V Belong Here

Still Feeling Sorry about Google Reader

2012-01-28T17:48:00.000+05:30

A griping post.

The worst thing that happened last year was the Iron Curtain that fell over Google Reader - when it came to life all of a sudden, I had great hopes for it. It promised a personalised web: in the first week, search results showed up pages from people I were following, and pages I had bookmarked on Delicious, and from the subscribed tags on Delicious. It was brilliant : when you google, say, Brecht, you might get study notes and stuff on the first page of its results- but not on Reader. Reader gave you results that mattered to you.

You use the web for these three things : find, keep and share stuff. Facebook and Twitter are great for sharing stuff, and indirectly finding stuff. But there is no way for you to keep those stuff if you don't do something about it. Try searching Twitter or Facebook for something you noticed a couple of weeks bacjk.

All Google had to do was make it easy to subscribe to the RSS of any particular public page, and create a more easier user interface for sharing stuff from Reader. I used pull in stuff from Twitter and Facebook for safekeeping, sure that I could retrieve them as and when I wanted to do. All that was not to be.

Google Plus is trying to do something that Facebook and Twitter are doing extraordinarily well. But with Google Reader with its superior search engine, they could have given us a personalised web. Google's failure to see this is painful, to say the least.

Two Honourable Gentlemen

2011-08-06T12:39:00.002+05:30

"Every person who does a job faces some conflict of interest or the other. There are many people who work for employers whose practices they may not agree with but they don't quit their jobs because of that. Anyway, I don't really think about it as a conflict of interest because every time I comment, I am being completely honest."" - Sunil Gavaskar
"You have to see my body of work over 20 years. It doesn't matter who pays me. I have strong views on cricket which I express freely. If others are offered Board contracts, they should sign up as well," - Ravi Shastri

These two are pretty honourable persons- they are, if this Times of India report is true, they are paid Rs.3.6 Crores per year by the BCCI to sit in the commentary box and waffle, and what is more, it is mandatory for any broadcaster who is telecasting cricket matches from India to, oh, yes, include them in the panel of commentators.

Nice line of business, right? I believe that BCCI is rewarding these two gentlemen of extraordinary honesty for their extraordinary honesty. If only they send some of its money along to us, we are quite amenable to speaking our mind volubly and honestly.

Shame on Nasser Hussain, for claiming he is getting paid by the channel to have an opinion- what is wrong if you get money for not having one?

Here, we have plenty of opinions, we can run it any which way you want, but like I said, not being as honourable a gentleman as Ravi or Sunil, no one is paying anything to us at all.

But we are willing, and waiting.

Batsmen Should Walk- or at least acknowledge

2011-08-03T08:48:00.000+05:30

There is no way you can get it hundred percent right, no matter how good technology gets- even laser guided missiles get their trajectory wrong, what hope is there for hawkeye and hotspot? So, to wait for perfection is to postpone the adoption of technology. There will always be errors in the game of cricket, and we have to accept that.

There is a way to get round this, and to suggest it is near blasphemy- fine the batsmen if they don't walk. Let the bowlers appeal to the batsmen, and when the batsman refuses to acknowledge that he is out, the umpire on the pitch comes in, and when he is not sure, they all go upstairs. And when it is proved that the batsman was indeed out, he is fined ten percent for not telling that he indeed got an edge.

All batsmen, however great or small, who refuse to walk cheat, relying on the fallibility of the system to pile up some more runs. They need to be made accountable for at least some of the errors that plague this insane game that has become a religion in these parts of the world.

A Heavy Defeat

2011-08-02T06:02:00.000+05:30

Trent Bridge came to a disappointing end, devastating in fact. Ranklings apart, India is still a good team when it is playing full strength, though one wonders whether it will be able to do so any time in the near future. The players are not gettng younger, and every game carries with it a greater risk of injury, ipl or not.

This is a tricky situation, and unless you have the replacement players doing something brilliant to keep their place in the team, you can't really tell which way it will go. I'd like to have Pujara and Badrinath in the team in place of Raina and Yuvraj, brave men both, but they are obviously not great under English conditions. At least, Kohli could have played, though it looks like everything is not perfect about him.

The bowling is the problem area, where are the fast bowlers? Praveen is a game trier, and he will remain a trier, you need people who can do quick strikes, not one wicker per ten overs or fifteen. You need someone to give you a break and then ask serious questions about the new man in.

Obviously you can ask questions of this sort and feel good about it, India has just had a dismal performance, but if Sehwag plays and Harbhajan goes out giving way to Mishra, we might see something different. England is shaky, in spite of all those runs, you know their batting could land them in serious trouble- when your openers both can't outlast the new ball your team will get gutted one day or the next. Same as what happened to India.

England are playing at home, but with Sehwag teaming up with Gambhir, you might see a different result. A team does not go from great to worst in two days.

Compassion as cure for depression

2011-08-01T09:36:00.000+05:30

Ever had the feeling that we see the world in our own self chosen colour, and that the fact that we are happy or unhappy has nothing to do with how the world is, but instead, it all depends on us? I think it is true, and while there certainly is the possibility that you are deluding yourself when you ought not to be happy, it doesn't seem like it works any other way. Just take a look at those righteously indignant people fighting for truth, justice, honour and what not- the moment they get some power, they go and stop people from doing the sort of things they don't want them to be doing.

Anyway all this is of no consequence, it is just that I was confirmed in my theory to read that compassion and kindness go a long way than anti-depressants in curing depression.

Rather than taking anti-depressants, people suffering from depression have an inexpensive way out - practising acts of kindness and compassion, new research claims.

Acts of kindness or compassion might serve as an effective treatment for depressed people, say researchers from the University of California, Riverside, and the Duke University Medical Centre.

I am reminded of this news item about something Dalai Lama said,

By feeling compassion for others -- seeing even our enemies in a new light -- we can ease our own stress and anxiety , the Dalai Lama told a crowd of thousands, gathered for his visit to Atlanta in October 2007. Through "inner disarmament" -- reducing anger, hatred, and jealousy -- we create a path to our own happiness and world peace, he said.

This has to be true- depression is more likely the result of your screwing up on people in your life, than some chemical messing about in your brain. In most cases, of course. There will be exceptions.

The game's not cricket, definitely not

2011-07-31T20:33:00.000+05:30

This is merely worth a status message on Facebook or Twitter- sad truth is despite all the sanctimonious bluster of Sunil Gavaskar, looks like India ought not to have run out Ian Bell and claimed his wicket. The world might be an evil place, everyone jealous of India's supreme prowess, but this is not the way a champion team plays. Not sneak some underhand thing when you are all but beaten.

I've never liked sunil's sermons, and my dislike grows with age- his patriotism sounds more inane and senseless by the day.

Seems there's nothing new with cricket. Everything is justifiable. Sorry it is not Australia this time, it is India and where we would feel happy, railing against Australia, here we are, having to defend what is obviously wrong and misguided.

A victory of this kind is more bitter than any defeat.

Hope India lose massively from here.

Not so free ride in Bangalore

2011-07-31T14:04:00.003+05:30

I was standing on M.G.Road near St.Marks road signal looking out for an Auto to go to my Client place for work. It was 7.50 AM and for nearly 10 to 15 minutes not a single auto came in my direction. Autos were running in the opposite direction but I was hesitant to cross the road as already I tried one on that side of the road when I was coming out of my hotel. He was not interested and keen to go to City (railway station). In attempting to try at that side again I do not want to miss any auto coming on this side. Time ticked along. It was getting late and that's when a white Santro slowed down towards me.

The man in the driver seat asked me if I want a drop. I said, am going to Indira Nagar. He said he would drop me as he is passing by Indira Nagar. I got into the car and it moved. Sooner, I learnt that he is a part time driver, which I didn't realise while getting into the car. After initial enquiries he raised the windows and switched on the A/C. My alarm bells rang, and thought he could be up to some mischief here. Asked him if he wants A/C. He said 'No'. Requested him to lower the windows as I preferred the natural air. He hesitantly obliged. "I just wanted to check the wind flow as my owner complained of it. Nothing else is the reason", he said. Our conversation veered around our native, family size, and his third girl who defied tubectomy. We were entering into Halasoor (Ulsoor) when he suddenly put his left hand in between my thighs, and touched the seat. I was taken aback by his act. Asked him what's he doing? "just cheking the wind flow. my owner madam was complaining about it". He kept his hand there while I made every effort to widen the space around his hand. He kept asking me to keep it the way I was. I said 'no problem'. Within seconds he removed his hand. Was he really checking for wind flow? By the way, what wind flow he is talking about? "Sir do you have 5 minutes. we will go to the Sai baba mandir and then go?" he asked me. I said "no problem, I will get down and take an Auto from here". He dropped the idea and said he will drop me near at my client place and then go to the temple. As we approached the place I am to get down he accelerated a bit and I told him strongly to stop. He took a turn on the side road. When he didn't stop, I almost shouted at him to stop. He stopped and brought his hand again to my thighs saying "just 5 minutes". Bloody ********, I swiftly got down while throwing his hand back. Asked him how much to pay, he said nothing to pay and that he didn't give me lift for money. I knew it by then. I quickly walked away and as I turned the corner the Santro was slowly moving away.

I was enraged. That man has the right to have the kind of sexual preferences he likes but then it must be with like minded people who give their consent to it. I have taken lift in Chennai and Bangalore when in hurry. But this is the first time something like this has happened. The only difference is, the car came to me instead of me asking for a lift with a thumbs up sign.

As I entered the meeting hall at my client place, the thought that this man, I was talking about, is a part timer driver and that he is employed to drop and pick up the children of the car owner at school everyday, made me feel terribly bad. What can those kids do if this man approaches them (boy or girl) with this kind of intention. I am worried even as I type these words. God save those kids.

Gayle force is a cliche!

2011-05-08T20:43:00.000+05:30

Google Music

2011-04-18T19:03:00.001+05:30

Love this-

Make a QR Code for your Blog with Google URL Shortener

2011-03-15T13:19:00.000+05:30

I don't know whether this is useful or not. What you see above is the QR code of this blog. I suppose this makes it easy for smartphones and stuff to read this blog- don't know.

If you find it useful, please take a look at this post and you can make one for yourself (Wonderful blog, one of the best. Worth subscribing to).

The Plane Catcher

2011-03-14T15:16:00.000+05:30

It takes a war to ignite our inventiveness.

Rumour of "secret weapon": a net made of wire which is shot into the air and in which the aeroplane becomes entangled. http://bit.ly/dYVzGbMon Mar 14 09:39:55 via EchofonGeorge Orwell
georgeorwell

More here-

A considerable number of German planes shot down in the last few nights, probably because they have been clear nights and favourable to the fighters, but there is much excitement about some “secret weapon” that is said to be in use. The popular rumour is that it is a net made of wire which is shot into the air and in which the aeroplane becomes entangled. - Orwell Diaries

Fallling Curtains - Draft IT Rules

2011-03-10T08:26:00.001+05:30

Our apathy, given the resources we have, is unmatched. We seem to wake up only when it is too late, and then, we outdo ourselves in yet another round of righteous indignation. It would be far better to summon up a fraction of that passion when it might make a difference.

In the print edition of The Times of India, I find this news under the headline, "Draft IT rules threaten web freedom"-

Under the draft rules, intermediataries will have to notify users of their computer resource not to use, display, upload, publish, share or store variety of 'objectionable' content.
This includes ' infringement of proprietary information, blasphemy or abuse, information that could harm minors, content that impersonates another person or discloses sensitive personal information etc..'

Mubarak would have loved this. I am sure Gadaffi does.

I blame these people-

WARNING: No further hay till the son shines!Wed Mar 09 04:56:35 via TweetDeckSonia GaXdhi
SoniaGaXdhi

Chak de India! You have shown cricket can be played with a team that can't play cricket & that is indeed cricket as it should be!Wed Mar 09 15:38:02 via TweetDeckDr Manmohan Singh
DrYumYumSingh

Google and its Discontents

2011-02-28T21:50:00.003+05:30

It is a sad day when you see Google do something mean and mindless- I have nothing against Google doing something about content farms, of course.

But I read the sad news that The Digital Inspiration and The Complete Review- two of the best in what they do- which is producing excellent sum up of what is happening in their area of interest have been sorely affected by Google's changed algorithm.

They are not actually farms, if you look at the produce. Any self-respecting farmer would quit whatever farmers do if they are given The Complete Review and The Digital Inspiration as content farms. They don't produce much- may be a couple of posts per day. Do you call that farming?

Sorry Google, this is mean and mindless of you.

We are disappointed. People will find a way to go to these two sites, because they are one of the best in business, and any search engine that hides them in page fifty does not know what its business is. We will get round it sooner or later.

Google will the the loser, and we with it.

Hope Google does something about this. Something real Quick.

PS: Lest people cavil, we are happy to be labelled one among the content farms and laid to fallow. We have no complaints about inhabiting page fifty of Google search results. Or page hundred, for that matter. We would count it a honour to be entertained in Google's backrooms.

The Daily on iPad

2011-02-03T06:09:00.000+05:30

I got a mail today, informing me about the launch of The Daily, an iPad application, or rather- 'the first digital daily news publication' for the iPad. Now, it is from Murdoch's News Corporation, some of us may cavil at that. But publishers have to make money, or else we won't have quality content for our reading, right?

I think this is the way to go- more publishers are likely to follow suit. It costs about eleven cents a day to get The Daily on the iPad. The price is okay, you can share the web format of the Daily on facebook etc., through clicking a share button, so that is a good thing.

But then, it is exclusively for iPad I think, that does not sound good. But then, if The Daily succeeds, other newspapers will follow it, and I hope that one day, someone will come out with simple application that lets you read stuff like you read it on Instapaper in an ordinary GPRS enabled mobile.

