All this and more, coming with a trillion dollar deficit bill that will go on for at least the next 10 years...unfolding just about 8.5 years after the US was in a budget-surplus situation. Thank you, President Bush!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
The US economy in shambles
So it has come to this. The masters of the universe have done it yet again. The Wall Street virus spread silently across all financial markets, carrying with it the debilitating disease of denial, the symptoms of irrational exuberance and the inevitable accelerated decline into dissolution. Meanwhile, with a raging recession fully under way, the NYT reports on Saturday afternoon parties (starting @$1000 per person) - champagne brunches on steroids fueled on a bit by severance packages and layoff settlements...and perhaps by a lot more of "recession-proof"players...drug money, oil money, defense money...and of course, the latest being government money. Trouble is that the government money is taxpayers' money...and so you and I are the chumps that are going to be left holding the bag at the bleary-eyed, budget-busting, economy-enervating end of this party...!
Monday, November 3, 2008
1am Phoenix time - November 4, 2008
It is election day in the United States, the very early hours. Over the next 18 hours, we will find out whether the country can look towards the future, and hope - regardless of whether it chooses as it's president an old man who has earned his wisdom the hard way- by sacrificing a lot at war for the country or a young man, who has words of hope and dreams. Either way, it will be a point of departure from the state of mind the country entered when it handed Dubya the mandate in a post 9/11 world.
Many posts have happened since then, none as indelible of course. But milestones nevertheless, of dubious achievement. The largest deficit ever, the most expensive war ever, the most significant decline in the stock market and the economy since the Great Depression, the list goes on. Every day on the radio, I hear people talking about their 401Ks melting away, their houses valued now at a tenth of the purchase price. Industry observers talk about WalMart doing well, while Target suffers - because everyone is stretching dollars. Economists offer cold comfort - 'not as terrible as the Great Depression', they say.
But no one ever talks of giving up. I hear a seventy-year old man, his life-savings vaporized talking about how he's thinking of his next new small business idea that will keep him going, the single mother that's thinking aloud of what work may come her way to keep her two
kids fed and clothed. There's the student who's finishing college with a little bit of cash, looking forward to work - a job, any job. The sixty year old who looked forward to retirement, only to find that he has to keep working, to ensure he has health coverage. These are the ordinary people who have no choice, they have to keep going without any heroics. While reading about the very rich (i.e. the recession-proof) scooping up property, companies and other assets at bargain-basement prices, preparing for the eventual inevitable rebound. I wonder what the ordinary folks around me think, are they resentful? They don't seem to be. In fact, some of them read about the others anticipating a rebound. Some even smile in hope. I wonder what keeps them going, is it simply the insane optimism of someone who has no option to give up? Who knows. I can't say. What I can say is that its there, inexplicably, indisputably there - the sense of hope, the anticipation of cyclicity, the feeling that after things have gotten so bad, they can only get better. Does this happen in other countries? Maybe so. But it's definitely very strong here, for sure. That is what to me still makes this one of the best places in the world to live, and to work. And to think that I didn't even want to come here!
Many posts have happened since then, none as indelible of course. But milestones nevertheless, of dubious achievement. The largest deficit ever, the most expensive war ever, the most significant decline in the stock market and the economy since the Great Depression, the list goes on. Every day on the radio, I hear people talking about their 401Ks melting away, their houses valued now at a tenth of the purchase price. Industry observers talk about WalMart doing well, while Target suffers - because everyone is stretching dollars. Economists offer cold comfort - 'not as terrible as the Great Depression', they say.
But no one ever talks of giving up. I hear a seventy-year old man, his life-savings vaporized talking about how he's thinking of his next new small business idea that will keep him going, the single mother that's thinking aloud of what work may come her way to keep her two
kids fed and clothed. There's the student who's finishing college with a little bit of cash, looking forward to work - a job, any job. The sixty year old who looked forward to retirement, only to find that he has to keep working, to ensure he has health coverage. These are the ordinary people who have no choice, they have to keep going without any heroics. While reading about the very rich (i.e. the recession-proof) scooping up property, companies and other assets at bargain-basement prices, preparing for the eventual inevitable rebound. I wonder what the ordinary folks around me think, are they resentful? They don't seem to be. In fact, some of them read about the others anticipating a rebound. Some even smile in hope. I wonder what keeps them going, is it simply the insane optimism of someone who has no option to give up? Who knows. I can't say. What I can say is that its there, inexplicably, indisputably there - the sense of hope, the anticipation of cyclicity, the feeling that after things have gotten so bad, they can only get better. Does this happen in other countries? Maybe so. But it's definitely very strong here, for sure. That is what to me still makes this one of the best places in the world to live, and to work. And to think that I didn't even want to come here!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Truffaut and Ray: 400 Blows and Pather Panchali
400 Blows and Pather Panchali. I've watched both films, they are memorable and brilliant - both telling stories in different ways while being breakthrough in their form and structure. Truffaut's first feature film defined the French New Wave movement. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (Song of the Road) won eleven international awards including 'Best Human Document' at Cannes.
