Digging for Meaning

I don't see myself completing this story in near future.. so might as well make good use of this blog. I will post my attempts at poems & literary prose here. An Episode My eyes do search for you, though I wish they wouldn't. I wish to think of you as the sweet mistake, I always wanted to make. Your absence presents me with a certain comfort, for if you are to be around, I would rather you be in my arms. But since that is not to be, I must sling out of this spiral, into another one into other bosoms.

on our bike trip to Mt. Abu, we visited 'brahmakumaris' centre as well. man! the prime real estate they were sitting on.. its obscene. well, whats more obscene is the importance they attach to the concept of 'purity'. I have come to absolutely abhore this concept, that has no sound philosophical basis and is championed by almost all religious zealots in defence of their every act. What is this purity? its a mechanism of guilt induction into gullible souls. its a mechanism of injecting doubt about oneself. An assymetry of information is absolutely essential for this concept to exist. there will be someone to tell you what you are to do to absolve oneself of impurities. The implicit hierarchy here means that you must submit your individuality and freedom to think for yourself, and instead play dumb charades to the tune of some dumb fucks masquerading as gurus/preachers/teachers/whatever. i know of horror stories born of 'purity'. where relationships were irration

was reading Maupassant's 'Suicides'. Funny how story tellers so often chose to extract the marrow of life through depiction of death. Its as if a secret code is agreed upon before becoming a published writer. (Well the postmodern writers do scratch at the 'irascible million private pains of life' (oh.. I think i could be one :D what utter bullshit I came up with 'irascible million private pains of life'. :P) through depiction of mundane life. But then again, its as if through that mundaneness they are celebrating the futile journey towards death. So its either you celebrate life through death, or death through life. Never one by oneself.) I want to challenge this polar duality in the popular thought culture. There's either reason or spirituality/faith. There's either us or them. Let me illustrate. Me and a few friends a while back were discussing education, doing PhD etc where the subject veered elsewhere.. where I was trying to say how the linear lo

Except for the 2 days of the event, my stay @ delhi was utterly kickass. met up with a friend, roamed around delhi a lot, got to know so many new things. it was good. :D and out of this trip was born this video. on the gates of the North Block in Delhi are inscripted these words "Liberty will not descend to a people. A people must raise themselves to liberty. It is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed. " You go around the city of delhi, the capital of the biggest democracy in the world and you come accross stark polarities. On one side there's Janpath and then there's lanes of chandi chowk. am trying to make a statement here about liberty and our role in achieving it. Like the video @ chandni chowk is interspersed with pics of fire.. essentially telling of our civic responsibility towards a safer place for ourselves. The common man's apathy who walks by but does not act. The helpless people at the bottom of the pyramid who can only afford to wat

I am sitting alone in a big cold empty room, in a big empty hostel, in a big boring management school in Delhi. At times like this, I just can't help but feel longing to be back in MICA, right now. I had never felt this way for any place/person before. I had never missed something as much as I miss MICA right now. Its wierd. Its just an institute. But, having tasted the life of other schools, there's simply no comparison. There's something human about the place itself @ MICA. The place is companion by itself. MICA is our home. Maybe, the realisation that we soon would be getting out of MICA is making me feel this way. Hopefully, when we leave, we would take away enough MICAnness (love it or hate it, its there! :P) within us to live MICAn for the rest of our lives. MICAns are at the end of the day, a certain species. hate them or love them, having met them, can't live without them. I hope I have a bunch of 'em around me all the time. amen. MICAn. forever.

i am in dire need of a new thought structure, a new point of view, a new way to look at things around me. I have been through quite a few such iterations. The first prism that I looked through during my school days was pure science. Tales of great discoveries and inventions greatly affected me and instilled in me a hunger that still burns in me, for constant search of new genius, of new things, of inventions of my own, of constantly seeking alternate views, of being the first in the world at something. I acquired (more or less.. more less than more. :P) the tool that would help me in it, namely, REASON. This tool had a great role in defining me, helping me find and appreciate the beauty around. It also led me to a generation of a few ideas of my own, and as such introduced me to the utter pleasure of creation. It helped me understand the physical, palpable world around. Then things happened that introduced me to the looking glass of Philosophy & Spirituality. Reason sets up storms,

