Spent last weekend in the most amazing place, Mukilteo, Washington in the Silver Cloud which is right on the water. We got the Jacuzzi room with fireplace (with a thermostat!) and it was right on the water. I spent hours in the jacuzzi looking at the water or watching TV. Couldnt read a book or surf the net cuz was afraid it'll get wet.




From Wiki:
"Mukilteo (pronounced /ˌmʌkəlˈtiːoʊ/) is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 18,019 at the 2000 census. It is on the shore of Puget Sound, and is the site of a major Washington State Ferries terminal linking it across the water to Clinton, on Whidbey Island."

Other things we did around there:
1. Outlet mall and Tulalip casino

Check out this article, interesting concept: At Quil Ceda, it takes a village to raise an outlet mall

The casino has a very beautiful ceiling and was completely packed. Its big but my problem with it was that smoking was allowed so the whole place smelled like an ash tray, except for the gift shop were I bought a interesting book: God is Red. It talks about Native American views on religion and more importantly how Christianity has led Americans to wage war against a lot of nations and the non tolerance within this religion has led to their downfall.






2. Tulip Festival: The most popular festival for tulips outside of Holland, this was nealy destroyed when it snowed last week but fortunately for us, not completely. The place to go is the Roozengaarde fields, very organized viewing of different gardens planted with more than 30 varieties of tulips, its really something to see. Below is the poster for this years festival.



Also if you are hungry go to La Conner and they have some good food. Unfortunately Good Kitty Bad Kitty closed down, it was apparently a legendary restaurant for the regulars to this festival.


2008 Tulip Festival Poster

I was in Hawaii last weekend for the Project Kickoff and also to find an apartment. I completely fell in love with this place, starting with the drive on H3 and then this house (I will rent the bottom half) which is right on the bay.

Kaneohe Bay

Oahu, Hawaii, United States

Description

When I was younger, I was mesmerized one day as I walked into the apartment of one of my friends and spread before me was the most marvelous view- Kaneohe Bay, displaying its breathtaking array of colors, little circles of creamish white where sandbars lay, pale glistening patches of shallow water, deep navy blues, bright lines of aquamarine. And to frame it all, perfectly shaped sharp mountain peaks. <br /> Unfortunately, though I've searched and searched, I haven't found a public park with views of Kaneohe Bay like the ones I saw that day. The views can be seen, though, from Lilipuna Rd, either near the Marine Institute, or from the right hand side of the pool gate at Pohokea Point apartments. Maybe you can take a look at an open house while you're there! It would be a great vacation home!<br /> The bay is great for kayak or sailing trips. I don't particularly like sailing because I get seasick, but I never turn down an offer to go sailing on Kaneohe Bay. Days spent looking out across the shimmering waters, and standing on my very own sand bar, are some of my best memories. <br /> You can kayak in Kaneohe Bay from He'eia State Park to a sandbar 2 1/2 miles out. I've never done this paddle so I can't say how safe it is, but I've heard it can be hard when the wind is strong or when there are colliding waves near the sandbar. Wear reefshoes. I'm sure it must be fantastic to stand on the sandbar and look out at the bay around you. Read more about this in "Oahu Revealed," a guide book that is exactly what a guide book should be- it shows you the places that the locals know, not just the expensive tourist traps. There's some great writing in there too that cracks you up!<br /> For stunning views of the H3 Freeway hugging cliffs that loom above you, from the northern-most entrance to Lilipuna St, cross Kamehameha Hwy. You are now on Haiku Rd passing Windward Mall. Continue on Haiku Rd toward the mountains until it ends- it changes name at some point. There is a neighborhood there that is magical because it sits at the base of the steep green Koolau mountains.

Photo Gallery

View from Pohokea Point apartments. The view is more distant from here, than from the Marine Institute.	Views of mountains from Pohokea Point apartments.	Views from Pohokea Point apartments
View of the H3 freeway from the neighborhood at the top of Haiku Drive.

I think I am going to be kayaking every evening!

Been a busy couple of days in Portland, I have always liked this city, here are the key neighborhoods:

We are staying at the Silver Cloud in Nob Hill, its at the very end but our window faces a very industrial part but in 3 blocks we are at restaurant central! Best chai place around here, also there's a beading store... i got my rudraksh beaded!