Truffaut and Ray, Ray and Truffaut. Overlapping lifetimes, parallel perspectives. Ray acknowledged the influences of Jean Renoir and Italian neorealism. Truffaut was a film critic until he decided to take a hand at it himself.
Both films are in black & white. Both feature small boys as their protagonists. Antoine Doinel and Apu. Both films turned out to be the first in the series of three or more sequels. The sequels follow the boys, Antoine and Apu as they grow older - experiencing love, loss, life. Both are bleak in parts and end with hints of a certain kind of hope.
Pure cinema, with curious parallels.
Truffaut and Ray, Ray and Truffaut. Overlapping lifetimes, parallel perspectives. Ray acknowledged the influences of Jean Renoir and Italian neorealism. Truffaut was a film critic until he decided to take a hand at it himself.
Both films are in black & white. Both feature small boys as their protagonists. Antoine Doinel and Apu. Both films turned out to be the first in the series of three or more sequels. The sequels follow the boys, Antoine and Apu as they grow older - experiencing love, loss, life. Both are bleak in parts and end with hints of a certain kind of hope.
Pure cinema, with curious parallels.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Traveling with others is a great luxury
Or perhaps, more precisely - traveling with loved ones is a great luxury. The thought strikes me as I wearily wend my way through the winding line towards Security Check for the umpty-umpteenth time ever. It is close to 11 pm on a Wednesday night and the airport sounds like it's groaning, it's walls heaving in efforts to simultaneously suck in and spawn more people than ever before. There is the usual feeling of barely-controlled chaos as people lurch from check-in to security check to boarding gate wait to actual boarding and seating. Each stage fine-tuned to progressively stripping away anonymity, privacy, personal space and dignity until all that's left is a quivering bewildered human organism just eager to comply and be on his way without trouble.
But amidst all this, I can see some people that are apparently unaffected. They seem in relatively good humor, and are even smiling. It is inexplicable at first. Then I see the pattern - these are all people traveling with someone they know, someone they love. That is what lets them create little cocoons of blissfulness, these small pockets of peace. A mother with three children, the kids playing a little game of mini-tag in a playing-field circumscribed by their carry-on bags. A boy perched on a large suitcase, precariously balanced as his father (or uncle) gently pushes him towards the gate. A couple smiling, each holding a handle of a large bag as they trot along in perfect unison, perhaps it contains a body? A family of many, sprawled across several chairs, murmuring to each other until one or the other can't take it anymore and calls out loudly, upon which they all laugh uproariously, it is a great joke and it takes a while for them to quiet down again. They seem happy, as best as they can be under the circumstances. Or perhaps I am falling for the "grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side" syndrome...
For on my side of the grass, there are people traveling individually. Struggling with their bags, juggling their anxieties for the journey ahead with the attachments and associations left behind. Clad mostly in business attire, armed with cellphones, Blackberries, iPods, laptops, sound-deadening headphones, mini-DVD players, portable video game devices, magazines and finally, (the ever-so-humble!) books. Everyone is well-equipped to stave off boredom, to fight ennui and yet no-one really looks like they're having any kind of fun, for sure! So it is with me, also. Here I am - trudging along in a studious trance, nibbling thoughtfully on a muffin, sipping a silently cooling coffee. Watching my bags, the departure gate, my passport-wallet-tickets all the time. Just another cool character in mildly rumpled attire (a shark in a suit? Hardly!). An enigma of departure. It has been this way for close to fifteen years.
I think I must find out what the other side feels like, eh? Before its too late...before I miss the bus, oops sorry the plane...
:-)
But amidst all this, I can see some people that are apparently unaffected. They seem in relatively good humor, and are even smiling. It is inexplicable at first. Then I see the pattern - these are all people traveling with someone they know, someone they love. That is what lets them create little cocoons of blissfulness, these small pockets of peace. A mother with three children, the kids playing a little game of mini-tag in a playing-field circumscribed by their carry-on bags. A boy perched on a large suitcase, precariously balanced as his father (or uncle) gently pushes him towards the gate. A couple smiling, each holding a handle of a large bag as they trot along in perfect unison, perhaps it contains a body? A family of many, sprawled across several chairs, murmuring to each other until one or the other can't take it anymore and calls out loudly, upon which they all laugh uproariously, it is a great joke and it takes a while for them to quiet down again. They seem happy, as best as they can be under the circumstances. Or perhaps I am falling for the "grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side" syndrome...
