Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Indian English

Suggested to the casual reader with some time on his hands: this highly informative article on Indian English, and also this other article on Madras Bashai, the street language of Chenai.

So we went to Hell





Yeah, on the 2nd of November, just for a lark. Hell is a tiny hamlet in Michigan, occasionally a popular tourist destination. They even boast a tiny post office where you can send yourself or anyone else a postcard marked from Hell. And if you ask for 'the works', they will be happy to singe the edges of the card with a jury rigged cigarette lighter which fires a scary 8 inch long flame. Quite cool. Highly recommended to everyone.

More b/w pics

to colour your day! Watch and enjoy.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Is it my newly installed Firefox or..

has Youtube just turned widescreen? I should mention that I already like the Mac Firefox 3... the interface is just awesome and polished.. like everything else made for Macs. And yes, I turned on the Read/Speech utility on a JBNMR paper from the Bax group that I was presenting at group meeting today. Unfortunately, my Speech utility was set to 'Demented', so that resulted in no small amount of hilarity.

All things weird and wonderful

If I have not already mentioned it, then one of the main sources of weirdness in human endeavour is Dark Roasted Blend. Read on and enjoy.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Zombies!

I saw the new version of the Dawn of the Dead last night... and I am going to stock up on canned food, batteries .. the works... maybe a shortwave radio...

Snyder has given us totally badarse zombies.. these mothers move FAST.. no dickin' around waiting for live meat to walk by.. they come and get what the want... and like Ben Johnson on steroids (oh, well, we all know what that is like... ).. but seriously, George Romero's social commentary was wasted.. but what we got in turn were awesome characters and some great action... this is much closer to 28 Days Later than the original Dawn of the Dead, but no complaints from me! Go Snyder!

This is why I louvv reddit soo much!!

PhD=Yes, Kids=No => Divorce!

A guest post from today's Statesman, this is material not written by me, it is put here just to disseminate the content wider, with all due credits to the Statesman and Mr. Sen.
Let me know what you think about the matter...

Special Article

Wedded to work

Indian Men Find Career Women Difficult To Handle

By Suhit Sen

The Supreme Court passed final orders in a divorce case early this month. The story behind the suit and the court’s judgment raise interesting questions about conjugal relations in a rapidly changing urban society.
The story, as reported in the media, is as follows. A man filed for divorce from his wife who was, at the time they got married, pursuing a doctoral degree in biochemistry at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The man alleged that his wife was refusing to bear a child because that would jeopardise her career and had had three abortions in 1984, the year they got married, 1985 and 1989 without his knowledge. He further alleged that his wife had deserted him and left for the US in pursuance of her career.
The woman refuted all the charges. In her defence, she said that the first two abortions had been necessitated by medical conditions ~ the first caused by exposure to radiation in her laboratory and the second by a kidney inflammation ~ and the third had been a natural miscarriage.
As for the trip to the US, she had been awarded a fellowship, which she had taken up. While the husband further alleged that his wife had told him several times that he could remarry or adopt if he was desperate for a child, the impugned woman said in her defence that she was highly educated and wanted to deploy that education in service of society.
The court ruled that the denial of a child, the husband’s legitimate conjugal right, constituted torture, and, while dismissing the charge of desertion, granted the divorce sought by the man.

