When a Neighbor is Failing

It was two weeks ago, when I was talking to a gentleman whom I have known all my life, and have known to be very open-minded in terms of religious freedom and the _real_ situation between India and Pakistan's people [we are the same people, the enmity is manufactured by the powers-that-be etc.].

As I was asking him about the latest incidents in Pakistan, post attacks on the Sri Lankan cricketers, he said: "well, it is a failed state now".

That shocked me. Sure, we have talked about how things are better in India than Pakistan, but a "failed state" is a very strong term.

And today, I read this excellent piece by M.J.Akbar, whom some have [erroneously IMO] called a "hindu baiter and hindu bahser" and "muslim apologist".

Pakistan was born out of the wedlock of two inter-related propositions. Its founders argued, without any substantive evidence, that Hindus and Muslims could never live together as equals in a single nation. They imposed a parallel theory, perhaps in an effort to strengthen the argument with an emotive layer, that Islam
was in danger on the subcontinent. Pakistan's declared destiny, therefore, was not merely as a refuge for some Indian Muslims, but also a fortress of the faith. This was the rationale for what became known as the "two-nation theory". The British bought the argument, the Congress accepted it reluctantly, the Muslim League exulted.

The Indian state was founded on equality and equity: political equality through democracy, religious equality through secularism, gender equality, and economic equity. Economic equality is a fantasy, but without an equitable economy that works towards the elimination of poverty there cannot be a sustainable state. India, therefore, saw land reforms and the abolition of zamindari. Pakistan has been unable to enforce land reforms. India and Pakistan were alternative models for a nation-state. Time would determine which idea had the legs to reach a modern horizon.

...

On the day that terrorists attacked Sri Lankan cricketers, I had a previously arranged speaking engagement at a university in Delhi before largely Muslim students. I began with the suggestion that every Indian Muslim should offer a special, public prayer of thanks to the Almighty Allah for His extraordinary benevolence - for the mercy He had shown by preventing us from ending up in Pakistan in 1947. The suggestion was received with startled amusement, instinctive applause and a palpable sense of sheer relief.

In a similar context, Ketan posted this one on mutiny titled "Why are We tolerating Pakistan?".

I wrote a response, which I am reproducing here for your eyes :-).

@Ketan: The answer, in my opinion, is 3 ("because we don't know what to do").

When I think loudly about this issue, the following comes to mind.:

Problem context/assumptions:

1. The Mumbai attacks [and a whole bunch of past crap] happened because it got support from Pakistan’s establishment, either overtly [Kargil war], or covertly/indirectly [uncontrolled terror camps]
2. The people of pakistan do not actively want to mess with India. They, like people everywhere, want to lead their lives and raise their kids.
3. Due to porous borders, if we don’t do something, we stand to lose lives/money

Assumption 1 includes ‘local support’ they got, but I assume that the main ideas for the big attacks still originated overseas
Assumption 2 above rules out options like nuking/war, not to mention the fact that they also have nukes :-).

So the _way to go_ to address the situation there, in my opinion, is
1. Figure out what action hurts their _government/army_. They don’t care if you send back their singers, hell it plays directly into their hands of “Indians are hegemonical, and we should hate them”. Until we hurt their establishment, there is no solving this problem. [focussed trade boycott anyone?]

2. The only way out, in addition to finding the magic bullet in point 1 above, is to _encourage_ the moderates there. Lets face it, a pakistan which is ruled by the Taliban is not in India’s interest. But it is also _not_ in the interest of the moderates there. [I have pakistani friends, and have heard a lot about how they feel threatened by the taliban/moral-police as much as you feel threatened by the Senes]. The only long term way out for us is to help the moderates in Pakistan get a voice. If it means letting some of them even show up on our TV Channels to make their case, so be it.

/ these are initial thoughts, but I hope you see where I am going.
// am not saying that allow any T,D&H from pakistan on Indian TV. But for a change, lets stop focussing on the crazies there who call us “hindu zionists”, and focus on the more moderate voices there. I know it makes for better TRP to give airtime to the former, but the latter are the ones whom _we_ should give visibility to.
/// There are those who would say ‘just secure our borders, close all communications, and wait for it to implode’. I for one would _not_ want a Nuclear armed neighbor to implode, and last time I checked, we were nowhere near securing our borders completely.
//// Reiterating: Lets _not_ break cultural ties. If anything, let their artists perform here. If they have a good welcome, they will go back and share their experiences, which will only work to dispel the lies that their govt. has told their people.

Version 2 of my answer to your question in the title: “Why are We tolerating Pakistan?”
A. Define “Pakistan”. People/govt/army/what? Once we know what we are tolerating, we can focus better on why we are tolerating them :-).

Interesting stuff. What do you think?
-A

A Day for Women

'tis March 8th, the International Women's Day.

Happy W-day, all you with two X-chromosomes and therefore a reduced risk of color-blindness ;-).

The times of India did a survey on this occasion and found some interesting facts about the women of India of today. The full article is here.

A glimpse of the article is below:

The poll was conducted exclusively for TOI by leading market research agency Synovate India in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Jaipur in the week leading up to March 8. A total of 1,004 respondents were split roughly equally between the eight cities. About half were aged 20-30 and the rest 31-40. Similarly, the SEC A-B split was roughly even.

The surveys most revealing finding was that only 46% admitted to deciding how their money was spent or invested. Significantly, this proportion was only a little higher - 52% - among working women. Even among single women, only 49% decide what they do with their money. So, who decides for the rest? The parents mainly, for single working women. Husbands mainly, for married women in general and housewives in particular.