For on my side of the grass, there are people traveling individually. Struggling with their bags, juggling their anxieties for the journey ahead with the attachments and associations left behind. Clad mostly in business attire, armed with cellphones, Blackberries, iPods, laptops, sound-deadening headphones, mini-DVD players, portable video game devices, magazines and finally, (the ever-so-humble!) books. Everyone is well-equipped to stave off boredom, to fight ennui and yet no-one really looks like they're having any kind of fun, for sure! So it is with me, also. Here I am - trudging along in a studious trance, nibbling thoughtfully on a muffin, sipping a silently cooling coffee. Watching my bags, the departure gate, my passport-wallet-tickets all the time. Just another cool character in mildly rumpled attire (a shark in a suit? Hardly!). An enigma of departure. It has been this way for close to fifteen years.
I think I must find out what the other side feels like, eh? Before its too late...before I miss the bus, oops sorry the plane...
:-)
Sunday, September 7, 2008
In Bruges
In Bruges, the movie
Why does In Bruges creep up and grab you?! Initially I dismissed it as a typical lightweight hitman flick - the guy-flick (as opposed to the chick-flick!). But after encountering it on a transcontinental flight, I was motivated enough to rent it for a couple of days. It was entertaining, snappy dialog, two hitmen and the picturesque locales of Bruges in Belgium. And the ephemeral, ethereal presence of Clemence Poesy, alongside the hitmen (childishly thuggish Colin Farrell and the more worldly introspective Brendan Gleeson) and their boss (the magisterially, certifiably psychopathic Ralph Fiennes).
Personally I think it works, mostly because of the contrasts - between the characters and their calling, between the lady and the thugs, between gossamer dreams and harsh messy reality. Also between the picturesque historic old neighborhoods now festering with drug pushers, hookers and hold-up artists on the one hand (the predators) and hapless blundering tourists on the other (the prey).
It also makes me put Bruges on the To-Visit list!
Death of a Japanese maple
My Japanese maple died today. I killed it, delivering the coup-de-grace as I hacked it's still-tough branches, stem and roots into pieces small enough to be stuffed into garbage bags along with the soil that nurtured it. I felt sad, even though it was a plant after all. Why do people say that? I felt attached to it, enough to feel that I'd let it down in some way. I think somehow that I contributed to it's death - even though I was traveling the week it contracted what appeared to be some sort of leaf rust, a fungus that overwhelmed it's delicate mint-green mini-maple leaves eventually. I did try to keep it going, and in doing so I used up a couple of bottles of fungicide. But to no avail - it finally just gave up. I don't know if its a metaphor for events taking shape in my life, or whether it's a portent of things to come in nature. Or perhaps it doesn't really mean very much at all - a plant that grew green and happy, then went spotty brown and finally drooped and died.
But I will miss it for sure - as I sit in my chair, just as I sat in the past - savoring the setting sun filtering through those delicate mint-green mini-maple leaves as they nodded contentedly in the gentle evening breeze.
But I will miss it for sure - as I sit in my chair, just as I sat in the past - savoring the setting sun filtering through those delicate mint-green mini-maple leaves as they nodded contentedly in the gentle evening breeze.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , RIP/ A Place of Refuge for Books
The first time I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, I may have been about fifteen. It was an old edition, somewhat dog-eared. I think it belonged to my sister, or to one of her friends. It was one of those books that was to be found inexplicably floating around our house, stuffed behind the pile of newspapers - only surfacing when my mother cleared them out at the end of the month after checking to see whether the crosswords in every Sunday paper were complete. Because it was a place of refuge for books. People came by and dropped stray books off, like sad dogs without homes - they seemed to feel that our home was somehow sympathetic to their cause, perhaps much more than they could be. Or because the book in question was "not suitable" for their own families.
Anyway, when I first read it, it was just amusing to me that an author could devote a whole book to one day in one man's life. What an amazing situation, I remember thinking. How much must have happened in that one day for this man. Later when I read through it again, there was the bleakness, the harshness of a camp run by men brought together in the running of a totalitarian state, alongside the hope of other men - men incarcerated by an unreasonable regime.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died last week, at 89. He was unreasonable, intolerant, controversial, brilliant. As a reviewer on NPR said, a hero but a qualified one. I can't recall what the qualification was based on, it is not important to me. The essence of humanism and empathy was offered to my unformed fifteen-year-old mind by a somewhat well-known line from the book:
"How can a man who is warm understand another man, who is freezing?"
There is something very troubling at a basic level in that.
To my mind, the book remains as relevant now as it was then, as relevant as a red light at a level crossing even when the trains are slow and infrequent - and you can see them coming. With the emergence of new regimes and governments across countries in the 21st century, with new names and new places...Mugabe, Putin, Ceaucesceau, Bush...Georgia, Sudan, Iran, Burma. There are new battlefields, new secret places where lives are shut down and locked away, there are the new men in gray (ref: The Russia House, John Le Carre)
Anyway, when I first read it, it was just amusing to me that an author could devote a whole book to one day in one man's life. What an amazing situation, I remember thinking. How much must have happened in that one day for this man. Later when I read through it again, there was the bleakness, the harshness of a camp run by men brought together in the running of a totalitarian state, alongside the hope of other men - men incarcerated by an unreasonable regime.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died last week, at 89. He was unreasonable, intolerant, controversial, brilliant. As a reviewer on NPR said, a hero but a qualified one. I can't recall what the qualification was based on, it is not important to me. The essence of humanism and empathy was offered to my unformed fifteen-year-old mind by a somewhat well-known line from the book:
"How can a man who is warm understand another man, who is freezing?"