Nob Hill is a sophisticated, yet trendy, neighborhood surrounding the very popular NW 21st and Northwest 23rd Streets. Locally, the area is also often called Northwest or "Trendyfirst and Trendy-third". Similar to its sister neighborhood, the original Nob Hill in San Francisco, the narrow streets are lined with turn-of-the-century Victorian houses, some of which have been turned into artsy shops, trendy clothing boutiques and locally-owned book stores. Sprinkled in are a few of the more popular national chain stores. There are many beautiful and historic homes along the side streets of the neighborhood. This is a great Portland neighborhood for strolling and people-watching.

Went to very interesting all fondue place with high ceiling.. and of course Trader Joe's :-)

Next up, Chinese Garden - its a small garden but offers a very tranquil atmosphere -

Portland Classical Chinese Garden

Located at NW Everett Street and NW Third Avenue, the beautiful Portland Classical Chinese Garden, located at NW 3rd and Everett, is an authentic Suzhou-style garden designed and constructed by architects and artisans from China. The garden is a balance of serpentine walkways, pavilions, and exquisite plant life, narrated by symbolic poetry.

» www.portlandchinesegarden.org
» 503.228.8131

Rest of the day at the zoo with Chinoise's friends and their babies:

Oregon Zoo

The Oregon Zoo has won many national awards for its natural exhibits that feature twelve main areas of the world from the West African tropics to the Alaskan tundra. The zoo has one of the most successful Asian Elephant breeding programs in the world. The Oregon Zoo is located five minutes from downtown Portland and is accessible via MAX light rail. The months of July and August bring annual summer concerts at the zoo featuring a variety of music at the outdoor amphitheater. In December, the zoo hosts a winter wonderland of lights, including a lighted zoo train. Other events are held throughout the year.

» www.oregonzoo.org
» 503.226.1561

Night life is all Pearl District:

Pearl District

What was once a decaying industrial warehouse area in downtown Portland, the Pearl District has undergone significant renovation and is now Portland's premier urban-chic neighborhood. Many of the aging warehouses have been turned into luxurious lofts, townhouses, and condos. Examples are the old Meier and Frank warehouse conversion into The Avenue Lofts and the Irving Street Lofts which once housed the Blumauer-Frank Drug Company. » more

Saw Sweeny Todd at Keeler Auditorium: The Keller (originally known as the Civic Auditorium) was built in 1917. It was completely renovated in 1968. Throughout the years, it has been the 'workhorse' theater for the city of Portland, hosting many performing arts events each year. The building is home to the Portland Opera, The Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Oregon Children's Theatre. It also hosts many national acts and traveling Broadway shows.

We were wondering how this baby is going to grow up in India - either an outcast or revered. I feel sorry for her already!

SAINI SUNPURA, India — A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian
village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the
reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.

The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as
craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her
ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated — she has two noses, two
pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.

Baby in India has two faces:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/Health_Medical/India_Two_Faced_Baby.html

http://www.ajc.com/multimedia/content/multimedia/video/index.html?clip=80727


Yahoo! News Photos
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Baby-born-2-faces-India-New-Delhi/ss/events/hl/040808babytwofaces/s:/ap/20080408/ap_on_he_me/india_two_faced_baby/im:/080408/ids_photos_wl/r1559456696.jpg/

Junot Diaz wins...

http://www.pulitzer.org/

Interesting story about the tractor company.

Original Article Link

GLOBE AND BUSINESS MAIL.COM

REPORT ON BUSINESS.COM 

The tractor maker who has John Deere on the run 

Anand Mahindra is one of the architects of a new empire rising in India. Meet him, and hear him speak, in the first of a four-part series this week by Marcus Gee 

MARCUS GEE
mgee@globeandmail.com

April 8, 2008 at 7:08 AM EDT

MUMBAI — Anand Mahindra was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year when Robert Lane, chairman of U.S. farm equipment concern Deere & Co., approached him.

"I've been to your dealerships and seen all your manuals," he told Mr. Mahindra, whose Mumbai-based Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has been taking on the maker of John Deere tractors in the U.S. market.

Well, replied Mr. Mahindra with a laugh, "that's good news and bad news."

The bad news is that the world's biggest tractor maker has put Mahindra & Mahindra in its sights. The good news, both for Mr. Mahindra and India, is that a behemoth like John Deere is worried enough to bother.

