakshman Rekha and how he would rather have Ravana rescue him from the pain, if Ram could not make it).

You also meet Shaukat Azmi, as an innocent young girl whose admiration and adoration for Kaifi turns to love and see their life together through her words.

Commentary on the play, at Sanmathi and more on Kaifi by Bhupinder.

Away with music...err.. a way with music

2006-11-07T00:37:00.000-08:00

Spent about two hours last friday, studying Jazz Faces - a concert, a theatre, which means a much larger sample space :)

Sadly, had to resort to this kind of amusement at the SF Jazz Fest concert, with Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland.

Have heard some good fusion, this wasn't it. Great musicians, no doubt, are like perfect nuclei. But that alone does not make good fusion - that explosive energy. Energy like when Remember Shakti performs. (Listen at the cosmic elevator).

Exposed

2006-10-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

To the explosive music of the fabulous Fishtank Ensemble this friday. Roma, klezmer, flamenco and Japanese, French swing, Transylvanian... Amazing music!

Some of the songs in their new album Super Raoul -Bordeas , Ringo Bushi (or the "Apple Song"), Le Kidnappeur, Hopa Di Bida, Shamisen Master and Suite Romaine.

Listening to them perform at this tiny, ill-lit, but cozy room brought back memories of an interesting baroque concert I attended at a small church in Austria several years ago. Only with a generous dose of Snatch added in. ;)

Some really cool instruments too - do you know how the Violatromba sounds? or (ok, this might be more common) heard someone play a saw?

Culture Is Like Coffee

2006-10-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

For some, it is an addiction - culture, coffee... I am not one of them.

It is shows like the Double Take at the EMP that make me want to break on through (to the other side).

If you live in or plan to visit Seattle, and are either extremely interested in art or completed bored by it - go see this show. Here are the few reasons you should -

1) These are some of the best pictures ever created by some of the greatest master artists.
2) Some of them have never been on public display in more than 50 years*
3) You don't need to know art** - the audio-guide is one of the best I have ever used in any museum. It gives you enough technical details on each piece, but also lets you form your own impressions.
4) Just 28 images, so you will not be overwhelmed!
5) You can walk up close to the picture/photograph and actually see the texture - yes, you can get that close.
6) There is something for everyone - Manet to de Kooning.
7) At $8, its less than a movie to go see it!

The exhibition lets you plunge into a pool of great works, with no historic anchors or cultural shackles - so you are free at last to look at these paintings as they were meant to be. It lets you see the abstract in impressionist paintings and the realism/emotional core of post-impressionist or modern art. You finally see the great masters for who they really were - innovators, rebels, risk-takers. And discover the sea of emotions and grace that lies beneath the seemingly loud and rebellious art of the post-impressionists.

And what is even better, its not a tedious art history lesson, but something you will just experience as you walk through and see each set as it is laid out.

The curator, Paul Hayes Tucker, has neatly divided the 28 pieces into small sets. Some of the pairings are absolutely daring and bold. There are sets where the audio-guide is indispensable. But once the context has been set by the guide, you begin to have these amazing "ah-ha" moments, that are completely your own.

For instance, Gauguin and Yanobe - who would have thought?! But once you are walked through the essential color, line, shape, space and texture..., you slowly begin to see the alienation and longing. Initially the Gauguin is the one that seems real, but wait, isn't the Yanobe a photograph (and hence more real)? Slowly you see facades disappear and the art appear.

Gauguin

Yanobe

Another set shows you how even great artists sit on shoulders of giants who preceeded them. Here is a perfect example, the Grand Canal in Venice. Over centuries so many renowned artists had painted it, that Monet is said to have been absolutely reclutant to go there - what could his work possibly add?

But as you can see below, his work is a culmination of sorts, of all the great artists before him - Canaletto's photographic accuracy, Turner's dream-like hazy quality, Manet's bold strokes. Now when you look at Monet's Grand Canal, you see how all these pieces contribute their own influences to his and yet, his work is just as unique.

Canaletto	Turner
Manet	Monet

And no visit to a gallery is complete, until you discover a few new artists. One of my artist-discoveries here was - Eric Fischl (below, is his - Krefeld Project, Bedroom, #6 (Surviving the Fall Meant Using You for Handholds) (2004)).

Makes you almost lookaway, like you are going to be caught peeping through the blinds...

* They might never be displayed in public ever again - they are from Paul Allen's personal collection.

** And a very accessible introductory video featuring Dr. Neils Crane (aye, of Fraiser fame) and the curator Paul Tucker.

Rang De

2006-09-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

sardar. 2006. pastels on paper. blackmamba
(Inspired by a photograph tagged INDIA on Flickr.)

no writing is happening, what to do. some portraits are happening though, so here is one.

Pining for the Opposite of Loneliness

2006-09-10T00:54:00.000-07:00

Once in a while, there comes a movie that leaves you in awe. But these are the movies where you watch the movie and then all the other "bonus features" the DVD has to offer... and watch the movie again with the director's commentary (yes, you do, just admit it).

Then there are movies where one element simply stuns you. It could be the music or an actor or the cinematography. It is as if you have spotted a work of art - you don't need to watch the additional scenes or have the director point out things to you. No handholding required. You can just watch the movie over and over again, to catch that one element.

Fa yeung nin wa (In the Mood for Love) is one of them movies. But this is not a review of the movie, or the director (Wong Kar Wai). Both are fabulous(, if you really need to know).

It is just about my impressions on the costumes and art direction in the film (both by William Chang). Costumes? Art Direction...?! I know, I know...elements that are often taken for granted. After all, how can it matter what someone wears, as long as it looks authentic and the same goes with the sets. Watch this movie - to see the power clothes can have on your emotions.

Art Direction. The color palette here is predominantly sepia and lighting adds just the right tone to all the colors. The movie is set in the Hong Kong of the 60s. Kar Wai has not taken upon himself to recreate more than a few fixed indoor locations - crowded apartments, offices, a diner and a small place to grab a quick meal. And some dimly lit streets. Nothing else. Oh yes, the mirrors and curtains, the rain and (cigarette) smoke. The entire movie is closed in on the two main characters. But you could not care less about the rest.

To see what I mean, just look for the repeated scenes where Cheung goes out with her tiffin-carrier type box to get dinner from a hole-in-the-wall diner. The exposed lightbulbs and the depressed and exhausted men, the walls, her wait and the walk back home. As a director, I admire Kar Wai, for having put so much faith in these elements. He does get to choregraph the slow motion moves. But after a while, you realize that the slow motion shots are just so you can drink in all the images and carefully hold them inside of you. For words are hardly the best way to convey a mood this intense.

Maggie Cheung's cheongsams (about 20 of them, I think) can add about 4 more layers of depth to the story. The high collar, fitted style, her coiffured hair, impeccable makeup and those dagger heels. All this just throws her right in character - its almost like one of those ornately twisted and braided bamboo displays you see in chinese stores. Her stifled expressions and few words are almost a distraction. All you need to do is watch her as she sits or stands or moves in these cheongsams.

At the end of it, you are not in love, but in the mood for it, most definitely.

"It was from an essay of G. K. Chesterton's on a fairly unknown painter called G. F. Watts. "Man knows that there are in the soul tints more bewildering, more numberless, and more nameless than the colors of an autumn forest. . . . Yet he seriously believes that these things can every one of them, in all their tones and semitones, in all their blends and unions, be accurately represented by an arbitrary system of grunts and squeals. He believes that an ordinary civilized stockbroker can really produce out of his own inside noises which denote all the mysteries of memory and all the agonies of desire." In other words, language can never accommodate the enormous reality beyond it...." (src: a PEN article on Borges)

* The title comes from the wonderful little book - Everything is Illuminated... rather the motion picture based on the same. Alex Perchov, the Ukranian has a 'premium' english vocabulary. Go watch ;)

Long live Pluto!

2006-08-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

The God of the Dead is Dead[1]. After 76 years as a planet, Pluto has been demoted.

Given that it takes the "drawf planet" 248.5 earth-years to make one circle of the sun. It has only been a full planet for about one-fourth of a year - one season?! So, alas! Now it will be the long winter of its discontent [2].

[1] Plu·to
n.

Roman Mythology. The god of the dead and the ruler of the underworld.
The ninth and usually farthest planet from the sun, having a sidereal period of revolution about the sun of 248.5 years, 4.4 billion kilometers (2.8 billion miles) distant at perihelion and 7.4 billion kilometers (4.6 billion miles) at aphelion, and a diameter less than half that of Earth.

[src: answers.com]

[2]the Unfinished, sent before his time into this breathing world, scarce half made up - bit would work nicely, too.

Song of the Little Road

2006-08-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

I recently watched the Apu Trilogy and was struck by the amazing music. Who can forget the Shehnai piece by Ustad Bismillah Khan[1] in Pather Panchali? It takes great genius to get noticed over the startling, stunning scenes by Ray and to the Ustad, that comes naturally.

My lessons in Carnatic music (ages ago) barely help me understand the nuances of his performance, I cannot even place the raag he plays, but all that hardly matters.

"At the Everyman Cinema there is a season of Satyajit Ray. He watches the Apu trilogy on successive nights in a state of rapt absorption. In Apu's bitter, trapped mother, his engaging, feckless father he recognizes, with a pang of guilt, his own parents. But it is the music above all that grips him, dizzyingly complex interplays between drums and stringed instruments, long arias on the flute whose scale or mode - he does not know enough about music theory to be sure which - catches at his heart, sending him into a mood of sensual melancholy that last long after the film has ended.." -J.M. Coetzee's Youth

Notes:
[1] May his soul rest in peace. 1, 2, 3...

[2] Song of the Little Road is Pather Panchali.

[3] Incidentally, there was a piece on the Saarangi that I heard this Saturday that was just tantalizing. This is the first time I have got a chance to really experience the instrument being played live (as in, not the cheap-seats so far away, I might as well have watched the performance on television).

