The book reference

The realage website

English	Spanish	Telugu/Sanskrit	Celestial
Sunday	Domingo	Adi.Vaarum	Sun
Monday	Lunes	Soma.Vaarum	Moon
Tuesday	Martes	Mangala.Vaarum	Mars
Wednesday	miercoles	Budha.Vaarum	Mercury
Thursday	jueves	Guru.Vaarum	Jupiter
Friday	Viernes	Shukra.Vaarum	Venus
Saturday	Sabado	Seni.Vaarum	Saturn

When you know the path
You really don't know the path

When you arrive with out knowing
Then you know the path

In returning and rest shall ye be saved;
in quietness and in confidance shall be your strength.

- Isaiah 30:15

I watch, and am
As a sparrow alone upon the house top.

- Psalm 102

patram pushpam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahritam
asnami prayatatmanah

He who offers to me with devotion only a leaf, or a flower, or a fruit, or even a little water, this I accept from the yearning soul, because with a pure heart it was offered with love

- Bhagavad Gita, 9.26

The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs)

note to be explored

was released in 1936. Director Pare Lorentz knew that the devastating drought on the Great Plains would be a dramatic subject for his first film. Hollywood wasn't interested, but the U.S. government also wanted to make a point about the Dust Bowl and agreed to fund his film.

Two years later, they financed The River, in the hope that it would make the case for massive flood-control projects on the Mississippi.

Both films are widely recognized for their cinematography and for music by American composer Virgil Thomson. The images have been restored and released on DVD, with Thomson's original score performed by the Post-Classical Ensemble. Spaniard Angel Gil-Ordonez conducts.

The music seems very American. worth checking out

Freedom Unchained,
Nature, is spectacular in its randomness
Randomness Perhaps a name aside for nature
Randomness Perhaps at the core of Of Intelligence

The road from a concrete Mall
Previously cleared of a southern pine growth
on perhaps private lands
headed in to a tee
left or right but not through

Overlooking a view of a partial lake
through a small left over growth of 
huddled pines similarly southern in appearance
the clearing for the view produced by 
left over by vehicle tracks

In a surrounding of impending construction
They stood
having taken a number of years to reach
this perspective of a great view
Perhaps of no particular utility to us
We will loose them
and the seller will sell the land
I wondered what is of more value
something that took this long to grow
or something we will build 
and rebuild every few decades

Across the portrait of the landscape
In front of to be precise
stood a traffic bar 
5 or 6 car lengths in span
hoisted by an equally tall black beam of steal

A sign on the post read 
as I took left barely willing to loose my vision
For sale, contact the 10 digit number

Soon low and high
Buildings will rise
A tree separated from its cousin
will stand alone

The lake will be stripped of its mystery
The nakedness of rippling water aginst the concrete
A view oddly unnatural
The lake and the buildings both man made.

to purpose; to plan; as, he lays out to make a journey. - Shak.

A life well spent
A rest well earned
Under A blanket of stars with brightly abandon
An old man laid there in reflection

Carved entirely of Nature
Crafted of hand
From trees local the legs and seams made
Of hibiscus rope the bed was woven
By hand when he was only a few years younger

Under the robes flimsy, light
but eminently appropriate
His skin still bears the marks of weaving

A 5 foot companion thin and slick
lay beside him lifeless 
yet a friend of his in circumstances all
A crutch for his mind and body

A prayer or two he uttered
Hey Ram, in honesty he said
The rhythmic zingle of the beasts chimed in agreement

All cares attended
All creatures tenderly cared for
It is his turn
It is his time

to look at the stars in silence
in open
in the gentle swaying of the trees 
in the west bound wind
in Happyness perfect

Every whim of the nature a lullaby
The man is resting
Come and see the nature of that you seek

http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html

Childrens Poems, that, lightly said.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use, we feel very good.

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect.

To train the mind, you must exercise the patience and determination it takes to shape the steel. If you practice improving your mind with a strong will and forbearance by trying, no matter how many difficulties you may encounter at the beginning, then you will succeed. With patience, practice, and time, change will come.

I would like to do whatever it is that presses the essence from the hour

To gain in strength and elevation of mind, day by day...there is something in all this which may yet sanctify life.

One of the greatest satisfactions one can ever have, comes from the knowledge that he can do some one thing superlatively well.

I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired

"To the making of these fateful decisions, the United States pledges before you--and therefore before the world--its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma--to devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life."

- Dwight D. Eisenhover

wikipedia reference on atoms for peace initiative

Person 1:	What you doing?

Person 2:	Eating chocolate.

Person 1:Where did you get it?

Person 2: Dogy dropped it.

Person 1:Where's the dog?

Person 2: Behind the door.

Person 1: What's he doing?

Person 2: Making more!

Note

My daughter goes to an expensive private school in Jacksonville. I almost wished she was smart enough to make this one up!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Beautiful

A moving artistic accomplishment. Everyone should watch this film at least once

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

I sit on a high perch. I assume and often believe I could teach my 4 year old what to think and inturn shape and mold. There is an assumption that I know more, not only in some, but all matters. I am only humbled by what a beehive of a Brain these youngsters are gifter with, something I neither possessed or lost some where on the way.

