http://desicritics.org/ Superior South Asian bloggers on Culture, Media, Politics, Sport, Business, and Technology. en Copyright 2006 by the authors Wed, 5 Mar 2008 10:16:07 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss BC custom software http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323710 Suruchi, Looking forward to the pics and text from your M'lore trip! Not really on "leave"...supposed to be doing something productive with my time...so I'm learning Japanese! Will send you the eclipse pics soon...unfortunately snapped with a compact (shame!) 323710@desicritics.org Wed, 5 Mar 2008 10:16:07 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323663 Wow! Ms. A and CS what a discussion going on here! I didn't join coz I was on my way to M'lore! An exciting post(with lotsa pics of course) coming up on that trip! CS, when I last saw the lunar eclipse I so wished that I could capture it on a cam, but didn't have one then, good you got pics.And you know what Atlas shrugged is my fav book of Rand.:) You on leave for a year!! I am so so J!! :( 323663@desicritics.org Tue, 4 Mar 2008 23:15:02 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323033 Naah, this is my only link to the cyberworld! 323033@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:20:31 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323030 Well, this site desperately needs a chatterbox. Give me a link to chat with you then or does uber cyber-nationalism restrict you from doing so. 323030@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:17:37 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323029 Ms A; Probably all of us do without knowing it.. But we are way seriously off-topic, from Suruchi's incredible pics and text. Suruchi, I will mail you the lunar eclipse pics, once i get organized!! Please continue posting more pics! The images of the cows you'd posted earlier, still haunt me, especially the first one... 323029@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:15:07 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323027 I don't know, is there anyone else playing this game? 323027@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:10:21 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323026 nah, not a book on power posting on DC! I'm not even sure what I want to write about. Possibly on the social-psychology of uber cyber-nationalism...there, I gave my game away! 323026@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:07:56 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323024 wow, you're going to write a book about power posting? hmmm. Yeh, well I think I have met my kindred spirit here although lately I feel like I have no desire to go as far as I can in my field. Professor? 323024@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:03:46 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323023 Seriously Ms. A, I teach at an elite research university (I pause for boos at my smug boastful self-righteousness), where I am treated as an adult and there is no bottom-line in terms of productivity or profits. As a full professor at a relatively young age, I have only one more promotion to look forward to: "full of it professor." DC allows me to gain some experience towards that goal! Plus I am bored stiff of the natural sciences, so I dabble in the humanities and the social sciences now. Slow on the uptake (I pause for the "aahs" in response to my obvious non-fake modesty and humility), but ever willing to learn what makes the humanities and social sciences tick! Forever on the look-out for "cant" that needs to be dealt with. No, not the philosopher, but the ideas that emanate from the keyboards of the likes of Kerty and Man Singh (he seems to have disappeared). 323023@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:02:15 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323020 Ms A, Of course I have a job. Writing for DC! Just kidding. On leave for a year; supposed to be writing a book; I may end up writing one about my experience at DC...Seriously, I have gone as far as I can in my career. Besides I'm insanely curious about humans! "Nothing human is alien to me"...besides, I type fast, think (well, in my register at least...garbage no doubt for others!) faster, so it does not really take me that long to post... 323020@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:51:11 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323019 cs, do you have a job? Cool, me neither. Jersey, I presume. 323019@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:41:23 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323007 Ms A, It was a full lunar eclipse here last week, not a solar one, and I could see it from inside my house, thru the window! Brutally cold night, but I was lucky with the angle. Suruchi: I did take some fuzzy pics, and will send them to you. Could not get my act together with the tripod and SLR, so shot it with a compact (for shame!). But the end result wasn't as bad as I expected. Ayn Rand...I guess I'm a rationalist too, pretty hyper-rationalist in fact! I did not care for her very much as she is one of the gurus of the neo-liberal economics and corporatist models ie. let individuals fend for themselves, the state has no business in creating the conditions for a liveable society. Sort of like Mrs. Margaret Thatcher's quip "there is no such thing as society" ie. don't expect any help, pensions, medicare...just