This was part of a wonderful musical night organized by friends. The performers were an eclectic bunch - from grandfathers, to young mothers, to 10 year olds, to semi-professionals, to the sound engineer's stunning ghazal (from Umrao Jaan). What made it so special and inspiring was the love and respect each brought to his/her practice. I was more than impressed to hear that this was their 9th annual concert - given that it is all planned, set and performed by people who claim to be amateurs. :)

flying east

2006-08-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Octopi in the Sky

2006-08-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

and frogs, wine bottles, an elephant and a cow ... all soaring in the sky, on a nice summer day.

It isn't a Dali or a Frida... - duh! its the kite festival! Madness I tell you, absolute madness.

On the way there my friend tells me he had the weirdest dream - and someone chuckled and said, "Did you see a flying pink elephant?"
and I quipped, "How wonderful it would be if we could just connect a printer to our brain and print the images we see!"

As they say, be careful what you wish for, it might just come true!

And the craziness was not just in the sky, it was all around us.

I tried shooting a couple of clips on my digital camera - some maverick kite flying and a kite fight.

Of course, it ain't a Hamamatsu kite fest until a real kite ( made of paper, bamboo and hemp rope, and launched by a dozen or so people and held by a single person) flies!

Blast

2006-07-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

updates, info ... here

http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/

Municator

2006-06-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

YellowSheepRiver Municator

At under $150, you can buy it today. Many have compared it to the OLPC project's $100 laptop and fairly so. Both independently try to close the digital divide. The spec for those who are interested is here.

A demo at CeBIT 2006.

This reminds me of the very first computer I ever used (when the number of years I had spent on this planet was still a single digit (decimal!) number). The dB Spectrum. The whole PC was built into the keyboard. You plug the keyboard to your television and a tape recorder - any programs you wrote ( in BASIC) or any games you played could be stored on a cassette. I remember spending long hours on it with my sister, meticulously typing out programs that would in the end printout some banner on the television screen and playing games with the most original and thrill-inducing(chuckle) names like, bombjack and checkered flag.

Funeral

2006-06-09T10:04:00.001-07:00

death happens :(

What can you say about a twenty-something guy who died? That he was funny and alive. That he loved Girls and Making Jokes. And Life. And all of us loved him very very much.

A friend of mine - R, went missing last month. And yesterday R's family claimed his body from the police. His body had been found and buried anonymously, a month back.

R left home one evening and never came back.

Wish I had kept in touch. Wish I knew you would leave so soon.

Photos

2006-06-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

Photogenic:
adj. Attractive as a subject for photography.
Biology. Producing or emitting light; phosphorescent: photogenic bacteria.
Caused or produced by light: photogenic seizures.

"Wow, you look so nice in the picture."
"Is that really you?"
"If you took better care of your skin, you would look so much better"
"Did you get your hair set for this? It usually looks so wild"

And all along you thought that is how you looked - because you never found/took the time to look in the mirror on your way out.

Imagine

2006-05-30T00:51:00.000-07:00

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try

A little trip to Carmel Mission and the drive along the breathtaking Pacific Coast Highway

Dreams come true in green...orange...blue

2006-05-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

Folks the $100 computers from MIT are here - these are the first real functional prototypes. In all the brightest colors :) You can take a sneak peek on Flickr. And more info on the neat UI.

And now its time for a challenge! You buy one for $300 and two kids get these for free! - The Pledge Bank Challenge

propaganda ... err ... posters

2006-05-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

Fun stuff on flickr - USSR Posters. Though it claims to be all propaganda posters. Some are just adverts for plays and the circus. A neat collection - one for a play by Nikolai Gogol too.

Christian Gangsta Rap

2006-05-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

Just downloaded an audio recording : Conversation in the Library: Amartya Sen & Salman Rushdie (at the PEN American Center). And who knew I was a fan of (mark my words here) - Christian Gangsta Rap! That is what the mp3 file on their website is classified as.

If this is what rap is all about, can I have some more, please. For fans, here is a link to the recording.

Cannot believe that there are people who still believe intellectuals are mostly harmless. ha ha.

Colbert for VeeP

2006-05-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

While in the process of forwarding the Colbert roast of Bush video to a couple of friends, I came across this nice little ad on gmail.

The hilarity continues - Jon Stewart for President - because he cares!

and here is the team :) I love the VeeP!

The Vinegar Test

2006-04-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

Interesting technology for developing countries - a lot more going on, other than just cheap computing.

The vinegar test for cervical cancer - here.

"At the moment, five per cent of women in the developing world are screened for cervical cancer. In industrialised nations the figure is 70%.

Vinegar - acetic acid - could be used where the standard Pap smear is unavailable or too expensive."

"The researchers found that both techniques had a similar detection rate.

It could help health care workers make an instant decision as to whether a patient needs further treatment.

This is an important factor in areas where women live far from medical facilities.

Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting women, killing 200,000 each year.

. . . where scientists examine the cells for signs of pre-cancerous changes
It is the leading cause of cancer deaths in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The earlier it is detected, the better the chances of defeating it. If it is caught before it spreads beyond the cervix, 95% of cases are curable."

PCs for the 3rd world - The saga continues

2006-04-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

So intel jumps onboard. The tech review article here. A older post on Negroponte's plan.

"On Wednesday, Intel unveiled a product it has demonstrated several times in recent months -- the Community PC, which is designed for use in rural India.

That PC reflects design ethnography of the sort Salvador practices. The Community PC is rugged, designed to withstand temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius and equipped with a special monitor and filters to deal with dust. It comes with a software-restore key that will rebuild the system's software at a keystroke if the PC fails. Finally, it can use a car battery as a backup power source, which is useful in areas where power failures are a daily fact of life. The PC will switch automatically between AC and DC power." - The technology review

This is not a $100 dream. Its more than twice the price, but a more realistic plan. Because selling a computer is not the ultimate goal. To service it, maintain it and build infrastructure for all this costs $$ too.

Dr. Oppenheimer or: How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate the Bomb

2006-03-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

click here to listen

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that one way or another.

-J. Robert Oppenheimer

atomicarchive.com

The Invitation

2006-03-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts desire.

I doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure
of being alive.

IT doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals; or if you have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain--- mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, ---mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal, and not betray your own soul.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where, or what, or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from within when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself; and if you truly love the company
you keep in the empty moments.

ORIAH, Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

src

Nietzsche, Goethe, Boldness, Genius

2006-03-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!""

Friedrich Nietzsche

to tag or not to tag

2006-02-25T13:34:00.000-08:00

... that is the question...

books[1] [2] [3] ...! how quaint. people do that any more?

let me make it movies instead.

I start this knowing very well that I am going to miss some of the best. But what the heck, this is just a list.

1. Casablanca(1942)
2. Julius Caesar (1953)
3. The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957)
4. À bout de souffle (Breathless)(1960)
5. The Great Escape(1962)
6. Lawrence of Arabia(1962)
7. Doctor Zhivago(1965)
8. [Per un pugno di dollari(A Fistful of Dollars)(1964)
9. Per qualche dollaro in più(For a Few Dollars More)(1965)
10. Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo(The Good, The Bad & The Ugly)(1966)] Dollar Trilogy
11. Un homme et une femme (1966)
12. The Graduate (1967)
13. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969) Wasn't this the original cowboy love story?
14. Z(1969)
15. The Godfather(1972)
16. Le Dernier métro(The Last Metro)(1980)
17. Cocktail Molotov(1980)
18. Ordinary People(1980) And Redford can direct too.
19. The Big Chill(1983)
20. The Princess Bride (1987) Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
21. Chung hing sam lam(chung king express)(1994) If my memory of her has an expiration date, let it be 10,000 years...
22. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
23. Fargo (1996)
24. Kolya(1996) The perfect grouch has met his match. A five-year-old boy named Kolya.
25. Thin Red Line(1998)
26. Ha Hesder(Time of Favor) (2000)
27. Amores Perros(2000)
28. Elling(2001) They're packed and ready for the greatest adventure of their lives. All they have to do is get out of the house.
29. Ying xiong(Hero)(2002)
30. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind(2004)
31. Before Sunset(2004)
32. Brokeback Mountain(2005)

the black mamba in me
33. Pulp Fiction(1994)
34. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels(1998)
35. Lola rennt (Run Lola Run)(1998)
36. Fight Club(1999)
37. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)

anim+ (e /ation)
38. Antz(1998)
39. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away)(2001)
40. Sennen joyu(Millienium Actress)(2001)
41. Ice Age(2002)

A whole bunch of Woody Allen's - 42. Manhattan(1979), 43. Annie Hall(1977) ... and Tarantinos. and the whole BMW Films series.

The last movie I watched - 44. Walk on Water(2004)

ok, will never get done...and don't even get me started with Indian movies...

btw, veena, what % of these have you watched?

feel like a sad little chibi boy

2006-02-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

Don't ask...

The War Against Intelligence

2006-02-17T17:33:00.000-08:00

(A sign posted on a trail in CA, explaining the right of way)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood

...and stared at this stupid sign. Was reminded of those simple puzzles (questions that test your logic(?) skills)from back in middle school... something along the lines of, Sita is taller than Gita. Mita is shorter than Gita. Is Sita taller than Mita?

Doesn't this sign translate to, If bikers yield to pedestrians and pedestrians yield to horses. Will bikers have to yield to horses?

Is the arrow pointing down from the bike to the horse really needed? Is this one of the WMDs used by the ID-warlords in the war against intelligence? An attack on perfectly logical and well accepted theorys, like the survival of the fittest? Or is it just me, having a bad case of the frydays*...

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. - Rich Cook (thx nutcase-in-a-suitcase)

* Think the annoying co-worker in Office Space saying, “Uh-oh! Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!” Believe me, fridays can be just as bad.

Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata

2006-02-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

Sahir Ludhianvi (from Hum Dono)

What's cooking? your brain?

2006-02-06T16:22:00.000-08:00

This one is for all you cellphone yappers...

