Seen at the Rock Paper Scissors gallery in Oakland, CA.

I met Seth Shostak of the SETI institute today and got him to autograph a
copy of his new book. I asked him to make it out my last namesake - the
famous astrophysicist.

Garbanzo beans - 1 can
Green chillies (chopped) - 1
Unripe mango (diced) - 3 table spoons
Grated coconut - 2 table spoons
Cilantro (chopped) - 2 table spoons
Oil - 1 table spoon
Urad dhal - 1 tea spoon
Mustard seeds - 1 tea spoon
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Lemon juice - 2 table spoons

Wash and drain the garbanzo beans. Gently steam the beans for 10
minutes and set aside. In a frying pan heat the oil. Add the urad
dhal. Add the mustard seeds when the urad dhal starts browning. When
the mustard starts to splutter, add the steamed garbanzo beans. Mix
well and cook for a minute gently crumbling the beans. Add salt to
taste and turn off the stove. Mix in the grated coconut, chopped
cilantro and chopped unripe mango and lemon juice.

Bon appetite appetit!

I had a wonderful lunch with Pico Iyer today at the Googleplex. He was here
to give a talk about his latest book as part of the authors@google program.

He kindly autographed my copy os 'Sun After Dark'.

His talk was really good. Check it out when it comes out on YouTube.

Came across this pack of malabar coffee for sale at a cafe. According to the
barefoot coffee roasters website, these beans are from the Balanoor estate
in Chickmagalur.

Came across this pack of malabar coffee for sale at a cafe. According to the
barefoot coffee roasters website, these beans are from the Balanoor estate
in Chickmagalur.

There is a stack of cardboard boxes in my office. They are filled with
t-shirts that my team hands out at events my team conducts to evangelize
Internationalization. The t-shirts say 'I'm feeling lucky' in 39 languages.

Today, for some unknown reason, my eyes were drawn to this logo on one of
the boxes. I don't think I have come across anything made in Haiti before.
Haiti, despite it being the oldest independant nation in the Americas,
despite its physical proximity to the north american market and despite
millions of dollars of US aid (most of it funneled to Duvalier's numbered
accounts) (perhaps because of these mentioned reasons) is a basket case.

These are all the books I own which are autographed by their authors. About
half of them are first edition hardbacks. The Pentagon Papers is not
autographed by Sheehan, but by Daniel Ellsberg, which. IMO makes it even
more valuable. Both Woz and Rushdie made a personalized inscription. And
Stallman urges me to 'Happy Hacking'. Though I must confess that I never
became an emacs man.

I seem to be missing a couple of autographed books from my library. Which is
what prompted me to gather all the signed books together on one shelf so
that I don't give away precious books by mistake.

Seen on a subway car in Bangkok.

I came across this poster at an Indian cafe yesterday. It features a
grey-haired matronly Indian lady talking about spending time with her
grandchildren. Just as I was about to give up on the poster as yet
another advert for insurance or posh gated townhouses in Indian cycer
cities, I suddenly realized this isn't your usual poster. My eyes
wandered to the family portrait at bottom right and I realized this
was not your typical Indian-American family (semi-arranged marriage to
another ABCD, 2.5 kids, etc.). The dadi-ma (grandmother) was talking
openly about her gay son and the loving family he has built. Very
nicely done poster.

The Indian American community is bang on the center of the political
spectrum - socially conservative but pro choice, fiscally conservative
but pro social safety net.

Proposition 8 is a ballot initiative to change the state constitution
to define marriage as something that happens between a man and a woman.

Facing west, from California’s shores,	 
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,	 
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,	 
Look off the shores of my Western Sea—the circle almost circled;	 
For, starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
From Asia—from the north—from the God, the sage, and the hero,	 
From the south—from the flowery peninsulas, and the spice islands;	 
Long having wander’d since—round the earth having wander’d,	 
Now I face home again—very pleas’d and joyous;	 
(But where is what I started for, so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?)

• Many of my friends are here. Not all my friends are on Friendfeed yet. And many of them probably never will be.
  
• Facebook is the only social networking site where I have connections to family.
  
• People I know from the past who can connect to me.
  

• I hardly ever go to Facebook. Pretty much the only time I go to the site is when I receive an invitation to connect from someone.
  
• The music is too loud here. There are a gazillion things happening that I am unable to keep up. X gave Y a raspberry! G and E are having a baby! C signed a petition to release D! Enough!!
  
• Facebook is the only social networking site where I have connections to family.
  
• People I know from the past who can connect to me.
  

I ordered take away vegetarian sushi for lunch yesterday from a nearby
pan-Asian restaurant. I found it funny that it came with these two
fish-shaped containers of soy sauce.

The containers are probably very appropriate for most of the seafood
sushi orders they receive. They were funny when packed with tofu,
pickled radish and aubergine sushi.

One of my biggest worries in visiting Poland was that I would find it
difficult to find vegetarian food. Eastern Europe is not exactly
famous for its herbivorous fare. I am happy to report that so far I
have found not one, not two, but Three completely (purely as they
would say in India) vegetarian restaurants. And all three are within
walking distances from where I work or am staying.
When visiting such establishments I am always curious to read the
advertisements to a whole slew of goods and material and spiritual
services. Advertisement bulletins for meditation with bearded masters,
yoga with swelte yogis, colon cleansing treatments, Tibetan singing
bowls at unbeatable (chortle!) prices, tirades against Western
imperialism and such are staple fare directed at the captive hippie
audience. While there were a few of those in these places as well, the
adverts are very polished. On a wall hangs dozens of business cards
for juggling classes, trattorias, contemporary art museums and hearty
Polish fare.

I am in the Munich airport in transit on my way to Krakow, Poland. In
the men's room are these stickers of a fly in the urinals. This
supposedly improves the, umm, aim of the users. I decided to unit test
this and am glad to report that it works. The fly is actually pretty
life-like.

There is pretty good free coffee and tea courtsey of Lufthansa. Small
comforts in an airport with no free wi-fi and where a bottle of water
costs $3. I am checking my email and uploading this over roaming EDGE.