The response to a question on who should decide how a woman entertains herself in the evenings also illustrated just how entrenched the patriarchy remains. Only 42% said the woman herself was quite capable of deciding on the issue. While only 3% felt the so-called moral police had any right to stick its nose in the matter, a majority said parents or husbands should decide on the lakshman rekha. Across categories of age, married/single, working/non-working and SEC groups, this proportion was much the same, varying in a narrow band of just 51% to 55%.

I am not quite sure why the women themselves would say that someone else should decide their choice of evening activity. Sure raises doubts about the survey in my opinion.

Comments from women folk reading this blog on the survey?!

-A
P.S. This amazing song clip from Delhi 6 is my ode to you all today - esp. to Neha who blogged about it, and to Waheeda ji and Supriya Pathak, the two more _substantial_ women in Indian cinema :).


[youtube will have more video links, including one to the complete audio of the above song]

P.S. How did _I_ spend women's day? By introducing one to the Indian area in Paris :). Hope you liked it, S!
P.P.S. Women reading this post, please chime in about the survey results I talked about. I am genuinely perplexed with the results.

Watching out for the Watchers

Let's start from a direct quote from the article in question:

Imagine if the FBI could, with only a piece of paper signed by the special agent in charge of your local FBI office, demand detailed information about your private Internet communications directly from your ISP, webmail service, or other communications provider. Imagine that it could do this:

• without court review or approval
• without you being suspected of a crime
• without ever having to tell you that it happened

Further imagine that with this piece of paper, the FBI could see a wide range of private details, including:

• your basic subscriber records, including your true identity and payment information
  
• your Internet Protocol address and the IP address of every Web server you communicate with
  
• the identity of anyone using a particular IP address, username, or email address
  
• the email address or username of everyone you email or IM, or who emails or IMs you
  
• the time, size in bytes, and duration of each of your communications, and possibly even the web address of every website you visit
  

Finally, imagine that the FBI could use the same piece of paper to gain access your private credit and financial information — and that your ISP, bank, and any other business from which the FBI gathers your private records is barred by law from notifying you.

Now, stop imagining: the FBI already has this authority

This and many other such interesting articles, including those on how to securely delete your files in Windows without installing _anything_ extra are part of the SSD initiative website by the electronic frontier foundation [ref: /.].

Given that the FBI was given crazy powers like those in the quote by the USA PATRIOT act, I wonder what the post-26/11 Indian law looks like.

And in today's nature video, I present before you, the Indonesian Mimic Octopus!


P.S. Thanks for the birthday wishes. I went for dosas with S and P in the evening. Was good :-).

o++

Last year, it was n++, so I thought I should move on to the next letter in the alphabet :).

To answer the biggest question : 28 done, many more to go.
And to answer the second biggest question : not yet. Let's see what this year holds ;-).


Thanks to all those who have called, SMSd, emailed, facebook'd or orkutted me. Also a special thanks to S for his hand-made card and letter, and to S and P who wished me in person at INRIA :).

This post will be short, in part because I need to get back to work, after a weekend spent in bed due to a nasty fever and a painful Wii-shoulder.

Firstly, this post is dedicated to the three other people I know with the same birthday as mine - Ilica, the daughter of Gyanam Bua, Avanti, the little brat of my ex-advisor, and Prof. S.K.Sharma, the inspirational go-getter at ITBHU. Happy birthday you [us] all!

A lot happened to me in the last 365 days, the three most important ones being my [eventual] graduation from the PhD, my relocation to France, and the most recent -- my foray into some _real action_ for the motherland. So far so good, thanks to all your good wishes. Let's see what the next year brings.

And finally, my gift to you today [esp. for the three co-birthdees].

1. A New Scientist report on how humans might be predisposed [pre-created ?] to believe in a "purpose" for everything, and therefore, a creator. Interesting experimental setups, I must say.

2. The oblig cheezy happy birthday song video :).



ciao!
-A

Our Baby is One Month Old!

You know what I mean.

4000+ visits, 3 newspaper articles, 150+ facebookers, 90+ volunteers. Not bad :)

Some Must-Visit Pages

Coming soon: A post about where Indian politics might very well be in the coming years.

For now: Some pages that deserve your attention.

1. If you like g33ky comics [or not] check out Abstruse Goose. [ref: B]

2. If you are a woman [or not] make sure to check out this must-read post on the red-colored blues.

3. If you are into poems [or not], check out my mom's blog with her newly posted poetry [pretty good, I must say]. And there is much more in that poetry-diary of hers I tell you :).

4. If you live in bangalore [or not] make sure to read this harrowing account of moral policing by local hoodlums. [ref: C]

5. If you know about Never Forget [or not], see our second newspaper coverage! [yes, my mugshot is there :)]

And for the nature video of the post, here is one about sea-turtles and sharks.

On Fundamental Similarity [and a Nature Video]

As part of my usual Feb 14 ritual, I ventured to my favorite extreme-right-wing Hindu website to see what the guys there had to say, and I must say, I was not disappointed.

Blended with the parts about the niceness of Hindu culture, and the horrors of public display of affection, were attempts at "rationalizing" their arguments using supremely incoherent arguments. For example, in a segment where they want us to be wary of "western influences", the "Hindu yuva" is shown wearing kurta-pyjama!!! Certainly a "western dress", for those like our beloved lord rama only wore dhotis. How dare they show a kurta pyjama as "Indian"!!
/sarcasm

Moving on, they talk about how "The saint himself was involved in the anti-national acts at his time, then how one can get any good result by celebrating the day on his name ?"

while the truth is that he was opposing a roman king who wanted him to denounce his faith. Interesting how those who want all Indian/Hindu youth to uphold their faith reserve such disdain for someone who died to protect his own.
BTW, there were more than one St. Valentine [ref: this page]

There are more examples in their detailed post.