How to cook a (rather modest) dinner while you are on the phone? Easy, just make sure you and your roomate /friend /innocent-bystander /random-intruder-in-your-apartment / officemate have your cellphones charged.

A couple of other stuff you will need are - an egg, something to hold it in place, a hifi - and you are all set.

cellphone a --> egg <-- cellphone b

"Note: We cooked our egg during the evening using free local calls, if you were to cook an egg for lunch it would cost £3.00 - not cheap but you do have the convenience."

Be intelligent or Be square

2006-02-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

Veena's post reminded me of this new thing (actually old wine in a new bottle), that seems to be the latest craze in Britain. Debating. Some enterprising chaps across the pond, realized that there was a market for "High Quality Debates" and enter Intelligence Squared. Apparently, people are sold on this idea and are parting with cash freely enough to make this company a huge success.

Now, if you are wondering why I was reminded of the above by Veena's post - well, the idea is not just to debate, but to meet your match while doing it. As NPR puts it, - "British company mixes debate and dating"

That might not seem like a match made in heaven, to some of you folks. You might wonder, who would want to come home, after a hard day's work, to fight, argue and debate?! Well, there is a market for it too, as they say. Silence might be golden, but Arguments make the world go around :)

Waiting for Spring

2006-01-24T17:57:00.000-08:00

Click here for a larger version.

Remembering last spring. At Santa Cruz. :)

All life is an experiment

2006-01-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

“All life is an experiment. The more
experiments you make the better.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Brand new year (well, almost. Its only been like 2 weeks and 2 days) . And a brand new experiment (well again, as new as the year atleast) ;)

Over the years, the lazy self has wanted to read more poetry than it ever got around to reading. As if that weren't enough, the self enjoys poetry being read out loud. Which in turn implies exercising more muscles than it would ever consider moving.

The idea - Outsource the reading.
The name - pō'ĭ-trē

This is a pre-alpha proof of concept. So be patient :)

And what is this all about? A perfectly valid question. In an ideal world, it would be a scene from Kabhie Kabhie, where the Big B woos Rakhi with"Kabhie kabhie mere dil mein". But in a less than perfect world, the self has created a blog by recording poetry in its own voice - hoping others would get interested and add to the collection. (Yes, it believes that this will be a collection. Well, it also naively continues to believe that america will one day elect a woman president) :)

Poetry in any language is welcome. As long as there is not too much of @#$%!*, everything goes. Please try to respect copyright and other such brutalities that society imposes on the self (and the others).

As the collection grows, it will be indexed to make it more navigable. And yes, it will be made searchable by google (or your favourite extension of the brain on the internet). All that is still in the works. (Did the self mention it was lazy?)

About now you begin to have these great ideas on how to improve or support this blog. Or you might be thrilled that there is some use for all those flamethrowers in the attic. If you want to help, here are some ideas.

a) suggest a better name, a better tagline, a writeup about why the self and anyone else would want to do something like this.
b) record a poem of your choice - its easy. *
c) suggest a better layout
d) any suggestions infact :)

(until telepathic communication between us higher beings is perfected,) please email your ideas, audio recording, suggestions etc to

e) the self also appreciates kind words, dark chocolate, great movies, good food, lazy vacations and of late, has been interested in collecting mughal miniature paintings. Help with any of these would be greatly appreciated too.

How it works :

"What you don't do can be a destructive force." -Eleanor Roosevelt

pō'ĭ-trē runs democratically. As long as the self is the only one running the blog, it decides what goes. If you are inclined to join the club, you will get voting/vetoing rights too. :) For now the hazing rulebook recommends that one must have atleast three poems recorded in her/his/its voice and up on the blog before membership and voting rights are assigned (and now,it feels as powerful as Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List) ;) Ok, the other option is to be really nice to the self (for helpful hints refer e) in the list of suggestions). But the true strength of any democracy lies in the power vested in the people. So contribute and make this a better place, for one and all.

Aside:
The self is no great reader of poetry. (That it is a great admirer of poetry well read, is a different matter altogether.) It does believe that, recording poems in its own voice and putting them up in public domain, might in a small way, help coax others to do the same.

The self is a very sensitive being, with a huge ego. So it fully understands the risk involved in doing this. It worries that all this might just result in the brutal slaughter of its own precious ego. But what is that sacrifice, compared to the pleasure of being able to sit (rather, recline) and listen to poetry at the click of a button (ok, a couple of buttons, you nitpickers!)

Other minor details:
* Here are some ways of recording audio.
i) you can actually do it on any windows PC - (start -> all programs -> accessories -> entertainment (or multimedia) -> sound recorder) and get a .WAV file.
ii) if you own a fancy-smancy voice recorder you use to secretly tape interesting book reading etc, use that. :)
iii) if you are on skype and use it often, it is sure you already know you can save audio recorded while chatting on skype - try that. the self does not use skype, but it hears this is a good option.
iv) go figure a better option and let the self know, as it loves to learn about these things.
v) came across this really cool open source audio recorder - Audacity. Lets you do a lot of complex recording, multiple tracks etc. But should work well for recording your readings. This works way better than the windows sound recorder. **

It Hurts, Again!

2006-01-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hurt

I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that's real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar's chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

- Trent Reznor

Hearing Johnny Cash perform this song, can move you to tears.

Play on Real Player or WM

He brings all his pain, years of drug addiction, his struggles with his inner demons, and makes this song - his own.

Here was Reznor's reaction to Cash's performance.

"I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore. … It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning—different, but every bit as pure."

Hurting oneself, or more specifically, cutting oneself, is supposed to be one of these horrid hobbies young people in some civilized countries indulge in, just to know, they can still feel! When Nine Inch Nails, first performed this song, that was the core audience, this song was targeted at.

Cash was given these lyrics, along with a bunch of others, of which he had to choose a couple and perform. He had no background on this song.

Love Two

2006-01-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Two movies, two beautiful love stories. Two women, two men. Alice Wu, Ang Lee.

Saving Face

Story of a young asian surgeon, who is coming to terms with sharing her apartment with her mother, after her mom gets kicked out of her grandparent's house. And managing to date her boss's daughter, a dancer!

The first film by Alice Wu (Stanford grad, ex-code monkey, self-proclaimed geek). The movie is set in New York. There are parts that are homage to classics like 'The Graduate'. The theme reminds you of 'The Wedding Banquet' (by Ang Lee) , set in New York and about Asian-american families coming to terms with the fact that, yes, their loving, devoted, sincere, successful children can actually be - Gay!

The actors were all excellent in their roles (Joan Chen, Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen). One way to tell a movie will be good, is when you can actually relate to or love the minor characters in the movie and they are also played by wonderful actors. There is also something about first time directors, that add so much to the soul of a film. They add these tiny details, nuances in the dialogue and scenes that add so much more life to the movie and the characters.

This is no Ang Lee, but an excellent first film.

Moving on to the men,

Brokeback Mountain

After all the wonderful reviews, Ang Lee's direction, the amazing landscape and the two hot men, it was finally time - to go gawk at it all. (After all, my sister has been so smitten by Heath Ledger, without even watching the film - just the trailers)

Yes, when I said, two movies - I did mean an Ang Lee film - but not the other gay film ('The Wedding Banquet'), but this one seems to have swept everyone off their feet.

Checked to see where this movie would be playing in my part of the world and turned out that it is being screened only in two theatres as it is a "limited release" film! At 7:30 decided to race to the Landmark Theatres. (don't you love it when they actually spell it as Theatre!) to catch the 8:00pm show on friday. Drove around for 30 minutes. Raced around the block for parking. Ran to the tiny theatre - got in at 8:15, and occupied, what were, the very last seats - right at the front and ended up looking up to Heath and Jake, the whole time.

Have to say it was worthwhile. I actually caught myself crying (cringe!) towards the end. That is something, I did not expect, walking into the theatre. I loved Michelle Williams. She did a splendid job. The pent up frustration, the pain of being hurt by someone she trusted so much. Its beautiful. The same with the last meeting between Heath and Jake - there was so much frustration, love, helplessness and the desire to be in control. There are very few times, that one sees strong men - cowboys at that - cry.

Repressed Lives and Fireflies - Despair and Hope

2006-01-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

A writer, a friend!

Rucha Humnabadkar, friend, has come out with her debut novel. - Dance of the Fireflies.

UPDATE[02/06/2006] : A whole bunch of book readings in India.

Here is an article on the book in Deccan Herald. One in the Hindu. Another in The Telegraph.

Tsunamika

2006-01-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

A year (and a couple of weeks) after the dreadful devastation by the tsunami in asia, people still struggle to get back on their feet. There was an interesting campaign that caught my attention while in Chennai - the Tsunamika.

These tiny dolls of hope, created by women in villages around pondicherry, who were hit by the tsunami. (Some of her different avataars on sale.)

A Living Symbol

She is a symbol, a living symbol with her own life.

As her name suggests, she is a child of tsunami;
The tsunami that changed the lives of millions.
She is the memory of Tsunami...

She has been hand-made by women,
The women who live by the ocean,
The women whose lives changed forever after the tsunami,
The women who are exploring a new way of living,
The women who are empowering themselves.
Tsunamika is an expression of their creative fire;
Through Tsunamika they enter a new & wider world.

She is made out of bits and pieces of cloth
Left over from other works;
Made from what is known as waste.
There is nothing called waste in Nature,
Everything has its creative role.
Everything can be living & beautiful,
As Tsunamika is …

She is a living message,
A message of a new way of living
In which Life is respected.
A message of the Oneness of Life
In which love has a place.
A message of the sacredness of life
In which we can celebrate, together.

And life can be very simple
Like Tsunamika is.
She is our beloved.
She has touched many lives.
Now, she is here.
With you!

Tsunamika
Born in Auroville

-http://www.tsunamika.com/

Craving Perfection - In an Imperfect World

2005-12-19T23:27:00.000-08:00

Time and again I have heard people complain about how imperfect the world is. And, how nice it would be to get rid of all the imperfection, yada, yada. Here is one for you. The Fourth Estate, seems to take you guys seriously.