There is something very troubling at a basic level in that.
To my mind, the book remains as relevant now as it was then, as relevant as a red light at a level crossing even when the trains are slow and infrequent - and you can see them coming. With the emergence of new regimes and governments across countries in the 21st century, with new names and new places...Mugabe, Putin, Ceaucesceau, Bush...Georgia, Sudan, Iran, Burma. There are new battlefields, new secret places where lives are shut down and locked away, there are the new men in gray (ref: The Russia House, John Le Carre)
And this is from the end:
"A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day. There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch....
"Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days.
"The three extra days were for leap years."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, RIPSunday, August 3, 2008
Living with new technologies-1: A User's Perspective
Last week I was driving down Hwy101 at 630 in the evening - headed towards San Francisco, trying to zip through rush-hour traffic (honestly, people don't seem to have realized that gas is almost $5!), juggling a phone call, and trying to cope with the navigation system's (GPS) commands/ demands.
Handsfree/ headset enabled driving became the law in California from July-1. So I was dutifully plugged into my bluetooth set, but it was still hard - mostly because to make a new phone-call I would still have had to hold the phone, scroll through the directory and so on. Suddenly it occurred to me that I wasn't using my phone right - it was a corporate-standard smartphone from Blackberry with voice-recognition! So I turn on the VR, and await instructions from the new lady (for some reason, it's always a female voice - GPS, VR or...!). Unfortunately everytime the VR lady asked for something, e.g. a number/ name to call, the GPS lady would call out - take this exit/ turn left/ bear right/ something-something in 2 miles. These were recognized by the VR lady - as incorrectly pronounced commands! A dysfunctional conversation to say the least. I turned both off, chuckling at the Tower-of-Babel type situation, concentrated on driving to my destination and made my phone-call after I reached.
It was pretty funny, but it was also a situation that I felt the VR lady should've been capable of addressing - after all, the VR software was installed on my phone, and could have simply recognized my voice. It is VR, but not advanced VR. And the GPS lady? There seems to be simply no thinking around the options for more instructions or fewer - based on something like familiarity with route. The thing could recognize that I use a certain section of Hwy101 about 15-20 times every week - and used that information to tone down the instructions on that stretch, and picked up as I reached unfamiliar parts.
Pretty basic, eh? Any other thoughts?
I'm planning to make this an irregularly repeating theme in this blog to explore the possibilities for advancing some of the newer everyday technologies we use in our lives. As always - examples and comments from your experiences are welcome!
Handsfree/ headset enabled driving became the law in California from July-1. So I was dutifully plugged into my bluetooth set, but it was still hard - mostly because to make a new phone-call I would still have had to hold the phone, scroll through the directory and so on. Suddenly it occurred to me that I wasn't using my phone right - it was a corporate-standard smartphone from Blackberry with voice-recognition! So I turn on the VR, and await instructions from the new lady (for some reason, it's always a female voice - GPS, VR or...!). Unfortunately everytime the VR lady asked for something, e.g. a number/ name to call, the GPS lady would call out - take this exit/ turn left/ bear right/ something-something in 2 miles. These were recognized by the VR lady - as incorrectly pronounced commands! A dysfunctional conversation to say the least. I turned both off, chuckling at the Tower-of-Babel type situation, concentrated on driving to my destination and made my phone-call after I reached.
It was pretty funny, but it was also a situation that I felt the VR lady should've been capable of addressing - after all, the VR software was installed on my phone, and could have simply recognized my voice. It is VR, but not advanced VR. And the GPS lady? There seems to be simply no thinking around the options for more instructions or fewer - based on something like familiarity with route. The thing could recognize that I use a certain section of Hwy101 about 15-20 times every week - and used that information to tone down the instructions on that stretch, and picked up as I reached unfamiliar parts.
Pretty basic, eh? Any other thoughts?
I'm planning to make this an irregularly repeating theme in this blog to explore the possibilities for advancing some of the newer everyday technologies we use in our lives. As always - examples and comments from your experiences are welcome!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Another great poem (ee cummings)
With all that's happening around us at this point, with all the stresses and strains of a 21st century life...the pressures and the pains...here's the whimsical and wise ee cummings giving us perspective:
you shall above all things be glad and young
you shall above all things be glad and young
you shall above all things be glad and young
For if you're young,whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love
whose any mystery makes every man's
flesh put space on;and his mind take off time
that you should ever think,may god forbid
and (in his mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave
called progress,and negation's dead undoom.