I hate to see a quality newspaper like New York Times suffering losses year after year- mobile is the way to go. Hope they succeed with this. I am sure they will, for I read about two three days back,

Wireless traffic is already bigger than the internet was in 2000. Yes kids, mobile WILL be bigger than the fixed internet.

Mobile is exploding EVERYWHERE. Here in the West with smartphones and faster mobile broadband speeds, but also in the developing world where people are leapfrogging the fixed internet and going straight to mobile.- Business Insider SAI

The Daily Blog

Burn! Burn!

2010-12-26T06:37:00.002+05:30

This is so good, I had to copy paste it here- ENJOY!

Save Delicious, Yahoo- It is not yet dead, you are killing it.

2010-12-17T06:14:00.000+05:30

Delicious is going to be shut down. It is all downhill from here.

Please take a look at the gadget left of this post. This is the best I could do.

It was much more than a bookmarking site for me. It helped me learn the value of tagging, still haven't mastered it, though- but everywhere I share and post, I am looking for ways of adding tags. The tag feature is the one that tells me the site means business.

Read Write Web has a great article on it.

An Outrageous Pat Down- will this be America's Draupadi-gate?

2010-12-11T18:04:00.001+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

Long time readers of this blog will remember that we had no illusions about Obama. In fact, we preferred George Bush.

The recent incident at Mississippi airport, where the Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar was subjected to a humiliating pat-down, proves our fears right. Not that we expect the Airport Authorities to grant our ambassador any special priveleges- our babus enjoy far too much already. It is just that this is not the right thing to do, not to any person, least of all a woman.

What happened is that, though according to regulations, the lady is entitled to for a private screening (ick!), her request was rejected, and she was subjected to the pat down in " a clear box where two officers searched her in clear view," reports Sepia Mutiny.

And what does a pat-down entail? When you read it, you understand why Ambassador Meera Shankar felt so humiliated, she said, "I will never come back here."

According to Aclum.org,

"TSA says that during the new standard pat-down, a screener of the same sex will examine your head, shirt collar area, and waistband, and may use either the front or back of his or her hands to feel your body, including buttocks, around breasts, and between the legs, feeling up to the top of the thigh. Women in tight skirts that don't allow an agent to feel the thigh area may be asked to remove the skirt in a private screening area and will be given a gown or towel to put on."

(Thanks, Tory, for the link)

We don't know how far they got ahead with the pat-down, but ambassador or not, this is plain humiliation for no reason. I think this is a proof, if we ever needed one, that the legislative authorities in US have lost their head.

It is a sad state of affairs, given the constitution of that nation, and the ideals enshrined by its founding fathers.

The Chrome Web Store

2010-12-08T17:50:00.002+05:30

I suppose you know all about it, Google has unveiled its Chrome Web Store today, whatever it is. I've been caught up with it, and wasted about three hours or so- installing and uninstalling applications. Much of what appears in the store looks useless, being links to websites, but I found some gems. Do take a look at this application, for instance- Write Space

Image by kengo via Flickr

The Paranormal Powers of Erotica!

2010-12-05T07:29:00.000+05:30

Elegant writing, but if ever there is a justification to go WTF!, this is it- you already knew erotica turned you on, but even your paranormal powers perk up, you knew that?-

"How strong do they need to be? That bring us to their most philosophical point: They say the experiments were "exploratory" work, where the researchers didn't define what they were looking for or how they would know they'd found. In the experiment with the erotic pictures, Bem, they write, "tested not just erotic pictures, but also neutral pictures, negative pictures, positive pictures, and pictures that were romantic but non-erotic. Only the erotic pictures showed any evidence for precognition." That's an exploratory experiment, or, as they call it, "a fishing expedition." Lemuel Moyé calls it "data dredging.""

- Psi Skeptics: If Psychologists Find Signs of ESP, Maybe Psychologists Have a Problem | Mind Matters | Big Think

The Outsourcing of Health

2010-12-04T08:16:00.000+05:30

The outsourcing of drug trials-

Many of today’s trials still take place in developed countries, such as

Britain, Italy, and Japan. But thousands are taking place in countries with

large concentrations of poor, often illiterate people, who in some cases

sign consent forms with a thumbprint, or scratch an “X.” Bangladesh has been

home to 76 clinical trials. There have been clinical trials in Malawi (61),

the Russian Federation (1,513), Romania (876), Thailand (786), Ukraine

(589), Kazakhstan (15), Peru (494), Iran (292), Turkey (716), and Uganda

(132). Throw a dart at a world map and you are unlikely to hit a spot that

has escaped the attention of those who scout out locations for the

pharmaceutical industry.

The two destinations that one day will eclipse all the others, including

Europe and the United States, are China (with 1,861 trials) and India (with

1,457)."

It does no good to anyone, of course-

"Once upon a time, the drugs Americans took to treat chronic diseases, clear

up infections, improve their state of mind, and enhance their sexual

vitality were tested primarily either in the United States (the vast

majority of cases) or in Europe. No longer. As recently as 1990, according

to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, a

mere 271 trials were being conducted in foreign countries of drugs intended

for American use. By 2008, the number had risen to 6,485—an increase of more

than 2,000 percent. A database being compiled by the National Institutes of

Health has identified 58,788 such trials in 173 countries outside the United

States since 2000. In 2008 alone, according to the inspector general’s

report, 80 percent of the applications submitted to the F.D.A. for new drugs

contained data from foreign clinical trials. Increasingly, companies are

doing 100 percent of their testing offshore. The inspector general found

that the 20 largest U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies now conducted

“one-third of their clinical trials exclusively at foreign sites.” All of

this is taking place when more drugs than ever—some 2,900 different drugs

for some 4,600 different conditions—are undergoing clinical testing and

vying to come to market.

With possibly terrible, lethal consequences-

One big factor in the shift of clinical trials to foreign countries is a

loophole in F.D.A. regulations: if studies in the United States suggest that

a drug has no benefit, trials from abroad can often be used in their stead

to secure F.D.A. approval. There’s even a term for countries that have shown

themselves to be especially amenable when drug companies need positive data

fast: they’re called “rescue countries.” Rescue countries came to the aid of

Ketek, the first of a new generation of widely heralded antibiotics to treat

respiratory-tract infections. Ketek was developed in the 1990s by Aventis

Pharmaceuticals, now Sanofi-Aventis. In 2004—on April Fools’ Day, as it

happens—the F.D.A. certified Ketek as safe and effective. The F.D.A.’s

decision was based heavily on the results of studies in Hungary, Morocco,

Tunisia, and Turkey.

Read more of this great article at Vanity Fair

Books of Poetry

2010-12-04T08:10:00.000+05:30

Sharing more content. It looks like that is all I am capable of at this moment. Anyway, this is better than anything I could possibly come up with out of my head

This is about poetry- it is alright if you like to read poems, but the experience of reading a book of poems by an individual poet is an experience that is not of the ordinary kind-

Reading a poetry book cover-to-cover is a vastly different experience fromreading individual poems. It can be exhausting, as watching an entire opera can be exhausting. ....

I have gotten to know several poets through their books of verse. While, ofcourse, “the narrator is not the poet,” the composition of poetry is an actof personal exposure and the publication of poetry is an act of public intimacy. ....

... In *Tantalus in Love* Alan Shapiro records the inside and outside of a dying marriage with exquisite skill and filigreed detail: his wife’s beautiful body, poised in yoga each morning, just out of touch; his children, watching their parents dancing and laughing together for the last time. Autobiographical or not, volumes of poetry feather open the writer’s human heart and lay it, pinned and spread, on butterfly pages.....

This experience of an emotional or intellectual journey is probably the most valuable, and the most difficult, reward of reading entire volumes of verse.The binding threads are more likely to be ideas or perspectives than characters or conflicts. ...

Read more at Curator, In Praise of the Book.

The Real Big Fight

2010-12-03T18:39:00.001+05:30

This rings true, though I believe more than eighty percent of us would feel sceptical about it-

George W. Bush - America's global fight against AIDS

"I am happily out of the political business. But I can offer some friendly advice to members of Congress, new and old. A thousand pressing issues come with each day. But there are only a few that you will want to talk about in retirement with your children. The continuing fight against global AIDS is something for which America will be remembered. And you will never regret the part you take."

In an earlier passage, he writes,

"During a presidency often forced to focus on issues of national security, the fight against global disease was sometimes viewed as an anomaly or exception. It wasn't and isn't. America has a direct stake in the progress and hope of other nations."

True or false, sincere or not, his observations are worth noting.

The Qatar Conundrum

2010-12-03T09:29:00.000+05:30

Why and how did Qatar get to host the world cup? A great, well reasoned analysis with a brilliant, informed conclusion-

"What differentiates Qatar, however, is that its case to win the World Cup by legitimate means — for all the reasons I have outlined above — would seem to be relatively weak. Several months ago, oddsmakers had put its chances at about 6-1 against, versus 5-2 against for the United States — and that was before FIFA designated it as high-risk. From the point of view of Bayesian statistics, that makes the probability of bribery greater.

If anything untoward occurred, it will probably be discovered, eventually. But whatever the reasons for it, FIFA’s decision is hard to understand."- Qatar a Questionable World Cup Host - NYTimes.com

Linking to Specific Paragraph and Sentence in New York Times

2010-12-03T06:28:00.000+05:30

Check this link- it takes you straight to the quoted para-

WikiLeaks Archive - U.S. and Pakistan, Ever Wary - NYTimes.com

"It may be the most unnerving evidence of the complex relationship — sometimes cooperative, often confrontational, always wary — between America and Pakistan nearly 10 years into the American-led war in Afghanistan. The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of news organizations, make it clear that underneath public reassurances lie deep clashes over strategic goals on issues like Pakistan’s support for the Afghan Taliban and tolerance of Al Qaeda, and Washington’s warmer relations with India, Pakistan’s archenemy."

While reading the New York Times, and when you want to quote any particular para, click the shift key twice. Little marks appear left of the start of every para. click one of those marks- you get the url of the quoted para in your address bar!

There is another cute way of linking to NYT- click this link, and you will see the emphasised sentence highlighted in colour-

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/world/asia/01wikileaks-pakistan.html?pagewanted=all#h7s2

The h7s2 sort of command does the trick.

Adding the hashtag at the end of the url, followed by para number and sentence number links to the relevant quote.

Substituting h for p (page number) highlights the quoted sentence.

Thank you, NYT., you are my favourite magazine.

Would we Come to Need WikiLeaksLeak?

2010-12-02T08:58:00.001+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

The ultimate irony of whistleblowing: or may be the yin-yang of secrets and public interest-

News Desk: WikiLeaks Evolves : The New Yorker

"With the American embassy cables, Assange contacted the State Department personally to ask for the government’s input. On November 26th, he wrote to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and said, “WikiLeaks would be grateful for the United States Government to privately nominate any specific instances (record numbers or names) where it considers the publication of information would put individual persons at significant risk of harm that has not already been addressed.” Assange even noted—without irony, it seems—that “WikiLeaks will respect the confidentiality of advice provided by the United States Government and is prepared to consider any such submissions made without delay.” Needless to say, the Obama Administration declined his offer and demanded that he return all of the cables."

The River of Time Runs Backwards

2010-11-13T16:12:00.000+05:30

This is so elegant, and seems so important, I can't resist sharing this-

Finally, we all know that practice improves learning. Bem tested students' memory for word lists and then had them engage in extensive practice (e.g. typing out) for some of the words but not others. His finding? That memory performance was superior for words that the students went on to practice afterwards - a kind of reverse learning effect whereby your memory is improved now based on study you do later.
-Dramatic study shows participants are affected by psychological phenomena from the future

Rockmelt- the Social Browser

2010-11-10T12:29:00.000+05:30

I don't know about you, but if I were someone who is connected to my friends on the net through Facebook and Twitter and other such social sites, Rockmelt looks like a brower tailormade for me. I am scared that Facebook and Twitter would drain my time, but the looks of it makes go all trembling at the knees.

Great concept. This is their blog.

Do take a look at it, give Rockmelt a try. It is probably Chrome meets Facebook type of product.

The Art of Blogging- and Journalism

2010-11-09T22:02:00.001+05:30

Extremely good writing. Brings out the distinction between blogging and journalism in the most fundamental sense.

By the way, if you want to be a good blogger, read this real close: this will serve you better than you'd ordinarily expect.

Really good print journalism is ego-free. By that I do not mean that the writer has no skin in the game, or that the writer lacks a perspective, or even that the writer does not write from a perspective. What I mean is that the writer is able to let the story and the reporting process, to the highest possible extent, unfold without a reporter's insecurities or parochial concerns intervening. Blogging is an ego-intensive process. Even in straight news stories, the format always requires you to put yourself into narrative. You are expected to not only have a point of view and reveal it, but be confident that it is the correct point of view. There is nothing wrong with this. As much as a writer can fabricate a detachment, or a "view from nowhere," as Jay Rosen has put it, the writer can also also fabricate a view from somewhere. You can't really be a reporter without it. I don't care whether people know how I feel about particular political issues; it's no secret where I stand on gay marriage, or on the science of climate change, and I wouldn't have it any other way. What I hope I will find refreshing about the change of formats is that I will no longer be compelled to turn every piece of prose into a personal, conclusive argument, to try and fit it into a coherent framework that belongs to a web-based personality called "Marc Ambinder" that people read because it's "Marc Ambinder," rather than because it's good or interesting.I Am a Blogger No Longer - Marc Ambinder - Politics - The Atlantic

In our Best Interest

2010-11-09T06:58:00.001+05:30

President Obama, as our national television channels fondly call him, made a reference to Pakistan in the speech he gave at our Parliament. His speech possibly is a reasonable indication of the basis of our policy vis a vis Pakistan:

Our strategy to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates has to succeed on both sides of the border. That is why we have worked with the Pakistani government to address the threat of terrorist networks in the border region. The Pakistani government increasingly recognizes that these networks are not just a threat outside of Pakistan-they are a threat to the Pakistani people, who have suffered greatly at the hands of violent extremists.

