tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60817702024-03-13T19:37:10.855+05:30scratchpostlike a cuttlefish spurting out inkJayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.comBlogger720125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-46701142206014649582015-09-03T13:50:00.002+05:302015-09-03T14:01:48.306+05:30The irony of the relationship between technology and idleness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the purposes of everyday technology (mobiles, laptops, etc.) is to make us more efficient. But we rarely use our 'freed up' time to 'be' but instead occupy it with more 'do'. And in modern city life, this means occupying ourselves with more technology.<br />
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Ironic, the thing that was designed to free time is now occupying time (and is quite efficient at it).</div>
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-87702081834662598682015-09-01T12:28:00.000+05:302015-09-01T12:30:33.625+05:30Mixed Race<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I always wanted to know why 'brown' people didn't feature in the three/four-race theory. Well it turns out it's because the British didn't know how to classify Indians (and I guess the same would go for the browns elsewhere in the world like Central and South America and other parts of Asia. <span style="line-height: 21.466667175293px;">The races of Indians can be any of the following: Caucasoids (mostly North), Australoids (mostly South), Mongoloids (mostly North-East), Negritos (mostly the Andaman Islands)</span><span style="line-height: 21.466667175293px;">.</span></div>
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Either way scientific racism as such was discarded as a valid framework a long long time ago, and now the we humans are classified into 5000 ethnic groups.</div>
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To know more on South Asian ethnic groups: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_ethnic_groups">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_ethnic_groups</a></div>
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To know more on World Demography:<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_world"> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_world</a></div>
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-39834995412332296412015-08-27T13:20:00.003+05:302015-08-27T13:42:47.469+05:30Principles of Democratic Structuring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
I've been running <a href="http://siriusinteractive.co.in/">Sirius Interactive</a> with two of my closest friends for almost 6 years now. Nice to see time pass so smoothly and successfully. More than a company, we work like a cooperative. Three editors with similar skills, pooling our resources and sharing our profits. This month, we're re-thinking who we are and who we want to be. It's quite a tough question, how to stay small (really small) and still make some reasonably nice amounts of money.<br />
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These principles of democratic structuring by <a href="http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm">Joe Freeman</a> are very helpful for who would like to strive for democracy among partners (applies to a whole range of situations):</div>
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<blockquote>
<b>1) Delegation of specific authority to specific individuals for specific tasks by democratic procedures. </b>Letting people assume jobs or tasks only by default means they are not dependably done. If people are selected to do a task, preferably after expressing an interest or willingness to do it, they have made a commitment which cannot so easily be ignored. </blockquote>
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<b>2) Requiring all those to whom authority has been delegated to be responsible to those who selected them. </b>This is how the group has control over people in positions of authority. Individuals may exercise power, but it is the group that has ultimate say over how the power is exercised. </blockquote>
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<b>3) Distribution of authority among as many people as is reasonably possible. </b>This prevents monopoly of power and requires those in positions of authority to consult with many others in the process of exercising it. It also gives many people the opportunity to have responsibility for specific tasks and thereby to learn different skills. </blockquote>
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<b>4) Rotation of tasks among individuals.</b> Responsibilities which are held too long by one person, formally or informally, come to be seen as that person's "property" and are not easily relinquished or controlled by the group. Conversely, if tasks are rotated too frequently the individual does not have time to learn her job well and acquire the sense of satisfaction of doing a good job. </blockquote>
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<b>5) Allocation of tasks along rational criteria.</b> Selecting someone for a position because they are liked by the group or giving them hard work because they are disliked serves neither the group nor the person in the long run. Ability, interest, and responsibility have got to be the major concerns in such selection. People should be given an opportunity to learn skills they do not have, but this is best done through some sort of "apprenticeship" program rather than the "sink or swim" method. Having a responsibility one can't handle well is demoralizing. Conversely, being blacklisted from doing what one can do well does not encourage one to develop one's skills. Women have been punished for being competent throughout most of human history; the movement does not need to repeat this process. </blockquote>
