My first photobook!

You can buy it here.

Legality of prostitution

Originally from here.

LOL

Photographer

Photograph by Paul Jeffrey.

A midnight trek to Skandagiri

There is a flickr that I am a member of that is basically a bunch of photography enthusiasts from Bangalore who try to shoot regularly. I have been a member of this group for a few months and so far, have been on a few expeditions with them, made a few friends and have learnt a lot.

I fancy myself as a photographer but sometimes am brought to earth when I have conversations like these -

[Mom calls up]
Me: Hello!
Mom: I saw the pictures of Huliappa (my nephew).
Me [expecting appreciations of my abilities] (eagerly): and...
Mom: Ella shake aagabittaithalla? One of them is nice but the rest have been ruined...
Me [bubble bursting and too stunned to say anything]: ...
Mom: You are not taking pictures properly. You should learn from your Dad.
Me [finally something to say]: So, I was thinking of coming over next month. (I like to give them hope :)

I also fancy myself as a trekker. I like to walk and when everybody took the bicycle in the recent company offsite on an island resort, I preferred to walk all over the island carrying my camera and bag with all the accessories (I took 1500 pictures in four days and I am still in the process of processing them and uploading them to flickr). So, when Dr Vivek posted an invitation to trek to the Skandagiri peak, supposedly a two hour trek to the top on a full moon night, I thought to myself, 'why not?'. Of course, I knew that I would be the slow one but I figured I will make it because after all, it is a two hour trek... Peanuts, I thought for a walker like me... Boy, how wrong was I.

The day of the trek, I picked up the sleeping bags from Venky (another BWS member), made arrangements with BOSS who graciously offered a ride in his car. The plan was to meet at BOSS's place at 7 pm and leave for Skandagiri from his place. I got there in time and was introduced to Sreelesh and Deepa, and Megha, BOSS's wife, who were also coming with us. We met the rest of the gang (and the gang was huge - 15 people) near GKVK college near Yelahanka and had dinner in a nearby place and started off from there.

Skandagiri in a small hill near Chikkaballapura which is on the Hyderabad road. Once you reach the town, you take a left turn and follow a narrow road toward Papagni mata which is at the bottom of the hill. Dr Vivek had made arrangements for a guide and he seeked him out. I guess a guide was needed since none of us had been there before and internet had not been helpful. Kempanna, the guide, walked up to me and asked me whether I had trekked before but I had the distinct feeling that he was sizing me up and had made a judgement, perhaps the right one, about my abilities. My mental thought was, "this is not a good sign..."

The trek up the hill is quite steep and you have to literally climb rocks. The moon was full and there was no need for a torch was I was burdened by two sleeping bags in my hand, which was thankfully taken away from me. I was almost immediately left behind but I am used to trekking alone and I would have still climbed without company but Dr Vivek and later, Peevee, kept me company. It was a pretty long trek and since we could not see the top, we were always guessing where the top was and it seemed to be further and further away. I would stop to catch my breath, sit to rest my tiring limbs and then walk a bit more, which is usually how I trek. But this was a steep climb and it reminded me of the time we (me and my college friends) trekked up Chembri peak in wayanad, though that was in the daytime and when it was raining!

Midway through the trek, my legs started cramping and I slowed down even more. Thankfully, Peevee was with me and he had water that I desperately needed. But it also meant that I slowed down a lot more. I would take 5-10 steps and stop. And this went on for some time. My legs completely cramped when I came to last bit of the trek where Dr Vivek, Kempanna and Sivu were waiting for us. I sat down for a while and then I pushed on because I just wanted to be at the top and the top seemed so much closer (though this had been a recurring apparition). Dr Vivek is a seasoned trekker and did not seem to have even broken a sweat while I was there trying to push my legs to do things that they did not want to do and if they had minds, there would have been a internal revolution of the proletariat! But I finally made it and that too just in time to enjoy the bonfire that the guys started over there. It was a relief for the cold winds that was now beginning to matter since I had stopped walking. The guys pitched the tents and I finally got to rest inside.

In the morning, people in the tent left to see the sunrise but I stayed inside, too tired to go out. When I finally came out of the tent, the sun was up and the the top was covered in fog. After packing the bags, we climbed down. The climb down was far easier and there were no mishaps... After reaching the bottom, it was a relief to sit in BOSS's car and rest all the way back to Bangalore...