And we will continue to insist to Pakistan's leaders that terrorist safe-havens within their borders are unacceptable, and that the terrorists behind the Mumbai attacks be brought to justice. We must also recognize that all of us have and interest in both an Afghanistan and a Pakistan that is stable, prosperous and democratic-and none more so than India." - IBN Live

A Pakistan that is stable, prosperous and democratic! Good luck on that.

Short of dismantling all of the governing apparatus in Pakistan, there is not much that either India or US can do to help them get there, despite it being in the best interests of India. And as our beloved Leader, President Obama put it, none more so than India that would breath a sigh of relief to see a stable, prosperous and democratic Pakistan, and none more helpless than India to help them in any way to get there.

Not that anyone in Pakistan in their right senses would want India to help Pakistan get better. In fact, there could be sizable section of intelligensia in our country, that would bristle at any such conceit on the part of our government.

Pakistan is hopeless. It lives only in dreams, and nightmares.

"The first indication that something was wrong came from a cryptic message left as a status update on the player's Facebook page. 'Leaving Pakistan cricket because get bad msg fr 1 man fr lose the match in last game.'""- Pakistan news: Zulqarnain in UK, mystery over exit from Dubai | Pakistan Cricket News | Cricinfo.com:

When things like this happen, and the man who has been threatened by bookies, find refuge not somewhere across the border, but all the way to Britain, there is not much hope for anyone, least of all, not Pakistan or India.

Given the historic and cultural similarities, one would have thought that India could be the better option for him than Britain. Not that he would find potentially better economic opportunities in Britain.

Remember Taslima Nusreen. She might be better off in Britain or somewhere in the west.

Probaly Zulqarnain is not only honest, but also realistic.

Good luck for him- he has much better chances of enjoying it than Pakistan or India.

Or our beloved Leader, President Obama for that matter.

Postscript: President Obama's speech seems to have found a chord in the liberal and enlightened heart of The Hindu- Obama's Parliament speech a hit.

Thanks for letting us know you appreciate that one.

Deepak Chahar- a Dream Spell

2010-11-02T07:55:00.000+05:30

A dream spell at Jaipur- see the magic weave, swerve the ball on the air and off the pitch. Brilliant. Breathless. Hope Deepak Chahar moves forward from here.

More of this is at The Ranji Trophy Chronicles.

Adarsh Housing Society scamsters- CHARGE THEM WITH SEDITION!

2010-11-01T09:44:00.000+05:30

It is a conscious decision not to write anything about our politics here. If I did, I could put up three posts everyday- it enrages me so much.

I don't want to rant, but I need to vent my anger- Politicians are in it, Bureaucrats got some of it, and the worst of it- Army Officers, who ought to have known better.

There is talk of trying The Ghoul of small Things for sedition for her yet another hysterical raving- she won't break the back of this nation.

These idiots will.

Totally insane heartlessness to grab something meant for Kargil heroes and their widows, and make a pile of money out of it. They should be shot.

Okay, let's not waste our bullets.

Just stand them up on our LoC where honest, precious lives are lost valiantly and so vainly.

Ernest Hemingwasy- the art of writing

2010-10-26T20:24:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

Do check this interview at The Paris Review-

INTERVIEWER

But are there times when the inspiration isn’t there at all?

HEMINGWAY

Naturally. But if you stopped when you knew what would happen next, you can go on. As long as you can start, you are all right. The juice will come.

You immediately get the idea that this is the word of a master. Insightful.

Poetry is Dead

2010-10-19T08:28:00.000+05:30

Please look at this page-

Official Google Research Blog: Poetic Machine Translation:

"Once upon a midnight dreary, long we pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of translation lore.
When our system does translation, lifeless prose is its creation;
Making verse with inspiration no machine has done before.
So we want to boldly go where no machine has gone before.
Quoth now Google, 'Nevermore!'"

Specify what you want-Haiku, Sonnet, Venba- whatever. And feed it any kind of dreary sludge you find written. Google will transform it into gems of poetic pieces.

Quoth now Google, "Nevermore!"

oh yes, nevermore.

Data Visualisation for Bloggers

2010-10-17T15:33:00.000+05:30

I am looking for a site that will help me do better data visualisation- it should be easy and quick. This one I don't understand, but then they have a wonderful embed feature that is an absolute must for bloggers, so I thought why shouldn't I help them out with a link? :)

So here goes.

Hope they provide us with a better interface. This one is absolutely useless if you don't know anything about it.

You can't do it in the shower for lack of friction...

2010-10-10T09:53:00.000+05:30

I am surprised that people are worried about this-

Masterbation Question Please Help? - How to - Help - Masterbation - Please - Question - Search Answer via kwout

MeeHive to Shut Down

2010-10-08T11:55:00.000+05:30

I am saddened to hear that Meehive will stop its services this month. I had great hopes for it- it promised to deliver a personalised newspaper, the user interface was good to look at. Meehive had autopost features that allowed you to share links and comments to Twitter and Facebook. Unfortunately, it never got off. There was no conversations. All I got news of in the "Your Friends Activity" is Louis making friends one after another, to no purpose. No one was doing any talking.

Actually, I need a personalised newspaper that delivers me news that I am interested in. There are two ways to go about it- one is the RSS way, where I subscribe to the feeds I am interested in, and sit back and wait for the news and posts to come into my reader. This is the way it has worked so far, but with the popularity of Twitter and Facebook, where you get news more dynamically, the idea of using a passive reader is somewhat passe.

Meehive was a step further from that idea. It let you choose your topics, and then comment and share the feed that came in. Adding and deleting topics were easy, you could do that with a click, and the it was possible to set it up so that your comments would show up in Twitter and Facebook. But then, no one was talking.

I feel they should have changed a few things to make it more interesting- but I suppose their idea of what we wanted was not in sync with what we are comfortable with. So it goes.

And in its place, the email from Meehive team tells me, is Tweetbeat and Tweetbeat Firsthand. Sorry, this one won't work. Who is going to sit watching tweets on a particular topic or person and retweet and reply them? It gets boring after the first few minutes. And then, if the topic is real hot, the tweets pour in quicker than you could possibly read. Come on, it gets stale after a while. It will, won't it- how many original thoughts can you generate on any given issue? That is what Tweetbeat is.

If you thought Tweetbeat is bad, it gets worse with Firsthand. You are supposed to download a browser addon so that when you visit a page, you get blue icons next to names and things people have tweeted about. All you need do is go hover over the icon, and you can read what Tweeple are saying about that.

Why would you do that? Suppose I am interested to read something about the Big Bang theory because there is something about it on CBS. I open a page and a blue icon comes up somewhere near Big Bang Theory, I hover over there, and get this-

i heart Shamy! #bigbangtheoryFri Oct 08 00:04:28 via webBenal Patel
BenalPatel

See?

What we need is something that combines the dynamics of Twitter and Facebook with a more traditional feed reader. The feed reader part should get the feeds of the links that are shared by my friends and lists that I follow, and display them in full- video, audio, text, whatever, preferably in Readability format. And there should be a panel where I can interact with my friends the way I do in Twitter or Facebook.

This should not be too difficult. Why don't someone think of it- a site with the usual single sentence format of Twitter that can be expanded to show the full text. And if you choose to, you can post it back to Twitter or Facebook or pass it on to your contacts or Blog or whatever...

It should be possible.

Packrati Bookmarks Tweeted Links to your Delicious Account

2010-10-05T06:45:00.000+05:30

I am automatically bookmarking URLs I tweet and favorite to my del.ico.us account. Check it out! http://t.co/WxUU7Bz via @packratiusTue Oct 05 01:06:26 via Tweet Buttonகளிமண் கலயம்
kalimankalayam

I came to kinow about Packrati.us via Digital Inspiration.

Seems promising- my activity on Twitter is mostly sharing of interesting links. Packrati automatically saves the tweeted links in your delicious account, converting your hashtags into delicious tags. Since Twitter is notorious for the short shelf life of tweet outs, Packrati might be a great way to archive your bookmarks.

Google Scribe

2010-09-08T17:36:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

I am doing this post mainly to see how good this stuff called Google Scribe is. I have the bookmarklet installed on my browser, and I see a blue pencil hovering on top of the right hand corner of this text box. It is a bit slow though, I have to wait for a while for the suggestions to come on the screen. But it works, that is a comfort.

If you keep typing, it is not of much use- but if you stop a bit to think what should come next, may be, Google will tip you with the right word.

It is a faint hope- but when you have run aground, and can't think what you should write of next, this service is like a lifeline- possibly, it opens up new frontiers, these words, may be the post will write by itself.

Shall we start doing that then? Okay, I will type in some innocuous words, and pursue the stream of words that Google Scribe suggests. The scribe suggestions are in italics.

---
This article posted Special Investigation and the private sphere of the individual author or authors of the present investigation was undertaken with a view toward the development of novel strategies for the use of the word and deed. Nonsense. Wait a while, scribe, while I bring this sentence into order.

This article, a Special Investigation, intended to be a post that explores the private sphere of the individual author or authors, was undertaken with a view towards the development of novel strategies for thinking and expression. Wow! Google Scribe suggested all this!

Okay, let me see if we can pull out a story from our Scribe's Hat.

Death in the Family. Life is too short not to enjoy, but also the best place to plan and share your thoughts. The time now is the time for which each individual must decide which method works. It is not intended or designed or intended for occupancy. A new approach based on fuzzy clustering approach based on this information but....

Sounds promising, but nble. Scribe can't write all by itself- may be a post on our Prime Minister's direction to the Supreme Court, a haughty puff at the suggestion that rotting grains may be given away to poor and indigent persons for free?

Possibly. If you put in the words and phrases of a day's issue of The Hindu, may be I can write an editorial.

I promise that if Google customises this functionality to suit my style of writing, I can throw in a few nouns and verbs and generate an entire blog post: possible, a great idea.

All I need is to specify some news items, and then some blog posts: and I prompt the scribe to use specific nouns and verbs in specific context, it might generate a post.

I think it possibly does, going by what I read in some blogs: they have gotten hold of the scribe and it writes for them already.

Read more about Google Scribe.

Playing with Data

2010-08-18T17:21:00.001+05:30

There was a time when I was passionate about figuring out the actual situation of social and economic development of India. I would set up alerts, and find how India compares with other countries in news about GDP., cotton exports, anything. The results were a huge let down, if you put up a chart we'll be somewhere near mean, and sometimes, below mean. I got bored, and stopped doing this.

So, when I came to know about Google Public Data Explorer, I couldn't resist checking some boxes and see what comes up. This is what you get-

This is urban access to sanitation facilities- mostly toilets, I think-

And this is contraceptive usage among women of the age of fifteen and forty-nine:

We need to bridge a large gulf to catch up with Sri Lanka, way ahead of us.

Do play around with Google Public Data Explorer- let's see what you get.

Nuts

2010-08-18T15:25:00.000+05:30

I am late in on this- Randiv bowled a no-ball to deny Sehwag his century, and every paper I read excoriates Randiv and Sri Lanka, and sermonises on something called sportsmanship- an endangered beast, if not yet extinct.

I think the administrators need to take some of the blame: okay, India needed one to win, Randiv bowls a no-ball, one run given, match over, no matter that Sehwag hit it for a six.

But what if India had needed two at that stage, and the same thing had happened? Sehwag would have got those runs, right?

The rule is clear on that score- at least in Wikipedia when I last looked at it: "The run awarded for the no ball is not credited to an individual batsman's score but is tallied separately as part of the team's score. Any additional runs scored by the batsman off the bat, whether by running or by a boundary, are included in the batsman's score."

It is not right that the same action yields two different results under different conditions- they should change these rules, unless they are playing God, imho.

How to Add the Official Retweet Button into Every Post of Your Blog

2010-08-13T09:55:00.028+05:30

Twitter has come up with an official Retweet button, you might probably know that. There is an advantage to it: the link is shortened, but you get an idea of the exact location of the shared page, see Techie Buzz. That is the general idea, though it did not work that way in a tweet that I shared.

I found a way to add that button to this blog: it is right here, down every post.- if you want to know how to add the official Twitter Retweet Button into your blog so that it shows up under every post like it does here, here is how I did that. I am a total idiot when it comes to html, javascript etc., but if I can find a way to do it, so can you.

Thanks to Anshul Dudeja, I made a few changes to the script he provides in his page, added it to the HTML the way he says it should be done, and voila!

This is the script:

<div style="float: right;
margin-left: 10px;"> <a class="twitter-share-button"
data-count="none" data-via="yourtwittername" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><script
src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script>

Please replace your twitter name for "yourtwittername"

Compare this version with that given by Anshul Judeja, where the code is displayed better.

How this script should be added to the blog is at this page: How Add Retweet Button to Blogger Blogs at Anshul Judeja.

If there is any better way, please let me know, and I'll adopt that.

The Deccan Chronicle: a Repulsive Instance of Cultural Cringe

2010-08-11T09:47:00.005+05:30

Look at this screenshot from Deccan Chronicle:

Mau-mauing the ‘ground zero’ mosque | Deccan Chronicle | 2010-08-11 via kwout

Now compare this with what Christopher Hitchens has written in The Slate:

The dispute over the "Ground Zero mosque" is an object lesson in how not to resist intolerance. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine via kwout

This is the cultural cringe that Christopher Hitchens was speaking out against in the first place!

(In case you didn't look close enough, "Muslim cultural blackmail" has been emended as "cultural blackmail," and an entire sentence, calling 9/11 a genuine outrage, has been deleted)

A Curveball

2010-08-10T19:06:00.001+05:30

Wonder what this is?

Oh yes, Google has come out with a feature called Curve in Google Documents, and this is my attempt to paint something with it. I know this is not pretty, but at least it is something.

