Cognition-of-salu

Growing up in the less worldly `80s , Tinkle was our guide to the world - Sharon Fernandes

2011-02-26T17:06:00.002+05:30

An article which beautifully captures our age of Childhood!!! Thanks to Twinkle and Uncle Pai.. This post is being copied and Pasted from The Indian Express and Thanks to Sharon Fernandes.. (hope its legal) ;-)

Growing up in the less worldly `80s , Tinkle was our guide to the world

WAY back in 1986, I wrote a question in neat cursive, using a pencil: "What causes hiccups?" I wrote my age, address and the name of my school, and made sure I stuck enough glue to the Re 1 stamp on the envelope. I remember walking with my mother to the post box to mail my letter to Uncle Pai, to get my question printed in Tinkle, copies of which were my most prized possessions.

Cracking a snobbish group of five-year-olds is difficult, the requirement back then was at least 10 copies of Tinkle (I was safe, I had saved over 30). The question would be printed in the "Tinkle tells you why" section. I was nervous, and I am sure I prayed every night for Uncle Pai to read my letter. It was a big deal. Tinkle, with its panels of cartoon characters such as Pyarelal, Suppandi, Raja Hooja and Tantri the Mantri, Shikari Shambu, Kaalia the crow, was a saviour for us entertainment-starved kids of the '80s.

Train journeys were eagerly awaited , so that we were closer to the A.H. Wheeler stalls, the mother-ship that held spanking new, crisp copies of the 20-odd page Tinkle. It was a ritual when I got my monthly copy of Tinkle, each story was savoured slowly, each panel scanned for the bits of grass at the bottom of the tree, the white clouds "w"-ed in the sky and the "v" birds in the distance. Tales from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were brightly illustrated with the queens and apsaras adorned in transparent veils, and proud moustachioed kings. The evil guys were marked with an eye patch or a missing tooth. Like our childhoods, everything was perfect, nothing was grey.

Anant Pai, who started Tinkle in 1980, gave us the world for Rs 10. Uncle Anu's club, another series in the same comic, explained fundamental science, the one-pager with the quickwitted Nasrudin Hodja or Sup pandi with his large head and an infuriated "master" ordering him around was a fun read, and a conversation-starter for most of the under-ten crowd. Shikari Shambu was the portly, lazy hunter who barely moved an inch, yet managed to snare a runaway circus lion, thanks to some help from a plate of idlis (yes, it could get as random as that) -it was always fun.

The stories always began with a panel with the title of the story, the name of the illustrator and the name of the contributor, mostly a child, his or her address with a pin-code printed below the name. This has now been replaced with e-mail IDs. No kid will now share her postal address, but back then we knew the names of roads in Guwahati and Chennai, thanks to the tiny box.

We would imagine having friends from all over the country.

Each issue of Tinkle was a journey we took over and over again.

We had Tantri the Mantri sharing his devious plans to displace Raja Hooja, which fit in with our own little white lies and childish cruelties, though Tantri always managed to mix up sleeping potions so they were consumed by everyone but the king, or somehow end up with an arrow in his behind when a hired sharpshooter mistook Tantri for Hooja. It was a riot.

But the most priceless bits in the comics were the middle sections, with the infotainment pages, something that Uncle Pai introduced himself with a paragraph addressing millions of us as if we were his own. He would write about India's rich history and in little neat squares down the page, we were told to "match the following" -images of the Qutub Minar, the Charminar, and the Taj Mahal were lined up, and eager readers were asked to match them with the names. It was decades later that I actually saw the Qutub Minar, but I was first introduced to it in a little box. Tinkle now has illustrations that looked Photoshopped, the mythological figures have rippling muscles -maybe now the kids may even know what a Botoxed queen is all about. The answers to a question about "hiccups" can be found easily on the Internet, and Shikari Shambu is way too slapstick for any five-year-old today. But in a time when finding a pen friend was a big deal, even writing an "It happened to me" (entries from seven-year-olds on how they sipped castor oil mistaking it for a bottle of juice, or how they took hold of a stranger's hand in a crowded market, and realised later it was not their father, but the kind stranger got them home) is all in the past now.

But we were glad Anant Pai gave us Tinkle.

My question never got printed, but I got an envelope, saying thank you for sending it across. I didn't mind. I had a letter from Uncle Pai and it meant the world to me. It always will.

sharon.fernandes@ expressindia.com

Pubs are passe, as people want live bands, poetry readings, supper theatre and more

2010-11-22T22:02:00.001+05:30

Credits to Saritha Rai and it was published in Indian Express 22nd November 2010

IN the good old days, Dileep Wasan used to hit the pub two or three times a week, sometimes more. Sitting on a high stool, sipping pints of frothy beer and listening to loud music with a bunch of friends made for many fun evenings.

When he had out-of-town visitors, a Bangalore pub crawl was on the mustdo list. That was 15 years ago.

Today pubbing is no longer hip in Bangalore, India's "young" city. Pub owners lament that the fizz has gone out of the business. So, it has quietly come to pass that Bangalore is no more the pub capital of India.

One of the city's iconic pubs, NASA, shut last month. Others like Black Cadillac, 180 Proof, Underground and Night Watchman went down earlier. Once, mixed groups of men and women dressed in the latest fashions, downed draught beer and listened to the latest Bollywood and Billboard hits. Now, there is a desolate air about Bangalore's pubs.

NASA, the latest pub casualty, was modelled like the inside of a space ship.

There were othera that replicated a London tube station and a cricket stadium. Inside NASA, the lighting was neon blue and serving staff was dressed as astronauts. Unveiled in the mid-'90s by beer baron Vijay Mallya himself, the pub was so popular that customers lined up at the door. Now, a multinational food chain outlet will take NASA's place on Church Street.

Starting in the `80s, pubs brought about a cultural change in Bangalore.

They added to its air of relaxed cool.