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<b>6) Diffusion of information to everyone as frequently as possible.</b> Information is power. Access to information enhances one's power. When an informal network spreads new ideas and information among themselves outside the group, they are already engaged in the process of forming an opinion -- without the group participating. The more one knows about how things work and what is happening, the more politically effective one can be. </blockquote>
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<b>7) Equal access to resources needed by the group.</b> This is not always perfectly possible, but should be striven for. A member who maintains a monopoly over a needed resource (like a printing press owned by a husband, or a darkroom) can unduly influence the use of that resource. Skills and information are also resources. Members' skills can be equitably available only when members are willing to teach what they know to others.</blockquote>
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</div>Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-686269172121797982014-08-10T08:43:00.000+05:302014-08-10T08:44:52.839+05:30Rattus Rattus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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You often see many rats on the rail tracks in Mumbai. So I started to form a heroic image of them in my head: Rats, the true survivors. Because really, do they really want to hang out in sewers or is it just that they <i>can</i> without being killed!</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xv5ivmw0Oj8/U-bhtCHzVbI/AAAAAAAACww/TfMdMis_H6Y/s1600/Indian+Gerboa+Rat,+Gerbillus+Indicus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xv5ivmw0Oj8/U-bhtCHzVbI/AAAAAAAACww/TfMdMis_H6Y/s1600/Indian+Gerboa+Rat,+Gerbillus+Indicus.jpg" height="417" width="640" /></a></div>
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Further investigation into the evolution of the city rat, led me to the lesser highlighted information of our genetic cousins:</div>
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Social intelligence<br />A 2011 controlled study found that rats are actively <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosocial">prosocial</a>. They demonstrate altruistic behaviour to other rats in experiments, including freeing them from cages. When presented with readily available chocolate chips, test subjects would first free the caged rat, and then share the food. All female rats in the study displayed this behaviour, while 30% of the males did not.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat#cite_note-19">[19]</a></blockquote>
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And if they write this (the below) about rats, I wonder what could be said about the humans :)</div>
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Rats as invasive species<br />When introduced into locations where rats previously did not exist they cause a huge amount of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_degradation">environmental degradation</a>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattus_rattus">Rattus rattus</a>, the black rat, is considered to be one of the world's worst invasive species.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat#cite_note-38">[38]</a>As part of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_restoration">island restoration</a> some islands have had their rat populations eradicated to protect or restore the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology">ecology</a>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawadax_Island,_Alaska">Hawadax Island, Alaska</a> was declared rat free after 229 years and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell_Island,_New_Zealand">Campbell Island, New Zealand</a> after almost 200 years. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaksea_Island,_New_Zealand">Breaksea Island</a> in New Zealand was declared rat free in 1988 after an eradication campaign based on a successful trial on the smaller Hawea Island nearby.</blockquote>
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat)</div>
Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-64115694526554762162014-07-22T10:28:00.004+05:302014-08-10T08:47:56.464+05:30"Flora"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
images<br />
dance technique<br />
skin grabbing your bone<br />
intensive<br />
changed perception of body<br />
what is dance, movement<br />
went to darkness<br />
in london<br />
born blind, blind at 18<br />
how to teach dance to blind<br />
how to understand their own body<br />
started reading philosophy<br />
black box<br />
camera obscura<br />
4 m by 2 m<br />
interviews with people with different eyesight<br />
see only<br />
how does it affect your life<br />
what do you think reality is?<br />
musician do add<br />
sound track<br />
<br />
An exciting start to curation for <a href="http://thestoryoflight.org/">The Story of Light</a></div>
Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-29739964429917122782014-04-29T08:54:00.000+05:302014-04-29T08:54:03.039+05:30paul<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Jaya:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_piff_does_money_make_you_mean#t-137501">http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_piff_does_money_make_you_mean#t-137501</a><br />i really hope i can push economic inequality as an agenda for my freaking country to take up!<br /><br />Paul:<br /><br />Large inequality is indeed one of the things having most known negative externalities to a society. Therefore income taxes and progressive wealth taxes are needed to collect money and then distribute it to the less fortunate. <br /><br />The extent of this egalitarianisation does have a limit though. Money may make people mean, but taking away all inequality will take away all incentves for people to do their best. Luckily we are all wired is way that something in us wants to do better than our neightbour. If that 'doing better' will not be translated anymore by money, people will start to dustinguish themsleves to the more powerfull in a different way, creating the crony, corrupt and kleptocratic systems we have seen in history so often and still see. <br /><br />So there will need to remain a link between risk and reward. People who will use their talents and take risk will be better off than people who choose not to do that. Taking that incentive away is recepie for disaster.<br /><br />But we are a greedy selfesh bunch and I believe that we want more all the time. When the bankers got bonusses of 1mln per year and they saw their peers got 2mln, they felt fucked over, when Chaves had done its 8 years of dictorial socialism he changed the law to be able to stay in power longer, putin will not stop stealing land after the Crimea invasion. If we think we can get something we want it and will take it and our brains will tell us it is our right to have it and that our cleverness got us there. Because our brain is wired this way we survived for so long and are now the most powerfull species on the planet.<br /><br />So because we can't help ourselves we need some help. We need the governement to take away some of our income and capital and give it to the weak abd unfortunate. The governement needs to ensure the weak are protected by a propperly functuning legal system. They need to ensure all have access to propper education and healthcare. They need ensure governance of markets is healthy including transparency, sound supervision of law abiding business and force excesses out of the system by laws (for example cap bonusses).<br /><br />Its not just governement though trying to cap our animal instincts. It should also be us customers influencing the good in the world by making the right choises. Our brains have a limit overseeing the consequences of the decisions we make, and if we are aware of the consequenses we rarerly rationally weight them. That is not because we are inherently unethical selfish or lazy, it is just bounded rationality. So each time we make a decision we should be reminded of the consequences. If we buy clothes we can include the condition of the Bengal laborer in our decision, if we buy meat we know how the cow had lived and how he was slaughtered, if we buy cigaretes it should show dying people to remind us we are killing ourselves, if we go fuel up our car at Shell we should have to do that standing in 1 meter of water reminding us about the global warming consequences. We humans just need to be helped sometimes a bit in our decisions. Read 'nudge'. Increasing transparency in markets and products will hugely help.<br /><br />We are not bad people, we sometimes just do bad things. The systems around us can curb that for the better.<br /><br />X</div>
Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-87738518076604306412014-04-07T20:56:00.001+05:302014-04-07T20:57:37.775+05:30"the other"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"my other half"<br />i liked that about the first one<br />"the complementary whole"<br />i like that about the second one </blockquote>
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in both<br />i is immersed in the other<br />the separate between the together<br />the discrete within the continuous</blockquote>
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-18278094090288514942014-02-14T19:35:00.001+05:302014-02-14T19:35:36.357+05:30We're starting with a bang!<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/31207547" width="595" height="485" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px 1px 0; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;" allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/scratchpost/story-of-light-festival-concept-note" title="Story of Light Festival - Concept Note" target="_blank">Story of Light Festival - Concept Note</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/scratchpost" target="_blank">Jaya Ramchandani</a></strong> </div>Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-68366459289443231802014-02-07T11:33:00.001+05:302014-02-07T11:33:35.543+05:30Moving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am not living in a forest.<br />
The world has moved on.<br />
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(East Timor, June 2012)<br />
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-56204716235141781642014-01-13T08:44:00.001+05:302014-01-13T08:44:04.143+05:30"Aazaadiyan - Udaan (2010)"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NJc9H90Q7B0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br /><br />Pairon ki bediyan khwabon ko baandhe nahi re, kabhi nahi re<br />Mitti ki parton ko nanne se ankur bhi cheeray, dheere dheere<br />Iraade hare hare, jinke seeno mein ghar kare<br />Woh dil ki sune kare na darre, na darre<br /><br />Subah ki kirno ko rokein jo salaakhein hai kahan<br />Jo khayalon pe pehre daale woh aankhein hai kahan<br />Par khulne ki deri hai parinde udh ke choomenge<br />Aasman aasman aasman<div>