I should have tried different colours, it might look better then.

Who are They?

2010-08-09T10:10:00.003+05:30

I think now that I am dry, I should perhaps make a translated post out of what I read in the Tamil blogs.

Here is a piece of Sujatha.

In Delhi, while I was riding back home in my scooter, there was a man lying in the middle of the road. I stopped to look at him, and found he was very much dead.The cars that come and go, they all hesitate, edge round the man in homage, and accelerate away. No one stopped. They never do. I noticed the porcelain phone at the house on the other side of the road, told them the news and got the advice, "Why do you bother? They will see to it"

Who are they?

via Balhanuman Blog

Apples and Oranges

2010-08-08T18:27:00.003+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

I am happy to be writing a post here at last- this is not much, but at least it is a beginner.

Please look at the left sidebar. What do you see? Something called Apples and Oranges, right?

I am proud to say that I turned developer and built that widget, right from scratch, thanks to Wolfram Alpha. It helps you compare two objects of the same class: apples and oranges, nile and amazon, london and paris, sampras and nadal and so on.

But Soulberry and Balajhi, I am sorry to say you can't compare Tendulkar and Dravid with this widget: it is perhaps a silent acknowledgement from Wolfram Alpha that the two belong to a different class.

Wolfram Alpha, gentlemen, seems to be deaf and blind to what you'd expect the ordinary American is deaf and blind to.

Rather unfortunate, you'd accept, when you consider that China and India together would generate many more queries that what United States of America does now or in some future time.

Let's hope they go global.

In the meantime, enjoy - I compared Angeline Jolie and Brad Pitt and came up with some pretty meagre results: a couple of photos would have enriched it, I think.

PC - The man for the job

2010-07-25T12:05:00.013+05:30

India's problems are plenty and security related are none too insignificant. Sky rocketing prices, falling living standards, and the rest may bug us, yet our security is of utmost importance to us. We don't want to be victims of terrorism and violence, be it from across the border or from inside. It's all the same and terror has only one face. It is in this context that the role of home minister in a government (both central and state) assumes greater significance. Preventing and countering terror through various modes rests on men wielding the home baton. Today I read an article at OutlookIndia about P.Chidambaram, calling him a controversy man. Comments to the article are interesting too. Read it here.

UPA preferred the Dhoti clad Chidambaram to the Suit changing Patil in the aftermath of 26/11. There was a huge expectation as he reluctantly took over charge. Foes and friends (does he have one?) alike, admire his intelligene yet differ on the efficacy of his actions. Many would not tolerate his demeanour and rightly or wrongly he is labelled as an arrogant intellectual. But then we ordinary men and women of India wouldn't bother with that label as long as he ensures internal security. We would even happily call him that if gives us the security we want. On this front, I must say, and many would accept (in normal territories in India), he has been delivering well, since that fateful day in November two years back at Mumbai.

Chidambaram is always a man on mission, be it finance or at home. He has no two ways about it. His way is his only way. He is a 'Flint' as Outlook called him. Hard to break, hard to remove and could be heavy to bear. As long as he is on the right mission, all around him will benefit and clap. When he is not right, people around him could do nothing but rumble. They can't stop him, at least that is what the media has made me believe.

He is facing the brickbats from the media, from his own colleagues in the ministry and party on quite a few issues. Operation Green Hunt is one, opposition to Chinese telecom imports is another and perceived behind the role in skittling Indo - Pak talks is another. He is perceived to be on the 'RIGHT' mission by left wing ideologists and sympathisers both inside and outside the Congress Party. Also his role in his earlier avatar as the advocate of Sterlite (Minerals major) has muddled the minds of his opponents who chide him for the Operation Green Hunt.

I see his point in being wary of Chinese telecom imports. I am with him on this, let Jairam Ramesh focus on environment and global warming debates. Calling a spade as spade is not diplomacy but diplomacy for decades hasn't worked with Pakistan. As one expert named 'Raza' put it in a 'Times Now' show, 'stop talking with Pakistan till they act'. If PC intently played a role, well then I am not complaining. All this talk of Pakistan itself is a victim of terror won't wash here. They are victims of their own terror cousins whereas we are victims of terror sponsored by ISI and Pak army. There is a hell lot of difference here.

Naxalism is a terror but then guns alone cannot silence it. It may at best squeeze the throat of naxalism but how longer can one do it. You will loosen your grip when pain raises in your wrists and hands. Government and the home ministers will have to come up with a genuine effort to end naxalism through talks after a bilateral ceasefire. Above all the Government must respect the aborigines, their rights of the land before allowing its corporate Czars a piece of their land in forests to mine, mine and mine. Government and the Naxals must come out in open and try out a genuine solution. This is where PC has probably got a big role to play. He must shed his guns alone policy and do some walk the talk.

As far as PC as home minister, despite his shortcomings, he is probably the right person for the tough job. I would settle for a hawk home minister and a liberal external affairs minister with a counter balancing Prime minister. We have the first two but not sure about the counter balancing one.

Green slaying on the way to development

2010-07-19T22:49:00.011+05:30

Those green trees won't be there by next week

That's a lovely view of trees lining up on both the sides of the road, it will be a thing of the past- not any more in cities. This is a picture of a section of Mettupalayam Road (NH 86 or something) in Coimbatore. This road leads to Ooty. Now the government is broadening the road into four lanes and hence are cutting the trees. Earlier they did it on Avanashi road (NH 47) in Coimbatore. That was when the many buildings that were standing on that road for decades came to our view. One such building had been constructed by GD Naidu and the front wall of that building bears the words "Construction is for Destruction - G.D.Naidu". How true is it?

We are destroying nature to construct a concrete world, unmindful of the consequences and the perils to which we put our future generations. Who cares? We need the comfort of our cars, bikes and we have no time to wait for the few extra minutes to accommodate nature alongside us. Green is slowly going out of our view in our cities.

I was driving down this road yesterday and captured a last glimpse of this splendour before it is brought down by men with their axes.

RBI and its role in Indian economy

2010-07-16T11:47:00.001+05:30

Few weeks back a friend of mine posed a question on RBI and asked what do they do? I told him they regulate banking and financial markets. I am not sure that answered his query but then he was not interested in knowing beyond that. Today I read an article in Knowledge @ Wharton about RBI and their role in compensation of top management of banks, including private and foreign banks in India. They are intervening in order to ensure compensation packages of top executives in banks are not encouraging risky investments / lending. This is something that derailed many banks in the west in the past year. Some words of praise in that article kindled my interest to post here on RBI and their role in ensuring relatively peaceful economic life of India.

RBI is responsible for the monetary policy of Indian economy. It has a mandate to contain inflation. They set base interest rate, influence money supply in the economy, set various reserve ratios for banks, intervene and support Rupee in the foreign exchange market, regulate and guide functioning of banks, financial institutions and non-banking finance companies, set lending norms, set risk weightages for various bank assets, etc. The list is too big to remember, for me, and fill here. Let me, in a nutshell, share here, the major role of RBI and its contribution to our economy.

Banks borrow money (through deposits and other modes) and lend money. Money borrowed is their liability and money lent is their asset. Their return from lending should be higher than the cost of borrowing so that they meet their expenses and then make profits. Naturally banks would want to acquire assets that promise more returns. Remember, higher the return, higher will be the risk associated with it. With more exposure to risk, a bank's financial stability is threatened and their ability to repay their lenders is cast a shadow. RBI steps in here and curbs certain types of asset acquisition by banks. Besides it also assigns a risk weightage to each type and class of banking assets. An asset carrying higher risk weight would require a bank to maintain higher capital while a low risk weighted asset wouldn't put much stress on the capital of a bank. This is to ensure that a bank provides for more capital when it goes for more risky assets. Though this is a global practice, risk weightages for various asset types are fixed by individual central banks (like RBI). RBI is one of the earliest central banks to increase the risk weightage of real estate assets (lending to and investment in real estate) and that promptly preempted over exposure of Indian banks to real estate. It is real estate investment bubble that swallowed many banking monsters in the west. Hope I come out clear in my explanation here.

Bank also invest besides lending. Some times it is easier and safer for banks to invest say in government securities and bonds than lend. This, if excessively done, will stifle economic growth as business won't get enough money. RBI, according to situation, dabble with interest rates to discourage or encourage banks' lending and investment activities. Also it ensures country's primary sector, agricultural, gets enough funding support by fixing a minimum limit (a % out of total lending) for primary sector lending. It also plays a vital role in financial inclusion of rural areas.

Banks cannot deploy all the money it borrows as it would affect its liquidity and financial stability. But then not all will retain enough resources to support its customers and lenders. To ensure banks maintain enough cash balance and also sufficient amount of liquid assets (assets that can be converted into cash on quick notice) it sets, adjusts and mandates banks to maintain Cash reserve ratio (CRRs) and Statutory Liquid Ratio (SLRs). These are set in accordance with prevailing economic condition.

RBI plays a major role in Rupee exchange rate. It intervenes in the foreign exchange market to curb speculation effects on Rupee. But there is a general feeling in the import lobby that RBI mostly acts in the interest of export lobby than in general interest.

RBI annually audit banks and financial companies for compliance with their rules and guidelines on functioning and various norms. Through this they ensure banks and financial institutions comply with rules and guidelines set in the interest of monetary stability of the nation.

Related Link

Making Management Pay: Reining in Excessive Risk at India's Banks

A Sun of our own...

2010-07-11T23:16:00.001+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

See the flicker? It is our own artificial sun, a first step towards the creation of a mediated climate that fulfils "...the metabolic and physiological requirements of a human being in an environment partially or completely removed from earthly influences"

In case you are haunted by the spirit of scepticism, here's more-

"...i-weather makes it possible to live in a situation completely removed from natural locations by producing an artificial circadian rhythm synchronised to match the inner cycle of the human hormonal and endocrine system. In the absence of the natural terrestrial cycle of day and night, it becomes apparent that this inner cycle in fact lasts around 25 hours, and that body temperature, the alternation between sleep and wakefulness, and the accumulation and secretion of substances such as cortisone and oligopeptides, all depend on it. i-weather.org has therefore put together the first specifically human climate."

If your work forces you to sit glued to a monitor, with the natural light of day and night closed off and replaced by the electric glow- our blog is the place to be- we are health-friendly.

Thanks to iweather.org, where you can copy the javascript and add it to your blog- can't get easier than that, right?

Do drop in now and then, the lights change in our blog, and to remind you that we mean business, we go into flashy flickers when you least expect it.

Have a rocking time.

Wealth, Greed and Misplaced priorities

2010-07-09T01:02:00.007+05:30

Image Credit - www.oecd.org

In a span of 24 hours I came across two articles forwarded to my email id by Baskar. Both are disturbing and at the same time intriguing. They are disturbing because both touch upon the powerful and the super rich and how they manipulate the rules and the world to get even richer, all under government supervision. Intriguing because why on earth people owning yacht's, islands etc. would want to benefit from what governments earmarked for needy and how are they so insensitive to people lives when it comes to money.

The first article exposes the big black hole in American farm subsidy and how the super rich (likes of Rockfellers, Ted Turners etc) make the most of it. Between 1995- 2006, American government had spent $200 billion in farm subsidy and nearly 75% of it had gone to the super rich of America, who own farm lands. This besides the tax exemption they get from agricultural income and holdings. The word subsidy rings words like needy, for public benefit, support, protect in my ears. On what count the super rich deserve to avail farm subsidy, earmarked for true farmers? A billionaire worth $200 billion, availing $54,500 per annum as farm subsidy is a clear indication of a rot in the system. If this is what we can expect from America, just think of India and other developing countries.

The second article brings to light the effect of speculation in commodity derivatives. What effect? Death by starvation of millions of children in under developed and poor countries. This besides the impact on poor in all countries. Commodity derivatives came into existence with a purpose. It helped farmers and processors of commodities to hedge their risk of exposure to changing prices of commodities. On the other end it also helped buyers of these commodities to hedge their risk in fluctuating prices. Only when it moved beyond protecting real risks that the problems started. As long as real risk was hedged (involving farmers / processors, buyers of commodities) prices reflected expected supply and demand. But nowadays, irrespective of supply and demand it is the amount of investor (note, not farmer or buyer, investor) interest in a commodity that determines prices of commodities.

Speculation, where people without any risk in commodities are allowed to buy and sell commodity derivative products, is the main culprit of rising prices of commodities (Wheat, Coffee, Pulses, Wheat, Cotton, Oil etc) worldwide. Commodity exchanges nowadays primarily serve the interests of greedy investors more than needy farmers and buyers. The article linked here clearly establishes the link between speculation and price rise in commodities. Though it is organisations like Goldman Sachs that deal in commodity derivatives, they do it for high net worth individuals.

The wealthy wants to become more wealthy even if it means death of children in some East African nation. Many of these people can spend million a day for their lifetime and yet remain wealthy, without any additional income. A mere concentration on their businesses and their primary line of activity would ensure excellent growth of their wealth. Why on earth these rich people want to make profits in a market that acts as a barometer for commodity prices? It beats my understanding. May be the gambling pleasures. How else could this be explained. This world, its institutions, systems and the very structure of governance of the world (barring few countries) is made to make the rich richer and poor, poorer.

The least one could do now is to stay away from agents / brokers who chase us to invest our hard earned money in commodity derivatives.

Government Servants would love Recession

2010-07-07T14:32:00.001+05:30

I was checking BBC business website and the words "Why recovery can be bad for you - and recession good" under the title 'Recovery hurts' caught my attention. Intrigued, checked it to learn what the author says. After reading the article I was wondering, what would be the response of a person who lost his job in recession. This post resulted as a consequence of that thought.

In a recession, demand drops, causing drop in supply and with it taking down the price level. As a result inflation comes down and approaches '0'. A lower inflation means higher real income. You will have more disposable income. Also the government will cut taxes and private sector will offer discounts and other offers. All in all your cost of living will come down. So yes 'Recession' is good.

