smilebringer

You had to be there..

2006-09-26T20:42:12Z

Last time home, Dad hauled me lazy ass to the beach, to show me a Chakara. That is the name of a curious phenomenon involving throngs of fish crowding the shallow waters near the coast in several parts of Kerala. The sea is positively weird then - the surface is deathly calm, like a lake, with only the lightest lapping of little waves on the sand. You worry whether something's amiss - all that quiet is rather unsettling. The water is thick with fish, and you can see the shoals if you look carefully. It is rightfully a cause for much merrymaking and good business for fisherfolk, and I arrived at the beach all set to shoot a card-full of merry fisherfolk and flopping piles of fish and the mirror-like sea. Or, as it happened, not.

I had charge left in my batteries for one shot. One.

"semblance of peace"
(coz, y'know, fish are getting caught by the boatload)

PS: Yep, I'll do it right some day.

back again

2006-09-18T13:36:05Z

"red shavings"

Photo: Saplings budding in spent cement sacks filled with moist soil and wood shavings, back home.

PS: Reports of this blog's death have been greatly exaggerated. ;)

Verse

2006-07-29T16:24:48Z

by voice.

From the ever-elegant Coudal Partners, a poetry meme. You call a number and recite your favourite short poem, and they feature it on the site. Check out the collection so far, and maybe give it a shot: +1 703 637 9276.

(I wanted to do this once, with a voice recorder. To record poetry by myself or to enlist kind and willing strangers on the road. In the some-day-i-will pile..)

smilebringer @ 2006-07-28T21:53:00

2006-07-28T16:25:40Z

"three's a crowd"

HRD rejects OLPC

2006-07-27T05:51:13Z

Just saw this on /., I must be slow today. And the news is a month old, apparently. Viva la /.!
(I should check my feeds more often..)

Some links:

The Hindu:
"Rejecting the Planning Commission's idea of implementing 'One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Scheme' as "paedagogically suspect", the HRD Ministry feels it would be appropriate to instead utilise the money for universalization of secondary education."
(more there)
TOI:
"The HRD ministry has rejected the idea of 'one-laptop-per-child' (OLPC) being aggressively marketed by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Laboratory. "India must not allow itself to be used for experimentation with children in this area," the ministry has said."
Register, Slashdot, Gizmodo, etc.

Info about the OLPC project: the home page, a great talk by Nicholas Negroponte at IT conversations, and how it looks like.

Just links, I am feeling very un-opinionated today. But the HRD's arguments do make sense. I don't think the whole 'detrimental to child development' idea holds a lot of water, but it is true that we need more money spent on building and maintaining schools. There is also suspicion cast at the maturity of Prof. Negroponte's idea. His thoughts are very much inspiring, and not just from the OLPC angle(please listen to his talk linked above if you haven't), and I do hope the idea picks up steam, despite this setback.

Nigeria has ordered a million units, but the delivery will depend on more countries jumping in and pushing the numbers up to 5-10 mil, according to Gizmodo. Makes sense, as the cost is kept that way mostly by the promise of large volumes. I heard there is smalltalk on these things, in which case I weep for the millions of kids who won't get to play with it. Sad sad.

Unrelated: Please read this and leave a comment if you can help.

smilebringer @ 2006-07-26T17:41:00

2006-07-26T12:28:20Z

(shot on a bike trip awhile ago to nandi hills. bunch of us reflected on a helmet, in case it isn't clear. this might look too dark, i worry about my calibration..)

"I'm just trying to find meaning while I'm here."

2006-07-24T13:25:45Z

I <3 Hugh MacLeod.

More here(some of his favourites). Mature language, etc, don't sue me.

Mondays..

smilebringer @ 2006-07-20T00:04:00

2006-07-19T19:00:57Z

"cheer up!"

(been way too long without a flower shot. i can barely live with myself for that. taken ages ago, at palakkad)

wtf

2006-07-17T16:28:14Z

Okay, this is huge. DoT is ordering ISPs in India to block some sites. *.blogspot.com included. I tried Daku's blog, nada. There were rumours to this effect last week, and the story's hit boingboing today. The post is pretty comprehensive, with all the links you'll need (including ways to circumvent this stupidity).