He asked me one day what a "singleton" was. For a programmer by profession this was a daunting challenge to answer correctly. Programmers have gained and lost large sums based on their answer to this interview question. Well I was quite sure a 3 year olds brain is not yet clouded by such concerns. So I have patiently, having some background where he was coming from, explained that when you stand alone, when you are not with your friends, when you are one that stands out, then you could be called a "singleton" as it happened in the movie "Sandlot". "Singleton" hasn't arrived into my vocabulary before mid 20s.

He patiently listened everyone telling him Red means stop and Green means Go. He patiently waited for the car to follow the mores. And lately he has been wondering lately whether he could wish "red" was "green" and "green" was "red". I asked him what he means. Well we could go when it is red and stop when it is green. That doesn't make him upside down kid I have reasoned.

He found a little toy learning computer that makes him identify alphabets, objects etc. He has been figuring this out on his own mostly. It would tell him what is the button he pressed. For a couple of days he had been wondering and actually "scheming" as to its reaction if he were to press two buttons one after the other and laughing out loud the ensuing cacophony. Even If I wanted I couldn't have been able to teach him that. I am humbled at these little brains.

He reluctantly and impatiently sits next to me on some evenings while I work on my laptop and while he was watching something on the TV. His one eye is on my laptop waiting for me to allow him to press the keys. He said last night "Dinosaur". There is no Dinosaur on my laptop. I have Google search screen. Well for him that is where he finds dinosaur images. The quickness of association is lightening fast.

That brain at that age is humming.

Who will I tell
When weather extraordinary
wash over my way with gentle wind

Who will I tell
When ruffling leaves newly born
But yeager to break free
sway with abandon
in a transparent gail that sustains life if not bring forth

Who will I tell
when water bearing clouds roll over the skies

Who will I tell
When sheets of water rushes 
down to earth to seek life

Who will I tell
When white flowers
Open in the brightest of smiles
In numbers multitude

Who will I tell
when brilliant rainbows skirt
the Eastern skies
and the platinum clearings
in the western skies

Who will I tell
the dancing rituals of rain
Timeless and age old

David Blaine

Brett Leake Home Page

Comedian
Political Commentary

"Why should I yield?"
An educated daughter asked her father
In Grade 3 this daughter has arrived
When in disapproval this question was raised

The father told her a story

To the best of schools she went
Intelligent, smart, and confidant she became
Matters abstruse, subjects difficult, back and forth she mastered
But yield, she did not

Swells of curly hair, with complexion much desirable,
she was deemed pretty.
An air of unquestioned sophistication she carried
But yield she did not

Any amount of education,
All the sophistication in the world
are of little worth 
when you know not how to yield

To yield despite your right
To be patient despite your turn
Each by itself is worth a phd
At least in my book
And for certain, I believe, in the book of wise

"Don't talk to me in words complicated"
The daughter pointed out to the error in argument

The father replied 

To yield is to give
Especially when you don't have to

To yield is to let go
And again when you don't have to

And when you are in 4th grade
You will also know
To yield is to concede
In order to Gain

"How should I yield"
She asked, sure to extend the argument
The father dug deep and said

Like a father to his daughter
And a mother to her son
As the ground to your feet
And as the sun to the clouds
And like a Red wood to the scurrying ant

With love
with good faith
Just like a big sister you are to your brother

Children of the Alley: Egyptian Nobel Laureate

Mark Hauser: Moral Minds

Before today I would have never imagined that Speed Bumps could be topics of conversation.

"Is there a problem" my 3 year old wanted to know

"What problem! Oh, are you talking about the thud?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, that's a bump on the road"

"Why is it on the road?"

"It is called a speed bump. It is there so that you can not go too fast"

"Can I see it?"

"Yes, see that thing with yellow stripes"

"Yes, I see. How come they are not every where?"

"Well they put them once in a while"

"How do they stay there?"

"Well they take some dirt and make a hill and then cover it up with cement (I was praying he won't ask me what cement was!!)"

By now we were heading out of the school zone.

"why is the policeman there?"

"He is there to direct the traffic. He will tell cars to stop and go"

"Why is he not directing us?"

"Narayan, one more question and my head will explode with making up answers to your questions"

"Dad, you are a meanie and poopi head!!!"

Nights, Terrible nights,
The realm of ghosts and ghouls
And of prowlers outcast
As many of the lores go

In a place no where, 
far from the lights,
On one such empty void night,
Me and a night lamp,
I recollect were sitting by a beam supporting the roof overhead
among a hamlet by the woods

No doubt the night was dark,
Yet the air, cool and refreshing
The security of the night was reassuring
The wisdom of silence was palpable

The world around seem to have fallen asleep
Sorrows around seem to have been paused for the night
Progress seem to have postponed for the morning

Book in hand I feel guilty
Amassing my riches while the world sleeps
Like that old man greedy

While the night lamp 
Burns its mid night oil
In the night serene
I seem to have found an unfair vantage

Unhappy, and unsettled, a bottle of ideas I shook,
From the land familiar, a journey of leisure I undertook

Lands far away I imagined
Lands dangerous
Lands law less
Lands with out rules
To a land separated I went

Many Months I have spent
Collecting documents
To Prove I am who I say I am

Flew on big birds
waited in lounges clean and dirty
but commonly indifferent to all things insignificant

Spent my time jolly
Slept late
Missed my plane
Hit with dementia
Forgot who I am
Lost my papers to a pick pocket  

Pontificating Men with goatees
Women with scowly faces
rejected my pleas
denied my identity
put me in prisons

To the land familiar I could not get back
In the land familar no one have heard of me or seen me again

Waste not,
For I am in no mood to hear,
Your million words of generalities,
And speeches more

A proposition instead, I make,
should you lend me an ear..

