Of Walt Whitman, Thread Deadlock And Suchlike Pandaemonium

Substitute all the dining philosophers with blog posts waiting to be aired, and this more or less describes the situation.

Song of Myself

Do I not blogpost often myself?
Very well then I do not blogpost myself,
(I am large (you bet!), I contain many blogposts.)

Among the posts jostling inside are the following

• Random travelogue with pictures and so on of trip to parts south


• Long-ish thing continuing where we left off on the neural Buddhism thing, with brief detours into why religions suck, why it's not reasonable for well off middle-and-higher class types to run off to people like Sri Sri Sri (how many nowadays?) Ravi Shankar expecting peace and happiness, why there is no god, why there is a god and She is probably a Pigeon and so on


• Why we've taken to graphic novels in our dotage, and how it has completely flabbergasted and flummoxed us that we'd actually get interested in a new art form at this late stage in life


• A little something on Murakami's latest which being a combination of Murakami, writing, running, and Boston/Cambridge is utterly irresistible


• A review of A Sea of Poppies which we volunteered in a moment of insanity for well known Peruvian junkie but didn't do and instead got beaten to it by el Spaniardo


• Lots more Large Hadron Collider stuff, including the LHC rap thing which is hilarious and en passant I Will Derive which is also funny (but very nerdy)

And so on. It'll all have to wait.

Exeunt.

Ghazal Du Jour

Why write something when someone has already said it and you can copy-paste?

itanii muddat baad mile ho
kin socho.n me.n gum rahate ho

tez havaa ne mujh se puuchhaa
ret pe kyaa likhate rahate ho
kin socho.n me.n gum rahate ho

kaun sii baat hai tum me.n aisii
itane achchhe kyo.n lagate ho
kin socho.n me.n gum rahate ho

ham se na puuchho hijr ke qisse
apanii kaho ab tum kaise ho
kin socho.n me.n gum rahate ho

-- Mohsin Naqvi

Ghulam Ali sings.

The most famous Mohsin-Ghulam Ali combo offer is of course ye dil ye paagal dil mera, kyon bujh gayaa avaargii. Video.

But itanii muddat has more kashish for us, what to say?

How Do They Heat The Tea?

The facts.

1. 2786 Bangalore City-Kacheguda Express leaves Bangalore at 1820 every evening.

2. Because it's an overnight train, there is no pantry car.

3. There is however an IRCTC crew on the train. They will take dinner orders and between 7:30 and 8:30 deposit some comestible wrapped in silver foil at your seat.

Presumably they load this stuff when the train leaves Bangalore, and dish it out when the the omens are right.

4. Now (and listen closely, this is the interesting bit), this train is supposed reach Kacheguda at 0540. 0515ish, selfsame IRCTC check-shirt wallas will circulate through the sleeping vestibules, hawking garamaa garam coffee and tea.

So the question naturally arises: At something past 4 in the morning, with nary a stop/station in sight, where/how are these fellows able to concoct hot tea/coffee?

The only (scary and painful in light of recent events) explanation we have at the moment is that somewhere on the sleeping car express, they are lighting a stove or other such and heating/brewing the beverages.

The Neural Buddhists

A friend sends us a link to The Neural Buddhists (free subscription may be needed) on the New York Times website. Read the whole thing, it's not very long. Here's a couple of paragraphs from near the end:

First, the self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships. Second, underneath the patina of different religions, people around the world have common moral intuitions. Third, people are equipped to experience the sacred, to have moments of elevated experience when they transcend boundaries and overflow with love. Fourth, God can best be conceived as the nature one experiences at those moments, the unknowable total of all there is.

...

In unexpected ways, science and mysticism are joining hands and reinforcing each other. That’s bound to lead to new movements that emphasize self-transcendence but put little stock in divine law or revelation. Orthodox believers are going to have to defend particular doctrines and particular biblical teachings. They’re going to have to defend the idea of a personal God, and explain why specific theologies are true guides for behavior day to day. I’m not qualified to take sides, believe me. I’m just trying to anticipate which way the debate is headed. We’re in the middle of a scientific revolution. It’s going to have big cultural effects.

We expect we were supposed to comment on the whole piece, and so we did.

Overall reaction: It's like the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy's description of the earth. Mostly harmless.

Nevertheless mildly annoying for its slightly supercilious tone, especially when referring to "militant atheists" and "hardcore materialists". A sort of, "Look, there are human experiences that are 'transcendental', that can't be explained by science, and are best described as having to do with the 'spirit' or 'soul' and maybe there's something to this whole spirit/god thing after all."

Fine.

Here's what we had to say (excerpts from email, edited for anonymity etc.):

Kind of bogus op ed, no? Construct straw men, light match, dance in glee around the flames types.

This guy misrepresents a number of things knowingly or unwittingly and is trying to find a conflict where none possibly exists. Some comments:

The first paragraphs are possibly trying to be neutral in tone, but taken together seem to be disapproving of materialism. See such phrases as "militant materialism", "free will is an illusion", "human beings are 'hard-wired'.."

