Desicritics Category: Media: Internet

Tech Review: Vysr - A Lookup Bar, Not A Toolbar

Rajiv Renganathan — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:14:57 EDT

I found Vysr from FastCompay.TV's demo-cum-interview of Guda Venkatesh (Alumnus of IIT, Kanpur). Vysr is a new toolbar released in beta for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. It aims to enhance the browsing experience by giving easy access to popular services like Google News, Wikipedia, YouTube, MapQuest and others (called Apps) within the current view of the Webpage. Even better, it adds a context of the selected text to these apps. What this means is that you can select "abc" on a webpage and click on the Wikipedia app on Vysr. An in-page display shows the Wikipedia page on "abc". I like that! This acts like a lookup within the scope of my current webpage rather than opening another window or tab. Hence, I call it a Lookup bar, rather than a Tool bar.

The positioning of Vysr is different too. Vysr does not take away valuable real estate in your browser. It is well positioned in the bottom right corner. It is also easier to enable or disable with just a click, without having to search through the browser menus.

For developers, they plan to release a set of APIs. I'm looking forward to designing a Vysr app to search for shopping deals in India with DealSearchMaadi.com and stock analysis with Stockoogle.in.

Apart from the developer API, here is my wish list:

1. Google Web search app. (How could they forget this in the first place?)

2. The bar gets longer as I choose more apps. I would like to have a Windows quick launch bar's double-arrow styled option that on clicking, pops up the other apps.

3. Geo-focused apps, especially for India for local weather, maps, stocks, news, search etc.

I would ve interested to see if Vysr is capable of replacing my Google toolbar over a period of time, also considering the possibility of Google using its toolbar to sketch Google Trends!

The World Congress of Information Technology 2008, Malaysia

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 13:28:10 EDT

I had the honour of attending and speaking at the WCIT 2008 conference in Malaysia and here are some rather disjointed notes that I had while listening to the speakers. I tried to clean it up, but again, apologies for not being able to make this very professional indeed.

Monday

The conference center is big! And I got lost in the exhibition hall. Quite an impressive setup. So then finally managed to extricate myself from poking into the guts of various exciting electronics bits, went looking to find the plenary hall, and found myself sitting in the hall looking at an ant hill of activity. I could not imagine how on earth will they manage to fit 3200 people and assorted volunteers and managers into this hall but they sure did.

Typically, there was the media scrum when a Prime Minister arrives....We were welcomed by 40 children welcoming us in 40 languages representing 90 odd countries here, but the language used through out the conference is English. Curious, no? the prevalence of English in the world?

He also said that UK and South Korea are behind Malaysia in the World Competitiveness Index, and I can well believe it. Although checking the Global Competitiveness Report here seems like the results are different. Perhaps he is talking about this report. Anyway, mere quibbling. And now the PM has left and literally the front 1/4th of the hall has emptied! Some more speeches about WITSA.

Then Dr. Craig Bennett, Chairman of Intel, started talking about how we have a billion people on the Internet and now we have to get the next billion on the Internet as well. He said that four factors are important for knowledge based economic development

Physical access to technology
connection to internet and connectivity
content targeted at local population
education on how to use the tool

He said that a well educated teacher is the magic and not the PC in the classroom. He showed a video about a Nigerian school which has embraced technology but said technology again is not really the only answer.

He talked about taking a holistic viewpoint, what's the point of giving a $200 PC while the monthly connectivity costs are $250 per month in many countries, 100kb monthly cost in Japan is 6 cents, 50 cents in USA and more than 80 dollars in Sub-Saharan Africa. Now you can get an idea how tough it will be to get these people on the intranet or to roll out the broadband revolution to them (more about the exception being that of India later on).

He talked about how Pakistan is being used as an example of pushing broadband and network connectivity out into the sticks. 60mm dollars is the budget, rolling out in untouched areas in Pakistan, he invited a Pakistani chap to the stage who is the CEO of the public company which is helping to push this (didn't catch the name). Connectivity is a challenge. Satellite is way too expensive. Fiber is the only way. Rolling out fiber is tough, so tehsils where its not remunerative for private companies, this company gives money and offers seed capital, it helps to improve the business case for the private firm. This was a good step. The Pakistani chap said that Govt should not be involved that much in this business, put power to public private consortiums or just private firms, give them a stake in the business and then it will work. But I am not holding my breath, I want to know whether connectivity actually helps or would more investment in say better teacher training help?

He video conferenced a doctor from Brazil into us, how location differences for patients versus diagnostics versus doctors versus care had disappeared, and this tele-medicine actually is helping far more people than medicine and doctors were previously. Then there was some corporate stuff with some kids brought on stage and it ended. It was a bit too slick and the questions with the kids was too obvious and that left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Such a senior chap shouldn't need such kind of gimmicks to play around with such an important topic, we are all adults, you don't have to take us to be children or idiots to play that game.

I was a bit impressed with what he had to say, but what he had to say was crucial (leave aside all the silly posturing and even more silly marketing of Intel stuff). His point was, throwing money at technology and expecting better performance from students was wrong, the idea is to teach the teachers to be better, that will provide better results than thousands of PC's and laptops.

Nothing much to note for the next few sessions. The post lunch session for the Ministerial panel was a bit interesting. Mainly because you could see how various governments approached this entire idea of information technology. You know what was the most disappointing? It was the Philippines MP. She came across as a complete Neanderthal, saying that in many parts of her constituency, there is no electricity power anyway, forget about PC's, and it was a whine. The Philippines government should really have thought that through. The Malaysian government minister and other ministers were smart, they obviously were pushing their countries and with due reason, telling us, the corporate folks, what we wanted to hear..., but Philippines? Pathetic. She is a blot on that country's face.

The next wireless broadband session made me go to sleep. Pure and simple, those two Romanian scientists, bright as they were, made me doze off specially when they started talking about antenna design, and specially after that excellent lunch.

Woke up to an excellent presentation by Professor Takenaka. He talked about how he was made the Minister for Finance in Japan by a certain Lionheart PM of Japan. Fascinating tale of how he took on the entrenched might of bureaucrats and financial institutions and won. And I well believe him, given some down sides, generally that time was brilliant, it still shows that even in a consensual driven society such as Japan, you can still have mavericks who hire mavericks who really make a huge difference! Brilliant fellow. Unfortunately he was not allowed to fulfill his destiny and do all that he wanted to do but there you go, he literally broke the back of the Japanese economic stalemate. I was personally quite impressed but I suspect that quite a lot were not as he was talking more about economics and finance than IT. The IT piece came way afterwards, a little bit and as an after thought.

Then we had Bill Gates in a hologram talking about Microsoft and then Dr. Zhang also, not very clear about what, was flagging badly by that time.... and then we went off back to the hotel, did some more emails and then some calls back home and then off to dinner, again, dinner was brilliant, and pigged out and came back and went to snore, i mean sleep.

Tuesday

The day started with perhaps one of the most interesting panel discussions I have ever attended. It was to do with how to produce innovation and creativity and what can be done to enhance it. These were the people there.

- Arnold Gay, Anchor, CNBC - Moderator
- Kamil Othman, Vice President, Multimedia Development Corporation
- Fritz Attaway, Executive Vice President, Motion Picture Association of America
- Terry Thoren, Chief Executive Officer, Rocket Fish Studios

You cannot get a better collection of people talking about the most creative of industries, motion pictures and a very educational and interesting debate happened. Terry said that the world is changing, Malaysia has twin towers now while USA no longer has it. Who knows what's going to happen in the future? He has severe distaste for politics but great admiration for tech, people, process, creativity, etc

Kamil went into deep details on how to build an innovative industry? Animation in Malaysia. Disappointing take up, long way to go, to make a Walt Disney, you need to start with one million children drawing in grade 8. You cannot create a flash laboratory, shove people in there and wait on the other side of the Lab waiting for Toy Story or Cinderella to drop out of the other side. It has to be started from the very basic levels, people cannot look down on the arts which they do at this moment.