Indian manufacturers have never troubled the sleep of executives in the rich world. India is well known for its outsourcing and information technology skills - even, more recently, for the global shopping sprees of its acquisitive billionaires - but its manufacturers are minnows beside the sharks of China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Gradually, that has begun to change.

India's manufacturing industry grew at an annual rate of 9 per cent over the past four years, on pace with its booming economy. Boston Consulting Group predicts that India will be the 11th-biggest global manufacturer by 2015 and the seventh-biggest by 2025, up from 14th in 2005.

Mr. Mahindra, 52, is one of the reasons. The urbane, Harvard-educated business leader has taken his family firm from a staid domestic maker of jeeps and tractors to a global player with ambitions in everything from SUVs and auto parts to movie making and time share resorts. In naming him Businessman of the Year for 2007, Business India magazine called the M&M managing director "the poster child for the global Indian."

His M&M has dealerships in 25 countries and subsidiaries in Europe, Australia and South Africa. Its revenue has grown 20-fold in 17 years.

Already the largest tractor maker in the world's largest tractor market - India - it has become third largest in the world by units sold and plans to be first by 2010. It makes India's most popular SUV, the Scorpio, and has joined with France's Renault to make the Logan, a no-frills sedan for Indians. It plans to launch the Scorpio and two models of pickup truck in the U.S. market next year.

"On the manufacturing side, they're top class," said Jamshed Dadabhoy, an analyst with Citigroup in Mumbai.
Mr. Mahindra is the first to admit that Indian firms still cannot compete with the cheap skilled labour and first-rank infrastructure of Chinese manufacturers. "If we had to put out a million Barbie dolls, we just couldn't," he said.

But India has some distinct advantages: a sophisticated stock market where companies can go to raise money in a hurry; a young, eager work force; the English language; and, above all, well-managed, forward-looking companies such as M&M.

While China's leading companies tend to be run or heavily influenced by the state, India's are more often private, family-owned conglomerates - sprawling business houses with storied names like Birla, Tata and Ambani. After decades of stifling government regulation, these firms are emerging as fierce global competitors under a new generation of leaders.

Mr. Mahindra is a typical product of that generation. Like many educated Indians, he is charming, hospitable and effortlessly articulate. A sought-after luncheon speaker, he mixes quotations from T.S. Eliot with references to Hindu mythology. Instead of poring over earnings reports on the weekend, he sets sails on his 45-foot catamaran Dreamcatcher, taking the helm while his fashion-editor wife, Anuradha, "balances her champagne glass."

Around the dinner table when he was growing up, his family talked about jazz and politics, not the business. His mother, a teacher and author who escaped her modest background to try acting in Bollywood movies, was as much an influence as his father, himself a "reluctant businessman" who studied diplomacy at Harvard.

The younger Mahindra studied film at Harvard before taking an MBA at the business school, finally joining the family firm in 1981 and working his way up. "I'm not someone who's going to recite the 10 commandments of business and tell you I slaved from the age of 17 and had a lemonade stand," he said.

He would rather talk about "the right brain," and how creative thinking can foster innovation. To keep his senior executives mentally flexible, he takes them to Harvard every year for sessions not just on business strategy but science, public policy and philosophy, with concerts to enliven the evenings. He calls the program Mahindra Universe.

But don't mistake his sense of balance for detachment. Like many Indian business leaders, he is impatient to see India catch up with its global rivals. "A company like ours - whose DNA is Indian, whose character is Indian, who wants to become an Indian multinational - well, if this succeeds, it's a sign that Indian business in general has what it takes to succeed," Mr. Mahindra said in an interview in his company's Mumbai office tower. "If we don't, there's something wrong."

Mr. Mahindra traces the firm's competitive zeal to its founders. His paternal grandfather, J.C. Mahindra, became India's iron and steel czar during the Second World War, rationing the precious commodities in a time of shortage. J.C.'s brother, K.C. Mahindra, was the head of India's supply mission in Washington. He channelled U.S. material to Britain's forces in India. They went into business together after the war, trading iron and steel, then assembling jeeps - "two salaried blokes," as Mr. Mahindra puts it, "who got patriotic and decided to start a company with the princely sum of 100,000 rupees" (about $2,500 at today's rates).

In 1947, just as the company was starting up, India won its independence from Britain. "So in a sense they were born at the same time, born with the same ideals as the country: To prove that this new country could survive and compete with the best in the world."

Like many others, the company languished under the "licence raj," the strict regime of protectionism and government micromanagement that prevailed until a financial crisis forced New Delhi to open up the economy in 1991.