Then he has stuff like, "Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism. The brain seems less like a cold machine. It does not operate like a computer. Instead, meaning, belief and consciousness seem to emerge mysteriously from idiosyncratic networks of neural firings. Those squishy things called emotions play a gigantic role in all forms of thinking. Love is vital to brain development."

I don't think any of the "hard-core materialists" claims that the brain is a cold machine, or that they know how meaning/belief/consciousness emerge from neural firings. They will gladly admit that it's a mystery, it's interesting, it's a great scientific problem to study. Their biggest objection is to people taking the weird option of calling these mysteries "god" or "soul" or whatever. What's the problem with just leaving it a mystery?

"Genes are not merely selfish, it appears. Instead, people seem to have deep instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment. "

This is a bit of a fake move. Disclaimer: I've not read "The Selfish Gene" in full myself, but I've heard this argument advanced here and there, that instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment are somehow incompatible with "the selfish gene". I think Dawkins' rebuttal to this is that "selfish" is almost a bad choice of adjective, the gene isn't "selfish" in the sense of people being selfish. It's not sentient and thinking it's way through existence. There's no reason why selfish genes are incompatible with fairness/empathy/attachment and all the touchy-feely stuff, in fact they probably explain the touchy-feely stuff. Fair, empathetic, emotional beings are probably in the interest of the "selfish gene", which is only concerned about spreading itself far and wide. Anyway...

"Scientists have more respect for elevated spiritual states."

Again, a bit of a naming issue. What "spiritual state"? What "spirit"? Wouldn't the same sentence be equally true if he'd said, "Scientists have more respect for the physiological effects of meditation (or opium or sex or chocolate)."

Why is he trying to work in something called a "spiritual state" as though "spirit" exists and it has states? If it's just a euphemism for a physiological condition, shouldn't he use the language of science to describe it?

The other thing is that he carefully avoids mentioning what the so called "militant atheists" and "hard-core materialists" think about these "spiritual states", transcendence etc. Paul Harris (one of the militants), for example, is into meditation and so on because he finds value in it. I don't think any of them denies that there are such things as transcendent experiences, it's just that they refuse to ascribe a "god" or "spirit" as the reason for them. In the worst case, all we can say is, "Well, these things exist, and we don't know yet how they work."

"The mind seems to have the ability to transcend itself and merge with a larger presence that feels more real."

Again BS, no? What "larger presence"? Just because someone's mind seems to think that it has merged with a "larger presence", suddenly this "larger presence" exists?

"This new wave of research will not seep into the public realm in the form of militant atheism. Instead it will lead to what you might call neural Buddhism."

This is almost funny, if it weren't so sad. Isn't Buddhism itself as it's core atheistic? So what's this guy saying, that he's just changed names and is calling "atheism" "neural Buddhism" from now on?

Ridiculous.

"Second, underneath the patina of different religions, people around the world have common moral intuitions. "

Ha ha. That's probably because they're all fundamentally the same creature, same genes, same physiology! If anything, it actually buttresses the case for the selfish gene.

"Fourth, God can best be conceived as the nature one experiences at those moments, the unknowable total of all there is."

So basically he's saying, "Hey there's all this stuff we don't know about and don't have explanations for. Let's call it 'God'." I say, "Hey there's all this stuff we don't know about and don't have explanations for. Let's call it 'Tingripoo'." Same difference.

Bugger isn't saying anything fundu at all.

You may have a different take on this. We can talk :PP Let's put some chai sometime!

We've agreed to have chai next week. Watch this space. Meanwhile, we're off to contemplate the Great Mysteries of Tingripoo for a bit...

Friends

Morning coffee - check
Bath - check
Pongal vada - check
First day, first show - check

Google Est Mort

Cuil

Soothingly black.

Updates

1. Back in biryani land after extensive and hectic perambulations in parts west and south. Should be around for a few weeks, at least.

2. Flu-like throw-uppy symptoms are manifesting. Consider yourself warned. This is all a cosmic indication that haircut is in order.

3. Chief achievements from last week involved getting on evening rush hour local at Dadar and off at Vikhroli, via 1 nos. oily slime from port side of machli dibba to starboard, during a temporal and spatial lull in the continuum as a gigantic sack was bunged into said dibba. Don't ask.

Also, industrial quantities of beer with Kenny, CSM and others.

4. Tip of the week: If you find yourself jobless between meetings in Colaba, a highly economical way of staying unmelted and passing time is to slip into the National Gallery of Modern Art. For Rs. 10, you will get (i) free locker to keep your bags (ii) loos (passable) (iii) air conditioning and (iv) 4 floors of Raghu Rai. Some pictures a bit contrived, some very good, the best we thought were the ones of musicians. Kishori Amonkar, Bhimsen Joshi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Gandharva - all lost in some quest which we can only barely begin to comprehend. And one very ominous one of Mrs. G.

5. Kenny, in a somewhat inexplicable and insane move, donated a copy of Sea of Poppies. Just finished it and duly handed over to Emma. And the verdict is...drumroll...