yesterday I saw ' Coffee and Cigarettes' . Its quite an interesting movie. Not that I haven't seen similar ideas. There's one German movie, essentially a collective of several short ones, about conversations raveling life's facets in various ways. (I don't remember its name.. it was shown in some new movie maker's festival of international cinema in Pune. ) In cofee n cigs, its done with taking conversation over coffee n cigs as a ruse, a common theme through the movie. I though how simple conversations could lend themselves to creation of such fantastic movies. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are easily amongst the most beautifully engrossing movies ever, and what they fill the space and time is with conversations. simple. conversations. (Ofcourse Julie Delpy did help :D . She is simply brilliant, absolutely beautiful. She is so awesomishly godly in three colors: white .) The leisure that this form of movie projects is simply astounding and alludes to an

On 1st December, celestial bodies aligned to smile down on us. Here's the evidence from my lens. :)

how's that for a post title.. 'a new post'. :D quite apt i would think. Its been a while since I wrote last. There's much to be said, but i don't want to subject u to my complicated rants. so else is to me, besides my stupid philosophizing (thanks to the spell checker, i would have never got this word right) shit. I could write about us selfish MICAns who can't lend a cushion to a poor cushion less soul in Audi, while resting their dainty asses on heap of them cushions. or I could write about my sodden tendency to make wrong choices. or I could write about why i am feeling happy right now, for apparently no direct reason, but for a resolution of sorts, of making amends for a wrong decision. Or I could write, about the mechanisms and manifestation of our self-destructive tendencies. Or I could write about, the beautiful weather these days that just won't allow itself to be captured in the lens. Or I could write about, the winter, that accentuates hunger and

I plan to be subprime this term. This is just a sinister plan to put the food supply and economy in MICA in jeopardy. Huhahahahahahaha. Its term end. Chotta, TT, Parasbhai, MICAre et al would be in want of the payment of bills accrued in the semester. Doors will be banged. (oh btw, 2 days back, mysteriously, my room got locked from inside while i was out for breakfast. Earlier I thought, somebody must have got inside while I was out and must be busy terminating me on micamail. But after a few minutes wait, and a lil' banging when no response ensued, I had to take recourse to muscle museum. (hmm.. 'muscle museum' is a wrong usage here.. but wtf.. i just remember that song.. its by 'Muse'.. one of my all time fav bands) I kicked the door. thrice. and i broke open the bolt inside. :D ahh.. the pleasure of knowing oneself's strength :D. The receipt of which - the bent bolt. a prized possession. blah. ) students will be chased. reminder emails in capital letter would

These days Media effects is my fav subject. and studying it has helped me in atleast one thing. It let me identify things in me that gives the reigns of my life back to me. I have, to an extent, successfully de-sanitized myself. A certain kind of person, me and a certain others, tend to be swayed more with the underlying assumptions of the mediated message. and in a certain way. I tend to see reflections of myself in others, mostly. So when I see this person - who cringes at someone else's slightest touch. who backsup with revulsion at things 'mass'. who increasingly prefers abstracted content, cause emotions laid bare irritate like scratching sound on glass. who is running on the treadmill of choices and can't stop. who is so afraid of oneself's vulnerability that won't let it out for even a moment and goes out of way to hide 'em. who can't decide about oneself's emotions since the invisible other that media constructs has to be consulted but rema

It happened a while back when we were going to Lothal on bikes early in the morning. Before going off, we were sitting at Chhota (canteen in MICA) for tea. I heard a rajasthani/kutchie folk song being played somewhere. It sounded interesting. It was coming off a cell phone of boy who worked at Chhota. (the guy in the pic) I asked him if it was radio and what channel. He said that it was mp3s. i was intrigued. i asked where he got it from. He replied 'internet pe milta hai na'.. He had downloaded the songs on a friend's cell phone, then from there he bluetoothed it to his cell. we were all :O then. Among the ten of us who were going to the trip, hardly half had bluetooth or GPRS enabled phones. :P Here I am. I write paper on digital natives. Am intereseted in media effects of new media. and I still havent used bluetooth (except for on laptop). :| It was a wonderful moment :D