<br />Subah ki kirno ko rokein jo salaakhein hai kahan<br />Jo khayalon pe pehre daale woh aankhein hai kahan<br />Par khulne ki deri hai parinde udh ke choomenge<br />Aasman aasman aasman<br /><br />Aazaadiyan, aazaadiyan<br />Maagey na kabhi, mile mile mile<br />Aazaadiyan, aazaadiyan<br />Jo cheenay wahi, jee le jee le jee le<br /><br />Subah ki kirno ko rokein jo salaakhein hai kahan<br />Jo khayalon pe pehre daale woh aankhein hai kahan<br />Par khulne ki deri hai parinde udh ke choomenge<br />Aasman aasman aasman<br /><br />Kahani khatam hai ya shuruwaat hone ke hai (hone ke hai)<br />Subha nayi hai yeh ya phir raat hone ko hai (hone ke hai)<br />Kahani khatam hai ya shuruwaat hone ke hai (hone ke hai)<br />Subha nayi hai yeh ya phir raat hone ko hai (hone ke hai)<br /><br /><br />Aane wala waqt dega panha hai<br />Ya phir se milenge do raahein<br />Khabar kya, kya pataa</div>
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-86923580531989316622013-12-24T09:06:00.001+05:302014-04-27T22:25:02.787+05:30"Stilbaai"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
My hande is wakker</div>
My oë wil slaap<br />
My kop is in Stilbaai<br />
My hart in die Kaap<br />
<br />
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<i>My hands are awake</i></div>
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<i>My eyes want to sleep</i></div>
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<i>My head is in Stilbaai</i></div>
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<i>My heart in the Cape</i></div>
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<br /></div>
Ek staan op die grens<br />
Van die dag en die nag<br />
En my kop weet nie meer wat<br />
Om te doen met my hart<br />
<br />
<div>
<i>I stood on the border</i></div>
<div>
<i>Of the day and night</i></div>
<div>
<i>And my mind knows not what</i></div>
<div>
<i>To do with my heart</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Ek voel soos n skip <br />
Wat lê langs die kus <br />
My toekoms wil reis <br />
My verlede wil rus <br />
My woorde wil stil wees <br />
My stilte wil praat <br />
My hart wil jou vashou <br />
My kop wil jou laat <br />
<br />
<div>
<i>I feel like a ship</i></div>
<div>
<i>Which lies along the coast</i></div>
<div>
<i>My future would travel</i></div>
<div>
<i>My past wants to rest </i></div>
<div>
<i>My words would be quiet</i></div>
<div>
<i>My silence would speak</i></div>
<div>
<i>My heart wants to hold</i></div>
<div>
<i>My head wants to leave you</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Die storm en die stilte<br />
Die son en die maan<br />
Daars altyd twee kante<br />
Wat in ons bestaan<br />
<br />
<div>
<i>The storm and the silence</i></div>
<div>
<i>The sun and the moon</i></div>
<div>
<i>There's always two sides</i></div>
<div>
<i>To our existence</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Die verlange wil waai<br />
Die angs wil hier bly<br />
En al sluit ek my oë<br />
Dit gaan nie verby nie<br />
<br />
<div>
<i>My longing wants to blow away</i></div>
<div>
<i>My fear wants to stay here</i></div>
<div>
<i>And if I close my eyes</i></div>
<div>
<i>It's not over</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Ek voel soos n skip <br />
Wat lê langs die kus <br />
My toekoms wil reis <br />
My verlede wil rus <br />
My woorde wil stil wees <br />
My stilte wil praat <br />
My hart wil jou vashou <br />
My kop wil jou laat</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<i>I feel like a ship</i></div>
<div>
<i>Which lies along the coast</i></div>
<div>
<i>My future would travel</i></div>
<div>
<div>
<i>My past wants to rest </i></div>
<div>
</div>
<i>My words would be quiet</i></div>
<div>
<i>My silence would speak</i></div>
<div>
<i>My heart wants to hold</i></div>
<div>
<i>My head wants to leave</i></div>
</div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
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~Stef Bos</div>
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-35403404729385328362013-12-04T14:12:00.003+05:302013-12-04T14:50:40.477+05:30Almost 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've been a bit crappy on blogging in 2013, but 2014 is a new year, just around the corner.<br />
In sum: 2013 has simply been dedicated to love.<br />
This is Ann, preparing for her Cambridge Proficiency Exam:<br />
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-22306656743037814802013-11-01T01:04:00.001+05:302014-08-10T08:57:40.049+05:30And so it starts...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-75153840497608071972013-08-23T13:05:00.001+05:302013-08-25T17:15:26.777+05:30Spiti & Ladakh (in wide)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Also some useful places to stay:
Leh: Shashipa Guest House, Chubi -- Great, great place to stay. INR 600 for the top room. Excellent view. Great food. 01982-251251, 9906993801
Srinagar: HB Rolling Stone (House Boat), Nig'een lake, Sudrabal -- Lovely houseboat, old and charming. INR 1000 per person per night including breakfast and dinner. INR 15000 (for one room of 2) if you want to stay for the month excluding breakfast and dinner. Uncle is a bit strange but very nice. 01942423620. His son Hilal also drives 9906405076
Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-89301287377674345732013-07-11T09:14:00.001+05:302013-07-11T09:14:38.027+05:30Two's Company<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-41187385106602598662013-06-20T14:00:00.002+05:302013-12-04T14:51:54.760+05:30Let's Go<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cADc5-MnYyE/UcK1LLSQd8I/AAAAAAAACVc/_fHkt2D9zO0/s1600/letsgo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cADc5-MnYyE/UcK1LLSQd8I/AAAAAAAACVc/_fHkt2D9zO0/s640/letsgo.jpg" width="498" /></a></div>