So when Mr. Mahindra took over from his uncle Keshub and father Harish in 1997, "we decided we should live up to the founders' expectations."

As India emerged from decades of stultifying government regulation, Mr. Mahindra shaped it up for national and global competition. He took on the company's powerful unions. He shut unproductive plants. He hired away top executives from Xerox and General Motors and India's Tata Group.

As India's economy took off, he launched new products like the hardy Scorpio, which withstood competition from established brands such as Honda, Ford and Toyota to grab a quarter of the domestic market. Plans for an eco-friendly hybrid are on the books.

But Mr. Mahindra seems proudest of M&M's success against Deere & Co., the Illinois company founded in 1837 whose green-and-yellow vehicles are a symbol of American industrial might.

"John Deere considers us enemy No. 1," says Mr. Mahindra. "We are the little baby cobra they have to kill."

M&M has found a niche in the United States with its sturdy, relatively low-horsepower tractors, popular among hobby farmers and suburban lawn masters who don't need a monster tractor and like Mahindra's reliability. Sales have grown 25 to 30 per cent over the past four years, putting Mahindra fourth in the market, inching toward third.

Deere was worried enough that it offered a $1,500 (U.S.) rebate to anyone who would trade in his or her Mahindra for a John Deere. Mahindra, for its part, tried to lure Deere customers with an ad showing a pretty blonde riding a Mahindra. "Deere John," read the caption, "I have found someone new."

Success or failure in the United States won't make or break M&M, but Mr. Mahindra takes the Frank Sinatra view: "If you can make it there, you can make in anywhere."

"That's why you go to certain sophisticated markets, because it pulls you up to a different weight class of competition," he said. "That's why you do the U.S., that's why you do the U.K. They're the ones that keep yanking us into the future."

Companies like Mr. Mahindra's M&M are doing the same for India.

___________________________________________________

About a year ago I did not drink anything but bottled water but looking at the waste of energy in transporting gallons of water I decided to switch to tap water and have stuck with that. Interesting article.
Janice Kleinschmidt 2008-04-11 12:17:54.0

 

Fancy water that's costlier than wine

A few months ago, Madonna’s pal let it slip that the Material Girlfriend spends $10,000 each month for water blessed by Kabbalah rabbis. Other celebrities—namely Jeff Goldblum, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Naomi Campbell and Liz Taylor—reportedly share Madonna’s appreciation, if not her line-item budget, for the stuff.

When it comes to devotion for premium water, however, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, Berg, a bottled water company in Newfoundland, Canada, harvests the Arctic’s natural product of the Ice Age. Michael Mascha, author of Fine Waters and founder of the FineWaters web site, refreezes iceberg water into cubes and uses it to mix martinis. “If you use a very expensive vodka,” he says, “then you should also pay attention to the water.”

Berg is one of the top 10 exclusive bottled waters named by anthropologist-turned-water-expert Michael Mascha— who, incidentally, declines to comment on Madonna’s drink of choice. “I’m talking about water in the epicurean sense,” he says.

Bottled water is the next wine, according to Mascha, and like wine, bottled water has terroir, or a sense of place. But unlike wine, he says, “water is really in touch with the ground.” (Except, that is, in the case of Tasmanian Rain and Cloud Juice, two bottled waters from Tasmania that are collected before raindrops hit the soil). “Water is really an expression of the local geology,” says Mascha.

Just as consumers have embraced the concept that chocolate is no longer merely a candy bar stamped “Nestlé” (the world’s largest water bottler, by the way) and salt is more than crystals in a cylinder labeled “Morton’s,” so too are they coming to appreciate the different tastes and “mouthfeel” of premium waters. Says Mascha, “Bottled water is now making the transition from being considered a commodity to being considered a natural product with its own origin.”

While Europe and Japan have long-held traditions of drinking luxury water, Claridge’s in London “changed the landscape of how water is perceived in the U.K.” by introducing a water menu. Other properties decided they must have water menus to be on the same level as the distinguished hotel. On the other side of the Atlantic, plying luxury waters are The Blvd restaurant in the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.; The Water Works Restaurant and Lounge in Philadelphia, Pa.; and The Setai hotel in Miami, Fla.

