My Travels, Travails, and Thoughts

A few status messages from my Facebook

2011-12-11T22:25:00.001+05:30

Which witch is with which witch?

My mother switched from IE to Google Chrome. As she put it "clicking on the 'e' gives a connection error but going into google takes me to gmail

November 24

I heard my phone ring the ringtone was unmistakable even through my deep sleep but it stopped as soon as I woke up. I switched on the lights and the clock showed a early 2:30 AM or so. Surely the call must have been important. I picked up my phone from it's nightly resting place and saw it was NOT on. I had connected it to the charger but forget to switch it on.

Was my phone trying to call me subliminally? Is it haunted? Did it incept the ringtone into my dream state so I would wake up and rescue it?

November 13

I can't read Finnish

So be writ

2011-08-22T10:22:00.003+05:30

I write likeCory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

Not Asimov? Not Rushdie? OK I will take what I can get.

This is the sample I gave the tool. I wrote one chapter a few years back and stopped. It's a draft so be kind !

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=18CXFE2c_IJRPQ4zudMPDEv4EE2xa3bGemCv_xscw-MY

Home. Sick.

2011-04-30T09:12:00.001+05:30

No not homesick. I am home and feeling a wit woozy and nauseated with a dull headache all the time. Kind of like after too wild a party. I guess this time the jet lag didn't lag. Not to mention the sudden shift from a pleasant Californian early summer to sweaty Chennai mid summer. Waking up at 3 AM is so not cool.

Maybe some tonic would help. With gin. Tonic optional.

No sit Sherlock

2011-04-27T18:00:00.001+05:30

Apparently Hong Kong airport isn't amused if people sit on anything but the copious amount of seating provided for sitting.

Toilet seat covers have no value in HK you have to wipe your seat clean... Hmmmm I am all for eco friendly but no way am I wiping a public toilet seat potentially infested by bird flu. I used toilet paper in lieu of covers.

Quote Me On This One

2011-04-22T21:18:00.000+05:30

OK I am taking over the "universe" one cross-post at a time
http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/2011/04/oooh-that.html

Everything tastes better with a dash of Lenin

2011-03-18T02:32:00.002+05:30

Discuss in under 500 words: The effects of Communism on the drinking habits of the Proletariat vis-a-vis the Bourgeois. (Extra credit for puns not in the image)

Note: Short sighted old dingbats are advised to click on the image to enlarge.

Be there in a sec

2011-02-27T10:09:00.001+05:30

Ok not exactly a sec, a few hours is more like it. I will be in San Jose for a couple of months. And I hope paint the town a mild shade of red. Right now bored at the Hong Kong airport transit lounge. Its a very good lounge with lots of seating, free wifi, mobile charging points - yep blogging from my mobile! - but still its a airport lounge at the end of the day (and for the rest of the too).

For whomsoever it may concern: here be a bounty of bunnies.

Quaktivism

2011-02-13T22:28:00.001+05:30

I) If you are in the mood for some free activism and have a relatively recent computer with a sensor you might want to help Stanford detect earthquakes. If you are crushed to death in an earthquake you at least know the quake was recorded and your death wasn't in vain. Too bad they don't have the software for phones, many of which do come with such sensors already.

II) I was reading a article about the Indus Valley civilization and how difficult it is understand and read about the ancient civilization , contemporaneous to the Ancient Egyptian civilization. So rejoice in the knowledge your blogging, tweeting, buzzing, and facebook-ing isn't in vain. Someday some archaeology major might write a thesis about you and your many peccadilloes and get an A+.

We are all mere Weasel Feed

2011-02-09T10:33:00.001+05:30

Oatmeal is good for you

Created by Oatmeal

Wham, Bam, Goodbye Meme

2011-01-04T14:44:00.001+05:30

Since Grant begged and begged and threatened to send me Wrongcards I will do this meme.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Dislocated an elbow

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No resolution nothing to uphold

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
By close do you mean the geographically closeness? the stray cats and dogs in my neighborhood. And the f-ing birds do it all the time.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Again by close if you mean nearby then yes. Some old people dropped dead in the 'hood.

5. What countries did you visit?
Dreamland

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Money, sex, fast cars, private jets, and world domination

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
17-Oct - my birthday. I have a bad memory for dates one more reason I didn't become an historian.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
An year of gymming. Maybe my promotion at work?

9. What was your biggest failure?
At the end of the year I am still where I began in most aspects of life.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
See #1. Then there was the usual colds, coughs, and tummy aches.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My Samsung Galaxy S Android phone

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
A couple of guys at work who by their laziness reduced my work!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
A couple of guys at work who yakked away nonstop at interminable meetings

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent. Gadgets.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My phone and it's apps!

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
None as said I have a bad memory for years so I won't remember which year I heard my first song.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Same. See #9
b) thinner or fatter? Stronger. More muscled see #8
c) richer or poorer? Richer. got a modest salary hike. Poorer due to inflation and new expenses.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
So many things...

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
So many things...

20. How did you spend Christmas?
At home. It's no big deal in India for a non-Christian family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Ah! You wish baby!

22. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't really watch TV a lot. I did get some downloads of the american sitcom The Big Bang Theory. I liked it.
Then there was all those History/Discovery channel one-off shows.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nobody I knew at the time.

24. What was the best book you read?
Fiction: A Strange Room - Damon Galgut
Non-fiction: Superfreakonmics - Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Shazam the music tagging app
And Andrea Jeremiah

26. What did you want and get?
An Android phone

27. What did you want and not get?
The list is long...

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Inception.
Shutter Island
Despicable Me

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Nothing special.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Heh heh

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
I didn't waste a paisa on formal wear this year/

32. What kept you sane?
I ask that myself.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Hmmmm let me get back to that on that.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Wikileaks

35. Who did you miss?
Ever since I left the place all my friends from Gurgaon.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Why? Do you know him?

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
Time will run out before you do anything.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year
zzzzz

2011 was a good year for technology

2010-12-31T22:25:00.001+05:30

The year 2011 will end shortly after I post this and this was a great year in many ways. A few highlights.

Human flight: This year the advances in technology made in 2010 in exoskeletons and nano-motors made the first human flight without aircraft possible. While it's still a long way off from the jet packs of sci-fi it's a first step.

Mobile video and projectors: The capabilities for recording and uploading videos from your mobile phone and using your mobile as a projector already existed but it was 2011 that the whole thing went viral. People were recording quality ( technical quality not quality of content) videos and uploading them to YouTube HD. On the business side most mobile phones from major manufacturers included projectors. Powerpoint Poisoning goes mobile.

HIV Vaccine Success: The HIV vaccinations that were put to trial in the preceding years were deemed to be a success. However it will be while till they become available with the street-corner pharmacist so and since there are a lot of other cooties out there keep playing safe.

Anyway welcome to 2012!

American Beauty and/or Incompetence

2010-12-26T16:19:00.002+05:30

After the Second World War the American military establishment hasn't had many successes.
The Korean war was literally a half victory. The Vietnameses (really Vietnam?) kicked your butts.

The drug war in South America has been a leaky hose - you close one leak and another two spring up.

The first Iraq War went well relatively, the second one went fast - then came the aftermath and all went downhill. Let's face it most of people calling for Dubya's blood would have been singing his praises if things had gone well. All this pretend sympathy for Iraqi civilians surfaced only when things started going badly for the Americans.

The Afghan war has been a partial success - it still hasn't helped them capture Bin Laden or explain the link between said terrorist and certain powerful members of the establishment.

So now "they" are compensating. They instead decide to go after Wikileaks. They attack Wikileaks from all angles - cut off their financing by making credit card processors block them, getting website hosts to drop their site. They accuse Wikileaks of being a terrorist organization trying to compensate for the fact that they failed to nab the real terrorist. They accuse the leader of being a rapist not explaining how that changes anything he might be a serial rapist and pedophile which has nothing to with what Wikileaks itself is doing. They say things like "The First Amendment is not applicable for non-Americans" forgetting the whole "follow the spirit not the letter" aspect. If Assange had been American would they have spun it differently?

The affected governments have used every rarely enforced law and technicality they can to nab Assange and by association smear Wikileaks itself. They bring up bogeymen - this will ruin reputations, careers and give ammunition to our enemies they say. Meanwhile they go about ruining careers and reputations. And everyday more people die of Government caused wars whereas I am yet to hear of anyone dying from leaked diplomatic hate letters. Again it's American Incompetence to the fore their inability to stop a 22 year old soldier from grabbing documents they claim to be important after the fact.

Wikileaks is a reminder of how fragile our freedoms are once we antagonize powerful forces. Persecution isn't just about nabbing people at midnight and torturing them it's also about ruining reputations, making getting hands on finances difficult. The good thing also is despite all this the organization is still going strong with the help of supporters and volunteers. It shows how powerful the Internet can be and the positive side of globalization.

Funny things is I am still not even sure if what WikiLeaks does is the right thing but American Overreaction (and Overcompensation?) has meant that like many others I end up on the side of a organization whose claimed effect on the world I am still skeptical about. I hadn't even visited their website before Amazon kicked them off their servers.

Of course the USA could have reprimanded Wikileaks, made cliched statements against them and left it at that. That ironically would have been diplomatic.

And the joke going around the internetz about Time choosing Facebook's founder over Wikileaks's founder for Man of the year? The people at Time have finally found out about Facebook maybe next year they would have heard of Twitter :)

15 minutes of inattention

2010-12-12T21:40:00.001+05:30

It's like this... You read a touching and well written obituary in a much respected magazine and you wonder...if she was that awesome how come the death is the first thing I hear about her

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I Love My Intense $h1t

2010-12-06T16:42:00.002+05:30

This was the mail I got from the Ovi store (Nokia's equivalent of the Apple/Android App store). They invite me first then they make me proud by this fuckin' awesome rejection letter!

Dear Publisher,

Thank you for submitting Arent We Being Funny!!!. Unfortunately your submission did not pass the Ovi Store quality assurance (QA) review process.

Comments from the QA team:

FAILED: Compliance with Content Guidelines – Intense Profanity.
SUMMARY: Content items which contain intense profanity and offensive language (F-word, S-word, N-word; insufficiently obscured F-word, S-word, or N-word; excessive bleeping or audio removal; and other restricted words) are not permitted in the Ovi Store.

And by the N-word do they mean [N]okia?

So what's keeping me busy

2010-12-03T20:17:00.000+05:30

Now that Facebook has become passe and my mother and aunts have an account how do I maintain my l33tness? I know l33t itself is so 1999 now.

So I am on this new site Quora.com to answer dumb questions from reactionary people. I am concentrating on my nerd-self by writing an Android application (I will shamelessly plug it on my blogs when it's done so don't worry about missing it out).

I am amusing myself by looking at DamnYouAutoCorrect.com or playing Angry Birds or Slice It on my Galaxy S.

And funnily enough I am returning to the blog since the whole family+friends crowd isn't here that much anymore.