It happened a while back when we were going to Lothal on bikes early in the morning. Before going off, we were sitting at Chhota (canteen in MICA) for tea. I heard a rajasthani/kutchie folk song being played somewhere. It sounded interesting. It was coming off a cell phone of boy who worked at Chhota. (the guy in the pic) I asked him if it was radio and what channel. He said that it was mp3s. i was intrigued. i asked where he got it from. He replied 'internet pe milta hai na'.. He had downloaded the songs on a friend's cell phone, then from there he bluetoothed it to his cell. we were all :O then. Among the ten of us who were going to the trip, hardly half had bluetooth or GPRS enabled phones. :P Here I am. I write paper on digital natives. Am intereseted in media effects of new media. and I still havent used bluetooth (except for on laptop). :| It was a wonderful moment :D

these days i feel a driving need to accelerate and go on random bike rides. maybe its simply the need to feel the wind on my face. MICA is cordoned with high walls of trees on all sides. no trespassing of strong winds allowed. :( . maybe its due to the fact that i have stopped waiting for people to be convinced to come with me or generally to follow my plan and now am much more comfortable doing things alone. (to tell the truth, i never push for my 'plans'.. I never know what constitutes fun for them and for the life of me, i won't ever impinge my ways onto others.. (mostly because fun to me is in total unknown. for most others its in confirmation of what they know.) ) *** ever driven in utter darkness with lights off? a little dangerous.. but not if the road is good and one which you know well. Thankfully, MICA is sufficiently out of city limits and as such one can experience the total darkness. Try it. The darkness above joins with the darkness below to form a continuum

I saw 'Mumbai meri jaan' .. and let me assure u, its a kickass movie. Brilliant it is! The movie is like a crow.. it nibbles at your wounds and makes noises that you would not like to hear. Its naked. A friend of mine was complaining '.. but I don't want to see this mumbai'. I won't give a description of the movies, or the details of the scene, (and I am so tempted to.. the sheer brilliance of them shots.. every shot has its politics.) or venture into an analysis of how this movie has shades of anti capitalism and so on $ ... but the beauty of the movie is in it's truthfulness and politics. I hope there were more crows like these. :P Another friend was complaining at the climax of the cliche therein, but then again why be non- cliche for the sake of it. The director pokes with the sensibility stick to the jaded zombified couch potato audience, and after the audience wakes up and becomes responsive, he holds the open soul-mouth of the audience so th

after a long time... a long time.. atleast 5-6 years... I, we went to experience THE CIRCUS. :D It was a hot afternoon, and our 75/- ticket didn't fetch us the cool breeze off the fan. But.. (a solitary small 'but' can't do justice.. we need Wanchu's BUT here.. ) BUT.. was it an experience or what! utterly beautiful it was. (and yoda speak i levitate to .) I am a big fan of parkour because it brings forth the beauty of human body in motion with such great efficiency. Today what I witnessed was something similar and far more real. The supple, nimble bodies making things happen that seem simply impossible. the movements constituting such sublime poetry. This poem might not be graceful at all times, but is earnest nevertheless. ____________________________________ Through the acts, I was constantly reminded of the games I used to play and games we used to create as a kid. The balancing acts, the testing of body limits through challenges.... I was especially fond of p

"Money can't buy happiness... But somehow its more comfortable to cry in a BMW than smile on a bicycle".. This is an SMS forward I got from a friend. Somehow its all very ugly. This importance of 'comfort'. Why is comfort so important to people? It completely escapes me. Comfort should be optional, and life should be primary. It absolutely pains me to see people giving up brilliant opportunities, ignoring sublime beauty around to explore, just to continue floating in their continuum of comfort. I can't stand people who would shy away from adventure, natural beauty for the sake of comfort. what kind of life do you see for yourself, if the objective of it becomes to lead a comfortable life? These people wouldn't even chase better comfort if the chase is uncomfortable. :P reducing life to mere existence when you can do more. what would these folks do in time of depression, of hardship, of scarcities. all of a sudden, your purpose of being stripped away from

If I talk in a lecture after having slept for a while, my voice seems alien to me. The voice and me saying it seems disconnected. I am almost afraid that what sounds may come might not be mine, they might start sounding different than what I intended. There is a fear of loss of control or more accurately, never having had control, being dependent on some alien agency of permission. At any moment, me and my sound may part, ascribing to me thoughts that are not mine, utterances that are not mine... P.s. - with these 2 posts, i hereby declare my descent through mediocrity and then below...