Monetisation of opportunities and content is a challenge, how do you do it? look around you, all countries are pushing people to get educated and into the knowledge sciences, but not all people are thus inclined. Many people simply do not like mathematics or technology. Some people want to study arts, or paint or simply do not have the mathematical skills. What do you do to them? Those who want to write poems? How does he get paid? or fed?

There were conversations around how to create a movie or animated film, quite interesting to see how Hollywood and Silicon Valley literally took decades to develop, you cannot do that just by throwing technology at it. Quite thought provoking indeed. Perhaps one could question whether it is possible to force people to become creative? Or can you just provide the infrastructure and let them get on with it? or is it just let people be, and trust in them to come up with the goods?

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The next session had more ministers but I was quite interested and taken by A Raja, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, India. I have to admit, I was quite cynical at first knowing about Indian politicians, but was very impressed to see what he had to say about it all, how they are powering ahead with the licence's, what mistakes they made, how the process of governance is happening, who gets to approve what? and so on and so forth. Pretty good and well, I will think that what he is saying is right, because I have experienced the mobile phone revolution in India.

As usual, it has to be different. Rest of the world goes through scientific revolution, industrial revolution, then wars then dial up then broadband and mobile, India starts off with revolutions in 3000 years BC, then has fun, then goes into decline, then starts off with a revolution in Y2K and then the next revolution is mobile and mobile internet and mobile commerce is bigger now, how strange and unique... Very curious, loads to think about there. The technology trajectories of these two countries, based upon what Dr. Jiren of China said, are so different. One wonders what will happen in the future.

Incidentally, there was a gentleman from Saudi Arabia who made me think of the previous session. He spoke on about how much money has been pumped into the industry in Saudi Arabia, the emergence of knowledge cities, and the like. Not impressed at all. Not at all impressed. Setting up a knowledge city and throwing money at it does not solve the problem of creativity or having knowledge industries. For that, you need to have creativity at the school level. They have to inquire and challenge everything. Can you imagine something like that happening in Saudi Arabia? Which is the reason why I couldn't take it any more and went outside to grab a coffee. Perhaps the organisers should have kept coffee on tap, this was crazy, they dont want the participants to keep awake? dont they know we drink coffee by the gallon?

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The next topic was rather dry, Dr. Mobius talked about where the next hotspots will be. And I lost my notes on this lecture so this part is a bit vague. I remember him showing loads of graphs about where and when returns are made. It was an asset management view, so was a bit dry. Still, was a bit interesting, specially around the returns of the various sectors in the Asian economy. That is much that I remember... if and when I get my hands on his slide deck, and have time to read it again, will comment...

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For the next session, I went to the "Asia, the destination of choice for Shared Services and Outsourcing" session.

- Dato’ Narayanan Kanan, Senior Vice-President, Multimedia Development Corporation – Moderator
- Michael F. Corbett, Chairman of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals
- Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, NASSCOM
- David Wong, Chairman, Outsourcing Malaysia
- Stephen Braim, Vice President Governmental Programs, IBM Asia Pacific

Very interesting, Michael spoke about the impact of the US elections on international outsourcing. I was, frankly a bit puzzled by that kind of emphasis. For two reasons. The first aspect is that the actual number of jobs which are dependent upon the classical aspect of outsourcing is reducing, and the second aspect is, did he really think that the elections will make a tiny bit of difference? Obviously yes, but I am rather disappointed that it was more American rather than International. Also, I was a bit saddened that there was no discussions about international aspects, taxation, technology which allows remote working, etc.

But overall, it was quite interesting, there was discussion about education and how that will help in various countries. What Malaysia is trying to do. What the IBM view was from the perspective of government initiatives and education and so on and so forth. But also, I was a bit disappointed that most people's perspective was the next 8 - 12 months, not more. Still, lets go to lunch, was feeling quite hungry now.

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Over lunch, we had a speech by Dr. Rowe, where he was talking about how the worlds of virtual reality and real life reality meet and how they work together. Quite an interesting topic and he spoke quite a lot about his own personal experiences and the like. But not much about real life applications. I then sent him an email afterwards, and this is what I said to him.

At ABN AMRO, we used Second Life to actually recruit, it was very challenging and interesting but it ultimately failed because of lack of regulatory frameworks. Ended up with 5.5 FTE dedicated to Second Life but then scaled back.
We also used a virtual world to help mentoring. Such as when we have just 2 IT employees in Uzbekistan, then how do I get the junior chap mentored? So we setup a virtual world where mentors and mentee's can congregate in a persistent state across the world. This helps in knowledge capture and better employee retention.
My friend from BP is using a virtual world to track every employee in complex and potentially dangerous plants. This location tracking and graphical display of every employee is used for fire, safety, evacuation and training purposes.

Second life and other virtual lives have become really challenging world and are throwing up some seriously challenging questions for us, again which have not been fully explored just yet.

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Unfortunately, I missed the next slot because we had to go and get powdered up for our session at 3. Not much to speak about in there, check out the slide deck. Also managed to miss out a large proportion of the next presentation from Dr. Pachauri because we were supposed to be in a room answering questions. But did manage to catch snippets of his talk. Quite interesting.

I had to take an office phone call so managed to miss out on the next one as well. So that was that. Nice dinner, watched a charity auction, observed some very nice and lovely looking ladies. This lady was standing 2 feet away from me. Very fragrant. Nice hair even.

Wednesday

This day was going to be challenging, specially since it was also the Champions League Final day.

The day started with me taking breakfast in the Trader Hotel Lounge, where I had been put up, its just next door to the KLCC so very convenient indeed. So took some pictures from the 34th floor lounge while having breakfast.

Here are the twin towers, at the base you can see the gigantic 6 story mall with two wings. It is absolutely stonkingly huge, that mall. Anyway, the twin towers, and the very well landscaped park around the buildings. The building on the left of the twin towers is the Mandarin Oriental where many other guests were also put up.

Then the day started with two debates on the future of the Internet. A deep discussion erupted over the net neutrality issue. To be honest, I have never really thought about it till I was forced to sit and listen to these two debates. Not that I have really firmed up my thoughts but the question is, who pays for the internet? It is my firm belief that nothing is free in this world, somebody will ultimately pay, either the taxpayer, stockholder, consumer, today you or tomorrow in the form of your child. Somebody has to pay. So this idea that the net is free is frankly stupid and more worryingly, it shows a childish view of the world.

Also, the idea that a communications network will or should be free is against human history. Do you think that the pigeon post was free to everybody? or the pony express allowed everybody to send stuff over? or how about the fact that letters still cost to send stuff to each other? Or the fact that we have public and private ownership over the postal system? Or the fact that we have regulations governing what can and cannot be sent over the posts? Or how about the fact that online classifieds are killing newspapers? Or how about the issue that emails are killing the postal system? So when we do not have any issues over that, why do we suddenly end up having an issue over the net neutrality aspect? Here is a good overview article. Very complicated matter, but I suspect it will end up like we have the health service. A Universal service provision which will provide some kind of a basic internet, which is slow and unreliable, while a paid for internet which is better and faster. Pretty much common compared to other industries, if you ask me.

Then there was a discussion about Silicon Valley, it started in 1940's, it took 10 years to know, 10 years to come, 20 years to investment, etc. etc. Takes a heck of a long time to start developing an industry. See what Taiwan did, took them decades to get to it but get to it they did. Now they are the champions, and almost every PC in the world has some Taiwanese components in it.

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Next session I had to miss, then popped into the Mexico session for a few just to realise that they were talking about near shoring. I mean, d'oh, get on with the programme, people are now in the 5th generation of out sourcing and we are still in the terminology of the 1st generation. Crikey! that made me so depressed that I went back to the room and started my calls. Also had a quick bite to eat in the room itself, couldn't’get out of the calls but went back to catch the next great debate.