Arms open,
I must anticipate,
Arms tight,
I will embrace
Should you offer a single word concrete.

http://www.thewailinjennys.com/video.aspx

Sounded interesting when I briefly heard them on the prairie home companion

http://www.xent.com/feb98/0224.html

A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Amal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his mom. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, "But they are twins--if you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal."

text of the lyrics borrowed from http://www.carlinamerica.com/titles/titles.cgi?MODULE=LYRICS&ID=609&terms=1976

DON`T BE THE LEAF IF YOU CAN BE THE TREE,
DON`T BE THE RAINDROP IF YOU CAN BE THE SEA.

`CAUSE A LEAF MAY FALL,
BUT THE TREE REMAINS.

IT MAY NEVER RAIN AT ALL,

BUT THE SEA REMAINS;

BETTER TO BE THE TREE AND THE SEA.

SEE?
.....

For more click on the link above..

While I wade through the shallows
like those on the verge of dried up river beds
like those that form after a summer rain
and reflect in pride..

You seem to leap over the mountains
Jump through the cascades
Ski the powdered ice in vertical dimension

Among us
Among you and me
all comparisions are insignificant
like a sapling to a Red wood
and an anzenu to a veteran
and what is given to what is possible
and what is possible to what that can be only dreamed of

Like a spirit that is incessant
You stand tall
Albeit in mortal disguise

Barely an instrument but only his raising and falling cadencic voice to lend here are just a few lines, ofcourse among his thousands, that he immortalized.

Nanu Bhavadeeya dasuni,
Manambuna Neeyapu Kintabuni Thaachina,
Adi Naaku Mannanaya.

Chelvagu Nee padapalvambu
Mattanu pulakaagra kanthatha vitaanamu thakina
Nochunanchu Nay naniyada.

Alka maanavu gada ikanaina
Araala Kuntala

Certain observations are timeless. These observations tend to cut experience to its essence. The following lines by Longfellow is one such observation

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footsteps on the sands of time.

Footsteps, that, perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

In the phantom menace the following is said of Anakin Skywalker even as a boy

He gives without any thought of reward

For all of us there are individual things that make us get up every morning and make us strive and perhaps inspire us in their wake. And perhaps the sacrifices that went before us, of our parents, of those that loved us, are not invain and not only keep us on the path of humanity, but inspire in us the value of hardship, strife, and just being good and all this in an age that is ripe with frivolity and folly.

On friday I took my son for a medical check up that is due at the end of 3rd year. To see his cognitive functions etc. He did quite well..

Being a friday and a late appointment I was in a willing dispoistion to acceede to his usually uncharacteristic demands.

I took him to a Burger king on Philips, adjacent to the Avenues. Although almost 6 in the evening the place is sparse at best with customers.

I picked up his food and headed for the middle of the restaurant while most of the people sparsed around the windows and edges. Narayan wanted a table change to where other people are sitting.

With this new arrangement right behind me I hear two fairly advanced, both in age and perhaps in size as well, women and three children. Two girls, one about 9 and one about 15. The girls are bright and pretty. It was not a coincidence that Narayan picked this table, although he is only 3 and a few months.

Right across them sat a young man around 16 with a leg stretched into the aisle. He was small in stature and looked like any ungroomed 16 that is quite lost.

It didn't take long for Narayan to splatter the toy all over the floor. I was about to pick them up as I see a hand reaching Narayan with the pieces of the toy. It was a bit of a distance for a young man these days to unlazy himself and offer to help, and especially unsolicited and unexpected. Idleness, hanging pants, being cool and loose seem to be very much in praise. So this came as a surprise move.

I was fairly touched for a number of reasons. These days people fight so much for religion, race, and any difference in general. Surprising how this kid of 16 is able to put aside the obvious differences and instinctively help, these not only strangers, but unmistakenly foreigners.

I thanked him as much as I could. Later I took Narayan to the play area. Their 9 year old joined us. The slide is one of those 4 storied mazes. Although fascinated, Narayan was hesitant to go in there. I was a bit lazy and sat in the breeze leaving Narayan to figure out himself. Daniel, as I came to know his name later, came by and was telling his sister to help the my son and show him how to climb into the slide. Like any 9 year old she was shy and in no mood to cooperate.

I asked Daniel, what's wrong with his leg as I had noticed he was limping coming into the play area. He told me that in high school some kids roughed him up on the track and that tore his knee a little bit. And he told me his name is Daniel and he lives in St Augustine, and he is trying to get to a technical college to get a diploma in computer repair.

He then got up, with his unbendable leg, and took Narayan up the slide through that maze. They did that a few times.

Soon it was time for them to leave. I thanked him a lot and I saw them leave the restaurant. A few minutes past that I saw this old beat up chevy with 3 kids in the back and two oversized ladies in the front, and tires half sunk and windows down heading south on Philips highway.

I was thinking how did someone get to amass these virtues despite the difficult of circumstances. I see so many teenagers growing with no hope for themselves or for others.

Not victory, Not money, Not fortune, Not luck, but this act of humanity seem to have restored my spirit for the day.