It's not as good as (we thought) "The Hungry Tide", "In An Antique Land" and "The Calcutta Chromosome", but better than "The Glass Palace". It's somewhat stilted because (the thing being an historical novel) the man has to convince us that people spoke and behaved the way he has shown in the 19th century, and the man sometimes falls short. Still an easy "unputdownable" read, lots of good "fundas" on history and biology and sailing and music. High point: When he describes the Ibis preparing to set sail - the preparations on deck, the river, the heightened expectation, the taut sails... V. well done. Low point: Having to wait for 2 more volumes. Bleddy J.K.Rowling...

6. Spent some time inside the Kapaleeshwarar Koil in Mylapore on Friday. Spic and span place, maaamas and maamis doing a visitor pattern on all the little shrines inside. High point: naadaswaram guy and accompanists going from little shrine to little shrine and doing one kutti musical offering at each. Higher point: Same dudes doing long pause outside the Rama (must've been) shrine and spending extra time on brochevaaru evarura? Quite delightful.

7. Random links for your viewing and other pleasures

* The quiz is on.

* You really should be reading the Hackszine. Seriously. Ultra cool stuff there. Like LEGO robots that (i) solve Rubik's cube (ii) play records (iii) and also something sort of Minority Reportish called Direct Video Manipulation.

* The Evil Empire could really do this. They're a hairsbreadth away.

8. So long, then. We'll see how often posting will happen.

अर्ज़ किया है

Which PJ came to us between the pongal vadaand the filter coffee



Update: The font size sucked on the text display, ergo image.

The Greenko Hyderabad Open Quiz

It's turned into a bloody quiz announcement blog, hasn't it?

The Hyderabad Quiz Club is happy to present, in association with the Greenko Group, the Greenko Hyderabad Open Quiz.

Follow links for details.

Register.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all, apparently.

An Equal Music

In which we're drained

They play without music, their eyes sometimes on their hands, sometimes closed, sometimes on each other. What they hear, what they imagine, I do not know. There is no forced gravitas in their playing. It is a beauty beyond imagining — clear, lovely, inexorable, stroke across stroke, stroke echoing stroke, the incomplete, like the unending ‘Art of Fugue.’ It is an equal music.

Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music - not too much, or the soul could not sustain it from time to time.

Song du jour.

We're Back?

For a bit, anyway.

1. Know all sentient beings by these presents that our cell phone was stolen/lost on an overnight train the night of June 26th-27th. If you've tried to call/SMS between that time and about 30 minutes back (1900, 3-Jul-2008, IST) and wondered why no replies where forthcoming, well, now you know.

This also means that we've lost all your numbers and stuff. So you'll have to email us that stuff.

2. This also means that Phone Selection Agony (Re dux) is in full swing. Current frontrunner is the Nokia E51.

3. They've written a song about us. It's called Pappu Can't Dance, Saala. Go listen.

Most of the lines don't apply to us ("muscular", "popular", "blue eyes", "Rado", "gaadi tez", "diktha angrez" and so on). But bang on target about the "can't dance, saala."

Phase Forward ACE Corporate Quiz 2008

Gentle reminder - II, mit poster



Thanks to everyone who helped with Mahaquizzer. Another quiz is on the cards. It has a blog.

The Hyderabad chapter of Asha, in association with Phase Forward and the Indian School of Business present their annual summer fund-raising even, the Phase Forward ACE 2008 Corporate Quiz.

Date: 14^th June, 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Venue: Khemka Auditorium, ISB, Gachi Bowli, Hyderabad

Quizmasters: Quizerati

Prizes: A total of Rs. 50,000 +

Entry: Rs. 5000 per team of 2, Rs. 4000 per team if more than one team from the same organization, Rs. 4500 for the Early Birds (before May 31^st)

More details, entry forms, FAQ etc. on the website.

Do help Asha by being a sponsor or participant, and with publicity etc.

Tag Tag

Orey kallile rendu maangaa

Tag, the First

Space Bar asks whoever wants to to take up Swar's tag.

Procedure:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Ergo

1. No Fuss Cooking - 100 recipes you can't go wrong with by Sheema & Jhampan Mookerjee.

This book seriously rocks. Sort of like a hard copy version of Cooking for Engineers. We've mastered the Ratnagiri fish curry, and the jhal sprouts thing. Very easy.

2. Right. Done. Thank god I picked a book that has a 123 pages. [Where have we heard this line before?]

3 & 4.

"Fry over high heat for 5-6 minutes till mutton turns brown. Add ginger and spice powders, and sauté for a minute. Stir in 2 tbsp curd."

In case you're wondering, this is from a rogan josh recipe.

5. Whoever wants to take this up. [Where have we heard this line before?]

Tag, the Second

Emma has got one and names us by name, so how to not respond?

Procedure:

The following is apparently a list of books, "most of them sitting unread in people's bookshelves to make them look smarter". The rules are: bold the ones that you have read, underline the ones you have read in school, italicize the ones you have started but didn't finish.

One doubt. School = high school and earlier, or in the American sense, college? We will assume former.

Our list is going to suck ass. But what the hell.