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
Thursday, July 10, 2008
I prefer a girl with some math, or why 8th graders need mandatory algebra!
So there I was the other day, waiting my turn at the large store that equips you for all types of house remodeling projects. They have some designer-type folks as well, and perhaps the pretty girl helping folks decide would have some taste. I could get some advice. As I fidgeted with my cellphone, I wondered how long it would take, and whether it should be appliances only, or counters too and why it was that kitchen cupboards were the most expensive thing to do. Then suddenly, it was my time! Yes! She was rather hot. Cool, too. And then as I finished making notes and taking samples, she said would you return these in a week, and I said yes of course. What's the date today, wondered. I said, it's Thursday the 6th. O yes! she exclaimed. Now let me see, you'll have a week, so what date will it be a week from now...hmm...! With a puzzled look, she went to her computer to pull up the calendar - to figure out what date it would be a week from Thursday the 6th, the date I'd so helpfully provided to her.
It was too much for me. Stunned at this unexpected display of unabashed oblivious "mathlessness", I slunk away with my samples, grumbling to myself. "Bye-eeeeeee! Have fun!" she called out. I gurgled a reply and shimmered away.
Gentle readers, it is my belief that it is best to run away if one encounters such a person. Life is short, and one likes to keep it easy. It is too hard to deal with a person who is simple about everyday math. Or to put it another way, someone who suffers from innumeracy (a la illiteracy). This is the sort of person that doesn't know a dozen is 12, or that a week has 7 days. Or that 18 + 12 = 30 and that's the same as 20 + 10, which is also 10 X 3. The sort of person who will therefore always struggle to balance a checkbook, pay a bill, keep of track of birthdays, goof up on calendering, forget PINs and passwords, miss flights because they report ETDs in 24-hour format.
I'm sorry for you, if you're one such - but come on, how do you survive? Your kind will soon be extinct, my dear - locked out of a 21st century world that essentially runs on numbers. So sorry.
You can do very little to remedy this, perhaps it would be good to keep a PDA, a cellphone and lots of paper and pens around you. And friends, if you have any patient enough to keep you on track. That's all. But there's something else you should think about doing. And that is, make sure your kids get math early. Really early. So they won't end up like you. And make sure that in 8th grade they encounter algebra, regardless of what it does for their self-esteem, or their desire to go to school. Because without it they'll be as relevant to the mainstream world of tomorrow as vinyl records, Super Mario Bros and 8 1/4 floppies.
Oh sorry, you don't understand fractions either now, do you?!
It was too much for me. Stunned at this unexpected display of unabashed oblivious "mathlessness", I slunk away with my samples, grumbling to myself. "Bye-eeeeeee! Have fun!" she called out. I gurgled a reply and shimmered away.
Gentle readers, it is my belief that it is best to run away if one encounters such a person. Life is short, and one likes to keep it easy. It is too hard to deal with a person who is simple about everyday math. Or to put it another way, someone who suffers from innumeracy (a la illiteracy). This is the sort of person that doesn't know a dozen is 12, or that a week has 7 days. Or that 18 + 12 = 30 and that's the same as 20 + 10, which is also 10 X 3. The sort of person who will therefore always struggle to balance a checkbook, pay a bill, keep of track of birthdays, goof up on calendering, forget PINs and passwords, miss flights because they report ETDs in 24-hour format.
I'm sorry for you, if you're one such - but come on, how do you survive? Your kind will soon be extinct, my dear - locked out of a 21st century world that essentially runs on numbers. So sorry.
You can do very little to remedy this, perhaps it would be good to keep a PDA, a cellphone and lots of paper and pens around you. And friends, if you have any patient enough to keep you on track. That's all. But there's something else you should think about doing. And that is, make sure your kids get math early. Really early. So they won't end up like you. And make sure that in 8th grade they encounter algebra, regardless of what it does for their self-esteem, or their desire to go to school. Because without it they'll be as relevant to the mainstream world of tomorrow as vinyl records, Super Mario Bros and 8 1/4 floppies.
Oh sorry, you don't understand fractions either now, do you?!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Deathproof
Definitely watch this! Tarantino raw as ever!
One of the two Grindhouse films...and this one definitely overshadows Rodriguez's Planet Terror that's a zombie movie and therefore somehow...not as personally shocking!
Deathproof: A Crash Course in Revenge
One of the two Grindhouse films...and this one definitely overshadows Rodriguez's Planet Terror that's a zombie movie and therefore somehow...not as personally shocking!
Deathproof: A Crash Course in Revenge
The girl on the Vespa
The absolute epitome of effortless style, of fleeting ephemeral grace! Balanced at the traffic lights on tip-toe, an iconic petite vision of white shirtwaist, bluejeans and crimson Vespa. A linked silver bracelet on her left wrist, dark hair peeking out from beneath the matching helmet. The light turned green, and vroooom, away she went!