The city's pubs busted the myth that women cannot drink in public. They changed the notion that drinking places are shady and dingy. They made bouncers and condom vending machines "in".

There is no charm left in running a pub anymore, says entrepreneur Ashok Sadhwani who successfully managed NASA and Pub World for a decadeand-a-half. Multiple factors have led to a steady downhill in the pub business.

One of them is Bangalore's Cinderella Rule which mandates that the city's drinking holes shut down a half-hour before midnight. Another is the nosmoking rule.

Bangalore is now in the throes of the great pub decline because high real estate costs and low customer turnout has made the business model unviable.

From over a thousand, there are now less than a 100 pubs in Bangalore. In downtown Bangalore, you can count the pubs on your fingers, Sadhwani says.

His other venture Pub World will shut its doors soon.

Pub World, modelled after a typical English pub was all the rage in its day. It held the monthly record for selling over 300 kegs of beer, the rough equivalent of 2,000 glasses of beer daily. As Pub World's European customers used to say, not even in Germany can they pull this off. These days, the pub sells 300 kegs in a whole year.

Bangalore's pub culture is dying because beer drinkers these days are spoilt for choices, says Carlton Braganza who runs the lounge restaurant chain called Opus. Nobody wants to drink beer and listen to music in the background, he says. They want live bands, poetry readings, supper theatre.

Bangalore has come the full circle and it is almost old-fashioned to be seen in pubs these days. Meanwhile, the city's lounge bars with their plusher sofas and soft-light ambience have stepped in to innovate and grab customers. Opus itself offers quizzes, karaoke nights, live bands and flea markets. It is a pubby environment but with a lot of add-ons. For instance, playing some cool guitar riffs to an audience of 200 recently at Opus, was politician Milind Deora.

Oddly enough, the latest data shows that beer drinking has risen 16 per cent in the city in the last six months. Bangalore is still drinking plenty of beer but destination preferences are changing.

There are so many options that guzzlers display no loyalty to a particular pub or lounge. The audience is very flirty and flighty, says Braganza.

A few cult pubs such as Pecos and Windsor Pub have bucked the trend.

Wasan and other hardcore fans swear by the ambience and the hard rock music at Pecos on Rest House Road. If not for these atmosphere-filled places, he would stop going to pubs altogether, says Wasan.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com

Embrace October 2010 Updates

2010-10-26T23:35:00.000+05:30

Embrace October 2010 Updates

Dear Embrace Supporters,

Embrace showcased the first version of our product at a national neonatal conference in India and received a tremendous response. Over two days, we had nearly 100 doctors sign up to purchase the product. Interest was high across the board, from private practitioners to government hospitals. It was rewarding to hear not only how needed the product was, but also how eagerly people wanted to buy it.

Embrace is excited about this amazingly positive feedback; we are eager to launch the product this winter and start saving lives!

Rahul with neonatologists at Neocon

Embrace's March to 5,000 Facebook fans!

Help Embrace reach 5,000 FB fans, and $1 will be donated to Embrace for each new fan. All you have to do is get your friends to be FB fans of Embrace by 11/20/10, and Nancy Heinen will match $1 per friend added. That easy. http://www.facebook.com/embrace?ref=search&v=app_7146470109

Exciting Updates

Embrace was recently featured in Oprah Magazine's October Issue as 'A Genius Idea' and National Geographic Magazine's November issue as the frontrunner for the 'Little Ideas That Can Change the World' article

Visit our website to see our new introduction to Embrace video. Big thanks to Aparna & Global Rickshaw Films and Ben and Kate & Neumatic for working so diligently on this!

Clinical trials are progressing positively, and one baby in the study was even named after our clinical researcher, Kamalika! Read the full story on our blog

Embrace, a genius idea, in Oprah Magazine - October Issue

Thank you Kat Gordon & Maternal Instinct

Embrace has been fortunately enough to receive pro-bono marketing support from Kat and her agency. Maternal Instinct is a full-service marketing agency specializing in the most powerful consumer segment in the U.S.: mothers. Their talented team finds answers for brands looking to connect with moms, creating ad campaigns, brainstorming new business ideas, engaging moms through social media, and advising companies on future initiatives. You can follow Maternal Instinct's founder on Twitter @katgordon and pick up weekly wisdom from Maternal Journal, the agency's blog.

Thank you to Roberta Denning, Yumi Kuwana, Nancy Heinen, Dennis DeBroeck, Cindy Lang, Kat Gordon, Barb Haynes, and David DeWilde for hosting great Embrace events!

Roberta, Yumi, and the Embrace ladies at our Connecticut Breakfast Event

Sincerely,

Team Embrace

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

2010-10-26T18:46:00.003+05:30

The Hungry Tide is a novel full of ideas, none of them found to have an easy answer. In Kanai's and Piya's world, they prefer the structure of science or business where they can view everything as black or white. In the Sundarbans where the tide changes the environment daily, nothing is certain and everything in life is a shade of gray. It's a place where tigers kill hundreds of people a year, but since they're a protected species, killing a tiger that has been preying on a village brings in the goverment authorities to mete out punishment. In an environment where life is fragile, the essence of any person is broken down to its core. Amitav Ghosh lets the tide country break down the barriers of both society and his characters.

While The Hungry Tide is about the struggle for each person to find their place in the world, it's not a novel of constant action and suspense. This doesn't slow the pace of the novel. Amitav Ghosh keeps the pages turning with the history of the tide country, the stories of the local deities, scientific information, the back stories for each character, and Nirmal's journal of what happened to Kusum and her son. At times, the history and scientific information start to overwhelm the story, and these carry on for a bit too long before the final voyage up the river begins. Someone already knowledgable about the Sundarbans or cetology might find this book dragging at times with these details, but the explanation of the exotic, whether scientific, geographic, or historical, can be as engaging as the lives of the characters. A bit of judicious editing about three-quarters of the way through the novel to eliminate the history of the scientific research of the river dolphin would have been helpful.