Here is an interesting link (yes, it is work safe). Of Illusions and how they are created in the mass media.
This was pretty enlightening - atleast to me. I always thought airbrushing and retouching was for over-the-hill actresses and other celebrities who are more than slightly challenged in the looks department. This model looks fine to me even without any of the "additions and subtractions".

The (Ice Cream) Shop Around The Corner

2005-12-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

"But where do you want to go? "

"Corner House"

" Which one?"

"On Residency road, right next to Galaxy Theatre "

"Wait, that is under demolition..."

"Ok, go to Victoria Hotel and drive towards Brigade road..."

"Ahem, you mean Bangalore Central Mall, no may-dum?"

Being away from a city for ages, can make you embarrassingly incompetent at giving directions and completely incapable of getting to a place, you thought, you knew damn well. The saving grace is that once you get there, the ice cream is still the same. You can walk up to the counter and get Death by Chocolate. You still have to wait around for all those young couples to get done with their sweet nothings, before you can get a table, to sit down and enjoy, the cold ice cream on the hot chocolate cake ... [This is(was?) one of the cool places where high school couples hang out. Atleast, they used to when I was young(er?). ]

My first day in Bangalore. Mom and I were running around the town trying to find clothes and jewellery I can take to Kolkata for the bride's wedding. Also some essentials like - a cell phone (a long embarrassing story - why are all embarrassing stories long?!). And in the midst of all that, we decide we need a break.

Enter Corner House. We get in hoping to get a quick Ice Cream snack and move on. But once we enter, we sit there and talk about old times. Laugh and talk and relax. Before we know it we have spent 2 hours chilling there. Not bothered by the fact that we are surrounded by atleast 10 teen couples, flirting and sharing their cup of ... ice cream.

Good times. How long has it been since you got the chance to sit down and chill with your mom, at an ice cream joint or a coffee shop (or a cafe, or a barista as they call it these days)? Loving it!

W(B)edding in 'The City of Joy'

2005-12-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

Celebrations continued in Kolkata. Managed to sneak in at the right time. Just before the Bride and Bill entered their home - as Man and Wife.

The celebrations mostly involved Bill's family handling all the appropriate bong looking rituals perfectly. A ton of very energetic relatives who managed to run the show just so. :) The bride, was not herself at all. She was busy being the epitome of virtue and patience (ok, that I am making up... alright, that was true, atleast with the makeup bit ;)). Estimated time for the face painting varied from 2 to 4 hours. End result - priceless. Some distant relatives were actually convinced that the bride was bong ;)

The groom was trying his best to keep up, with an interesting silk kurta, dhothi and topor.

For all the non-bongs (aka the bride's family), it involved hogging (awesome food) - most excellent fish and mithai, and lets not forget, gaping when any bangla was spoken - hoping we would understand some bit of what was going on.

Also had some other fun gastronomical adventures there, including K.C. Das, Flury's, roadside Chaat etc.

Did some mandatory sightseeing. Only could not make it to the Belur Math and Kali Mandir... Well, we need to save some for the next time, don't we. :)

If anyone is still interested in what I wore - here is what ;)

Now for the 'inside story'

The ceremonies themselves were filled with the hustle-bustle that makes a good wedding. There were people showing up from all over the world - well, some even hopped 4 countries to get there. :) There was a sweet cousin of the bride, who everyone is convinced, was there only because she has a bong boyfriend. (Well, time will tell. I am thankful she was around.) I was the offical photographer for the bride's family, and was promptly adopted by the rest of the real cameramen.

Given the amount of makeup and photo/video-graphy the bride and bill have been through in the past couple of days, I do expect them to have severe withdrawal symptoms. Friends, please don't be shocked if you knock on their doors sometime next month and see them dressed in heavy makeup, jewellery and rich silk, with bright lights, clicking pictures of themselves.

Bill's family was warm and very friendly. They did a great job of entertaining and feeding us. They are also a fun bunch to hang out with - in any city :)

This was my first trip to Kolkata - the city is very interesting. Not all I had heard about the city was true. It was much cleaner and organized than I had expected it to be. The weather was perfect - sunny, cool, not sultry - as it was december. I was not smitten by Flury's. On the other hand, all the other meals I had there were among the best. Most people I interacted with spoke and understood hindi, so transportation, food, bargaining etc was easy.

Victoria Memorial was very impressive. Got to see some interesting paintings of temples and nature from south india too - like the picture of the Meenakshi temple in Madurai etc. The park surrounding the building was very well maintained and being put to good use by the people. Though it does hurt to think all the money that went into building it, while majority of the people in the state were buried in poverty. Somethings don't seem to change.

The Indian Museum was huge. Totally beat my expectations. The sculptures from various regions and eras were excellent. Many were in very good condition too. Don't miss the ones from Java and Bodhgaya, the replica of the National emblem etc. The botanical and zoological collections were impressive in both size and variety. But I did not get to spend much time there.

The Rabindra Sethu and Vidyasagar Sethu were fun to drive by and on. The new bridge is definitely what any tween would call - neat.

Kalighat was an experience. Big crowd, people waiting outside and inside the temple ready to harrass you with all kinds of 'special' treatment you can get for the right amount. Beggars, handpulled rickshaws. A goat being sacrificed, right next to the queue for darshan. But also saw the faces of believers, who hoped this would get them a better life (in this world and the next).

More later!

Grooving at work

2005-11-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

Listening to music while working (or being at work) is a tricky thing. The music should be just so, interesting enough, that you want to listen to it, but not too interesting, that you get sucked into it. One of the rules of thumb, for this, is to go with songs in languages you don't understand. In my case, there are a lot of languages to choose from :) So here is a sample. A song in Japanese, one in Turkish and one in French.

日本語 :
clap your hands everybody

(you will need realplayer)

A cut from the compliation called Reach Series #1. Various progressive Japanese rock groups perform their version of children's songs in this album.

التركيه (صفه) ترك:

Mustafa Sandal, a turkish singer. Songs similar to some of our own Bollywood music. Some interesting videos. There are about 6-7 songs that are streamed from his homepage.

français :

Lounge music by Rouge Rouge. Cannot find their music online. But listen to it from a wonderful eclectic collection at Putumayo

Oct 31, 1984.

2005-11-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

That is my earliest political memory. A sad fact, that it is a political assassination, which remains etched in my memory to this day.

"Sikhs everywhere were outraged at the perceived desecration of their holiest shrine: on October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh. She was cremated on 3 November, near Raj Ghat and the place was called Shakti Sthal. After her death, anti-Sikh riots engulfed New Delhi and spread across the country, killing more than 1,000 and leaving tens of thousands homeless." - wiki

"No school today! Indira Gandhi is dead.(why is she dead?) Her own bodyguard killed her. (Is that bad?!) What on earth is playing on the television? (Some boring guy playing the shennai. Now another playing the sitar.... State mourning... great! Can I have some cartoons back?... Well, at least, they don't have cricket on!)" - my first thoughts.

Slowly, reality kicks in.

Our neighbor, X Singh uncle, who hosted the most wonderful satsangs at his place, every week (I was sure, everyone thought it was wonderful, mostly because of the amazing pooris they made.) It was at his home, that I ate my first roti-sized pooris, fried for everyone who attended the satsang. Made by anyone, willing to help make them.

And now, his son, Y bhaiya, who started college a couple of months back, is in danger. His parents and everyone around, suggest that he go and register himself at the nearest police station. Maybe he should spend the night there. Jails are the safest place for a Sikh to be, you know - they say. Maybe he should be clean-shaven. Maybe he should... (Why should Y bhaiya go to jail? What has he done? What harm have the colourful turbans on his head caused - to anyone? No one answers.)

Honestly, how does killing people, solve the world's problems? (Thanks falstaff! - for the c&h story)

Reading Veena's first, brought back these memories.

Greed is Good?!

2005-11-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

48(!!) CPUs on your server machine, with 128GB RAM. Fabric7 announced its products today. One of them is 8 way - 16 core Opteron based server. It makes my head spin. What can I say the CPU still rules. Now go figure how many engineers it would take to make the machine use its full capacity and actually do something useful (I mean don't keep choking it with benchmark test... its not a toy you know)...

Mythology can be fun. Finally!

2005-10-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Finally. A good reason to break silence :)

Found these two awesome animation films on the web today.

One on Sita. Presenting Sitayana, by the very talented Nina Paley.

Check out the animation here. This is really hilarious. Sita and Rama are this hot couple, singing and dancing around trees (Yes, I know. It totally reminds me of a million other Bollywood movies:) ). This should help you get over the scars Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan left on all of us, a whole generation of Indians.

And another, on Hanuman. A full motion picture, by Sahara One. Details here. A review from Rediff.

Ignorance is not bliss

2005-10-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

What you don't know can hurt you, only you won't know it.
- bumper sticker

Corridors, Acquaintances and Turning Invisible

2005-10-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

Its 5pm and I need my sugar fix. A dark chocolate cookie with chocolate chips, from the cafe. I can imagine the soft chocolate chips melt in my mouth, as I chew on the cookie. mmmph. Life - can wait. So can work, unanswered emails, and the rest.

I quietly make my way to the cafe. Passing through the long corridor. The long corridor that seperates me from my cookie. These long, lonely corridors. Cubicles to right of them, cubicles to the left of them and lets not forget, cubicles to the front of them!

And I see this acquaintance, making his way through the same path. Only he starts at the other end. He sees me and I see him. But, we both know, it will take 10 seconds for us to pass each other. Those critical 10 seconds, where you cannot look at each other, or heaven forbid, smile at each other. Sadly we have nothing else to look at or cannot even look busy. Its 5pm on a friday evening, we both know, the only starting point and destination is the cafe or your cube. Not a meeting room, not the lab, ok, may be, the printer...

