Category: Personal

Spend today listening to lounge music.

I have to remind myself that a lot of maintainence work needs to be done in this weblog. I prefer the fuller version.

Talks of Web 3.0 abound. Guess we have to talk of many things in that language. The old description of “The beginning of a new era” was so much better. Atleast, people don’t say life 2.0. If they did, I don’t know which version number I would be.

I was wondering. Is the world really such a complex place? Or is it the Governments making it that way?

Some word on Enigma, because I’m listening to it now, from the CD literature:

Enigma is the brainchild of Michael Cretu, a Romania born electronics and studio wizard who blended various global sounds to catchy samples and incredible sound design. While Cretu composed and produced the music, his wife Sandra chipped in with haunting vocal passages. The music cuts across all barriers and appeals to all generations.

Learn more about Enigma from Wikipedia

I wonder what will happen to this weblog once they become passe or when..What happens to all these words logged in notebooks with several of the people’s thoughts have been typed in. And yet, there are many things that are not online. We will become mature about the Internet only when we set it’s limitations – in terms of time, affect on offline life etc.

Is the habit of children drawing on the walls the result of our ancestors drawing on their wall centuries ago?

Report after report talks about the SC order to stay reservations in this academic year. Oh, by the way the reservation is an increase of 27% to nearly 49%.

This report in the morning newspaper freaked me:

“It will come as a major relief to students of the backward and reserved categories, if Mumbai University’s plan to reduce the admission fees to the management and computer degree courses ranging between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 1.5 lakhs to only Rs. 75 (Seventy five only, if you can’t believe it) is okayed. Once in place, it will allow ppor and backward class students to take admission in the best management institutes which have very high admission fees.”

Report from the Mumbai Mirror.

I’m all for educating the poor. But, what promise can you offer that these people will continue to work in this country once they’ve finished. Why does that matter? Well, it is the Government’s (which it gets through people paying taxes) money that will have to fill in the rest. Shouldn’t they be bound since they’re getting a benefit from us to stay in India for a period of 5 years? That’s the least you can do to ensure that student’s whose education the Government pays for pays back some money to the Government in taxes? Or, you can also offer students special funding as loans which they can repay later on. That makes sense.

But investing in something with the hope that the students will stay on and work in India is like a VC’s job that the Government is doing.

Hell, what would the Government do, if the richer people pay their way through to becoming OBCs and get their education done in Rs. 75? And what about ordinary people’s kids who won’t get a chance to enter these institutions?

Also, do you think students will value their education if they don’t have to work hard for getting that degree. And with standards of education allegedly falling, what will they gain?

Another interesting point is about how the opinion of the people and the politicians on the ground vary so much.

If you do not teach these communities to be self-reliant and be independent what you will face in the future is just unimaginable. That is the reason for my not backing these or any reservations. However, I don’t really mind, because after working for five or six years to ensure that I give back to India the debt that I owe her, I plan to leave this country. I will be greatful for being born in such a diverse land whose diversity was its strength in the past but just might become its weakness in the future.

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.