When life is a puzzle

2010-11-15T10:35:00.001+05:30

... solve it!

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Blroid

2010-11-13T21:26:00.001+05:30

A Blogger on Android experiment. Comment if I succeed.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

What he said !

2010-11-10T18:19:00.000+05:30

" John Lennon imagined a world filled with peace and love. Martin Luther King dreamt of a world free from racial discrimination and oppression. The guy who invented the Frisbee, dreamt of a world where people would throw a fat, circular object at each other in order to pass the time. He succeeded."

Source http://www.jokes.com/funny/jon+lajoie/jon-lajoie--dreamt-of-a-world

Am I back? Maybe.

Computers will solve your computing problems only

2010-08-09T22:17:00.001+05:30

Stumbled across this link on twitter and thought I might share it with y'all.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=40476

"Techo-utopian" is a neat coinage and does reflect the way a lot of debate about technology does happen. Every generation likes their technology and thinks it will change the way the world works and to an extent it does. Electricity of course is one of them it gave us the ability to function beyond the hours sanctioned by nature. All major technological revolutions after - the bulb, the automobile plants, the computer, the internet all function to a major extent on top of the platform provided by this technology.

Some Victorian writings (Rider Haggard?) reveal a similar sentiment of being at the top of the science world but then they persecuted Alan Turing and allowed the evolution of computer technology to travel over the Atlantic.

I want to blog again

2010-07-31T19:19:00.002+05:30

but ... hmmm... ahh... I don't know

As the Brits would say

A link and a few thoughts

2010-06-05T18:28:00.003+05:30

http://youarenotsosmart.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/selling-out/
Interesting stuff. A good read for all the "unique" people who visit this blog.

Read the other posts on the blog too. When it comes to gadget fanboys being not so smart I totally agree.
I know I'm risking being bludgeoned with softball bats but, any Apple fans reading this post repeat after me.
APPLE IS ONLY A COMPANY AND MANY OF THEIR PRODUCTS DON'T SELL. STEVE JOBS IS NOT A GOD. (Actually nobody is a god since there are no gods but I digress.(Actually I don't digress because the paragraph ended there(been a while since I nested parentheses outside of code)))

And while I am ranting might as well add: I can understand the interest in the personal lives of famous people what I DON'T get is the interest in the lives of the semi-famous.

Questions and Answers

2010-05-31T10:19:00.000+05:30

In my previous post I solicited questions/topics from my readership. I will answer the quicker ones today the one that requires a bit of thought from Deb will follow soon(ish). Here we go :

Who is your favorite Japanese woman? Answer with pictures. Q's 2-7: Same for your favorite Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean women. That should keep you busy for awhile.

Grant asking a question about Japanese woman. Who would have ever guessed!
Grant, this might come as a shock to you so be prepared. The real world is well real if it weren't it wouldn't be the real world. While a beautiful woman is a beautiful woman not every male goes out making lists of his favorite Japanese woman especially when his interests don't lie in that direction (east). So I have very limited knowledge and can't make a real list. Much of Japan has been through Hollywood and a few factual documentary-type programs on TV. I probably know more about their monkeys (there's bunch there that bath in hot springs) than the humans. However I think I can't go too wrong with select a girl with balls or at least one big metal ball

I present you Chiaki Kuriyama in a school girl uniform.

And for questions 2 to 7 you can go to this link and take your pick.

--------------------------------

how come you are the way you are? - foam

Why Sridhar why? - Musings

Hmmmm maybe that "anything goes" wasn't a good idea? I should have insisted on sensible (and we are talking relative to Grant's questions here) from y'all. Anyway.

Why Sridhar why? Because. Because my parents named me so.

I am the way I am for the same reason you are the way you are and anyone is the way he/she is. A bit of nature a bit of nurture. Throw in parenting, neighborhood, schooling, friends, literary, musical and film and other cultural influences, religious and [political influence, alcohol influence, the mistakes I made, the mistakes I am making, the mistakes I will make, the wise choices I made , am making , will make, the weather, the air conditioner, illness, achievements, wisdom, stupidity, libido, sex life, romance, depression, happiness, interests, books, technology, hobbies, interests and some damn butterfly beating it's fucking wings in some corner of this screwed up world - all this and more make me what I am.

Save a blog

2010-05-25T14:39:00.000+05:30

Since I can't seem to post anything by myself. Ask me questions. Leave a question in the comments and I'll answer them. Anything goes.

Avatar

2010-05-02T22:31:00.002+05:30

Avatar the recent James Cameron blockbuster was a worldwide hit and phenomenon and in what must be most flattering for Cameron the film was being used as a symbol of repression of a people by powerful interests. Palestine to China people were painting themselves blue. Palestine to China people went to buy costumes to liken themselves to the Na'vi. In India the film was a reasonable hit too and was seen by some as talking about colonialism. Don't fret this post is NOT about the movie.

Arundhati Roy the famed writer or The God of Small Things (an excellent book) and an activist (with whom I don't always agree) recently went into the "badlands" of central India where the naxal/maoist/tribal insurgency against the government has been going on for years. Recently in an incident of extreme violence the maoists killed more than 60 para-military personnel in an ambush. Obviously the outrage of the general population was understandable. Roy's full article is here.

I wonder what the reaction would be if this point of view was aired more commonly. Is it easier to pity the underprivileged on a fictional planet and where the villainy is uni-directional? What happens when the oppressors are "your" people and the oppressed are known to be violent fighters. Call them insurgents and terrorists or freedom fighters? It's easier to think of the evil powerful people being from another country (for example from the USA and led by G W Bush). Here in Tamilnadu there is widespread condemnation of the terror attacks against India by Pakistan-backed militants but also a lot of support for the Srilankan tamil tigers (freedom fighters/terrorists).

In one of the books I listed a couple posts earlier "The Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" by Paul Theroux, he is visiting Cambodia and visiting one of the museums that document the horror perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge one of the many techniques they used for torture is the infamous water-boarding. The technique much close to the heart of the likes of Dick Cheney. He wonders that writers travel half way across the world to see examples of atrocities only to realize right there in their backyard things aren't exactly perfect.

So it is easier to empathize with fictional one-dimensional characters?

**Some links are ads**

Indiaecho.com - Chennai Super Kings Win IPL Season 3

2010-04-26T10:15:00.000+05:30

Yes!

Time spent not killing anyone

2010-04-14T12:59:00.003+05:30

I have done a bit of reading in the last 8 -9 months ...

The Paths of Glory
Darwin and The Beagle
Earthquake : The Destruction of San Francisco (by coincidence when I was in the area!)
The Day of the Jackal
Shantaram
Holy Cow
The Whale Road
A Farewell to Arms
The Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

...maybe more than a bit.

OK One More Post

2010-03-17T19:18:00.009+05:30

This week was fun I went to Bangalore a 6 hour train trip from here to visit a few ~~pubs~~ friends. It was fun. Reached there on Saturday. My friend Shailesh met me at the station and took me home. That night - with another friend- we went to a couple of places to eat, drink and be merry and managed all three by some sheer miracle.

Sunday went for a long drive we didn't really have a destination in mind and just winged - no wheeled - it. We ended the trip at the Mettur Dam built back in the colonial era. For all their other faults I've got to admit the colonials could build some amazing infrastructure.

Bangalore2Mettur

Talking of infrastructure this was one of the best highways I've ever seen in India. So we drove to the dam walked across it. Then I took this .

From Bangalore2Mettur

The part in tamil says "Prohibited Area. Photography not allowed. Violaters will be punished." because you know those well-funded terrorists rely on tourist photographs to strike dams. My unpatriotic act has let the terrorists win. Tsk tsk.

On the drive back we decided to stop for dinner and had to make a U-turn so as my friend eased the car into the inner-most lane and waited for the signal another car behind us moved to the outermost lane and stopped. Then we turned and that car too did. All the way from the outer lane he did a U-turn what kind of idiot does that on a high speed highway. Anyway one second I was just looking at the car turn the next second I hear the squeal of brakes and right in front on my eyes a SUV hits the car full on the side and the car flips on the side and then again head over heels and comes to rest on upside down. Our car had meanwhile turned so we stopped the car on the sides. We and a few others ran across towards the car and by the time I got there they had pulled out the two passengers inside. I think the SUV's brakes were good so the impact on the car was lessened as nobody was seriously injured or needed a Los Angeles wrongful death attorney. The ambulance arrived in quick time and we did go have dinner. The others weren't eating much. I am glad to report that my appetite remained unaffected by stress.

Monday presented a difficulty: my friends all had work and I would have to find a way to amuse myself till evening when I was meeting another friend from my first job and had recently got in touch through facebook. In fact she found I was in town by my facebook status. Facebook is cool to get back in touch with people you want to. It's also bad in that sometimes it puts you in touch with those you don't want to know anymore. So Shailesh dropped me off at a shopping mall it was too warm for outdoor activities. I did some gift-shopping so that I get invited again and also some books for myself. Then we met again for lunch and I got money I spent on the gift and more back in the lunch bill. The restaurant is Firangi Pani and the theme was colonial-era Indian railway. These places usually end up being kitschy, expensive and bad at the food but this one was an exception. The entire restaurant was made to look like a upscale train compartment and the food was awesome. Not kitschy, good food but yeah expensive but not too much so. My favorite was the dessert - Flambeed Gulab Jamun in Brandy - Indian sweet in brandy Britain's greatest contribution to India.

After the lunch I still had a few hours to kill and I had no intention of leaving the air-conditioned confines of the mall. I saw tickets available for Up In the Air the recent Oscar nominated movie. I went in and while it was funny and had it moments am not convinced that it was Oscar-worthy. The Academy of course is moved more by subjective than objective evaluations of movies it seems. "If it feels-good nominate it" could be their motive. I would like to see a dark, depressing, nihilistic movie that ridicules the nuclear family and marriage win for a change.

I then went to Bangalore's famous MG Road and strolled around for a while for my friend who took forever to reach and finally she, her friend and me did a lot of catching up over beer for us guys and a cocktails for her at this pub called the The Tavern. It's one of the few in Bangalore where we don't have to deal with the college kids crowd. If you ever go there skip the branded beers and order their tap beer. Some of the best I've had. We were all drunk beyond driving limits but then regular Bangloreans always know to hire a driver to take them back home. Is this why they don't have the nasty cases of very rich people driving over street dwellers a la Mumbai? Or maybe it's just that Mumbai is so crowded there are a lot of homeless people.

Tuesday: technically it was Tuesday already by the time I crashed back at Shailesh's. He and his wife must be the most patient people in the world. After wolfing down some real fine cooking. I was again dropped back at the station to catch the train back to Chennai.

I saw these bunch of Caucasian youngsters - late teens maybe early twenties - in the seat behind me. One guy and 5 girls. That guy was either a lucky bastard or gay. My first guess was they must be Israelis and sure enough later I would see the guy read a book and though I couldn't make out the writing I saw him read right to left. I didn't talk to them to confirm my detective work not because I didn't want to but the train was full and every trip out of my seat required jumping over other people's limbs. I just sat for the most part in my seat and read my book and ended up cramping my legs.

