Category: Personal

One thing I noticed about writing this notebook is that I never find errors only when I type it in. But, I never change it then because this writing is a spontaneous outpouring of ideas (I mean thoughts).

So, I keep that as close to me as possible.

Spent today morning to collect my prize. It was 2 CDs given to me by someone with a wonderful simle. The 2 CDs – one Norah Jones’ latest album ‘Not too Late’ and another a collection of lounge songs inspired by India.

I then went on down to the State Central Library (earlier called the Asiatic Library).

Spent the afternoon and evening by myself. I am now putting everything in order. This is something I like to do sometimes. Some cleaning up.

Listening to the CDs on the discman.

I want to write something, I do not know what to write. I want to do something, but I do not know what to do.

Some clarifications can be read by reading Doc Searls’ weblog on the Kathy Siera event. Just hope that there’s someone like this anywhere where such a mess happens.

Sigh!

My brother’s first exam is done. My cousin’s last exam in SSC is tomorrow.

Well, now back to me.

The day started off with me calling JLT to claim my prize for some local contest. Spent the morning on that.

Watched ‘House’ in the afternnon. It’s a story of an eccentric MD who solves medical cases using seemingly crazy methods. Statement from the series: Men have wives, kids and girlfriends just because they don’t have any passions to follow. In that sens, we’re same, you and I.  Not an exact quote.

The brain then began hitting strange ideas – scaffoldings inside satellites and sending a wooden stool into space. Titled and filed under “odd structural thoughts” in the left centre of the brain.

Had my first meeting today. There was no one from Systems I could get hold of. And I found out that someone was a girl. That makes it two girls and a guy in structures. Another general pointer: names ending with an a in Italian are girls.

I finish the day exhausted. Returning home my feet gets down on Earth and get some studies packed away.

Have asked my advisor for some help with some of the crazy iedas that I’m having. This is what ensures that hot metal becomes a sharp, cold sword.

Going to HBCSE and JLT tomorrow and take a peep at Asiatic.

It’s 1 AM in the morning on March 26, 2007.

My morning started with a much needed hair cut and shave. I was beginning to look like a savage, which was fun upto a point. Cycled both ways and enjoyed it.

Finished ‘The Google Story’ yesterday. The second part is about more recent events (circa 2005) in Google.

Read an article by Sunil Mukhi on the lighter side of Physics. That is a difficult job.

Finally loaded the “Meet the Team” page on the SEDSAT 2 blog. Have sent an email asking people to submit their personal bios written in third persons. Will add them as they come in.

Have to begin work on the structure sub-system. Parshati and Giuditta are the two people on my team. Will ask them to go through a design book – mechanical design of course. Getting things done will be much simpler with a smaller team.

I have been thinking about whether I should load my notes with more stuff that I read evveryday. But I decided against it.

As time ticks, I am coming closer and closer to examinations.

I would want more stuff like Burning Man, Glastonbury Festival etc. happening in India. I also wish that we had Universities rather than colleges. And I go on wishing. I observed more examples of how we take more negatives than positives from the ‘West’.

My web design/Indian satellites project will also come up soon. Will link to it. Google is the company that made links hot and Technorati did it for blogs. I wonder what will be the next big thing.

My friend, Shirin was recently in an accident. Hope you get well soon! She says she was passionate about driving her own car.

Now, come to my point, my passion for cars increases only when I put a dummy in it and crash it against a wall. Have been doing it, since I was a kid.  Hopefully, there is no ‘Prevention of Cruelty against Dummies’ yet. I also like it when you take a plunger and just destroy the car. After all, destruction is the apex of creation.

What really drives me are airplane. My way of taking interest in them is to not learn about them at all. It’s all strange. After all, I am from a strange land – India. A land where a group of snake charmers managed to take over industry and give a 9.2% GDP growth p.a. Cool no?

I’m trying to reflect this philosophy in my blog. How? I’m changing the theme everyday.