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Not much to report on other than the fact that one of the guests (I told you, lost all my notes because my stupid My Documents folder decided that it wants to forget all about my previous history and start afresh to synch...). said that the adoption of energy efficiency standards by California means that the energy usage per citizen has now leveled off compared to other states. But if you think about it, the lesson from this is to start imposing energy standards more and more, get people challenged to be smarter about their energy usage. So while the usage will rise, but it will level off at some point!, interesting, no?

So I went looking for some data. What does this tell you? Well, it did make me go hmmmm. We are actually seeing a dip in the energy consumption per capita in North and South America, albeit from a relatively high level. Delving deeper into North America, Canada and Mexico are showing an increase while, very surprisingly, USA is dipping down and decreasing. How curious. 40 countries out of 134 countries actually showed a dip in energy consumption between 2000 and 2003. Some of them were obviously banana republics which were facing economic downturns such as Zimbabwe, or contractions such as Argentina, Ivory Coast, Bolivia, Eritrea, etc.

But what explains this reduction for countries as varied as Belgium, Brazil, Australia, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, UAE, United Kingdom and USA? Can it be that despite increasing populations, their energy efficiency is improving? Dont take my word for it, check out the data. It is from the IEA even, so would be ok as well. Population information from the United Nations.

The next topic was the most interesting one, so I will put up another dedicated post for it. Came out to grab a coffee before going back in and saw that the sky was cloudy, the KL Tower was nearly hidden under clouds. Unfortunately, all the photographs with the top of the tower hidden did not come out, but hope you can make out the onion dome in the back being hazy in the mist.

One of the living legends of the internet age, Dr Vinton Cerf, Vice-president & Chief Internet Evangelists, Google, spoke on the topic of "Tracking the Internet into the 21st Century". This was the final presentation of the WCIT and the entire hall was absolutely crowded, people were standing on the aisles waiting to hear that great man.

He talked about the future of the internet. Said that the internet penetration around the world is strange. Asia, Middle East and Africa are bad or low or both. Only 20% of the world is connected. He used the World Population Reports from the UN about the 2300 figures and displayed them, some interesting rises and dips. I presume he is talking about this report. See the graph on page 19 of the report. High scenario shows a horrifying 36 billion people on the planet, with a medium one of less than 10 billion. Bloody interesting report but this is not the place to go into it.

He talked about how only 20% are connected to the internet and more will grow. Incidentally, I found it much easier to observe him up on the main screen rather than watch him on the far left. Which begs the question, if this was webcast, then I wouldn't have traveled to Malaysia.... (theoretical question...). Which made me go off into a different train of thought.

My facebook, orkut, myspace, etc. accounts are nothing but very primitive clones of myself. I cannot be everywhere, so my primitive clones operate on my behalf. Just like my email system does and my voicemail system does. As a matter of fact, my home is also a sort of a clone. It has an address which is independent of me. People can communicate with me on an asynchronous basis and I can get back to them whenever. So when people are writing something on my facebook wall, are they communicating with me? or with my clone?

Say I have an active Second Life account. Is that me or is that my clone? Or both? I feed those clones with information and they act/react based upon my preferences. So I can be in another place via my robot/clone and get back information to me when it is convenient to me. I do not have to be face to face with you to get information. You can email/voicemail me and I can pick it up at my convenience.

If I communicate with my son online in Second Life via both our avatars while we are both across the world, am I still his father? to what extent? How about love? Can I show my love to him? via that medium? How does he know that it is me? Or if I was seeing Dr. Cerf across the world on a webcast, how would I know it is him? Just because somebody said so? identity problems galore. Does this mean that more friends you have, more your identify is confirmed? Like an amazon or ebay seller, more positive recommendations, the better is the identity and better is the trust. What do I do when I am dealing with a financial institution? Curiously, microcredit or microfinance rests on this premise, it lends money to people on the basis of guarantors from their community. So a person has to be social and know people and be trusted by them in order to get money. Bit different from my neural network Kohonen map based credit scoring model, eh? But I digress.

He talked about IPv6 (a network address for every device on this planet and then some, even some for your socks..), better search engines. He said something that I will come back to, he said that the monetisation and earning potential online will be less and the current business models will have to change.

He also talked about BIT rot, how on earth will you manage to open a Powerpoint 1997 file in Windows 3000? Forget about that old a problem, here is my problem. I wanted to dig out some research that I had done way back in 1990. I did not have the files here in London so had to wait till I got back to home and went to poked through my old cupboard. Besides the nostalgic kick, I finally found the floppy disks. 5 1/4 inch floppy disks to be precise. I have also operated the 8 inch floppy disk but well, the data that I had was in two formats, Lotus 1-2-3 and dbase. I remember sitting back on my haunches, looking at the dusty pile of floppies, and thinking back to those hours and days that I spent in typing in the financial data of the companies and did the basic analysis. Do you know, I even managed to calculate multiple regression on the damn things in there? Anyway, for all purposes, that data is now lost to me. I do not have a floppy drive anywhere near me, none of the 4 home pc's have it. I have an old laptop which has a floppy drive but it is 8 1/2 inch drive, not the older 5 1/4th inch drive. So I am stiffed.

Fast forward today. Financial institutions are supposed to keep data for up to 10 years. So your transactions and your records are supposed to be kept nicely and carefully within the firm for 10 years. Now the transactions are processed, on an average, via 10 odd applications. There can be many more depending upon the country and product but just think about it, 10 applications, multiple operating systems, multiple upgrades, multiple hardware requirements, multiple network systems, multiple servers, so many different types of technology stacks, and we have to maintain a record of this. Within 5 years, it becomes a major issue to keep up to date with technology, we are talking about 100's of years? No bloody way.

Museums are now struggling with electronic art. I could have taken those disks to a museum but they are also facing problems. Here's a great paper written in 2001 and the problem has become even worse now.

He also talked about the inter-planetary internet. That just blew my mind away but it needs much more thought before I can write more about it, its not fully comprehended yet. Anyway, he got a standing ovation at the end. I ran to attend his Q&A after getting distracted by an email, but still managed to get to the hall to ask him a question. I asked him, you have talked so much about what will happen in 2035 and 2300, the physical shape of the internet, the devices, the penetration rates, and and and. What do you think would be the value system, the monetary framework, the price formation or who will pay for it all? It was obvious that I had asked a wrong question immediately because it did not go anywhere fast. I did ask some follow up questions, but he is a great man, he had to rush off to meet somebody else.

This is my problem. I am supposed to think about what's going to happen in 5 years time in the financial world. This is what I am seeing currently. People who are in the 15-25 years of age category, the great unwashed herd who will be our future employees and customers, are not that well versed in value creation online. And why would they be? Look at what kids do online these days. He watches movies, plays songs, plays games, chats with people, participates in joint coding, and so on and so forth. Almost all of this is free or stolen. His email is free, his programming language is free, songs and movies are free, his video is from YouTube, his chatting is free via text and messenger, his voice is free over VoIP. So all these assets that these kids are using, they are all free at this moment.

So I am most certainly not surprised that they do not know the value of online assets. So when you ask them, how much are you worth? or how much will you work for? or how much do you wish to charge for your ideas? or how much funding will you need for your great online idea? no idea. And that is the issue that I am struggling with. In 5 or 10 years, the link between physical work, money and online assets will be inextricably broken. So how much would I pay a coder? How much would Microsoft pay a programmer when most online assets are free?

My son said something to me today that completely blew me away. He said that he will go create some online jewels and armour in World of Warcraft as birthday gifts for his friend who lives 5 houses down. No money, no nothing, just pure and simple virtual asset formation, entertainment and happiness increased but with no reference to money at all. Deeply worrying.