This is a small complaint, though. For the most part, The Hungry Tide is a compelling book about ordinary people bound together in an exotic place that can consume them all. It's the basest of human emotions, love, jealousy, pride, and trust, that will make the difference. That's a lesson we all can learn, again, as we follow Piya, Kanai, and Fokir into the heart of tide country.

Credit to:

W. R. Greer

Forgive me Amma - The Life and Times of Dhanraj Pillay

2010-09-22T16:35:00.002+05:30

Though India is cricket crazy hockey also holds its own place. But it pales when compared to the fanfare and media attention cricket gets. Dhanraj Pillay is among the few hockey players who have gobbled considerable space in the media. Dhanraj’s behaviour was always complex and controversial. He was emotional and always evoked mixed responses from unalloyed adulations to outright condemnation. He was truly enigmatic. In this biography the author has attempted to evaluate the class, calibre and the convulsive ebb and flow of the hockey’s icon. While doing so he has rightly focused more on the history of the Indian hockey from the time Dhanraj came to limelight in the 1980 Asia Cup. His presence on the national and the international hockey scene is inexorably linked to the most turbulent phase of Indian hockey. The eventful happenings that had a tremendous impact on the rise and fall of Dhanraj are narrated in this biography. Dhanraj’s career spans more than a decade and a half during which he was capped over 400 times and he figured in four Olympics and equal number of World Cups and Asian Games. However, to his misfortune, he failed to pick up any medal of any hue, either in the World Cup or in the Olympics. His life is like a metaphor in the story of Indian hockey which, always threatens to bloom, has brilliant moments and yet is unable to sustain the quality of performance. Dhanraj’s career has been intimately interwoven with India’s victories and defeats. His failures were India’s failures and his triumphs were India’s triumphs. This succinctly sums up the fact that Dhanraj and Indian hockey were synonymous at any given point of since 1990. Dhanraj Pillay comes out in the biography as a charismatic sportsman with all human foibles and failings.

Also when you reading the book, you feel that you are watching the matches right in front of you.. The author has done a fantastic job of writing which has all the action and thrill of a suspense book.

In one word the book is nothing short of Scintillating.

For one woman, success after trying 960 times

2010-09-05T17:23:00.002+05:30

Seoul, South Korea: A person could know South Korea for a long time without knowing Wanju, an obscure county 112 miles south of Seoul. And, at least until recently, a person could know a lot about Wanju without ever hearing of Cha Sa-soon, a 69-year-old woman who lives alone in the mountain-ringed village of Sinchon.

Now, however, Ms Cha is an unlikely national celebrity.

This diminutive woman, now known nationwide as "Grandma Cha Sa-soon," has achieved a record that causes people here to first shake their heads with astonishment and then smile: She failed her driver's test hundreds of times but never gave up. Finally, she got her license -- on her 960th try.

For three years starting in April 2005, she took the test once a day five days a week. After that, her pace slowed, to about twice a week. But she never quit.

Hers is a fame based not only on sheer doggedness, a quality held in high esteem by Koreans, but also on the universal human sympathy for a monumental -- and in her case, cheerful -- loser.

"When she finally got her license, we all went out in cheers and hugged her, giving her flowers," said Park Su-Yeon, an instructor at Jeonbuk Driving School, which Ms Cha once attended. "It felt like a huge burden falling off our back. We didn't have the guts to tell her to quit because she kept showing up."

Of course, Ms Park and another driving teacher noted, perhaps Ms Cha should content herself with simply getting the license and not endangering others on the road by actually driving. But they were not too worried about the risk, they said, because it was the written test, not the driving skill and road tests, which she failed so many times.

When word began spreading last year of the woman who was still taking the test after failing it more than 700 times, reporters traced her to Sinchon, where the bus, the only means of public transportation, comes by once every two hours on a street so narrow it has to pull over to let other vehicles pass.

They followed her to the test site in the city of Jeonju, an hour away. There, they also videotaped her in the market, where she sells her home-grown vegetables at an open-air stall.

Once she finally got her license, in May, Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, South Korea's leading carmaker, started an online campaign asking people to post messages of congratulations. Thousands poured in. In early August, Hyundai presented Ms Cha with a $16,800 car.

Ms Cha, whose name, coincidentally enough, is Korean for "vehicle," now also appears on a prime-time television commercial for Hyundai.

It is a big change from her non-celebrity life, spent simply in a one-room hut with a slate roof, where the only sounds on a recent summer day were from a rain-swollen brook, occasional military jets flying overhead and cicadas rioting in the nearby persimmon trees.

A lone old man dozed, occasionally swatting at flies, in a small shop next to the bus stop.
Born to a peasant family with seven children but no land, Ms Cha spent her childhood working in the fields and studying at an informal night school. It was not until she turned 15 that she joined a formal school as a fourth grader. But her schooling ended there a few years later.

"Father had no land, and middle school was just a dream for me," she said.
Ms Cha said she had always envied people who could drive, but it was not until she was in her 60s that she got around to trying for a license.

"Here, if you miss the bus, you have to wait another two hours. Talk about frustration!" said Ms Cha, who had to transfer to a second bus to get to her driving test site and to yet another to reach her market stall.

"But I was too busy raising my four children," she continued. "Eventually they all grew up and went away and my husband died several years ago, and I had more time for myself. I wanted to get a driver's license so I could take my grandchildren to the zoo."

Ms Cha tackled the first obstacle, which for years proved insurmountable: the 50-minute written test consisting of 40 multiple-choice questions on road regulations and car maintenance.

Early in the morning (she wakes up 4 am) and before going to bed, she put on her reading glasses and pored over her well-worn test-preparation books. She first tried, unsuccessfully, an audio test for illiterate people where questions were read to test-takers. Later, she switched to the normal test.