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2. Anna Karenina
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Catch-22
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude (I think!)
6. Wuthering Heights
7. The Silmarillion
8. Life of Pi: a novel
9. The Name of the Rose
10. Don Quixote
11. Moby Dick
12. Ulysses
13. Madame Bovary
14. The Odyssey
15. Pride and Prejudice
16. Jane Eyre
17. The Tale of Two Cities
18. The Brothers Karamazov
19. Guns, Germs and Steel
20. War and Peace
21. Vanity Fair
22. The Time Traveler's Wife
23. The Iliad
24. Emma
25. The Blind Assasin
26. The Kite Runner
27. Mrs. Dalloway
28. Great Expectations
29. American Gods
30. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
31. Atlas Shrugged
32. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
33. Memoirs of a Geisha
34. Middlesex
35. Quicksilver
36. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
37. The Canterbury Tales
38. The Historian: A Novel
39. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
40. Love in the Time of Cholera
41. Brave New World
42. The Fountainhead
43. Foucault's Pendulum
44. Middlemarch
45. Frankenstein
46. The Count of Monte Cristo
47. Dracula
48. A Clockwork Orange
49. Anansi Boys
50. The Once and Future King
51. The Grapes of Wrath
52. The Poisonwood Bible
53. 1984
54. Angels and Demons
55. Inferno
56. The Satanic Verses
57. Sense and Sensibility
58. The Picture of Dorian Gray
59. Mansfield Park
60. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
61. To the Lighthouse
62. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
63. Oliver Twist
64. Gulliver's Travels
65. Les Miserables
66. The Correction
67. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
68. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
69. Dune
70. The Prince
71. The Sound and the Fury
72. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
73. The God of Small Things
74. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
75. Cryptonomicon
76. Neverwhere
77. A Confederacy of Dunces
78. A Short History of Nearly Everything
79. Dubliners
80. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
81. Beloved
82. Slaughter House- five
83. The Scarlett Letter
84. Eats, Shoots and Leaves
85. The Mists of Avalon
86. Oryx and Crake
87. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
88. Cloud Atlas
89. The Confusion
90. Lolita
91. Persuasion
92. Northanger Abbey
93. The Catcher in the Rye
94. On the Road
95. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
96. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
97. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Enquiry into Values
98. The Aeneid
99. Watership Down
100. Gravity's Rainbow
101. The Hobbit
102. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences
103. White Teeth
104. Treasure Island
105. David Copperfield
106. The Three Musketeers

Also, abridged stuff read in school didn't count.

There's an obscene amount of Jane Austen in the list, also Thomas Hardy, Dumas, no Richard Dawkins/Daniel Dennett. It's a very odd list. Please don't judge me by it.

We pass this on to "Whoever wants to take this up." [Where have we heard this line before?]

This Just In: This is turning out to be one superbly popular pair of tags for some reason. So far, the following unfortunates have succumbed to the charm:

Srinivasan Balasubramaniam Thirugnanasambandamoorthi
Nisha
Kenny has promises to keep, and miles to go before she sleeps
Imam Waspsoro has finished with the saga of Subtle Subramanian and spread the tag

Watch zis ispace.

Mahaquizzer 2008

The 2008 edition of the Karnataka Quiz Association's annual individual written quiz Mahaquizzer will be held this weekend. This is an open quiz.

There are prizes for best overall quizzer, best woman participant, and best student participant. Please carry valid identification if you are competing as a school/college student.

Write to kqaquizzes [AT] gmail [DOT] com or mahaquizzer [AT] gmail [DOT] com to register, mentioning which city you would like to appear from in the subject line.

Date: 18 May, 2008 (Sunday)

Reporting Time: 0930 (Please be in your seats by this time. No one will be allowed in after 0945.)

Venue:
Innobox Systems Pvt Ltd
#G19, Ground Floor,
Swarnajayanthi Complex,
SR Nagar, Hyderabad - 73

Map:



Directions: From Punjagutta, take the road that goes towards Ameerpet. Cross the Fantoosh-greenlands road junction. Keep going on the road till you see HUDA Complex- Maitrivanam on the RIGHT. Swarnajayanti Complex is the complex immediately after the HUDA complex on the RIGHT.

Hyderabad Coordinator: Satyajit Chetri (91-99591-89943)

Help! Classroom Needed!!

The 4^th edition of the Karnataka Quiz Association's annual summer written individual Mahaquizzer quiz is scheduled to be held at 9:30 a.m., on Sunday, 18 May.

The powers that be (1, 2) are finding it hard to get a venue for the Hyderabad edition. Previous versions were held in college classrooms (St. Francis, Begumpet and this other college in Marredpally).

Help is needed.

A classroom (school, college) or other room (preferably with desks) that can seat 50-70 people and is available between 9:00 a.m. and 01:00 p.m. on May 18, 2008 is being sought. If you know someone who can arrange this, please email quizhyd [AT] gmail [DOT] com and mark a copy to choultry [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

Or if you know Ludwig, you can call Ludwig.

Please to help.

2 Ways Of Looking At A Cycle With A Basket

Which are random thoughts inspired by morning bike rides

Eos rhododactylos (this be new favourite expression) had barely shrugged off the stifling embrace of a very warm night and started to do her dance in the sky when we dittoed off the dittoed ditto of a very ditto ditto ourselves and careened about the silent (except for 3 million trucks and 17.74 million call center cabs) roads of Hyderabad.