Changing roles

Let us note at the outset that there are three actors in this drama and we shall look at their actions one by one ~ the husband, the wife and the judiciary, specifically the Supreme Court, though the case came up from a lower court through the high court.
Let’s begin with the petitioner ~ the husband. While, from within a certain frame of reference, one may be critical of a certain lack of sensitivity, of which more in a moment, one cannot fully fault the husband, especially since the bareness of the narrative available in the media makes it impossible to reconstruct the context, for wanting a child. Nor can one fault him for wanting a divorce after having been denied fatherhood. Let us assume, charitably, that he tried to prevail upon his wife and convince her of the depth of his desire to be a father and only after having failed did he take recourse to the divorce option.
Fine. But a digression is in order. In this particular case the wife alleged that her husband was “jealous” of her professional success ~ “progress” ~ when she got her fellowship and went to the US instead of being happy for her, which was the proximate cause for filing the divorce suit. Without going into the merits of this allegation, if for no other reason because we are in no position to, some general points can be made. In India’s rapidly changing urban society, the social and professional space for women is opening up virtually with every passing day. This enlargement of space and the consequent liberty and freedom that women are increasingly enjoying is also being diffused more widely across social classes and reaching women from more diverse, hitherto traditional, backgrounds. Men, especially those from more traditional and conservative backgrounds are finding it difficult to cope with the new social and professional roles and aspirations of women in general and their wives specifically.
There is another aspect to this. The new social and professional freedom in the public space that women are beginning to enjoy is mirrored in the private space ~ that of the family and the household ~ by an increasing rejection of traditional roles. Thus women not only have different expectations, say, about the division of household responsibilities, but also about the control of their bodies, their selves, their destinies which in traditional contexts they were denied, especially within the ambit of the concept of the joint family and the responsibilities that entailed (whether or not the actual household was nuclear or joint). These claims to freedom are even more problematic for men in traditional contexts. That is the lesson of the husband’s story, whether or not it applies in this case.
Now to the woman. Much of the foregoing applies to the wife. She wanted a career and was well within her rights not to have a child if she felt that would impede her career. Motherhood may not be the ultimate epiphany for all women, whether married or not ~ marriage, in other words, does not have to come with a promissory note inscribed with the promise of a child or children, even though a majority of men may think it does. The woman’s allegation of professional jealousy is plausible in the broader social context, whether or not it is true in this particular case ~ given, as we have argued, that men find both the new public and private roles of “their” women and women in general difficult to negotiate. If there is something both inexplicable and to an extent indefensible, in this particular case, however, is the wife’s desperate attempt to deny the husband a divorce. If their registers were so very divergent, from the outside and given the limitations of our knowledge of the full story, it would appear logical to agree to a parting of ways ~ she to pursue her career and he to find a wife more in tune with his expectations and, crucially, willing to bear his child.
The most interesting action was that of the third actor, however ~ the judgments passed seem to encapsulate the still hugely dominant social consensus about the public and private roles of women and the relations between men and women, specifically the relation of conjugality. In its order, while upholding the lower and high court judgments, the apex court dismissed desertion on account of the woman having taken up her fellowship in the US on purely technical grounds ~ the couple had not lived apart continuously for two years.

Rights and duties

The grounds on which the divorce was in fact granted in the lower court was that the wife’s refusal to bear a child ~ and in this the husband’s version of events was accepted ~ constituted cruelty, a view at least tacitly endorsed by the high court and Supreme Court. The Supreme Court threw out the desertion plea, but, as cryptically reported in the media, ruled that the continuous cessation of “marital intercourse” constituted “legal cruelty”.
In the absence of context the phrase “marital intercourse” is difficult to interpret, but at the very bottom there seems to be the notion that bearing a child is an inalienable conjugal duty a wife undertakes upon marriage and conversely it is the husband’s inalienable conjugal right to demand compliance. The woman argued that even if the charges ~ the three abortions ~ were true, the issues involved were part of the “normal wear and tear” of a marital relationship ~ in other words, having or not having a child should have been a matter of negotiation within the marriage.
By refusing to buy that, the Supreme Court gave the “marital” duty of bearing a child an absolute, non-negotiable, legal imprimatur, which, while being in line with the dominant social consensus, hardly accords with an equitable, enlightened and just construction of the relationship between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife.

The writer is Senior Editor, The Statesman

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Indian Navy sinks Somali Pirate ship

For those of you who have not been paying attenshun, the Indian Ocean coast of Africa, specifically, the Gulf of Aden has recently been in the news a lot. Mostly on account of Somali pirates who have been hijacking shipping and holding crews and cargo to ransom. The biggie was a Saudi supertanker, the Sirius Star which was hijacked this last Saturday. Before this, fed up with having to route shipping to avoid these pirates and escalating insurance costs, the US, the EU and several other interested parties have sent warships to patrol these waters. This includes the Indian Navy. Now, it seems that the IN is in the forefront of the action. Just a week ago, the INS Tabar, a Talwar(Krivak III) class frigate joined the fray. (This little beastie carries BrahMos antiship cruise missiles, good for sniping biggies at longish range in a real shooting wuh.) Anyway, them pirates were hassling MV Jag Arnav, a bulk carrier, and the Tabar sent over Marcos. Now, IN Marcos, like marines anywhere are a nasty bunch of people, with a truly unhappy disposition, people you would want on your side if things got rough. Anyway, Jag Arnav sailed on unolested. Stage 2: INS Tabar got into a shooting match with a largish pirate ship and blew her out of the water. Read on here. What amuses me most is the fact that the BBC puts the 'sinks' in quotes. Implying that... the news is unconfirmed..? Or that they are just having trouble believing that anyone apart from the former rulers of the waves (Hail Brittania, join in the chorus please) can get anything done in a shooting match? Time to be somewhat less snotty BBC, remember the Falklands?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Animal cruelty and far too little punishment.

