Thaths Journal

Drink and...

2009-06-21T21:41:09Z

Drink and...
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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

I met a real alien hunter

2009-06-11T22:26:18Z

I met a real alien hunter
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Sundal - Tamil Garbanzo Bean Salad

2009-04-15T03:54:53Z

Sundal - Tamil Garbanzo Bean Salad
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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!

Pico Iyer's autographed book

2009-04-09T21:50:02Z

Pico Iyer's autographed book
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Indian kaapi in silicon valley

2009-04-09T21:50:00Z

Indian kaapi in silicon valley
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Indian kaapi in silicon valley

2009-03-30T23:32:45Z

Indian kaapi in silicon valley
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Made in Haiti

2009-02-27T02:12:49Z

Made in Haiti
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Autographed books I own

2009-02-08T03:06:09Z

Autographed books I own
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

If you would like to keep an eye on what I have been up to...

2009-01-30T17:15:42Z

I hardly blog on LJ anymore. I do read my friends page once a week or so. If you are interested in keeping an eye on my online activity stream, go to my Friendfeed page and subscribe to the Atom syndication feed on that page using your favorite aggregator.

Meet Maggie

2009-01-17T15:20:24Z

Meet Maggie. The latest addition to my home. But first... some history.

A long time ago my primary computing device was an IBM thinkpad. I christened it 'homer' after my favorite TV dad. And this began a tradition of (host)naming my computers after characters from The Simpsons. Ralph, Apu, Marge.... have all made appearances on my home network.

A couple of years ago when I bought a second hand Shuttle PC to use as a home theater / media server, I christened it 'lisa' after the musically talented (and my personal favorite) Simpson. Lisa ran mythtv on Ubuntu and did a great job of serving up DivXes and mp3s. She even had a TV tuner card to record the occasional TV show from the very limited menu of channels that I get from the unexplained and unpaid RCA cable that juts out from my wall. The only problem with lisa was that the CPU fan was extra loud. I tried water cooling fans and I tried ultra low noise fans. None of them would even fit in the cramped space of a shuttle chassis. In the end I decided to replace lisa with a fanless system.

And thus came maggie into existence. I bought a used ppc Mac Mini off of a colleague who was happy to part with it for a low price as long as I gave it a good home. I named the system maggie because she was the..... silent Simpson.

Maggie runs OSX 10.5 and has a USB external disk attached for storing media files. I use front row to browse and play my music and videos. All my media is cataloged in iTunes.

Give your seat to the pregnant, disabled and monks

2009-01-08T15:14:14Z

Give your seat to the pregnant, disabled and monks
Originally uploaded by thaths.

Seen on a subway car in Bangkok.

Please vote 'No' on CA proposition 8

2008-10-23T16:53:42Z

Please vote 'No' on CA proposition 8
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Poetry appreciation post

2008-09-21T18:36:47Z

Over the years I have come to believe that poetry and I simply don't mix. It is either because I lack the poetry appreciation gene or the hours of being made to memorize daffodils by rote. I never could appreciate almost all poetry. Except for a few rare exceptions like The Raven, poetry just doesn't do it for me.

Yesterday I came across the following poem by Walt Whitman titled 'Facing West from California’s Shores' and for some reason, I was drawn into it.

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?)

Since reading it I have been trying to figure out what Whitman was writing about. What do you think this poem is about?

In order not to influence your opinion about this poem, I am screening all comments to this post. I will collect screened comments for a week and then unscreen them.

Photos from Krakow, Poland

2008-09-06T22:18:12Z

I have completed uploading photos from my trip to Poland.

Facebook: Stay or Leave?

2008-09-04T23:20:49Z

I am considering deleting (or "deactivating" in their terminology) my Facebook account. Friendfeed provides everything I require in a social networking tool.

Stay?

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.

Leave?

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.

So.... what do you recommend? Stay? Leave?

Photos from the XXI International Student Folklore Festival in Krakow

2008-09-04T03:44:25Z

After the downer that was my previous photography post, I felt the need to post something a lot less serious and a lot more full of Life. And here it is...

