this & that

Long time no write. Some of the things which are currently holding my interest:

Black Swan
The Clue Train Manifesto
Ted.com

words & rice

http://freerice.com/index.php

I think what I love best is the simplicity of the idea, its elegance. For some reason, it feels a tad better than simply 'giving away'.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the 'totals' section.

feeding in

It used to be that you could tell about a person by the kind of friends he had or by the kind of books he read... to that I shall add, you can also tell about a person by the kind of RSS feeds he has!

Winter's Song

When nights fall early
In the middle of day
Nothing stirs & silence speaks -
That time of the year is now here.
Everything shivers - air crisp, clear
Ripples of Awarenes spread throughout

market fundamentalism

"Based on the premise that the market is the solution to all the problems of the human race, it is, too, a very religious fundamentalism. It has its own Gospel: The Gospel of St. Growth, of St. Choice..."

- P. Sainath, http://www.india-seminar.com/2001/497/497%20p.%20sainath.htm

Never thought of it this way. makes you think

jobbing an education

http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/nov/edu-jojoe.htm#already

very interesting premise on first being employed & then getting the required education.

"Generally, everyone first studies in anticipation of a job and then searches for a job. What would be better, he says, is if employers first pick up candidates for jobs based on aptitude, direct them to educational courses to develop their particular skills, and upon completion of the courses at the candidate's cost, employ every one of them. This novel approach to employability of rural youth is now over a year old, and has helped some 4000 people get jobs."

Would this work in a non-rural set up as well? Not sure. My only agrument against that would be education helps one in exploring fields and options and by the process of exploration arrive at an area of interest..

this too is me

fucked up i feel at times
the shoulds curving my space

i dissolve into the would-have-beens
or would have

if not for this curve of my body
holding me in

"but this, in which there is no I or you"

"If I was pressed to say why I loved him, I feel my reply could be: "Because it was he, because it was I." (Michel de Montaigne, Book 1, On Affectionate Relationships)

the space between by elena georgiou

stuck in an unnamed place
half way between love and in love,
you call me late at night and ask
if i'm sleeping. i tell you, i'm writing.
you ask about what? love, i say.

when i write about us, i stop myself
from saying we make love or we have sex.
i search for a euphemism that won't bind me,
won't define us. i arrive at the phrase
move together. and only now, in writing
this poem, do i see how fitting it is.

the way we moved together vertically
is what made me want to move with you
horizontally. music joined us,
but even in the joining, i didn't know
how to behave, how much or how little
to say, how to choose to be me.

an old friend told me if i feel
smaller than myself with a lover
this is the wrong lover for me.

yes, i make myself smaller; i shrink
my politics, my conversation. i shrink
in mind, but i grow in body.

and don't think i don't know
when the movements are fluid
we look for ways to draw each other
nearer, name each other soulmates.

i have been a two-time witness
to how easily the soul-thread can be
cut, leaving the so-called soulmate
dangling in an empty world of one.

the same old friend comes back
to say a lover should love
in me what i love in myself.

trouble is, we don't know what we love
in each other. we exchange tapes of songs
to hint at the possibility of a feeling,
admitting nothing, partially exposed
in lyrics so, if pushed, we can deny
we meant the words that way.

we skirt around edges hoping
the space between will stop closeness
because close is where we are
fighting ourselves not to be.

i preach distance to you. i inflict it
on myself. i invent barriers like age-gaps
and bad-timing. but only now, in writing
this poem, do i learn how the word
distance can magnetize lovers.

you obey my demands. you don't
call. we don't speak, but you find
a strand of my hair in your freezer
and i still write with the taste of
you in my mouth.

Googlescape

I'm not the kind of person who has a ready opinion about everything. Mostly, because I prefer being a non-entity and don't necessarily savour being the center of attention.

Recently, I've also started feeling that you should form an opinion, come to a conclusion, *only* after you've a) heard both side of the stories b) experienced the said thing yourself.

The only problem with 'a' is the way the story is written *is* coloured by that particular side's bias - which is understandable. However, b is also not possible in every situation.

Anyway, I digress.

I came across a very interesting website. The aim seems to be to uncover the affect that evolving technology with its video & audio offshoots is having/will have on the written, printed word.

You can see more at: : http://www.futureofthebook.org

I personally think the new medium that is evolving will not replace the printed word. Instead, it will be one more form to choose from, adding to the existing bouquet of creative expressions.