Bartleby the Scrivener
A friend of mine introduced me to Scrivener (the writing software). It reminded me of this story by Herman Melville - the copyist who suffered some sort of breakdown and went about his work doing nothing, telling everyone that he would "prefer not to"! The infuriating part of it was apparently in the innocuous turn of phrase - "prefer not to". How many of us actually resort to something equally mild, yet resolute. My impression is that most of us are guilty of overstatement and hyperbole and these can be fatal in the age of voicemail and crackberries. Perhaps we should reconsider our responses...or perhaps it is simply that we prefer not to...
:-)
:-)
On July 4th, a chain letter story about India...
This came through my parents on email...not so thrilled by the story, or by the wide circulation and acceptance of status quo...or am I being hypersensitive?!
Your call...
---
Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan 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 MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal 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 Grasshoppers in Educational
Institutions & in Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left
to pay his retroactive taxes,it's 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 '
Koffi Annan 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,
.
..AND
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
grasshoppers,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
India is still a developing country…!!!
Your call...
---
Subject: An Old & New Story ...
An Old Story:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is 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.
Indian Version:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its 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 .
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is 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.
Indian Version:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its 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 .
Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan 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 MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in
West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
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 Grasshoppers in Educational
Institutions & in Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left
to pay his retroactive taxes,it's 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'.
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,
.
..AND
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
grasshoppers,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
India is still a developing country…!!!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Meditations on Lars
Lars and the Real Girl is a quirky unusual film about an unusual situation. A lonesome gent in the snowy Midwest somewhere decides that the appropriate response to all the well-meaning attempts to get him hooked to one girl or the other is to resort to a life-size silicone life partner. A mail-order bride, if there ever was one!
Interestingly I recommended the film enthusiastically to someone I went out with, and she was rather amused by the premise, and by my enthusiastic reaction. I'd forgotten to factor in the somewhat obvious implications that arose by association...
oh well!
I enjoyed it very much. Later on, I read an article in the NYT about the Japanese engineers who had invented a robot girlfriend for lonely guys. She's all the rage...! Hmmmmmmmm...
Interestingly I recommended the film enthusiastically to someone I went out with, and she was rather amused by the premise, and by my enthusiastic reaction. I'd forgotten to factor in the somewhat obvious implications that arose by association...
oh well!
I enjoyed it very much. Later on, I read an article in the NYT about the Japanese engineers who had invented a robot girlfriend for lonely guys. She's all the rage...! Hmmmmmmmm...
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Sign on the back of a white SUV in New Delhi
Daddy Yankee says
Help ever, hurt never
----
I found Daddy Yankee all right (http://www.daddyyankee.com)
But what is he doing in New Delhi then??!
Help ever, hurt never
----
I found Daddy Yankee all right (http://www.daddyyankee.com)
But what is he doing in New Delhi then??!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Thoughts on applying for a UK visitor's visa
Unimaginative bureaucracy + terrible design & outsourcing = Kafkaesque online experience & exploitative moneymaking
Whine alert!: This is a chronicle of my experience with the new online visa application process for the UK. Despite having applied for and receiving multiple entry visas for the UK over the last four years, it is mandatory to follow the entire process for a new application - including the recently added biometrics stage, as I discovered this month.
This is not a problem in itself, except that the bureaucrats of the Foreign Office (or whatever faceless entity decides these things - perhaps one of my readers will oblige by identifying it!) have chosen to outsource the biometrics to a private company, without appropriate integration into the visa application process. See, here's what happens when you go online and apply on the UK visa site:
1. You initiate a pop-up that walks you through the application process (not bad, actually!)
2. It asks early on what location you'd prefer for biometrics, from a list (still not bad)
3. You finish about twenty stages of information including parents' details (!)
4. You pay for the application ($137) using a credit card (Still no Amex! But that's forgivable, the whole experience is reminiscent of a fussy little shop that has its own whims)
5. You are prompted to print and pack the application form with a photograph along with your passport (Hmm...)
6. You are then shown the next available date for the biometrics center at the location of your choice. It has no relation whatsoever with the dates you've put in for travel. So, for instance, I'd intended to travel on May-8, and the next available date for the biometrics location showed May-14. Come on! But anyway, cést la vie I thought - perhaps I should look at available dates for other locations close to me. That's when I started getting frustrated and furious. There seemed to be no way of accessing the list of biometric locations and their available dates. After a few exploratory clicks I landed on the website for the outsourced company that offered a phone number for inquiry (there is no way of talking to anyone at the UK consulate itself!). For a fee ($12), I was able to talk to a gent, who confirmed that indeed, the only way of finding available dates for an alternative biometrics location was to go through the entire visa application process AGAIN, and choose that particular alternative. For which the available date would become visible after you paid the application fee. Somewhere in the midst of the process, the system would recognize that you have a previous visa application pending, and it would prompt you to request for a refund (Incredibly unfriendly! Its like a visit to a carnival crapshoot! You keep paying $137 per try and hope and pray you don't end up with $137 times X tries in outstanding refunds from the UK Consulate or it's proxy, the outsourcing company).