In Recovery, government will cut populist measures, increase taxes, tighten money supply, demand picks up, prices start to climb and the overall inflation will rise its head again. Your disposable income will shrink. Cost of living will go up in a recovery. Cost of living in growth will be higher than cost of living in recession. So why recover? Why should we fight hard to recover? That's a funny thought.

If recession continues, businesses will close down, jobs will be lost and there will be no income leave alone shrinking real income. Recession is good for those who earn; not for those who don't earn. Recovery may be bad for those who earn; not for those who don't earn. Recovery creates jobs, fills more pockets, spikes up demand, cause higher prices and higher cost of living.

Economic growth brings more people on par with you. Recession causes more people on par with you to vanish. With less on par with you, your life improves and with more on par with you, your life becomes difficult. But all this is true only if you remain where you were. If you catch up with growth opportunities in growth periods and hang on to your place in recession, your life will always be bliss, economically.

I am sure you are not wondering where the government servant comes in here. :)

The Pleasures of Literature

2010-07-06T20:46:00.003+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

I am reading "Curiosities of Literature" by John Sutherland.

Samuel Johnson is quoted as saying,

"Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully, for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else."

I sent a part of this passage as sms to some of my friends- one of them replied with no mean guilt, "I think this is meant for us- we need to be careful". But Samuel Johnson is not asking us to diet. He is boasting that he took greater care to eat more, not less, for Boswell writes,-

"When at table... his looks seemed riveted to his plate; nor would he, unless when in very high company, say one word, or even pay the least attention to what was said by others, till he had satisfied his appetite, which was so fierce, and indulged with such intenseness, that while in the act of eating, the veins of his forehead swelled, and generally a strong perspiration was visible."

How times change- we are all gluttons now, and when we hear mind what you eat, we think we are asked eat less, not more: our enjoyment of eating is now tinged with the guilt of abusing our health: food itself has become a forbidden fruit.

Elsewhere in this chapter, which is all about the pleasure of eating as described in literature, Sutherland quotes a curious passage from a short story by Guy de Maupassant: two strangers, one of them a young man, travel together- he helps a lactating young woman rid herself of the pain of lactation- the passage goes,

"Il se mit a genoux devant elle; et elle se pencha vers lui, portant vers sa bouche, dans un geste de nourrice, le bout fonce de sons sein. Dans le mouvement qu'elle fit en le prenant de ses deux main pour le tendre vers cet homme, une goutte de lait apparut au sommet. Il la but vivement, saisissant comme un fruit cette lourde mamelle entres ces levres. Et il se mit a teter d'un facon goulue et reguliere."

Not having the confidence that I could learn French to decipher the meaning of this passage, which Sutherland promises is voluptuous and icky, I turned to Google Translate:

"He began his knees before her and she leaned toward him, carrying to his mouth in a gesture of nurse, after dark in sound. In the movement she made by taking his two hands for towards this man, a drop of milk appeared at the top. He drank it eagerly, seizing a heavy fruit this udder between these lips. And he began to suck a greedy and lawful manner".

Such are the pleasures of literature.

The Trees and Plants of His Home...

2010-07-03T15:28:00.000+05:30

A poem I liked, and tried to bring over to English - Eppothum Pen.

An enmity has survived for two generations
between siblings.
The Men, when they come against one other,
throw a glare, and turn away.
The Women pass by,
their heads bowed down.
And the Children, when there is no one to note,
Share among themselves looks
that none recognise.

Enmity...
whether with purpose or not,
has in its branching hands,
flowers,
the sweetest of the fruits
that there be,
and for the father's rocking chair,
a shade
it extends across the partition wall:
the trees and plants of his home.

-Poem by R. Anuradha

(image credit: eyefetch.com)

Cloudy, breezy, pleasant and that's Coimbatore today

2010-07-01T20:06:00.003+05:30

It is that time of the year when you love to take your bike out and roam around the city. It is pleasantly cool and breezy in Coimbatore. Droplets of water from the sky makes the experience even more enjoyable. You would just want to drive, drive and drive. That's how pleasing south west monsoon is for Coimbatoreans. When the monsoon arrived this year it brought the temperature down to comfortable levels. Evenings were cool and Day's were slightly warm (early 30's in Celsius). We even experienced few days of monsoon rain, early in the month. But none of the days were as good as it used to be, but today. May be the trees cut and ever increasing noise of gushing engines is constantly pushing up Coimbatore temperature and monsoon itself is a victim of global warming.

Today was one such day, I was craving for weeks now. I did not feel the need to switch on the ceiling fan in my office. But I did not realise how good the day is until I went out in the evening. What a fantastic feeling it was? Absolutely pleasant and brilliant. I am not done with it yet and would probably go out in the night to take it in more. I don't know whether it will return tomorrow. There were times when a day like this used to repeat for close to a month. But the times we are living in, exploitation of the environment, careless attitude of people has made days like today a luxury and dare I say, a rarity for us Coimbatoreans.

Raavanan

2010-06-27T10:52:00.006+05:30

Not always you avoid what you want to avoid. Last night was one such occassion. I saw 'Raavanan'. I have enjoyed watcing Mani's movies in the past and movies like Iruvar and Mouna Ragam fascinated me. More than the story, the way he brings it on the screen and narrates made the difference. I am a big fan of good narrators. I wouldn't mind listening to 'Crow' and 'Vada' story thousand times if the narration is different and fascinating each time.

I was itching to watch 'Raavanan' ever since I saw the promos, despite my own apprehensions about recreating Ramayanam. But then reviews dampened my enthusiasm. Slowly I lost interest and even added the movie to my 'Not to watch list'. But as fate would have it, or is it my subconscious, I watched the movie. There is no way I could have said 'No' to my wife, after all my pre-release hype about the movie. So we went, saw, I got bored and returned home.

There are so many reviews of Raavanan, very good ones to bad ones, and they all have listed where Mani went wrong, Vikram failed and Vikram scored. I share most of their views. The screenplay is probably the worst to come from Mani's stable. The story starts with the kidnap, stops after Ragini's jump, goes into a slumber before the flashback unfolds late in the second half. It would be harsh to qualify it as a 'drab' but it nearly is one. Notable failings of the movie, besides screenplay are

*Rahman's Music (BGM)
*Suhasini's Dialogues
*Vikram's poor antics
*Unnecessary, irritating and totally avoidable character that of Karthik, the forest guard

I used to be a big fan of Kamal Hasan, the actor. I still, am, I think. A recollection of his best performances always plays with the background music. I can't disassociate it and perceive the performance alone. Be it in Moondram Pirai (drums in the climax), Nayagan, Mahanadhi (Veena), Virumaandi, Guna (Going around the room scene), Apoorva Sagodharargal or any other brilliant scene / performance, the music always leads us into the scene. It sets the mood, draws and let us travel with the scene. Good music evokes and cause our emotions to rise and fall with the scene. Take Hey Ram for example. The Calcutta riots scene may not have made so much of impact but for Ilayaraja's background score.

And here in 'Ravanan', Rahman is a big let down with his BGM. He has always been an average to, at times, good music director when it comes to background score. What's pathetic is, his poor performance can actually be perceived as you watch it. There are scenes where the music is completely separable from the scene. In a scene where Ragini, in captivity, shouts out to her husband, who is somewhere in the forest, I was wondering about the background score and what was he doing. Two big let downs in that scene. One Aishwarya's horrible performance and Rahman's BGM. Another example is the scene when Veera takes Ragini to a cliff to shoot before she jumps into the deep falls. Brilliantly conceived scene once again let down by Rahman and Aiswayrya (especially the dubbing). Is it time for Mani to look beyond Rahman or is he so dependent on his songs to give us a hit?

Suhasini, makes us realise how badly Mani and we miss the great Sujatha. Hope Suhasini minds her work with Jaya TV in future and not influence her husband and cause us hear her poor dialogues. I wasn't bothered to hear the dialogues, whenever they were not clear. For once I don't lament about not being able to hear dialogues, in a Mani Rathnam movie. Good riddance.

Vikram is probably the saving grace of the movie but then his 'pak pak pak' and 'tun-tanakka-tun' antics are poorly conceived and carried out. I wouldn't tolerate such poor antics even if it is to come from a complete psychopath. They were complete irritants. His characterisation is far from convincing. Mani generally leaves a shade of grey in his characters. But this is just too much and is blinding.

Did Karthik go and beg for a role or did Manirathnam felt obliged to give Karthik a return of sorts? Is it necessary to create a 'Anuman' role, when all he does is jumping around and doles out suggestions to Dev (Prithvi Raj)? Any other police character could have done it. May be Mani could have used Karthik as the DSP and not as Anuman.

There are some unnecessary and irritating scenes like the one where Veera cuts the hands of his brother-in-law. May be Mani wants to show the gory side of Veera to Ragini but it was like water on lotus leaves.

I would have preferred to watch 'Raavanan' on my telly with a remote in my hand. Even then I would have spent only some 15 or 20 minutes in front of the telly. That's how much time 'Raavanan' is worth watching. I never expected such a boring movie from Manirathnam, the one who gave me the joys of watching Iruvar, Mouna ragam, Kannathil Muthamittal, Alaipayuthey, Idhayathai Thirudadhe, Agni Nakshathiram, etc.

Can Euro become the single currency of Europe?

2010-06-25T18:16:00.005+05:30

In the early years of this century, when Euro was adapted by the member states of EU as their currency, I used to wonder, how will this ever be possible. My doubts were based on the fact that all European countries were not equally well developed and managed economies. The western Europe was well developed while the eastern bloc that followed the Soviet Model wasn't shining and even today the differences between ex-communist countries and countries like Germany, France etc, are starker. I recently read an article which talks about the differences within Germany, after so many years of unification. You can only wonder the difference between countries. (the image is sourced from The American)

The difference in economies would also mean difference in the way fiscal policies and programs are developed and rolled out. Naturally this would cause big differences in fiscal deficit between countries. Fiscal deficit generally determines amount of government spending, interest rates and in turn currency rate. So how will the EU manage one currency for economies as different as Germany and say Romania or a Poland was my question. But then for the last 5 years or so, Euro was climbing up the ladder and everything looked normal. May be my economics is not that good is what I felt. I also thought I should learn more on this topic, and international finance.

Few days back, I came across an article in Knowledge @ Wharton, titled 'Whither Euro'. It is a good article on Euro and opposing views on its future. Take this link if you want to read that article.

We all know Greece ran into huge debt problems and as a result an economic earthquake on moderate scale shook Europe and other markets. Some are predicting a huge one shaking everyone what with Spain going Greece way. Let's hope that's averted. Now from the above linked story I learnt that ECB (European Central Bank) fixed 3% as the upper limit for fiscal deficit for countries adopting Euro as their currency. And ECB has the right to levy a penalty of 0.5% of GDP as a penalty on countries that exceed the 3% limit. Greece exceed the fiscal deficit level fixed by ECB not by 0.5% that it reported but by nearly 10%. The new government in Greece found out, when they came to power, that the actual deficit is not 3.5% as reported but 12.5%. It made it public and set the crisis ball rolling. It has since increased to 13.6%.

ECB did not levy a penalty because it believed what Greece reported that Fiscal deficit is only 3.5%, marginally higher than prescribed limit. Had the real deficit of 12.5% was known to them they may have levied a 0.5% of Greece GDP ($343 billion). Just think of it. A whopping $17.65 billion as penalty. In Indian Rupees the penalty would have run close to Rs.800 billion (100 Crores is one billion). I understand why Greece fudged. Now that it's all in public, Greece government has tightened the screws and cut back public spending. This has created a furore there.

I don't want to get into the ramifications of all this for Greece and EU, in general. You can make your views after reading the above linked article. But my question is, is it possible to bring together people with differing economic interests and make them all stick to a tight control for the sake of one common good, that too mostly to the well off? In fact, contrary to my original thoughts, it is members of west bloc like Greece, Spain, Italy etc. are causing problems to EU unlike the Eastern Bloc. In fact many of the east bloc is yet to be admitted into Euro zone. I am sure Greece story will delay the chances any of Euro wannabes from the east block.

This world is far from ideal place, and people can and many will think and find ways to serve their interests. This also mean that Euro may never make it to be the sole currency of Europe or for that matter EU. It may at best remain as a currency of well off countries like Germany, France etc. It cannot unify Europe, not until all of them have same pockets.

Difference between British Petroleum and Union Carbide

2010-06-17T09:29:00.015+05:30

"We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long it takes,"

"We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy,"

Barack Obama on BP Oil spill issue

Under intense pressure from President Barack Obama, BP Plc agreed on Wednesday to set up a $20 billion fund for damage claims from its huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill & suspended dividend payments to its shareholders

Yahoo news

Big brother is furious, rightly so. British Petroleum has agreed for $20 billion oil spill fund and also cuts dividends to its investors, that's according Yahoo news. Big brother, Obama, has forced the corporate in the wrong to pay for its mistake. How righteous and just America is? They won't allow a wrong doer to go scot free? Even if it is Mr.Anderson? Oh, Oh sorry, sorry....

Actually Mr.Anderson did not cause any damage to America. His actions did not lead to loss of American lives. He may not be a darling of Americans but he is an American citizen and he cannot be touched for lives lost in some eastern, under developed country nor for the continued troubles of those who faced the wrath of poisonous gas, escaped from Union Carbide, that engulfed Bhopal on that fateful day in December 1984. Well the country in question may have grown in stature, yet Anderson cannot be made accountable because he is American and no American lives were lost. It was India's fate, that's it.