So to go back to Dr. Cerf, on what basis will anybody pay for a book in 2300? or a share in the company making Windows 3000? or the ability to write code? Or to create a powerpoint presentation? I do not have an answer, but I didn't get one either. I will be struggling with this as part of my job as well, but I am seriously not sure what the answer is. We saw some amazing valuation modeling during the internet boom. But they did put a value on an intangible asset, no? It was a bad value, but a value none the less. Also goes to the heart of what Mark to Market is all about. If this is all too philosophical, think about this, my son is happier getting a World of Warcraft spell rather than an intricately carved wooden box which I got for him.....Should I have gone to the local electronic fair in Kuala Lumpur and bought a user-id/password for him instead? How would I judge what is a fair amount to pay? I have no idea whatsoever. No reference points at all.

That brought me to the end of the conference. The last day, Thursday, was a trip to Cyberjaya and Putrajaya, the IT and administrative hubs of the country, but dont think that fits in here, so you can see some pictures here. I have also written another essay on my observations on Malaysia and that should be published soon as well. End of the day, fascinating indeed and perhaps it was appropriate that that brought my professional career stint with technology to an end, now its moving back into the front office. But technology will remain with me, either with my shareholder, customer or employees. Food for thought, will try to attend the next one in 2010 in Amsterdam.

Technorati Tags: Technology,Internet,Web 2.0

Why the Western Invasion?

Pingu — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 07:56:19 EDT

I was going through Indianroomates.in, a website quite similar to its American counterpart Roomates.com which aims to help and connect (mostly) the youth seeking accommodation. One thing that really caught my attention was the picture of Indian youth on the homepage. As bizarre as it may sound, when was the last time you saw a non-NGO Indian website which had Indian faces? At the most it might have the token Indian or Black person to show diversity, but I think it’s quite rare to find only Indian people. In the beginning I felt maybe such a strategy is employed to show that that company is global (or at least aspiring to be global) but now it just seems like everyone is following the crowd. But then what about those companies which are purely based in India and don’t seem to be expanding outside India in the likely future. I say this because couple of the web based start ups that launched from my college and had noting to do with foreign clients had picture of Caucasian women playing with their Caucasian kids. It just doesn’t make sense. Why should a premier IIT-JEE (Not too tough to guess which one now) coaching institute which receives over a crore hits every year need to put a header picture of some American university students on its website? I don’t know where the problem lies. Is it that the companies ask the web designing team to put in those pictures (in case the work is being outsourced) or the company itself feels its needs such a picture. The whole point being that if your pictures don’t gel with your venture, you end up looking really stupid.

By the way it was really disappointing to see that the moment I clicked on a page at Indianroomates, it took me to another page. And this one had phirangs on it, smiling.

Here’s one solution. The issue of portraying yourself as something doesn’t need faces. It can be done through symbols as well. If you’re ashamed of putting in Indian people shaking hands (though I don’t know why that would be the case), then might as well show only the shaking of hands on your webpage rather than show a Chinese and a Kenyan doing so, especially if you’re a start up based in a small town whose main market is the nearby city.

Aamir Khan Blogs Shahrukh

Deepti Lamba — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:47:42 EDT

An Indian blog that gets about 1288 comments belongs to a fellow called Aamir Khan and the latest post is about a dog named Shahrukh! Before you jump the gun- the dog isn't Aamir's nor did he get to name the dog.

Now, before you jump to any conclusions let me add that Shahrukh is the name of our dog. And before you jump to any further conclusions let me add that I had nothing to do with naming him. In fact Shahrukh is the dog of the caretakers of our house. When I bought this house it came with the caretakers and their dog! Apparently Shahrukh (the actor) was shooting for a commercial in this house a few years ago, and that very day the caretakers bought a pup…, and named him Shahrukh. What are the chances of me buying a house which comes with a dog called Shahrukh!!!

Aamir is a precocious fellow and there is supposed to be some kind of uneasy rivalry/acquaintance between Shahrukh Khan and him. In fact, if we are to believe the Bollywood rags, Aamir told his child prodigy Darsheel Safary not to overact like Shahrukh and had the wounded Khan reply 'I thought we were friends'.

It seems this time round, Aamir has ensured that the new gossip came from the horse's mouth.

There are a number of celebrities, actors and even anchormen who have blogs maintained by their PR people and treated as sites where their official statements are made:

I am sorry I showed my coochie (paraphasing Britney Spears)
I am sorry I have to go to prison, save me from imprisoned she-men (para-phasing Paris Hilton)
I'm what hot stuff is made of ( Premiere SRK says it all without SRK having to say a word)
I'm about making a difference and like Huffingtonpost its my name but others write ( para-phrasing Anderson Cooper 360)

The Celeb List goes on, and yet the websites of most celebrities don't give glimpses into their lives except when deeply effected like Paris Hilton (I couldn't help that one).

Aamir Khan's blog, like Neil Gaiman's, is a novelty since he lays his life somewhat open for others to read and observe. Aamir's blog is his personality and in many ways his life. He is a hardworking man with an impish sense of humor and while the google news is buzzing with words like - Aamir's dog's name is Shahrukh, Aamir is having a ball acting like a cat amongst the pigeons.

Stalking Hasan Elahi: TrackingTransience Delusions

Ms. Anona — Sun, 4 May 2008 14:34:20 EDT

“He’s just a media whore.” said Rajesh, my best online friend. “Why are you so infatuated?”

“I just want his data, that’s it mostly.” I said, trying even to convince myself. “I thought it would make a good Grad project. I’m wasting time, I should just forget it.”

It’s been over four months since I first spotted Hasan Elahi on Yahoo! News. His story was just another blip found in passing and I almost ignored it. But wait, I thought, is that a DESI with hydrogen peroxide splashed through his hair looking like the prototype of an ABCD? Interesting. So, I read his story. Then I checked out his videos. Hmm, he’s a professor, easy to find. So I e-mailed him, and e-mailed again. And then I called his hotel room. Whoops!… Uh-oh… rewind!!

Hasan says that the main purpose of his website, TrackingTransience, is to keep the FBI, INS, and all the other ‘three-lettered bureaucracies’ off his back and up-to-date on his frequent and highly unpredictable movements. The website’s design is gratifying as it pinpoints his exact location in real-time along with a photo of the locale.

His idea for the website dates back to an experience where he was apprehended for suspicious behavior not long after 9-11. Since then, he has been proffering the authorities his whereabouts in the hopes that he won’t be further detained and subject to interrogation.

In theory, the project is simplistically brilliant, but for the regular online blogger like myself, Hasan’s site is like a trip down the wormhole if visited often enough. I would personally reckon the experience to the time I tripped off acid at a Phish concert. I felt perfectly fine for the longest time and thought that the blue plastic-like tablet I had taken earlier was defunct, but why was everyone scowling at me? The stage was full of colorful lights and spinning things orbiting all around. Everyone was in a trance, and I seemed to be the only one who was missing something. Where are the musicians, I mused. I never did see them peek out through the thick smoke. For all I knew, they were at home in Arizona!

Needless to say, I got sucked into TrackingTransience. Hasan offers a psychedelic porthole into his life without really giving the observer a glimpse of what lies behind the world of placid and oftentimes ordinary scenery.

The intangibility displayed is the only thing that the observer has to embrace and I was left to yearn for more. Who is this Hasan, and why doesn’t he clean his house? That’s a nice restaurant, I wonder if he’s dining with anyone. What circumstances would cause someone to drive clear across the country and then fly somewhere else? I had to know more.

I waited patiently for him to appear on chat. When he finally did show, he came up with almost laughably dry comments like, “My life is boring.”

“You seem very superficial,” I said.

“Well, I try,” he said, in response.

My hyper-sentimental self was weary of an emotional cripple. Why wasn’t he asking me any questions? I don’t even think I got a “how are you?” out of him. Of course, he had no problem talking about himself. And that’s when I realized I was really talking to every ex-boyfriend I’ve ever had and my memories of one in particular, (who I’ll call Specimen J here) a local DJ sensation, came back to me.