(Update 1: Forgot to mention the admirable coverage of this issue by prominent Indian blogs. Most of them are linked to in the BB article. Jace's post has a good summary too. Geocities is also blocked. Almost all ISPs now - I called Airtel customer support, they don't have the foggiest clue)

(Update 2: The Great Indian Mutiny reports that this could be a temporary check while specific IP addresses are being located. Quote: "It seems that some blogs are being used by some terror units (read SIMI) to communicate.". Hope this will go away in a while..
Check Neha's blog for updates!)

(Update 3: 18/7, Situation remains the same. Slashdot headline: "India Joins China in Censoring Websites", Heh. Apparently BSNL in Bangalore is not blocking the sites! Join the BloggersCollective group for updates, etc. Also, the Financial Express reports online that ISPs were given a list of 18 urls to block, and they ended up blocking whole domains because they lacked the means to filter URLs. Wtf?)

(Update 4: Via Peter Griffin on Bloggers Collective: )

(Update 5: Now, this is what I call a summary. Hot damn!)

This is like watching a car-crash in slow motion. Morbid.

Speaking of which, my bus to work got rammed by a truck side-on today morning. BMTC bus driver wanted to take a swooping U-turn at full speed, and Mr. Lorry wasn't having any of that shit on his watch. Ka-boom. Miraculously, nobody was hurt - the BMTC buses are way more sturdy than they look, apparently. One side of the lorry's front was decimated, with the barest of dents on the bus! Except of course, the fuel tank on the bus had ruptured, and the driver didn't so much as break a sweat - he was more worried about the Lorry person who'd run away after the crash. Thankfully nothing cinematic happened.

Not a bad way to start the week. I mean, if you start with a road accident, how much worse can it get?

smilebringer @ 2006-07-12T02:23:00

2006-07-11T21:44:06Z

Well, this just effing sucks :(

Local blog coverage:

Gourav Sabnis: http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2006/07/blasts-in-bombay.html

http://www.ultrabrown.com/posts/terrorists-blow-up-bombay-trains

Sepia Mutiny: http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/003563.html

Counterterrorism blog: http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/07/multiple_bombs_detonated_on_bo.php

At mumbaihelp.blogspot.com (the information is now put up at http://mumbaihelp.jot.com/WikiHome/) a bunch of volunteers are helping people who are trying to reach their friends and relatives in Mumbai. People post comments with the phone numbers of the people they are trying to reach, and volunteers keep trying the numbers till somebody gets through. STD calls were working for a while even though the local calls were being jammed - so folks outside of Mumbai could reach numbers there and tell anxious friends that everything is fine.

Beats watching the ever-increasing death toll on TV:(

Hats off to the unending stream of volunteers at mumbaihelp. People have been working in shifts, late into the night (tis 2:30 AM now), tallying called numbers, talking to frantic people, and making sure the information is collated correctly. Me and Vanchi pitched in as well as we could. We were able to reach some people, Vanchi connected this young lady with her folks in a conference call so they could talk. Frantic exchange in Gujarati ensued. We put it on loudspeaker, though we couldn't follow a word. Totally worth staying up late for.

Tough day. Hope the hurt will pass soon, and Mumbai will bounce back with the gritty resilience it is so known for.

Prayers..

Update: Sensex rose 3%. Ha!

Outsider

2006-07-09T23:31:15Z

Wisdom via IM:

Question: Is there a name for that constant feeling of being an outsider?

(That damning knowledge of Not Belonging Here, my beloved unstickiness - that which I clutch longingly to my breast when I sleep. I'm sure it has been classified in one of your philosophies)

Answer: It's a farce. A survival tactic of egos. The addiction to revolutions. Rebelling against rebelling against rebelling against rebelling.

(Let me indulge in it some more, then)

Completely unrelated:

"the unstoppable march of progress(though slightly wiggly)"

PS: This is LJ. Nonsense is allowed, even encouraged. Monkeys on typewriters, and all that.

PS1: Photo taken on a Nikon D50(with the 18-55 kit lens), go me. Scrounged off a hapless colleague for a day, on a goodwill mission to some nearby schools. This is what the children think of progress marching on, and where it's all headed. Mice figure in a big way, that's all I'll say.

:/

2006-07-07T04:29:23Z

This is the week of serendipitous quotes that ring true.

Via gmail, of places:

Woody Allen - "Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television."