"She could read and write words phonetically but she could not understand most of the terminology, such as 'regulations' and 'emergency light,' " said Ms Park, the teacher.

Choi Young-Chul, an official at the regional driving license agency, said: "What she was essentially doing while studying alone was memorizing as many questions -- with their answers -- as possible without always knowing what they were all about. It's not easy to pass the test that way."

Practice made perfect, but slowly. She failed the written test 949 times, but her scores steadily crept up. When she came to them early last year, teachers at Jeonbuk Driving School pitched in, giving her extra lessons, painstakingly explaining the terminology.

"It drove you crazy to teach her, but we could not get mad at her," said Lee Chang-su, another teacher. "She was always cheerful. She still had the little girl in her."

It was only last November, on her 950th try, that she achieved a passing grade of 60 out of 100. She then passed two driving skill and road tests, but only after failing each four times. For each of her 960 tests, she had to pay $5 in application fees.

"I didn't mind," said Ms. Cha. "To me, commuting every day to take the test was like going to school. I always missed school."

Her son, Park Seong-ju, 36, who lives in Jeonju and makes signboards and placards, said: "Mother has lived a hard life, selling vegetables door to door and working other people's farms. Maybe that made her stubborn. If she puts her mind to something, no one can argue her out of it."

About a decade ago, before embarking on her quest for a driver's license, Ms Cha spent three years studying for a hairdresser's license. For six months, she caught a 6 am bus every weekday, switched to a train and then to another bus to attend a government-financed training program for hairdressers. But no beauty salon would hire her. She was considered too old.

No matter, she said. "It was like getting a school diploma."

Her tenacity has struck a chord with South Koreans, who are often exhorted to recall the hardship years after the 1950-53 Korean War and celebrate perseverance as a national trait.
The country's most popular boxing champion was Hong Su-hwan, who was floored four times before knocking out Hector Carrasquilla to win the World Boxing Association's super bantamweight championship in 1977. His feat gave rise to a popular phrase about resolve: "Sajeonogi," or "Knocked down four times, rising up five."

Ms Cha seems to have given new meaning to this favorite Korean saying.
On her wall where she hung black-and-white photographs of her and her late husband as a young couple and a watch that had stopped ticking, she also had posted a handwritten -- and misspelled -- sign that read, "Never give up!"

Credit: ndtv.com

Indian Rupee has a new Symbol

2010-07-15T18:23:00.000+05:30

Its was being discussed for quite a while now, the Indian Rupee having a new symbol of its own, like the Dollar, the Euro and the sorts. The Indian Government had asked citizens to submit designs that could be submitted scrutinised and selected for the Indian Rupee, well it is done. The Indian Rupee Symbol has been picked out of all the designs that were submitted to the government today. Lo and behold you are looking at the new symbol of the Indian Rupee. Ministers made their final decision at a cabinet meeting after examining a shortlist of five designs based around the letter “R” as drawn in the Roman alphabet and the ancient Devanagari script used in Hindi.

“This establishes the arrival of the Indian currency as a robust currency on an international platform and I think every Indian should be proud about it,” Ambika Soni, minister for information, told reporters. ”Some of us in the cabinet tried to write it out and it is not difficult at all,” she said. The rupee is currently referred to by the abbreviations “Rs”, “Re” or “INR”, though it remains uncertain whether the new symbol will be widely taken up.

Uday Kumar, a post-graduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, designed the symbol which beat 3,000 other entries to win a cash prize of 250,000 rupee (5,350 dollars). The government plans to introduce the symbol on computer keyboards shortly and to have it in regular international use within two years. India’s economy has experienced rapid growth since liberalisation reforms in the early 1990s reduced controls on foreign trade and investment.

Relishing knife-&-fork modernity - SANTOSH DESAI

2010-06-14T12:06:00.002+05:30

Came across this thought provokin article and wanted to share it with you all.. The article appeared in TOI today and courtesy Santhosh Desai!!!!! Read to feel it :-)

In the film Chhoti Si Baat, one of most striking ways in which Amol Palekar the diffident, Adam’s-apple-bobbing loser, turns into a winner is by turning into an a c c o m p l i s h e d eater with knife and fork (actually even more impressively, by using chopsticks). He humiliates his rival who is defeated by the unfamiliarity of his eating implements and ends up hungry, broke and alone as the hero leaves with the girl. Among the many markers of progress and modernity that we use to express ourselves, particularly in public spaces, eating with a knife and fork (and more rarely with chopsticks) takes its place along with speaking in English and drinking coffee instead of tea. Of course, this quest is never ending as class ladders come with infinite rungs.

To be seen to be civilized or cultured, the need to make the transition from eating with one’s hands to using utensils, particularly the knife and fork, seems to be an important landmark, given the determined attempts of a large section of the upwardly mobile middle class today. Of course, given that for most Indians, this is an utterly alien form of negotiating one’s food, what we end up with are various kinds of hybrid modes of adoption. We either use a spoon and fork, use the right hand for both the knife and fork, use the knife as spoon and so on. Trying to eat a dosa with a knife and fork is a hopeless affair and it doesn’t help that the sambar needs a spoon, making three hands a biological necessity.

It is interesting that we think of eating with cutlery as a form of progress. The Western view, that eating with one’s hands is primitive, unhygienic and socially repugnant is clearly a culturally skewed perspective, resting on its own assumptions. In any case, this view is hardly held consistently, given that the preferred mode of eating burgers, sandwiches and hot dogs is clearly to catch them by the scruff of the necks and to stuff them into achingly wide mouths. Like any system of etiquette which is designed to keep out interlopers, the rules governing eating are implicit, complex, and have just enough unpredictability to keep the outsider guessing.

