A Rainbow Outside My Window

During trying and difficult times one often looks for omens. Part of you laughing at the stupidity of such things, knowing they are irrational, but a magical mystical part of you is searching the heavens for some sign that you are connected, that someone cares. And then you look out of the window and see a beautiful rainbow.

Though we would dare not admit it to anyone, how often have we felt comforted by a rainbow. The sign of a covenant? The power of myths, symbols and ledgends are not easily erased because we are no longer superstitious. Sure you can keep it a secret, but the FEELING that goes with a rainbow cannot be easily forgotten.

Party Time

OB course comes to an end, there are fines collected for mobile phones, coming late to class, etc. That means it is time to party!!!
Across the table from me, a pretty girl looked into my eyes and raised a glass
The first course I taught in XLRI was Advertising. Shrikant Dash et. al. At the end of the course, we had an End Term Party, and the parties have been getting better ever since.


Not Everyone enjoyed the party. This guy was called from Sevan especially for the party.
He WAS NOT amused.

In the END me and Gevorg decided a show of MASCULINE BONDING was in order... WE WILL SURVIVE!

A GREAT ARTICLE

Hi,

I wanted to share with you one of the best articles I have read about the search for Jim Gray who was missing from San Fransisco. The story is very well written and covers both technology and the human side very well. Through the authors masterful story telling Jim Gray comes to life as well as one of the most HIGH TECH searches ever organized. I would STRONGLY urge you to read this article if you have time.. but it is longer than usual.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-08/ff_jimgray

I WANT A HUG!!!

Cuddly Teddybears
Originally uploaded by Intrepid wanderer.

Now why can't human beings sleep like this, I wonder? Probably because we aren't boxed into a wire mesh cage?

Mathai

"In our country, we do sex. But we don't want to talk about it "

"In our country, we do sex. But we don't want to talk about it and that is why we have a billion population. In our close-knit society, we have to enlight and create awareness among our children." ____Indian Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss (read the article here )

Welcome to our double standards (remember my state, Kerala, was to have the highest literacy and best healthcare.... borne out by the fact that the community would not allow HIV+ kids to go to school). While you are at it, dear minister, can you also do something about our large number of prostitutes (clinically called, Commercial Sex Workers or CSW... so that we are not reminded of who they are). For decades we have been talking about legalizing the profession, giving them the status of human beings rather than pigs in a pig farm. India is rapidly doing things about child labour, environment, etc. How about the world's (and India's) oldest profession. Give them legitimacy, so that they too can work within the law and have access to rights and legal redressal.

I personally remember my dad having a man to man talk about the birds and the bees when I was finishing school. Of course, I feigned ignorance..... thats the right thing to do. My father ended his talk by saying "perhaps you are too young and you will learn all about this when your hormones start working." At sixteen.....give me a break!! I needed the talk when I was 10 years old and all my friends were talking about it. At sixteen I am sure I could give my DAD a few tips!!

I have no idea why modern society holds on to the myth of INNOCENT CHILDHOOD. Childhood is far from innocent. Some of the conversations we had at 11-12 would make most of my adult friends blush. Perhaps we had not learnt yet...what is to be talked about and what is not.

I think today the internet is a boon. My children had unfettered access to internet since they were old/young enough to read (how much do we read now, I wonder?). I remember once one of my kids asked me a question about such stuff and I told him. " Look there is a reason why I have given you a computer in your room and free access to the internet....WITHOUT PARENTAL CONTROLS. If you try to find the answer and you can't, let me know." Of course their mother didnt know about WHY there is a computer in the kids rooms or why sometimes they lock the door.

So let me make a statement:

CHILDREN ARE NOT INNOCENT. THEY CERTAINLY ARE NOT STUPID.

Until the late 20th century, it was women who were supposed to be innocent and pure. They were not allowed to vote, to work, hell... they werent even allowed to have orgasms. Now we are doing it to another group, our children. Do we have a NEED to keep our "innocence" protected, by projecting it on to a subgroup of the society. Why do we keep up an image of children that is sooo far removed from reality? I wonder if the word "childhood" refers to an experience of the growing child or a designation given to them from the outside. A designation we use to re-interpret a set of memories from our early life. RE-INTERPRETED, not remembered.