Several phone calls and online tries later, I gave up. With apologies to my friends in the UK, it was simply impossible to penetrate the labyrinth. Perhaps I'll try later on for a long-term visa, because I'd still want to visit the UK - but I don't fancy my chances with this process...
I wonder if other countries are really quite as bad. I can say that the French (Schengen), Japanese, Chinese, Indian and US visa experiences are nowhere as pathetic in terms of fees involved or assistance provided.
Whine alert!: This is a chronicle of my experience with the new online visa application process for the UK. Despite having applied for and receiving multiple entry visas for the UK over the last four years, it is mandatory to follow the entire process for a new application - including the recently added biometrics stage, as I discovered this month.
This is not a problem in itself, except that the bureaucrats of the Foreign Office (or whatever faceless entity decides these things - perhaps one of my readers will oblige by identifying it!) have chosen to outsource the biometrics to a private company, without appropriate integration into the visa application process. See, here's what happens when you go online and apply on the UK visa site:
1. You initiate a pop-up that walks you through the application process (not bad, actually!)
2. It asks early on what location you'd prefer for biometrics, from a list (still not bad)
3. You finish about twenty stages of information including parents' details (!)
4. You pay for the application ($137) using a credit card (Still no Amex! But that's forgivable, the whole experience is reminiscent of a fussy little shop that has its own whims)
5. You are prompted to print and pack the application form with a photograph along with your passport (Hmm...)
6. You are then shown the next available date for the biometrics center at the location of your choice. It has no relation whatsoever with the dates you've put in for travel. So, for instance, I'd intended to travel on May-8, and the next available date for the biometrics location showed May-14. Come on! But anyway, cést la vie I thought - perhaps I should look at available dates for other locations close to me. That's when I started getting frustrated and furious. There seemed to be no way of accessing the list of biometric locations and their available dates. After a few exploratory clicks I landed on the website for the outsourced company that offered a phone number for inquiry (there is no way of talking to anyone at the UK consulate itself!). For a fee ($12), I was able to talk to a gent, who confirmed that indeed, the only way of finding available dates for an alternative biometrics location was to go through the entire visa application process AGAIN, and choose that particular alternative. For which the available date would become visible after you paid the application fee. Somewhere in the midst of the process, the system would recognize that you have a previous visa application pending, and it would prompt you to request for a refund (Incredibly unfriendly! Its like a visit to a carnival crapshoot! You keep paying $137 per try and hope and pray you don't end up with $137 times X tries in outstanding refunds from the UK Consulate or it's proxy, the outsourcing company).
Several phone calls and online tries later, I gave up. With apologies to my friends in the UK, it was simply impossible to penetrate the labyrinth. Perhaps I'll try later on for a long-term visa, because I'd still want to visit the UK - but I don't fancy my chances with this process...
I wonder if other countries are really quite as bad. I can say that the French (Schengen), Japanese, Chinese, Indian and US visa experiences are nowhere as pathetic in terms of fees involved or assistance provided.
Monday, March 10, 2008
There's something about boats...
From Treasure Island...even at rest. Perhaps it's the dormant sailor in me (hahaha!), with my landlocked existence...but it could be something to do with.
One evening in Santa Cruz I strolled around the docked boats, taking pictures and listening to the quiet steady murmer of boats talking amongst themselves...a secret language of clinks 'n clanks, rubs 'n drubs, grunts 'n groans...it was absolutely lovely.
At rest, in conversationAnd then, there was the one that got away...
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Into Great Silence
Only in complete silence, one starts to hear.
Only when language resigns, one starts to see.
The Carthusian Order is reputed as one of the most strict brotherhoods out there. The monastery is based in the French Alps, and this is a documentary about it. Or is it more than a documentary about a subject?
Do watch it. It could purify your thought-flows, clear things up (or speed you to a quick nap!)
From the description on the film site (diegrossestille):
The film is an austere, next to silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form. No music except the chants in the monastery, no interviews, no commentaries, no extra material.
Changing of time, seasons, and the ever repeated elements of the day, of the prayer. A film to become a monastery, rather than depict one. A film about awareness, absolute presence, and the life of men who devoted their lifetimes to god in the purest form. Contemplation.
An object in time.
Only when language resigns, one starts to see.
The Carthusian Order is reputed as one of the most strict brotherhoods out there. The monastery is based in the French Alps, and this is a documentary about it. Or is it more than a documentary about a subject?