[upon re reading this, i realised that the thoughts i put here are half baked and not conclusive enough to make a strong argument.. nevertheless.... ] Every time i hear the national anthem, i have goosebumps. the patriotic feeling that strong. I don't quite understand this, cause I feel the notion of nation to be quite artificial. Physical borders really don't make much sense where physical resources alone no longer are the only things of consequence. Distances have been dissolved in this electronic age. I might be friends to people anywhere in the world, and we might bond over music and hatred than over national patriotism. (hmm.. so is nationalism just another vehicle for channeling hatred (accelerated competitiveness).. cuz being humans, we need to hate something..don't we?) We are global citizens, all our actions affect each other. As such, besides sports and some strategic geographical areas, there is no other avenue where notion of nation makes sense. Elsewhere somewh

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What if the dead never disappear. The uncertainty of their presence due to their absence (due to disposal of the body - natural reasons/cremation/intering etc), now absent. Would we accept death more readily? What I mean here is, because the dead body is disposed of, the absence creates a certain uncertainty and thereby fear. If the dead survive after death in some way, the uncertainty now removed, would the notion of death be just as alerting and fear inducing? A few years back, when one of my friends died in an accident, the notion that he is not there any more was very difficult to fathom. He wasn't a very close friend, so we only met occasionally, randomly. So, with his death there was no notional rupture of our possibly meet in future. We used to meet randomly, and as such it was hard for me to understand that he might not meet me just as randomly now, ever.

I have always lead sleepless nights. Relished in its stillness. Its beauty, the beauty of shapes and sounds that come to fore that are hidden at other times. The still coolness, so unassuming and comforting. The smell of wet leaves and dew damp soil. Where the individual becomes so prominent. The lone leaf waving to you, comrade in the dark rhythm of night. But these days these sleepless nights are finding a shape in loneliness. Maybe I have always been lonely. It might be so, that I never had the courage to confront it. Weird thought, isn't it? My own emotions alien to me. Turning human, slowly. I don't know if its an ascent or a descent.

When one talk of DN, some of the strongest ramifications of this concept is in the field of education. Indeed, the increasing ineffectiveness of education system n pedagogy were the reasons that the concept of DN came to fore. A few days back, I was thinking of the same while attending a lecture, and thought of an experiment. Essentially, I want to experiment if teaching efficacy increases if we uses multiple media simultaneously during the course of lecture. A normal class here at MICA, employs visual aids (projector, boards, charts, papers), audio aids (speakers, mics) but the use of this media is mostly one sided (though the class participation usually is quite high in conventional sense. Laptops are 'down' during lecture though, faculty just doesn't trust us :P). what i propose is use of social media such as twitter, social networks, wikis etc real time during a lecture to create a more collaborative atmosphere in a lecture. I talked with prof. Chandan Chatterjee about

With CultUth (a club we had started 3-4 yrs back), we had hoped to do some experiments and stuff that needn't really have defined outcomes. We never got around to do them, I thought I should share those ideas, maybe someone interested in doing them could get in touch with me to do them, or do them themselves and share the experience. I share the first idea that we had thought of in this post.... 1. A group of people going to an alien city for 3-4 days. all blind folded except for one who would be the guide. The rest would be blind for all practical purposes, throughout day n night. The group can't stay indoors for more than 18 hours a day. They have to roam around and experience the place, sans the vision. What it means to be blind? How does a blind person live? How does he feel? ofcourse 3 days aren't much, but any more than that and we won't have volunteers. :P Also, In today's time where vision is becoming the preferred sense, and other senses such as taste and s