We were on our way to a 5:30 a.m. at rendezvous for a run around/near KBR Park in Banjara Hills. It struck us that

(a) We hadn't showed people the cycle before
(b) We hadn't ever taken the bugger out this far before

Those who know will tell you that the road from Nagarjuna Circle to KBR Parks is a long and relentless climb, with a pause at the mosque near Q Mart where the load revels out a bit and lets you catch your breath. All the months of wondering why the thing had 15 gears came to an end when we hit this stretch. They are necessary, friends, necessary. Age doth wither and custom stales the dainty feet and legs and they need the help of mechanical advantage...

Parked at KBR, drank half of water supply (bad move), duly put one horrendously exhausting wheezifying perambulation of the thing, and then wheeeeee.... Slipped into top gear and screamed down the hill at a terrifying clip.

Now a salient feature of this hill is that while coming down, right near the bottom, there stands a superior eatery that rejoices in the name of Chutney's. Curiously, we'd somehow managed to slip in a Rs. 100 note into the shorts pocket, so we were able to stop off at said establishment and order a steamed dosa parcel thing. This we slipped into basket, and furiously pedaled home because eos rhododactylos had hurried away with alacrity, and was replaced by solaris iwillgiveyousunstrokus which wasn't very pleasant.

dosa was had, coffee was drunk, Sunday papers, etc. etc. A parallel thread of thought was running all this while, prompted partly by an incident a couple of weeks back where a bunch of young boys advised the Nitwit (who owns the same bike) to get rid of the basket, and the carrier and hey presto, "masth poriilu ostaaru anna, impress aitaaru!" (trans: "hot chicks will come and fall for you!").

So what's to be done about the basket? Thesis and antithesis:

I
A grown man cycles by,
Puffing and panting,
With basket attached.
Sissy.

II
Cycle with basket attached.
Steamed dosa. MLA pesarattu.
mmm

mmm...
The possibilities.

So far we're leaning towards letting the basket stay. Apart from this unexpected bonus of being able to carry tiffin home, it helps with groceries, Xeroxing and so on.

Vaahanam:


This was from a few days back, breakfast at chez Ludwig, mit pesarattu, dosa podi, allam pacchadi und filter coffee.

Note (12-May-2008): Certain person has been going around acting all snooty in the comments section that we don't make pesarattu from f'(x) = lim Δx -> 0 [f(x + Δx) - f(x)]/Δx type principles. Let all be notified by these presents that the pesarattu was indeed made via standard operating procedures (soaking overnight, grinding etc.) So was the podi (but by the maternal unit). The coffee is filter coffee (Mr. Bean brand from Tata) percolated by yours truly, with water fetched in earthen pots from the village well by yours truly (yes, it's quite a sight), and the milk was from our own pet bovine Kamu (short for Ms. Kamadhenu Gomaata) freshly extracted that very morning (by yours truly). The ginger pickle is out of a bottle. So there.



Bad pictures courtesy of phone. Camera ist kaput.

Dearest One

In which we write a letter

This was in the inbox today. Normally don't pay attention, but aaj mood aa gaya. From Mike:

Dearest One (WTF)

My name is Mike Dennis Keita from Cote D'Ivoire. I am 19 years old and a student. Please I would like you to assist me as urgent as you can,before they kill me.My father is a wealthy cocoa merchant.Trouble began early last two year when my father's associates began suspecting that my father is not givingn proper accounts of all the tonnes of cocoa being cultivated by local farmersn in some villages.

This mistrust deepens between Oct-Sept, 2005 when they discovered avery large some of money my father deposited with a Bank here in ABIDJAN-COTE D'IVOIRE (FORMALLY (WTF) IVORY COAST in West Africa. As a result of this discovery and the envy on the money he was poisioned by his associates.At his hospital bed ,he revealed to me the reasons of his sickness and directed me where to get the documents of the said deposit which he made on my name as the next of kin,being the only child.

He dvised me that in case he die, that I should not stay in this country Cote D'Ivoire because his associates will equally kill me hence (WTF) my mother had died five years ago of breast cancer.

He also instructed that if he dies, I should look for a foreign partner who will help me to transfer the money out of this place (Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire), to his account and the person will help me to invest the money in that country. Based on this, I had to contact you bearing in mind that you will be humane enough to protect my life. My father finally died on the 5th of june,2006 and since then, I was out of school and went into hiding because of my father's asociates. All the relevant documents of the ($8.2 Million United States Dollars) that was deposited in a Commercial Bank by my late father, are with me now.

I will give you 20% of the total money, if you can help me transferring it into your Account, for onward investment in your country. Please contact me immediately with the above E-mail address and include your telephone and Fax numbers to enable me send you all necessary documents asregards the money before they kill me. It is a risk free transaction.(WTF)

I'm waiting for your urgent reply.
Best regards.sincerely,
Mike Dennis Keita.

The following reply was composed extempore. Should we send it?