A typical conversation with Specimen J went as follows:

Me (speaking loudly above deafening house music): Hey, what’s going on?

Specimen J (crinkling nose while halting his head bop): What?

Five minute lull in conversation.

Me: That’s great, who did that song?

Specimen J (turning down the music, clearly annoyed): What

It is important to note that in this case the word “what” is not intended to be a question or to initiate a response. By my provocation, I was clearly breaking some kind of unspoken rule of cooldom that I was apparently not attuned to.

“Help! My regular appeal and flirtatious chatting behavior is not working on Hasan,” I complained to Rajesh.

“I don’t get it, just get over this guy,” he said while I envisioned him at work in his Manhattan office. Rajesh is a magnificent listener and multi-tasker. He can chat with me while talking to his boss on the phone, writing two Word documents, and grooming himself, but he has a terrible long-term memory and would probably forget me altogether if I didn’t pop up now and again.

I realized there is something all these people have in common, however, besides the obvious lack of emotional response. They all offer an experience beyond that which can be gathered out of my own mundane life, and in that way, they can never fail. Hasan creates a world where the common is instantly art. It makes you yearn to be somewhere more interesting, even if just a baggage claim in a Utah airport.

“I feel safer this way,” Hasan told me.

“Wow, that’s disillusioned,” I chatted. “What if someone has the urge to commit a hate crime? You’re a pretty easy target.”

“Yeh, I guess,” he said, like the thought had never crossed his mind.

I can’t fathom how someone can feel safer in this way, but somehow my emotional reflexes understand. In some ways Hasan is like the perfect ex-boyfriend. Who wouldn’t want to check up on an ex-fling every now and then without really having to contact them directly? You could just go online every once in a while and affirm that, yup, he hasn’t changed.

“Dude, I’m breaking up with you,” I said.

“What.”

Woes of an Indian Wife

Suresh Naig — Fri, 2 May 2008 11:49:29 EDT

The communications revolution has changed the lives of many people. Hitherto an Indian wife confined to four walls, started breaking the barriers, by communicating to faceless persons all over the globe, through the Internet. Many Indian wives have picked up friends around the world to break their monotony. During one such chat session, an Indian wife exchanged her views with a Western counterpart.

Westerner: How long have you been married?
Indian: 12 years.
W: Wow fantastic. I have been married for only 2 years. Tell me something about your married life. I am sure it must be fascinating.
I: What fascination? I have been through all his tantrums and mood swings. I always wanted to be a career woman, but I am a carrier woman. Mother of two lovely kids, a small consolation.
W: Ha ha. A silver lining. Tell me something more. How do you manage money for your personal expenses?
I: There is no dearth of funds for any expenses. He gives me whatever I want.
W: You must be very lucky. We are slogging together for all our needs. House mortgage, vehicles, vacation, credit card payments and the list is endless. How do you manage with one person's earnings?
I: I told you. There is no dearth of money, he has a handsome salary, we have our own house, vehicle, and the kids are in good schools.
W: Then why do you complain?
I: The list is long. He doesn't keep anything in a proper place and whenever he needs any small things, he shouts at me for improper house keeping. When I point out, that it is his mistake, he erupts like a volcano, complaining that he has more responsibility in the office and I cannot expect him to take care of small things at home.
W: How sad.
I: Not only that. I can't be harsh to the kids, whenever they err. You see male chauvinism. He is very possessive with them. At times, I feel I am an unpaid servant at home. House keeping, cooking, baby sitting and yet no equal rights at home. You must be lucky.
W: Yeah. We also have quarrels at home. However, it is controlled and within limits. No one can bully around. We have equal earnings and equal rights. You poor thing.
I: I am really confused. How can I stand up for my rights after this many years of controlled slavery?
W: You know what. We have equal rights and freedom. If it doesn't suit we simply walk out to our freedom. If you feel so oppressed, why don't you simply walk out for freedom?
I: Freedom. My foot. He doesn't deserve it.

The chat had ended abruptly.

How Wikipedia Conquered my Reality Soap/TV Addiction

Kim — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:08:29 EDT

I was typing a comment on Uma's post A Bad Habit Called A Reality Soap and realised I had written a comment long enough to be a post :)

I realised I was watching most of the reality shows I liked because I liked seeing who would get eliminated next.

I was lucky, because most of the reality shows I watch are the American ones which come to India a couple of months after they are released in the US. So after losing a couple of hours spent unproductively watching reality shows, I realised that just checking the Wikipedia entry for that season cured me of it.

Wikipedia lets me know who got eliminated and why and who won & thats it, no longer any compulsion to watch the show. Thats because my trigger to watch most of them was the suspense and surprise.

With my location change and different seasons playing in different countries on different channels, I was getting confused with sequence of events on serials like Lost, Prison Break, Desperate Housewives. Wikipediaalso helped me catch up on all the seasons of Lost with 3 hours of reading. Same for the other serials too.

Of course there are the shows like So you think you can dance? which I watch for the performances but I'm not too interested in the results show the next day because I know I will figure out next week who has been dropped anyway.

I used to be a huge fan of American Idol till Constantine, Latoya, Jennifer Hudson, Melinda, Daughtry consecutively kept getting out way before their time while lesser performers were still kept on. I just stopped watching each season when my favorites got out because I no longer felt it was worth watching. Proof of the flawed voting system is that only 2 of the winners of this show in its 6 seasons - Kelly Clarkson (Season 1)and Carrie Underwood (Season 4) - have received commercial success while many of the finalists who were dropped on the side have had a better success rate. Season 7 which is currently on does not have a single finalist who seemed interesting enough for me to follow the series and Simon is now more obtuse than brilliant, so I just watch it intermittently.

With Rockstar INXS and Supernova, I had slightly better luck. My favorites made it to the final 3 each season although they lost out to the person I least liked from the entire bunch both times. While I have reconsidered my opinion on J D Fortune, I still think Dilana was the best of the second bunch.

I used to love The Amazing Race till it started blurring the lines with Fear Factor. When competitors on The Amazing Race had to start eating weird stuff it grossed me out too much to follow it.

Each of my favorite reality shows/contests gave me its own reason to stop me from being addicted and obsessing about watching it on time every week. The downside is that I seem to have replaced it with an addiction to Wikipedia.

Hits and Misses- Get Out! We Are Visiting Your City

Rumana Husain — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:12:30 EDT

My first memories of violence, fear, and insecurity go back to age four.

“Don’t stand near the window!”

“Shut the lights, keep the chilli powder at hand…we will throw it in their faces if they come.”

“Mr. Nair has said not to worry, his Alsatians will protect us from the attackers.”

This is on a prolonged visit to India, as my grandmother is observing her iddat there in our ancestral home. A Hindu-Muslim riot has broken out...

I remember the kindly Hindu gentleman with the fearsome dogs. He is one of our tenants, living nearby. I also remember Tai – everybody calls her that - an old Hindu lady, with a deep, almost masculine voice, she has also vouched to protect us come what may. She too lives in the vicinity. The Hindu servants of the household: ayahs Lacchia and Shanti, a driver, a maali, a maalan…they are the sweetest, most loyal people of the household, who have dedicated their lives for the service of our family. The loving care of all these people surrounds us, but despite this, the possibility of a mob-attack is scary.

Come1962, I am slightly older...

There is a ramification in Karachi - my place of birth - of the anti-Muslim riots that have been erupting in some Indian cities. The sordid memories of the Karachi riots are still deeply etched in my mind.

“Stay away from the windows!”

“Let them pelt stones, we won’t give them what they want!”