Now I am back at home working again happy for the break made possible by a Tuesday holiday for the festival of Ugadi the best festivals are those which you aren't expected to do anything for but give you a day off.

The book I was reading and still not done with is Ghost Train to the Eastern Star a very fitting read for a train ride.

And hey I made a significant post after a while. This is why I need to keep traveling!
(I actually considered taking a photo of the upturned car but felt that might be insensitive. This blog can be an evil temptation at times.)
I had a fun weekend tell me yours was boring and hectic so I can feel superior to you.

Pest Script: I moved to the latest blogger template designer. Tell me if anything needs mending here.

NOTE: Some links are advertisements!

I am a snob

2010-02-22T12:30:00.001+05:30

So I like this new(?) toy from Google http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/ and use it when I'm sitting back in my big bean bag chair to read the the headlines. They split the news into Recent, Most Viewed, Recommended and Headlines. Obviously enough the most viewed section has nothing that matches the items recommended for me.

Seriously why do I have to know that Tiger Woods actually apologized instead of saying "because I could nyah nyah suckers"? I guess it has something to do with being a "good" role model for dumb kids.

If you are happy you know are in Boulder

2010-02-16T14:26:00.001+05:30

So what do you guys think? If all the sad people in the South moved to Boulder wouldn't Boulder get sadder?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-02-15-cities_N.htm

All I know is Boulder seems to host a lot of data centers.

Airplane blows away truck

2010-02-08T14:38:00.001+05:30

Discombobulatingrant: Because this is what I post when I have nothing to say

2010-01-20T17:00:00.000+05:30

And since I am lazier I will just link to Grant's post

Discombobulatingrant: Because this is what I post when I have nothing to say

Not on my watch

2010-01-11T11:27:00.002+05:30

Tsk tsk .. I leave them alone for a few days and they gone done did that earthquake thing. Californians !!! *eye roll*.

When you are happy and you know it's the alcohol

2009-12-29T21:46:00.000+05:30

Firstly, wishing everyone a Happy New Year. Hope 2010 is filled with regrets for the partying you do on The Eve.

Secondly, as spam mail goes this one was one of the best I ever received

Give Santa a chance to help you recover from erectile dysfunction! He’s a good d

Any guesses on what "d" might be for? Doctor? Do-gooder? Dick?

Thirdly, yeah I haven't been a regular blogger. So? Whatcha gonna do? Sue me? Shoot me? Eh? Eh?

And so

2009-11-20T17:48:00.004+05:30

I got back to Chennai yesterday AM. I wish the flight had been forced to land in London due to inclement weather and I got to stay on airline costs and see the city but I guess that wasn't meant to be. At least the plane made it Dubai airport with all engines and wings intact and nary a hijacker was seen. I got a business class upgrade for the Dubai - Chennai leg of the trip. And leg really is the best part of business class leg-room that is.

I got see my friend at the aiport and he had a cab booked to take me home to see my parents and eat mom-made breakfast. It was a struggle to not sleep but going out to our favorite watering hole helped. It has a view of the beach and light house I'll blog about it some day in some detail.

I slept at around 8 in the evening and woke up only for dinner and slept right till 9 today morning am feeling all groggy and every sound seems to be unfairly amplified. I am all right over all and will be rig of this jet lag soon. Hope you all didn't die or anything while I was traveling.

My impressions of America

2009-11-10T06:52:00.002+05:30

As my trip draws to a close - I fly from SFO on the 17th- I thought I would share my thoughts about the economy, the culture, the politics and society of this country that has graciously hosted me for almost 3 months.

Then I thought " who has time for that kind of shit?".

Jack Daniel's is awesome. Napa valley wines too. Oreos of course. So is the weather. Not to mention the salmon. And let's not forget the good roads. Or the friendly people. And some of the friendly people's uncovered legs (and more) at the beach.

A sweet bunny pic for you-know-who...

What?

So the other day...

2009-10-27T03:05:00.000+05:30

I was walking from the building where my cubicle is to the gym - a very nice one within the campus - and I saw this guy walk towards me and as I was wondering why he looked familiar we exchanged "hi"-s. Then I realized that's the CEO of the org that I work for. That was kind of nice to see a CEO walk around unassumingly in normal attire and without a dozen cronies surrounding him. At least I know now the boss doesn't act like the stereotype which the entertainment industry likes to conveniently blame for all the evil in the world.

Or maybe that's just the difference in culture between Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

Also thank the-probably-nonexistent god for Italians and Mexicans, for without them I would have to eat food I hate when I am in the US.

Tsingtao

2009-10-20T06:13:00.000+05:30

How many people celebrate their birthdays in Chinatown in San Francisco - with Chinese food and beer. Or by visiting the Golden Gate bridge. I don't know but you can start the count with me.

But then you guys probably are here for the beer. No I can't eat with chopsticks it's just a pose OK?

Now is this cabin thingie for sale? Near the water, just a few minutes from the city, relatives/religion peddlers wont bother you much. What's not to recommend it as a residence for the man or woman of the 2000s?

And at around 1AM returning from that place that I am not going to talk about.

PS: In SF parking is always a bitch.

Arrest me already

2009-10-14T04:29:00.002+05:30

OK like you know I launder money you know like when I leave like a few coins and like bills in my pockets like you know when I am dropping like clothes into the washing machine.

We had a work training about money laundering and terrorist financing today. Now I know better ways to launder money which I am sure was the intention of the course. So if you:
1. Are a drug dealer
2. Buy high-end items like vintage automobiles from high-risk countries like Ukraine
3. Traffic humans
4. Sell guns to Iranian "charities"

Let me know and I should be able to give you a few pointers.

The pacific ocean can kiss my

2009-10-06T00:51:00.003+05:30

...foot. The Pacific Ocean kissed my feet. What a cold kiss it was too!

Who is he? I have to agree with him.

...but others believe that the beach is strictly for the birds.

All I wanted to do was stand and watch.

but nature can be cruel

as much as it can be beautiful

But then maybe I should try to not sexually assault sharks?

What? Who has a perverted mind?

Got a light?

2009-10-01T05:45:00.000+05:30

So on Friday my friends here said "let's go to San Francisco for the weekend". Sounds like fun. Except on Saturday the ****s slept till noon. Sunday? Rinse. Repeat. Totally fed up Sunday night I took the local train to San Jose downtown and back. Just that. Nothing else. Walked around a bit but everything looked empty already. On the way back I was waiting for the train. When this woman dressed with a red flower in her hair and red floral prints also sat down nearby. She looked - maybe I am a narrow-minded sexist who expect women to dress in such and such pre-defined ways - err...umm gaudy.

Then she asked me "Do you have a lighter?" I didn't - that's what non-smoker's are for to not have lighters when asked - the older guy on the other side of her didn't have one. Then the guy started walking around and possibly trying to look for a chance to talk to her. Not a chance she was loudly talking nay announcing about her weekend to someone on he mobile. After a while the guy takes advantage of the pause in the phone-verstaion.
He: Do you have a cigarette?
She: You don't have a lighter but want a cigarette!!!

Tough luck mister. Or maybe he really wanted a cigarette.

That explains my Facebook status message.

Next post should I talk about San Jose or the dream featuring my Russian love interest?

Sweet Jesus!

2009-09-30T06:55:00.002+05:30

When ever I do an ego-search on Google I tend to use my name. Today I searched for SJ and guess what? The first link that comes up is for Society of Jesus. Now how do I become more popular than those guys?

In Nepal I would be a dhoti

2009-09-11T23:16:00.000+05:30

Which one are you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

What Would SJ Blog

2009-09-09T02:05:00.000+05:30

... if he was still the blogger he used to be not so long ago.

Seriously there was a time when I would write endlessly about every single thing I saw when I am traveling outside the country. Now I am more like meeh!. Is it just that blogging has become less attractive and lost it's charm? Could it be something more? Like I am a lot less enthusiastic about life these days?

Maybe it's just that I didn't do a THING this long weekend that could be considered special?

A week?!?!

2009-08-29T04:54:00.001+05:30

Can't believe a week has gone by already! Got a laptop, mobile (send me your number I'll call you) and apartment and am settling in. Hope something gets done this weekend - that involves me.

Psst: I wonder if the USA's television channels stage murders so that they can talk about them for hours on end. or maybe they are just trying to prove even if the libertarians take over death will still be a certainty.

Welcome to California

2009-08-25T11:10:00.000+05:30

Yeah you guys are welcome to come see me in CA anytime. Might help the economy of "my" state you know *wink*

Had an eventless flight and reached San Jose via Dubai and San Francisco. No jet lag too! Got to work today so have a mobile phone and laptop now. Lots to talk about but am off to bed now. More posting later.

The Third Coming of SJ

2009-08-17T14:40:00.000+05:30

Rejoice Americans! It looks like I might be there in the USA next week or so on a three month business trip barring any last minute hitches. I'll be in the San Jose area. So if any of y'all will be in or around the coordinates
37.30417°N 121.87278°W and are willing to take the risk of basking in my exalted glory let me know. I might deign to meet you in person.

The Hangover

2009-08-15T22:56:00.004+05:30

The Hangover is a great movie to watch when you are (more than) a bit drunk yourself. I of course speak from experienshhhh.

Time Travel: A Very Brief Philosophical Explanation

2009-08-08T23:33:00.000+05:30

You see an old photo of yours maybe just a couple of years old. Maybe a couple of decades. You look at it and can't help feel how much better life was then. Maybe you were healthier, Maybe you were with good friends. Maybe you actually had a life back then. Maybe you were just happier. Then you again think but that wasn't how you felt then you know you weren't happy then.

Now you wish you could travel back in time and tell your earlier self. Be happy it only gets worse from here.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 16

2009-08-02T13:01:00.006+05:30

And with that ladies and gentlemen (and the rough people too) we reach the finale of the The Golden Ganesh. To who listened to it and liked it. THANKS. To those who didn't thanks for your patience while this blog was taken over by TGG.

If I ever win an Oscar for this... "I would like to thank the director X-Dell for all the effort he put into creating the idea, the screen play, the background effects, the splicing and dicing of all the actors' audio files. Thanks to all the cast and others who helped in the creation of TGG. It was great hearing all your voices and getting to know your acting abilities. Of course thanks to the fans who listened on here or at one of the other blogs. I had fun (and I don't care if you did or not.)"