Read this article. Personally, I think these teenagers should be whipped. And then their parents for bringing up such fu-in brats. Let me make my stand on this and related matters somewhat clear: PEOPLE WHO CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING THEIR CHILDREN UP AS DECENT CITIZENS SHOULD NOT HAVE CHILDREN. USE CONDOMS. OR GET YOURSELF STERILIZED. OR JUST MASTURBATE.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Again, a few random book recos

1. Fail-Safe (also made into a very good film) - deals with the possibility of accidental nuclear war during the height of the Cold War. We have all seen Dr. Strangelove. This is a rather different take on the same issue.
http://shohorebrishti.blogspot.com/2007/08/end-of-everything.html
2. Foundation by Asimov, followed by the End of Eternity, then I, Robot (please do not walk in with any preconceived notions based on the awful movie starring Will Smith).. in fact, everything penned by Asimov.
http://shohorebrishti.blogspot.com/2007/12/reviews-of-science-fiction-stories.html
3. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - by le Carre. A grandmaster at the beginning of a spectacular writing career. Needless to say, this is in the realm of Cold War espionage...
http://shohorebrishti.blogspot.com/2007/12/reviews-of-science-fiction-stories.html
4. The Calcutta Chromosome - fever delirium and many other things unexplained. Amitava Ghosh at his most whimsical, and also at his most lucid. Of course, there will be water wars! Of course the future will be at once terrifying and wonderful. Is he such a good fortune teller because he is also an anthropologist/historian? Or is it just because he is really, really smart?

Friday, November 14, 2008

Of stupid people and the decisions they make....

Of datacentres and supercomputers

I came across this article about the snazziest datacentre in the world, built 30 metres below downtown Stockholm, designed to survive a Hydrogen bomb, and with artificial waterfalls and real plants, this place rocks. Take a look.

While we are on the topic of Europeans doing crazy shite, the MareNostrum supercomputer at Barcelona is actually located inside a chapel. Go figure.

(Image credits: Wikipedia)

Epic Balloon Fail

Man traps himself inside balloon. See and believe.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

So what is wrong with the world?

This is not a question in jest. It is unthinkable that a world which has split the atom, tamed rivers and set rockets to the heavens cannot find the resources to provide food and clean drinking water to much of its population. The accumulation of obscene wealth in what is supposedly the age of 'equality' in the face of worldwide hunger is an outrage that cannot be tolerated. There is no equality in claiming that all men have the same chance when some are born with trust funds and some to parents who are already dying of AIDS. The reasons for this state of affairs are many and widespread, but certainly there is the colossal failure of the self styled intelligentsia to act as such. far from entering an age of enlightenment, humanity has chosen to sink into a comforting brain dead slumber fed by flickering images and reassuring soundbited from their new Gods, who speak in High Def images with DTS surround sound. This self inflicted lobotomisation of much of the world means that 'the people' sleep while their national coffers are being looted by a few rich and unscrupulous wealth. This article tries to answer the question of 'who owns America?'. What is to be done? Get up, move out of your comfort zone, get something done. This article talks about what is wrong in the way that we have allowed our minds and judgements to be taken over and think what we are told to. I have one simple piece of advice for everyone who does not lead a hand to mouth existance: read a book a week.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Bangla Bands

There is a lot that I would like to say about this, but I will restrict myself to just pointing you, gentle reader in the direction of this very well written article which really says everything that I would have, and is much better researched to boot. And then, I will set up links for some of my favourite songs, which I hope you will like. I am not making a top 10 or any other kind of list. These are just some songs that I really happen to like and would like to share with you. They all come under the umbrella of Bangla Band, although which ones should be classified as rock/blues is somewhat open...