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Background image: Rick Sterenbach, 1977</div>
Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-24631592481071502932013-05-19T17:33:00.004+05:302013-12-04T13:22:10.888+05:30Madagascar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Two weeks ago, I was in a land I never really thought I would visit just yet. In January, she said, "How about Madagascar." I said maybe later when we have more than two weeks to travel. But I know how <i>later</i> goes and quickly changed my mind. A few days <i>later</i>, we booked our tickets.<br />
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We reached Nairobi on April 28, Ann flew in from Amsterdam and me from Mumbai. I was so glad to see her among all those tall undutchables walking through Gate 11. My flight arrived 30 minutes before hers. One coffee and one cigarette later, we were on our next Kenyan Airways flight to Madagascar.<br />
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The whole experience was just wow. We didn't get to see too much of the country, cause you need at least a month, if not three to see Madagascar, but we spent our 2 weeks exploring the 'Wild West', trying to reach the 'Beautiful South' but not quite making it :) The experience was fabulous, packed with crazy-starry skies, crimson sunrise and sunsets, ox-cart villages, breathtaking waterfalls, taxi brusses, Robinson-Crusoe style stranded island adventures, lobsters right from the sea, electricity-less life, delicious Malagasy-French food, and rasta friends. Too bad I couldn't find the perfect soundtrack!<br />
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All pictures on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/scratchpost/sets/72157633503532133/">Flickr</a></div>Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-25125728682480087202013-04-08T10:58:00.001+05:302013-04-08T11:39:27.696+05:30strange feelings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tomorrow I start a 10 day buddhism course at Tushita, near Dharamshala.<br />
I am strangely nervous.<br />
So much has been going on in the last three months.<br />
I haven't carried my camera on this journey.<br />
It's a no phone, camera, mp3, laptop, 10 day meditation retreat.<br />
I hope to learn.<br />
I hope to widen.<br />
I hope to gain more self-discipline.<br />
Letsee.<br />
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On other news, I am having trouble liking a close friend. She's become like this, and I have no idea how to relate.<br />
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-22495016300613179882013-03-17T12:05:00.000+05:302013-03-17T12:05:10.970+05:30"March 11"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z-iE8ybU4I4/UUVj7LzR04I/AAAAAAAACTE/yXff1Tgg8AQ/s1600/Set2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z-iE8ybU4I4/UUVj7LzR04I/AAAAAAAACTE/yXff1Tgg8AQ/s640/Set2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-19657522563544033582013-03-15T00:14:00.002+05:302013-03-15T00:19:33.087+05:30"Coming of Age"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vjy3ms1dWF0/UUIbLzgdvdI/AAAAAAAACSs/dbtEOFbXp9Y/s1600/DSC_5507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="428" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vjy3ms1dWF0/UUIbLzgdvdI/AAAAAAAACSs/dbtEOFbXp9Y/s640/DSC_5507.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
the deep sky<br />
speech turns into sight<br />
the great dance<br />
mutually embraced<br />
eyes disentangle<br />
only to entangle, again<br />
serpents intersect<br />
seeing<br />
bands of light<br />
forming my moral desire of being</blockquote>
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(inspired by C. S. Lewis)</div>
Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-86490273800995498622013-03-13T09:07:00.002+05:302013-03-13T09:21:27.924+05:30Exploring Quantum Mechanics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Very excited about my first Coursera course: <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/eqp">Exploring Quantum Mechanics</a><br />
It's taken me a while to reach this point!</div>
Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-61635976615841141892013-03-03T23:50:00.001+05:302013-03-03T23:50:14.808+05:30"Development"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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via <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4677007916871&set=a.1718552717340.97572.1043910898&type=1">someone on facebook</a><br /><br /></div>
Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-19335543606023710892013-03-01T13:23:00.000+05:302013-03-01T14:31:19.261+05:30Buginese<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is one of the coolest scripts I've ever seen. Source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buginese_language">Wiki</a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7WcG0TkI4Ec/UTBd4ZyMwfI/AAAAAAAACR8/2tdRP9yXrg4/s1600/800px-Buginese_consonants.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7WcG0TkI4Ec/UTBd4ZyMwfI/AAAAAAAACR8/2tdRP9yXrg4/s640/800px-Buginese_consonants.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-26619025638752466182013-03-01T11:07:00.000+05:302013-03-01T13:12:40.990+05:30"Perelandra"From a German client who works on cosmic strings and whats not:
about the last paragraph: I will work on this. In the meantime I send
you the paragraph of C.S. Lewis' book (Chapter 17, starting from page
277f - you should certainly read the book, it is very fascinating!).
