"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

I am a sucker for fantasy fiction. I love the Dune series by Frank Herbert, The Foundation series by Asimov, The Lord of the Rings by Tolkein, The Don Jaun series by Carlos Castenada and the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Stephen King books are usually depressing but Gunslinger ones are not. It appeals to the romantic/adventurer in you. I finished reading the series last month and I am still hung over from it. Here are some quotes from the the Gun Slinger books of Stephen King:

Blaine the Mono (a supercomputer train): "YOU MIGHT WANT TO REMEMBER THAT NOBODY LOVES A SMARTASS!"

Jake Chambers: "I don't like people. They fuck me up."

Roland Deschain : "If we were going to rape you, you would be one well-raped woman by now"

"First smiles, then lies. Last comes gunfire."

"Kill if you will, but command me nothing"

Walter aka The Man in Black : "Shall there be truth between us, as two men? Not as friends, but as equals? There is an offer you will get rarely, Roland. Only equals speak the truth, that's my thought on't. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of regard. How tiresome!"

What the gunslingers believe:
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart."

If I was in a video game...

Time to time,every (Wo)Man gets this strange urge to find out more about oneself. Having palaver with one's kin and the elders, tracing family trees or tracing DNA are all part of this. My friend Bipin has traced his ancestry with the help of National Geographic here.For those who want to do the same they can do it here. I, on the other hand, have chosen an alternate reality to do so.

I am Kong. Strong and passionate, I tend to be misunderstood, sometimes even feared. I don't want to fight, I don't want to cause trouble, all I ask is a little love, and a little peace. If I don't get what I want, I get angry, and throw barrels and flaming oil at whatever's stopping me. What Video Game Character Are You?

Is reservation the actual issue?

Not too long ago, the students in India protested against the goverment's decision to increase quota for students belonging to OBCs(Other Backward Castes). To people who do not know anything about the caste heirarchy, these are people who do not fall in the top band. Read more here.

There was an active debate in the country. Both sides presented their case pretty well. It is hard to not see the good and bad in reservation. But in the end It is just another way to seggregate.
I come from a state in India where caste was a curse to its people. But now, years after Independence, caste has more or less become a non-issue. Caste, now, is a thing that politicians try to use it to their advantage but fail mostly because the literate people of Kerala see clearly through it. Some organisations like NSS and SNDP try to rally people around caste, but the common man doesn't care. I grew up listening to my parents and school tell me 'Trying to find out the caste of a person is rude', 'What matters is the character of a person and not his/her religion' et cetera(poor translation of the Malayalam version). Kerala, is slightly better than most other states in India in terms of 'caste-ism' or caste based crimes. Keralites achieved a level of social maturity/ conditioning because of the visionaries like Ayyankali, Sree Narayana Guru, and K Kelappan who identified the cause and reformed. They denounced the caste system. This is what we need to revive and not reservation.

Unfortunately, we do not see politicians talk against caste as that would erode their vote base. The state seems to endorse it by asking you to fill up your caste and its variations in application forms of any sort. But what is more unfortunate is that those learned young men and women who were against reservation did not speak out against the caste system!! Their protest was against reservation based on the caste system and its fallacy.

Until we realize the true evil nature of caste on present day society and abolish caste based seggregation I dont see the problem going away. And for that, we need to uproot the concept of caste from our minds. Only such a change in our thought process will bring India out of this madness. And that is when we can call ourself a developed nation.

This highway may have a toll booth ahead...

There is a lot of noise about net neutrality in the air. Your Internet Service Providers(ISPs) want to charge the biggies on the internet for hogging bandwidth. The fight is on between Comcast, AT&T ... Vs. Microsoft,Yahoo,Google ... and the arena is the US Congress. Senators and congressmen will decide who gets the bigger slice of the pie. No matter what, the lobbyists will get their share.

If we breakdown the case for net neutrality, the ISPs demand can be compared to the government charging Walmart, Target and Macys because their customers use public roads to drive up to their shops. If Walmart pays the additional fee, their customers can drive at say 10mph faster than others. These customers are charged seperately in taxes and toll booths that pepper the freeways just like we the monthly charges that we pay for our dial-up/DSL/cable internet connection. The ISPs will decide which website/page will download faster based on how much the website's owner is willing to pay.

Some may argue that the TV channels operate this way. You have to pay for premium channels and try to apply this logic to internet. I say that it is not a fair comparison because internet is not just an information dissemination medium. Its much more that that.Its interactive. Its an extension of our society. Its a place where we share values and beliefs,buy and sell services, gain and share knowledge, a place for philanthropy and misanthropy.

It maybe a little late for the ISPs to demand this. But they definitely will because the ISP oligopoly sees green. They definitely will try hard for they have the muscle to do so. The ISPs know that the Net companies are dependent on them to deliver content to the end user. But they also see what most of us do not see. To treat each information packet as a product that can be 'taxed'. For example, information flowing from Europe or Asia can be charged an access fee to enter the US market.

In the end, if they succeed its us(internet users,entrepreneurs,innovators ) who lose. An innovative network of home wireless networks maybe the alternative if ISPs succeed.

But the pie actually belongs to us. Not Microsoft, not Google, not Comcast, not AT&T and I have been paying for the pie every month(not counting the first few where I used my neighbour's network :)).

Some articles on net neutrality:
Lawrence Lessig : Founder of Creative Commons
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html

Tim Berners Lee: Inventor of Internet/ chairman of WorldWideWeb consortium
http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144

and the mighty source of info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality

mmmm..mmust..bllllllogg

Damn you Gods of Bloggers Block.......
Help me get rid of this block and I will light a candle at your shrine.
My friend Bipin is trying to trace his ancestry. Why go through all this trouble when he can find it here.