Pssst... if you are hosting The GG Widget on your site or blog there's a problem, a bug, a defect in it. The link to episode 16 doesn't work. You can either manually edit the widget with the correct link for the final episode or delete it add it anew from http://sxjthefirst.blogspot.com/2009/07/valuehttpflickr.html.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 16
Listen:

Download:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7644576-a26
Cast:
Ricardo Lori (Detective)
Lauren (Dee von Zelle)
John B. (Detective Bob Toricello)
Jeannie-Girl (Lynn)
K9 (Felicity & Homeless Woman)
Foam (Diane)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Rayke (Franklin & Sgt. MacBrian)
SJ (Criminologist/Futon Cop)
Boneman (Judge Ewing, the Mounted Cop & Smythe’s Answering Machine)
Crushed by Ingsoc (Lt. Fisher and the Angry Driver)
Pjazzypar (the Captain, the Caterer, the Hostess, Felicity’s old Professor, & FBI Agent)
Malcolm (Essex County Deputy)
Pamela Ringgold (Machine Dialer & Rude Cop)
Yinyang (FBI Demolitions Expert & Lynn’s Old Friend)
Foam Jr. (the Music Student)
Mr. Foam (Homeless Man 2)
X. Dell (Mr. Johnson & Homeless Man 1).

Special guest stars: Ravi Khanna as Indra, Paul Weaver as Mountie Smythe, and Amy Insley as Col. Smith.

Written and produced by X-Dell.

Directed by Committee.

Dedications and Special Thanks to Monique Caddy, David Caddy, and the rest of our friends at Middle Ditch.

Music by Da Palm & Nurykabe

Additional sound effects by c97059890 of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org)

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 15

2009-07-31T13:44:00.005+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 15

Listen:

Download:

http://www.divshare.com/download/7744197-7eb

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)
Amy Insley (Col. Michelle Smith/Sacred Mother)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Foam (Diane)
Boneman (Judge Ewing)
Yinyang (FBI Agent/Demolitions Expert/”All Clear”)
X. Dell (Mr. Johnson)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by Melophon & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by www.soundjay.com, and by batchku, addbicycle, Koops, Jhalkompwdr, lgarret, ngtv27, Freqman, freesound, scarbelly 25, Runey, acclivity, sagetyrtle, and Shades of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org)

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 14

2009-07-29T11:55:00.000+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 14

Listen:

Download:

http://www.divshare.com/download/7744195-f64

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)

Lauren (Dee von Zelle)

JeannieGrrrl (Lynn/Wendy)

K9 (Felicity/Eileen)

Pamela Ringgold (Rude Cop)

SJ (Criminologist/Futon Cop)

Malcolm (Deputy Sheriff)

Pjazzypar (FBI Special Agent)

Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by Da Palm

Additional sound effects by www.soundjay.com, and by Han 1, NGTV 27, Herbert Boland, Freq Man, Anton, Splutta and LG of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org).

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 13

2009-07-28T10:29:00.000+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 13

Listen:

Download:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7643128-430

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Lauren (Dee von Zelle)
Rayke (Franklin)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)
K9 (Felicity)
Crushed by Ingsoc (Irate Driver)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by Fireproof Babies, mInImAl ArT, Johnny SockHead & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by www.soundjay.com, and by hopflog, Runey, ReWired, lilliangorini, jackstrebor, dobroide, audible_edge, Franaudio, smidoid, Leady, Corsica S., and Freqman of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org).

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The flying car.

2009-07-28T10:17:00.002+05:30

Here's to traffic jams stretching all the way till the stratosphere!

The Golden Ganesh Episode 12

2009-07-25T18:43:00.000+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 12

Listen:

Download:

http://www.divshare.com/download/7629443-24e

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Rayke (Sgt. MacBrian)
Foam (Diane)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Paul Weaver (Mountie Smythe)
Foam Jr. (Music Student)\
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by Pitx & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by spluta, Malonso, and Corsica S. of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org)

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 11

2009-07-23T18:02:00.004+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 11
Listen:

Download:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7624145-36e

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)

Rayke (Sgt. MacBrian)

Foam (Diane)

JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)

Lauren (Dee von Zelle)

Pjazzypar (The Captain)

Crushed by Ingsoc (Lt. Pete Fisher)

Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by the jpfmnand & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by www.soundjay.com and by Guitarz1970, Brotherprovisional, samplecat, stijn, Erdie, AniCator, and Koops of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org).

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 10

2009-07-21T10:51:00.003+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 10

Listen:

Download

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)

Lauren (Dee von Zelle)

Pjazzypar (Hostess)

Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by jpfmband, Oprachina, & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by dobroide, Malonso, Handfan, morgant, .and addbicycle of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org).

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 9

2009-07-19T13:00:00.006+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 9
Listen

Download:

http://www.divshare.com/download/7797563-d47

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)

Lauren (Dee von Zelle)

Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by Da Palm

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 8

2009-07-17T13:42:00.001+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 8

Listen:

Download.

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)

SJ (Young Criminologist/Futon Cop)

Foam (Diane)

JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)

Pinetop Swamp (Annnouncer)

Music by Pitx & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by Edwin P. Manchester, Freqman, Robinhood 76, Malonso, sagetyrtle, Oberon81, and spluta of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org)

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Not A Golden Ganesh Episode

2009-07-16T11:48:00.000+05:30

Well before people assume this is a Golden Ganesh blog (though you can always click on the sidebar widget to get to it and be appreciated for it my me) let say something important.

What's common between Jennifer Lopez , Aishwarya Rai, Shia LeBeouf and Ryan Reynolds?

Rest your perverted minds all that is common is that I predicted their raise to fame when they were still lesser mortals. J-Lo I saw first in the snake movie - where the horror was natural and unscripted and not in the ways they intended it to be - Anaconda. She did look good in the movie when at least in these parts she was an unknown.

Aishwarya Rai is even more interesting. She popped up in a Pepsi advert for a second and a half with one line "Got another Pepsi?" leaning sexily against a wall. Most of the guys at that time were more focused on the other girl who had screen time in the same ad. Who even remembers he name now? Anyway she went on to become a celebrity so famous in India you have live in a dungeon to avoid news about her. She did appear in quite a few movies and I mean appear acted would be an exaggeration.

One of the grossest of gross out Hollywood comedies Harry and Kumar Go to White Castle had Ryan Reynolds as a pervy surgical assistant for a 2 minute scene. Somehow I noticed him and later looked up his name on IMDB... well now he is a star (if you haven't heard of him you are getting old).

Shia LeBeouf is bit of an strecth because before I saw any of his films I saw on Time magazine in a two page article devoted to him. Technically he was already famous but still how many such here-now-gone-tomorrow stars do we have.

What am I trying to say with this post is: meeeh!

The Golden Ganesh Episode 7

2009-07-15T17:27:00.001+05:30

Listen

Download

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
K9 (Felicity)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)
Boneman (Mounted Cop)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by Nurykabe & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by gyzhor, Freqman, Herbert Boland, ReWired, and themfish of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org).

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 6

2009-07-13T19:57:00.000+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 6

Listen:

Download.

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Ravi Khanna (Indra)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by Frank Stanton, hammerklavier, Steve Jones, X. Dell & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by SunnySideSound, Scarbelly 25, dobroide, addbicycle, batchku, stijn, and Jhalkompwdr of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org)

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 5

2009-07-11T15:45:00.001+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 5

Now you can follow The Golden Ganesh on Facebook too. See the FB widget on the sidebar!

Listen

Download

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Yinyang (Lynn’s Old Friend)
Pjazzypar (Felicity’s Old Professor)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Pamela Ringgold (Robot Dialer)
Boneman (Smythe’s Answering Machine)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by East of West & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by nicStage and Koops of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org)

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 4

2009-07-09T20:41:00.002+05:30

The Golden Ganesh Episode 4
Don't miss the old earlier episodes click on The Golden Ganesh logo/widget on the sidebar.

Listen:

Download

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Foam (Diane)
SJ (Young Criminologist/Futon Cop)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)
Crushed by Ingsoc (Lt. Pete Fisher)
Rayke (Franklin)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by Geoff Duncan & Da Palm
Additional sound effects by nicStage, Erdie, Jonathan Jansen, Freq Man, pauliep83, Corsica S., LG, Herbert Boland, and nofeedback of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org).

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 3

2009-07-07T20:12:00.003+05:30

One of the many good things to come out of the Golden Ganesh things is I found freesound.org. It's really awesome if you like to indulge your inner sound engineer this site is a must-have on your bookmarks.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 3

Listen

OR Download it

Cast:

Ricardo (The Detective)

Pjazzypar (Caterer)

Ravi Khanna (Indra)

K9 (Felicity & Homeless Woman)

JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)

X, Dell (Homeless Man 1)

Mr. Foam (Homeless Man 2)

Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by CDK, Melophon & Da Palm

Additional sound effects provided by www.soundjay.com, and Corsica S, addbicycle, amione, samplecat, andriala, and freesound of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org).

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 2

2009-07-05T15:25:00.005+05:30

Happy Independence day to the citizens of Evil Imperialist America.

The Golden Ganesh - Episode 2 (Yay for time difference - I get to post the episode first-er than those in the backward western hemisphere)

Click the play button to play in your browser

Or click the link to download the and play in your computer:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7615464-34d

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Crushed by Ingsoc (Lt. Pete Fisher)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Pjazzypar (Humming Caterer)
Foam (Diane)
SJ (Young Criminologist/Futon Cop) <--- Check him out he is awesome ;)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music landeros & Da Palm

Additional sound effects by Freqman, Corsica S., LG, and Herbert Boland of the Free Sound Project (www.freesound.org)

Music by: the jpfmband & Da Palm
Graphic by K9/She & X. Dell

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Episode 1

2009-07-04T10:33:00.006+05:30

At the beginning there was episode 1... We present for your viewing pleasure the first episode of Golden Ganesh
Have also created a Blogger widget which will be updated as each episode is posted if you have a web page or blog and would liek to help by showing the widget off let me know.

Listen:

Download:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7787184-33c

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Music by: the jpfmband & Da Palm
Graphic by K9/She & X. Dell

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

The Golden Ganesh Trailer

2009-06-28T10:57:00.006+05:30

I gave you a preview here http://jsridhar.blogspot.com/2009/06/oh-drama-golden-drama.html now the trailer is up.(Yay!!!)

The Golden Ganesh Trailer

Listen to it

OR Download it!

Credits:
Music by Da Palm

The Golden Ganesh by X. Dell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License

Oh the drama! The golden drama!

2009-06-27T15:14:00.002+05:30

Click on the label "THE GOLDEN GANESH" label below the post to get to all 16 episodes.

Once upon a time a few wise men and a few wiser women got together and decided the world needs something extraordinary and awe-inspiring. Something that would better humanity. Something that would bring joy to everyone who comes in contact with it. Something like me but more accessible.

The product of this cabal of the wise was:

THE GOLDEN GANESH

X-Dell, Enemy of the Republic, Foam (and her pets), Ricardo, John B and a few others have acted in this audio drama. Think of it as an collaborative radio drama made entirely over the Internet. The theme is quintessential X-Dell a plot to establish a new world order, a mad woman, crime, intrigue, eavesdropping, music, and nefarious technology. I play/record the role of the Futon Cop in my inimitable fashion.