Perhaps the reason that we think of eating with utensils as a sign of civilization is that in doing so we distance our body from our food. The leisure class did not descend to the vulgarity of using one’s hands and perhaps this is one reason why the use of eating utensils is seen to be aspiration for the upwardly mobile. But while we can see why this led to the Western toilet and the use of toilet paper for instance, it is difficult to classify food in the same way. After all, we live because we eat and food is hardly akin to dirt, given that we ingest it so eagerly.

It is likelier that by not eating with our hands, we put food in its place. Yes, we recognize that food is central to our existence and that every fibre in our body strains to transfer food from outside our bodies to the cavernous insides, but being civilized means being able to control our biological urges and utensils are perhaps a form of culinary chastity belts, that rein in our libidinous craving for food. Otherwise it is incomprehensible why we must use tools to perform tasks our hands are perfectly capable of. We don’t use implements to wear our clothes, button our shirts and tie shoe laces. Where we do use implements, as in grooming, we do so because they perform tasks our hands cannot.

Far from being civilized, it is possible to read the use of the knife and fork as being exactly the opposite. Imagine decapitating your food and pitchforking it into your mouth. In some ways, all food turns non-vegetarian under a knife given the violence with which it gets treated. A knife and fork makes the natural cede to the mechanical as instinct gives way to manual dexterity. Morsels becomes individualized and we separate each from the pack with the knife before nailing them with a fork and placing them in the mouth. We need to carve our food, and pick at it carefully; the sensuality of warm fingers is replaced by the industrial brusqueness of steel. Food is no longer an extension of ourselves, it is no longer what we are made up of, it is instead an external agent to be poked at, dismembered and inserted into our oral cavity.

The truth is that every culture creates its own set of rules about eating and it is perhaps absurd to argue that any system is superior to another. The pre-eminence of knives and forks is as much politics as culture. What is true is that every system carries in its wake a set of implications that emerge from the choices it makes. For instance, it is easier to put food under scrutiny when seen under the cold light of steel utensils. The separation of food from its eater allows for it to be analysed with greater objectivity and detachment. By resisting the sensuous charms of food as it slithers from one part of our body to another, we begin to objectify food. Now, it needs to be dressed up and made to look delicious. The eyes begin to play a greater role, and the idea of food pornography becomes possible. Equally, this world disaggregates food into categories and begins to measure it in new ways — notions like nutritional value, fibre content and glycemic index are products of this worldview. Of course, this new discourse is not created by the knife and fork alone, but it does play a significant role in converting food from being the delicious basis for life into an outside agent with motives that are suspect. Like most things that signify modernity, the knife-and-fork separates us from what we are an unconscious part of. If that is a good definition of progress, then perhaps we are becoming more modern now.

santoshdesai1963@indiatimes.com

iCats Program assignments

2010-06-03T21:50:00.001+05:30

Dear Friends,

This is a great opportunity to launch yourself into the development sector!!! I strongly suggest that you give it shot!!! All the best in case you goin for it!!!

Salu

I am excited to announce, that the iCats Program has started recruiting for 30 open posts.
We are looking for people who want to use their professional skills to help social organizations around the globe scale their impact.

We offer 2 types of assignments:

a) 3-9 months assignments as iCats consultant/mentor/implementer or trainer. Those posts will continuously be offered throughout the year with individual application deadlines. The availability of assignments depends on the needs of the organizations. Currently, over 15 posts are open for application. In terms of timing, our organizations are quite flexible. I.E. if you found a job that would suit your interest, but the timing does not work for you, please drop us an email and we will try to make it happen.

b) 12 months assignments as iCats Fellow. The Fellowship starts in February each year. The recruitment for the iCats Fellowship Program 2011 has also started now.
Building on the success of the last two years, the iCats Fellowship Program offers again exciting opportunities for 2011! Application deadline: 23 July 2010.
A Fellow works on-site with a social organization from February to December 2011 and receives regular mentoring from the LGT Venture Philanthropy team. In addition, a 4-day induction workshop in January 2011 brings all Fellows together in Switzerland.

Fellow position 2011 Organization
+ Social Franchise Director Fundacion Carulla – aeioTu
+ Strategy and Business Developer Ciudad Saludable
+ International Sales and Marketing Manager Rags2Riches, Inc.
+ Operations Manager Rags2Riches, Inc.
+ Financial Analyst Fundacao Pro-Cerrado
+ Fundraising Specialist For Europe Operation ASHA

+ Business Development - India Driptech
+ Business Development - China Driptech
+ Fundraising Consultant Aangan Trust
+ Communications and PR consultant Aangan Trust
+ Chief Operating Officer streetfootballworld

+ Fundraising Specialist Streetfootballworld
+ Financial Manager heart (idea factory)
+ Business Development heart (idea factory)
+ General Manager heart (idea factory)

If you are interested in any open posts, please apply now. Also, we appreciate if you could circulate this call for applications to potentially interested people.
Find out more and read the attached Fellowship factsheet, visit www.icatsprogram.com or write an email to icats@lgtvp.com.
Also, be inspired by how the iCats Fellowship Program impacted the life of Cynthia (see attached story).

I am looking forward to a lot of applications. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Tom Kagerer

Tom Kagerer
COO
LGT Venture Philanthropy
LGT Bank (Switzerland) Ltd.
Glärnischstr. 36
CH-8022 Zürich

Phone +41 44 250 8298
Mobile: +41 79 7452120
Fax +41 44 250 8276
Skype: tom.kagerer.lgtvp
e-mail: tom.kagerer@lgtvp.ch
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iCats Program - Bridging the talent gap in social enterprises

Does having a Moustache get you the prettiest women ;-)

2010-03-05T19:56:00.001+05:30

Off late I ended up watching mallu movies, where all the heroes are sporting a moustache, oh for the few who don’t know, moustache is more or less revered and considered as a sign of being a man, funnily though I’ve never sported a moustache, for some funny reason I believe itz unhygienic to have one ;-).