Although the U.S. market for bottled water has climbed steadily over the past 30 years, from 3.43 billion gallons in 1997 to 8.82 billion gallons in 2007, up to 40 percent of the nation’s bottled water is merely purified tap water. That’s what distinguishes premium bottled waters. Standard bottled water is public water that, one hopes, gets an extra boost of filtration, distillation and/or ozonation. It’s packaged and then marketed as a healthier, handier way to stay hydrated.

Premium water, on the other hand, comes from virgin sources—and from companies that maintain the pristine nature of those sources.

In 2004, an uproar resulted when Londoners discovered that Coca-Cola sourced its U.K. version of Dasani from the public water supply. One newspaper declared, “Eau dear.” With its metaphorical tail between its legs, Coca-Cola withdrew its bottled water from the British market. Europeans might use purified tap water for ironing, but they won’t drink it.

Where, then, to find the best bottled water?

“That would be akin to asking where the best wine is coming from,” says Mascha. After all, some wine connoisseurs swear by Bordeaux, others by Barolo. “That’s the beauty of what I am talking about… We can have many different waters with many different flavors with many different aspects, and we should really enjoy the differences and the variety and not look for just the best water.” Mascha’s recommends comparing water terroir at Colette, a water bar in Paris, where customers can select from more than 100 labels.

Of course, water differs from wine in some regards. For one thing, even a connoisseur such as Mascha can’t discern a water’s source in a blind tasting. “The flavor in water is very subtle,” he says. And, it doesn’t improve with age. “The only difference between rainwater and iceberg water is 18,000 years… I think where the age of the water makes a difference is not so much in the flavors or taste, but in indicating the source of the water.”

For example, 10 Thousand BC bottled water comes from 10,000-year-old ice. Because there were few, if any, pollutants 10,000 years ago, this British Columbian luxury quaff is “very, very virgin.”

When a new luxury product is born, can Hollywood be far behind? Already 10 Thousand BC has at least five feature-film product placements lined up. Also available: designer bottles with charms, pendants and necklaces made with cubic zirconia and diamonds “for some of the very special events we have been invited to as gifts for royalty, celebrities, movies and international business clients,” says Andrea Bates, vice president of Source Glacier Beverage Co. The cost of those bottles will range from $250 to $550, with proceeds going toward charities that the company supports.

An invitation-only Premium Water Summit is set for May 5 and 6 in Barcelona, Spain, home of co-organizer Wawali Way of Life. The invitees include not only bottlers and distributors, but also chefs and sommeliers from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, Europe, the United States, Chile and Argentina. Organizers are proposing the creation of a Premium Water Society to promote ethical and quality standards. That might advance the sophistication of consumers. In his book, Mascha offers guidelines for water and food pairings, drinking temperature and even decanting.

Some bottlers aren’t waiting for people to make the wine-water connection. Lauquen Artesian Mineral Water from Patagonia, Argentina, is labeled “Reserve.” And, taking a cue from the wine industry, Equa from Brazil is working on a series of bottles sporting art reproductions. The twist: A bottle of standard Equa will be placed conspicuously within the famous work represented on the label. At $15 or more, the water will cost consumers about the price of a decent bottle of wine. Meanwhile, Iskilde from Denmark and Bling H20 from Tennessee offer cork-sealed bottles.

Madonna’s accountant should be glad his client doesn’t have a Bling habit. While the water does come from a virginal spring, the bottle is “blinged” with Swarovski crystals, jacking the price to a whopping $441 per case. Suddenly, that $60-per-case Kabbalah water sounds like a bargain.

We’ve ranked 10 of the world’s premium waters in approximate order of most to least expensive. A few caveats: Not only do these bottled waters come in different sizes, but “cases” are different as well. Some are six bottles, others are 12; one is sold in 24-bottle sets. We provide the bottler’s per-case price, as well as a cost per 750 milliliters (regardless of the bottle’s actual volume). Perhaps, eventually, these boutique bottlers will take yet another cue from vintners—and standardize their serving sizes.

Apr 3rd 2008 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

A global crusade is under way to teach personal finance to the masses

"EVERYBODY wants it. Nobody understands it. Money is the great taboo. People just won't talk about it. And that is what leads you to subprime. Take the greed and the financial misrepresentation out of it, and the root of this crisis is massive levels of financial illiteracy."