fend for yourself, just like I did. The hyper valourization of individualism, not recognizing that individuals become individuals via society. At least in Rand's _Atlas Shrugged_. But that's just me and my ideological blinkers!! Keep posting those fantastic pics and text! Hope your mother was ok after you got back! ("Tu paagal hai!??"") 323007@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:52:31 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323002 There must be some truth to every stereotype and actually I didn't know this was one, just my casual observation. yes, I know the wrong desis. Grab ur fishin' pole n meet me out back. 323002@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:35:54 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-323000 Maybe you just know the wrong desis, Ms. Anona. Or do I hear a stereo...and...ummm...could it be...typing? 323000@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:10:20 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322993 cs, Haha. For some reason I find it hard to visualize some lone Indian hanging out on a cliff watching the solar eclipse over here in this hemisphere. Why is it that desis like to hike/camp/etc. over there, but no one seems to do it in US much? I certainly couldn't pay most of the desis I know to accompany me on such things. 322993@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:17:57 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322990 CS, thanks a lot! I am flattered by your comments! :) I should warn u though that I write very sporadically! The other day I was reading abt rationalism and Ayn Rand was mentioned. And I am like am I rationalist, because I like her writings. But then I don't subscribe to all facets of rationalism, basically I am a very reasonable person, finding a valid reason for whatever I like. :) lucky u! I would have so wished to see it from the hill top! Do you have any pictures from there? 322990@desicritics.org Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:39:45 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322973 S, I like the way you write too! Your style is like Ernest Hemingway - expressive, non-ornamental, no bullshit... 322973@desicritics.org Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:27:08 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322972 BTW, I watched the total lunar eclipse here in N. America...lucky to have a clear night... 322972@desicritics.org Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:24:05 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322970 S, great pics, yet again! I am a regular visitor to your blog!! Keep up the good work. Amazing! (a bit puzzled why you like Ann Raynd (sp?), but then, that's just me! always puzzled...) 322970@desicritics.org Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:19:50 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322861 @Ledzius - Thanks Ledzius! Trekking Savandurga in the night sounds cool! I had been to Savandurga about a year back on a really sunny day needless to say that the trek was a real sweater! @IdeaSmith - Thanks IdeaSmith! You should try to keep the cam on a steady surface (preferably on a tripod) and click the moon by setting the self timer. It has worked for me sans tripod! 322861@desicritics.org Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:50:31 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322858 Really lovely photographs! Each time I try shooting the moon all I get is a blurry blob. I see you've managed a beautiful moonlight shot as well. 322858@desicritics.org Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:55:29 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322857 Good pics.. they reminded me of a night-time trek to Savandurga five years ago, though we didn't stay there till sunrise. 322857@desicritics.org Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:18:59 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322855 @bob - Thanks Bob! Ohh wow, Kerala, it would've been awesome for sure! I still remember the view from Vellarimala peak in Wayanad, it was amazing with the whole valley covered in clouds, though we missed the sunrise there! :( 322855@desicritics.org Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:14:50 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322854 @Aaman - Thanks Aaman. I've the same question as Ms. Anona! :P @temporal - It is never too late, you can write a poem on these clouds if u want. ;) Oops! Had forgotten to check the links! Thanks for fixing them! he he I am perfectly fine with my "madness". In fact I am glad that I am mad! :D @DotMom - Thanks, yeah I am glad too, else I would've cribbed after seeing others' pics from there. @Aditi - Thanks a lot! feels good to see my pics being appreciated! @Tanay - No No, I am lil' mad and a lil' madness is a good thing, don't you think so? BTW, thanks for suggesting this post, else I would've taken ages to finish it! ahem ahem..It would be better if I don't speak about the work I did after the trek. ;) 322854@desicritics.org Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:10:27 EST http://desicritics.org/2008/02/27/131238.php#comment-322853 those are amazing photos. I once had the pleasure of climbing a famous mountain near the Sivananda Ashram in Kerala to watch the sunrise. The view was much like yours. 322853@desicritics.org Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:47:22 EST