June 13, 2008 2321 hrs Form. Shouldn’t there be a congruity between the form and the purpose or the message of an entity? Well, I was listening to a jazz music piece, when I looked towards my old inadequate synthesizer for I wanted to play some music. Then I realized the potential of the machine I was listening the song on. My laptop. Surely this demure machine can do a lot. It can create music with the right software, and with that thought I visualized my laptop turning into a turntable. And with that thought, I realized maybe if the machine had the form of a turn table or a music station, I would have been more disposed to try my hand at it. There is an inertia to work at my laptop for purposes that I deem could be better accomplished using some other tool. But this leads to inaction. Maybe, if the laptop’s form could have been flexible as well, then it would truly become a multifaceted machine. During my engineeri

I don’t quite understand the premium on nudity. It's as if we collectively want to relegate a part of us to fiction. Fantasy even. Fantasy I can understand. ;). Of course, it's the strong possessiveness over each other’s body that has led to this. I do not understand if I should feel guilty when I feel that kind of possessiveness. It's unmistakable, it's undeniable, though the rational me wants to disown that feeling. In my utopia, that feeling won’t exist, relationships would be a step above such baser instincts. But you know, as well as I, that it's simply impossible. The very man-woman dynamics is governed by this strong feeling of possession, in some way or another. In the world we live in, where our senses and even body is projected and extended, this feeling reaches out with it's tentacles in different ways. See, how a couple tries to maneuver each other’s body when with friends, each with politics of his/her own. Hear, their lingering voices, trying to

12/6/08 I have a healthy disdain towards organization, towards the inhuman mass of humans grinding towards a central goal, for in the act of massing of humans, it becomes less humane. I am an anarchist to the effect that complete freedom is accrued, and lying veils of false sense of protection are ripped and thrown away. Organizations, it seems, always tend to make anti human decisions. Earth is going to dogs, thanks to ultra efficient organizations. In search of growth, in a fear of tumble, we run incessantly gulping up wildly anything and everything, leaving behind a trail of a non-creative destruction. There is no logic to it if one stands out of it and looks at it through long enough a time frame. In our day to day interactions, its uncomfortable for me to direct others and make assumptions on their part in ‘team work’, not because I am low in confidence, not at all, but I see it beneath human dignity and subjugation of others, and it goes against my belief of sharing equal

12/6/08 I was sitting in the gallery, looking out vaguely, when I felt as if there lied a thin veil of fog between me and the trees and the building at a distance. It wasn’t a fog heavy with promise of rain or the shimmering veil of obscurity born of bright burning sun. It didn’t exist except for the notion of it born of the condition singular to that time. Then I though, mightn’t it be the being that I talk of, the supernatural, the god, the repository of all loose ends of logic? (suddenly at this point myself wondering of the beauty of the words I just wrote… repository of all loose ends of logic. :D hmm.. I have potential then. And I seek out the ducktales theme song and relishing in the crunchy munchy song. Must find the hindi version.) I believe in the power of belief. And for the sake of form, (or something else, I don’t know) I believe in a supernatural entity that pervades all, continuous and ever present, dynamic: the force that aligns and directs. For comprehension I

11/6/2008 It seems that people are afraid more of the possible fear that lurks in the uncertain corners along the journey of our lives. It’s a sorry shit that, this is what one learns through facing fears through childhood. Banishing emotions and replacing them with a certain façade, hysterical from within, cool without.

The measure of greatness of any literary work is the no. of questions and debates it stirs up in one’s head and heart. ‘The golden notebook’ is priceless. May 3, 2008 23 :14 I am reading Doris Lessing’s ‘the golden notebook’ right now. The author’s note has some interesting points that made me ponder. First - subjectivity. Essentially, how can one remove one’s experience from that of the rest of the mass’s. “how can you write about your petty little issues, when world is going through so much’. How can one not be political. How can one just reside in his own cocoon, without thought to the rest... well, this links up to a myopia of a thought culture that we have inherited from our subordinated forefathers of Raj era. Today me with Kasturee and Ashima were touristing around Mumbai, when Kasturee remarked, upon seeing a heritage building, as to did the government just ‘steal’ these structures from British or what? I was left aghast then. We are still the White man’s burden,