In fact when I go down to God’s own coundry, I’m always posed with the question as to how come I’m not sporting a moustache??? And worse they ask me what with me and the north Indian look???? And I would be like excuse me??? What does it have to got do with the north Indian??? Well it has everythin to do with it!! I’ve been told that havin a moustache is a manly thingy.. I definitely beg to differ with it!!! Alas not many buy my story down under J

Guess even the movies contribute to that concept.. I mean look at it.. All the heroes in the movie sport a moustache, then how can we blame the lesser mortals?????

Now that gets me to the question, would sportin a moustache get the women ;-)!!!! Well not sure if I sound desperate about bein single, but definitely it crossed my mind… But again it beats me coz most of the surveys I’ve come across states that the women prefer men who are clean shaven… so then what am I missin out on ;-)!!!

Well itz for all the readers of my blog to entitle me on this concept ;-)!!!!!

Oh btw I’m haven’t shaved for the last few weeks and I’m sportin a moustache and beard!!!! Now do I fancy my chances ;-)!!

Shall keep ya posted if I get LUCKY!!!! ;-)

Does having a Moustache get you the prettiest women ;-)

2010-03-05T19:56:00.000+05:30

Guess even the movies contribute to that concept.. I mean look at it.. All the heroes in the movie sport a moustache, then how can we blame the lesser mortals?????

Well itz for all the readers of my blog to entitle me on this concept ;-)!!!!!

Oh btw I’m haven’t shaved for the last few weeks and I’m sportin a moustache and beard!!!! Now do I fancy my chances ;-)!!

Shall keep ya posted if I get LUCKY!!!! ;-)

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

2010-02-02T17:14:00.000+05:30

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

Ogori Cafe: Service With a Surprise

2010-01-30T16:49:00.000+05:30

Cabel Saasser brings word of a mysterious cafe that he recently experienced in Kashiwa in Japan. Located inside the Urban Design Center Kashiwa-no-ha, the Ogori cafe looks innocuous enough, but holds a surprise in store for its patrons. In a nutshell, you get what the person before you ordered, and the next person gets what you ordered. Thus, if you’re in on the game, you can choose to be either a generous benefactor, and treat those that come after you – or try your luck at being cheap. Either way, it’s an interesting experiment that explores surprise, kindness and encourages interactions.

Cabel describes a scene from the cafe:

As I sat down to enjoy my surprise Appletizer, loving this insane idea and wondering what would happen if you tried it in America, a Japanese woman approached the cafe. Since she could actually speak Japanese, she could read the large sign at the front and, fortunately or unfortunately, got advanced warning of what she was in for. Before making a final decision on what to order, she quietly snuck up to me to try to ask me what I had ordered, knowing that it would be her unwavering refreshment destiny. The staff put a quick stop to her trickery, and I didn’t answer.

Of course, regardless of what she ordered, she got the orange juice I ordered a few minutes earlier. But here’s one of the moments that make this experiment cool: she actually chose orange juice, just like I did. So she got what she wanted. Ogori cafe synchronicity!

Before we left, there was one last thing hat had to be done.

Mike went up to the cafe, slapped down a couple thousand yen (~$25), and ordered a little bit of everything: some ice cream, some snacks, some candy, some drinks, a Japanese horn-of-mysterious-plenty intentionally set up as a shocking surprise for the next lucky customer. (After his order, Mike received single iced coffee.)

As we walked away from the cafe, with just the right amount of delay, we heard an extremely excited “arigato goazimasu!! thank you so much!!” yelled in our direction, from an ecstatic mom and her equally excited young son. They truly appreciated the surprise.

It was so worth it.

Seven Places to find FREE eBooks!!!!

2010-01-25T17:39:00.002+05:30

Every year schools around the world spend thousands of dollars on textbooks that are often outdated by the end of their first year in the classroom. Ebooks, many of them free, can represent huge savings for schools over purchasing textbooks. Here are seven places that you can find free ebooks. Definitely I ain't posting this to encourage piracy!!! suggest you use discretion while downloading book and ENCOURAGE writing!!!!

1. Planet eBook is a free service where teachers and students can find classic literature titles available as free downloads. Planet eBook adds new titles at regular intervals. Subscribe to the Planet eBook blog or newsletter to keep track of the latest additions to the collection. For browsing purposes, Planet eBook offers previews of titles through the Issuu pdf publishing service. Using the previews students can get an overview of a title without committing to downloading the entire ebook.

2. E-Books Directory contains nearly 1700 titles. The E-Books Directory provides freely downloadable textbooks, documents, and lecture notes. You can search the directory by keyword or browse through hundreds of categories.

3. Science Books Online is a directory of free ebooks for all areas of science. The books range from small PDF pamphlets to full-length texts made available in electronic form for free. Most of the materials have to be downloaded in order to be viewed but there are some materials that you can view directly within your browser.

4. Free Book-s is a search engine that scans many collections of ebooks to find free content that matches your search. I gave Free Book-s a test drive using academic terms like "physics" and terms like "fly fishing" to see what kids of results would be generated. In both cases I found Free Book-s returned very relevant results.

5. BookServer is a search engine for finding, borrowing, downloading, and purchasing books in digital form. A search on BookServer will yield results listing both free ebooks and ebooks for sale.

6. Flat World Knowledge provides free textbooks created by experts in various academic fields. A quick look at the "find my class" section of Flat World Knowledge reveals that these textbooks are being used in few dozen colleges across the United States.

7. Google Books hosts thousands of books that are in the public domain. Many of the public domain books can be viewed and downloaded in their entirety for free. To find public domain books go into the advanced search options and select the "public domain only" and "full text" options to find free full-length books.

Banker to the Poor - Review

2010-01-21T13:56:00.003+05:30

Recently finished reading Banker to the Poor: The Autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank and told myself that I would definitely write a review of the book, because there is so much we can learn from an Economics Professor who went on to become the Father of Micro-Credit!!!(That's my own title giving ;-) ).. Thanks to my exposure to the development sector, definitely I knew what Micro Finance (as we call it in India) is all about but glad that I actually got to read the book at last!!!!