For years John Bryant has been telling anyone who will listen about the problems caused by widespread ignorance of finance. In 1992, in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, he founded Operation HOPE, a non-profit organisation, to give poor people in the worst-hit parts of the city "a hand-up, not a handout" through a mixture of financial education, advice and basic banking. Among other things, Operation HOPE offers mortgage advice to homebuyers and runs "Banking on Our Future", a national personal-finance course of five hour-long sessions that has already been taken by hundreds of thousands of young people, most of them high-school students.

In January George Bush appointed Mr Bryant vice-chairman of his new President's Council on Financial Literacy. This was launched as part of his administration's increasingly frenetic response to the financial crisis that followed the meltdown in subprime mortgages, many of them given to borrowers who may not have understood the risks. Often borrowers did not even realise that their monthly payment would rise if interest rates went up, says Mr Bryant. Subprime borrowers on adjustable interest rates, whose mortgages make up just 7% of the total, accounted for more than 40% of the foreclosures begun in the fourth quarter of last year (see chart).

The council is not short of expertise. It is chaired by Charles Schwab, eponymous boss of a broking firm. Its other members include the head of Junior Achievement, which has been teaching children about money since 1919, and a co-author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", a self-help bestseller. Already, it has approved a new curriculum for middle-school students, "MoneyMath: Lessons for Life". (Lesson one: the secret to becoming a millionaire. Answer: save, save, save.) It is starting a pilot programme to work out how to connect the "unbanked" to financial institutions. And it is supporting what, echoing the Peace Corps, is called the Financial Literacy Corps: a group of people with knowledge of finance who will volunteer to advise those in financial difficulties.

April has been declared Financial Literacy Month by Congress. The need to make this more than a slogan is especially apparent this year. But America is not the only country where doing something about the widespread ignorance of personal finance is on the agenda. Governments from Britain to Russia are declaring their commitment to financial education. This month the World Savings Banks Institute, which represents retail and savings banks from 92 countries, will hold a summit in Brussels about financial education in the light of the subprime crisis.

Operation HOPE runs Banking on Our Future. Its founder will be vice-chairman of President Bush's Council on Financial Literacy which is supporting the Financial Literacy Corps. Lewis Mandell is an expert on financial literacy. He is a fan of Britain's Child Trust Fund. Michael Bloomberg created an Office of Financial Empowerment in New York. See also Aflatoun, Junior Achievement, Financial Literacy Month and Jump$tart.

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/40624/1

How do you fancy tucking into a bowl of ice cream that has no more fat than a carrot? Or eating a burger that will lower your cholesterol? If you are allergic to peanuts, perhaps you'd like to fix your food so that any nut traces pass harmlessly through your body. Welcome to the world of nanofoods, where almost anything is possible: where food can be manipulated at an atomic or molecular level to taste as delicious as you want, do you as much good as you want, and stay fresh for ... well, who knows? A world where smart pesticides are harmless until they reach the stomachs of destructive insects; where food manufacturers promise an end to starvation; where smart packaging sniffs out and destroys the micro-organisms that make good food go bad. In short, a food heaven to those who see it spelling the end of obesity and poor diet. Food hell to those who believe the case for nanofood safety is still far from proven. One thing is certain: after the controversy that surrounded genetically modified foods, nano is set to become the next kitchen battleground.

Nanotechnology has its roots in a talk delivered in 1959 by physicist Richard Feynman to the American Physical Society. He predicted a time when individual atoms and molecules might be used as the building blocks for a set of tools that could then make a smaller set, and so on. The scale he was talking about strains the imagination. A nanometer - nm - (from the Greek word nanos, dwarf) is one-billionth of a metre. To help you visualise how small that is, a red blood cell is about 7,000nm across, a human hair 80,000nm wide and a water molecule slightly less than 0.3nm in diameter. The science of nanotechnology generally inhabits the region of 0.1nm to 100nm.

More...

Modern art has always been a front in the so-called Culture Wars, with religion as the main battleground. Works like Andres Serrano's Piss Christ or Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin's Ecce Homo are seen by some as significant interrogations of religion and freedom of expression, and by others as deeply insulting and to be eliminated either through force of law or through violence.

Last Thursday, a painting by Maqbool Fida Husain, India's most controversial artist, sold for an astounding $1.6 million at a Christie's auction in New York. Lot number 57 in the catalogue, Husain's "Battle of Ganga and Jamuna" (panel 12 in the series of paintings based on the Mahabharata he painted in the early seventies), was snapped up by an anonymous bidder for more than twice its appraised value.