Note that I am not a super pro-V-day activist, and I know many westerners who think that V-day today has become a charade to sell greeting cards and chocolates. However, I fully support the freedom of expression to those who _do_ want to celebrate it, and completely oppose those who seek to curb this freedom.

More so, while I disagree with my right-wing friends, I sincerely hope to be able to have a decent conversation with them, based on actual facts, and following the rules of reasoning. But when I read articles such as the one above, where in one breath they claim that the catholic church is evil, and in the next use the church's deletion of V-day from its list to prove their point, I feel very sad for those who write these posts.

The other funny[?] part is how their rabid anti-west sentiment mirrors those of the fundamentalist muslim groups that are supposedly responsible for _all_ of the world's terrorism, or the abortion-clinic-bombing fundamentalist Christians who hate the "modern immoral influences".

But then, I came across this wonderful piece by M.J.Akbar, where he shows how all fundamentalists are the same, aptly titled All religions are not same, but fundamentalists are

From the post (emphasis mine):

All religions are not the same; but all fundamentalists are. They share an aversion for modernity and a hatred of gender equality. It is entirely logical that the Ram Sene should find an ally in the Jamaat-e-Islami; their ethos is not dissimilar, no matter how different the imagery their rhetoric might contain. The same mindset persuades some maulanas to issue a fatwa condoning divorce through triple talaaq even when the husband is drunk. The very clerics who will damn you to eternal hellfire for touching alcohol are ready to rationalise any diktat that amounts to subjugation of women. Eminent Islamic scholars have repeatedly proved that instant triple talaaq is bad in Islamic law, and such variations even worse. Islam institutionalised the rights of women; such distortions are at variance to its liberating spirit. But the issue is not law: this is conservative, male domination over women.

...

India is one nation among the many who emerged from the ruins of the British empire capable of claiming the mantle of modernity. This is not because Indians are superior to their neighbours, but because the idea of India is better. Democracy, secularism, equality and freedom are an Indian's non-negotiable birthright. There is only one serious weakness: poverty has to be reduced at a much faster rate than the growth in prosperity. As long as we are burdened with this wretched malaise called poverty, we cannot call ourselves a modern nation. Economic equality is a fantasy; but an equitable distribution of national wealth is a compulsion. A civilised nation cannot divide its people by a hunger line. Citizens must live in various categories of a comfort zone, and the most basic comfort is a full stomach. Freedom is incomplete without freedom from hunger.

The poor are never unreasonable. They do not believe that there is any magic wand that can suddenly make them wealthy. But they have every right to economic justice. When they find India rising, but they are not rising along with their country, there is envy and anger. The young men who become the club-wielders of socially regressive organisations are motivated by more than one reason, but a principal cause is denial of the liberties and pleasures that a disposable income brings. They may not realise it, but they want what they seek to destroy. It is a familiar paradox.

Seriously, read the full article!

And as an aside, I think I will start sharing interesting nature videos I come across. Today's video is that of the bull frog, apparently a ferocious predator!



P.S. If you want the above as a pet, make sure you take care of it, as shown here.

Happy T-E day!

T-E for la Tour-Eiffel, that is.

I celebrated my singles-awareness-day hanging out with S, introducing her to the wonderful city that Paris is, and the wonderful desi food that one can find there :).

First, we met up at La Défense, and on the walk from there to the metro stop, took in the sight of Fall .. [my first ever 'real' Fall, unlike the fake one in LA :)]



Then, we proceeded to the Indian quartier, only to have the current cut off in our metro, and then walking some distance due to over-stuffed buses :). But some sights we saw were good, like this one of Sacré-Cœur



And after lunch [yummy Lahori-Thali at Bhai-bhai], went to the Eiffel Tower! It was S's first time ever, and my first time in 6 years! [barring the fog-filled day I went with M to the E-T on her transit trip through Paris].



Of course, there was some fauna which enticed me.



And then, there was me :).



Enjoy!

-A
P.S. Bonus Special V-day link on explaining love in a dry [but interesting] manner using hormones here [ref: J]

Mugshot in the Papers!

The residents on Pune who opened their "Pune Mirror", the supplement to the city edition of The Times of India, were shocked to see the be-spectacled image of your's truly in it yesterday :). The fact that it was on page 4 helped to mitigate the effect :-). Also, Varun's soothing smile helped :).

On a more serious note, never forget was covered by the Pune Mirror yesterday [a huge thanks to Anupama for the connections]. The teaser is to the left, and the main article is to the right. Click on the images to enlarge.





More at our blog.

And yes, we have crossed the 3000 visits mark!

Why it is Time for an Indian Daily Show

When I was in India this past December, I noticed a couple of things on TV:

1. India now has a C-SPAN like TV channel called Lok Sabha TV, with recordings of discussions in the parliament, and good, informed, and cultured discussions by experts.


2. Doordarshan news (DD News) is pretty much the only channel which will give you actual _news_, without the extra sensationalism and crazy-talk that pretty much all major news channels in India suffer from. In some way, it has the potential to become NPR or PBS

And I believe that the above two features --- constant video record of statements made during sessions, and the utter failure of the mainstream media to actually focus on real issues and have decent discussion on them --- makes India a ripe place to have its own version of The Daily Show (TDS), an award winning show in the USA which I and many others happen to love, and consider to be one of the few sane voices of information there.

