I dont normally read a lot into these, but hearing something from inside the army is quite rare.. quoting from the article in Indian Express.

 

This is something my mom will be interested in this for her social work NGOs, specially in the education arena.

 

New Delhi: Chipset maker Intel Thursday announced the launch of a desktop range that starts at Rs.5,000 (around $125) - a move that could trigger a major computing revolution in the country.

"We recognise there is an urgent need for industry and government to collaborate to enable people to connect to the Internet," said R. Sivakumar, Intel's South Asia's managing director of sales and marketing group.

From Swami Atmananda at Vedanta Mission: Check out the symbolism on the newsletter. I celebrate the remover of obstacles and ask him to give me strength!

 

A quote from the article:

"Melody carved in stone is sculpture. Sculpture in melody is music. In colors it becomes painting. Sculptured music, painted in words, is the highest in literature, and this medium of word painting has been choosen by the poet-seer, Vyasa, to describe the Indescribable, in his Puranas."

- Chinmayandana, Symbolism in Hinduism

 

Ganesh Chaturthi Greetings to all

Personification of an Enlightened Personality On 3rd Sept begins the ten days Ganesh Festival which concludes on Anant Chaturdashi, which will be on 14th Sept this year.

Do I agree with this? Not entirely, I think its a little cocky but at the same time it does throw some light on how the NSG may have been strategizing from one man's perspective, however skewed...

 

This is scary, a friend of mine just sent me this... 4 more years of bush and to top it over, Sarah Palin !!!

 

Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

• She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.¹
  
• Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.²
  
• She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. ³
  
• Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.⁴
  
• She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.⁵
  
• She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.⁶
• How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.⁷

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-1839610-vdiZHsx&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-1839610-vdiZHsx&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-1839610-vdiZHsx&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-1839610-vdiZHsx&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-1839610-vdiZHsx&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-1839610-vdiZHsx&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-1839610-vdiZHsx&t=7

7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-1839610-vdiZHsx&t=8

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 3.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

Just saw my sis' signature on Gtalk as having this blog listed on there, interesting stories.. posting one below and the link. Also make sure you sign the pledge to fight terrorism because UTV is donating that much amount to fight it. Cool website

 

That day, I saw the best and worst of man

While I struggled to keep up with the pace of Mumbai, running for the trains and fighting with autowallas, the famed spirit-of-Mumbai was slowly growing on an ‘outsider’ like me. Reaching my workplace at Mahalakshmi took me on streets lined with shaky two-storey huts where people would cook, , bathe, play with children, fight, live (and die) on the extended footpath. The words ‘local’, ‘fast’, ‘slow’, ‘east’ and ‘west’ brought new meanings in my life. And without my knowing, I began a self-discovery of becoming a Mumbaikar like thousands become every day. The discovery happened on that fateful day, when the bombs ripped through Mumbai’s overcrowded local trains. I was stuck at work in Mahalakshmi when the news of the seven blasts came in. I walked down the deserted E Moses Road looking for a cab. With the networks jammed and not a single taxi willing to take me, my frustration knew no bounds. Thankfully, some guys bullied a cabbie and I got in with a couple of other panic-stricken women. We sat there crammed in shock, sweaty and scared waiting for the horrendous jam to clear.   And that’s when Mumbai came alive to me. I saw in awe as the shopkeepers handed food and water to strangers stuck on the streets. People who perhaps have difficulty in seeing the month through with their meager earning, generously emptied their stores into people’s bags. In that hour, when I was cursing those cowardly souls for putting all of us through this, I saw the other side of mankind. The side which spurs us to fight. And overcome.   Once home, I watched the wreckage of the lifeline of Mumbai. The clippings played again and again, never to leave our memories. I still remember the words ‘First Class’ painted on a mangled compartment, the railings that I clutched each morning. No one, certainly not me, will forget the images of the day when terror’s hands gripped our city.   The next day, as I set out to work and walked in to the Matunga Road station, my uncertain legs nearly gave in. I wondered if someone in front of me was carrying my death with them. I hesitated at the entrance, only for a minute, and scanned all the bags people were carrying. And then I saw many pale faces walking with a determination and resolve not to bowed to terror. And I took my first and most important step as a real Mumbaikar on the never-say-die lifeline of Mumbai.   This is to you, the silent Mumbaikar who watches, faces and rises like a phoenix from the ashes. To you, who witnessed the breach of trust that evening, yet took the train next day.   Kirti is a former journalist. She is currently employed as an Executive - Course Design, Delivery & Communication, Kherwadi Social Welfare Association

 

These are so interesting, I am hooked!