Respected Sir (or Madam, as the case may be)

I humbly beg to introduce myself Pulusu Cheepurupulla Vengayam Sambar Pappu, from Kankipadu, ye small villaize in East Godavari District., India. I am 31 years old and a loser. Please I would like you to assist me as urgent as you can, before they kill castrate me. One of my close relative, namely my uncle's brother on my mamaiah's daughter's chittappa's chachehre bhai's side is a coconut farmer. Trouble began late last year when my close relative's goolies began suspecting that he is not giving proper counts of all the shenanigans that their "master" was up to, including but not limited to the local livestock in some villaizes.

This hanky panky deepens between 3:37 and 3:43 p.m. of Oct 23, 2007 when they discovered a very large bum of honey he deposited with a Bank here in RAJAHMUNDHRY (FORMALLY RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM) next door to backside of VIJAYAWADA (FORMALLY BEZWADA) in South South East India. Then shtarted struggle! Why? As a result of this discovery and the envy on the honey he was poisioned castrated by his goolies. At his hospital, he revealed to me the reasons of his high pitchedness and directed me where to get the chastitty belt of the the deposit of the said goolies which he made on my name as the next of kin, being the only other dumbass he knew.

He devised me that in case he reach G#, that I should not stay in this country India because Alka Yagnik is already there for those notes and the people will surely kill me hence my mother is a giraffe from Tristan da Cunha with a side of ulli chammandi.

He also instructed me that if he dies, I should look for a foreign partner who will help me to transfer the honey out of this place (Rajahmundhry), to his account the person will help me to invest the honey in that country. Based on this, I had to contact you bearing in mind that you will be humane enough to protect my life. He finally (finally!) died yesterday because his face happened to be under a pillow I was sitting on, I was out of the asylum and went into Chilakaluripeta because of his goolies. All the relevant documents of the (4.7 Million Konaseema Coconuts) that was deposited in a Commercial Bank by my late relative, are with me now.

I will give you 20% of the total honey, if you can help me transferring it into your Account, for onward plantation in your country. Please contact me immediately at choultry AT gmail DOT com and include your name, address, date of birth, mother's maiden name, social security number, first pet's name, first school's name, ATM card number, bank account number, ATM PIN code, credit card number, online bank transaction PIN, numbers of any hot chicks you happen to know, and your telephone and fax numbers to enable me send you all necessary coconuts one at a time before they kill me.

It is a risk free transaction.

I'm waiting for your urzent reply,

Best regards,

Sincerely,

Your obedient servant,

PCVS Pappu


Connoisseurs will recognize shades of Money (YouTube video).

PS1 No, we don't know what goolies are.
PS2 No, there are no giraffes in Tristan da Cunha.

Richard Stalkey

Which pun whoever deciphers will get a sandwich (see below)

Life has been somewhat hectic, to say the least. First however, lunch. We made lunch. Observe.


Ham, egg and cheese sandwich. Juice. Fruit. Pretty bloody fantastic, even if we say so ourselves. This was a workday lunch. Below, is the weekend game version of lunch.


Not very different at all, no? This "food tableaux" photo business has potential that needs exploring.

Also, we will make sandwiches for anyone who can guess which saliva inducing sandwich making movie scene inspired this bout of sandwich making.

Wall poster in Begumpet, today:


Subhash asks us to tell you that if he doesn't answer the phone, please leave a masaj after the peep.

A poem. No particular reason.

Stalker

Silouwettes.they.follow.me.
Wherever.I.go.
Watching.me.
Hunting.me.
Tormenting.my.soul.

Joy Davis

Which poem lets us segue nicely into the link fest.

Why Modern Poems Don't Rhyme, Etc.: Frequently asked questions about the business of verse, by Robert Pinsky.

Q9: Well, I like poetry that is amusing, that maybe makes me chuckle a little. I'd rather read something reassuring and light than something complicated or gloomy. Is that bad? Does that mean I am a jerk?

A9: Yes.

:)

Via Richard Dawkins, Evolution: 24 Myths and Misconceptions. Evolution cannot be disproved and is therefore not science seems most promising.

Horribly poignant story. Gen Peter van Uhm took command of Dutch forces in Afghanistan on Thursday. His son Lt Dennis van Uhm (23) was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Friday. Friday's attack is not thought to have specifically targeted the new military commander. Is that good? Or bad?

On a related note, Andrew Olmsted, a US soldier in Iraq left a blog post that was to be published in the event of his death. It's up now.

If you haven't, Google up Randy Pausch and see "The Last Lecture".

Physics on women.


Points for identifying the equations.

In other education related news, the Supreme Court of India recently issued a judgment upholding reservations for OBCs in India. In general terms we're quite happy with this, no complaints. Now if only they'd do away with the death penalty, Section 377 of the IPC, and other such monstrosities.

In general, the desi blog world has been pretty solidly against reservations, and you can find as many posts as you feel like. Posts in favour on the other hand, have been far and few in between. As usual, a good starting point is Abi. Of particular interest may be a paper titled "Affirmative Action in Education: Evidence From Engineering College Admissions in India" by Marianne Bertrand (University of Chicago), Rema Hanna (New York University), and Sendhil Mullainathan (Harvard University). Mullainathan has featured in these pages before for the paper Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? (PDF)

kuffir as usual is very powerful. His latest posts have been about the "creamy layer" (low fat, apparently). This link appears to be broken at the moment, but it leads you to kuffir's quest to find blogs about both sides of the issue.