Sure, India has The Week that Wasn't, but in my opinion it still lacks the professionalism that TDS has, and is currently more of a buffoonary show, much like TDS was in its early years.

But we do not need to take as much time as the Americans did! How hard is it for Cyrus to create a segment that shows the blatant hypocrisy that politicians show before and after they have lost power?

Exhibit A. Jon Stewart pointing out how the dems and the republicans are switching sides now, and negating themselves. [the best part is at 5:20+]

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Economic Recovery Plan

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Exhibit B. And then, maybe you can also, in a humorous way, tell people the other side of the fallacious arguments our leaders make, such as the one Dick Cheney made in his "who's responsible for that?" speech. Watch the video below for more.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Why Are You Such a Dick? - Audio Tape

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

[a more serious rebuttal of Cheney is here]

But seriously, why don't we have a show of the caliber of the daily show in India yet?!! The time has come. Is anyone listening?

-A
P.S. NeverForget crossed 2000 hits! Have you seen it yet?

A week of personal good news

This past week, I must say, will count as one of the most packed-with-good-news in recent memory, for the sheer _number_ of good things that happened. Here they are:

1. My toolkit, Srijan, which can be used to graphically and quickly design sensor network applications, finally started working again, after some long-pending bugfixes. [videos here]

2. I was invited to be a part of the technical program committee of the established SECON 2009 conference.

3. The paper based on the last part of my PhD research was accepted [with minor revision] in the IEEE Transactions on Computers, one of the biggest journals in the area!

and last but not the least

4. Never Forget has gotten off to a good start in its first week since its announcement. From visitors, and enthusiastic, action-oriented sign-ups, to getting responses from iPhones of elected representatives, it has been good.

But the work, in all the 4 items above, is far from over. Here's to more work-and-good-news-filled weeks!

-A
P.S. Sadly, the week was not great for everyone, Leesa had a brush with danger, and of course, the Mangalore lets-beat-girls-who-drink-alcohol craziness happened. More about those coming later.

Jan 26, and my BIG Announcment

No, I am not getting married/engaged/lucky/whatever ;-).
No, I have not gotten an offer from ITBHU. Certainly not one with on-campus housing.

But today _is_ huge.. rather.. HUGE for me. And the fact that so many of you have asked about it makes it even more special.

Moving on, here is the deal [your patience is all I need]:

Background: During the mumbai incident of Nov 26, 2008, all [most?] of us felt "I need to do something about this".

So I started thinking as to what _I_ could do, given my constraint of not being in India, but having the skills that I have.

The more I thought, the more I became convinced that thing to do is to provide people a way to track the promises that their elected representatives have made -- think of it as a structured wikipedia.

The guiding principle are two: evaluatable promises [by the politicians], and verifiable references [by anyone posting content]. There is lots more detail at this page, and this PDF, which I had written during my travels in India, where I got to further polish my ideas using the wonderful feedback from you all.

The movement is young, but I have found some like-minded people in Pune [and Mumbai], and we had aimed for a Jan 26 launch.

And after an all-nighter fixing the cool google maps scripts, this guy who has not slept for the past 36 hours can happily say that as of 8:45pm IST, Jan 26, 2009, the site is already online at

http://www.neverforget.in

And now, its your turn. What each of _you_ can do [please, pretty please :) ]:

Let me know your comments on the PDF/website,
1. Sign up for announcements using the textbox on the site,
Forward to your close friends this announcement of Jan 26. This is a people's movement, and is nothing without people getting involved, and
[optional: if you got the time] be a part of the initiative. We need writers, web developers, more contacts in cities, etc. Stuff we non-residing Indians can help with.

cheers, and looking forward to your responses.
Animesh

P.S. For cool google map goodness, check this part of the website.

P.P.S. The journey has just begun, and will need a lot of effort. Hopefully I will be able to give at least that much for the motherland.

And you?

of Slumdogs, Tweets and the coming Monday

Just came back from watching Slumdog Millionaire. Great movie. Well shot, well told, well acted.

'nuf said. Go watch it.

Also, you can follow me on twitter now. There is also a gadget for it on the right navbar on this blog.

And yes, about the BIG announcement on this coming Monday, Jan 26 -- the one that I have been preparing for some weeks now, the one that will definitely keep me occupied to a great deal for the forseeable future -- you will have to wait till Monday :).

That said, I deeply appreciate your comments/interest about it. Those on my twitter follow list will surely get the dirt first ;-).

enjoy the weekend, for next week, things will change a bit!
-A
P.S. Those who are interested in getting an email update whenever I post a new blog post (I wonder why anyone would do that :-)), can now subscribe using the "follow my adventures" box on the right. Thanks to A for the idea.

Bye Bye GWB

Yes, yes, change came to america [and to this website ref: Leesa] today, and I saw it live.

In case you missed what is to come, watch it here.

But today, I'd like to focus on what will _not_ be happenning anymore.

1. You'll never know D*ICK!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

You Don't Know Dick - Exit Interview

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

2. Colbert's tribute to Bush:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Sacrifice

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

More tributes here and here.

But wait, there is one final thing... a last message from white house press secretary.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Final Message From the White House

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

:-). Goodbye, W!

P.S. 5 days to Jan 26. A day I [and maybe you] will never forget!

Hamaara PM Kaisa ho? [How should be our PM]

N******a M**i jaisa ho!
[like N******a M**i]

I have heard this a lot from my friends who lean a bit [or a lot] to the right in the Indian politics.

Do I think this guy has done a lot for his state in his recent terms? Yes.
Do I think that he is amazingly media-savvy, what with all the wonderful youtube clips about him? Yes.
Do I think he is smart enough to court industrialists? Hell yes!