Bad bad bad television, with horrific scripts and lots of stupid ads and cheesy music. AND I CAN'T CHANGE THE CHANNEL :(

Unrelated (from Jan 2006, no less):

"go"

Maybe the weekend will even out things.

a fork in the road

2006-07-05T08:05:31Z

(Via something I saw while skimming through a mailing list)

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
"Which road do I take?" she asked.

"Where do you want to go?" was his response.
"I don't know," Alice answered.

"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

(Not a very reliable strategy, I suppose. But I'd buy Lewis Carroll a chai any day)

(untitled)

smilebringer @ 2006-05-08T15:34:00

2006-05-08T10:04:46Z

I think this poem might be familiar to many(it is one of those cult-following things, I hear). Worth memorizing.

Razors pain you; Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give;
Gas smells awful; You might as well live.

- Résumé, Dorothy Parker.

I'm famously not good at explaining poetry, but this is a no-brainer :). What gets me is the light-hearted rhyming scheme, and the undertone of pain. YMMV.

Update: Dorothy Parker was well known for her wit, apparently. The Wikiquote page has many a gem (might offend some). One:

"Pearls before swine."

(When she and Clare Boothe Luce were entering a room, Clare hung back, saying, "Age before beauty"; Dorothy swept into the room with this retort)

(This is #150 on the minstrels collection, and no, I don't know why I have turned to posting poems now. I'm sure the phase won't last.)

PS: Okay, the fact is, I had to move most of the data on my computer to another hard disk to make space for something else, which means most of my photos are now 'away'. AND I have been swamped with things, so no time to sort/sift through existing stuff.

Slow down and read.

2006-04-28T13:18:21Z

"Night in Arizona"

The moon is a charring ember
Dying into the dark;
Off in the crouching mountains
Coyotes bark.

The stars are heavy in heaven,
Too great for the sky to hold --
What if they fell and shattered
The earth with gold?

No lights are over the mesa,
The wind is hard and wild,
I stand at the darkened window
And cry like a child.

-- Sara Teasdale

PS: If you are not already, please, for the love of God, subscribe to the minstrels list.

So this is the deal.

2006-03-22T10:40:53Z

We (http://www.ivolunteer.org.in) need folks with web-design knowhow, and general PHP/MySQL hackers, to work on web-sites and software for several NGOs in and around Bangalore. If you or anyone you know fits the bill, and can volunteer a few hours a week, please leave a comment. Or email to demerzel at gmail. "Telecommuting" is fine, in case you want to help from afar, we can work out something. Thanks in advance!

PS: Hope folks still have this feed in newsreaders:/ Me-sa held up with real life. Some pics, for the sake of old times (this is from old uploads, newer shots are still languishing away on my computer..):

This was shot ages ago in commercial street, Bangalore. That place drives me nuts: there is only so much shopping a male mind can stand without taking damage. Having a camera along helps to retain some of your sanity, should you happen to let yourself be taken along for a *shudder* shopping spree.

Another one, from the annual boat race back home. This quite sums up my state of mind. I'd title this "What now?".

And, most importantly, a picture of a cat falling asleep. The world needs more of these.

Still standing

2006-02-16T11:24:35Z

Hey hey, check this out, two posts in two weeks! I'm on a roll. ;)

In the fine tradition of low attention-span, no-time-to-blog, bullet-list blogging:

I've been busy with stuff('stuff' being an inadequate stand-in for a couple of longish paragraphs that I wouldn't inflict on my worst enemy - Airtel Broadband Services).
I've also been intermittently reading George R. R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones" (sfsite review), the first of his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, after Vanchi fervently(though he doesn't know any other way to ;)) recommended it. Fantasy/drama, not quite like Tolkien(said juggernaut being the Pole Star when navigating the landscape of fantasy literature). More meaty characters and less of the epic narrative. There is a House of Stark in the book, and they have their 'words' - "Winter is coming". Somehow, that has been ringing true for me these past few days.
Play Kingdom of Loathing, if you have free time at work and really don't want to spend it on anything productive. It's an in-browser turn-based RPG with a theme of humour. Very funny stuff, and quite engaging in gameplay. Stirs my MUDding memories. Old mages die hard..
Andy Baio at waxy.org pointed towards Jason Shiga's fabulous comic-strip book, "Meanwhile" today. I remember seeing this awhile ago, but couldn't figure out how to read it at first. Spent 5 seconds to read the instructions (amazing what 5 seconds of attention can get you) today. Bends your mind out of shape, this does.