These are the calls of my parents. There is a reversal of roles in these Hindu-Muslim riots. The attackers are frenzied Muslim ‘brothers’, driven by hate and revenge, urging my father to provide them with petrol or kerosene. They want to douse the belongings of our Hindu and Sikh neighbours living in the Guru Nanak Gurudwara just across the street.

The mob has already torched and broken down the main door of the temple, dragging out the family residing on the first floor. I shiver in terror, watching from a crevice of our enclosed balcony…the helpless gentleman and his wife pleading to the insane crowd for mercy. Imprinted in my memory is my father’s lone voice screaming and appealing all at once, urging the crowd to disperse. I remember watching in horror as the gentleman is given a blow on the head with a hockey stick and then a stone is hurled at my father as he pleads with the mob to release the couple. Bundles and bundles of the lady’s saris are brought out on the street for a bonfire.

Soon after that, scores of menacing men begin to bang on our doors with fists, kicks and hockey sticks, abusing us for not cooperating, for siding with the ‘kafirs’, continuously pelting our place with stones big and small.

Not a single glass pane of our house is spared. Our house, on Roop Chand Bela Ram Road, has a unique location; one side faces the Arambagh Road, another looks towards Pakistan Chowk, and the third has its orientation towards the Burnes Road. There are countless windows and ventilators in that double-storied house. My parents, my elder sister and I stand in the middle of a relatively safe room, but we are surrounded by glass – shards and splinters - all over the place.

It is a small price to pay for a principled stand. Thankfully, a police contingent arrives, dispersing the crowd and taking the Hindu couple with them but not before using lathi-charge and tear gas – the two kinds of weapons used by the police in those days.

For months the charred door of the gurudwara reminds us of the ugly incident. We did not see our neighbours again. The gentleman was a journalist who worked with an English daily.

Due to the close proximity of our house to several colleges, like the D.J. College, S.M. Science College, S.M. Law College, NED College (it was relocated at the present campus near the Karachi University some years later), we witness several student protests and demonstrations. In the late sixties and early seventies student uprising was a widespread phenomenon in many countries of the world, and in Karachi these almost always ended up in violence. Lathi-charge and tear gas used by the police to disperse agitating students is a common occurrence.

Our area is once again a victim of the reign of terror meted out by Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s supporters after he wins the election against Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah. The revellers of the victory procession, led by his sons, think nothing of avenging those who are believed to have voted for the sister of the ‘Father of the Nation.’

Another recollection of a mob attack that is also unsullied by the passage of time, on the tenth of Moharram, happens in the late sixties. Processions are passing through Bunder Road (old name for M.A. Jinnah Road). My sister and I are with our father to witness these from the pavement, as is customary.

The words “Shia” and “Sunni” somehow get drummed into us at school – not by the teachers – but through other children our age who have no factual knowledge about the rituals practiced by the factions, but thrive on hearsay and disparaging tales for the followers on either side of the sectarian divide. But the loud beatings of the drums on Ashura day, and the beauty of the accompanying tazias hold a fascination for which we are more than willing spectators.

Holding tightly on to my father’s hand, I remember running away from the crowd that particular hot afternoon, as it gets nasty. It doesn’t matter then whether it is the Sunnis who prompt an attack on the procession, or it is the Shias who have provoked it. It is difficult enough to save ourselves from glass bottle hurtles and brickbats of the rioters on the one hand, and police lathis and tear-gas on the other!

Although my generation is not a part of the Partition traumas that are faced by our parents when they migrated to Pakistan, we have nevertheless lived through two wars with India – in 1965 and in 1971.

At a young age, when nothing really prepared us for thinking critically, analysing, synthesising, and assessing information, or identifying misinformation and disinformation, the war of 1965 – glorified by our media – is justified in our minds, and no sacrifice seems big enough. But 1971 is different. The repercussion of this war and its indelible scars is felt deeply. I am not referring to the daily blackouts and huddling in trenches or crowding under staircases when the sirens signal an ‘enemy’ plane’s approach. I am referring to the impact felt due to the severing of one wing of the country.

My civilian psyche is etched with several other specific memories of such life-saving defences. However, it is ironic that at times the myriad problems, confrontations, and conflicts that our lives offer, are either personal or self-inflicted, but we also seem to have an equal number of our share for inadvertent incidences; of getting caught up in the wrong places at the wrong times. I feel I have had an ample share of it!

I am reminded of the shameful language riots of 1972, when our family barely manages to escape the wrath of a mob ready to set ablaze any moving vehicle. We have ventured out to meet my uncle at the airport, who is in transit there - coming from Canada and going on to India. The language riots are a product of the fear that the language of the mohajir community – Urdu - will overrun the Sindhi language – the lingua franca of the province. Therefore, this time around, it is these two communities at loggerheads with each other. The Sindhi-speaking Sunnis and Shias on one side, and the Urdu-speaking Sunni and Shias on the other!

But the worst first-hand encounter of being ‘in the thick of it,’ witnessing men turn into barbarians; lynching, looting, setting property on fire, and killing, is in 1984. By this time I have my own two children. Never before have I felt so utterly helpless, fearful and insecure. I guess it has also to do with the parental instinct of protection for the little ones who accompanied my husband and me to India.

For him it is a visit after exactly two decades. Our first stop is Bombay, where we have a swell Diwali-time before venturing to Jaipur, where the architecture and other street sights fascinate us. We fly to New Delhi on 30th October, and settle in a hotel on Connaught Circus.

My husband is not too happy with the small room that is allotted to the four of us, and discusses with me the possibility of moving to a nice spacious looking hotel located right across the street, perhaps the next day. We have plans to visit Agra on the 2nd of November, from where we would come back to Delhi to catch a flight to Indore – to meet his aunts, uncles and cousins.

But destiny has other plans for us. On the morning of 31st October, while out on a stroll on Janpath, we hear the terrible news that India’s Prime Minister has been gunned down in New Delhi.

Bhindranwale, in tandem with the Akali leaders, had turned the sacred Golden Temple in Amritsar into an armed fortress of Sikh defiance. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s ‘Operation Bluestar’ against this most sacred site of the Sikhs, eventually brings about her assassination by her own Sikh bodyguards. All hell breaks out on that day, and for several more days, as thousands of Sikhs pay with their life for the crime committed by two or three persons. Police and the administration remain mute spectators to the violence, making no effort to stop or disperse the rioters.

We rush back to the safety of our cramped hotel room, but not before witnessing shops belonging to Sikhs being burnt and looted, taxies destroyed and burnt, and scores of people running after whosoever is bearded and turbaned, for lynching, killing.

As the riots escalate instead of simmering down on the second day, we are desperate to get out of the city. It is our first visit to Delhi. We had hoped to spend some memorable time here, in the beautiful autumn weather of late October. Our children, aged five and two, are not only terrified but they are also starved. There are no food supplies available. We plan to go to our other destination – Indore - but there are reports that it is the next worst-hit city after Delhi. We are therefore advised to return to Bombay, as that cosmopolitan city is perhaps the safest place to be in.

There is another piece of advice that is given to my husband. The manager of our hotel comes up to him and says politely, “Mr. Husain, Sir, I know you are a Muslim, but these are crazy times…you have witnessed scenes of the mob's fury. Bearded men are not safe even inside their hotel rooms, as they are being sought and killed. I strongly advise you to shave off your beard before you are mistaken for a Sardarji!”

My secular-minded, architect husband has sported a beard for many years. I plead with him to follow the manager’s sensible advice. Reluctantly, he concedes, and with the help of a small disposable razor available for the job, he turns his ‘Pakistani’ beard into a ‘French’ one!

Later that afternoon, the hotel across the street – the one we had been eying - is also torched. We see it go up in smoke from inside our own hotel. Apparently, its unlucky proprietor is a Sikh.