Do I think the above makes up enough to exonerate him from the blot that is Godhra, and clear up all accusations of his complicity in the allegedly state-supported riots?
um.. not really. Until he conducts a probe that explains the on-camera statement of the murderers, I will not be satisfied. He may not have given the orders, but it definitely happened under his watch, and he has some answers to give to the public.

I can go on and on, or I could do better. I could point you to this amazing news article that R sent me today, which pretty much says what I have been wanting to say for some time now.

So my answer to the question in the title? Well, for that, I would like you to read the last paragraph on the article.

-A
P.S. psst.. There is something I have to tell you. Something big. But I cannot divulge a lot as of now. Just note that something big is going to happen on Jan 26 this year. more later.

VM bats for J&K

The recently held elections in Jammu and Kashmir, and the rise to power of the young Omar Abdullah [amazing speech here, must-watch english language interview here] has definitely given me some hope for the populace of the beautiful state.

And to add to that hope, liquor and airline Baron Vijay Mallya today announced that he will have attractive tour packages for J&K from his Kingfisher Airlines.

from the article:

"I am excited at Omar Abdullah becoming the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. My relationship with the Abdullahs is spread over three generations and I think better days are ahead for the people of the state under his young and dynamic leadership," Mallya told reporters.

He said the Srinagar airport had now all the facilities of an international airport and the time had come for direct international flights from here.

"My Kingfisher Airlines will announce additional flight schedules to increase connectivity between the three (Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu) regions of the state and the rest of the country," he said.

This is what we need. A young and dynamic leader with a clean record, supported by an industrialist who is not afraid to put his money where his mouth is. The former gains re-election by helping development, and the latter makes money by the same. I personally have no issue with either, as long as the development gets done.

Here's to my tourism plans to J&K in the near future! :).

-A
P.S. This OA guy is _good_. See parts 1, 2 and 3 of his interview.

On Complicated Issues and Overachieving OverAchievers

[Will soon post travel notes and snaps, but first this!]

Now that I am back in Paris, it is time to catch up on the Daily Show, while I type away work stuff at my laptop :).

And true to my expectation, JS and his team have been at it in the new year.

First, I loved his segment on the recent crisis in the Gaza Strip. Please watch it till the end, all the way till Jon S's response to Mayor Bloomberg's analogy. Wonderful!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Strip Maul

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

And moving on, Asif Mandvi is spot on regarding the standard desi reaction to the news of Sanjay Gupta potentially becoming the Surgeon General of the USA. Hilarious!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Medicine Cabinet

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

and now, back to work.
cheers,
-A

Back!

Back in Paris after a 28-day India trip that spanned 13 cities.

Phew.

Need some sleep. off to bed.

-A
P.S. It is -9 degrees celcius here in Paris!

Look! a New Year!

I haven't had time in the last few days to properly put my travel experiences all over India in words [don't worry, I am taking extensive notes, including that of my train travel last night in the cheapest traveling class :)].

In the meantime, here are my new year wishes to you all, in a hitherto-untried format.



And yes, this was all recorded and uploaded at Patna, the capital of the "most backward" state in India. Take that!

Happy New Year 2009!

Relative Stability

After a 12-day trip involving Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ranchi, I am finally at my parents' place in Patna.

Phew.

Just got off the train, and on the internet :).

And now, off to shower, and then blogging, perhaps :).

bye, and Merry Christmas all!

Some Paris Snaps

As I prepare to leave for India [flying to Delhi tomorrow evening], and to lower bandwidths as I travel, I figured I should upload some snaps for you all to see.

Album 1: Winter in Paris: including actual snow at my workplace [as mentioned here]



Album 2: Salon Du Chocolat


And finally, for now,
Album 3: Thanksgiving!


and now, off to sleep, got a long, intercontinental day tomorrow! [and a hectic month :) ]

Gmail To-Do

Do you, like me, use and love gmail? If so, you will be extremely happy to read about their new to-do feature [ref: ToI].

'nuf said. Go read the article and enable this in the labs features, I have things "to do" :).

P.S. I had recently emailed them asking for being able to make emails "sticky" -- and given you can add emails to your task list, my wish has been granted! Thank you Santa!

Embroidering Your Way to Power

The better India blog had a very nice article today about women in Rajasthan who have achieved financial empowerment by way of learning skills that help them sell the products of their skills and hard work. From the article:

From being totally dependent on their husbands for a living to gaining financial independence, they are on the fast track to discover themselves. There are some women who have been victims of wife battering, marital rape and molestation too. “As these women are now contributing to the family income, they command respect from their families and their relationships with their husbands have improved as the husbands have started believing in their wives’ capabilities,” says Lee, a volunteer from Taiwan, who works with these women now.

Good stuff. The article also has links to other such efforts.

And in other news, it snowed here!!!!! I must say it was the first time I saw snow falling and the ground turning white [I have seen pre-snowed ground, and snow that falls and melts when touching the ground, but this was the complete experience :) ].

In still other news, I will be flying to India this Friday. yay!

Live and Uncensored! K&K Ep. 200

Its here, the 200th episode of the K&K podcast! [and yes, Your's Truly will be there!]
You can read about it here, watch is live below, and chat about it here!

The event starts at 5pm Paris time, but the video might start one hour earlier.

And now, I am off...

Webcam chat at Ustream

Parlez vous podcast?

I am on the train back from Brussels to Paris [and in the 1st class, no less!]. The trip went well, esp the keynote today from the Dean of EPFL. Also, the chocolates I bought today, as well as the food we were given all this week was simply fabulous.