Speaking of Abi, he has started The Hindu Death Spiral Watch along the lines of Brad DeLong's New York Times Death Spiral Watch. Currently featured in The Hindu watch is their fairly icky news (as opposed to their insane editorial) coverage of the protests in Tibet. Nandigram started it all off, and Ludwig humbly submits this one as another example of faff passing off as news.

A heartening (if old) piece about The Girls of Bihar. Read all of them ('I stole Rs 5 from my home to buy a pen and a note book' for example). Or

We began swimming in the village pond when we were very young and people began telling us we were good. We trained in our village against the wishes of many villagers and try to be our best with whatever resources we have.

We wake up at 3 am every day and go to the pond to swim. We run and swim to build our stamina and swim for two-and-a-half hours every day. Then we come home, eat vegetable and roti and walk to school. It takes us an hour to reach school.

I don't eat anything during lunch because I am not eligible for the mid day meal scheme (the free lunch given to children up to Class V), so I stay hungry till I get back for dinner.

The Delhi Walla follows Sadia Dehlvi around on her new three wheeler!

Apparently Yale has 40,000 and not 4,000 artifacts from Machhu Picchu as previously believed. What are they on? Ayahuasca?

Buy One, Get One Free

Which is about a jugalbandi

Just got back from Sunday evening concert at the Ravindra Bharati. "Bombay" Jayashri Ramnath in the South corner, and Shubha Mudgal (who even has what seems to be a very up to date blog) in the North.

Now pretty much everyone knows that we have issues with frequencies in general. Cannot tell some in the visual spectrum apart, ditto also with audio frequencies. We have a very eclectic music taste, dipping into this, that and the other. Another way of saying the same thing is that we're tone deaf.

Be that as it may, Ms. Jayashri has long been on the "want to attend live performance" list, and so also Ms. Mudgal (perhaps just a little less, not having heard much beyond ab ke saawan). Tonight was a chance to remedy this, and it really was worth it. Both the ladies seem to have a base octave (or whatever) that is nicely lower than many of their higher pitched contemporaries, which is definitely one reason why we like them.

The whole Jayashri thing started off (perhaps like for most people) with that vaseegara song. This was to Jayashri what ennavale was to Unnikrishnan, and random sampling of more of her stuff resulted in much joy. Then we read Baradwaj Rangan's interview with her. She makes a point which possibly sets her apart from the rest of them.

Because down the ages, we’ve had it drummed into our heads that the essence of Hindustani music is shringara, love, while Carnatic compositions are capsules of bhakti, or devotion. And here’s Jayashri, implying otherwise. Or is she, really? "This is bhakti, but to the music – not to Krishna," she says. "We're not in an era where we're into that kind of bhakti. Because if it's just bhakti, and if it's just about Krishna or Rama, why would I – someone who doesn't come from a very religious or ritualistic background – revel in it? I don't think I love God more than I love music. Why would a European sitting there, who doesn't know the difference between Krishna and Rama, listen to this music for two hours? Why are instrumental concerts so popular? Do we know if the performer is playing a kriti in Kannada or Telugu, or if that kriti is talking about this lord or that deity? Our music is not about religion."

More power to you, lady. Mudgal's blog seems to be very interesting, isn't it great when someone like her has a post called Eeks! Look what I found! with a bare midriff picture of Rakhi Sawant?

Back to the concert: It was 90% good (there was one Hindi song that didn't quite fit too well). Aneesh Pradhan on the tabla and Embar S. Kannan (whom we've heard so often on Worldspace) on the violin, the mridangist and the haromniumist were all very nicely in sync, and seemed to sincerely enjoy the evening, which really helps. The percussion (oxymoron alert) jugalbandi tanniavartanam was a big hit with the audience, these things usually are.

They started off with saraswati namostute in saraswati raagam, did a kamaas/khamaaj thingy and so on. The bestest piece we thought was something called pAyum oLi nI enakku pArkkum/papiihara mat bol, very soulful and tragic. We can find the lyrics to the Tamizh song, but need the meaning. Can't find the Hindustani one anywhere. Help!!

A splendid time was had by all.