The auction demonstrated that contemporary Indian paintings are a hot commodity on the international art scene. Another lot, Ram Kumar's "The Vagabond" (painted in 1952), sold for $1.1 million.

As the Times of India reported in 2003, Husain has been the driving force behind bringing Indian contemporary art to international attention. Chester Hirwitz, a man described by the New York Times as Husain's "most avid collector in the United States" compares the artist to Andy Warhol.

But not everyone is pleased by Husain's success. Christie's was picketed by members of the Indian American Intellectual Forum (IAIF) and the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, who argue that Husain's work is tantamount to hate speech. (Rediff interviewed several of the protesters.) The artist has angered some Hindus over the course of his more than half century long career with what they regard as "sacrilegious" representations of Hindu deities and characters from the Sanskrit epics.

Many in India and abroad, myself included, think that Husain is being victimized by right-wing Hindu groups because he is a Muslim. (I use "right-wing" not as a slur but because I consider it an accurate description of their views.) The problem is not Husain's art as such — one can argue that Sanskrit texts and traditional visual representations are more explicit than anything Husain has done — but rather these groups apparently believe that as a Muslim Husain's only purpose in painting Hindu gods must be to denigrate Hinduism.

This gets tied up in the Hindu nationalist formulation that India is strictly for Hindus and Muslims should be viewed as a fifth column. Indeed, as Arish Sahani, a co-founder of IAIF, told Rediff.com, Husain "is an Indian Muslim who has shown willingness to betray his country." But that's nonsense. As Shashi Tharoor convincingly argues in The Times of India, Husain is an Indian first and a Muslim second.

Although the Christie's protest did not turn violent — a desi friend of mine who was there says he was brusquely asked by one of the protesters to identify himself as a Hindu or a Muslim but that's as far as it goes — there is a long history of destruction of Husain's work by right-wing groups. For comparison of how little things have changed, read this piece by Somini Sengupta in the New York Times ten years ago, when members of the "far-right" Bajrang Dal broke into Husain's apartment, and then read this Times of India story from last December, when Shiv Sena activists damaged paintings at a show.

As well as outright violence, some right-wing groups have turned to the legal arena to persecute the artist. He was sued in February 2006 for causing offense to Hindu sensibilities. He was summoned and failed to appear in court that December. In March 2007, a warrant was issued and the court seized his property last June. In the meantime, Husain had fled to Dubai. Although he recently claimed that he could return to India from Dubai, he would most likely be arrested if he returned.

This brings back chilling echoes of the obscenity trials that artists and writers in Britain and the United States faced during the twentieth century. The bottom line is that we can debate the merits of art, but artists should not be hounded out of their own countries.

Besides the questions about his aesthetic judgment and whether it was right for him to flee India, Husain may also be involved in shady dealings. An agreement he signed with Bombay-based industrialist Guru Swarup Srivastava to paint 100 paintings for 1 billion rupees (about $25 million) turned strange after Srivastava was taken to court for defaulting on loans given to his company. Some also point to Husain's apparent infatuation with Bollywood actress Madhui Dixit as evidence that he is unhinged. (He has various connections with the Bollywood glitterati, including painting Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai's wedding.)

Freedom of expression is a complex issue but violence is never the answer and lawsuits rarely help. We can say that whether we consider Husain a traitor or a genius, Indian contemporary painting has never commanded such respect in the world art market.

Time to stand up for a tolerant society
23 Mar 2008, 0141 hrs IST,Shashi Tharoor

Excerpt from her new book

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After her mother's death, Ruma's father retired from the pharmaceutical company where he had worked for many decades and began traveling in Europe, a continent he'd never seen. In the past year he had visited France, Holland, and most recently Italy. They were package tours, traveling in the company of strangers, riding by bus through the countryside, each meal and museum and hotel prearranged. He was gone for two, three, sometimes four weeks at a time. When he was away Ruma did not hear from him. Each time, she kept the printout of his flight information behind a magnet on the door of the refrigerator, and on the days he was scheduled to fly she watched the news, to make sure there hadn't been a plane crash anywhere in the world.