We walk on, with a brave face (no smile, no eye contact). For 10 whole seconds, we are both invisible. We walk on, aware and conscious of the other person. But never once acknowledge the other's presence. Then, we are about 5 feet away. He smiles and says, "Hi!" and I smile back. And we have crossed each others path one more time. And boom! like magic, we are visible again. And, we walk on.

Why should just looking at someone - for 10 seconds, be so uncomfortable? What makes us look away? What do we fear? That one of us, might learn some deep dark secret about the other, by just looking at each other?

what poetry? - II

2005-10-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

Bumper Sticker Poetry!

Google poetry reminded me of this Israel hip hop group - Hadag Nahash. Who gained popularity with their - Sticker Song.

(please note, they were touring last year, in the US of A, so this poster has last year's dates.)

"The group's name literally means "Snakefish" (dag=fish, nachash=snake), but it is also a Hebrew pun. In Israel, people who have only recently gotten their driver's licences place a tag on their back window with the words "Nahag Chadash" ("new driver"). The name "HaDag Nahash" therefore indicates the group's ambitions, as a voice for the youth in Israel."

"One of their most famous hits is "Shirat Hasticker" (known as "The Sticker Song" in English), written by Israeli novelist David Grossman. The lines in the song are all direct quotes or plays on slogans that actually appeared at some time on bumper stickers in Israel, but the unique collage of opposing political slogans juxtaposed against apolotical slogans, parodies and so forth creates an angry irony." (Wikipedia, of course!)

From their (translated) lyrics:

"Wipe Out, Kill, Deport, Exile,
Exterminate, Extradite, Death Penalty NO FEAR!
Destroy, Eradicate, Overthrow, Mop Up
Everything for You, Friend!"

what poetry? - I

2005-10-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

Google Poetry!

Found interesting 'poetry' last night, while listening to Salman Rushdie talk about his new book.

Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing - Google Poetry. (note: you will need real player to hear this. Will post the transcript, when it becomes available. Anyway, its always nice hearing good Danish accented English). The poet, Pejk Malinovsk, reads his creations in the audio clip.

How does Pejk create this poetry? He types in a set of words in google and creates his poem from the search results he gets. For instance, I looked for "I wish I could" and here is my poem.

I wish I could

I wish I could
have been there,
I wish I could
but I can't.

I wish I could
shimmy (like my sister Kate),
I wish I could
fly (like Superman).

I wish I could
read for the 1st time all over again,
I wish I could
do more ...

I wish I could
go back home,
I wish I could
remember you.

What is yours?

Rebels in Waiting

2005-09-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

A whole generation of us, rebels, waiting for a cause. Biding our time on this planet, for something, to kick us into action. Opposing what we find. So, when a worthy cause comes along, we will be prepared ... :)

Opposition

In my youth
I was opposed to school.
And now, again,
Im opposed to work.

Above all it is health
And righteousness that I hate the most.
Theres nothing so cruel to man
As health and honesty.

Of course Im opposed to the Japanese spirit
And duty and human feeling make me vomit.
Im against any government anywhere
And show my bum to authors and artists circles.

When Im asked for what I was born,
Without scruple, Ill reply, To oppose.
When Im in the east
I want to go to the west.

I fasten my coat at the left, my shoes right and left.
My hakama I wear back to front and I ride a horse facing its buttocks.
What everyone else hates I like
And my greatest hate of all is people feeling the same.

This I believe: to oppose
Is the only fine thing in life.
To oppose is to live.
To oppose is to get a grip on the very self.

Kaneko Mitsuharu
1895-1975

(Tr. by Geoffrey Bownas and Anthony Thwaite)

Its a ... its a .. its a $100 laptop

2005-09-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

A laptop for under $100, well atleast in the works at MIT. An interesting feature is a power crank, which would be very useful in place with undependable power supply. Here is article. And here is more information on this project.

Apparently, up to 15 million of these test systems will be distrbuted among children in Brazil, China, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa.

'He said a goal of the project is to make the low-cost PC idea a grassroots movement that will spread in popularity, like the Linux operating system or the Wikipedia free online encyclopedia. "This is open-source education. It's a big issue."'

The Dance Within

2005-09-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

"Is not most talking
A crazed defence of a crumbling fort? "

A poet on my blog, after a long time. Have been meaning to write about Hafiz and his poetry.But never found the words. Hence the silence.

I have laughed out loud reading some of his poetry in quiet bookstores and fought back a tear or two in the library reading others. What can I say. Just grab a book of his poems, sit back, relax and let the pleasure begin. :)

Silence

A day of Silence
Can be a pilgrimage in itself.

A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
Its marvellous lute and drum.

Is not most talking
A crazed defence of a crumbling fort?

I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,

To yield to Light and Happiness,

To Dance within
In celebration of Love’s Victory!

From: “I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz: by Daniel Ladinsky.

My first Hafiz poem, you ask? After a long, interesting (and needless to say, absolutely pointless) discussion with a friend. I start questioning the usefulness/uselessness of time spent chatting. My friend smiles, but says nothing. Later that day, I find this in my inbox. Most wonderful!

What Should We Do About That Moon?

A wine bottle fell from a wagon
And broke open in a field.
That night hundred beetles and all their cousins
Gathered
And did some serious binge drinking.
They even found some seed husks nearby
And began to play them like drums and whirl.
This made God very happy.
Then the 'night candle' rose into the sky
And one drunk creature, laying down his instrument
Said to his friend - for no apparent
Reason,
"What should we do about that moon?"
Seems to Hafiz
Most everyone has laid aside the music
Tackling such profoundly useless
Questions.

- Hafiz

(image from http://www.sharadhaksar.com)

I was instantly fascinated. Why worry about the why, when you are having such a good time?

Reminds me of Madhushala by Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Bachchan is another poet who can make you, care and yet not care, so easily, that it can hurt.

Let me not forget, the reason (a post by Falstaff), I was reminded of Hafiz today.

Can I have the Time please?

2005-09-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

Cell phones, computers, coffeemakers, cars (or may be even my niece's fancy new pencil box)... and pretty much everything under the sun, seem to have a clock embedded in them.

Still, there are times, I would really love, to be able to sneak a sly glance at my (nonexistent) wristwatch.

When someone really nice (or important) is boring me (to death). Opening my handbag and scrambling for my cellphone, to check the time, just doesn't do the trick.

A friend is late for dinner and I decide to sneak in a trip to a wonderful used bookstore. There I find Buddha (!!), right in the middle of all the Astroboys, in the manga comic section (which needless to say, is in the basement-with-no-wall-clocks. Isn't that the exact place where bookstore owners would want weird comic readers shoved away, while the important looking readers come by, looking for latin/greek classics...?) Just as I am done scanning through the first few volumes, I realize, I have no idea how long I have been in that basement. Of course, my cell phone switched off (I am a civilized person in a bookstore, remember?).

I am on a trail. Many a times, I am drawn to go on, longer than I had intended to. Either by the wonderful little wild flowers or the humming birds. Suddenly, I realize, I have to walk back 6 miles. 6 long miles to civilization (and my car). There is no way of finding out what the time is. How long before the sun will set? Will I be all alone in the wilderness, in the dark.

I am chatting with someone, sipping some awesome hot chocolate, while taking (what was supposed to be) a short 15-minute break. Just about the time, when we have start discussing Gael Garcia Bernal, and both of us have no clue how we got there (considering, the conversation started with Sourav Ganguly and the state of indian cricket). Then, I wish I could check the time.

"To wear a quality watch and feel its weight; to know it is carved out of blocks of steel, not squeezed out of plastic, is deeply reassuring." - Sunday Independent

And I know, I am not alone.

The Clown

2005-09-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

Reading Shalimar the Clown.

Parts of it are classic rushdie,
Some parts are just pompous and fluffy...

Reading the different sections, here was my reaction -

Hated it, loved it, hated it, loved it...

Then, sadly, today, had to return the book, as it was 'On Hold'.

An affair left incomplete...

Useful reviews can be found here

hmm!!

2005-09-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

200,000 books! A dollar or less!

Friends of the San Francisco Public Library's 41st Annual Big Book Sale!

Only Three Who Have Real Meaning

2005-09-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

Like Murakami? Check out his short story in this week's New Yorker.

The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day

Murakami is the kind of author I like to read when I feel the need to stop and reflect on my own life and the strange things that happen in it. His stories manage to help me to pause my wandering mind and make me reflect. There are times when life seems busy and I don't want to stop and reflect. I cannot read him then. But now seems like a time when I need a Murakami fix.

His stories seem to have a lot more going on inside the heads of the protagonists than in the outside world. They always seem to be about a guy and the women are only there as catalysts, that cause changes in the guy's inside world.

This story starts with an interesting pronouncement by Junpei(the protagonist)'s father -

"Among the women a man meets in his life, there are only three who have real meaning for him. No more, no less," his father said—or, rather, declared. He spoke coolly but with utter certainty, as he might have in noting that the earth takes a year to revolve around the sun. Junpei listened in silence, partly because his father’s speech was so unexpected; he could think of nothing to say on the spur of the moment.

"You will probably become involved with many women in the future," his father continued, "but you will be wasting your time if a woman is the wrong one for you. I want you to remember that."

I find it interesting that someone would say such a thing to a sixteen year old. But what is even more interesting is, how it affects the choices he makes in his life.

I wonder if there were things people told me when I was sixteen, that are still affecting my life?! If I need a - Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day, in my life too.

Of Culture, And Polluting It

2005-09-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

Israeli couple gets fined for kissing after getting married in a temple in India. Each had to pay up 500 Indian rupees (about 11 USD) for the pollution they were causing.

I only wish, that people who dump toxins into rivers and air also get fined similarly.

"The Asian Age said priests at Pushkar's Brahma temple were so incensed when the couple smooched as hymns were still being chanted that they filed a police complaint."

Here is the article.

Network of Dreams

2005-09-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

An AI experiment on the web - GNOD. Kinda like a friend, who might introduce you to a new Author, Band or Movie.

