Photo by Siddharth

That couldn't have been an inexpensive dessert .. click through to see more of his stuff on Flickr

Happy Birthday

PS: Pregnancy is going okay, a degree of discomfort and the blood sugar levels don't stay still.

FW: Sixth sense

From: Vishwanath Srikantaiah [mailto:zenrainman@gmail.com]
Sent: 27 March 2009 14:57
To: team@arghyam.org
Subject: Sixth sense

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

I'm sure the data geeks will be overjoyed with this stuff here if you haven't already seen it

Maybe a game changer for the portal then? A carry it around portal?

regards

 

Quote

I don't want to invent victories for people's movements. But to think that history-writing must aim to simply to recapitulate the failures that dominate the past is to make historians collaborators in an endless cycle of defeat. If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.

===
Howard Zinn - "The Twentieth Century: A People's History"

More on movies

I am watching "Chak De! India" for the 2.5th time and I think it would qualify as Great. Its a straightforward but man, there are so many facets that are explored in it. Its funny as hell in places, I love the music and songs, it makes me feel patriotic (pretty hard to do) and teary-eyed (quite easy to do), it sets up lot of team dynamics (perhaps simplistic), it takes a shot (perhaps simplistic again) at understanding what it takes to make a world-class team, and it takes excellent potshots at the sporting establishment in India. A lot of the stuff is really intelligent and I think it could teach a lot of people how excellence or greatness happens. Oh and its a great cheerleader for empowering women.

I urge those of you who haven't seen it yet to see it.

I have this habit of picking up on particular strings of words that I feel really click and in this movie I really loved the title song. It has a strong rousing urgency, something we could do with as a nation if you ask me. "Do something, do something, enough of big talk!!" . (In Slumdog Millionaire I liked "D: It is written". See the movie again if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Slumdog Millionaire: The list of subtleties that you mentioned -- pretty cool and I bow to you. But using something like your Usual Suspects argument, cool though these tricks are, they don't really make for a great movie. A significant flaw in the movie is how flat the characters are -- even the main one. And in particular the girl is just a doll, a symbol - she is just tossed around by fate and nothing of her own motivations or feelings really comes through.
BTW -- all those people who felt offended that the movie emphasized poverty or something : kiss my ass. Go make your own movie glorifying Mukesh Ambani if that's what you want stupids.

Rohit -- "Forrest Gump" , interesting choice. I'm not sure. Make your case !

Arvind -- haven't watched your tubes properly yet. But look interesting.

FW: Photography Zindabad!!

From: siddharth dasari [mailto:siddharthdasari@gmail.com]
Sent: 21 March 2009 18:45
To: Vijay Krishna
Subject: Photography Zindabad!!

Hey!
One of my photos got published in a local magazine, called Hyderabad josh this month!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkuram/3351050057/

Persian Wheel / Water Wheel / Rahat

An ancient mechanism for getting water out of a well. The wheel in the picture is probably the last extant one in Karnataka.

 

All you wanted to know about the Persian wheel here:

 

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/2008/01/22/all-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-persian-wheel/ 

 

Ask A Water Question

 

Beautiful Minds

I don't know how many of you'll know about TED , http://www.ted.com.  Its a unique event that happens every year in California where a bunch of smart people are invited to present their ideas ; "Ideas Worth Spreading" its called. Anyway its become a kind of cultish thing. The talks themselves are generally prettty good, though on a wide range of topics so that they might not interest everyone. They archive the talks at their site, releasing a new one every day. Nandan Nilekani spoke there this year.

 

http://www.ted.com/index.php/themes/top_10_tedtalks.html  might be a good beginning point, Top 10 talks. I haven't seen all of them yet, but here's one that's really cool:

 

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html 

 

I and Priya were at a similiar event in Bangalore called "Beautiful Minds" this weekend . The list of speakers is up here (http://www.beautifulminds.co.in/who.htm) . It was pretty good ! Not a lot of better ways to spend a Saturday than listen to a bunch of smart committed people talking about their passions. I think it would be excellent if a lot more of these happened in India, since life tends to be pretty humdrum otherwise (!) and offer relatively little intellectual stimulation or exposure to new ideas. Huge bonus was the location, Our Native Village, an eco-resort. They had *great* organic food for lunch. And it was all free.