Occasionally a postcard would arrive in Seattle, where Ruma and Adam and their son Akash lived. The postcards showed the facades of churches, stone fountains, crowded piazzas, terra-cotta rooftops mellowed by late afternoon sun. Nearly fifteen years had passed since Ruma's only European adventure, a month-long EuroRail holiday she'd taken with two girlfriends after college, with money saved up from her salary as a para- legal. She'd slept in shabby pensions, practicing a frugality that was foreign to her at this stage of her life, buying nothing but variations of the same postcards her father sent now. Her father wrote succinct, impersonal accounts of the things he had seen and done: "Yesterday the Uffizi Gallery. Today a walk to the other side of the Arno. A trip to Siena scheduled tomorrow." Occasionally there was a sentence about the weather. But there was never a sense of her father's presence in those places. Ruma was reminded of the telegrams her parents used to send to their relatives long ago, after visiting Calcutta and safely arriving back in Pennsylvania.

The postcards were the first pieces of mail Ruma had received from her father. In her thirty-eight years he'd never had any reason to write to her. It was a one-sided correspondence; his trips were brief enough so that there was no time for Ruma to write back, and besides, he was not in a position to receive mail on his end. Her father's penmanship was small, precise, slightly feminine; her mother's had been a jumble of capital and lowercase, as though she'd learned to make only one version of each letter. The cards were addressed to Ruma; her father never included Adam's name, or mentioned Akash. It was only in his closing that he acknowledged any personal connection between them. "Be happy, love Baba," he signed them, as if the attainment of happiness were as simple as that.

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Very cool store, specially in terms of passing it on to NGOs, something my mom is looking at.

Unwelcome attention

Mumbai's garbage-strewn streets, free-flowing sewage and smoggy air have attracted international attention. The city was ranked the seventh-dirtiest in a survey if 215 urban centres, published by Forbes magazine in February. Cities in Congo, Chad and Kazakhstan are cleaner than Mumbai, according to a health and sanitation survey by Mercer, a human-resources consulting firm, which used New York as its benchmark. New Delhi was ranked 24th.
Not so hot property

Mumbai's commercial property market may be cooling slightly. No bids were received for two of the three commercial plots in Bandra-Kurla Complex, the city's new business district, at an auction on March 18th. Jet Airways, India's biggest airline, picked up one of the plots for 30% less than it would have drawn last November. Two of the complex's residential plots however, attracted high bids. According to analysts, the falling price of commercial property may have been precipitated by a plunge in stock prices (the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex index is down by more than one-fifth this year) and a slowing national economy.
Suburban moves
Mumbai's suburbs will soon boast taller buildings and better public transport, according to Jayant Patil, Maharashtra's finance minister. In his budget speech on March 19th, Mr Patil announced plans to boost investment in Mumbai's overstretched suburban transport services and to increase by one-third the vertical development allowed on land in the suburbs. The latter may encourage the redevelopment of old buildings and bring up to 14 billion rupees ($300m) in revenues to the government through the sale of development rights. Civic planners, however, warn that the bigger buildings will be an extra burden on the city's already strained infrastructure.

James first got national attention with an essay she wrote for the "Modern Love" column of the New York Times in May 2006. You can read that essay, "Mom, Dad, Let Me Find My Own Husband,"

According to The Times of India, American schools are looking for Hindi teachers in India, as part of a government-sponsored program known as the National Security Language Initiative. Hey, if the love of literature and foreign cultures doesn't inspire American kids, perhaps the war on terror will. From "India Shining: US headhunting Hindi teachers":

Earlier this month, [Jagdish Prasad] Sharma was one among the 100-odd Hindi teachers who travelled to Noida to be interviewed by a delegation from Connecticut and Carolina, in India to headhunt young, full-time Hindi teachers for their schools.

Hindi is the new Mandarin. Just as Mandarin is being learnt by youngsters all over the world to give them a strategic advantage with the emerging China, Hindi too is being sought after as the language of the other Asian tiger.

Some schools in the US have decided to introduce Hindi as a foreign language with staples like French, Spanish and German.

It's unclear from the article how many Hindi teachers would actually make it to America. But as the State Department's website notes, the US wants to "produce 2,000 advanced speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Persian, Hindi, and Central Asian languages by 2009."

Kahani, which means story in Hindi, is a children's literary magazine illuminating the richness and diversity that South Asian cultures bring to North America. Published four times a year, it is full of short stories, art, activities, and fun facts. Unlike most magazines, Kahani does not publish any advertising and uses a subscription-based model. Subscribers include schools, libraries, and families—some as far away as Bermuda. The magazine's online home can be found at www.kahani.com.