pAyum oLi nI enakku pArkkum vizhi nAn unakku tOyum madu nI enakku tumbiyaDi nAnunakku
vAyuraikka varugudillai vAzhi ninran mEnmaiyellAm tUya shuDar vAnoLiyE shUraiyamudE kaNNammA
2: vINaiyaDi nI enakku mEvum viral nAnunakku pUNum vaDam nI enakku pudu vayiram nAnunakku
kANumindOru ninran kaNNin oLi vIshudaDi mANuDaiya pErarashE vAzhvu nilaiyE kaNNammA
3: vAna mazhai nI enakku vaNNa mayil nAnunakku pAnamaDi nI enakku bhANDamaDi nAnunakku
jnAna oLI vIshudaDi nangai ninran jyOti mukham Unamaru nallazhagE Uru shuvaiyE kaNNammA
4: veNNIlavu nI enakku mEvu kaDal nAnunakku paNNU gati nI enakku pATTinimai nAnunakku
eNNi eNNI pArtiDilOr eNNamilai nin shuvaikkE kaNNin maNi pOnravaLE kaTTi amudE kaNNammA
5: vIshu kamazh nI enakku viriyu malar nAnunakku pEshu poruL nI enakku pENu mozhi nAnunakku
nEshamuLLa vAn shuDarE ninnazhagai EduraippEn Ashai madhuvE kaniyE aLLu shuvaiyE kaNNammA
6: kAdalaDi nI enakku kAntamaDi nAnunakku vEdamaDi nI enakku viddaiyaDi nAnunakku
bOdhamuTra pOdinilE pongi varum tIn-shuvaiyE nAda vaDivAnavaLE nalla uyirE kaNNammA
7: nalla uyir nI enakku nADiyaDi nAnunakku shelvamaDi nI enakku kSEma nidhi nAnunakku
ellaiyaTra pErazhagE engum nirai pork-kaDarE mullai nigar punnakaiyAi pOdum inbamE kaNNammA
8: tAraiyaDi nI enakku taNmatiyam nAnunakku vIramaDi nI enakku veTriyaDi nAnunakku
dAraNiyil vAnulagil shArndirukkum inbamellAm oruvarumAi samaindAi uLLamudE kaNNammA

On The Road - Funda, The Fifth

More RaamaayaNaa, geekiness, no science (haven't had time to trough at the feeds), and so on

One more trip to Madras. Phew. Time to move? Not much this time by way of audio-visual media. Almost duffilled again, this time in Kavali. Completely forgot that the Madras-Tenali line is a double line, was blissfully waiting for the crossing train to cross, and wham, off she went. Made it back on board in one piece, as you can see. Almost slept all the way through to Hyderabad, luckily the pandemonium at Sec'bad was pandemoniacal.

This picture, of a tired Coromandel Express gliding into Central should soothe you.



The RaamaayaNa is suddenly all over the place. We pointed to one source in funda IV. We come back to find (via this Passion for Cinema post) that there's an animated movie called Mahayoddha Rama that's in the making apparently. The trailer shows a glimpse of what RaavaNa is going to look like. Most disappointing.

There seems to be (i.e. some (mostly North Indian) friends and acquaintances have told us) that this whole RaavaNa-as-a-sympathetic character is a figment of the loony Dravidian chauvinist fringe imagination. How then, to explain, that at least some of mainstream pauraNic Telugu cinema is very sympathetic to the dude? See any of the YouTube clips of Bhookailas, for example. RaavaNa is played by NTR, no less!

Or Falstaff's interpretation, more power to him. And also Nina Paley's (via Samanth).

In 2002, Nina Paley got dumped by her husband, over email. But instead of reaching for the nearest bottle of Prozac, Paley began to sketch. The result: Sita Sings the Blues, an animated retelling of the Ramayana and of Paley’s own break-up, set to the 1920s jazz of Annette Hanshaw.
...
I didn’t understand why my husband had dumped me, or why I still loved him and wanted him back, but apparently Valmiki was writing about such things 3,000 years ago.

The Hackszine has a post on "Relational database using jQuery and HTML tables" i.e. a relational database implementation (joins and all!) that runs inside a web browser thanks to HTML and some voodoo called jQuery! Seems wayy too cool.

There is a somewhat intimidating discussion going on at Space Bar's. Positively terrifying, actually. Wovon mann nicht sprechen kann and all. There's something about writing poetry in a programming language or something that caught the eye, and we beg to drag everyone's attention to Perl Poetry.

Jacob Cass has 2 fantastic posts (1, 2) about "Awe Inspiring Must See Creative Photographs".

Sepia Mutiny has been most interesting, lately. Ennis points us to the "Kenya sings *" series. For example, Kenya sings India, i.e. Jana Gana Mana. Absolutely fantastic to see a bunch of Kenyans give it a go. National anthems don't do much for us, seeing as we're horribly afraid of nationalism and patriotism, but this is somehow different.

Abhi writes about the Washington Post's much talked about Pearls Before Breakfast experiment (wasn't this on NPR some time back?). The idea:

Writer Gene Weingarten helped orchestrate a brilliant “stunt” on commuters passing through L’Enfant Plaza last January in order to take a stab at settling the debate above. He took one of the most gifted violin players in the world, dressed him up as a humble busker in jeans, and asked him to play his 3.5 million dollar violin on the metro platform. Who would recognize brilliance? Who would even stop?

Go on, read the whole thing. All sorts of questions about art and taste will emerge.

Abhi also has a post provocatively titled Don't let your desi mom read this post.

Especially if you are a smart, attractive, single desi woman.
...
Slate.com recently published, The Eligible-Bachelor Paradox, which makes use of game theory to explain why the best women often end up single and alone if they wait "too long" to get married.

Don't shoot the messenger.

We've either lost or lent out our copy of "A Poem at the Right Moment: Remembered Verses from Premodern South India".

:(