What we care is what is the loss to Americans? If they come in Aeroplanes, we will carpet bomb them, the civilians, the women, the children and hunt till all our soldiers die. If they hit other people in other countries, we will preach patience, diplomacy etc. If they spill oil, spoil our coast line, hurt our tourism, cause damages to our people we will make them accountable and force them to pay. If they are responsible for some gas leakage, somewhere else in the world causing thousands of life, generations to suffer, well we will look the other way, and provide complete and total security to our men who are responsible. We make sure the concerned person is in no way disturbed.

If your own Neta's don't care for you, why should we care for you. Look around, everywhere & everyone, this is how this world is functioning. God has given two tongues for the powerful. Why to waste one? Go enjoy yourself and if possible get powerful. You can become one amongst us. Let's all doublespeak and rule the world.

Practice Makes Perfect

2010-06-17T09:01:00.002+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

I stopped posting here because Balajhi was disgusted with what he called my "addiction to links"- and I resumed it, promising myself that there wouldn't any links in the body of the post.

But this post- I am making an exception. Because it is an interesting point, and I couldn't make the post without linking it posts and articles elsewhere. They are absolutely necessary.

What set me off writing this post is this post by Derek Sivers- he writes that he wanted to be a great singer when he was fourteen, but he was a bad singer with no control of pitch and tone. He practiced for over fifteen years, learning and improving, exploring what he could do better. And after fifteen years, at the age of twenty-nine, he had become good enough for someone to tell him after hearing him for the first time, "“Singing is a gift you're either born with or you're not. You're lucky. You were born with it!”".

He writes,

At 19, I was still practicing two hours a night, but still having a problem with pitch. People kept telling me I was just not a singer - that I should give it up, and find a real singer.

Then I heard a man giving a demonstration of Indian vocal music, and his pitch was so perfect, I went rushing up to him afterwards to ask how he did it.

I said, “How are you able to hit the notes so perfectly dead-on? Are you just natually good at this?”

He said, “No! When I first started singing, not only was I not within an inch of the note - I wasn't within a football field of the note! I was horrible!”

“So how did you do it?”

He jabbed a finger in my chest, and looked me in the eye. “Practice. Thousands of hours of practice, and eventually I got it. I can show you how.”

Impressive, right? And now, he says he is determined to be a great computer programmer, and if it takes him another fifteen years to get there, he is game.

This is one of the most inspiring posts I've read in recent times.

It is not likely that you can become better or best merely through putting in fifteen years of practice- I think you need to have passion, explore new directions and be open to turn back from avenues that don't take you anywhere.

Here I am, a no-good blogger, and this is the only thing that keeps me blogging. Who knows, after another twelve years of blogging, I might be some good at it.

Come back after twelve years if you don't like it now: I promise I will do this better.

Related Links:
This seems to be similar to Malcolm Gladwell's ten thousand hours rule that is discussed in his book, The Outliers. His position seems to be that, among other factors, the fact that you have worked a long time at a given thing gives you mastery over it: practice makes perfect, some people might be naturally good at something, but for most of us, it is sustained hard work that brings in the desired reward.
This could be argued, of course. There are obvious examples of people who didn't put in the required ten thousand hours of hard work- but they did taste success.

It might takes years of hard to get better than others in an establised field of work or enterprise, art. But not so if you are going to be innovative. Seth Godin writes that it would be easier to break through The Dip than in established fields.

You can get through the Dip in an online network or with a new kind of music because being seen as the best in that area is easier (at least for now). You can get through the Dip as a real estate broker in a new, growing town a lot quicker than someone in midtown Manhattan. The competition is thinner and probably less motivated.

I am going to link to another post which you should read in its entirety, because it discusses the intellectual history of the ten thousand hours rule and the exceptions that question the validity of it. Michael Nielson looks at these exceptions and writes it is not just practice, learning has to go along with it: the kind of learning that helps you push back your boundaries, and the kind of learning that opens the doors of imagination and see what others are not even looking for. This quote might seem prescriptive, but it is good: it gives you the right perspective on the ten thousand hours rule:

I believe it’s a mistake to focus on building up 10,000 hours of deliberate practice as some kind of long-range goal. Instead, pick a set of skills that you believe are broadly important, and that you enjoy working on, a set of skills where deliberate practice gives rapid intrinsic rewards. Work as hard as possible on developing those skills, but also explore in neighbouring areas, and (this is the part many people neglect) gradually move in whatever direction you find most enjoyable and meaningful. The more enjoyable and meaningful, the less difficult it will be to put in the time that leads to genuine mastery.

You can make everyone watch your star's movies

2010-06-15T14:38:00.003+05:30

Are you a die-hard of a particular film star? You may get an opportunity to make your star's movies make noise at the box office. No, no don't start jumping. You will have to wait, wait at least for few years before Movie futures make an entry into India. Oh well, I can understand your disappointment. Even a year is too long a period for your Star to survive. But then if he manages to survive then yes you may have an opportunity to push him further near to his dream chair.

Recently Movie futures exchange proposal is cleared by Commodities Futures Trading Commission, USA and is waiting for US congress vote. See the news item here. Once it comes into existence, it will allow investors in Movie industry to hedge their risk. Once it makes it there we may also follow suit, as most of our script writers spend all of their time watching English DVD's just for inspiration.

I can understand your impatience. I will come to the point. If and when Movies futures are allowed in India, all that you guys have to do is, this.

First bring together all your lot (fans of your star)
Commit money. Never mind about your family's needs
Go short. That is, place a bet that the movie will flop. It is important that your collective bet size is as huge as possible. Make sure to bring together the entire fan club and make everyone to commit to star's future and his dream chair. Remember to forget your family's needs.
Once all your bets are placed, the gambler who runs the bet will be praying for the movie to run. He or they, will not only pray, but also get into action. They will promote the movie in every form and manner(including arm twisting). You will need no longer worry about SMS's. All mobiles will be inundated with messages promoting the movie and the star and how blessed we are all to have such a star in our midst and how great the movie is.

Your risks will be well covered. Of course you will have empty pockets. Never mind, after all it is for your star and for his dream chair that you are spending. Also you can live peacefully for another 3 or 4 months before his next movie hits the screen.

By the way, what if Movie Futures doesn't make it to India. Simple ask your star to act in Hollywood movies. You can also feel proud about feeding Tamil scriptwriters. More importantly your star can start dreaming about the big brother's chair. But the downside is you will all have to spend in dollars and also migrate to a country that allows trading in foreign securities. Any thing is worth promoting your star. Go ahead.

Have a fun time.

Disclaimer

Any intended representation of any particular star is completely unintended

Is there a good killer and bad killer?

2010-06-14T11:17:00.007+05:30

The Guard - Mr.T.Rajasekaran

Few days back a major train accident was averted thanks to an observant guard, who heard an unusual sound as his train (Egmore Express) passed the particular spot and immediately informed a station master through-walkie talkie, who in turn acted swiftly to warn rockfort express driver. You can read the related news item here. http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article454125.ece.Thanks to him hundreds of children, women and men were saved on that day.

A blast was set on the track to protest the visit of Sri Lankan President Rajapakse to India. Since he led the mass killings of Tamils in Srilanka these miscreants (Pro-LTTE supporters) blasted the railway track. I have a question to these people. What is the difference between them and Rajapakse? He killed people in Srilanka and these people want to kill here. Both target civilians. People may have their own reasons and explanations but end of the day nothing separates people who want to kill, irrespective their reasons.

An old blog

2010-06-14T09:05:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

For some days in the past this word, "சிந்தாகுலம்" has been recurring in my mind- it is made of two words, one in sanskrit, Chinta- thoughts-, and the other in tamil- aakulam- worry, I think. This occurs in Kandaralangaram,

"சிந்தாகுல இல்லொடு செல்வமெனும்
விந்தாடவி என விடப் பெறுவேன்..."

which means- I am let the forests of the Vindhyas which worrying thoughts of home and prosperity is..." This is a rough idea of it. May be if I work at it, I can refine it better.

சிந்தாகுலம்- Chinta-aakulam: is usually taken to mean, as I wrote, worrying thoughts. But it could be more than that. Thought itself is the worrying factor: if we read it thus, it means, "the worry that is the thought- that of home and prosperity..." and so on.

And again, il- illam- home, wife and others- could be read to connote the me. If one reads the above verse bearing that sense in mind, one reads it as the worrying thoughts of me and my prosperity is a forest to which I have been consigned...

This thread of thought gave me the idea of resuming the kandharalangaram blog- which I notice, has not been updated for more than a year and half-, so I went and took a look at it. It was a great outlet for me to speak about my own personal feelings without violating my sense of privacy. It helped me speak about what I felt without owning to the emotions in a personal sense.

It was good as long as it lasted- may be I might write there again, who knows.

Vuvuzela

2010-06-13T12:12:00.001+05:30

Image by ipickmynose via Flickr

I am watching the FIFA World Cup 2010 matches and they have got off to a solid start, no big shocks yet, though teams with formidable reputations are struggling a bit.

This post is not about that- this is about vuvuzela, the pipe like thing they are blowing like crazy in the stadium. It is a bit of an irritant, they don't let off for a second, it is a constant drone that is more like a busy moan. You can't ignore that noise, there is no getting used to it.

I found I was not alone in hating that noise when my brother in law, in the course of an exciting game- the Vuvuzelas were going full blast- came out of his room and asked with an edge in his voice, "Is that a background noise coming from the TV?"

I told him about Vuvuzela. He glumly turned the volume down by a notch and went back to his room to continue his work.

I find that it is Swann (yes, the English cricketer) who expressed this best, in a tweet:

Is it just me it are those vevusula trumpets or whatever they are called making every game sound like it's being played inside a beehiveSat Jun 12 12:17:08 via TwitterrificGraeme Swann
Swannyg66

No wonder, Vuvuzela is a Zulu word that means, "annoying three-foot-long one-note plastic trumpet". One note is right.

Provident Approach Towards Terrorist Threats

2010-06-12T12:13:00.001+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

"Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint" -Christopher Hitchens

This came as a welcome news:" The Army will not be used in a "combat role" in the ongoing anti-Naxal battle. The Centre and states will, instead, recruit ex-servicemen — including retired sappers for de-mining exercises — on contractual basis to fill the gap and will focus on strengthening paramilitary and police personnel through intensive training and recruitment programmes. Role of armed forces will only be limited to "training". " - Times of India

Though I have to own that I feel some disappointment that ex-servicemen could be contracted to do combat duty. The training that the army personnel receive is not likely to endear themselves to any civilian population, especially in conflict zones.

And then there is the question of alienating the resident population, in that whereas the police speak the same language and belong to the same culture, the army is a more heterogeneous unit.

I think the home ministry's macho reaction, calling for the deployment of the army is a hasty and unnecessarily aggressive one. The Defence ministry has shown some spine in resisting the urge to go and rid the mountains of the outlaws cowboy style.

The situation is a socio-political one, and the involvement of the army would do nothing to resolve it. Given the contradictions inherent in the Indian mode of governance, it is never a good idea to try to find a solution to an issue once for all. It is compromise that works in our culture, and with some level headed thinking and patience, we can come to terms with the issues that have given cause for the Maoist insurgence.

I can write more and more about this, but there is a relevant quote which expresses the truth better than I can:

"The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face, and not a particularly common one at that. And our job is to fight those politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn't make us any safer."- Bruce Schneier

Please look back at the quote from Hitchens: in opting for the use of army, and trying to resolve this issue at gunpoint while ignoring the true grounds of this conflict, we are moving towards a point that would give justification to the allegation that the government is itself culpable of a terrorist mindset.

We don't need it- let the government look for political engagement and fair means of conflict resolution. This is not to say that the Maoists are to be given a free run- if the police do their duty with resolve and with proper training, and if the government backs them with equitable measures that profit the affected people- there will definitely be a viable solution.

An Encounter of a Strange Kind

2010-06-11T07:51:00.000+05:30

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Mark Twain says, "“When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained". I read this today, and it brought to mind what happened yesterday.

I went out shopping with my wife and son. As it happens, they went in and out of several stores in T.Nagar, leaving me standing outside the shops holding their bags.

On one such stop, I had waited some time, longer than usual- the man standing next to me felt familiar enough to talk. He started off by asking me whether I was of Tamil Nadu or elsewhere. I said I was a Tamil. He expressed his opinion that I did not look like one. It was only later that I realised he had meant it as a compliment.

He was a small man with a thin moustache and an emaciated face. He resembled a friend of past, who, irritated by my unshaven and untrimmed face, wanted to know how my wiw let me to get near her during the nights. That kind of man. He talked to me in a neutral tone, not meeting my eyes, but scanning the crowds like I did.

He asked me about where I was from, then he asked me where I worked, and then he asked me how much I earned, and then he asked me whether I was living in a rented house, whether my wife was working, how I made the ends meet and so on. To these questions, I answered as truthfully as possible without compromising my privacy: I mixed in some untruth too- to protect his self worth, I reduced my pay.

I was wondering why he was asking these questions, whether he could be a blogger doing some field work that would reflect in his next post- he didn't look like anyone who made money the way we usually do- not stiff enough to belong to the salaried class, not breezy enough for business. He was a strange man.

That was so till he said in passing, "If your wife would be interested in doing multilevel marketing, please call me, you can do better- it takes planning to live a happy life." So this is the point of our talk, I thought, and asked him whether he was doing Amway.

He didn't answer immediately, not directly, hemmed and hawed, and before he could finish, his wife came back heaving a luggage. She was a formidable lady, decked with jewelry and all. I was momentarily distracted by a girl in jeans and revealing tops. When I recovered my senses and turned back- he was gone.

On Guilt and Washing

2010-06-10T07:07:00.002+05:30

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There were recently reports to the effect that washing yourself cleanses you of the memories of actions associated with negative emotions. It was already known that the act of washing rids us of the feelings of guilt- but this finding goes a step further, showing that not only we feel less culpable, we find the need less so, because of weakened memory for those events.