When I was visiting Krakow I stayed in an apartment right on the main town square. One evening on my way back from work I noticed a call center of Indians milling around the town square. I was intrigued by the t-shirts they were all wearing that advertised something called 'Shilpagya'. They seemed to be speaking Gujarati. Never imagining what a gaggle of Gujaratis were doing in Krakow I went up to them and stuck up a conversation. I found out that they were part of a folk arts music group from Ahmedabad and were in Poland for some student folk arts festival. They invited me to come see their performance.

I later found out that this was an annual folk arts festival and was being held for the 21st year. Here are some of the photos from the festival.

Photos from Auschwitz and Birkenau

2008-09-03T03:47:43Z

I recently got the opportunity to visit the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps in Poland. Here are photos from my trip.

Plastic fish-shaped soy sauce containers

2008-08-29T14:28:07Z

Plastic fish-shaped soy sauce containers
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Advertisement cards at a vegetarian cafe in Krakow

2008-08-23T16:28:38Z

Advertisement cards at a vegetarian cafe in Krakow
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Waiter! There is a fly in my urinal

2008-08-18T18:08:42Z

Waiter! There is a fly in my urinal
Originally uploaded by thaths.

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.

Looking for recipies that use green chillies

2008-08-01T18:05:15Z

I have 3 Thai chili plants in the garden. I grew them myself from an overripe chili pod that I planted whole in the soil. The three remaining are the hardiest seedlings that emerged from the pod.

This year, after I moved them to bigger pots they have been especially prolific in producing fruits (yes! Technically, chillies are fruits). I only cook at home about once a week. And I use maybe 6-10 chili peppers a week. The output from my garden is 5 times my consumption. What do I do with the extra chili peppers? I often share my garden produce with neighbors and friends. But even with sharing, I have more than I can use.

I am looking for recipes that use chili peppers in large quantities. Should I be drying them for storage and use during the winter? Should I pickle them into achar (if so, do you have a good recipe?)?

What is Cuil thinking?

2008-07-28T17:14:16Z

No results for The Hindu or Deccan Herald. Plenty of results for Amithab Bacchan or Karishma Kapoor or even Asian Age.

I would find it quite difficult to use a search engine that does not find the kinds of pages I am looking for.

Update: It looks like you now find results for The Hindu and Deccan Herald. But their site is being slashdotted.

Friend me?

2008-06-30T22:15:41Z

If you are on Friendfeed, friend me. I find is to be a very usable and not too evil way of keeping up with what is happening to my friends.

Seun Kuti and The Egypt 80's

2008-06-23T16:00:54Z

Seun Kuti and The Egypt 80's
Originally uploaded by thaths.

Yesterday I watched Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80's concert at the Stern
grove concert.

Ever since I heard Fela in 2003, I have been a huge fan of the
Afrobeat genre and the man himself. While I do not agree with Fela's
misogyny or his lifestyle, I find his politics of tilting at windmills
compelling. Except for the video of Fela in concert at Glastonberry, I
have only been exposed to his studio work. A colleague at work who
visited The Shrine in Nigeria and met the man himself says that Fela
live was spectacular.

Since Fela died in the late 1990's, this concert yesterday is the
closest I can come to watching Fela live.

Seun played only one song from his father's catalog - Suffering and
Smiling. Unlike a Fela concert where they would have played two songs,
each lasting 40-45 minutes, Seun played much more easily digestable 10
minute numbers. Seun looked a whole lot like Fela in his flamboyant
costume. However the effect was not as powerful.

Permitted?

2008-06-14T04:43:59Z

Permitted?
Originally uploaded by thaths.

Found on the walls of the Oceanic Center for the Arts and Culture,
University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.

I suspect the original, unmolester sign is about ethanol. Yaqona is a
tranquilizing drink that numbs the tongue and lips and widely drunk in
Fiji. Better known as Kava it is made from the dried root of the
pepper plant.

Kava drinking is an important part of the hospitaliy here. Even in
government offices a bowl of the grog is kept for the staff to take as
refreshment at breaks.