Modern Mythology

The YOUTUBE myth

I first heard about google's intended purchase of YOUTUBE around early oct 2006. At the time I had no clue what kind of tube it was until I read KEVIN MANEY's Column in USA TODAY online, dated Oct 6th, 2006. In the article Maney, USA TODAY'S tech writer said how RIDICULOUS the net was and how there was nothing to the rumour that google might buy YOU TUBE. He said the whole rumour could be traced to ONE source, Mike Arrington's totally speculative article about it on the same day. The news was picked up by Wall Street Journal and was everywhere in no time. Maney blames the ehoic nature of the internet for this.

Yellow Submarine iPod Rumor: Debunked

This piece was on Wired Blogs: Gadget Lab, written by Charlie Sorrel on 12th July 2007. He claims that this idea (which most of us have read, about a limited edition yellow ipod) started with a hoax by Merlin Mann.

Blogger and podcaster extraordinaire Merlin Mann started this meme as a
joke on an episode of the MacBreak Weekly podcast, just to see if it would take
off. If I remember correctly, he picked the most ridiculous thing he could think
of. A yellow iPod loaded with the entire Beatles catalog.

But Bloggers have grown up since 2006. Here is how the blog ends.

The funny thing is, as this story snowballs it seems more and more likely that
Apple might just make it. In which case Mann, who describes himself as "a
baseball mitt in a wig" should probably get one free.

Is this called vapour marketing? Or is this vapour later BECOMING a product?

For some reason I can't write the title for this blog. Just as well. Titles of anything help one to categorize things. It helps for early retrieval but its really an oversimplification of the contents. Ever tried the serendepity as a way of discovering great books in a library or book store? I still remember I read Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy, not because I knew Ellis or because the theory was fascinating...simply because I was drawn to the BRIGHT ORGANGE/RED cover of the hardbound book in the our department library in Trivandrum, kerala.

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Helen is a translator for whats left of the KGB in Armenia. Vahan's mom used to translate for the UN. Vahan told me that the way they judge translations is to do the chinese room stuff. Take a translation and have it translated back into the original language. For example English-Armenian-English and they would check to see how close was the second english document to the first. Now that explains why official documents should be written in the most literal, most boring way. Try a pun, a metaphor, or even a joke... the chances are that things will be lost in translation.



Anna helped me to go shopping the last week. She explained, with great patience, the sights and sounds of the store in English for me. Translating the unknown into the known. This week Anoush took me to the store and pointed out the things that she would buy. Hence, I went out with an english shopping list, but I brought back with me an Armenian experience to be savoured over the coming week. Ok, ok, ok its not just Armenian its also partly her personal preferences too. We will not talk about the issue of representation in anthropology here. All I did want to show was levels of translation. The last is no longer in the realm of Apriory Knowledge, but in Aposteriori Knowledge.

Stop and think: why'd you strip in public?- Hindustan Times

Stop and think: why'd you strip in public?- Hindustan Times

Here is a good article about women and the lengths they will go. Pooja Chouhan decides to walk along the roads in public, almost naked. As a protest against her in-laws who demanded for more dowry. Was this protest ok? What kind of person would Pooja be? Is she someone who would be likely to be a victim? Her form of protests breaks a lot of stereotypes of what GOOD GIRLS should do. Her picture accompanying the article puts her into another stereotype. I wonder....is there any escape?

Recipe: bareque in a microwave

For a long time, I used to wonder how to cook in a microwave. I know its good for anything cooked in water, but if you need something crispy you need it either to be done in oil (fry) or in hot air (barbecue or roast). Unless I have a hybrid oven, I cant see how to do that.

Today I found away. Here is how to do it.

1. Walk into a barbecue restaurant and with confidence speak two words you know in armenian Jhalakash (or as close as I can figure out...PORK CHOPS) and CARTOFIL (Potato...why does it remind me of some agreement between the king and parliment in medieval England).

2. Move to ASL (Armenian Sign Language, not the American one..maybe I should use INDO-ARMENIAN SIGN LANGUAGE)

3. He speaks something in Armenian and I dont undrestand

4. He speaks slowly and I still dont understand

5. I call up a friend and she tells him what I want.

6. Get dropped home by the delivery guy since he doesn't know where to delivery it to

7. Open it up to see that you have ordered far too much stuff.

8. Put the rest in the freezer, wrapped in lavash

9. Nuke the package for lunch next day!!

WOw I feel qualified to write my own cookbook!