I feel cheated when subjected to literary works or cinema. The good art, good cinema is characterised by a focussed thought, a focussed reasoning that while being genius and revolutionary, is at the same time blinding and constraining. I see people bound up by the beauty of these constructed worlds, never to admit the world around as their own. Well, that’s not my reason o f complain though, I don’t read too much, only as much as my curiosity and hunger wishes, nor do I allow myself to fall away in quotidian stupor by keeping my curiosity and hunger for wisdom sharp on the granite of my senses. I try and absorb and diffuse the wisdom garnered from the art through me around me, trying to comprehend the world through it, trying to see the beauty that lay hidden beneath. I only have 2 eyes; maybe the author’s/artist’s eyes would lend me some new vision... My reason of complain is that that art, resplendent with the genius in it, binds me to its reasoning, to its ideals (at least for a

9 june 2008 2052 Much depends on the assertiveness, the confidence one projects in everyday interactions with people around. And since along the age, the no. of people among whom you can shed the mask, put down the guard is decreasing; the assertive mask is increasingly becoming a part of our selves. I hate to don any false mask. So I tend to be confused or groping for words or not confident depending upon situation. I am almost proud of my confusion. Confusion alludes to a process of thinking, of questioning and of being circumspect. The one’s who aren’t confused at first, haven’t learnt or understood anything at all. This is not to say that I relish in that state. I do quickly, with comprehension, rise from that state, but that’s a state that one can’t afford to skip. I believe that confusion is born of the process of rationalization for decision already made in your head/heart. Most of the times one makes decision sans any rational thought, as if through intuition (for want

While walking over the overbridge over the train tracks, I saw the rail tracks glistening with the light of yellow signal. The yellow long lines dividing the dark into equal twos, textured and raw, with the smell of metal and sweat of urban nation. The east side dark ended with jagged edges of station roof - the undulating continuity of shades of gray and grime. the west side dark went on only until the pillar standing in between me and it. Then a bird came and sat over the signal. Almost in dark. The light from signal of no consequence to it (apart from possible heat of the metal on its feet). Still its black eyes managed to shine a dark shine against its black body. I so wanted to capture the moment into a photograph framed thus - the focus on the bird pirched on signal. though the tracks visible just as well, and so is the dark. essentially, to capture the whole experience of being there, but I couldn't do it. U have to have a central focus in a pic to give meaning to it. Thats

This post started as a response to a comment made by a friend to the earlier post. But my thought took me a little further than they should have, so am posting the ramblings here as a post. well, the earlier post alludes to something grander and something that runs through many of my earlier posts and has consonance with what you said. reality is something that one constructs about oneself. reality isn't an absolute. Mahatma Gandhi's quote 'to your own truth, to your wisdom, thats where u must go', has stuck with me like anything, and lends itself to the notion of reality and here it ties up with the question of vision. Our 'truth', our 'wisdom' is constrained in the frame of our vision. I celebrate that increment in conscience with increased field of vision in the earlier post. Secondly, the thought was inspired from an observation when looking. The vision of man. if I am to talk in terms of photography, Ayn Rand's 'man' would be picturised

I found something pertinent and am posting it here verbatim - A search of the Nexis database of English-language publications worldwide finds zero uses of the phrase before 2005 but 600 since then. It appeared in The New York Times apparently for the first time in a quote on May 24: “Unlike people 65 and older who immigrated online after spending their youths thumbing through reference books, today’s children are digital natives who are fluent in the language of online searches,” said Marc Prensky, an educational consultant and the author of ‘’Don’t Bother Me Mom — I’m Learning!'’

It all started with emoticons. the simple one's - :P, ;) the anime one's - (0_0) , (u_u), (^-^)b... then avatars in chat. Secondlife took it to a whole other level, where an alternate reality is constructed. It is an internet based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc . A downloadable client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade items (virtual property) and services with one another. (source - wikipedia article) well, the real thing of consequence about second life is that, that it has a virtual currency - Linden Dollar (Linden, or L$) and is exchangeable for real world currencies in a resident to resident marketplace fac