Suddenlty Longfellow seemed to make sense.

First Law

Technology is dominated by two types of people: 
those who understand what they do not manage, 
and those who manage what they do not understand.

Corollary

Every technical hierarchy, 
in time, 
developes a competence inversion

Borrowed from "Put's Law and the Successful Technocrat" and as quoted in April 2006 IEEE Spectrum

I met a traveller from an antique land   
Who said :-- Two vast and trunkless legs of stone   
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,   
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown   
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command          5 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read   
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,   
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.   
And on the pedestal these words appear:   
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:              10 

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"   
Nothing beside remains: round the decay   
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,   
The lone and level sands stretch far away. 

--- P. B. Shelley

When I have read "Big Fish", unlike many others, I wasn't entirely moved. But I did have to look this word up as it sounded familiar but I was not sure of its meaning any more.

The journey that followed isquite interesting. As it turned out the "exotic" word actually means something that is common enough and something that occurs every day.

A related word "quota" is not only often used in English but also quite common in Telugu representing a "an ongoing or frequent allocation". Most likely this association was borrowed from English to Telugu. Odd, a word I found so foreign, could easily have been deduced by my Grandfather that never spoke a word of English. Worlds apart yet connected.

The later part of "quotidian", namely "dian" or "dias", apparently comes from a Latin/Sanskrit root meaning "day".

To top it off the word "quo" or "kwo" or "ko" is a familiar word in Hindi indicating how. A similar word "quis" still exists in Hindi meaning "who".

So the first part of quotidian quot is related to "how many".

Even quote seem to have been derived from a "sequence of numbers".

I also wonder now what the origin of "Koti" (10 million in Telugu) is. It will be interesting to know if the origin of that word is Sanskrit.

I have just checked and apparently it is a sanskrit number representing those millions. Here is the link

SANSKRIT NUMBERS: Ordinals

It is not uncommon in Telugu to come across the following or something suggestive of the same

Aaa kanulu Indra Neelala ganulu

That roughly translates to:

The adorning eyes, mine shafts of royal blue

Belaboring the translation

At least that was my thought, as "gani" translates to a "mine" while "ganulu" stands for plural.

I wasn't sure though what is the equivalent of "Indra Neelam". I wasn't even sure the meaning of it in Telugu. So I looked up a small telugu dictionary. It literally, albeit quite unambitiously, says a blue stone.

It would have been interesting if the shade of blue referred by "Indra Neelam" and "Royal blue" are the same. Probably not. But if they were, "Indra" is the King of the Gods, and "Royal Blue" would have been an apt translation, translating not only the meaning but the importance of the color.

Routed to sapphire

A blue stone reference brings up Sapphire in Websters, pointing to a bright blue, with the following synonyms

azure
cerulean
lazuline
sky-blue

On the "gani" part

Being a "mine" refers to the intractable depth, in this case being applied to the eyes.

Speaking of deep and of vastness, here is a rough translation from a folk song

I have travelled far to the shores of the Ocean, unlike what I was told it is clearly no match to the vastness of my Venki's heart

http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_directory.cfm

An interesting avenue for the curious and perhaps the annoying.

http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/phylum

In the context of classification a phylum is a major taxonomic group of animals and plants; contains classes.

Now that an official words exists for such a concept, the word "package" in java or other computer languages seem so ordinary when compared to this "grand division"

http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/nematode

Apparently a study of unsegmented, silky bodied, upper crust, earthly worms.

http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/

"Irreverent yet informed, the three performers apply a steady stream of sight gags, sound gags, even smell gags to a broad canvas, turning sacred cows into laughing-stocks along the way. The deliberately loose edges of the show camouflage its careful structure, in the same way the trio's ease with improvisation hides years of rehearsal."

Jeanne Cooper - Boston Globe

http://www.hds.harvard.edu/faculty/king.html

These days it is becoming rarer and rarer to find reasonable thinkers irrespective of their chosen field of study, in this case being religion or perhaps "divinity".

I have heard her on NPR saying this morning that "to seek" is an important aspect, especially of truth. Got me interested in knowing more of her ideas.

Introduction to Karen King
Other teachers at the Divinity School

Last night I was hoping I could work with Kavitha for an hour after the never-seem-to-end house chores of the eventing. I was too tired to plead, and cajole her into doing some of the workbooks she has. So I sat with her on her bed reading the hardships of 1930s in the Great American Dustbowl. The book was a fast read as I have always been interested in the larger factors in the environment that crafter much of the history and people with in it. Kavitha looked over a couple of times and duly noted what number I was at. Being on number 16 did not impress her too much. I subsequently ignored while she was trying a contraption by tearing apart the empty pages from a note book.

"I am making instructions to fold this map"

There went 1 page, 2, page and then 3 pages.

Around page 35, she interrupted.

"Dad, see if you can follow the directions and fold this paper as per the instructions".

I looked at the well creased a4 size paper. I took it in my hand and proceeded to fold it at the creases, while wondering why there was a large single headed arrow in the middle of the page running bottom to top.

"Dad, you cannot do that. You have to follow the arrow to fold!"

"Ok!" I said, and folded the paper up from top to bottom while bending the arrow right in the middle. She disagreed.

"No, you have to fold it from bottom to the top so that the tail of the arrow goes and meets the head and not the other way around."

So, I conceded. I folded the paper once.