The second very interesting link I discovered from this very project is: http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/

While I love my google search as much as the next person, the author poses some interesting questions which definitely set one thinking: "How does using Google alter our perceptions of the world? Are Google’s search algorithms inherently conservative, i.e. do they favor the establish and thus limit the dynamism of the Web? How has the corporation altered the rules and practices that govern other companies, institutions, and states? Will advertising ever be the same? Will Google’s relationship with the brutal government of the People’s Republic of China be its undoing? Will China change Google more than Google changes China?"

In its transition from a noun to a verb, google has certainly picked up lots of admirers & fans on its way (including me :). The project/website seems to balance the Google hyperbole by providing an alternative perspective.

One thing which has always puzzled me is how the heck does Google make its millions & billions? Advertising, sure - but that seems too vague. Intangible. How can it be profitable just on the basis of a few clicks?

The following paragraph struck home, especially because most of the news headlines that appear at the top of my Gmail account *do* interest me (*and* I click a couple of them on a daily basis):

"One of the great attractions of Google is that it appears to offer so many powerful services for “free,” that is, for no remuneration. But there is a non-monetary transaction at work between Google and its users. We get Web search, email, Blogger platforms, and YouTube videos. Google gets our habits and predilections so it can more efficiently target advertisements to us. Google’s core business is consumer profiling. It keeps dossiers on all of us. Yet we have no idea how substantial or accurate these digital portraits are. This project will generate a better sense of what is at stake in this “gift” transaction and will generate new theories of corporate surveillance that get beyond the trite “Panopticon” model."

Check it out.

conversations

subtexts to a conversation I

sometimes
what is not said
is the most important thing
that is spoken

----

subtexts to a conversation II

sometimes
silence is empty
and needs words to fullfill it
to complete it

In Peas & Harmony

Care for some peace? :D

Workplace Cafetaria menu on August 14th, the eve of Indian Independence Day

Didn't get it?
Here's a closer look:

...

caught -
in the middle of a breath

waiting -
to be exhaled

In Dinon...

I know - long time, no post. No excuses. Just fell sick and then fell in a funk. However, I'm back to my normal self now and will hopefully be posting more! Here's a song which has stuck itself in my head these days.

LIFE IN A METRO - ...

the long and short of it

Save one, I have not really written any long post here.

Why? Because my longer pieces dissolve into self introspection, self aggrandizement, self neurosis, self speak, self this, self that… and something within me does not really like this, not in the context of words meant to be shared.

Writing meant to be shared should be devoid of the writer. Fading into the background, the writer’s words should strum the shared experiences; the writer should cease to be, letting the piece become the heart of the matter.

No, that doesn’t capture the essence of what I fink (feel + think) either...

Yes, of course the writer cannot write in a void. His experiences shape much of what she writes. Her interactions, the interweaving of her life with those around him is what gives her or him her or his voice.

What I mean is that I, a beginner, a somewhat unskilled novice really as far as writing goes, do not know how to gracefully fade into what I write. I am unable to dissolve in a way that makes the subject that I’m talking about and not my self become the focal point.

Of course there are books, articles, poems, autobiographical in nature. But then I am neither wise nor mature enough, not to mention a dearth of article-worthy experiences, to attempt that!

Poems… yes, perhaps. However, they leave me exposed. Though, something a friend said does haunt me now - “All art exposes the artist.”

So where does that leave me?

It leaves me trying to find my balance between what I write and who I am becoming.

Random

On Snowflakes: "That all the sighs drifted up the sky, gathered into clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below." - A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseni)

------

Sometimes I wonder if any human being really knows what goes on inside the heart of another?

?

Her: Love's not worth the hassle & heartaches.
Him: It is. With the right person, it is. With the wrong person, it is a disaster.
Her: Silence...

:
:
:
:

But... how the hell are you supposed to know who's right and who's wrong?

:-/

the big.tv contest

Not sure how many people actually slip in here but had to plug this in!

~ After all I owe something to my personal kaaza! besides he's promised me an iphone if I do this - he just forgot to mention it, right motu? ;p

So without further ado, check out these 2 cool contests by Amit & his team:

R U Rajni Enough?
Maa... Mujhe Paise Do!

So whatcha waitin' for?

- Out! Out! Go, shoot! There's booty to loot!

Song for the day

the poetry, the melody, the voice - all of it makes me melt...
Almost like some of Leonard Cohen's poems...

Will attempt a loose translation later.

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what i'm learning i think
is to be one with my uncomfortableness
to let it engulf me
to welcome it inside me
to let the spear of uncomfortableness and aloneness/sadness
pierce my skin
enter my insides
and leave me no choice
but to become one with it in a lover's entangled embrace

---------------

lost

this world is small

you begin someplace
end at another
& realize
you end where you began

this world is small

you look, look
and look
& realize
you are still the onlooker