The amazing thing about this is the actors haven't met, didn't work together, never rehearsed with the cast and we use different recording equipment and locations. It was a daunting task to put all this together (it did take a lot of time!) and how X managed to pull it off boggles the mind. Kudos to the whacky conspiracy theorist.

Now we are all set to host it online and are working to get some kind of cover art/logo for the series. Good suggestions are welcome. Why not go all the way and animate the entire play? Or do a comic book style layout? Will real volunteers please stand up!

Keep watching this blog for details about how to get to listen to it.

In my offence

2009-06-20T15:08:00.001+05:30

I tried to be incendiary in my previous post by attacking Values of The Real America. Didn't work. Y'all love me a lot. So let me try racism this time:

Two black guys walk into a bar.
Brother 1: Brother, that's a nasty looking hickie!
Brother 2: No brother that's a WASP bite.

Why do WASP women never go to orgies?
Coz writing all those personal handwritten thank you notes later is such a chore.

A guy is walking along a beach when he comes across a lamp partially buried in the sand. He picks up the lamp and gives it a rub. Two blonde genies appear, and they tell him he has been granted three wishes. The guy makes his three wishes and the blonde genies disappear.The next thing the guy knows, he's in a bedroom, in a mansion, surrounded by 50 beautiful women. He makes love to all of them and begins to explore
the house.Suddenly he feels something soft under his feet. He looks down and notices the floor is covered in $100 bills.Next, there's a knock at the door, so he answers it. Standing there are two persons dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits. They drag him outside to the nearest tree, throw a rope over a sturdy limb, and hang him by the neck until he's dead.
As the Klansmen are walking away, they remove their hoods.
It's the two blonde genies!
One blonde genie says to the other, "I can understand the first wish--having all those beautiful women in a big mansion to make love to.
I can also understand him wanting to be a millionaire.
But, why he wanted to be hung like a black man is beyond me!"

OK I am just posting jokes to hide the fact that I don't have much else to say but don't let that stop you from being offended. And the first one is an original inspired by the second not a copy-paste job.

Since Libby hafta ask

2009-05-24T15:34:00.012+05:30

In my previous post Libby said...

sj, i hafta ask...i know you've traveled a lot, but have you ever been to a place & thought "i could live here, i like it so much!" just curious...

I am not going to answer this question at least not directly. But she said "hafta" so...

I have only been to 2 countries outside India (3 in you count a 7 hour visit to Hong Kong*) so who knows where I might decide "I want to live here".

In fall 2003 I was in Chicago for around three months. Me and my friends went to Niagara falls and were joined by the friends of one of my friends. Anyway during the usual sight seeing and stuff and I did really like the place. The waterfalls themselves but more the neighborhood. The apple tree in a friend's apartment, the neat lanes, the beauty of the lake side, Fort Niagara, and the friendly people. I couldn't but help but think Maybe THIS the good life? Maybe I am not really a big city person as I though I was? Later on my friend's friends who lived right there in Buffalo/ Tonawanda would talk about life there. "People are friendly here" he began "unlike in India you can say hi to complete strangers in fact it's expected. If you make eye contact even accidently you have to say 'hi'". I thought try that in a city of 7 million and you would be saying 'hi' for the rest of your life. "The only time we had any trouble" he continued "was soon after the WTC terror attacks. That didn't last long however and anyway we looked like Arabs to them presumably". That kind of ended the whole dream place thing for me. He continued with the typical immigrants tendency even need to justify.

Makes me wonder if you aren't of a more numerous mob called the majority would any place on earth be safe? Also how close to Nazi Germany did Post-9/11 America come to? If the USA hadn't been a superpower capable of taking the fight to Taliban all the way to Afghanistan would that frustration of being able to do nothing turned itself on minorities within? Would a slightly different series of events have led to a Arab Holocaust (including those who LOOKED Arab) ?

The thing is that never really put me off from actually considering living in the USA. A few couple of years later I was applying to grad schools in USA again and even now given a half chance would cross the oceans.

I guess my answer is I am sticking to getting a planet for just me to live on.

*4 if you count an hour inside Heathrow airport enroute to Chicago's O'Hare.

Blue Monster of Pisa

2009-05-13T21:34:00.001+05:30

Today was election day. I didn't vote so I won't talk about it.

This is the display (of sorts) in our TV stand. The Sears Tower from my Chicago visit which I did buy at the Sears Tower. The Eiffel Tower and Tower of Pisa from my brother's European visit. Assorted stuff from all over. Koala from an aunt who returned from Australia (duh!). Skunk from a Reno store by me!

Also see the Blue Monster of Pisa.

Yes slow news day.

He Said , He meme-d

2009-05-09T22:50:00.002+05:30

Grant did this Ten Things I Wish I Could Say or That I Should Say to Certain People meme-like thing, which, despite me not being tagged I am doing. Because.

1. You look great but I bet you would look better naked and pinned under me
2. I actually DO have excellent soft skills what I lack is your ass kissing skills.
3. How come you don't notice you ARE all that you hate?
4. I can't take you to my leader. I am the ruler of this planet.
5. I am sorry that I am not what first impressions conveyed about me.
6. You don't know your rights also you underestimate yourself.
7. My confidence stems from the fact that the competition is pathetic.
8. Good school + good grades NOT= Intelligent .
9. Trust me! I am not that awesome.
10. Yes, that's my Ferrari.

Ricardo on the other hand did actually tag me with 10 true things about me and since he is not (really) a communist I am doing it.
1. I am uncultured and have no taste. Music, books, movies - I like all types I don't read only classy stuff or only trashy stuff. I can see a gross out comedy and a Bertolocci film and like both.
2. I was a shy and very self-conscious kid. I don't how I turned out to be this gregarious way sometime in my 20s.
3. I don't see the point of ... well anything. I guess that's why I can't subscribe to any "-ism" because all ideologies look silly (to me anyway) when you try to see the point of it.
4. A recent post by People in the Sun (get a name dude) reminded me of my visit to Las vegas in 2004. I went there because I was curious to see this place that I had heard a lot about. It was fun. Yes I did go to a strip club. No I didn't really like it. I learned something about myself by going to Vegas - I am not the kind of guy who would like Las vegas. That might sound like a joke or part of one but I think it says a lot.
5. I never buy cheap stuff from bargain shops I don't even hunt for sales. I hate shopping in crowded shops so I go to these smaller old-style places where they treat you like royalty. Yes the prices are steeper but so is the quality. That's one thing I learned from my mother "cheap things are, well, cheap". And I feel that I actually save in the long run.
6. I am told that I have a good color sense both in my clothing and in my photographs. I am clueless about what that means so it must be something natural?
7. I am like an axle in a bicycle wheel when it comes to friendships. I have all these "spokes" friends I know who themselves don't know each other or only are minimally acquainted wiht eac other. I think many people have these groups of friends who are each other's friends who seem to be always do hang out together and I am a bit jealous of them.
8. I was a practicing Hindu when I was younger who prayed regularly and all that. Some people seem to develop religious beliefs as they get older (nearer death?). Am I aging in reverse?
9. When I am thinking I usually imagine that I am being interviewed and that I am answering my other self's question. Now if only my other self weren't such a brutal critic.
10. I have always been political there was never a phase of life when I wasn't interested in current affairs. I remember as a kid I wanted to be Prime Minister. The first living leader to grab my teenage attention is Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. Hopefully Burma will become democratic in her lifetime and she might have a stint at leadership herself. Of all the political leaders the one I admire most is Nelson Mandela not so much for what he did before he became S.Africa's president but for what he did after. Something too many in his position seem to be singularly incapable of doing: retire. Most of them stay on and on and on and only death parts them from their power by which time a son or daughter (occasionally a wife or sibling) for all practical purposes inherits the throne. I wonder what kind of egomanic would assume that a whole country depends on them. Apres moi le deluge? OR maybe it will be just a good spell of rain?

You've been tagged!

Iraqi Cultural Imperialism

2009-04-27T14:51:00.004+05:30

Remember that I said in a earlier post that the shoe throwing incident involving FORMER (yay!) American President Bush might have negative repercussions on political debate. Now India seems to have imported along with foreign cultural influences like McDonald's and Pokemon. Read this or just Google for "India show throwing".

I will post about what exactly is negative about this when I can think of something.

In totally unrelated news: I had this weird dream the other day I don't remember much of it but I remember clearly my brother offering his support to me and would even talk to my parents for me about my sex change operation. WTF????

Round 2

2009-04-24T11:42:00.000+05:30

Well well those good luck wishes worked it seems. My team of 3 (not to be referred to as a threesome) got through to the show case event. The event will be held at HQ at San Jose and one of our team mates who is currently there will be manning the booth for us (no budget to fly us lowly engineers across the Pacific).

More luck needed! Send me a Irish clover or rabbit's foot.Or a Laughing Buddha or a Ganesha (Golden or otherwise).

Wish me luck

2009-04-22T19:15:00.001+05:30

In a hour from now I will be making a presentation at work. They have this competition here which employees can submit their ideas to. Me and two other guys have come up with a Social Networking app which will integrate social networks with our product.

Let's see how it goes.

So why have't I been posting a while? Cause I was working on this thing for a couple of weekends. Then there was the usual work. Partly it's the weather. I am not a fan of summer the heat just saps my energy and I am unmotivated to do anything other than drink chilled beverages and sleep. Mostly it's a lack of motivation.

Fazebookz rulez!

2009-03-31T15:44:00.001+05:30

Facebook helped me find a soul mate, see...

Frequency of posts might be slow while I get to know my soul mate really well.

(yeah yeah I will post about my trip and the photos soon.)

So long suckers

2009-03-19T19:50:00.000+05:30

... and by suckers I of course mean friends. This weekend I off on a trip to beautiful Wayanad organized by my work place. We are a strange bunch even as lots of other software companies in India (and the world) are laying off people and cutting costs we are hiring and going off on an office sponsored trip... nananana!

Not sure how enjoyable I would find the trip since I really can't walk much in fact had decided not to go but my team mates convinced me to go along. They had me "scotch".

Be back next week with photos.

See this video SIGNS

2009-03-10T11:02:00.001+05:30

Spend 12 minutes and 12 seconds* of your life and see this it's not like you have anything better to do.

*Download time not included.

Kate !

2009-03-07T17:10:00.001+05:30

Being a Russian nuclear engineer is a hard job: http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/top_9_contestants_from_russias_miss_atom_2009_.php

Slumdog Millionaire won a bunch of Oscars and all that but if you like smart dialog a weakness of SM - why do the brothers switch to English all of a sudden - and dark humor you must see In Bruges
I find it impossible to not like a film which has dialog like this:

Ray: Purgatory's kind of like the in-betweeny one. You weren't really shit, but you weren't all that great either. Like Tottenham.
[pause]
Ray: Do you believe in all that stuff, Ken?
Ken: About Tottenham?