to start off,

1. Aaro ekbaar cholo fire jaayi - Fossils, their eponymous first album, possibly 1998. Rupam Islam went overnight to being an icon. They did much more, and better, but this was how they started off.
2. Shei tumi kyano - by LRB. Ayub Bachhu, wanted to create a group called the Little River Band, but had to change their name to Love Runs Blind after he found out that there was an Aussie band by that name. This is an "Opar Bangla" group, ie. Bangladeshi.
3. Prithibi ta Naki Chhoto Hote Hote - by Mohiner Ghora Guli. Once upon a time, there was a genius called Gautam Chattopadhyay. Inspired in part by Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and other musicians of the age he created awesome music which unfortunately fell be the roadside. This was in part due to the fact that the 70's were the pinnacle of Bangla Adhunik music, as exemplified by the glorious traditions of Hemanta Mukhopadhyay. Noone had any time for 'newfangled' creations like Gautam's. But some people listened, and remembered. Gautam can be legitimately credited with kickstarting the great Jibonmukhi (facing life) tradition in Bangla music. And of course, these days, high profile Bollywood directors like Pritam Chakraborty end up being 'inspired' by the song listed here and have given us this.
4. Mon - by Chandrabindoo. No mention of Bangla Bands can ever be complete without talking about Chandrabindoo, who will probably make it here more than once. These people have been remarkably prolific, alternating wonderfully romantic lyrics with some outrageously sarcastic and evil ones. What they lack is a good vocalist, but they more than make up for it by the sheer 'fundastic' nature of their songs.
5. Sujan - there are many other songs by Parashpathor, but this is one which brings out their affinity for folksy, earthy tunes like no other. Enjoy.
6. Dustu Hawa - since we were talking about folksy earthy music, there is Bhoomi. They started out doing small gigs, but gradually gained a large fan following. They really made it big with Barandaye roddur, but unfortunately I couldn't find a halfway decent track on youtube, so I decided to put this up instead.
7. Tomaye chhute chawar muhurto - by Shahor. This group was formed out of the breakup of Parashpathor, and it brings a lot of Parashpathor's simple elegance in lyrics and mixes it with a more mature, mellow musical style to create something that is unmistakably blues.
8. Barud - by Prithibi. It is time to come back to the more distilled form of rock, and Prithibi, a new group certainly lives up to it.
9. Aadorer Nauko - Also by Chandrabindoo, sung by Shona. Beautiful.
10. Nouar Nouka - by Cactus. This is a band which has been silent for a while: a pity, because they are a talented bunch of people who write as beautifully as they compose their music. It is also worth mentioning here that Nauko/Nouka means a small boat in Bangla.
11. Nishwo Korechho Amaye (Firiye Dao) - by Miles. Just because there has been far too little of Opar Bangla on this list, because Miles is a great band and just massively underrated by most Desi Bongs, also because one stage performance is a must see and finally because this was not a top ten list.

Friday, November 07, 2008

The Shepherd

These were what bomber crews called Mossie pilots in WW2 who flew the dangerous skies over the Channel and waited for Lancasters flying home with their radios shot to pieces, often with heavy casualties on board, often with shrapnel having shredded the airframe, the flight crew coaxing the engines on for just another half hour. They would come in through the East Anglia fog trying to make it home before being jumped by a predatory German Bf109. Sometimes they made it. Sometimes they went into the drink. Forsyth wrote a lovely novella about a RAF pilot whose instruments went dead halfway across the Channel.. and how he was rescued from certain death by one such Shepherd. And then today, I read about an RAF pilot who talked-down a civilian solo flier who suffered a stroke in middair and lost eyesight. It seems that shepherds still fly.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Yeah, I knew this for so long..

Apparently fiction is as important as news in understanding the world's problems. And it took a study to come to this conclusion. Maybe that is part of the problem....

Abandoned towns..

Why are cities abandoned? Natural disasters, sometimes, like Mt. Vesuvius blowing its top and destroying Pompeii. Or sometimes war, as in the rape and sack of Vijaynagar. Or sometimes nuclear fallout, as in Chernobyl. This link contains images of cities which have fallen by the wayside for myriad reasons, including some as quotidian as jobs simply having moved away. But whatever be those reasons, human efforts being falling into abandonment is always painful to see.

Obama Cake


This turned up in the department coffee room yesterday.

Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.

This is from Friedrich von Schiller, and yes, you guessed it right, I am, of course referring to Sarah Palin. This rather old interview with Kate Couric underscores what America has escaped.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Of elekshuns, programming and kittens.. wait, WTF?

This reddit thread has much to say...

Are we there yet?

Yes, it would seem that we are.. last night, Obama won the Presidency. Awesome. McCain/Palin lost. Equally awesome. But it is not over for Palin yet.. after displaying the most colossally incompetent brain ever to ask for the White House, she might be asking for it yet again, in 2012. Read on here. Well, are we surprised? Maybe not.. after all there are plenty of people who would find her awesome. Like the person who owns this car. And Cracked thinks that this is what her 2012 campaign ads will be like. But this conservative blog should also provide food for thought. And before we call it a day, take a look at the Telegraph's look at the current Prez, his years in a few memorable pictures.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

And this post is for Pratul Mukhopdahyay

Pratul-babu is a one-off. His song "Aami Banglaye gaan gaayi", which translates as "I sing in Bangla" has been consistently revered and thought of as one of the most influential songs in Bangla in recent times. However, with very few outstanding works (Babor-er Prarthona comes to mind), he is not really a popular artist, like, say Srikanto Acharya is. But does he need to be? Perhaps one song is all it ever takes. Take a look at the website here.