If not for this what are friends for?

Photos: Cap Gris nez

Its a 10km hike to Cap Gris Nez from Wissant,France city center. The sea that you see is the English Channel.
 
 
 
  

WW Memorials in Belgium

Some interesting facts that I learnt:
Chemical weapons were used for the first time by Germans against allied forces in Belgium. I was shocked to see the number of indian soldiers who fought and died for the british army! You can see their names on many of the WW monuments in and around Ieper,Belgium.

 
  

Beer!

 
The vending machine at the railway station in Ieper,Belgium sells beer for 1.3 Euros!
No ID required!! We should have more of these in the U.S 

En route to Lille Europe from Paris CDG

 
 

French countryside really is something. No billboards in France!! photos taken from TGV. 

Glory to the proletarians

 In India, when you visit monuments or ruins of an empire, you hardly ever get to know who the architect of the building was or the name of the artist who sculpted out beautiful statues. They are usually not allowed to because the monument is the legacy of a king or queen and they dont want to share it with a low level nobody artist. But historians and archeologists have discovered time after time that artists often leave hidden signatures that are not visible to the ordinary observer. So is the case in the west too. The artists who worked on parliment hill building in the canadian capital Ottawa were told that they couldn't sign their names on any of their works. So they snuck in their signature by sculpting their faces on top of the pillars of a room.When the government found out , they couldn't do anything about it bcause Canada had a law that once the office/building has been opened to the public, they can't alter or demolish any of the art-work. :) 

With the spider in front of the National Art Gallery,Ottawa

  The spider is actually giving birth and you can see it when you look from underneath. Creepy and morbidly fascinating! 

In Ottawa

I was in Ottawa, Canada recently for a few days. I stayed at hotel Quality in downtown Ottawa. A nice hotel with free internet. Byward market is only a few minutes away and so is the U.S consulate. Ottawa has enough attractions to keep you entertained for a few days. Byward market has numerous pubs, eateries and a vibrant night life.

I had my best vietnamese meal at a vietnamese restaurant called Indo-Chine on York street. Museum of civilization is a must see for they have the bigest collection of totem poles.

Cartman's English

Cartman and Stan on phone, not knowing who is on the other end, talking with adult voices. These are two small kids who are friends but holding opposing views after watching 'Passion of the Christ'.

Cartman: Now stop wasting Mel Gibson's time, you little pussy prick.
Stan: Don't take that tone with me, kid. I'll kick your ass.
Cartman: Yah. Well, I'd like to see you try. I'm, like, 6 feet tall.
Stan: Yah. Well, you sound like a little bitch to me.
Cartman: Bitch! Don't call me bitch, bitch!
Stan: Bring it on then, bitch!
Cartman: I already brung it, bitch. I brung it, opened it, and set it on the table, bitch.

I like brung more than brought, thunk better than thought and truthiness better than hmm, its a new word . This is one reason why I love America.

For those of you who dont know anything about Cartman, Stan and SouthPark, click here once.

For those who have no time/patience:
South Park is an animated TV series that has a satirical take on all issues(well mostly american).
Btw, americans don't get offended by god/religious jokes as long as they know its good old fashioned american humor, which pretty much encompasses all. They also don't get why some other cultures are intolerant about such issues. At least the media says so!

Shallower than thou...

Me and my friend Bipin have frequent chat sessions that are a mix of cheap gossip, friendly debates, metaphysical discussions and all of that with a lining of intellectual arrogance. I can't fit the word intelligence in there because we both know what we lack.

While chatting with him today about neo-colonialism and oil wars, we digressed into another important topic of how and what we men think of how women look. For most guys, even though many wouldn't admit it, looks matter. So to one of my statements, his retort was quite impressive:
Bipin says:
hmm...if girls were as shallow as us.....we will be single our whole lives...

Ok maybe not a well formed sentence but definitely has content. :)

We can always look at it from another perspective and be happy about it.

She is weaving a tangled web!

Here!

State of the Union

President Bush spoke about technology+economy, math, science and against isolationism!!!
After that I fell asleep. He put me to sleep rather.

Attitude

I can be bitter or sweet. I choose to be sweet. Life is bittersweet mostly.

Order of things

My colleague tells me that your life's priorities should be in this order:

-God
-Family
|_Wife
|_Kids
|_Parents
|_Siblings

-Country
-Work
I dont agree.
I wonder what others think.
I also think that the most abstract but first on the list,God, will be pushed to the bottom of the list by most without any qualms when its comes to a crunch situation.

And the obligatory new year greetings to all. In the new year, my new mantra :'If I pay any tax happily it will be value added tax'
Plan A:
Learn diving, a new language, a new comp.language,get married, improve income level
Plan B:
Achieve all of the above + a new career.

A potential aunt in US for my children when I have some....

This person is in denial. She loves the states and its only a matter of time. I pray to the god of all things petty that she realizes it soon.

:D

When is a Starbucks coffee worth its price?

Only when you get something extra.

And the something extra for me is:
* Getting to read atleast 10 pages from a book you like at Starbucks in a Barnes & Nobles.
* Having a good conversation with somebody. From WanderStruck's post, those people at Coffee Day do not know what they are selling.

Starbucks/Baristas/Any other coffee shop dont just sell coffee. We dont go to those shops to just drink good quality expensive coffee. People go there for a little something extra. The appeal and ambience. Some of us go there to make a lifestyle statement. Starbucks knows this well and they endorse it. The smart people at Coffee Day knows this as well but have failed to pass it on to their staff! ??

Those who do not know this should get their staff trained at Indian Coffee House who had/have a reputation for letting the Indian Intelligentsia stay and discuss for hours over a few cups of coffee shared among them. People went there to hang out so that they could fit the intellectual chappal.