 

Online debate: World energy crisis

Previous debate; Rising food prices - the result

Interesting comment piece by Kamila

 

Musharraf was the last to read the writing on the wall

Kamila Shamsie

 

Over half an hour into President Musharraf's address to the nation I texted a friend to say: "This is a resignation speech, right?" She wrote back: "I don't see what else it could be." Neither could I, but to the last Musharraf had the air of a man so strongly convinced that he was indispensable to Pakistan that it was hard to believe the former commando would resist one final assault on his political rivals. When it came to it, though, the assault was merely rhetorical - the man of action with nothing left but words to fall back on.

His exit seemed inevitable from the moment his king's party - the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) - was routed in the February elections; but Pakistan's leaders have a way of turning the inevitable into the suspenseful. Over the weekend Islamabad was rife with rumours - including the one that said he was still waiting for Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, the leaders of the two largest democratic parties and the country's most uneasy bedfellows, to tear each other to pieces and allow him to step in and clean up the mess. Other pundits weighed in to say the army wouldn't allow its former head to be humiliated, and Sharif - who was deposed in 1999 by Musharraf - would settle for nothing less.

More...

 

 

What a facinating little story, made my mouth water for some dosas and pani puri, not to mention ice creams!

-----------

 

by Janki Khatau

In Bombay, I am the navigator, the mapmaker. My grandmother makes the best ice cream, I tell Michelle as we climb the four flights of soft, sunken stairs to my grandmother's flat. Our hair, black and white blond, sticks to our faces, and our fingers linger on the railings that are wooden and rickety, wet and sticky with the red stains of paan spit, and full of ripe rotted spots. We will have this ice cream now, I tell Michelle, and then some more tonight, at the five-star hotel. After, we will walk by the sea. You can tell me then, I say, if my grandmother's ice cream really is the best.

We have just come from Chowpatty Beach, where we have our lunch under the beating sun and air hot from the heat of pushcarts selling the street food we aren't supposed to eat. We buy some pani puri anyway, crossing our legs underneath us in the sand and then delicately holding the ping pong ball sized puri in our fingers and tapping a hole in its paper-thin exterior. We are cracking golden eggs, but very gently. We fill the puri with soft, boiled potatoes and sprouted moong and then dunk it into spicy green water that sloshes in a shared steel bowl. I show Michelle these steps, and she follows me, tapping, filling, dunking; I am a Bombay navigator, a gourmet cartographer. After filling our third puris, she says, Wait. I lower my hand from my mouth, and she glances around us and then kisses me. The kiss is soft, and just seconds long. She pulls back and I am still leaning in, my eyes round in shock. We are in Bombay, on the beach, in the middle of a million people and I turn to see if anyone has noticed a yellow-haired girl kiss a black-haired girl—but no one seems concerned, and so, I suppose, we are safe.

More...

 

Get by in Mumbai
As India's largest, most multicultural city, Mumbai is a fairly liberal place and its business culture tends to be professional, but informal and friendly. Mumbaikars are famous for their chalta hain (laid-back) attitude, but traditions still hold in many areas of behaviour so it's wise to be prepared. These tips should help you. read more»

Inflatable church... how innovative hahaha

 

Beachwear allowed at blow-up sacred structure that hopes to attract young worshippers and combat depleted summer congregations

I found these two stories a very good read, the first one about Sabeer Bhatia's Nano City plan and the second one about mumbai's eunuchs, something I wrote a paper on in Georgia Tech.

 

DEVELOPMENT: Sabeer Bhatia's new city outside Chandigarh
 

Some interesting points about Nanocity, from The Berkeley Group for Architecture and Planning:

Local villagers are expected to remain on the land to live and work as the first residents of NanoCity. They will be encouraged to gain employment through local construction projects and live in the builder’s towns. These towns will provide technical training, low-cost housing, electricity, safe water and education for children.

 

They will also offer temporary commercial outlets for the sale of building materials and storage space, as well as everyday items and refreshments. As the city grows outward and the need for construction diminishes, the builder’s towns will be integrated into the greater urban fabric of NanoCity.

At least 70% of the city’s waste will be recycled or composted. The residents of NanoCity are estimated to consume 20 times less resources than those living in other cities, and the city will have the smallest per capita carbon footprint in all of India.

The first step in building environmentally intelligent urban space is preserving the naturally existing resources of the land. NanoCity will take advantage of these limited resources by integrating site-specific hydrology and agricultural patterns into the greater design scheme. During the annual monsoon season, water will be harvested from underground sources for retention and use throughout the year. The seasonal rivers that border the city will become part of the perennial public waterway.
 
To further dissuade a “car culture,” a state-of-the-art public transit system, featuring electronic schedules and real-time updates, will be on the move. Modeled after successful systems around the world, NanoCity’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system will be clean, fast and solar –powered. Two citywide loops will allow the city’s high-speed rail and bus system to connect all city centers and districts in a convenient and efficient manner. Public transit stops will be located within a five-minute walking distance from every starting point in the city.