Finally, on the third day, we gather courage to traverse this city of death in a taxi, and manage to reach the airport. On our way we witness several grotesque scenes - fire and smoke, charred bodies inside charred taxies…

The airport is spilling over with people who do not belong to Delhi and want to get out of here. We have made it to the airport at eleven in the morning, but no flights are available until midnight. There is no food and no water either. We are famished. The only consolation is the high security as dignitaries from the world over are pouring in for Mrs. Gandhi’s funeral. Our own General, Zia-ul-Haque, also arrives while we are waiting it out at the airport.

As we take off from Delhi, we know that this nightmare will always haunt us.

According to the reports reaching the airport, some 1,000 Sikhs are killed in east Delhi alone. Some 72 gurudwaras are torched, Sikh houses looted. We later learn that frenzied Hindu mobs killed nearly 10,000 innocent Sikhs across north India down to Karnataka in the 1984 carnage. At the time, those riots are said to be the worst-ever after the Partition riots of 1947.

Four years later, in 1988, we are on a pleasure trip to Turkey, and also to meet my husband’s many friends there. He had studied architecture in that country and wants to show us around. After a memorable stay in Istanbul, we reach Ankara on the very precise moment when an unsuccessful attempt is made to assassinate Prime Minister Turgut Ozal.

We have begun to feel guilty…

For a long time to come, our friends and family make us the target for jokes, our presence in any capital city becomes synonymous with physical attacks on that country’s Prime Minister!

Then there are those long years from the mid-eighties until the mid-nineties, when uncountable incidences take place in which our family comes face to face with ugly situations. North Nazimabad, where we lived then, boasted better planning and wider streets and boulevards than our present abode in the elitist Defence Society. Nevertheless, we feel trapped from all sides, as there is always trouble all around us. Likewise, millions of people living in the Federal ‘B’ Area, Nazimabad, and Liaquatabad areas suffer a torturous, insecure existence.

The fight for the control of Karachi - for the riches to be had from bhatta or ‘protection money’ – goes on for several years to add funds and fuel for politics. Kidnappings, political assassinations - with bodies found stuffed in gunny bags – blasts, attacks, torture cells and stockpiling of automatic weapons, are the order of the day. The most horrendous crimes are being committed, continuously, for a number of years.

Our children attend school in the Saddar area, and we work across the city from our home. It is a daily ordeal to not only plan a relatively safe route but also to circumvent the areas that are under a perpetual curfew. There is also the eternal fear of getting caught up in cross fire. Burning vehicles, mobs on streets, police and rangers brandishing their weapons, bullet-pockmarked apartment blocks on our various routes…all those features combine to contribute to a daily trauma. Our children are being subjected to these experiences, perhaps hallucinations, and flashbacks too. We have therefore become overprotective, hyper-vigilant parents!

I am back in Bombay in December 1992. This is immediately after the riots there in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on December 6, and the riots resume on the day I leave the city in early January 1993.

The ‘Operation Demolition’ of the 450-year-old structure of the disputed Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhumi edifice, has been carried out by thousands of ‘volunteers’, and there is no resistance to the operation by the police. Apparently, the destruction takes place in full view of the top brass of some political parties. As a result of this, large-scale communal riots, especially in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Calcutta leave more than 1,000 dead and almost 3,000 wounded in Bombay alone where there are two phases of bloodshed.

I am in the relative safety of the Bandra suburb, but almost every suburb has a chilling incident to narrate. An uneasy calm prevails. Walking the streets, I look over my shoulders every now and then. The violence in Bombay is most ferocious despite the fact that there has been no history of Hindu-Muslim tension in this city. This particular trip again brings home some hard facts. Once again, along with some public figures, numerous policemen are accused of complicity and of severe atrocities during the violence.

“For decades the Indian subcontinent has been haunted by mass fratricide in the name of religion. The tragedy of riots lies as much in the destruction of life and property as in the destruction of our fundamental beliefs — in justice, in reason, in humanity.” In Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India by Paul R. Brass; Oxford University Press, New Delhi, the author claims that large-scale Hindu-Muslim riots are primarily organised political productions. He focuses on "who - individuals, organisations or groups - produce riots, how and when do they produce them, and how is our attention diverted from questions that could be answered to questions that cannot?"

One would think that with this my chronicles of hits and misses would come to an end, but wait…

14 June 2002, I am sitting inside the room of an official of the U.S. Consulate on Abdullah Haroon Road in Karachi, where two other persons are also present. We are all invitees of the US State Department for an International Visitor’s Programme, and are asked to come in that morning to collect our passports and visas. I have nipped out of my office, and as soon as my passport is handed to me, I get up, look at the wristwatch and request my leave. But I am told that we must wait for the completion of another formality, as two other persons going with us are also expected to arrive any minute. I sit down once again. In the next four minutes, there is an earth-shattering explosion, throwing us off on the floor. The lights go off.

“Earthquake?” I wonder aloud, as I find my balance and grope for the sofa, dizzied by the sudden impact, but relieved to be alive.

“It’s a bomb!” the three other voices in the room say in cohesion. (Much later, they make fun of me that as a full-bloodied Karachi person, an earthquake, instead of a bomb, is foremost in my mind!) Simultaneously, there are some more loud bangs, mixed with the sound of shattering glass. We can also hear people outside the room…running helter skelter…shouting, screaming…there are voices urging everyone to come out.

The four of us run outside, led by two US marines, into a dark corridor. There is broken glass everywhere. We are asked to squat on the floor. A shaft of light is coming in from somewhere…and I can see that at least ten more people are crouching in that corridor, all lined up with their backs against the walls.

It is eerie, surreal. And my heart is sinking. My limbs have gone numb as thoughts such as:

“Will there be more explosions?”
“Will the roof cave in?”
“Will we make it?”
“Is this the end?” drift in and out of my mind.

The marines are back in the next few minutes, saying it is not safe to be inside the building, so it must be vacated. We are herded outside, to assemble in the parking lot facing the side-road between the Consulate and the Marriott Hotel.
We move like zombies.

The fifty or more people gathered in that lot all seem terribly shaken. Nevertheless, we are all grateful to be alive. Some people are treating those who have received minor injuries from flying glass shreds. Mobile phones are not working. I am worrying myself sick thinking how desperate my husband would be to learn of my safety. I am also thinking about my colleagues back at the office, and my two children in faraway USA, who too know that I am to get my visa from the Consulate this morning. The entire world must have learnt of the bomb blast by now!

But the person I am most concerned about is my driver who is sitting somewhere outside, waiting for me. I want to get out and look for him, but we are not allowed to go anywhere for two long hours, as there are security concerns.

The explosion is massive. A senior employee of the Consulate says that earlier in the mayhem, she ran outside on the road. It was littered with blood, mutilated human bodies, and remains of vehicles all over the place. Devastated, she is feeling faint and sick, barely able to stand.

We learn later that the car bomb has killed 12 passers-by and seriously wounded more than 20. Thankfully, my driver is safe, although he is temporarily deafened by the impact of the explosions.

For a long time, I cannot stop thinking that I would have been walking on the pavement outside the Consulate - towards the car parked on the side-road - at precisely the time of the explosion and blown up into pieces. It is a hit and miss.
Despite coming face to face with a number of dreadful, life-threatening situations in my life, I have not come to any physical harm so far, but for how long can one remain lucky?

In September 2003, I attend a three-day regional meeting on Education for Peace and Conflict Prevention in Kathmandu, Nepal. Upon arrival at the hotel, we are informed that we should prepare for a ‘bandh’ (curfew) declared for three days by the Maoists. It means that the entire country, in particular Kathmandu, would be virtually shut. That afternoon, as I stroll out to buy some books about contemporary Nepal, the intimidating presence of soldiers and tanks on the main streets force me to make a hurried retreat to the hotel. Violence has now become a regular feature in this beautiful Himalayan country, a far cry from the peaceful and serene Nepal that I visited with my family some years ago. It is ‘bandh’ on arrival and ‘bandh’ on the way back to the airport after three days, but it is useful to exchange views on the socio-political realities of our South Asian countries, and look for ways and means for working together to achieve amity in the region.