I was surprised to see another arrow show up, now on the half folded paper. I folded it again. And another arrow. Finally the arrows led me to fold the paper to the size of a quarter, on which it was written.

"Good Job!"

http://www.mickmoloney.com/

Mick Moloney combines the careers of folklorist, arts presenter and advocate, professional musician, and radio and television personality. In 1999 he was awarded the National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts ? the highest official honor a traditional artist can receive in the United States

New album called McNally's Row of Flats reviwed on NPR

Books to buy

The meaning of Tingo

undaunted courage - Steven Ambrose Mar 4th 2006

The worst hard time: The untold story of those who survived the great american dust bowl - Mar 4th 2006

How to talk to your dog - 11/3/05

One world One Child - 11/3/05

...more

Learned me

Narayan is 3. He is an imitator. That is an understatement. He is a great imitator. Even before he was 2, right after he could walk, this is what he did. I was washing dishes and Kavitha was doing her home work at the kitchen table. I would interrupt once in a while, turn around and talk to Kavitha about her work. At times I have a habit of standing on my left leg and crossing the right leg over. After a couple of times of this routine, I notice a diminutive disturbance around the kitchen entrance which has no doors but just a wide partition wide enough to pass the widest of our relatives.

I turn my head around to register the view with attention. I see Narayan smiling and his lips quivering to stop an impending giggle. I have noticed his one hand rested on one side of the entrance while his body leaned away straight and supported by one leg. He is now working his other leg to get it crossed over. In a couple of tries he got that pat. He now says with the tone of a satisfied comedian "Whadu think!".

Now the other day, I was helping him with his dinner. With out supervision he would make the kitchen a war zone. So I make it a point to sit with him on an adjacent contraption (Usually this is a chair, but could vary to include any makeshift replacement, as he broke two of them already) and help him with his dinner. Having grown up with so very few chairs, I have a tendency to assume the lotus position when presented with a flat surface. If I can't turn both feet in, I will make do with one and assume "half a lotus" position. So there I was sitting half lotus and feeding him his dinner.

Through this I am watching him wiggle in his chair with one leg down and one leg up. I tell him "Narayan, stop the wiggles and eat your dinner." It occurs to me barely after that he is trying to imitate me in his chair. Soon after he says "I am sitting like you.." obviously admonishing a clueless grownup. I change my position. He changes his and asking me again if he was sitting like me. Having explored this imitation until I am fully tired, he turns his attention to his next curiosity. He seem to be preoccupied with the "genesis" of all ideas. He has to know where things came from. For instance in this case he asks "Dad, who learned me this!". He is yet to distinguish between "learn" and "teach" otherwise the sentence is perfectly formed. Nevertheless I tell myself the established equivalence of "learn" and "teach" is profound.

Raned out

Got to be quite frustrating to his sister that he won't leave her for anything. When her friends see him approaching they all yell "Oh, No!". Anyway he went to a neighbor's house the other day to spend a couple of hours. He came back with lots of stories and how he and another boy stole their marbles and "Raned out fast" before they could catch them. He didn't say "runned out..". So as early as 3 they already distinguish the idea of tense and the disonance of a regular verb and the need for an irregular verb.

Kidnapped beans

Recently he has been introduced to the saltiness of boiled peanuts. Both Kavitha and him love to chew (if not eat) on these peanuts. They consume a few cans every week. It wasn't hard for us to run out of these. The other day he wanted peanuts. I told him we ran out. "Ahan! I see them.." he says. He goes and grabs a can of Kidney beans, and walks out "Here they are".

"Narayan, they are kidney beans, they are not peanuts!"

"What are they? Kidnapped beans! I love kidnapped beans. They make me strong.."

The lazy bone

Getting him dressed after a shower is a daily ritual. First of all he wants me to carry upside down from down stairs to upstairs. He is mildly (I think and I hope) obsessive. So this routine is a must. While upside down he would try to capture whatever objects he could capture and carry them to the shower. These objects included clothes, a rubic cube, a number of abandonded dinosaurs on the floor etc. After the shower he has a specific way for me to carry him to the bed and so on and so forth.

For a few months now, he wants to pick the clothes himself. And he doesn't want to wear any night clothes. He dresses himself in jeans and proper shirt. I let him do it, and most of the days he ends up going to the day care in the same clothes. Bystanders think that I could do better. I am not so sure.

Last night, he is in a relaxing mood. He said he wanted me to pick the clothes. I get him his jeans. He didn't like the particular jeans I have picked. He didn't want them. I said very nicely, in a non-threatning way, "Narayan, then get up from the bed and pick your own clothes". He looked at me a couple of times, weighed the situation that would require him to get off the bed and pick his clothes. He said "Ok give those jeans, I will put them on.".

Software consulting firms in India during late 80s enjoyed a rare advantage. The job market for graduating engineers in all disciplines was very depressed. Especially with regional language differences and the inability to communicate in English and in some case Hindi pushed many undergrads from the regional universities to pursue masters programs. As luck would have it, the central government instituted a scholarship (essentially a monthly salary) for most of the qualifying graduating programs. This further encouraged the migration to higher education. The poor job market and a very qualified talent pool provided a windfall for the consulting firms that had just started consulting in US and other countries abroad.