And now, I am looking forward to the celebrations tomorrow for episode 200 of the Katia and Kyliemac podcast!

And for this, I give you the third installment of my guest appearance on the K&K podcast. Episode 198, the one where they talk about arranged marriages... and stuff...

The MP3 is here, and as always, you can listen to the streaming version below.



In case you missed my last two appearances, for ep. 197,
You can download the MP3, or listen to it below.



And for those who missed the initial one, here is the MP3, and the streaming audio is below.



And don't forget to check out episode 200, which will be streamed live! There are rumors that a certain PhD from USC will have a guest appearance ;).

P.S. I must say I liked the podcast experience, and am greatly thankful to K&K for the opportunities. You ladies rock!

Letter to the PM

This evening, the Indians in Paris will participate in a peace march. Sadly, I will miss it, on account of being in Leuven for a conference.

That being said, I am happy that I was able to do my bit for the march. As decided in the coordination meeting we had last saturday, I wrote a letter which the people will sign and give to the Indian ambassador. I am reproducing the letter below. You are most welcome to "sign it" in the comments section.

***

To,
The Honorable Prime Minister of India,
Dr. Manmohan Singh

Through,
The Honorable Ambassador of India to France,
Mr. Ranjan Mathai

Respected Sir,
We are a community of Indians living in France, some for many years, and some for a few weeks now. Some of us have made us this our home, while others intend to return to our motherland soon once our work here is done. Regardless of our current location, we all have friends and loved ones in back home, and indeed, are members of the family called India.

The recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai have deeply shaken all of us here, who spent many hours glued to our TV sets and web browsers, watching the events unfold on live news. While many of us directly or indirectly knew those who fell victim to the reprehensible acts of the terrorists, all of us share the pain, the anguish, and the feeling of helplessness and uncertainty that this incident has evoked.

Through this letter of ours, we condemn the horrendous acts of the terrorists who sought to kill innocent civilians by attacking the financial capital of our country. Our prayers are with the families of all those who lives were cut short by this incident, the innocent civilians as well as the valiant security personnel who sacrificed their lives while opposing the monsters who perpetrated this attack. We also express our relief for the saved lives of those who escaped this ordeal alive, and wish that their wounds, both physical and mental, heal soon.

We would also like to wholeheartedly express our deep gratitude towards our security forces -- including the Mumbai Police and Fire Department, ATS, NSG, MARCOS, and others who were involved -- who rose to the occasion and worked tirelessly and valiantly to lead us out of this dark hour. Our thanks are also due to those nameless civilians who helped support the operations, both inside the affected buildings and out.

On this solemn hour, we share the feeling of our fellow Indians, who are shocked by the failure of our security apparatus to anticipate this attack, and are feeling let down by our elected leaders. At this moment, Honorable Sir, we are looking up to our leaders to chart a new course in our domestic security policy so that attacks like this never happen again.

On the above note, we humbly submit that Indians have been attacked by terrorists time and again in the 61 years of our existance, and after each attack the public has heard our leaders make promises of making the country more secure so these attacks never happen again. Needless to say, these promises have gone unfulfilled, as evidenced by the audacity of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Dear Sir, at this time, we are looking up to you and the administration to break the trend followed by our politicians for all these years. We would like to suggest that when the government announces its plan to combat terrorism this time, it also clearly define concrete success criteria and clear timeframes, which can be used by the people of India to unequivocably evaluate the deliverance of these promises.

The Indian citizens are looking up to you for guidance and a call for action, and we promise to deliver on whatever you ask us to do. Please lead us by example to a safer, more secure India.

with best wishes,
The Undersigned.
December 4, 2008
France

Name, Location

Listen to Me

[update: event link updated. I meant the Paris one]
No really, listen to me, at my second appearance on the K&K podcast, k&k episode 197 - the one where they discuss the beauty of live streaming audio and free speech... and stuff....

You can download the MP3, or listen to it below.



And for those who missed the last one, here is the MP3, and the streaming audio is below.



OK then, goodnight!

BTW, I would love to go to this on Thursday night. What about you?

Mumbai Terror: Letters : #2

Continuing my series...

Dear soldiers:
[Mumbai Police, ATS, NSG, MARCOS, whoever else was involved]

It fills me with pride that people just like me are so brave as to not fear facing death in the line of duty. I really do NOT have the words to thank you properly. If any of you are in Paris sometime, send me an email [animesh @ gmail] and I would be extremely happy to buy you lunch. Its the least I can do.

At the same time, it feels me with great sorrow that the casualties on our side could have been reduced, and the mission could have gone more smoothly, if you were given better equipment, whether it be body armor [e.g., Mr. Karkare, who was shot through his 1990's vintage armor], or better weapons [one could see non-automatic rifles and pistols], or better IT equipment [PDAs with hotel schematics anyone?], or better training on how to handle multistorey-building situations.

We, the people of India, through our elected representatives, have let you down. And I am extremely sorry for that. That said, there were incidents of citizen help, and we would all like to take that as an example.

Finally, thanks a lot for making it clear to the public that at the the time of need, it is the regionless, religionless armed forces that come to our rescue, not the so-called "leaders" who only know how to divide us for their personal gains.

Jai Hind.

#Mumbai: Some Thoughts

Yes, you all know how the last 50+ hours were, and that stuff is still going on.

I am still under shock, and therefore might be incoherent, not unlike Grover.

However, here is something I will say, for now [a comment I wrote here]. More later.