Would you like gnod's suggestions? Check it out...

music : U2

books: Rushdie

movies: The Bridge on the River Kwai

Dutch Treat?!

2005-09-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

"The Dutch government will begin tracking every citizen from cradle to grave in a single database, opening a personal electronic dossier for every child at birth with health and family data, and eventually adding school and police records."

The article on Wired does say this will help raise a "red flag" to alert authorities when a child is in trouble etc. But really is this a good thing?

Would they also provide a record clearing option for the powerful? Will there be an equivalent of the memory erasure in the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (Don't you see a market for a record erasure service?)

Sign of the Times

2005-09-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

Graduation Speech

2005-09-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

Is this a whole genre of inspirational writing (speaking?).

For a long time my favourite one used to be Hindsight - Guy Kawasaki's speech at Palo Alto High School in 1995.

Then there were others. Steve Jobs' at stanford this summer - Stay hungry, Stay foolish. Which was kind of interesting. He talks about, how college is useless (I can only imagine the faces of all those parents, who had paid tens of thousands and were sitting in the hot sun, listening to this.)

One of the more shocking ones - Muhammad Ali's speech at MIT.

"Me, We"

2 words. period.

Here is another one I came across last week. The Johns Hopkins University commencement this summer. The talk by the President William R. Brody. If you haven't heard/read this one and like commencement speeches. ;) Here is the complete text.

And, here is small snippet for the lazy people! ;)

"I'd like to close with one last story that I think you will especially understand, because today you are receiving a degree from what you know firsthand is a very competitive school. All of you, I am sure, have along the way felt pressure from your peers and perhaps from your parents to get good grades and become accomplished, so you can go on to even greater achievements later in life.

Today, I want to turn those expectations on their heads. Today, I want to encourage you to do well by doing good. The trick is not to fall into the trap of thinking that the way you do well is to do so at the expense of others. It's not a zero-sum game. And I'd just like to relate this story to make my point.

There is another trustee of Johns Hopkins who I'd like to tell you about. His name is Sandy Greenberg. In his youth, Sandy was a very good student, but he came from a poor family. And so he went to Columbia University on a scholarship, and there he met his roommate, who also was receiving financial aid.

Now while he was a sophomore at Columbia University, he contracted an eye disease that eventually proved to be glaucoma. But the trouble was, it wasn't detected early enough, and as a result he became legally blind, while still a student at Columbia. I ask you all to imagine for a moment having been sighted all your life, and then all of a sudden being faced, in a very competitive school, with losing so much sight you could no longer read. This is what happened to our trustee, Sandy Greenberg.

But something else happened to Sandy that may surprise you. Sandy said that when he lost his sight, his roommate began to read his textbooks to him, every night.

So I'm going to put you in that position, in a competitive school like Columbia, or Johns Hopkins. If your roommate had a serious disability, would you take the time to read textbooks to him every night, knowing the more you spend time reading textbooks to your roommate, perhaps the less well you might do with your other activities? That's not as easy a question as it first appears.

But luckily for Sandy, our trustee, his roommate did. And as a result, Sandy went on to graduate with honors. He got a Fulbright Scholarship, and he went off to study at Oxford. He was still quite poor, but he said he had managed to save about five hundred dollars as he went along.

His roommate, meanwhile, also went on to graduate school. One day, Sandy got a call from him at Oxford. And his former roommate said, "Sandy I'm really unhappy. I really don't like being in graduate school, and I don't want to do this."

So Sandy asked, "Well what do you want to do?"

And his roommate told him, "Sandy, I really love to sing. I have a high school friend who plays the guitar. And we would really like to try our hand in the music business. But we need to make a promo record, and in order to do that I need $500."

So Sandy Greenberg told me he took all his life savings and sent it to his roommate. He told me, "You know, what else could I do? He made my life; I needed to help make his life." So, I hope you'll remember the power of doing well by doing good. Each of you, in your own lives, will be faced with challenges, with roadblocks, with problems that you didn't anticipate or expect. How you are able to deal with adversity will be influenced, to no small extent, by how you deal with others along the way. What you get will depend a lot on what you give. And that's the end of the story of doing well, by doing good.

Ah! I almost forgot. You probably are wanting to know who Sandy's roommate was. I think you've heard of him. Sandy's roommate was a fellow by the name of Art Garfunkel, and he teamed up with another musician by the name of Paul Simon. That $500 helped them cut a record that eventually became "The Sounds of Silence." Recently, we had the pleasure of going to Sandy's daughter's wedding, and it was Art Garfunkel who sang as Sandy walked his daughter down the aisle."

- President William S. Brody, Johns Hopkins University, Commencement 2005.

Play It by Trust

2005-09-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

(artnet.com, Yoko Ono, work date 1966-1998)

An all-white chess set! By Yoko Ono.

Ever since I saw this in an exhibition in the SF MOMA, I have been interested in seeing someone play a similar game. Last week, I got a chance to try a similar experiment myself.

I was playing one of these games that seem like an extension to tick-tak-toe. Except you have a bigger grid, colored coins and had to line up 4 of the same color in a row to win. After a while, we decided that both players would use coins of the same color. Interestingly, it was not trust that was the issue, but just remembering who placed which coin, is very difficult.

There were so many other things to think about while playing. For instance, the strategy, the conversation on the side, your food, etc, and then it becomes really hard to just remember what you placed and what the other person did.

I guess that is what happens in real life too. Its not just a question of Playing it by Trust. It is a question of paying attention to stuff.

The Caterpillar on the Leaf

2005-09-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

If Kerala is truly - God's own country, then he/she most certainly is - The God of Small Things.

Here is a small selection from an amazing collection of pictures, shot by my friend (Ashok Srinivasan) during his recent trip to Kerala. (And in the spirit of, Yaam Petra Inbam Peruga Ivaiyagam - he lets me share them here with you all). To enjoy these better, click on them, to get a higher resolution image.

The main reason these pictures captivate me, is the style in which they are shot, that make them look so much like portraits. Unlike most others where they are made to look like specimens under observation.

Just check the picture below. This is the first time I have seen a bug pose for a profile shot, and very slyly making sure the photographer is doing a good job. I strongly suggest you see the higher resolution for this one, to actually see the dragonfly looking right at you!

Or, this guy who seems to suffer from serious stagefright.

I have been lucky enough to experience a lot of things Kerala has to offer, Kathakali and a Sadya, the beauty of the beaches and the backwaters, the country sides and the pristine temples ( Veena has this interesting piece on architecture. Which has a bit about the temples I am thinking of here. )

Unfortunately, with all these big flashy things competing for my attention, I must admit to having ignored the bugs. But honestly, they were just not big enough to grab my attention. (Unless it was a bee or a wasp chasing me.)

Looking at the next one for the first time. For a second, I was not sure if the bug was encased in a dew drop?!

Wish my eyes would let me zoom in and see these intricate little creatures. And more importantly, wish I have the patience...

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
...
The Caterpillar on the Leaf
...
( Auguries of Innocence by William Blake)

Fruit

2005-08-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

Random fruit that made my (sun)day. Anyone knows what its called? I know its edible, as I ate it and survived 24 hours, without any problems :) and its sweet, yellow on the inside, with small little seeds.

UPDATE(09/01/2005): Yes! Found the plant! Knowing people, who know stuff, makes life so much easier :)

The plant is Arbutus unedo and here is how it looks.

Commonly known as the strawberry tree. Originally from the Mediterranean region. Used to make wines and liqueurs (hmm!) in France, Italy, Portugal etc. Can be seen in Southern California, as an ornamental tree.

Time for Some Poetry

2005-08-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

This is why I love poetry. So innocently, it can make fun of you and make you feel totally stupid. And seemingly, so effortlessly.

Dilemma

I want to be
famous
so I can be
humble
about being
famous.

What good is my
humility
when I am
stuck
in this
obscurity?

-- David Budbill
And another one.

The Leader

I wanna be the leader
I wanna be the leader
Can I be the leader?
Can I? I can?
Promise? Promise?
Yippee I'm the leader I'm the leader

OK what shall we do?

--Roger McGough

Don't you all wish you read more poems. :)

Of Joy (and how America makes it happen)

2005-08-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

Was talking with friends while at lunch. And this being summer in California, the week before school starts for kids. The topics were obvious. Disneyland. flying small airplanes - basically having fun.

Interesting thing, I am sure many of you have been to Anaheim too. Ever wonder how Disneyland remains so clean? You throw your trash, and millions of others do the same. No one collects the trash, but the place is always clean. Not one trash-can overflowing with garbage. Wonder why? Well, I know now. There is a world underneath the fantasyland you walk on. There is an underground cleaning force. Any garbage you throw, gets sucked in and cleaned immediately.

And that is nothing. If you are an engineer, here is more. They have audio over ethernet... no you heard that right. Not boring old VoIP. but over ethernet. And amazingly, they have virtual networks for each type of audio broadcast (ok, multicast for the nit-pickers). One for the music, one for announcements and one for emergency messages etc. Amazing isn't it. How complicated it is to make - Joy.

This is just crazy. But this got me thinking. Is it just Disneyland? Isn't all our 'privileged lives' the same, with some underground force, that is working to keep us comfortable? Am I not just another kid in Disneyland. I just don't appreciate all the effort that goes into the comforts I enjoy. Until the forces get angry and shake my life up?

Advertising space on - Trash

2005-08-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

What better way to vouch for a product, than the fact that you have actually used it. If enough of your trash is used cartons of a product X, then that must be something you like and have paid good money for.

When I see people willing to rent out space on their belly, forehead and what not, why not rent trash-space for advertising? Since most of us have semitransparent trash bags, and the content is there for all to see. Also as many of us live in apartments, may be we can leave the trash bags in the hallway for an hour before we actually head to the trash bin.

Even in the trash bin there are dumpster-divers...

Changing - Others

2005-08-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

"We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them." - Anais Nin

"The boy knew a lot of people in the city. That was what made traveling appeal to him – he always made new friends, and he didn't need to spend all of his time with them. When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own. "
-The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

Exposing Oneself

2005-08-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

Your blogs end up reflecting your own thoughts.