At the end of this story, the protagonist sees the Great Dance of the
creation of the world, which develops out of a praise of God:
<blockquote>And now, by a transition which he did not notice, seemed that what had
begun as speech was turned into sight, or into something that can be
remembered only as if it were seeing. He thought he saw the Great Dance.
It seemed to be woven out of the intertwining undulation of many cords or
bands of light, leaping over and under one another and mutually embraced
in arabesques and flower-like subtleties. Each figure as he looked at it
became the master-figure or focus of the whole spectacle, by means of
which his eye disentangled all else and brought it into unity - only to be
itself entangled when he looked to what he had taken for mere marginal
decorations and found that there also the same hegemony was claimed, and
the claim made good, yet the former pattern not thereby dispossessed but
finding in its new subordination a significance greater than that which it
had abdicated. He could see also (but the word 'seeing' is now plainly
inadequate) wherever the ribbons or serpents of light intersected, minute
corpuscles of momentary brightness: and he knew somehow that these
particles were the secular generalities of which history tells - peoples,
institutions, climates of opinion, civilisations, arts, sciences, and the
like - ephemeral corpuscations that piped their short song and vanished.
The ribbons or cords themselves, in which millions of corpuscles lived and
died, were things of some different kind. At first he could not say that.
But he knew in the end that most of them were individual entities. If so,
the time in which the Great Dance proceeds is very unlike time as we know
it. Some of the thinner and more delicate cords were beings that we call
short-lived: flowers and insects, a fruit or a storm of rain, and once (he
thought) a wave of the sea. Others were such things as we also think
lasting: crystals, rivers, mountains, or even stars. Far above these in
girth and luminosity and flashing with colours from beyond our spectrum
were the lines of the personal beings, and yet as different from one
another in splendour as all of them from all the previous class. But not
all the cords were individuals; some were universal truths or universal
qualities. It did not surprise him then to find that these and the persons
were both cords and both stood together against the mere atoms of
generality which lived and died in the clashing of their streams: but
afterwards, when he came back to earth, he wondered. And by now the thing
must have passed altogether out of the region of sight as we understand
it. For he says that the whole solid figure of these enamoured and
inter-inanimated circlings was suddenly revealed as the mere superficies
of a far vaster pattern in four dimensions, and that figure as the
boundary of yet others in other worlds: till suddenly as the movement grew
yet swifter, the interweaving yet more ecstatic, the relevance of all to
all yet more intense, as dimension was added to dimension and that part of
him which could reason and remember was dropped farther and farther behind
that part of him which saw, even then, at the very zenith of complexity,
complexity was eaten up and faded, as a thin white cloud fades into the
hard blue burning of the sky, and a simplicity beyond all comprehension,
ancient and young as spring, illimitable, pellucid, drew him with cords of
infinite desire into its own stillness. He went up into such a quietness,
a privacy and a freshness that at the very moment when he stood farthest
from our ordinary mode of being he had the sense of stripping off
encumbrances and awaking from trance, and coming to himself. With a
gesture of relaxation he looked about him...</blockquote>
~C. S. Lewis, <i>Perelandra</i>Jayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756135415084049392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6081770.post-34888451202072567822013-02-20T12:38:00.003+05:302013-02-20T12:54:55.928+05:30Post-It #35<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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