Harry: [to Yuri] An Uzi? I'm not from South Central Los Angeles. I didn't come here to shoot twenty black ten year olds in a drive-by. I want a normal gun for a normal person.

Slumdog is a good film and that's exactly my problem with it. In Bruges is a film and you are free to like it or not. It doesn't have relevant social message (unless you shoot priests for a living) which makes me feel bad to say I don't really like the film. It's not that popular or have a trillion articles written about India's position in the world, the growth of Bollywood (from the success of a non-Bollywood film???) , the greatly exaggerated rumors of death of Hollywood, identity issues of the average Indian... blah blah. In Bruges is just a film that uses the word "fuck" and it's derivative 126 times.

I am very happy to see A.R Rahman who grew up two suburban train stations away from me win an Oscar. The music was great. We always knew he was great before the rest of the world did! Yes he is an urban product so much for the "real India is in her frickin' villages".

The Oscars got it right this time every now and then the Academy has an identity crisis and acts like it's the frackin' Berlin Film Festival or even Sundance. Good to see the Oscars back to being the Oscars. The films that were in running for awards this time Slumdog, Wall-E, The Dark Knight, The Curious Case of Ben B all had commericial potential. The actors Heath Ledger, Kate Winslet, Sean Penn, Mickey Rourke are known names to casual followers of Hollywood/English films. Compare Saoirse Ronan in Atonement *.

I haven't seen The Reader yet but from what I've seen of her work Kate Winslet is more than just a pretty actress - which of course never hurts ! In a profession where many try to be as juvenile as possible in their roles it's good to see a talented woman who has no hesitation in taking on characters that are angtsy, depressed, and confused. Compare Drew Barrymore.

*A good film and great performances just that nobody has heard of it.

You can't spell interview without I

2009-02-22T21:31:00.001+05:30

Considering that I am so incredibly famous it's not surprise that two people want to interview me one after the other. WITH much further ado I present interviews from Foam and People in the Sun.

The foaming interview
i would like you to imagine yourself as a 50 year old. what kind of advice would you give yourself at the age you are now? at 32?
One line: Yes you failed to do that THEN, does it matter NOW? I spend too much time regretting the past for not doing stuff I could/should have so I don't think I will be much different at 50.

What was your most important contribution to the New World Order? (x.dell contributed that one .. ) .. and yeah, we talked behind your back .. ;P ..
Tsk tsk all this covert stuff you and X do behind my back. I mean I would like to do some covert stuff too.
I AM THE NEW WORLD ORDER!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could say that. Anyways here goes:
1. I work for an company that has it's HQ in Israel. We all know that Jews are evil circumcised people plotting to take over the world. The Freemasons are on their side too.
2. My company in turn contracted me out to a company founded on venture capital in imperialist America. Now capitalists of all type are evil - some of them circumcised Jews – now if only Soviet Russia had won the Cold War then we would all be living happily in communes except of course those of us who would live in Gulags but hey win some lose some.

If you could go back in time, which historical figure would you give a wedgie .. and why?
Queen Victoria for naming a state in Australia after herself
Among the current ones Obama for naming a centuries old city in Japan after himself.

if you were the intergalactic ruler of the whole universe what 10 rules to live by would you come up with?
I WILL be the intergalactic ruler of the whole universe no ifs. These 10 rules:
1. This is my spaceship. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My spaceship is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My spaceship, without me, is useless. Without my spaceship, I am useless.
2. Social networking is awesome.
3. No matter how busy you are, how important your are, how stressed you are ... sometimes you must stop and smell the vodka or rum or whisky.
4. When in doubt consult Google Universe.
5. Conspiracy theorists are whack. I know one and he is whack that's a 100% correlation if I know one.
6. Yellow trousers are STILL not in fashion and never will be.
7. Beauty is skin deep. So show more skin to look more beautiful.
8. Obey me your Intergalactic Ruler Sridhar the First, The Last, The Only, The Magnificient, The Exalted, The Mighty, The Invincible, Mysterious Yearning Secretive Sad Lonely Troubled Confused Loving Musical Gifted Intelligent Beautiful Tender Sensitive Haunted Passionate Talented etc etc...
9. Always make 9 rules. Moses made 10 ... see how nobody follows any of them?

If you were forced to find the perfect mate through an advertisement, what would you write in that ad?
This is the question that delayed this meme. I am not really sure my mind goes into circles and not always nice circles. So I ask you gentle readers what do think I should do:
1. Be pragmatic go with what I can get.
2. Be unrealistic and wait for that perfect mate wherever she might be.

Now for the Solar interview
1. Would you waste a good shoe on President Bush? How about your co-workers and friends: did they like him? Did the fact that they liked him make you think they're idiots?

Only if I can't find an old shoe.

Seriously I wouldn't do anything of the sort. I prefer to debate issues not resort to gimmicks while I do understand the shoe thrower's frustration the problem is the next shoe might be thrown at someone I actually respect.

2. What's your morning routine? (I assume it doesn't involve Kellogs cereal because we're boycotting them for dumping Phelps).

Wake up.
Mute Alarm.
Reach from my bed and open the curtains so that I don't sleep again. I am a fussy sleeper and can't sleep in buses, cars or in light.
Lie in bed for a minute or so hoping this is a dream.
Finally get up and trudge to the bathroom.
Brush my teeth
If mom is awake as she usually is I can laze a bit. Maybe read the newspaper headlines while she gets my skimmed milk+ protein supplement ready. Else make it myself.
Drink above mentioned stuff
Get into gym clothes
Go to gym
Work out for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Return home to shower
Get into work gear if a working day. Or home gear if a holiday.
Eat breakfast usually this.
Go to work. Read or sleep if it's a hol.

3. I'm learning this stuff because I have a baby. I've learned to make pasta and quiche and oven baked potatoes. What's your specialty? Do you make your specialty when you're by yourself?
I did cook until I moved back with my parents for my surgery and now the much delayed rehab. I make mostly south indian cuisine. I do however make pasta and so far nobody has said my cooking was bad some even praised it.

4. Do you watch Lost? If you do, will Kate end up with Jack or with Sawyer? Why aren't you watching Lost?
No I don't watch Lost. Who the f- are these douches you mention? The actress who plays Kate would be better for her career if she ended up with a director that way she could find better stuff to act in.

I hardly watch TV. I got a large screen when I was in my own digs and when I got a broadband and a laptop I hardly ever watched. Now at my parents there is too much competition for TV so I hardly watch. I do occasionally catch the news or an interesting interview or a good film.

5. Do you dream of walking the gold-paved streets of the US of A?
Been there done that and no they weren't paved in gold. Read this old post of mine.

I do want to see more of the world. Fat chance of that happening with my current job description. I've always wanted to see New York. And London. And Paris. And Moscow. And Tokyo. And Shanghai. And Singapore. And Sao Paulo. And Jerusalem. And Cairo. And ...

I did actively try to study in the US a few years back as some of my earliest readers know. The efforts didn't payoff I guess Harvard likes to see if the applicants will one day get a shoe thrown at them.

Happy VD

2009-02-15T22:54:00.000+05:30

Did anyone else notice that when you use VD to abbrev. Valentine's Day you could also mean Venereal Disease? Just saying.

Anyway right now religious extremism and anti-Val sentiment is the hot topic hereabouts. So we are discussing Pink Underwear. However in continuation of my laziness with respect to the blog let me copy and paste a meme which I did on Facebook... yeah yeah ... life's tough you are free to kill yourself.

1. Put your itunes/ipod, windows media player, etc, on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button, and the title of that song is your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put any comments in (parentheses) after the song name.

1. Are you male or female?.
I like to move it , Sacha Baron Cohen (Yeah those surgeries don't leave scars you know)

2. Describe yourself:.
Sometimes you can't make it on your own, U2 (it takes a village to describe me and I live in a city)

3. What do people feel when they're around you?.
Party People, Buddha bar

4. Describe your current relationship?.
Supercalifragilisticexpial

idocious, Disney Favorites (No kidding!!!)

5. Where would you like to be right now?.
Arabian Song, Buddha Bar

6. How do you feel about love?
After, Buddha Bar (???)

7. What's your life like?.
Livin' La Vida Loca, Ricky Martin (I wish)

8. What would you wish for if you only had one wish?.
Wake me up when September ends, American Idiot (well I do like my sleep)

9. Say something wise..
Don't have to lose , Michael Learns to Rock (don't have to win either... what's your point MLTR?)

10. If someone says "is this okay?" .
Miracle Drug, U2

11. How would you describe yourself ?.
Buddha Bar Party, Buddha Bar

12. What do you look for in a girl/guy ?.
Jungle Fever, Chakachas - Boogie Nights Soundtrack (Heh heh)

13. How do you feel today ?
Be My lover, La Bouche (Heh heh again)

Someone call Freud, quick

2009-02-12T20:42:00.007+05:30

If as Hollywood films claim being a corporate drone is the worst fate to befall a human being then why are actors the one driven to suicide, addiction, psychological maladies, cults, marriages of convenience, and general stupidity?

People living in glass penthouses shouldn't throw stones? They can throw precious stones if they feel the urge.

Knock knock

2009-02-01T22:15:00.011+05:30

Who's there?

No not me ... not often anyway (thanks to X-Dell for introducing to me to the intricacies of knock-knock jokes the greatest contribution of Western Civilization to Civilization.)

I had internet problems (though obviously fixed for now) combined with and a general lack of motivation (despite a lot of inspiration from the news) to blog. If I am not around your blogs as often (which used to very often), and if you actually noticed, know that it's not that I don't love you it's that I am not interested.

Been a week of many movies maybe I should post reviews next?

Jan 26 R Day

2009-01-26T14:21:00.000+05:30

January 26, 1950 is when India got it's own constitution. Three years after becoming an independent nation we also became a Republic severing the links to the British monarchy as well as totally shutting down the ambitions of any local erstwhile royals - a fact that has kept the country together.

The constitution beings with:

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to
constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation

Oh well some of it has happened hasn't it?
The socialist part does sound a bit weird these days. However republic we undeniably are despite a national surfeit of drama queens.

Meanwhile this photo I took of Obama's inaugural address as I and my parents saw this on TV. So here I was in Chennai, India watching on a South Korean branded television an American with a Kenyan father become President. All of it live. I know my great-grandfather wouldn't have had the chance and my grandfather would have had to make do with sound. Next stop teleportation.

Da Hood

2009-01-16T20:52:00.000+05:30

I am often asked to post pics of my neighborhood. So...

My Hood

A plug post

2009-01-16T13:40:00.001+05:30

My cousin Bharat is an engineering student and is part of the organizing group for a Tech Fest at his college. I told I would help publicize by posting a link in my blog. Most ofmy regular readers can't tweak the templates on their blogs without breaking somethign but if you or someone you know is all nerdy and stuff you can participate in the online contests and stuff. Handing over to Bharat...

hey
i have a junior of my Kuruk work who is conducting this online event called Prove or Disprove
She wants to publicise this event in the blogs
u ar the one i kno who blogs n stuff...
so im adding her content here

Hi,
Your friends blog seems cool. The following content could be posted there.