You write blogs, out of no obligation. Atleast that is how it starts. And later it might get popular, who knows, you might be the next Ms. Klein. And the Times might decide to do a piece on you. And voila, now you have a million readers.

But at the very beginning, there is just the keyboard, monitor and you. You feel free expressing your opinions about things no one ever asked you about. This allows you to 'talk' about things the way you would really like to. But isn't that what people pay shrinks for? To just listen to them? Well, blogs could be a form of theraphy I guess.

Then again, laying out all your feelings for everyone to read. And probably saved for posterity, on the internet, somewhere. How anonymous are blogs anyway? and, how secret is your secret identity?

Progress, suprises me

2005-08-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

"Do you have a USB floppy drive?"

hmm. Do others wonder about things like this too? I wonder.

choices

2005-08-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

'There are a lot of apparent choices in the world and not many are real ones...."
- Linda Ronstadt

And this was not on 'The Onion' ... I swear

2005-08-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

"Nike makes Barefoot Breakthrough." on wired.com.

Nike Innovation Kitchen makes a pathbreaking discovery - run barefoot, its good for you.

Check out, Nike Free

ha ha. The times we live in. Unfortunately they cannot make money out of telling people to run barefoot. So they have created Nike Free - makes you feel like you have no shoes on.

Anyone reminded of the Emporer's new clothes here?

"Of course, Nike is still a shoe company, so it isn't suggesting literally running barefoot. Instead, it's marketing a line of running shoes and trainers called Nike Free. The footwear is designed to emulate the motion of running au naturel." - Mark McClusky, wired.com

Complete article from Wired, here

Angenehme Überraschung

2005-08-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

Über cool surprise today! 8)

It has been only a couple of months since I started blogging. I am fascinated by how new readers get to my blog. Mostly it is a search on either google or msn that has leads them to my blog.

For instance, one of the most recent readers got here from www.google.de while looking for :
rilke malte verses "they are experiences"

I hope the person looking for the quote from Rilke, was happy to find this. (I had googled for this exact quote, sometime back, to support my theory in an argument, with a friend who claims to be a "closet poet".) Anyway, it was fun to read my blog entry in deutsch.

Another interesting search lead a reader to my blog. This time it was a www.msn.com search for: amitabh bachan favourite poetry

In this case, the search result was way off the target.

That is life, sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss.

Note: Angenehme Überraschung - babelfish translation for "pleasant surprise". Apologies if something is "lost in translation".

Berners-Lee on Blogging

2005-08-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Slashdot had a link today pointing to the Berners-Lee interview on blogging. For the uninitiated, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the internet. So it is interesting to see his thoughts on blogging.

"When you write a blog, you don't write complicated hypertext, you just write text, so I'm very, very happy to see that now it's gone in the direction of becoming more of a creative medium..." - from the BBC transcripts

And the entire transcript is here.

Nietzsche on Sleep

2005-08-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

No small art is it to sleep: it is necessary for that purpose to keep awake all day. -- Nietzsche

Gonna be a big man some day

2005-08-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Evian's Waterboy commercial. It is best of both n worlds for me. Water + Animation + Awesome Music + total Fun. Interestingly, this video used to play very frequently on MTV in India. My mom and I used to wait for this video to show up and have had a lot of fun watching it over and over again. The sheer energy and the life of the waterboy, I think does justice to the already awesomely energetic vocals.

I always tried so hard to share the joy of watching this, with others, but what can I say, the "moving picture" is worth a million words! Enjoy.

You can check it out here.

Disclaimer : I am in no way associated either with Evian and do not endorse what they sell and claim in anyway. This is just a really neat advertisement, and I view it as art. =)

We Will Rock You

Buddy you’re a boy make a big noise
Playin’ in the street gonna be a big man some day
You got mud on yo’ face
You big disgrace
Kickin’ your can all over the place

We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you

Buddy you’re a young man hard man
Shoutin’ in the street gonna take on the world some day
You got blood on yo’ face
You big disgrace
Wavin’ your banner all over the place

We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you

Buddy you’re an old man poor man
Pleadin’ with your eyes gonna make you some peace some day

You got mud on your face
You big disgrace
Somebody better put you back in your place

We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you

- Queen

Tolerance <= Equality

2005-08-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

Equality is a topic that pops up all the time. Women's lib, gay rights, racism, etc.. But each time, I end up thinking, are we really heading towards - Equality?

Or is it just tolerance? There is a big difference between the equality and tolerance. And, that makes me very uncomfortable.

Recently while talking to a colleague about someone else who works with us, I kept referring to a openly gay person, as this - well dressed, sweet person....(to his credit, I have to admit, I admire the fact that he chooses to be so openly gay at work). And it got to a point, where my colleague had no idea who I was talking about and finally asked me, "oh, that gay guy?"

I mean, why can't I just call a guy, so openly gay, just that. Well, because that would be inappropriate at work. So is this the equality we are all trying to achieve? Where you just go for all kinds of twisted ways to talk about the same thing, but are not allowed to just call someone what they are happy to be?

I am sure most women, feel the same way about gender equality. How many times has it all seemed like farce to you? Just a kind of simulated equality, that can just be totally shaken, by the smallest probe...

Can equality ever be achieved by fighting for it - or atleast a semblance of it?

Same Difference

2005-08-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

Low Bright.

I have always believed that a good story is a good story, it does not matter if it is set in a different planet, a writer's imagination, or something more mundane, like the real world, the same part of the world you live in. This was one of the very few graphic novels I have read - Same Difference.

I came across Same Difference, while randomly browsing on a friday evening. I read the first page and then the next, and then the next... till the end. While I had friends waiting to go for dinner and a movie. But they forgave, as always.

This is the work of graphic novelist Derek Kirk Kim. It is set in Pacifica (near San Francisco). If you are interested in stories that are non-dramatic and closer to life (ie, if your life is something like mine). Then you will enjoy following the lives of two friends, Asian Americans, Nancy and Simon.

I like that quality in Derek's drawings, that give the characters a kind of 'real' feel to them.

I also found an NPR interview of Derek.

Tailoring PCs for Local Markets

2005-08-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Intel plans to tailor PCs to local markets in India, China, Eygpt and Brazil.

It is common knowledge that each market has its own needs. One of the inspirations quoted in the article is VW. Apparently, the same Volkswagen van has 7 seats in the US and is configured to seat 15 people in China.

A very interesting snippet from the article, something most Indians always knew about themselves,

"He says the company can serve its customers better by treating each market as unique and tailoring products for it. In a phone interview from Bangalore, he said he couldn't find a used bicycle very easily. Then he noted how locals seemed to save and repair things over and over, including 25-year-old TV sets. For that kind of market, he said Intel might have to consider selling PCs that are easily repaired. In the United States, consumers don't think twice about tossing out a computer after five years."

That actually made be have an Aa-ha moment, right there. As a friend of mine commented, I only hope, they make the PCs that can be easily repaired by the locals.

Acham illai

2005-07-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies.

"And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

- The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

think. wait. fast.

2005-07-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

"I can think. I can wait. I can fast."

"That's everything?"

"I believe, that's everything!"

- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Interesting philosophy. When I first read Siddhartha, I had no idea where this conversation was going. This is a snippet of the first conversation between an ascetic (Siddhartha) goes to meet Kamaswami, the merchant, to see if he can work for him. This is like a job interview, where Kamaswami tries to find out what skills Siddhartha would bring to the job. The above is Siddhartha's anwer to the question, "What is it that you've learned, what you're able to do?"

Now as I go through life, I keep coming back to this concept. Would thinking, waiting or fasting help me deal with something better. Well, guess what? Yes; 98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed, these skills would have helped me deal with things better.

To think - to be able to just stop and think through things, without getting emotional and stressed.

To wait - there is not one skill I would want more than to be able to wait, when the heavens seem to be falling down. To be patient, take some time, breathe and then move.

To fast - I have personally not experinced this much. So will add a quote from the book again.

"And what's the use of that? For example, the fasting-- what is it
good for?"

"It is very good, sir. When a person has nothing to eat, fasting is the
smartest thing he could do. When, for example, Siddhartha hadn't
learned to fast, he would have to accept any kind of service before this
day is up, whether it may be with you or wherever, because hunger would
force him to do so. But like this, Siddhartha can wait calmly, he knows
no impatience, he knows no emergency, for a long time he can allow
hunger to besiege him and can laugh about it. This, sir, is what
fasting is good for."

"You're right, Samana. Wait for a moment."

For those of you who have not read the book. But I am sure, this has piqued your interest. You now wonder -

Did he get the job?
(no worries, , this is not a spoiler)
Well, yes, he did.

But I would not suggest you try this at your next job interview. What follows in this conversation, is very mundane. Kamaswami returns with a scroll and asks Siddhartha to read it. It is his ability to read and write, that lands him the job. So, yes, you will have to work on your other skills too =)

Accidental Revolutionary

2005-07-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

"I was an ugly child.

What can I say? I hope some day Hollywood makes a film about Linux, and they’ll be sure to cast somebody who looks like Tom Cruise in the lead role – but in the non-Hollywood version, things don’t work out that way."

How can one resist a book that starts that candidly (and that hopefully)! =)

One of my favourite heros - amazing guy, with a great vision. Though, I don't think, he thought about it that way, when he started working on Linux.

A wonderful read for both geeks and nongeeks. David Diamond has made the life of a young nerd seem interesting to the second kind of people. (I am sure all the first kind know, that, there are only 10 kinds of people in the world...) This book is, so, not filled with geek jokes like this.

Describes how he created Linux, very lovingly and yet very interestingly. I would leave the reviewing to people who are good at it. You can go to a nice review, by clicking on the title of this blog entry.

(4/4 in 'people who inspire me')

I, me and we

2005-07-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

"The Talmud says, If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?"