I understand it’s not a very intelligent way of doing a blog, but who says it has to be intelligent? The thing is – even if I don’t post anything on my blog, I change the themes. So, there’s something to watch out for everytime you’re here.

We all face problems because we need security – we need to return to the same space again and again. Remove that security and you’ll realise that half the problems of the world dissolve. Think about that.

The “b” key of my keyboard isn’t working too well.

India faced two tragedies back to back. One, with the twin explosions in Samjhauta Express, run between India and Pakistan. The second happened when a boat capsized killing about 19 10 year-olds.

The first incident is getting national coverage since it involves an international dimension – most of the victims were Pakistani nationals.

The second happened because the boat carrying the children was not water-fit. This is not the first time. Will it take the death of these 19 children for the administration to act?

What further action will be taken? Will the administration atleast act now? Accidents are almost an everyday event in Kerala. Safety is requireed in land, water and air. I was wondering what sort of a catastrophe will it take to move the administration to implement safety laws?

It’s been wonderful to read blogs from different countries from across the globe. Some, over at WordPress.com (which hosts this blog) and some through other blogs. They all talk about the wonderful stuff that they can achieve using computers today.

But, the sad fact is that the computer is least of the worry for atleast 20% (as a very minimum estimate) and 50% (as a very maximum estimate) of the population. These people can’t catch up with the speed of today’s technology train. They have to worry about things like food, water, shelter and clothing. Things, which the other half of the world does not even need to think about.

That’s why I appreciate this post by Robert Scoble. It’s not only that some people are not ready to leave analog TV. In some places, people can’t afford either HDTV or flat-screens. Here, in India, there’s a TV at almost every home – slum, apartment or bunglow. But, that’s because of cable TV. The revolution happening right now is DTH (direct-to-home TV). The local Government telephone provider, MTNL, is also thinking of introducing IPTV here.

But even then, you can’t beat the pricing of an analog TV.

I started writing again in my old blog. The one I had before I switched to WordPress. Guess, it’s just a small salutation for introducing me to blogging.

I don’t get too many email forwards. So, when I got one, I decided to post it. No other intention behind this post. Thanks for the forward, Nupur. 

OLD VERSION…

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant’s a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION…

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his  house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant’s a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed   while others are cold and starving.NDTV , BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

Amnesty International and Ban Ki-moon (UN Secretary General) criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the  grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) . Opposition MP’s stage a walkout.Left parties call for “Bharat Bandh”  in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.CPM in Kerala   immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the ‘Grasshopper Rath’.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]“, with effect from the beginning of  the winter.

Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by The Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it “a triumph of justice”. Lalu calls it ‘Socialistic Justice’. CPM calls it the ‘revolutionary resurgence of   the downtrodden’

Ban Ki-moon  invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

MANY YEARS LATER…

The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley.100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India…

India was my first encounter with otherness, the discovery of a new world. It was at the same time a great lesson in humility. I returned from that journey embarrassed by my own ignorance. I realized then what seems obvious now: another culture would not reveal its mysteries to me at a mere wave of my hand. One has to prepare oneself thoroughly for such an encounter.My initial reaction to this lesson was to run home, to return to places I knew, to my own language, to the world of already familiar signs and symbols. I tried to forget India, which signified to me my failure: its enormousness and diversity, its poverty and riches, its incomprehensibility had crushed, stunned, and finally defeated me. Once again, I was glad to travel around Poland, to write about its people, to talk to them, to listen to what they had to say. We understood each other instantly, were united by common experience.

But of course I remembered India. The more bitter the cold of the Polish winter, the more readily I thought of hot Kerala; the quicker darkness fell, the more vividly images of Kashmir’s dazzling sunrises resurfaced. The world was no longer uniformly cold and snowy but had multiplied, become variegated: it was simultaneously cold and hot, snowy white but also green and blooming.

Those are the concluding paragraphs of Ryszard Kapuscinski’s essay, “The Open World“, translated from Polish by Klara Glowczewska and published in the February 5, 2007 New Yorker.

This from Ethan Zuckerman’s blog. Thanks, Ethan.