It is that time of the year when the battle begins as KURUKSHETRA (the UNESCO accredited International Techno- Management festival of The College of Engineering,Guindy)unleashes its power. This time among loads of exciting events there has been a lotta buzz online as well. PROVE OR DISPROVE that debuts this year is one such online event which gets your better sense to light. Fallacies, science myths, superstitions have long since choked the existence of pure logic and scientific reasoning. With the likes of Aristotle, Plato, Copernicus, Newton, Einstein, Tesla, Faraday and many more having walked on this planet the time has come to erase and rewrite baseless beliefs into facts or simply trash it! To follow the path of these great men and further their unspoken mission, battle it out at www.kurukshetra.org.in (Events-> Trinity->Prove or Disprove)!
Celebrate the spirit of reasoning!

you read about hte event i nthe site and put in a word abt it on ur blog... or else use the content i have given above to publicize htis event man.. jsut do wat u cud man...
shall talk to u tonite online

BHARADWAJ

PS: this is her blog

http://swathimeenakshi.blogspot.com/
--
if god be with us who can be against us
www.kurukshetra.org.in

Trip to Srirangam Part 2 of Many

2009-01-04T15:21:00.004+05:30

See part 1 here.

After the train reached in the early hours we took an auto-rickshaw my mother's sister's house which would serve as our base for the trip. There was a time maybe 15 years ago when Srirangam had very few motorized transport. To get from the station to my grandparent's (the house with the barren mango tree) would include a bullock cart. The occasional trip to nearby Trichy town would be a bus ride. Going mostly anywhere in Srirangam was on foot. There are hardly any traces of the time left as far as transport goes. However despite the crowding and increased pollution of the town (ex-village) some aspects are unchanged. Many old houses still remain so does a certain religiosity among the natives. Anyway the past that many people think has vanished never really existed - nostalgia has a tendency to distort lenses.

A one hour power cut at around 4:30 PM is enforced on the great citizenry of Srirangam something not even all the gods in the multiple temples around could do a thing about. My uncle has a huge collection of books and for the purposes of this blog I dub Literary Uncle and can talk on any subject on the world from Hindu mythology, current economic crisis, American banks, and what not. He reads 5 different newspapers a day and has a book collection that ranges from Ramayana to Peter Drucker to arcane tomes on financial law. He is retired bank manager from a big government owned bank - and it shows. My aunt who will be called The Literal Aunt is quite the opposite of the man she married. Occupying herself with the world of here and now - her topics of interest are more to do with getting family traditions underway, sarees and jewelery. Staying with them was Literal Aunt's foster mother (story later). My great aunt is 80+ years old and can still read in the dim light of the evening power cut while the rest of us would have to put our books/newspapers down. She lived in a village which didn't have electricity till the 1960s at least and living without electricity for most of her life her eyes didn't electric bulbs to read. So as the rest of us aged between 20 to 65 couldn't do a thing in the dusk she was happily reading away her theological books.

My grand aunt's village was significant in another way it was the de-facto destination during holidays for kids of my mother's generation. Those days people had 6 to 10 children per couple so on vacations when vacation group descended on grand aunt's house it was not unusual to ahve 25 children in the house at a time. My mother's siblings as well as a cousin or two were also there this time and I let them reminiscence as I took a seat and listened to the stories of old. I envy my mother her family. My father's family do a great job when they haven't killed or attacked each other. I am having a good time with my brother if we are even talking to each other. My cousins aren't bad bu this is nothing like what my mother, her sisters, her brothers and cousins share to this day though they don't see each other often. As they tried to embarrass each other with blasts from the pasts I did learn a lot about a past that was unique and not repeatable. Apparently Literal Aunt was very possessive about her house and didn't like the vacation hordes that invaded. She would bite her antagonists. My mother had a fear of going out in the dark - a problem when you are in a house with an outhouse and no indoor toilets. Literary Uncle had a penchant for the stage (no surprise that).

Being Iyengars most of my family is vegetarian and many of them don't eat onions and garlic. This might sound horrible but then over centuries Iyengars have eveloved their own unique cuisine which makes up for the lack of ingredients with variety of cooking styles. There are a dozen ways to cook every veggie and cereal. Many of them very tasty. Yes they also don't drink and they are usually well-versed in Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures. This apple couldn't have fallen further from the tree. I don't express myself much in this crowd. The flip side of these people is many certainly not all of them are a bit bigoted in their world view. They would rather have the caste system back. More than eating meat they are against eating anything cooked by a lower caste person which in today's world is impossible to do without being also an hypocrite. Their viewpoints in politics are also unfailingly pro-Hindu and pro-Brahmin.

Literal Aunt had left to dry some food stuff on the terrace of the building. As it started to rain the guy who worked in the apartment as a security/odd-job man saved it from the rain and brought it to my house before the rain ruined it. My reaction: good thing he saw it must thank him. Aunt's reaction: Don't tell grand aunt. if she hears that he (meaning a "lower" caste guy) has touched she wouldn't eat it.
Now it's kind of difficult to think of little kindly old ladies as bigots - what with the general imagery of villain always being a big guy - but I guess that's what she should be called. Or am I wrong? Maybe it's a view of life she has been used to for a long time and can't change. The next generation which includes my parents and aunts is a more mixed bag. My mother hardly cares for these "rules". My aunt is uncommitted but does have her hang ups. An uncle of mine is quite strict. The thing is part of this is a tradition no unlike the Jewish kosher and part of this comes from looking at certain people as "untouchable".

Those my age and younger don't seem to care much which is a good thing. Who knows maybe in a few years the caste system might be thing of the past at least in the cities.

To be continued...

There will be posts like this

2009-01-01T15:34:00.001+05:30

My momma said Happy New Year too!

w 09

2008-12-31T23:49:00.001+05:30

Am much better almost fully recovered.

Awake at almost midnight !

453rd post - not counting drafts.

End of a rather remarkable year and hopefully we a 2009 which has all the good and none of the bad of 2008. Yeah right !

Economic crisis, terror attacks, renewed wars, new wars, the grandest Olympics , the most watched election, lunar explorations, private space flights, Large Hadron Collider, Hydrogen powered plane ... and all the usual news worthy stuff that happens every year and we are supposed to act like the next year will be different.

But act we must so:
Welcome 2009!

Acckkk

2008-12-30T12:05:00.000+05:30

Not feeling well at all. Saw the doc. Have lots of medicine to survive on. Could be something I ate.

The Grant scheme of things

2008-12-27T23:12:00.003+05:30

Curiosity got better of my reason and I agreed to be interviewed by The Grantichrist aka some discombobulated guy. Here we go:

“The only rules are that you have to link back to the original post and you have to put these rules in your post:

Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.”

If you could change or nullify one law in your country, what would you choose and why?
Considering the way politics has become a family business in this country and that many politicians even those who otherwise are good at their job throw all ethics out of the window when it comes to holding on to power till a son or daughter is ready to take over thus making democracy a monarchy, I will change the law to bring in term limits US style but extend even to Chief ministers of each state. Also try to somehow bring about a law that will try to cancel out "inheritance" of political posts. Easily said...

Which witch from Harry Potter IV (the movie) would you do first: Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Cho Chang, or one of the Patil twins (only one to make it fair)?
With which witch would I sleep? Kind of difficult to chose when I know so little about Harry Potter stuff. I would do all of them of course... now which witch should I pick first...hmmm. I think I will go with the alphabetical order of their last names. Chang,Cho would be the first followed by Granger,Hermione, the Patils and I would finish the serial sexing with Weasley,Ginny

If the gates of heaven opened and an angel offered to whack one person for you, who would you choose to die?
This is quite difficult... there are quite a few people on earth including certain family members and certain colleagues. However if there is an heaven and angel that implies there is a god so I would ask the angel to whack god so that I can continue being an atheist.

One of the American states is called Indiana. Do you think we should dig a tunnel so people from India and Indiana can walk over and visit the other, or should they all be killed for ripping of your country’s name without even offering a royalty payment?
India was named India by the Greeks. Persians called India, Hindustan (Land of Hindus). The ancient name for India is Bharat as in Mahabharata. However right now the names have become a political issue with language chauvinists wanting to remove the "western" name of India. The Hindu parties want to go back to Bharat too. Of course religious and linguist minorities are wary of such suggestions.

As for your question: I don't think Indiana needs to pay a royalty it's quite enough if they refrain from digging tunnels or sending people over here - unless they are high spending tourists or good looking women (Does Indiana have any?).

As the messiah of your own religion, what would be your highest law (other than “don’t nail me to anything”)?
You shall have no gods before me. I think this is very important providing people with alternatives is the cause for all the trouble in the world. God forbid (har har) that people mix and match beliefs or choose differently from what I intend for them. I expect unquestioning belief and unshakable faith. All that I speak even if the words are slurred from too much of alcohol is law. In other words I am sticking to the basic messiah template it seems to have worked for them. WWSJD?

All kidding apart thanks Grant for the great questions.

A Merry Christmas to all

2008-12-25T16:29:00.001+05:30

May this joyous occasion bring the gifts of love to you and your family.

Like Santa did for the Nazis.

Sun People

2008-12-15T22:07:00.001+05:30

or People in the Sun, or Sun with People in it ... whatever it's a stupid name anyway you rearrange it... has been a great friend from the day since our blogging paths crossed. Don't tell him but I actually admire him a bit... OK a lot.

He recently dedicated a post to me so far the first and only such post (HINT HINT) and I love it and him. Go read his blog it's worth the effort and more. Here's the button he created for me featuring shoe ducking President Bush and some oily buddy who seems VERY happy to meet Bush.

Trip to Srirangam Part 1 of many

2008-12-13T19:18:00.003+05:30

~~Update: For some reason I am not able to comment on some blogs while others work just fine. Seems like Google isn't infallible. Let me see if I can get their attention.~~ Fixed. Had to clear my browser cache so maybe Google IS infallible.

As posted earlier I took Friday off last week and I went to Srirangam about 5 hours south of here. My cousin'd son was 1 year old and that in our clan is a big deal. Usually members of family gather and the kid is made to undergo the torture of hearing Sanskrit chants and homam fires. Then to provide respite from being prodded and pinched by innumerable aunts that always seem to appear by magic at these occasions the one year old's ears are pierced. Hindus are trendy and stuff, you know. At least we don't cut parts of the penis away unlike certain evil religions and we aren't sexist since girls and boys both have ears.