Wedding vows - EULA or GPL?

2005-07-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Was trying to convince the bride to have an Arya Samaj Wedding ceremony (A similar ceremony can be seen in Gandhi (script snippet)). Having failed to make any headway with the bride, who has this general love for the grand and chaotic scene - that is an indian wedding. Check out what she had to say after reading about the ceremony here.

I brought up the same topic with the groom (aka Bill). Bill is generally more receptive to random ideas like this :) (I think). Anyway, after a couple of minutes we realized, that most indians go through their wedding, with most of the ceremony being held in Sanskrit or Classical Tamizh etc. And, they have no clue what they are signing up for.

It is almost as meaningless to them, as the EULA you always click 'I Agree' to, before installing another piece of buggy software to your overloaded machine.

So why not a GPL or BSD style wedding vows? What would you include in such vows? Would you even like to say something like

Bride: I take your hand in mine in pursuit of righteousness for the benefit of both our families. I will stand by you. May we be provided with prosperity and offspring and may I keep you splendidly radiant as the rays of the sun. - part of the arya samaj wedding ceremony (http://www.aryasamaj.com/wed.htm)

Wedding Recreated in Gandhi

PRANAMI TEMPLE. PORBANDER. INTERIOR. DAY.

Simple. Austere. Filtered light. Featuring Gandhi – close. He is looking straight ahead.
Reverse angle. Across the emptiness of the temple, Ba faces him.

BA (a step forward): "In every worthy wish of yours, I shall be your helpmate."

Another angle featuring Walker and Collins, who are sitting alone, in the cool shadows of the temple, watching with fascination as Gandhi and Ba repeat their marriage ceremony for them, Walker jotting notes occasionally, but his eyes always glued to Gandhi and Ba, who are in part lost in memories and echoes of a significance only they can know.

GANDHI (a step): "Take a fourth step, that we may be ever full of joy."

Wide shot. Showing the two of them before the altar of the temple, moving closer to each other.

BA (a step): "I will ever live devoted to you, speaking words of love and praying for your happiness."

Close shot – Gandhi.

GANDHI: "Take a fifth step, that we may serve the people."
BA: "I will follow close behind you and help to serve the people."

Featuring Walker, now too entranced by the ceremony, by the depth of layered emotions in Gandhi and Ba's voices and eyes to take any notes . . .

GANDHI: "Take a sixth step, that we may follow our vows in life."
BA: "I will follow you in all our vows and duties."

Ba and Gandhi. Near to meeting now.

GANDHI (a last step): "Take the seventh step, that we may ever live as friends."

Ba takes the last step, so that they are face to face. A beat.

BA: "You are my best friend . . . my highest guru, and my sovereign lord."

For a moment their eyes hold – the many dreams, and hopes and pain – the love of many years.
Walker watches, his own face taut with emotion.
Resume Gandhi and Ba. And Gandhi slowly lifts his hand.

GANDHI: Then I put a sweetened wheat cake in her mouth.

He touches Ba's lips with his extended fingers and she kisses them gently.

BA: And I put a sweetened wheat cake in his mouth.

She has lifted her fingers to his mouth and he kisses them gently.
Featuring Walker and Collins both touched, the overtly cynical American obviously even more than the likeable Englishman.
Gandhi turns to them.

GANDHI: And with that we were pronounced man and wife. (Solemnly) We were both thirteen . . .

(acknowledgement : http://www.hundland.com/scripts/Gandhi.htm)

Laptop mighter than razor?

2005-07-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

News bite from the inquirer, a laptop generates enough heat to burn the user's pants and set off the smoke detector in a plane, which almost brought the plane down. you can find it here

This is about the same time everyone keeps talking about how low power design is as important as speed ... The amount of heat a computer can generate is impressive (not very impressive from an engineering point of view, though...)

Does this mean a bunch of geeks armed with laptops (esp. with the right overclocking etc) can be as dangerous as any trained armed insurgent?

Does it mean people will have to check-in their laptops too? So, now you can neither shave nor play games or look busy with emails on a plane? Laptops go up in the list of evil things you cannot carry into an airplane? Razors and forks are not the only tools of the devil, enter a new cousin.... the laptop =)

well...well...

Tribes

2005-07-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

Interesting audio-visual piece by Fred Conrad of the NYT. He catalogs the different tribes in New York City. LDS missionaries, Goths, Sand Hogs, Messengers, and I hope there is more to come.

Wonder what the tribes of Silicon Valley would look like, geeks, hackers, artists, venture capitalists, ...

Tribe (from the Merriam-Webster online )

tribe
Pronunciation: 'trIb
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin tribus, a division of the Roman people, tribe
1 a : a social group comprising numerous families, clans, or generations together with slaves, dependents, or adopted strangers b : a political division of the Roman people orig. representing one of the three original tribes of ancient Rome c : PHYLE
2 : a group of persons having a common character, occupation, or interest
3 : a category of taxonomic classification ranking below a subfamily; also : a natural group irrespective of taxonomic rank

Wislawa Szymborska

2005-07-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

Ready for another poet(ess) yet? Well, let me add another one of my favourites - Wislawa Szymborska. Another poet whose translated works I love. She is a polish poetess who gained much deserved recognition in the English speaking world, in the mid 90s, after winning the Nobel prize (for literature...in case anyone was confused =) ).

I was particularly impressed by the fact that she caught the Nobel committee's attention without using any 'major' cause or high drama, as a crutch. Her poems tend to deal with the 'mundane' and 'simple' things. If I were to look for an analogy in Bollywood, her poems are more like the Farooque Sheikh films, as opposed to the Amitabh Bachan blockbusters. There is no high drama and larger than life images, but simple, elegant and touching potrayal of real life and issues people deal with.

Here is a wonderful poem called Funeral (find the poem at the very end of this link). Of course, it is copyrighted yada yada, so here are a small snippets.

From Funeral,

"so suddenly, who would've expected it"

"stress and cigarettes, I told him"

...

"unwrap these flowers"

"his brother's heart did him in too, must run in the family"

...

"good-bye Ma'am"

"let's go grab a beer somewhere"
...

"I'm going this way"

"we're not"

If you enjoyed that, you must try her first poem that caught my attention, True Love. Addicted yet?! =) Then here, a link to a large collection of her poems.

Falling in love ... with Rilke

2005-07-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

Falling in love with a poem is a very exciting and equally inexplicable thing. It happens time and again. But everytime, its a whole new pain and pleasure!

The first Rilke poem I read was called the Spanish Dancer. Ah! the images it creates in your mind. I cannot see a flamengo dancer now and not think of this poem. Unfortunately, I have to be happy with reading the english translation for now. I can only imagine the how beautiful it must be in german!

If you did like Spanish Dancer, try You.

"For verses are not, as people imagine, simply feelings (those one has early enough), -they are experiences. For the sake of a single verse, one must see many cities, men and things, one must know the animals, one must feel how the birds fly and know the gesture with which the little flowers open in the morning."
-Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (Rainer Maria Rilke)

byslexia... er...dyslexia

2005-07-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

Had this interesting conversation over lunch the other day. Dyslexia. One of my friends started talking about the mild form of dyslexia he suffered from. He had issues with letter and number reversal in his childhood. I have never been diagnosed or even tested, but have had a little trouble with letter reversal, as a kid too.

But as we were talking about this, there were some cool observations,

dyslexic people like communicating with other dyslexics!

If that is true, it would not be a disorder, but an alternate way of brain wiring(!) When this guy was in college, he used to enjoy lectures from professors, who were not known for being particularly approachable. But did not exactly love lectures from 'popular' professors. As this pattern kept repeating, he made rounds of the offices of each of these profs and guess what -- the profs whose lectures he liked, turned out to be mildly dyslexic too!

Now that is a interesting theory. need to try my own experiment on this.

Another interesting observation,

"Some studies have concluded that speakers of languages whose orthography has a strong correspondence between letter and sound (e.g. Korean and Italian) have a much lower incidence of dyslexia than speakers of languages where the letter is less closely linked to the sound (e.g. English and French)." (source: http://www-tech.mit.edu/V121/N12/shorts2_12.12w.html)

Life of its Own - 6 deg experiment?

2005-07-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

Does it ever amaze you that things have a tendency to have a life of their own. And how information tends to spread like a dead skunk's stink?

Some things get created with a simple, limited purpose and then go on to have a life of their own. A small incident that happened to me recently reminded me of this.

I got back from my vacation and had a ton of pictures (who doesn't). And after a month of procarsination, uploaded them to a free photosharing website. Before sharing the pictures, I created a totally innocent looking username and password, so anyone interested in viewing the pictures would have access to my pictures on this photosharing website.

I sent the 'invite' to see my pictures (and the login information) to some of my friends and colleagues. A week later, I go back to check some of my pictures and guess what? The account I created already has a life of its own! There are pictures of people from the farthest corners of the world?! People I know nothing about.

Is this turning into my own tiny 6-degrees experiment?

Number 27

2005-07-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Check out this dude's website. Jonathan J. Harris. Some very cool visual representations of things that are all around you.

Got there because of the interesting tenbyten.

Ok, these should be in links... it will get there. until then, it will be here :)

Remapping the world

2005-07-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Haven't we all come a long way since the world was mapped just based on the physical distances? Want a new perspective on the world around you? Try these,

Check out the different maps - a different perspective never hurts =)

And, a new system of cartography, based on how long it actually takes to get from point A to point B, in this global village, that we live in today.

Water is something I care about very much. This was the map there drew me to this page.

Dare to Dream

2005-07-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi, the man behind the Oberoi hotels.

Going down the list of people I admire most.

'Dare to Dream' is a biography, which I read eons back. From what I remember this is an excellent book, which tells the story of a man who pretty much built an empire from scratch.

He was born in a small village in Pakistan. Was brought up by a very enterprising mother. One very interesting episode that I still remember is, how he pawned all his wife's jewellery to get his first hotel in Calcutta.

(3/4 in 'people who inspire me')