If you look around you, you do wonder how people can live a normal life, seeing the kind of sham and hypocrisy and even unfairness, that our life is full of. No doubt we have mechanisms that help us balance that part of our life with the rest of it- and washing should be one of them. Those of us who are sensitised morally and ethically through religion, and lead our ordinary lives do have a difficult time reconciling our everyday activities with our ideals: and I think ritualised washing helps us handle that dissonant part quite competently.

See how often we wash when we do something of a religious nature: even as we enter a temple we wash our hands and feet to make them clean. And I find that religious people are the kind that focus on cleanliness a lot more than the others- some of them are quite obsessive about it. I don't think that is because they are more corrupt than us- it is just that they find more causes of uncleanliness in themselves because of what they have been taught.

May be it is good that we have this sensitivity, but if it is gotten rid of through such a simple act of washing- the guilt is gone, and the oppressive memory is erased-, there is not much to be said about it: our consciousness is without depth, and is easily manipulated by words, images and actions without reference to anything outside of itself.

A Memory

2010-06-09T07:49:00.001+05:30

It takes a certain courage to speak your mind, or a lifetime of disappointment. Martin Amis has disparaged awards, which he says are given only to boring books- “It all started with [Samuel] Beckett, I think. It was a kind of reasonable response to the horrors of the 20th century – you know, ‘No poetry after Auschwitz," he says, and I don't know about awards, but I have a few friends who, if they find a book interesting, would blacklist it as trivial.

Speaking of which, I remember one of them saying that he wouldn't touch Agatha Christie with a pole, or P.G. Wodehouse for that matter. He spend his life poring over Sartre, Camus and the like. I'd like to say he went mad and killed himself, but he didn't- one of his closest friends did.

He had read widely, and would quote with a sardonic laughter, something by Heidegger to the effect that it would be suicidal of philosophy to make itself clear. Something similar is the case with all works of intellect if they are to find approval and added to a canon.

The friend who died- he burnt himself to death. He was a sensitive man, worried himself to death over matters of philosophy- being and time, and so on.

Some photos from my Ooty trip

2010-06-02T09:14:00.010+05:30

If only Ooty's health is Pink...

Floral arrangements in the Garden

My angry little one at the Garden sitting alone in protest

Yours truly at the lake enroute to Glenmorgan

Boys (Nephews) & Girls (Nieces) at the Lake

Vanishing greens and mushrooming resorts

One of the views at Glenmorgan.

The winch path

A hot weekend at Ooty

2010-06-01T19:18:00.004+05:30

Last weekend, I was travelling to Ooty. Every time I set off for ooty, a nice and warm feeling would set in even before a day of the start. This time was no different, though I was bit wary about the holiday crowd. As you enter the ghat section just before 'Kallar' after 'Mettupalayam', your mind sets in a nice mood and you start to enjoy the drive. The curves and the hairpins add to the joy of travelling. As your vehicle enters 'Barliar' you would crave for a hot tea, just to toast up the chill weather. Not to mention, Barliar is full tea shops. It's about there and thereabouts that the Nilagiri district boundary begins. I used to wonder about the sudden chillness in the air as we curve in to the Nilagiri district though the difference in the height between the previous sharp curve and the one leading into Baraliyar is not much.

Travelling to Ooty has always been enjoyable but for the last one. It was horrible because it was hot. I was running around 'Barliar', during our brief halt, to get some 'Nimbooz' and cool water bottles for my family. I thought to myself, may be it's only in Barliar, just to be proved wrong by Coonoor. I was sweating and needed a table under a ceiling fan to have my lunch. Mood, what mood? Joy, what joy? We stayed overnight at my uncle's house in 'Aruvankadu'. Ventured out late in the evening and enjoyed the fresh air in the darkness surrounded by trees inside the cordite factory campus. Had a good walk, heavily breathing in before adjusting to the altitude and the slopeness of the roads. It was the only good and enjoyable moment of my day.

Next day we proceeded to Ooty and was halted all along the way by heavy traffic. We reached Ooty and proceeded further to Glenmorgan, which thankfully is not a popular touring spot. We travelled on the Ooty -Gudalur Road and took a diversion near the heavily crowded 'Shooting Medu' (A point from where people can reach many film shooting spots). I climbed up the Shooting Medu, which was bereft of its lush green and was full of brown spots. From that spot within a KM a slight diversion to the right at a corner took us to beautiful Glenmorgan. Our vehicle was the only one travelling on that road and there was one even at the spot. We spent around an hour near a small dam enroute and an hour at Glenmorgan TNEB site where there is a breathtaking view point of a vast and deep Valley with mountains all around. The view point is located near a TNEB Winch (the famous winch that took part in the movie 'Mullum Malarum'). People have told me that when you climb down in the winch, at one point it will be Kerala on one side and Karntaka on the other side while you are in TN. That view is supposedly a great one, which unfortunately is not accessible currently as the Winch is halted for safety reasons. If you are a braveheart you can then climb down the steep stairs alongside the winch path. I saw a couple climbing up the stairs, panting heavily. The husband remarked, "theriyama irangitenga" (we climbed down ignorantly).

When we returned to Ooty in the afternoon it was again hot and when we reached the over crowded and in terrible shape Botanical Garden, we were scurrying for shades to sit under. That's how hot it was. It's not the Ooty I knew, experienced and loved. I am still in love with Ooty and would take my bike to there some time in June/July just to compensate for this terrible experience. But one thing is for sure. Summer visits to Ooty will not cool you down, be it in mind or body. It is sure to make you feel terrible especially during the weekends. People are thronging in lakhs and that's not good for Ooty. At least I don't want to add up to that figure.

A glaring sight in Ooty, the city, is the reduced amount of greenery and the growing sight of concrete buildings with neon lights, and flashy boards aimed at tourists, promising a great stay (these guys must be sarcastic). Unless we learn to love and nurture our environment and learn to protect the beauty of this land, we will invite more and more natural disasters like the one that crippled Ooty in October - November 2009, when landslides engulfed Nilagiri District. People will blame everyone else except themselves.

News and Views of the Day

2010-05-28T08:42:00.002+05:30

I am at risk of sounding like Idlivadai, but this is funny. A day or two after our CM stated that he waited like a good housewife for the return of Bharathirajaa, comes the news that he had a secret love affair with R.M. Veerappan. Apparently, though belonging to the rival party, AIADMK, RMV corresponded with the DMK Supremo in secret. Considering that ADMK broke away after 1971, and that RMV was faithful to MGR till his death, this one is surely a long drawn love affair.

The power situation here shows no signs of improvement, though I read that thanks to wind power, power cuts are down by two hours. There seems to be a permanent situation of low voltage, a friend at Kodambakkam tells me that there has been no light in home for the last few days- but he is able to keep his AC on, thanks to the stabiliser. Life should be simple, but it is not easy.

And the heat. Hopefully it has peaked- today is the last day of Kathiri. I am itching all over, and it is worse during the night. During the daytime, sleep comes easy, especially if you sit near or under a creaking fan that blows hot air about you- it helps if you have had a good lunch.

A white pigeon from Pakistan has been arrested for spying. The pigeon, white in colour, is recognisably Pakistani, and the evidence of its spying activity is a cell phone number written in red over its body, and a rubber stamp that gives away its origin- Wazirabad, I think. The pigeon is kept under observation in an air-conditioned room, no one is allowed to see him, and the man who reported the pigeon- he will not be allowed to go out until the investigations are over.

This should be first hint of a change that is coming: NASA administrator, Charles Bolden, has expressed fears that they can no longer depend on Indian scientists. I don't know how many of them are over there, but it seems like ever since the success of Chandrayan, they are looking to return to India to lead a hassle-free life (ha ha!), and help support India' drive to conquer the skies.

I'll note down my small pleasures at the end of posts such as this, so that we come to an upbeat end: the decoction at the base of the coffee tumbler. It is not supposed to be there, but it is, the way we make our coffee (shame!). I drink my cofee real hot, and I drink it real long. When the first scalding sip comes to end with a lukewarm gulp of bitter decoction. This should not make my happy, but then, consider that some of the days, the decoction is sweet with the sugar that has not dissolved. If you were me, you'll be shouting for joy.

Poems by Wendy Cope

2010-05-27T20:05:00.000+05:30

I've been reading a collection of poems by Wendy Cope- "Two Cures for Love". They look like light reading, small poems that speak plain language, but reveal complicated lives:

Timekeeping

Late home for supper,

He mustn't seem drunk.

"The pob cluck", he begins,

And knows he is sunk.

Defining the Problem

I can't forgive you. Even if I could,

You would't pardon me for seeing through you.

And yet I cannot cure myself of love

For what I thought you were before I knew you.

Perfect.

And this is the one that made me laugh out loud-

Loss

The day he moved out was terrible-

That evening she went through hell.

His absence wasn't a problem

But the corkscrew had gone as well.

Poems that are simple the way these are, they are not easy to write. Wendy Cope does that amazingly well.

One year of UPA II - What has changed?

2010-05-24T17:57:00.002+05:30

Today our Prime Minister was all over TV screens, answering questions from journos. Well not exactly answers but expressions, hopes and some answers. Any one going through his answers to questions on Spectrum issue, A.Raja, Naxal problem and Inflation worries would get a sense of Dejavu. There is nothing new in those responses (I desist from using the word answer anymore) from our PM. He himself wouldn't be satisfied with those responses if he were to be in the shoes of questioners or among one of us looking forward to answers.

Honestly, I did not expect him to give proper answers. Then why am I whining? I am because of the state of our politics and the way democracy is practiced in our beloved country. No one in power is accountable. People dare not question them. If you dare then be ready to face the wrath which may come in many forms from boulders to acids. Things have only worsened in the last 20 odd years of my close observation of Indian politics and the way democratic values are upheld here. Constitution has become another Bhagavad Gita, which is often quoted but not learnt or followed. If you have the power you can bend anything.

Coming back to the title of this post, what have they (UPA) achieved in the last 6 years that NDA did not in their term. What we have come to witness is mediocrity across the table. No one is different. Nothing separates anybody. Comrades are no better if their handling of affairs in their last bastion is anything to go by. Indian politics is commoditized. You are not going to get anything different by voting to 'X' or 'Y'. Now, how helpless is that?

We can all live, surely, because we all have thick skin and conveniently ignore things. That is, show apathy to things and issues you consider as beyond you. We are going spineless and even many of us are becoming abettors (கூட்டு களவாணிகள்) by taking bribes to vote and availing freebies where not eligible. May be, as people say, we deserve what we get.

Singam - Music Review

2010-05-22T22:17:00.000+05:30

If there is one thing that I hate in the songs of this film, it is the chorus mouthing mumbo jumbo. They are there in every song, and the mumbo jumbo gets totally trashier and meaningless as you listen along. It is tiresome. May be the songs are not meant to be listened one after another. Or listened to.

'En idhayam ithuvarai thutitthathillai, ippo thutikkirathe, en manasu ithuvarai paranthathillai, ippo parakkirathey..." is a lilting song, with feminine voices whooing in the background (angels, There are some delectable bits of guitar, supported by the 'hullaahi, hullaahi, hullaahille" of male voices which bring a special zest to the song: the slow paced ending that almost terminates each stanze of the song into speech is something that grabbed my attention.

"Everybody listen samba bamba ramba thumbathumba..." is a high voltage dance number: totally crazy in a way that is likely to catch on. The lyrics are not great, and there are enough aahaas and oohoos in the background to push the song along, which runs like real zippy. It has a telugu feel to it- which is what you would expect in a Prasad number. I think we will hear it a lot in the radio and tv, and in our homes, we will have to put up with this numba shrieked about by our kids.

"Eh naalu kaalu paaicchalile, rentu kannu meicchalile, ettu thisai koocchalile..." is a song, yes, you guessed it that is too loud for my liking. And there are some novel improvisations with instruments, but the song has a real old 1990s feel to it. It is a bizarre song, I don't know how to classify it. I am not enthusiastic about it, but who knows, it might well be the hit song of the film. Such is my taste.

From the beginning to the end of it, "Singam singam, he is thorai singam- Everybody listen, listen, make way for the king..." filled me with dread,. It brought to mind all the antics of Vijay, and the punch dialogues that we endure film after film. It is a odd quality in this film, not so odd may be, every song has the chorus joining in with some nonsensical jingle: in this song, they go, "gabbagabbagabba..."

"Oru vaartthai moliyaale ennai uruga vaitthai"- has guitars going like raccoons that were forced to go without food: "she stole my heart she stole my heart" is shouted like the heart was something that needed to be gotten rid of urgently, like it was maybe a hard case of piles. Again, may be it is just that I try too hard to be clever, but this song is total chaos. You can't figure what emotion is behind this sloganeering, could be they thought this is the way a peppy song should go. I hate it.

"Mussellamussellasanamsanam"- what kind of a chorus is this! Possibly Devi Prasad could think of no instrument that would make a sound like that, so he put a bunch of girls to go mussellamussella... And fittingly the song expires with a long drawn out slow whine, like a roistering cat that got its throat slit.

And there is another song like that, same tune, only slower and all guitary and groovy like they realised they needed a vinnai thaandi varuvaaya kind of number: this is a broken heart song. It is slow and moony, but the chorus is still here, they don't know where to go to, or what to do: they all go, "she stole my heart, she stole my heart"- as if in mockery of a case of piles that didn't quite go away.

Yet Another Blog

2010-04-10T18:49:00.000+05:30

A part of this blog moves over here: VBH v1.1.

Reasons?

The ability to set up pages as tabs, and offer RSS for each of them so that you don't have to look at each and every post I do.

I could've done it here, but there are too many posts, and anyway, I like the idea of turning over a new page.

It looks more organised now. Let's see how it goes.

There is nothing particular...

2010-02-24T18:10:00.001+05:30

There is nothing particularly poetic about the last few days
nothing prosaic too, as a matter of fact.
How do you express numbness
which itself is the pain of an absence of feeling?

