Of Latitudes and Attidudes

From NY Times' David Pogue discussing perils of modern HD cameras in micro-gravity (induced in free-fall flights), I discovered a raging sensation of You-Tube, " Where the Hell is Matt " video, which made me curious about the song playing in the background, which led me to Rabindranath Tagore, which made me even more curious to discover the lyrics given below. Absolutely amazing stuff.  (thanks to the anonymous poster who  put this together) Stream of Life by  Rabindranath Tagore The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.   It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in...

I am not sure exactly what to feel. Sadness, anger, frustration - it's all welled up inside. One positive aspect of news reporting of the Mumbai killings is that the media is continually referring to the offenders as terrorists. I have been following this "terrorism" for such a long time that militant/freedom fighters are the only euphemistic monikers that I expect. This is a welcome change.  Even so, for posteriy, I want to document an AP report: " A police officer points out the spot where alleged terrorists are hiding to National Security Guard commandos outside a building housing a Jewish prayer hall which has been taken over by alleged terrorists at Colaba in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008. Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, a crowded train station and a Jewish center, killing people and holding Westerners hostage in coordinated attacks on India's commercial center that were blamed on Muslim militants. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)...

Finding the Vinoba Bhave ashram was not hard; I was merely surprised how long it took me to get there. It was supposed to be located at the outskirts of the city of Vadodara (India), but then, over the years Vadodara has grown to consume the surrounding villages and in this case, Gotri  gaam. Around 30 years ago Jagdish uncle took charge and settled with his wife and two young boys. One of the young boys, Kapilbhai, grew up to in-turn take charge of organic farming and that is why I was heading out to the ashram -- to learn and understand what's involved. I didn't get to talk to Kapilbhai much but I did spend some time with Jagdish uncle.  This is the story of how a simple man with a simple mission of feeding the world's hungry through ecologically sustainable agrarian practices came about in the city of Vadodara -- to be precise, then at the outskirts of the city, next to the cemetery. This ashram, founded by Vinoba Bhave -- the foremost land reformer independent India had...

The city of Tokyo is probaby without a parallel in the world. It has a unique mixture of typical western development and yet a strong foundation of the traditional. I always wondered how societies evolve to keep themselves rooted in the old while keeping up with the advancing world outside their narrow domain.  Yet, it's a challenge being there as a vegetarian. My hosts are kind to get me all sorts of Udan and tempura but this desi  apetite is not sated easily. My colleagues are great and we end up taking the midnight train to see the "crazily dressed" people (the fashion challenged in me could not see issues with yellow boots and black dress but a female colleague picked it up in utter shock) and weird hari-dos.  It's been 8 trips in 3 years and yet, everytime I feel like I am visiting the city anew. 

(Notes jotted on my PDA whilst journeying from Ahmd to Baroda on the InterCity bus) Crank, crank, craaaaaaank The last one was uncomfortably long. Though not abnormal for India, I once again find myself savoring (?) the prospect of being stuck on the Ahmd - Baroda National highway #6. The last time was of course when 'rents and I were stuck going the other direction to catch a US bound flight and this time it's the penultimate day of returning home. The first stall of the dilapidated 'inter-city' bus happened about half hour ago while still navigating the chaotic narrow winding streets of old Ahmedabad. This part of the city was built in AD 1415 by Ahmad Shah because he found a pair of hares chasing dogs. True story. He figured, this city has to be great if the hares are so brave (I suppose he didn't give much thought to the weakling dogs because he saw himself more of a hare than a dog?). Over the last almost 600 years, this part of the city has mostly seen rebuild...

Last week, last month, and the month before that saw the unveiling of three airports in three very distinct areas. The first is actually a terminal (no. 5) at Heathrow in London, the second serving the city of Beijing in China, and the third in Banglore , also known as Bengaluru , India's Silicon Valley. Comparisons between Heathrow and Beijing's airport galore online, so let me elaborate on the third since it's not as lavish, it's not as costly, and certainly it's not as sexy. The above is found on New York Times website, main graphic for the respective lead stories about the airports. The contrast between the two airports of two largely developing nations could not be more stark. If one needs more pictorial evidence of the same, there is the accompanying slide show, and if that is not enough, there are of course stats such as number of passengers served (55M in Beijing vs. 11M in Bangalore). The point here is not to vent at the lackadaisical attitude of the In...