It has become imperative that we work locally and regionally for a human-rights sensitive education. This necessitates that we teach our children the difference between intolerance and tolerance, war and peace, apathy and activism, despair and hopefulness and also about rights and responsibilities. Let us teach them that a better world is indeed possible if we wish for it with sincerity, and work for it with commitment.

Tobacco Is Our Middle Name: US Brands Going Away Soon

Temple Stark — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:34:48 EDT

"Tobacco is our middle name."

Indeed that was American Brands' cigarette slogan that since has been updated to "Cancer is our middle name."

I don't know the ubiquitous Desi brands that perhaps need to go to the big ad agency in the sky, but I bet there are a few that people would like to (re-record, not) fade away.

An article by 247wallstreet - which is close to my vision of hell but without the country karaoke bar - lists 10 commercial names likely to disappear faster than "a child (who) is an island of curiosity surrounded by a sea of question marks." (Shell Oil. Left unsaid are the questions at least two of which had to be, "How did I get into this commercial?" and "Can I get off this island, like now?")

The by-goners are:

1. Yahoo! - a big tech name that Microsoft is hunting down like a child molester with a hard on.

2. Vonage - Phones and Voice Over Internet Protocol. Yeah, I think their advertisements (Hitting women in the head with manuals, the whoo-hoo whoo-hoo-hoo jingle) pretty much doomed them early, though the article points to, ya know, their service being offered free by other companies as at least an equal contributing factor.

3. Old Navy - Really? They're at least a half-step above K-Mart*** .... But Morgan Fairchild in them is so sweeeeeeeeet. Almost as lovable as Joan "paper-thin or plastic" Rivers. Really. Fleece baby, and, no, that's not a sexual position, AFAIK. Then again, in their other commercials there was really great music**** that , er, um really wipes the floor with Feist's 1-2-3-4. Damn. With faint praise.

4. Gateway. Yeah once you shut down all your retail stores and aren't seen anywhere, it's only one small mouse click to non-existence. They actually made decent computers but what almost killed Apple - exclusivity, non-sharing of technology - has killed this computer brand. It's going to be bought by Acer.

5. Dodge. Chrysler, now in the hands of a big ole investment firm, thinks there's too many brands in their company's garage. Since most people know cars today are all the same, the Dodge is a waste of $$$s. But Dodge has an amazing history of class and great cars; far more than Ford, except for the 'Stang.

6. Circuit City. Proof that expertise really isn't desired by the American consumer. Though customer service to get a whiff of that expertise is (WARNING, mini-rant ahead), and my last interaction with their staff - and there haven't been many - showed that they really could care less if you shopped there if you so much as say, hey, you're open can I buy my products and they say, no you have to go to that line, which is also the Returns line and there just so happens to be a lady there with two kids who keeps on asking questions, which makes sense since she was probably being given the runaround. Meanwhile the line has about 20 people in it. So I finally raise a bit of a stink because people are mumbling why the store can't get their ass in gear while about 30 employees are just walking around the aisles admiring their nails. The women, too.

7. K-Mart. Daaaaaaaaamn. Okay Sears bought 'em and most people I knew thought they'd closed up shop a long time. Just Like Roebuck. A few years ago, KMart closed a few hundred stores around the country that we'ren't kain gany money, which left them with just one store in downtown Hoboken, New Jersey.

Actually, they've been my anecdote for omnipresent Wal-Mart and they don't do a half bad job if you like silence and are afraid of crowds. or meeting people. Meeting anyone. I think having the Martha Stewart brand and face staring at you down every aisle would pretty much make the shopping experience similar to getting a massage from Edward Scissorhands or having Henry Kissinger lick his lips in your general direction. The staring, cold, bloodless eyes of a convicted criminal can get kind of wearing. And, no, I don't mean Kissinger.

8. Nationwide? Who? Insurance? OK. Allstsate means the same thing, right(?) and AllState actually has a Web site that doesn't look like a template placeholder until someone buys the domain. One less insurance company frankly isn't going to matter. There's a billion. They're like farts. One explodes, there will always be five more to take their place the next day, right after lunch.

9. XM Satellite Radio . They have more subscribers than Sirius, but less start-up money in an entire industry that's still losing money hand over ears. I checked out both around Christmas and sports and talk radio is pretty much what's driving them because the music selections I saw were just genre labels and sucked out loud. There is no young audience and no reason for one, because, really, most people want to watch sports.

10. E*Trade. Too good to be true? Yeah I thought so to and the great brains behind it thought overloading their investments in mortgages to the tune of $12 billion large would be a great idea.

*** Disclosure, I actually buy a fair percentage of clothes at K-Mart. They always seem to have clothes long enough for me. I don't know why.

**** One of these songs was Take Me The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson, who looks just like former MTV VJ (that's Video Jockey and did not in any way orginate the Vah-Jay-Jay) But then again, this person, Crissy Sandman, who I don't know and I don't think is famous at all sings it much better:

YouTube, Idol Worship and Fanaticism

Desh — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:32:13 EST

Pakistan's government does not want its people to watch Youtube. Why? Because it has some videos on the Prophet cartoon story. So, they think their youngsters shouldn't be seeing anything on thevideo site including some of the most wonderful videos that can be informative.

The madness in closing your mind seems empowering in immediate term but is debilitating thereafter.

I am not sure why the Muslims over the centuries do not want to see an image of their Prophet or their God, but I assume its genesis would have been in the negatives of idol worship. And that, in turn, would be in the principle that if you start "capturing" a God in an idol you are basically negating the boundless-ness of God-consciousness.

However, who ever came up with this Islamic formulation did not understand another side of the idol worship story: form and name are immaterial - characteristics that you associate with the form or name are more important.

Another way to look at it: Name and Form are NOT different either. If you have a name for something.. you have already created a form in your mind. Description preceeds a name. Description is the verbal FORM of a physical representation. So if someone has a name for God and asserts that he does not want to have a "physical form" is, politely putting, hallucinating!

Then, does form - idol, painting or just a name or description matter? Our thoughts have already restricted the "God" in any case.

In fact, a person who creates an Idol and worships the deity by nevertheless saying that notwithstanding the restrictions of my small mind - You are boundless and Infinite - is probably more honest in his acceptance of an Infinite God than a person who tries his best to restrict that Infinite Entity by ascribing motives to "His" actions and extrapolating to "Him" the weaknesses of a human mind and still seeking to destroy the idols with a vengeance!

At least the Idol Worshipper who - mindfully - interacts with his God by ascribing Infiniteness is pointing to the obvious problem that human existence brings along - we cannot possibly "imagine" Infinity" in the real sense. He is admitting it to start off with but has found a "workaround".

Of course, the issue occurs when this workaround becomes the sine qua non of holiness and God realization.

But this is the problem with religion, priests, prophets and saints. They come up with "Philosophies for Dummies" series by trying to come up with simplified stuff and that simplification, instead of being "cues" becomes THE reality for the followers. So, while the beginnings of "not recommending" Idol Worship were probably more spiritual in intent, banning it and being fanatic about such a ban took on a decidedly superstitious route.

Similarly on the other hand, using an idol for a concentrated session of meditation may be extremely helpful, while you chant - knowingfully - verses describing the infiniteness of the entity's reality; but restricting the same entity to just that idol can be very debilitating and another route to superstition.

Therefore, in my book, both are superstitions - unmindful Idol Worship and Fanatical opposition to it.

A fanatical and a restless mind can never be at peace with itself or be one with the infinite. A mind that has an ideal or a belief to live upto has to constantly measure itself against the pole of an arbitrary prescription as opposed to the boundless-ness of the Infinite. That noise of constant, restrictive and useless evaluation creates fanaticism and restlessness taking the person FAR away from where the Truth really lies.