To provide fair and affordable housing to all residents, NanoCity will implement a system of land banking during its development. Selective plots of land, strategically located throughout the up and rising districts, will belong to the NanoCity Non-Profit Housing Corporation. This non-profit group will leave the land undeveloped and encourage local villagers to use it for agricultural farming. The crops produced will benefit the whole community and the villagers will profit from their cultivation.

 

PHOTO FORUM: Mumbai Transgendered, by Alessandro Vincenzi
The SAJA Photo Forum presents the work of photographers covering South Asia and its global diasporas in order to highlight important but often overlooked stories.

 

Urmi at home
There are estimated to be more than 25,000 transgendered persons (TGs) in Mumbai, trying to survive in the face of significant discrimination.  Some earn money by blessing and greeting people, including couples and families on special occasions.  Some work as professional dancers in bars.  Others beg for money at traffic signals or on the street.  But the majority, some sixty percent, are involved in commercial sex work.  Twenty percent of the TGs living or working in Mumbai are thought to be infected with the HIV virus, and seventy percent of the customers are married men with children.  Maharashtra, the state where Mumbai is the capital, is home to around one in five people living with HIV in India.
Some transgendered sex workers begin at the age of 14 or 15 before joining the TG community, while others start after becoming part of it.   For most TGs, joining the community is a way to express themselves in a unique culture. The community becomes the family, with sisters and moms. The 1st Lane of Kamathipura, Mumbai’s oldest and largest red-light district, is where most of the TGs live in brothels and do sex work. Normally in each brothel there is a family, where the guru is the owner and guide for each TG working and living in it.

My sis just sent me this, its pretty interesting.. this is good stuff for fans. I read the stuff about his mom and Parag Gandhi mess..

 

From Atlantic Blog:

 

Frequent commenter lucretius takes issues with me comparing complexity of writing rhymes with writing sonnets:

you may be pushing it comparing the best of rap to sonnets: the purpose of the two things is so different that any comparison is surely moot. but i am prepared to say that it is certainly MUCH harder to write a shakespearean or petrarchan sonnet at a technical level than it is write a rap: the rules of sonnet writing are exceedingly strict. the metre and rhyme work as a means of crystallising a certain thought or feeling. rap is the opposite: it's strength is its looseness: in fact seems to put almost no emphasis on concentration of mood or meaning whatsoever: e.g., the T.R.O.Y. lyrics are a pretty random collection of unconnected thoughts. in fact, isn't this when rap works best, i.e. as a series of one liners? or at least a series of wildly contrasting items? i offer in support of my argument compelling melnges such as chuck d / flavor flav and the wu tangs, but any dozen or so examples are to hand.

I actually have no idea, which is harder. But I'll tell you a story. Before I went into journalism, I was actually a poet, and before that I was an MC. As a rapper, I sucked. I mean I was just awful. But I loved words, and I turned to poetry armed with the exact same logic that lucretius offers here--I thought it would be freer, because I didn't have to stay on beat, and thus easier. Ironic, no? So I turned out to be a so-so poet--a better poet than MC, definitely, though some of my early stuff is just embarrassing. I was going to get my MFA--even did a week long workshop at Provincetown with Pulitzer prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa. But what I quickly realized was that my essential problem was the same--just like in hip-hop, formal poetry put a premium on words. You had to find a way to say as much as possible, by saying as little as possible The premium for me was always Rakim--"I can take a phrase that's rarely heard\Flip it, now its a daily word."The point is, in my time, I actually got to try my hand at both sonnets and  hip-hop lyrics and I found them both very difficult for the same reasons. I think people who firmly believe that "formal poetry" is harder should do themselves and try to write some hip-hop verses and then offer them up to a knowledgeable audience. Or they can save themselves the embarrassment and listen to Wynton Marsalis laughable "Where Ya'll At" track. Whoever let him within ten feet of a microphone should be caned. And then water-boarded.

But should you try it yourself, I think that you'll find that the rules for writing hip-hop lyrics are shockingly strict. Most frustrating, they change depending on the track--so it doesn't matter if you rocked it one track. Try doing it over twelve different tracks. Second of all, while it sounds like great hip-hop is just some guy freely talking, that's more a testament to the greatness of said artist, than a statement on its relative ease. The greatest compliment you can pay any artist is that they make it look it easy. It doesn't mean that what they're doing actually is easy.

One other point--the literal rules for writing sonnets, tankas, haikus etc. aren't particularly hard to follow. It's following the rules and actually saying something that's hard. You can write a sonnet that makes no sense, and has no real power in the words. Likewise, you could write a rhyme that's technically on beat and say nothing at all. One need look no further than ex-Fugee Praz, reviled for debasing the entire art by uttering one of the worst lines of hip-hop verse ever "And when I rest my head on its on a pee-low\Uh beebeebee-beebeebee-beebeebee-yo." Sure he was on beat, but it was nonsense. 