During those years I found myself sharing a cube with two more individuals at one of the consulting firms. One of these good friends is a copious programmer. He used to get quite irritated as the boss would demand his work sooner. His reason was that he might take longer but his code would run the first time. He was quite right in a good number cases. In contrast I might take ten runs before even compiling and then another ten runs to actually get it working. I have always looked upon a day when I would write code and it would somehow miraculously run the first time.

Well after all these years I have a small victory to report. Recently Pramod, a friend, asked me to provide a facility for him in Aspire/J2EE to set a parameter on every database connection he uses. So I have created this fairly involved facility based on "connection events" that did the following

• Raise event when a connection is created
• Raise event when a connection is closed
• Raise event when a connection is requested from a pool
• Raise event when a connection is put back into a pool
• Provide an event distributor so that he can override any events
• Provide a default event handler that can call an sql statement on all opened connections

I have also created a write up for him on my site on how to use the facility along with release notes for the jar file. I was gearing up to hear from Mahaveer, who is using this jar, all kinds of issues as I have not even unit tested the facility other than compiling it with eclipse.

Then I was talking to Pramod on a completely different subject and he mentioned the whole thing worked fine as he expected and Mahaveer is using it.

I am quite positive I may have to wait another few years for this to happen.

I am told a power nap is good for you. Sleep has a different pattern for me. If I am sleeping I really don't want to wake up and I want to get away with as much of it as possible. If I am awake I just don't find any time to go to sleep, the end result being I would be lucky if I get a 6 hour sleep on the average.

But I do try to sneak in a 30 minute walk usually after lunch. I am not sure what happens to others when they walk. In my case all kinds of ideas come to the surfaces mostly in a babble. Some of them, usually one or two get consolidated by the end of the walk. They are usually one liners, very similar to the title of this write up. This is most productive when I walk alone. Although quite enjoyable with company, a walk doesn't seem to be equally fruitful. A conversation seem to prefer a certain quiteness to the body such as a comfortable sofa.

"I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short" - Blaise Pascal

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https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

The hardships of humanity seem no bounds in the wake of this hurricane that hit the Gulf coast.

It takes less than 2 minutes to part with some of your money to help those in need.

http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/frost/stopping.html

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, 
But I have promises to keep, 
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. 

Fish out of water. That would be me. I stick to my environment largely. My adventures rarely spill out of the boundaries of my head. I have spent a couple of years in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. I have a cell phone but I rarely use it. Any thing that carries me between two points I call that a car. Many things that have names I call them things. Even my 7 year old corrects me.

That area of Florida, apparently for the benefit of cars, and the people that drive them, and make them, is divided into a numbered grid. Who would have thought, in the course of civilization, things will be named based on how you move. Well any way that is the state of affairs I found myself in.

http://www.randomhouse.com/BB/promos/greatbooks/girls/booklist.html

Including dealing with dragons by Patricia Wrede

For it is my office to prosecute the guilty with implacable zeal.

--Paola Capriolo, Floria Tosca (Translated by Liz Heron)

Those that keep company

Implacable Resolve
Implacable Sun

http://www.nature.org/

I have heard this narrated by one of the brothers on car talk this morning.

There was a lawyer pounding on a victim for not answering his question of whether he did or did not (that is how I suppose lawyers talk, they give options also called traps) say he was fine to the state trooper.

The victim was eager to tell his whole story and not constrained by this "yes" or "no" lawyer speak. So he says he loaded his farm truck with an ass (some kind of an animal that humans are expected to be kind to)and on his merry way to his farm (whistling and all that) on one of the many highways. At this point the lawyer makes a plea to the judge that this man is not answering his question.

Nevertheless the judge is very interested to hear about the ass (Please, take your mind out of the gutter. It is an animal, people). So the man continues. He was soon hit by a trailer and he found himself in a ditch while the ass chose to land in a nearby one. He was hurting real bad and so was the animal. He could hear it moan. A trooper appeared on the scene soon after. Looked at the animal and point blank went the weapon and there were no more moans.

The trooper approached the victim. And the victim submits to the court that he was pleased to tell the patrol he was absolutely fine and the kind officer could sheath his weapon safely.

http://www.johnscofield.com/

I have heard a few vocals to which he composeed jazz. Sounded nice. P.S. I know about jazz as much a fish know about cycling.

Edward Witten
Eric Lander (Genome project)
Julie Gerberding (CDC)
Paul Ridker
Linus Linux
Steven Pinker (evolutionary psychology)
Jill Tarter
Jeffery Sachs (Economist)
Shirin Ebadi (Iranian thinker)
Lance Armstrong (Ideas on living)
Paul Farmer

What I have to watch out for

http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/

Credits

The link suggested by Marcia Roberts

contents

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Once in a while you get surprised. Especially lately such a thing has become rare with films. I see films and I forget them the very next instance.

My two year old, around 11:30 last night (Friday), ofcourse out of pure sprite, decided to watch an "indee moviee" (Hindi Movie). He picks one at random from what we had brought back from India recently but never had the time to open it. Insists that he open it with his teeth, which he proceeds to do with out an event. Subsequently, while he wakes up his Sister and plays with her in the middle of the night, I settle down to watch what he put on. You may have doubts whether a two year old knows how to put a DVD on. Trust me, these days, they know.

The story is apparently inspired by O'Henry's Maggie. Well I didn't know that until I saw the credits (Well it is only when your children are asleep you tend to feel the reality with out interruption). I also apologize as I most certainly would have ruined your surprise, as you wouldn't have known until the last minute these stories are related.