++++++++++++++++++

I do believe that with this mass-murder, the terrorists have crossed a line:
1. This was televised live for a looong time. Enough to make all Indians feel the pinch.
2. A wide range of people were killed, from the Greek shipping mogul to the poor laborer who had missed his train at VT. I myself am only 2 hops away from someone who died. Again, something to make all Indians feel the pinch.
3. The attacked Americans, Britons, and Israelis: wrong move. I sincerely hope this leads to a)pressure from these countries on Pakistan to hand over those responsible [and perhaps support to India if we choose hot pursuit], and more importantly, b)cooperation in forensic investigation with the overworked and underpaid Indian police so they do not end up with the usually shoddy job that they do after each attack and then try to cover up their mistakes with fake encounters etc.

I like the 2 year mandatory military training idea. In fact, I would like it better if the [increased in strength] army was then responsible for running schools and other social projects where they were posted. A roundabout way to get “teach for america” running in India, but just might work.

Of course, our collective reactions over the next few weeks will determine whether we have learnt our lessons and will start demanding performance from our politicians, or keep up with our usual chalta-hai attitude and deserve another attack.

Yes, I said ‘deserve’. I am mad, at us :-| .

++++++++++++++++

So, what is the silver lining? I believe that this is the right opportunity for a leader to rise (not a shackled one, not one with blood on his record, not the usual populist ones).

++++++++++++++++
Lesson to learn: do NOT trust politicians, not in their current forms. Demand concrete plans for them. Not vague statements ["we will take care of it"], and not knee-jerk ill-thought grandstanding ["we will bring back POTA/TADA and kill all terrorists"].

Demand them to tell us what specifically they will do, and how exactly it is different from the state of the art.

Hoping that this shocking incident jolts us public to start behaving like reviewers of top journals,

-A

What I did Last Saturday

[as I write this post, sad news came. But I promised myself that we need cheer in this dark time, so here goes.]

It all started in June, when JD and I were debating on how best to say "yeah, right!" in French. We did a google search that resulted in this page. I liked what I heard, joined their facebook group, and they added me as friends! [am honored :)]

Well, one thing led to another, and I landed at the bastille day picnic.

And last saturday [as some of you so desperately wanted to know :)], finally, I was honored to be a part of the future, by way of recording a podcast with the great Katia and Kyliemac! It is k&k episode 196 - the one where they learn about temples of sex and that america is NOT fraught with debauchery... and stuff.... :).

The MP3 is here, and you can stream it directly from the gadget below.

Thanks for the opportunity K&K!

So, what do you say, dear readers/listeners?

Now You See Me ...

... now you don't!

:)

Holy Photosynthesizing Animals Batman!

In these tough days, food items are getting costly, as Fned also noticed recently.

Ever wonder what will be the most extreme ways to cut food costs? Well, worry no more, for a humble sea slug has shown us the way, by adding algal DNA to its own to convert itself to a mean-green slow-moving photon-processing machine!

The new scientist article is here, and the video is here [must watch!].

From the article (all emphasis mine):

[The researcher] has known for some time that E. chlorotica acquires chloroplasts - the green cellular objects that allow plant cells to convert sunlight into energy - from the algae it eats, and stores them in the cells that line its gut.

Young E. chlorotica fed with algae for two weeks, could survive for the rest of their year-long lives without eating, Rumpho found in earlier work.

But a mystery remained. Chloroplasts only contain enough DNA to encode about 10% of the proteins needed to keep themselves running. The other necessary genes are found in the algae's nuclear DNA.

...

In their latest experiments, Rumpho and colleagues sequenced the chloroplast genes of Vaucheria litorea, the alga that is the sea slug's favourite snack. They confirmed that if the sea slug used the algal chloroplasts alone, it would not have all the genes needed to photosynthesise.

They then turned their attention to the sea slug's own DNA and found one of the vital algal genes was present. Its sequence was identical to the algal version, indicating that the slug had probably stolen the gene from its food.

"We do not know how this is possible and can only postulate on it," says Rumpho, who says that the phenomenon of stealing is known as kleptoplasty.

One possibility is that, as the algae are processed in the sea slug's gut, the gene is taken into its cells as along with the chloroplasts. The genes are then incorporated into the sea slug's own DNA, allowing the animal to produce the necessary proteins for the stolen chloroplasts to continue working.

Another explanation is that a virus found in the sea slug carries the DNA from the algal cells to the sea slug's cells. However, Rumpho says her team does not have any evidence for this yet.

In another surprising development, the researchers found the algal gene in E. chlorotica's sex cells, meaning the ability to maintain functional chloroplasts could be passed to the next generation.

If you didn't click the previous link to see it, now is your time to watch the video.

Sadly, all Chloroplast and DNA is digested to mush in our stomachs, so don't go looking for algae yet :).

Looking into the Future

This weekend, I had two [three?] futuristic experiences.

Firstly, on Saturday morning, I played a game in the musée des arts et metiers known as "the secrets of the museum". Each participant was given a cellphone which could read and write on RFID tags, which had been attached to certain articles in the museum, including a model of the statue of liberty!

The game began with each participant having 4 images in their cellphones. Our job was to gain as many points as possible by

1. "putting the item back where it belonged" by going to object in the museum [using the map they gave us] and waving your phone next to the tag attached to the object. Funny thing, when you did that, the tag talked back to your phone, adding a new item to your phone. So then you had to go and put that back, and get more points :).


2. "answering simple quiz questions about the object that one just put back". Upon being put back, the object asked you a multiple choice question, which you could answer to gain points :).