I should have learned to paint-
I could paint this desk, or this cellphone here,
and find in it something beautiful or memorable

But words do not work that way-
they are meant to mean something.

Which you and I- we both know-
is often borrowed or imagined,

but when the script is lost
words are like sawdust that abrades the tongue.

Poetry in Motion

2010-02-20T13:23:00.001+05:30

There's been complaints here that this blog has become dreadfully seriously boringly incomprehensible- so here's something else to laugh at:

Early Dispatches From the Near Future

2010-02-19T19:13:00.001+05:30

The Martians came knocking, door to door,
yesterday at Ashok Nagar Third Avenue,
looking for the Boozhe who had escaped custody.
They found two mottled-livery Pamponelle,
A Zubrische with broken Flinzhe,
a mock-drille samper temperit-
and more, but no Boozhe.

Frustrated, they crisped a watchdog,
reducing it to a whimpering puppy.
They rendered the trees, forking
its branches and scrimmaging
the sodden leaves and water-valves.
The police have preferred a complaint.

Our Odd Minister, called his Even Ministers,
to an emergency meeting in the Cream Pavilion,
after which they emerged to the flashlights of television
to condemn strongly this latest outrage
while giving assurance of the Government's resolve
to leave no stone unturned
till the fugitive Boozhe are apprehended
and handed over to the Martians.

A Meditation On a Merchant Who Had Suffered Shipwreck

2010-02-18T19:00:00.002+05:30

Art by: Christoph Rehlinghaus

"In my infinite (anantam) ocean like Self, the unsteady-mind (chitta-vata) attains shanti (prashaamyatii). Just like owing to misfortune (abhagya) a trader (vaNij) loses (vinishwara) his world (jagat) with the ship (pot)."- Ashtavakra Gita, 2.24, tr by I

SALANIO

Ha! what sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath

lost a ship.

SALARINO

I would it might prove the end of his losses.

- The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1.

Nothing comes, nothing goes-
Where has his world gone to?
So palpably real, now not possible,
and in some future time
an improbable one, one as such
that existed in a waking dream.

So palpably real, the almost-now world,
the world that prompted this merchant
build fond hopes,
safeguard anticipated threats,
is now gone, no more.

Say, the appointment book
full with its engagements, flight tickets,
the bonds, the guarantees, promises-
the imperative affairs that left no time
for family, friends, fitness-

The demanding, immediate, next-on-line world,
that mocked at philosophising-
the inescapable reality of the here and now
that asked for response, one after another,
now and at the perceived future-
all of that which were real a thought ago-
are wrecked by a news.

Shipwrecked!-
Wonder now, how one thought
sustains a world,
and another dissolves it.

Thought is all, won't you say?
And yet- look around-
this computer, the tree outside,
birds, dogs, cats- all there is-
Life Insurance, MediClaim, FuturePlus-
don't they signify?

In the graveyard, they say,
where the past meets its end
with all its projected futures negated,
lifetimes of effort reduced
to half-burnt rope bones and ash-
the dancer comes alive in the darkness,
and demons and goblins come with him-
they hop, hoot and sing with joy-

Dead while alive, and alive in death
the dead, if they had any sense
would join Him in the dance.

Afterthought:

While worlds are imagined
in the margins of time by thought,
death holds dominion on created stuff:
In its multitudinous hands it cups
the dreaming and the dead.
Nothing comes, nothing goes.

Feeling Guilty

2010-02-15T09:31:00.001+05:30

Because the patron of this blog, SB has praised some poems here and we could gain more traffic- at least for a day.

If I had not said that eighty percent of the traffic we get here comes from TCWJ., I wouldn't feel embarrassed.

This, as a blogger. But as an individual, I am grateful to SB for the vote of confidence.

Thank you.

A picture of calm

2010-02-14T19:35:00.001+05:30

Ripples do not translate
into shudders.

The deck
has always been so;

the undertug muted,
a slow undulation-

This moment
holds eternity

in a picture of peace
except that

a distant bird lets out a triumphant cry
as silver fish flash
slow in the sedate waves.

Weathering the Storm...

2010-02-13T19:35:00.001+05:30

I know what I should do
when caught in a storm

I should sit out in the light
snug in the warm blaze of the sun

and I should weather it out-
the clouds would move

and I there
as ever before

silent and quiet,
warmed by the sun

lit in a tunnel of light.

Art Credit: Christoph Rehlinghaus

The Cricket Watcher's Journal

2010-02-13T13:12:00.000+05:30

9. Cricket Watcher's Journal

Another unheralded blogger. In depth and refreshing analysis, from an Indian angle.

- "Top 20 Cricket websites: readers respond", Telegraph.co.uk

Concise, and true.

We wish SB greater achievements- not that this recognition will make a difference to what he writes.

I feel proud for him (and grateful- this is a lame horse of a blog, and for a short period when I kept track of visitors, I found that more than eighty percent of them came via TCWJ clicking through his blogroll. Thanks for the traffic!)

undone

2010-02-09T08:52:00.000+05:30

unloved
unwed
unbred
undead and
unlived.

Mike, the headless chicken

2010-01-30T11:42:00.003+05:30

Mike, the headless chicken-
Mike, a chicken with head when
his head was severed, survived
as Mike, the headless chicken.

He ran around after his head was chopped,
as all headless chicken are supposed to do-
I haven't seen one, may be you have-
but then, unlike the others that
plopped down to be made into curry,
he preened and pecked with his neck:
surviving on food dropped down his slit throat
with an ink-filler.

He lived for eighteen more months

till one day,
he choked to death.

---

This poem was composed by 'zzz' and posted here by me. N.Balajhi

Ordinary people with ordinary virtues

2010-01-30T11:41:00.002+05:30

We are ordinary people with ordinary virtues
and less than ordinary vices.
I don't expect to come up
with or against anything memorable.

For what I have here
is a semblance of life
which animates without informing.

---

This poem was composed by 'zzz' and posted here by me. N.Balajhi

In the air

2010-01-30T11:39:00.002+05:30

"The air was saturated all the time with the smell of burning flesh."

Ibby Davidovich was put up at Auschwitz where she was provided with a soap made of fat scraped from the ovens in which her fellow prisoners had been burnt to death.

Seeing that her captives didn't have to do this- a cruel act which gave what pleasure I don't know how- it hardly seems possible to wish away evil as the handiwork of Maya or the supposed selective pressures suggested by evolutionary psychology

---

This post is made by me on behalf of 'zzz' . N.Balajhi

In an alternate universe...

2010-01-28T20:00:00.000+05:30

In an alternate universe, where,

Microsoft is a dry cleaner at my street corner,

Google is yet another brand of noodles,

and Keane a household name-

I drive a Wipro,

sipping McAfee,

having found what to do

with the rest of my life.

March of the Penguins

2010-01-28T16:00:00.001+05:30

What I don't remember seeing in The March of the Penguins, a perfect film that illustrates the perfect pointlessness of human endeavor, Julian Barnes writes about.

Apparently the penguins, after the long and arduous walk back from their wives left alone in the empty, icy wilderness with their eggs, come to the shore where something nasty happens.

Faced with the potential feed of fish they need to take home, and the predators that wait for them beneath the cold waters of the sea, they dawdle.

The penguins pace back and forth, I imagine, like anxious husbands in the gynaecology wards, where they imagine what pains their wives endure...

But my imagination cannot grasp this terrible aspect of fear and desire, and tricks of survival- for, as they jostle back and forth, pulled by desire and stopped by fear,

They shoulder the one that takes a step too far, the one that is perhaps somewhat foolhardy or greedy or just out of wits-

They shoulder him in
to test the waters!

The Scooter downstairs

2010-01-28T12:00:00.001+05:30

A cat- black, tailless- warms its haunches
on the seat.

Crows stain it white
with their incessant droppings.

One of the three dogs,
the one with glazed eyes, that walks wary,
sniffs at the back wheel,
and territorizes it.

And the neighbour downstairs,
waters it every day with his hose
though it never grows.

The Reception

2010-01-28T06:00:00.001+05:30

Can't put a finger on what I feel-
in this hall with mild a/c and muted lights,
a self-enclosed world with silk saris,
gold, glitter, suits and coats,
voices rising and falling into weary silence,
cheery laughter, demented screech of children,
and i feel an emptiness-
would like to dine and go back home-
and there they stand on the podium:
the bride and groom, like
two outsized dolls put
out on display.

Us- You, Me and This

2010-01-27T21:34:00.002+05:30

Us- You, Me and This

I might write poetry if
we could make a deal that
along with metre and rhyme,
we dispense with reason.

That this is nothing serious,
that this need not make sense.

If you'll promise
you won't look for meaning,
a purpose, some significance,
in any of this.

(Or even something to appreciate,
something that will make you happy,
bring you joy,
or move to tears.)

We might agree that all these words-
abstract, polysyllabic,
redolent with meaning-
they are all not that necessary
here.

That a sense of presence
is reason enough to be-
for us- you, me, this

IS IT MATRIMONY OR ACRIMONY?

2010-01-24T17:00:00.000+05:30

I think it is a given that marriages are made between contrarian spirits, the wife always at the loggerheads with her husband, most of the time, in most of the marriages. May be it is to do with the fact that acrimony sounds like matrimony, don't know.

Well, as I said, I am reading "Nothing to be Frightened of", by Julian Barnes. Here's his grandparents:

"Grandpa, in his male armchair, deaf aid occasionally whistling and pipe making a hubble-bubble noise as he sucked on it, would shake his head over the Daily Express, which described to him a world whre truth and justice wre constantly imperilled by the Communist Threat. In here softer, female armchair- in the red corner - -Grandma would tut-tut aya over the Daily Worker, which described to her a world where truth and justice, in their updated versions, were constantly imperilled by Capitalism and Imperialism"

This gusty pair, not only reserved opposite positions for jousting about politics, but even found a way to make provision for future differences of opinions:

"My brother remembers ritual- never witnessed by me - which he called the Reading of the Diaries. Grandma and Grandpa each kept separate diaries, and of an evening would sometimes entertain themselves by reading out loud to one another what they had recorded on that very week several years previously. The entries were apparently of considerable banality but frequent disagreement. Grandpa: "Friday. Worked in garden. Planned potatoes." Grandma: "Nonsense. "Rained all day. Too wet to work in garden."

WAY TO GO

2010-01-24T13:00:00.001+05:30

I am in the midst of "Nothing to be Frightened of", by Julian Barnes. He is my sort of writer. The book I am reading is purportedly about his life, but it is all about death. I like it.

To get an idea of the stuff that he writes, here is something:

"One of Montaigne's key instances is the story of Pomponius Atticus, a correspondent of Cicero's. When Atticus fell ill, and medical attempts to prolong his existence merely prolonged his pain, he decided that the best solution was to starve himself to death .No need to petition a court in those days, citing the terminal detorioration in your 'quality of life': Atticus, being a Free Ancient,merely informed his friends and family of his intention, then refused food and waited for the end. In this, he was much confounded. Miraculously, abstinence turned out to be the best cure for his (unnamed) condition; and soon, the sick man was undeniably on the mend. There was much rejoicing ad feasting; perhaps the doctors even withdrew their bills. But Atticus interrupted the merriment. Since we all must die one day, he announced, and since I have already made such fine strides in that direction, I have no desire to turn around now, only to start again another time. And so, to the admiring dismay of those around him, Atticus continued to refuse the food and went to his exemplary death."

Faviki- another Bookmarking site

2010-01-20T19:05:00.000+05:30

Faviki

I am sure this place will get increasingly popular as days go by-it is a Bookmarking Site with a nifty bookmarklet: the best thing going for this is the feature of suggested tags: you can save your bookmarklets here and send it to Delicious or to Twitter.

Check this site.

I like the idea of it.

Wish them well.

Facially Troubling, Strange and Tasteless Gifts

2010-01-20T12:00:00.000+05:30

This happened in the course of a hearing of a case involving the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl-

"Only after the trial did defense counsel learn that there had been unreported ex parte contacts between the jury and the judge, that jurors and a bailiff had planned a reunion, and that “either during or immediately following the penalty phase, some jury members gave the trial judge chocolate shaped as male genitalia and the bailiff chocolate shaped as female breasts.”"

Executed Today, from whom I got this news- and the link- you can read more of this at Above the Law.

Kings of Africa

2010-01-20T09:36:00.000+05:30

His Excellency OSEADEEYO ADDO DANKWA III
King of Akropong-Akuapem
Ghana

In case you feel like sniggering, let me tell you, King OSEADEEYO ADDO DANKWA III is a graduate from the University of London and is an economic advisor for the Ghanaian administration- he is more intelligent than you and me taken together.

Please take a look at Design You Trust where you'll find more photos of greater and lesser princes.

via African Digital Art, shared by

Mass Appeal

2010-01-20T09:19:00.000+05:30

This, after eight hours since Bill Gates made his first tweet:

Bill Gates (BillGates) on Twitter:

"* Name Bill Gates
* Location Seattle, WA
* Web http://www.gatesf...
* Bio Sharing cool things I'm learning through my foundation work and other interests...

40 Following 104,965 Followers 3,157 Listed

* 5Tweets"

Why is Bill Gates The Richest Man...

2010-01-20T06:13:00.000+05:30

This should be very important if you are from where i am coming from- via Why Bill Gates is the Richest Man - A Astrological Review

Martin Luther King

2010-01-19T08:59:00.000+05:30

via Dr Shock MD PhD

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

via American Rhetoric

Booksneeze

2010-01-18T18:04:00.000+05:30

I should thank Kartikey here for bringing an interesting site to my notice- Book sneeze.

Book sneeze has a catalog of books, and if you are a blogger, and choose to write a review of one of those books, let them know- they will send the book to you, free of cost. All that the people over at Book sneeze want you to do is that you should write a honest review of the book.

Sounds great, right?

Bookward ho!

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