Do watch it. It could purify your thought-flows, clear things up (or speed you to a quick nap!)
From the description on the film site (diegrossestille):
The film is an austere, next to silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form. No music except the chants in the monastery, no interviews, no commentaries, no extra material.
Changing of time, seasons, and the ever repeated elements of the day, of the prayer. A film to become a monastery, rather than depict one. A film about awareness, absolute presence, and the life of men who devoted their lifetimes to god in the purest form. Contemplation.
An object in time.
Sketch Ice Cream and other serendipitous discoveries...
I took a wrong turn in Berkeley the other day, instead of heading towards the freeway I ended up near Fourth Street. I decided to take a few minutes off, just planned on getting coffee and maybe a bite to eat. Found parking in fifteen minutes (yes, thats right!) and went walkabout. Found Sketch Ice Cream, which has to be the best ice cream in the Bay Area (at least).
Why?
Well, unlike the usual gelato places (don't get me wrong, I love gelato too!) they have those soft-serve machines. This gives the best temperature and texture - no crystals, no iciness - just smooth! And really cool cones. And cups too. And toppings (candied almonds, cocoa nibs, salted chocolate sauce, pomegranate seeds...endless). What I found interesting was the limited number of flavors (limited by the number of machines they have!) and the possibility of doing combinations. I had cocoa nib + sorbet blood orange, in a cup. It was a good cup. Along with my coffee (simple straight coffee, brewed at my behest so I waited for it, over five minutes - it was quite delicious, Blue Bottle Coffee). Not cheap, but how often do you find a little piece of perfection for five dollars?!
It was the perfect little treat on a perfect day in spring. Get off your computer and go have some!
Sketch Ice Cream
As for other serendipitous discoveries, Cody's was having a moving sale, all books 40% off - I got five books for the grand sum of thirty-five dollars! Including one of Haruki Murakami's (called Norwegian Woods).
Why?
Well, unlike the usual gelato places (don't get me wrong, I love gelato too!) they have those soft-serve machines. This gives the best temperature and texture - no crystals, no iciness - just smooth! And really cool cones. And cups too. And toppings (candied almonds, cocoa nibs, salted chocolate sauce, pomegranate seeds...endless). What I found interesting was the limited number of flavors (limited by the number of machines they have!) and the possibility of doing combinations. I had cocoa nib + sorbet blood orange, in a cup. It was a good cup. Along with my coffee (simple straight coffee, brewed at my behest so I waited for it, over five minutes - it was quite delicious, Blue Bottle Coffee). Not cheap, but how often do you find a little piece of perfection for five dollars?!
It was the perfect little treat on a perfect day in spring. Get off your computer and go have some!
Sketch Ice Cream
As for other serendipitous discoveries, Cody's was having a moving sale, all books 40% off - I got five books for the grand sum of thirty-five dollars! Including one of Haruki Murakami's (called Norwegian Woods).
Thoughts about perfection...
In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
So wise! And one of my favorite writers of all time. I didn't know he lived in Quebec for a while. I think the reasons for me to visit Canada are increasing rapidly, particularly Quebec City and Montreal. For a quick taste of France, of course!
So wise! And one of my favorite writers of all time. I didn't know he lived in Quebec for a while. I think the reasons for me to visit Canada are increasing rapidly, particularly Quebec City and Montreal. For a quick taste of France, of course!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
The Lives of Others
The Lives of Others. An amazing brilliant lovely sad film! It is set in East Germany, the central character is a diligent official in the Stasi, the secret police. Wiesler's new assignment is to track the life of a free-thinking but state-sanctioned dramatist Georg Dreyman, and his lover, the actress Christa-Maria Sieland. They are the state's own artists, the state's intellectuals. Dreyman has been recognized by Margot Honecker herself (it comes up as events unfold). But Wiesler gets drawn into their lives, absorbed by their internal conflicts and their love for each other. He realizes that the state that he's dedicated his life to is corrupt, especially as embodied by the minister who's ordered the new assignment for his own purposes...
It's a beautiful film. One of my colleagues grew up in East Germany and he said it was so very realistic too, in it's depiction of circumstances at the time...uncomfortably accurate in the atmosphere, the look and feel of a totalitarian state. The amazing bit is that it's apparently the director's first film (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck).
Do see it!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Stormy weather has "beautiful days" too!
Off the Pacific Coast
From Scotland
Outside San Francisco
In the Highlands...and we're back!
To my occasional readers, I'm back after contending with a few things that leached away from my reflections. Nothing dramatic, the usual - a reorg at work, with the added responsibilities around having about thirty people looking at what I'm doing to help determine their direction as well. And work at breakneck speed from January, along with advice to a startup, consolations to a couple of friends going through tough times, thinking through the two books on my plate and so on. And of course, hibernation. Come on, it was a cold winter!
Hope you're having a good year so far...
Hope you're having a good year so far...
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