I was inspired and amazed at the simplicity of Yunus's concept, and appalled at the resistance he met putting it into action.

It started when he found that 42 villagers were being kept in thrall -- literally bonded slavery -- to moneylenders in one village. The total sum they owed was $27. Yunus put his hand into his own pocket, and the system of microcredit was born. THEN came the long, long, attempt to get other sponsors, government help, and a lot more.

By the end of the book they have branched out into cooperatives, health care, cell-phone providers, and the internet. As he says, no US businessman would even consider operating without a telephone.... but there is criticism that "The rural poor do not need the luxury of a telephone." But telephones help the micro-borrowers improve their businesses and find the best markets for their products. So Yunus's bank, Grameen, created GremeenPhone to provide service to villages. Some villages didn't have electricity, so they then created a nonprofit company dedicated to developing wind turbines, solar energy, etc! Just one example of Yunus's progressive thinking and nothing-is-too-tough attitude!

Not in the book, but it's inspiring to see how Yunus's idea has caught on in other parts of the world. There's even a US organization, Kiva, which allows people to extend loans over the Internet to individual small businesses in far-flung countries. This is an idea that has to grow.

Definitely, Yunus dreams of a world without poverty and the books gives you a feelin that it's very possible given that all the factors fall in place!!! But hell what the harm in dreamin!!!

Interesting I also came across an article which is pretty hard on Yunus but thought I'll share the same with you folks.. irrespective of the article which I'm sharin, definitely I recommend this as a must read book!!!

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6860170.ece

Can't MEN be TRUSTED????

2010-01-11T12:05:00.002+05:30

For those who travel long distances/overnight by bus especially those operated by Private companies would understand what I'm gettin at and the rest, you will too get an idea what I'm gettin at!!!

Here I'm as always headed for the bus station to attend yet another weddin over the weekend and when I board the bus I see that there is a young lady sittin next to me. For a start ist surprises me coz usually the travel agent ensure he provides LADIES SEAT only for women, well I decided that I would be decent and ensure I would not even trouble the lady for the hand rest and keep my distance.

Well, the bus is yet to start and I see that the lady is still seated there, I decided to step out and wait for the bus to start and then there is this usual Boarding pass which is issued once you board the bus, no idea why they bother.. guess for accounting purpose ;-)!!!

Gettin to the point, it so happens that once the guy walked in to issue the boardin pass, the lady requested for the inevitable..."LADIES SEAT Please" and I was like tellin ofcourse "Hell lady, even if you pay me I wouldn't dare touch ya" well, works against my consciousness but hell she wanted to change her seat!!! Well thatz when I decided, if she is plannin to move then I ain't movin from my seat and decided I can be chivalrous to a certain extent, but hell you can't treat me as "touch me not" or rather in this case "sit near me not"!!! The guy went about issuin the boarding pass and then came the time for the bus to leave and our man conveniently asked me to move my butt!!! Hell was I gonna do that.. I told him, sorry ask someone else to move.. I ain't movin.. Why would I want to????? Guess I needed to say that to massage my ego :D

Well, the lady has no choice, if she needs a change of seat, she bloody well move her butt and not mine!!!! I'm definitely glad that the trains and government buses don't give that option of LADIES SEAT, otherwise we would have to dedicate one train for them and the latest I've heard is that Mumbai has already introduced a LADIES ONLY local!!! In fact even Namma Bengalooru had these pink color buses which were LADIES SPECIAL, guess they had to scrap it coz I don't see them around any more!!!

Well I understand that all Men aren't trustworthy, but it ain't FAIR to generalize!!! Anyways sure I'm gonna have lots of bricks thrown over me on this topic but hell I still feel it Ain't FAIR!!! Probably I should start MEN's SEAT plz CAMPAIGN;-)

2010 - Let it be a New Year of hope and prosperity!!!

2010-01-08T11:11:00.002+05:30

We all awaited for 2010 to happen and definitely we all are ready with our new set of resolution and guess by the time I post this most of those resolutions would have been broken ;-)!!!!

Just wanted to thank all of you for encouraging me to keep writing here and also for religiously following my blog!!!!

Definitely shall try to improve this year!!!!

Wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year Ahead!!!

Warm Regards,

Sals

Pizza Delivery in 30 mins!!!!

2009-12-08T16:59:00.002+05:30

This is somethin which I've always been wantin to pen down!!!! I remember those days when pizzas were introduced, we all used to hope that the pizza delivery wouldn't happen reach us in 30 mins, so that we could have the pizza for FREE!!! But very rarely have I seen or heard of anyone who was lucky to get the FREE pizza!!!

But hell, my contention here is somethin very different!!! How many of us know that if the pizza is not delivered, itz not the company which bears the cost of it, but the poor guy who tried deliverin the pizza within 30 mins would be debited from his salary???? News huh??? Well now your pizza isn't tasty as the FREE one huh????

Well then face this!!! Given the drivin/ridin conditions that are prevalent in our country do we realize that the guy actually risks his LIFE deliverin the pizza to our doorstep??? Not sure if you have noticed how the guy recklessly rides on the roads, just to ensure that we get the pizza in 30 minsflat, and of course hot enough for us to relish the delicious pizza????

My question is, is it OK for us to expect the guy to put his life on the line so that we get our pizza within 30 mins or even hopin that he would be late so that we get it free????? Whose responsibility is it end of the day to curb this practice??? I definitely would die of guilt!!! I rather walk into one Pizza outlet and relish if I'm soo keen or let them know that I'm good as long as they deliver the pizza and definitely don't want the guy to risk is life in ensurin that he gets the pizza to me in 30 mins!!!

