Antara Echoes

A few pictures (courtesy my N73) from Day2 of Barcamp Bangalore... A session on - 'Podcasting Techniques For Your Blog' by Swaminathan. Quite interesting, which was then followed by a session called - "Protecting The Pictures In Your Blog". Though the interaction and comments from the audience was very entertaining, I can't say Vikram Aggarwal provided new insight in this direction. And there was this session on Mo-Blog or Mobile Blogging by Arun Ram . Very interesting and it did ignite an interest in me to start my mo-blog. Watch out for that. And then there was Thejesh who co-presented and continued the MoBlog sesssion from where Arun left. While Arun spoke on the technique of using GPRS for updating the blog, Thejesh showed how EMail & MMS are the other viable alternatives. In all, it was a sunday well spent.

The other day I had lined out for myself to watch (as I always do when I am depressed) an awful sappy, mindless Bollywood caper. I might have surfed four to five channels watching bits and pieces of movies – Kal Ho Na Ho, DDLJ, Pyar Kiya Tho Darna Kya etc and none of which managed to hold my interest completely. More sadly, something kept hankering me, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth, and eventually ruined my enjoyment of the films entirely. These has been an overdose of Punjabi in Bollywood and its been that way for quite sometime now. So long that its making me retch. No offense my dear Punjabi friends. Punjabi is a fine language and with an equally memerising culture to back it. But there are surely more cultures and languages in India that can be showcased? Heck! We are the most diverse country ever in the world with a shocking number of 415 living languages spoken in India and equal number of distinctly different cultures to showcase. But No, we are going to be stuck on to jus...

There are not many such days with little or no traffic on Bangalore roads these days. So took them for posterity.. Can you identify any of these roads?

The Bhagavad Gita is considered by scholars across the world to be among the greatest spiritual books the world has ever known. Through Bhagvad Gita or the Divine Song, Lord Krishna explains the science of self realization and the simple steps to attain an eternal relationship with Him. Many great thinkers from our times such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweizer as well as Madhvacarya, Sankara and Ramanuja from bygone ages have all contemplated and deliberated upon its timeless message. The spiritual knowledge and the intrinsic beauty of the Bhagavad Gita is incomparable as it applies to one and all irrespective the realms of other religions. The Bhagavad Gita has never required any sort of marketing but Inspire Media, New Delhi have come up with this interesting Illustrated Bhagavad Gita, by A.P.M Raj Urs . I think its a brilliant idea as illustrations bring the story to life and can help the reader visualise a lot better. Wish there are more such initiatives, for ...

A wildlife organization has launched a project that combines business intelligence software and ancient tracking techniques of the Inuit people to study polar bear footprints. The organization's goal is to document a declining polar bear population, considered by environmentalists to be a sign of global warming. More on that over here So Is The Threat of Global Warming for Real? Notwithstanding the hoopla over the Global Warming threat that supposedly looms large in front of us, there are few voices with a little more than plain skepticism to counter this theory. We have heard a lot of the '8 years to apocalypse' story..so lets hear the other side who are crying this who issue as hogwash. And this is what they are saying - - The notion of 'man made' global warming is absolute unequivocal myth, led by agendas, lies and media propaganda...says Channel 4, UK in its documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle - Sir Nicholas Stern report on the economics of climate cha...

Pottermania reaches a never-before cresendo with the release of the final book hardly few days away. But looks like Potter fans can't seem to await any longer for the latest news is that the last installment - Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows has already been leaked on the internet. Google around a little bit and one can find few thousand "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows" book in an array of formats - .rar, .pdf, .doc etc. Sadly none of them seem to me the original. It looks more like the work of wannabe Rowlings. However I found these pics from one of the popular photosharing sites. Still not sure about their authenticity. Have a look.. The Cover Page Table of Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 16 The Epilogue - Nineteen Years Later. Are they for real? I have no idea!

Here is a set of questions for all Potter fans worth their salt. Enjoy maadi #1 Of what use was Albus Dumbledore's silver cigarette lighter- the Put-Outer? #2 With whom does Nymphadora Tonks fall in love with? #3 Who headed Hogwarts before Albus Dumblebore? #4 What is the family owl of Weasleys called? #5 What is the Wronski Feint tactic? #6 Where does Narcissa Malfoy take Draco to shop for robes, when she finds that Hermione also shops at Madam Malkin’s? #7 What or Who is Ripper? #8 How does one tame the book that bites? #9 Who is the other unregistered Animagus apart from Moony, Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail? #10 Who said this? – "Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where it keeps its brain." If you have answered them all then it would surely be fun to speculate with you on Dumbledore's "Gleam of Triumph" or the strange connection between Crookshanks and Sirius or what was it that Snape had done on Dumbledores orders, the n...

An interesting article that I came across.. Japan's Hindu linkages still alive One can also see the influence of the Indian epic Ramayana in the traditional Japanese dance forms of 'Bugaku' and 'Gigaku'. By IANS, [RxPG] New Delhi, Feb 17 - Apart from the widely known fact that Buddhism in Japan has its origin in India, not many probably know that so many Hindu deities surround the life of a Japanese. Speaking at a lecture titled 'Hindu Gods and Goddesses rooted to Japan' here Friday, Lokesh Chandra, the director of International Academy of Indian Culture, highlighted how deeply Indian religion and culture has influenced Japanese culture and tradition over the past centuries. He said that many temples across Japan are full of Hindu deities. Chandra said Japanese couples who desire to have a beautiful daughter pray to goddess 'Saraswati' even to this day. Saraswati is also believed as the patroness of writers and painters. 'In ancient times, Jap...

It all started with the dramatic fall and rescue operation of Prince , a five-year-old in Kurukshetra, who fell into a 60-ft hellhole last July. The massive rescue operation involving the Indian army culminated in a happy ending when Prince was fished out after spending 48 traumatic hours. This unfortunate event was well milked by all news-starved channels and received publicity equal to if not more than the wedding of AbhiAsh. There were reports of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh having led the nation in praying for the safety of Prince whose travails was captured live by the television channels. Soon after the rescue, flashes of people rejoicing and distributing sweets were beamed. Haryana minister announced cash rewards and free education for the " brave child of Haryana ". Amidst all this instant adulation and loads of good luck, somewhere the trauma and tribulation of the child was forgotten. What however remained in the public memory was the fame and riches that came al...

Imagine this: You are rushing towards your office on a Monday morning with meetings in your mind. You hear mellifluous tunes coming from the street corner, would you care to stop, appreciate and possibly contribute a few rupees to his earnings? In all probability, No. However melodious the music might be to your ears, I don’t think anybody today has the time to spare for such trivialities of life such as street musicians. Right? But what if you came to know it was actually Mandolin Srinivasan or A.R Rahman actually at the road bend? Ah! Now things are different, isn’t it? Nope, I haven't gone bonkers. This was exactly what happened couple of months ago when Washington Post journo Gene Weingarten set out to discover if famous violinist Joshua Bell -- and his Stradivarius -- could stop busy commuters in their tracks. This is what happened: On Friday, January 12, 2007 renowned violinist Joshua Bell performed six classical pieces in 43 minutes to 1,097 people at the L'Enfant Plaz...