Rain Coat is a sadly beautiful film. It is the antithesis of Maggie. I would imagine the setting of Maggie to take place in Heaven, and of Rain Coat in hell. Nevertheless it is beautiful. It is poetic. It reminds me of Tagore, and it reminds me of Paru, and it reminds me the best of Bengal.

The art of making Cinema is wonderfully alive throughout the film. The heart rendering rainy background song, the lonely rainy midnight streets of Calcutta with a shrouded Riksha. The vividly contrasting very Indian colorful clothes of the characters are quite a treat.

Eishawarya Rai is beautiful, and brilliant as the counterpart of Maggie's female character. Like the Audrey of Pygmalion, I can't think of a "mard" (Male in Hindi) that wouldn't want to rescue her with great expediency.

Nevertheless the film has a touch of darker side to it. So called realism. This has been very typical of Indian art films where they accentuate (unnecessarily in my mind) the hardships of human condition and soul. Although done to a lesser extent it is there in the film.

If the film is inspired by Maggie, the story teller of the film had done a brilliant job extending the film to a film length and yet keeping you on your seat throughout the length. This is an intelligent man's or woman's soap opera.

The film also has a reminder for the hope of searching for love in the midst of ruins, despair, and total impending darkness.

If you have a chance see the film, don't miss it. It springs hope for the art of films, especially the Indian films.

"The reason Einstein was so successful was that he was a loner and always went his own way, even if it wasn't popular"

- John Moffat ( A life long friend of the wizard )

It is an interesting observation in the age of collaboration (or atleast a certain begining)

John Moffat works for Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

There was a high definition version of this documentary showed on pbs a couple of nights ago.

Spellbinding clarity. Great subject.

Some notes from Kodak

More on this

Filmmaker John Grabowska explores Alaska's visually spectacular region of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which includes the continent's largest assemblage of glaciers, the greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet, along with a dramatic valleys, wild rivers and a variety of wildlife.

PBS high defintion schedules

In his satire "1984", Orwell told us a way to write "very good" as "good plus" and "superlatively good" as "good plus plus". What good are synonyms to modern times anyway! Just kidding.

In a language an "object" may be known under different names that we call synonyms. An object may have earned these multiple names due to a context or any number of other reasons.

Synonyms when stood by themselves are more like a set of colors in a crayon box. Their true powers come along when they keep company in a fellowship where any other name would be inappropriate. It is as if the sound of a company of synonyms forming a sentence should not contain a discordant note.

Consider the following telugu "company"

"Rayamuna Theru maralpu"

It is a begging in earnest by Prince Uttara to Arjuna to "turn the chariot around" in a battle facing the esteemed Kaurava commanders. To translate the nouns in English it would be

"Quickly Chariot Turn"

With in Telugu, none of the three nouns used are common for what they represent. But using the more common nouns for those objects will make the sentence either too pretentious or too streetworthy.

Consider another "fellowship", in Telugu again

"Kuru Kshithi Pathi" ("The king of the Kaurava lands")

This is how Arjuna introduces the "Kaurava King" to Prince Uttara. Again it is quite hard to get it sounding any better using any other words.

Like chameleons, words keep their harmonic company in their synonmized forms. A well formed sentence is like a painting where the right hue is chosen for a pleasing panorama.

:-)

Synonyms for Fellowship

It is unexpectedly intelligent and truly funny. Everyone did well. I think the real credit goes to the Director and the script writer. Smart.

Nevertheless there is nothing cool or cool looking atleast venturing to take a 6 year old and 2 year old to a movie irrespective of the funny quotient of the movie, on a friday cold winter night (atleast for the border line Floridians).

My wife is a planner and she is all for details. She very carefully planned this thing so that me and the kids (not her by the way) will arrive at the cinemas at 5:00 and go to the 5:15 show.

Well what she plans the 6 year old can easily foil. Having arrived on time, despite my two year old trying to split the gum in his mouth with a toy gun that he has in his hand and my 6 year old trying to prevent him from the madness.

Now my 6 year old anounces she doesn't want to watch the pacifier (which as planned is the 5:15 show) but want to watch some "winn--dixie" stuff movie. Usually time and place doesn't show up on a 6 year olds agenda. It is a ok to wait for two more hours. After great detail I manage to get her to agree only with a whine and not a cry to watch it.

Meanwhile she tells her pants are wet. On investigation it turns out the sippy cup leaked a full cup of water into the flowery baby bag that she had offered to carry for me to save me the embarassment of a 40 year old turtlenecked guy walking around a movie hall with it.

Earlier in my attempt to part the splintered dum (that's what the two year old calls gum) from its owner the owner simply threw the sippy cup to the floor at which time the flow controller dislodged itself, and me the clueless, very carefully put the cup from the floor into his handbag. So now evertying in the baby bag, the pampers and all else are virtually useless.

Now can you believe a bit of popcorn and a drink and such sold as a package for a kid goes for 8 dollars. Worse, imagine walking with all that stuff at one time into now an already started movie finding my way to a seat in pitch black (Can't help it. It was one of Van Diesels movies as well. call it an assoiciated memory slip).