Place a sonnet written by someone who is working just to follow the rules, next to sonnet written by master and the difference is clear. Likewise, when hip-hop is done be a rapper who is simply struggling with the rules--who is fighting to stay on beat, who's desperate to make his words rhyme--and the difference is obvious. Ignore the dumb sample below and the annoying hook, but listen to the difference between Puffy's and Big on "Victory." There on the same beat, following the same form, and Puff isn't violating the "rules." But Big gets so much more mileage out of his words, and, indeed, makes it sound easy. "In this world I clutch two Auto, Matos/Used to call fatso, now you call me Castro." The caveat, of course, is that you have to know the slang to get the point. But if you can know the slang, you can hear the implicit beauty of what he's doing and why he's so much better at it than Puffy. Anyone who doesn't get the slang, but is actually interested, should feel free to ask away. I don't get it all. But I got the basics, I think.

Last thing--This song is really profane. Know that before you play it. Link

The comments are pretty great, here is a verse by Jay Z from the comments:

"I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars

They criticized me for it yet they all yell "HOLLA!"

If skills sold, truth be told,

I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli

Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense

But I did five mill' - I ain't been rhymin like Common since

When your cents got that much in common

And you been hustlin since, your inception

Fuck perception go with what makes sense"

This is hilarious, my friend just forwarded this but for anyone who understand gujarati, this dubbing is really really funny!!! 

CNN has a video on how Hollywood film makers are trying to get the Bollywood capitol to bankroll their new films in this economy... hmmm

 

 

For some reason the embedding doesnt work :-(

Very interesting poetry, strong words but painful and from the heart.

 

"Darwish is the Essential Breath of the Palestinian people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging...."

 

More about Darwish: Wiki; Link to his own website.

 

Identity Card

by Darwish

 

Record !
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?

 

Record !
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks...
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself
at the footsteps of your chamber
So will you be angry?

 

Record !
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew.

 

My father..
descends from the family of the plow
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather..was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read

And my house
is like a watchman's hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title !

 

Record !
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards
of my ancestors
And the land
which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks..
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!

 

Therefore !
Record on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper's flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger
And my anger !

About Akshaya Patra
 
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the largest NGO midday meal program in the world. Akshaya Patra is an organization with the vision that no child shall be deprived of education because of hunger. Now feeding over 960,000 underprivileged children in over 5,700 schools in six states in India, Akshaya Patra will reach its million children milestone fairly soon. It costs only $28 to feed a child for the entire year.
 
Akshaya Patra is a public-private partnership that combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to deliver school lunch at a fraction of the cost of similar programs in other parts of the world. For many of the children this is their only complete meal for the day. This gives them an incentive to come to school, stay in school and provides them with the necessary nutrients they need to develop their cognitive abilities to focus on learning.
 
Through kitchens specially designed by engineers to leverage technology and sourcing its food stocks from local markets, Akshaya Patra is able to reduce costs associated with transportation and food spoilage while supporting the local economy. In a short time, the foundation has grown to become the largest, and certainly most innovative, school lunch program in the world. Akshaya Patra is a great example of what a non-profit organization can achieve-- a cost effective, scalable solution with high quality service delivery.

 

Nominate Akshaya Patra by September 1 for a chance to WIN $1.5 million in funding from the American Express Members Project!               
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Very nice video...  

 

Also a good quiz for those who want to know more about indian states or test your knowledge of them:

 

15th of August is India's independence day so thats what I was celebrating while Hawaiians were also having a holiday for 'Admission Day', a very controvertial holiday in hawaii because this is the day Hawaii was admitted into the United States as a state. here is some more info..on Admission or Statehood Day.

 

How did I celebrate these two momentuous days was by going to the outlet mall, Ko'olina Lagoon, Ewa Beach and finally Aiea for dinner

 

Outlet Mall: Waikele: Just like any other outlet mall in the states, I bought some linen pants and a shirt from BR outlet mall.

 

Koolina Lagoons: Located in the Ko'Olina Resort Area, these four man-made lagoons are perfect for swimming at any time of the year. Rock barriers provide protection from the ocean and high surf. The lagoons are sandy beaches surrounded by grass and shaded picnic areas. The lagoons are called: Kolola, Hanu, Nai'a, and Ulua.

 

 

Landscaping around this area is beautiful but parking is very limited because they are trying to restrict outsiders to come enjoy these lagoons.

 

Here is the location on the island:

 

Finally we ended at Ewa Beach, not a very good beach because the sand is not that nice (nothing beats kailua) but this is where all the new houses are, traffic is pretty bad around here.