Arrgghh.. the ethical questions hound us? or do they? digital natives are devided over the ethical question regarding free downloads, piracy etc. and its reflected in popular media thus ... Wierd Al Yankovic's 2006 song 'don't download this song' was one of his first outright political songs. See the kickass video of the song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz-grdpKVqg . The song was released exclusively on August 21, 2006 as a digital download . It is a style parody of "We Are the World" and other similar charity songs. The song "describes the perils of online music file-sharing" in a tongue-in-cheek manner." - wikipedia Here we see Wierd Al's strong criticism of file sharing of paid content. However at the same time we have MC Lars's response with his song 'download this song' where he says - Hey Mr. Record Man The joke’s on you Running your label Like it was 1992 Hey Mr. Record Man, Your system can’t compete It’s the

People. stand up and give me some listen. There's some kickass mighty awesomish research going on the west coat of US. check this out --> collegehumor The video is a demonstration about microsoft's new products - seadragon and photo synth . The reason I am so kicked about this technology is its potential to revolutionise the way we perceive and organize digital information. This has humongous sociological implications. Seadragon essentially aims to change the way we use screens, from wall-sized displays to mobile devices, so that visual information can be smoothly browsed regardless of the amount of data involved or the bandwidth of the network. It promises : Speed of navigation is independent of the size or number of objects. Performance depends only on the ratio of bandwidth to pixels on the screen. Transitions are smooth as butter. Scaling is near perfect and rapid for screens of any resolution. Combine this with Photosynth which takes a large collection of photos

When I was much younger, I would sit plumb in front of TV for hours on end. I used to do my homework, sheepishly looking towards TV in skew or hooded eyes, trying to fool parents in believing me that i was indeed studying, and i just 'needed' to 'listen' to TV. Looking back now, i feel that might be the reason behind my habitual forward tilted low gaze. Whenever i realised my posture, i would correct it with upward tilt of my head. A few days back, I realised something beautiful. Upon that habitual realisation and subsequent jerk of my face upwards, I noticed the difference between the world that one sees. When one looks with low eyes the object of ur gaze is at the top half of your vision. The thought is restricted with the 'purpose' of gaze. Besides the colors that usually pervade for this pose are dark and mundane - concrete, road, furniture, people.... There's a sense of being constrained. No escape from the trivial, the mundane. The sea of mediocrity

Mobile Communication The media landscape has changed dramatically in recent decades, from one predominated by traditional mass communication formats to today’s more personalized network environment. Mobile communication plays a central role in this transition, with adoption rates that surpass even those of the Internet. The widespread diffusion and use of mobile telephony is iconic of a shift toward a new ‘ personal communication society’ , evidenced by several key areas of social change, including symbolic meaning of the technology, new forms of coordination and social networking, personalization of public spaces, and the mobile youth culture. The increasingly personal nature of communication technology in the desire for ‘perpetual contact’ would shape the device and its usage. The symbolic significance of mobile communication devices is part and parcel of the progression from a mass to a network toward a personal communication society. Personal communication technologies are dis

ah. how wonderful life is that there's so much beauty in it. Saw Wim Wendel's 'wings of desire' the day before yesterday. The movie is simply sublime poetry. If you had ever doubted how moving images can be poetry, watch this movie. brilliant. beautiful. It has a poetic underpinning to it through a poem by Peter Handke , 'Song of Childhood'. ....When the child was a child, it had no opinion about anything, had no habits, it often sat cross-legged, took off running, had a cowlick in its hair, and made no faces when photographed. .... and the poetic dialogues in the movie is well complemented with just as poetic camera work and direction. The camera sweeps and glides over the scenescape , it might as well have been dancing and flying with the mood of narration. what a revelation. And then, I saw More by Mark Osbourne . Creations like these restores the faith in human capacity of genius. Now a

The digital Ecosphere is made up of all the electronic gadgetry that helps people to stay connected to others, that helps them access and experience the media and content(entertainment, information) and that that helps them make life a bit easier in general due to digital intervention. So the improved refrigerator that communicates to your cell phone when the milk carton is empty is a part of digital ecosphere, however the traditional refrigerator is not. For our purpose here, we would assume the digital ecosphere to be made up of digital devices that have components of communication and content creation/delivery only. Every one has its own ecosphere defined by the individual usage. So, one might prefer watching TV, but someone else might use TIVO or computer to watch the same content. Thus the importance of various devices differ with users. Lets try to understand this through the concept of 'personal circuit'. personal circuits are unique and habitual behavior patterns of med