It was a photography trip but I hardly took any pictures. But I have no regrets. It was a fun trek, I got to meet Dr Vivek (been a fan of his work for quite some time) and got to know Peevee's age (I was surprised that he was that old) and I renewed my commitment to lose some weight. :)

Victor Wooten

Ok, this is even better..

AC/DC - She's got balls

Let the games begin...

This is what Steve Waugh wrote in his column titled "A case of cultural differences" today in The Hindu.

Indians too would be finding Australia’s aggression and desperation on the field way beyond what’s acceptable. But we play hard from the time we are youngsters in the backyard, and even our politicians go hammer and tongs at each other on television!

And this is a news item on CNN IBN...

The Indians argue that "monkey" is not racially insulting in their country. Hogg is understood to have said, "I'm looking forward to running through you bastards," and the Indians claim "bastard" is deeply offensive in their culture.

Seems like the relationship between the two teams is at rock bottom these days...

A belated bye to 2007

2007 was a year of new beginnings and heartbreaks for me. A lot of things happened that were partly my own creations and partly circumstantial. Some things did not work out but I have since moved on to other things that I feel are going right so far. I traveled for the first time out of India and had a wonderful time visiting new places and making new friends. I bought a DSLR, something that I has been on my wishlist for a long time and have used it quite often to my satisfaction.

It was a great travel year for me and here are the places I visited in chronological order:

Headquarters:


San Francisco:

Stanford University:







Half Moon Bay:










UCB (Berkeley):











Los Angeles:











Monterey:











Muir Woods and Fisherman's Wharf (San Francisco):










New York City:











Las Vegas:















Grand Canyon:















Karwar (a bike trip):











Sakleshpur:











Chitradurga:







Honey Valley, Coorg:

Spotlight Series at Blogbharti

At Blogbharti, we have started a new thing! It is called the Spotlight Series where we invited some of the best writers in the blogosphere to write for us and almost everyone we invited enthusiastically accepted! The first post was by Dilip who wrote on being a liberal in contemporary India.

Tomorrow, we would post an article by Jack. And having seen it (the privilege of being part of something like BB), I have to say it is going to be good! Do not miss the series as it will continue for a month with a new post every other day.

The power of headline and the morons behind it.

This is the headline of a news story I found in my feeds -

Man proves himself right, shows he didn't take dowry

Reading that headline, I thought this was a case where a woman has been proved in court to have made false claims on dowry harassment. But I wanted to know the details and I read the story. To my surprise, there is nothing in the story that indicates any such thing. If I interpret it correctly, the man filed an RTI application demanding the income tax returns of his ex-wife and the court has ordered the IT dept to disclose the returns in two weeks. In short, nothing has been proved! The man has not yet shown that he has not taken dowry. In fact, I wonder whether analysing the IT returns of his ex-wife would prove anything. But I am not a legal expert.

Whatever be the outcome of the case, what bugs me is the way the development was reported by the media. This is not a case where a big corporate is paying the media to spin the story in its favour and I doubt if the person who wrote that headline was related to the person concerned but a clear case where the biases of the individual seeped into his work. The headline for the story has changed. It is not as misleading as it was but it is still is pretty bad ("Man scores against ex-wife in dowry harassment case"). Isn't the media supposed to be unbiased?

The report itself focuses on the reaction of the man to the development. The ex-wife or her representative have been effectively silenced because there is no word from them and from the looks of it, no effort seems to have been made to contact them. If there was, wouldn't the reporter have put in "the lawyer for the ex-wife declined to make any comments". I really think that this is a biased report giving its readers just one version of the story.

Choices

Incontempt by Kevin Moore.

They are making a sequel for this movie!

Vote for Irom

Eh?

10. If you want kids someday, we’re usually willing to have them
And the labor pains. And the stretch marks. And in between, the periods. You’re welcome.

Rewriting history

It is comic #343 too. Leet... :D

A classic debate between Foucault and Chomsky

Part 1




Part 2



Justice Vs. Power

Of course, I am on Foucault's side. :)

The state of things in Iraq

Final Solution, the documentary

The turthiness marches on