On the matter of photos: I have to find, yes find, photos from the last few months. Will resume posting soon!

Alive

2006-02-09T08:22:56Z

Yep. I'm slowly willing myself out of lethargy, uncertainty and other assorted excuses. People change, they re-prioritize, and similar mumbo jumbo. I will not waste anyone's time (arguably already facing imminent perilous wastage from simply chancing upon this URL) by explaining why I was away. I'm very sure I had my reasons.

But today, I logged in to gmail after maybe a month (I've been a hermit, amigos. Subsisting solely on an austere diet of just /., Mefi, BoingBoing, del/popular, waxy, techdirt and digg.), and I see this.

Well well. Time to start again.

(My 'link-blog' is at http://del.icio.us/demerzel, for anyone thusly inclined. Just that it has been remarkably less dead than this journal, over this period of outage. Also, big thanks to my burgeoning worldwide audience for bugging me to restart blogging. Love y'all. Seriously, all four of you;) )

gold

2005-10-24T13:23:00Z

(shot recently on a trip to kerala)

smilebringer @ 2005-10-21T02:32:00

2005-10-21T09:32:24Z

(from home, rows of coconut trees on the seaside)

PS: Checked out flock today. If you manage to keep your interest through the deluge of hype surrounding it (don't you just love the Web2.0 groupies;) ), it's actually a pretty nifty thing. It's a firefox mod with a new skin, tight integration with del.icio.us and flickr, full text search of browsed webpages via a CLucene engine, a blogging tool(LJ support flaky, very crash-prone otherwise too, I'm told), and a "Shelf" ala Onfolio. Full-text search is pretty nice, as is the Shelf, and the skin isn't too ugly either. Btw, very much beta stuff, so don't trust your missile silos to it yet.

Update: Flock uses Yahoo as the default search engine, both in the search bar as well as in the context menu item to search for text selections. While a very interesting fact in itself, me no like it. Look for browser.search.defaultenginename and browser.search.defaulturl in about:config to change back to Google.

mnemonic

2005-10-19T11:16:55Z

(side of the thatched roofing on a 'houseboat', back home. the weave reminds me of a whole lot of things from a summer long gone, at my mother's old homestead. the smell of rice husks drying on ageing mats made of coconut tree leaves, and the scraping noise the mat and the rice make when i drag my feet over them, risking severe admonition from the powers that be. the sun glinting on the gravel - which for some reason always seems to be slightly wet - under the canopy of cashew nut trees laden with sticky sweet red-yellow fruit. my uncle in the ancient family arm-chair reciting from a book of malayalam poems in his emphatic baritone, and me lying on my back, settling into the me-shaped shallow forming slowly in the unwilling gravel, staring at the leaves above, rolling around the then unfamiliar words and sounds in my mouth like strange magic beans. it's weird how some vignettes from my childhood are still crystal clear in my memory, while whole years are missing elsewhere:/)

PS: Heaven = Eating biscuits dipped in scalding hot tea while watching rain pour down like it is Kerala. (Okay, some value of Heaven, at least). Officially, I'm echoing the party line, "my god, it's still raining!", but boy, am I chuckling inside;)

haze

2005-10-13T12:03:29Z

(ferreted this out from my archives after i saw sajith's lomo post. i read today that the Lomography credo is "don't think, just shoot". Amen! this one shot on a full moon night, at home a couple of months ago. a less wayward shot from around the same time behind the cut, i couldn't pick between the two)

work

2005-10-11T12:17:54Z

(*sigh*)

PS: This was shot on an outing with my camera a couple of months ago. In a bike workshop, where I struck up a conversation with the scruffy haired youngster who worked there. He loved Tamil and Malayalam (!) movies, had been doing that job for around 15 years, and was satisfied with my reason for shooting stuff("I'm learning to take photos"). He even let me charge my battery there for a while:) Amazing how far high-school Hindi can take you.

march

2005-10-06T11:51:35Z

(somehow, this reminds me of Terry Pratchett's "Monstrous Regiment":/)

meal

2005-10-05T13:22:24Z

(re: the onam post. this happened that weekend, at our place. i have the BEST PEOPLE EVAR in my life:) )

PS: Another version behind the cut. This just makes me beam:)