Definitely, the pizza company is tryin to earn brownie points with its customers and definitely we as consumers have set our expectations and thatz the only reason why we see these kinds of inhumane offers!!!! I know I can't stop you folks from eating one but definitely it would be appreciated if you could just let them know that you are OK with the idea of pizza bein late!!! Definitely no one would want to eat a pizza when we put some one's life at STAKE!!!!

Chief Belief Officer - CBO

2009-11-30T17:29:00.003+05:30

I'm sure all of us have heard about CEOs', COOs', CTO's, but wait have you ever heard of a CBO??? in other words Chief Belief Officer!!! Well sure folks who were followin TEDIndia@Mysore would have heard of it and sure its been makin rounds around the net about his talk at TEDIndia@Mysore!! Thought I should share the same with the rest of them who hasn't been lucky enough to hear on it or see the person!!!

Personally, though I'm more or less an Agnostic Person, definitely kudos to DevDutt, who actually by profession is a CBO with the Future Group!!! who actually was damn good at weaving a story with ancient mythology and present day working conditions and more!!! Definitely an amazin video to watch

http://devdutt.com/metedindia-mysore

Also you could follow him on his own website : www.devdutt.com

Well sure, it would also get us to the question, now that we breached the Belief frontier, is there anything else?????

A light one to make your weekend FUN!!!!

2009-11-27T14:06:00.000+05:30

Do Dogs go to Heaven? These two churches face each other across a busy street.

How to tell if a Catholic is driving too fast :

Jewish Olympic Swimmer?

Church can be hilarious!

The Woodpecker Might have to go!

May your troubles be less, may your blessings be more, and
may nothing but happiness come through your door.

30 second speech!!!!!

2009-11-18T17:47:00.001+05:30

Here's a 30 second Speech by Bryan Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola) :

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the
air.

You name them - work, family, health, Friends and spirit and you're keeping
all of these in the Air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will
bounce back.

But the other four Balls - Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of
glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked,
nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same.

You must understand that and strive for it."

How I wish this could help people prioritize their lives!!! I mean we need to work but guess itz a pretty fine balance which we need to strike!!! Hope everyone readin this can manage to do the same :-)

DESERVIN????????

2009-11-11T12:39:00.004+05:30

There have been times when I see pics of my friends/acquaintances or hear about them as to what they have been upto, it gets me to thinkin do they really deserve that??? I mean not that I'm jealous that they have achieved somethin or got to do somethin which I didn't but for all that I've known them, I personally feel they don't deserve it coz there are other worthies accordin to me!!! Hell I ain't no one to be judgmental about anyone, but when you compare two, sure we are bound to find a nicer one of the two :-)

But, what is that makes LIFE so partial???? Have you noticed, people who have it all get more and people who don't have never get it or are robbed off it!!! WHY??? Sure we can have a lot of arguments sayin, you have to work towards it, you didn't work hard but hell I ain't gonna buy any excuse.. probably yeah few got lucky but what about the rest???? Despite all efforts they never make it??? guess then we blame it on Bad Luck huh????

Guess thatz how the fabric of LIFE is huh... we still move on and hope that even we would get there someday and yeah that would take us a different topic of HOPE!!!! ;-)

Sure, I ain't gonna find an answers to all these but hell whatz the harm in speakin my mind out????? huh????

Education V/s Cleanliness!!!!

2009-10-29T16:33:00.002+05:30

We've all been told that education brings in civil sense and other senses!!! But off late I've really started to think if this really has come true!!! Yesterday I was ridin on my bike and I see this pretty smart guy in a BIG car who very casually pops the gum in his mouth and throws the wrapper on the road!!! I really wanted to pull him aside and give him a piece of my mind but alas he drove away!!!! But my question is would he do it if he was at his own home???? Sure he would walk up to the dustbin and dispose it...

This is one off!! I've always found that even my friends do the same, its a different matter that when they litter the place, I personally ensure I pick up and keep it in my pocket and over a period of time they realize not to throw things at least when I'm around but I'm sure they would be throwin thrash behind my back with a glee!!!!

True we don't have strict rules when people litter our streets!!! Sure the same folks when the they travel abroad, ensure not to litter any place coz they would have to dole of heavy fines!!! and sure over a period they inculcate the habit of not litterin, but the same folks when they land here, I'm sure they would have made a huge paper ball to litter once they touch Indian shores!!! Guess they get that simple pleasure of litterin at their whims and fancy!!!

I've always been asked, what happens to the rest of the litter on the road when I pick up the litter created by my friends, true I can't go about cleaning the streets, coz people would just ensure that they litter right after I clean the place, but hell I've always believed that it begins from "YOU" and I know as a matter of fact that I would continue in my pursuit of not litterin and not allowing others whom I know to litter!!!

I know it might take years but definitely I believe I've made a start and probably after years I hope that we would have a clean India and would definitely like to thank one of my dear friend for instillin these beliefs in me!!! Thanks Shwets!!!

Déjà Vu

2009-10-23T16:56:00.002+05:30

Well I've been wantin to write this the moment I saw a comment from my friend on one of my posts!!! But then I thought I should be crazy coz though it has happened many a times, this was like, hell I knew she would write the same response and bingo I get the same!!!! Over the weekend when I attended a friends daughter's birthday, she happened to mentioned that it felt like Déjà Vu and I was like hell I thought only I feel that!!!!

But once we started talkin about it, I realized that I'm not the only one and worse now it scares me!!! Coz at times what I dream isn't really the best of things but few, yeah I really don't mind ;-)!!!! Not sure how many of you have seen the movie Déjà Vu but well at least in the movie he is allowed to make amends, wish we were all given same option!!!

Well fortunately there are few dreams which I feel should come true and with my fingers crossed, I hope that a day comes when its true and definitely not gonna pen them down coz what if it never happens ;-)

World poverty guru ?fails? to spread wealth - Times Online

2009-10-19T13:54:00.001+05:30

World poverty guru ?fails? to spread wealth - Times Online

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