My mother was definitely going I decided to join her since I felt I needed a break after working nay overworking at the India center of a certain American online business. So I went by train with my mother, and an uncle who also is the grandad of the kid-to-be-pierced. I was very disappointed with the train not that it was bad but all the recent hype about things having improved proved inaccurate. If anything Indian Railways' attempt to add an extra berth only meant more cramped quarters than usual. The train ride however wasn't without it's high points. We boarded at the main station in the city Chennai Egmore after a few minutes we were in one of the outer suburbs station where it wasn't meant to be more than a 2 minute halt. Instead the stoppage reached 5 then 10 then 15 minutes and it turned out the train had skipped a station in between!!!
This was a definite first for me I have heard of buses skipping stops but trains?! So all the passengers (and I wished I could have been there to see their faces as the train just sped past them and maybe could have waved too). The train had to wait there for a hour before they could gather the passengers into a local train then finally ship (train?) them over to our train. I don't know I think it would have been more entertaining of the driver again drove away just as the local train was disgorged the spurned passengers. The Railways in a complete lack of sense of humor like all bureaucracies suspended the drivers (it seems there are usually two per engine) pending an investigation. My trip hence made news albeit local news.

In the wee hours of Friday morning we reached Srirangam station. I hadn't been here in years. When my grandparents were with the living the entire family on my mother's side gathered their large house and we kids more than anyone else used to have great fun. In the 70s and 80s when the Internet wasn't around and telephones were a rare sight this was the only way most of us got to be in touch. I particularly remember the mango tree which for some reason had grown along the ground before raising itself sunward creating a a natural "cave" of sorts. The tree also never flowered once in it's lifetime. This would be the "secret" meeting place for the kids. The tree is long gone and the house has changed hands. The grandparents are in afterworld (or are roaming the old house as ghosts) and the town has grown.

To be continued... the grandaunt, the temples, and family gossip coming soon.

I am an evangelical

2008-12-10T21:59:00.000+05:30

According to boss's boss's boss who is visiting our humble facility our team (inclusive of me) are technology evangelists for the rest of the organisation. He did also say I was doing a good job. So I am a good evangelical.

And in case you were wondering the previous I very politely asked McCain to remain silent was as Just Me guessed directed at his comments on the India-Pakistan situation. Now he is hardly the only one but one would assume that someone who fought in a disastrous war in Vietnam, was witness to another disastrous in Iraq, would be a little wary of yet another disastrous war in Pakistan. So much for experience and judgement.

On the other hand it's likely he was bluffing and was acting on behest of the American government to tighten pressure on Pakistan. Pakistan's delaying tactics seems to support our government's contention that certain powerful people in Pakistan are involved.

Meanwhile political heads have rolled in India but we are nowhere near apprehending the terrorists nor any more likely to prevent the next attack. The people have already turned their attention to the next cricket match and so the story goes on. Before you ask yes people includes me though in my case it's my life and not a cricket match. I am back to updating Facebook with smart/funny status messages. Back to thinking about work stuff. Back to ogling at the women at the aerobics class in my gym.

What else can I do?

Back with a message

2008-12-08T22:38:00.000+05:30

I am back.

I have a message for John McCain: SHUT THE F^CK UP!!!

A weekend away...

2008-12-04T20:38:00.001+05:30

If you see this post then I am out of town for the weekend. Gone here for no particular reason. I hope to stay away from all things internet for the duration.

Meanwhile read and comment on "medicalization of sadness" if you are feeling intullectul and stuff.

Rambling on about the Mumbai terrorist attacks

2008-11-29T18:40:00.007+05:30

Cyclone Nisha has hit the coast a few 100 kilometers south of here. She seems undecided on whether to go ahead make landfall or not. She is hanging around making mere living miserable for some and downright lethal other for others. Office was closed today as major roads and train tracks were flooded. Living in the fourth floor of an apartment has the advantage of being safe in the worst flooding and anyway this part of the city is old enough to have been well-planned. Just when it seems the rains have stopped it returns with renewed vigor. It was dark already by late afternoon. Kind of setting the mood for the major news event - the Mumbai terrorist attack.

I was in Mumbai two years back for a long weekend. I went for my morning walk on Marine Drive and stood outside the Taj Mahal hotel . As I see smoke billow out of windows which I probably had sat under with a cocktail laced with sake in my hands.

The Taj is representative of a charmed way of life accessible to very few on a regular basis and for a a few more like us as an occasional treat and for most of population unthinkable. The choosing of major hotels as in the attack a few months back in Karachi, Pakistan is to:
1. Hurt business travel and tourism
2. To send the message that even the most privileged class is not exempt. The people who don't have worry about poverty, corruption, draconian laws, power cuts, strained public transport etc have to deal with terrorism.<>
Already I hear some muttering that this is not a big deal in a country where people are dying from poverty and a few dead rich people is OK. Ideology trumping humanity - nothing new.

Now the talk has shifted to what should have been done and should be done in future. The whole world has weighed in with their opinions since this tragedy has had a very international face. The dead, injured, and missing include in additions to hundreds of Indians, Americans, British, French, Israelis, Singaporeans, South Africans, Japanese, Greeks just to name a few.

Israel's defense forces have criticized India's handling of the situation which is kind of ironic considering the forces received some of their training at least from Israel. Not to mention that India is one of Israel's major customers for defense equipment and technology.
UK and the US have offered help and sent their intelligence teams to help out. South African officials are searching for their missing citizens mostly in the morgues.

Stories of bravery and courage have been many. The police and security forces who lost their lives in the fighting - Major Unnikrishnan, Karkare. The two South African private security personnel who were there to protect the yet to arrive S.African cricket team and ended up saving 100s of guests. The nanny who fled the Jewish Center with the toddler son of the Rabbi.
As the massacre draws to an end the questions have now begun. Who is behind this? Why? How were they able to bring in enough ammunition into the city to fight for three days?
The investigation has shown some of the terrorists are of Pakistani origin and a few others are British-Pakistani. The rest it seems would be Indians. The government has to walk a delicate line here. If the terrorists turn out to be of Indian origin then there is a possibility of violence between Hindu and muslim groups. To blame Pakistan and to externalize is safer domestically. Internationally speculation has been rife and on expected ideological lines:
The Wall Street Journal seems to think this doesn't involve Pakistan which IMO is at least partly motivated by a desire to protect the policies of the Bush government. This is a journal which after the recent elections opined Americans had been ungrateful and Bush too good for America. Der Spiegel says that the Indian government is pointing to Pakistan. Haaretz the Israeli newspaper has suggested that Al Qaeda might be involved. Al Jazeera has stuck to reporting the events.
India I think should be wary of accepting offers of help without evaluating the motives. In an ideal world the focus should be on finding the truth no matter how difficult it is to handle. So far the leads seem to point to an old enemy mafia-don/fundamentalist ideologue Dawood Ibrahim who has been behind many such attacks in India. He is believed to be in Pakistan with the blessings of certain Pakistani agencies.

The Pakistan government itself for it's part has promised to help. How far the help would go is up for debate. If there is sufficient evidence to incriminate some Pakistanis would they be willing to capture and extradite them? A Pakistani hand itself could mean:
1. Direct involvement of the Pakistan government. I don't think the present regime would be involved (but who knows) because they themselves are targets.
2. ISI. Pakistan's own CIA an intelligence agency which is beyond the control of it's own government. For many years the agency was strengthened by Pakistan which fought proxy wars with India on Kashmir without having to be directly involved. Add to this the unstable nature of the political establishment and you see an organization more powerful than it's own "boss".
3. Pakistan's own military-religious-industrial complex acting on it's own. Likely using Dawood for the field operations.
Another theory seems to be one of a larger conspiracy involving the current happenings in the US and Israel. This explantion could still involve any of the above three especially #3.

Now turning to the next question: what could be/have been done to prevent the invasion/attack? Hindsight always is perfect vision. It's easy to say now that intelligence should have sniffed out the terrorists or that the military should have been involved earlier and not let the local police handle it for a while. However questions do need to be asked and strengthening of security must be done. Mumbai is a crowded city as well as center of so much action and it's impossible to keep track of every happening there in the best of times. The real problem is not these terrorists attacks happened but many smaller ones were not prevented. If it's only major attacks that are unstoppable that would be understandable but this is hardly the first attack nor the only location. See my earlier posts and you will see a bunch of acts of terrorism have happened earlier.

Reactions locally have been varied but mostly expected. Political parties blame each other. The ruling Congress has been accused of being soft on terrorists. This in Indian political-speak translates into aiming for the muslim vote. On one side we have Hindu parties demanding tougher laws and on the leftist ones claiming that these laws are biased against minorities. On forums we can hear views ranging from "kill all muslims" to "this is an hindu operation made to look like a muslim one" to "rich people deserve to die". Thankfully these views aren't dominant theme.

The government's (and this includes all political parties) fault is not bringing to justice many of the earlier perpetrators of such attacks. It took decades for them to catch, try, and punish the few that have been caught. Justice denied by delay? The risk for the terror groups is low they can relocate to another country out of reach before the law can get to them.

The risk is that as in previous instances this time around too over time all this was will be forgotten. That as people get on with their lives things will return to normal. The trouble with normal is that normal is when this happened in the first place. Maybe we should all refuse to go back to normal? Maybe in an Ayn-Rand-esque scenario enough people would just up and "leave" do only the basic needed to survive? What would happen then?

Oh ... I can't resist asking this: why do the gods you believe in not interfere when 100s or killed in their names? Will there be divine intervention when the deaths are in 1000s? Gazillions?

Mumbai terror attacks

2008-11-27T12:05:00.003+05:30

Update: Thanks for the concerned comments. None of my friends or family were harmed. Chennai is at sufficient distance to ensure my physical well-being. The psychological I am not too sure. I am hoping the hostages are rescued safely first. The rest can follow later.

You have probably heard of the terror attacks in Mumbai (aka Bombay).

http://www.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS276US276&hl=en&q=mumbai+terrorist+attacks&ie=UTF-8

My last few posts have been about terrorism and the history of religious intolerenace in India. Already I have to reevaluvate my views and response. This time the goverment has run out of platitudes and cliches ... let's see what comes out of all this.

Twice Dead

2008-11-15T23:53:00.005+05:30

A tale I heard in a bar - slightly embellished to make it LESS sensational:

"I was friends with the son of a political bigwig a few years back. Once after partying till late at night I, my friend and his girlfriend were driving back to Chennai on the East Coast Road. There was this guy on a motorbike who kept blocking us, he was obviously doing it on purpose if I went right he would too and if I went left he would too. Then this guy starts making lewd gestures at the girl friend. I am getting real pissed and at I decided to give him a scare. I slowed down and he with the smug satisfaction of having "won" drives on. When he is a few meters ahead of us I suddenly speed up going very close to his bike. I actually end up hitting him hard. His bike lurches forward almost as if he just accelerated. He rams into a lamp post gets thrown from his bike and I see his skull crack open. As me and the politician's son discuss how to get away with this we hear a loud noise and turn around. A truck had run over the already dead guy. We leave. The newspapers report next day about a biker who had been hit by a truck. "

Moral of the story: It's not good to be a jerk, more so if your vehicle is smaller.