Well I survived in good humor to tell the story.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/special/president-past.html

http://web.mit.edu/president/communications/guildhall.html

President Charles M. Vest's remarks on the occasion of the award of the Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education, London, England, 14 February, 2001. The other main speaker at this occasion was Lord Simpson, Chief Executive of Marconi plc.

http://www.indiavilas.com/music/smusic.asp?stype=tpatriotic&sno=6451

Pra.jaa  Swaam.ya.mu
Pra.ga.thi  mar.gamu
Sa.ma.tha vaa.da.me  Ve.damu.ga

Apparently "Zest, curiosity, imagination, and immersion" is present in abundance when one is 6 years old.

I was watching Hidalgo with my daughter. The movie is set in the late 1800s. I don't fully recall what she said, but it went something like this: "Does he like the pilgrim girl?"

I was going to answer sincerely but the apt description of the character in question took me by surprise and also the playfulness of the description.

I was thinking, what does a 6 year old know about pilgrims and what they dress like. As it happened, they had a play in school for Thanksgiving depicting the pilgrims and the Native Americans.

Later in the film the daughter of a Sheikh was chided by her father for exposing her face to a stranger. I have explained away the customs and she was quite for a while. Then the daughter of the Sheikh was rescued by a guy and was being escorted in the middle of a desert with no one else in sight but him and her. Sheikh's daughter dispatches with her custom and talks to him in the tent with out her veil. I hear my companions concerned words "Oh, Dad, she has taken the veil. Hope her Dad won't see her.."

Tom Hanks is just great. Spielburg's cinematic craft just shows. Tom Hanks is just so real in the character.

It is a wonderful film to watch, especially with children. There might be a bit of dramatized stereotyping of cultures for grownups, otherwise I enjoyed watching it.

Here is an excerpt from his "Hackers and Painters" book.

"Alberti, arguably the archetype of the Renaissance Man, writes that "no art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to excel in it." I wonder if anyone in the world works harder at anything than American school kids work at popularity. Navy SEALS and neurosurgery residents seem slackers by comparison. They occasionally take vacations; some even have hobbies. An American teenager may work at being popular every waking hour, 365 days a year"

The style is so clever and reminds me of Bertrand Russel.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/nauman/

Richard Corliss is a very good writer. Here are some excerpts from what he said about Katharine Hepburn:

"Film stars typically possess a glamorous version of the common touch; they are of earth. Hebburn was apart and above ...."

"Her emotional intelligence was too prickly. She blew hot and cold in the same breadth-her fire had Freon in it."

On a similar vein somewhere I have read a sentiment that

"Her sulk brightens the room"

I couldn't remember where and who said that.

The following letter, which John Quincy wrote at age 10 to his father while he was on state business in England.

Dear Sir,

I love to receive letters very well, much better than I love to write them. I make but a poor figure at composition; my head is much too fickle. My thoughts are running after birds' eggs, play, and trifles, till I get vexed with myself. I have but just entered the third volume of Smollett, though I had designed to have got half through it by this time. I have determined this week to be more diligent, as Mr. Thaxter will be absent at court and I cannot pursue my other studies. I have set myself a stint, and determine to read the third volume half out. If I can but keep my resolution I will write again at the end of the week, and give a better account of myself. I wish, sir, you would give me some instructions with regard to my time, and advise me how to proportion my studies and my play, in writing, and I will keep them by me and endeavor to follow them. I am, dear sir, with a present determination of growing better,

Yours,

John Quincy Adams

P.S. Sir, if you will be so good as to favor me with a blank book, I will transcribe the most remarkable occurrences I meet with in my reading, which will serve to fix them upon my mind.

http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/smileys.html

In my mind the stress is on "l" and not "t" resulting in the error. Thanks to automatic spell checked I end up knowing, whether I correct it or not, some of these trip ups.

http://www.edge.org/documents/Invention.html

http://www.abacci.com/books/authorDetails2.asp?authorID=48&misspellID=165

She first used the pseudonym George Eliott in a serial for Blackwood's Magazine in 1857 titled The Scenes of Clerical Life. She next produced the great novel Adam Bele (1859),then The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Silas Marner ( 1861).

Later novels Romola (1862-3), Felix Holt (1866) and Middlemarch (1871-2) well display her breadth of knowledge.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/8186685596/qid=1073329423/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-6817402-0090357?v=glance&s=books

Come recommended by Jayaram

http://www.capsteps.com/

the only group in America that attempts to be funnier than the Congress

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/031035451X/qid%3D952114698/002-3833725-4198412

One of the next reads.

Book Description

The authors, a renowned surgeon and a professional writer, offer insight into the marvelous details of the human body and draw analogies to the relationship of Christ to his church.

Ingram

Renowned surgeon Paul Brand and writer Philip Yancey explore the human body, a delicate fabric of cells as awesome and mysterious as the galaxies of space. They uncover eternal statements God has made in the very structures of our bodies.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dbooks%26field-author%3DPipher%2C%20Mary/102-0473713-0273760

1. Anthropologist
2. Growing up
3. Cultures

Sleep after toil, 
Port after stormy seas, 
Ease after war, 
Death after life 
Does greatly please. 

-Edmund Spenser, poet (1552-1599) 

And more such could be found at the "a word a day link" at

http://www.wordsmith.org/words/today.html

http://www.wordsmith.org/words/today.html

An inspired collection of words

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/corliss/

Essayist and Movie Critic of both Western and recently Indian Films

http://www.writers.cornell.edu/ackerman.html

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/essays/ackerman.htm