3. "collecting 4 objects of the same color in your phone before putting them all back". The 16 objects that were involved in the game were divided into four "colors", and if at any time your cellphone contained 4 objects of the same color, you got extra points. Kinda reminded me of the LEO "jackpot" game which I loved as a kid.


4. "by exchanging objects with fellow gamers". To help in objective 3 above, you could also exchange objects with another person by putting your cellphones close to each other. So I was occasionally seen stopping people and asking "hey, you got a green object? I can give you a yellow one in return."

The game was cool, and we passed an hour without feeling it. The museum is also very nice, and I will surely visit it again. Pictures of the event are here and here. The ones containing me start at this place [pic 35 of 64]. Huge thanks to F for being my teammate [you can see her in the pics].

Of course, the game above was part of an experiment in pervasive computing, and I look forward to meeting the researchers again. I believe that technology has a lot of potential for making education interesting for kids, kinda like this experiment of teaching English to village kids using radio.

The second "futuristic" thing that I did on Saturday, which is something I had never done before, is something I won't talk about quite yet :P.

The third thing was to read this post on A's blog on the focus of Japanese auto-makers on research to make cars of tomorrow, and not cutting R&D funds even in the recession of today. Also, see the second video there where they interview the CEO of their airlines, JAL.

That's it for now, will be posting details about item 2 above in some time ;).

Links: Good, Hopeful, Pretty, and Crazy

Am busy with a proposal [to a funding agency, you-who-thought-otherwise!], so just posting some interesting links I came across today:

1. Good news: 64% of Kashmiris said, lets vote now to get better living conditions, worry about separation later.

2. Resilience news: Bihar flood victims finding ways to improve their lives using software, bamboos, and banana-trunks! [and yes, “Mobile inspectors” with GPRS-enabled phones have been deployed by the State Disaster Management Cell to travel incognito to these camps and take photographs of their conditions. -- right up my research alley!]

3. Science wackiness: particles that can mix and un-mix water and oil by remote UV-light control.

4. Nature cuteness: A gallery of rain-forest snaps, to remind you that a football-field-sized portion of them are disappearing every SECOND! [my fav. snap - this one]

5. and finally, Japanese gadget craziness: the face-bank!

On the Moon!

I am happy today. Yes, I need to work on the weekend on a grant proposal, but the Indian tricolor is on the Moon now! [thanks for the news PK]

In spite of all the craziness going on in India, news such as these give us hope, an important and required trait in these times

Also, from PK, is a nice piece to remind us on the national anthem.


It is a nice coincidence that the flag-landing happened on Children's Day, and I give you these videos to further celebrate :).

Some Good News on Children's Day

Today, November 14, is celebrated in India as Children's Day. I wish I was there today, and contribute in a more concrete manner, but the least I can do is point you to some good work being done on the occasion.

Here, from the latest addition to my google reader, is a post about how kids in Karnataka are being introduced to ideas of responsible self-government.

Read the post, you won't regret it.

P.S. Another good news is that one of my good friends is pregnant :). Yay for you-who-sent-me-her-pot-bellied-pic-yesterday :)

Good News - True and Fake

To start off this post on a problem-solving note [inspired by the discussion on this mutiny post, I guess], I point you to a new website that aims to highlight the positive actions being taken in India right now. Behold, The Better India. [ref: Abi]

Their aim:

The Better India is an attempt to bring out the happy stories, the unsung heroes and heroines, the small good deeds happening across India and showcase them to the world. Over here, you will be able to read about the incremental progress being [made] by the industrious people of this country, the developments happening on the social and economic front.

This is a great initiative. Please visit their website, and add it to your list of feeds etc.

Moving on, some Americans were shocked to note on Dec 12 that the war in Iraq was over. The reason -- a special edition of the New York Times. [ref: Abi again :)]. The video below shows is their press-release.


New York Times Special Edition Video News Release - Nov. 12, 2008 from H Schweppes on Vimeo.

That's it for now. I will focus on the crazy news later, tomorrow perhaps :).

Why we Fight - Blame it on the Genes

After having lively discussions on posts such as this one, and talking about solutions in the discussion here [see the end of the comments there], it was interesting to see an article on New Scientist today talking about the very reason for war.

They first start by asking:

IT'S a question at the heart of what it is to be human: why do we go to war? The cost to human society is enormous, yet for all our intellectual development, we continue to wage war well into the 21st century.

and then claim that:

"Warfare has been with us for at least several tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years." He thinks it was already there in the common ancestor we share with chimps. "It has been a significant selection pressure on the human species," he says. In fact several fossils of early humans have wounds consistent with warfare.

And there are interesting behavioral differences between males and females in this, as they found out:

For example, male undergraduates were more willing than women to contribute money towards a group effort - but only when competing against rival universities. If told instead that the experiment was to test their individual responses to group cooperation, men coughed up less cash than women did. In other words, men's cooperative behaviour only emerged in the context of intergroup competition (Psychological Science, vol 18, p 19).

and then, there is the hormone angle:

He found that cricket players on the Caribbean island of Dominica experience a testosterone surge after winning against another village. But this hormonal surge, and presumably the dominant behaviour it prompts, was absent when the men beat a team from their own village, Flinn told the conference. "You're sort of sending the signal that it's play. You're not asserting dominance over them," he says. Similarly, the testosterone surge a man often has in the presence of a potential mate is muted if the woman is in a relationship with his friend. Again, the effect is to reduce competition within the group, says Flinn. "We really are different from chimpanzees in our relative amount of respect for other males' mating relationships."

Hmm, reminds me of why I feel nice playing TF2 :).

Here's to a more [improbably, but hopefully] peaceful future.