1. It still takes me a day to get home from a major city
2. Trains are never on time and air transportation is even better. They cancel without explanation
3. My mother still “saves” her money in a cash box at home
4. The cop outside my family’s business establishment continues to take bribes and let people park illegally
5. Movie theaters are still frequented by ruffians who guffaw at every love scene
6. Power cuts are unpredictable and part of everyday existence
7. Local courier service is still unreliable and you’ll be surprised if your package reaches a destination intact in 4 days
8. The cobbler who sewed my high school shoes continues to own his little shack
9. My nephew enjoys reading the same adventure books that I grew up on
10. Arranged marriages are still a common tradition

So while my India decides to have a makeover every year, with each year bringing new globalized chains springing all around my small coastal city and more English speaking youth with strange American accents frequenting these areas, the facade is just a lure. India is still young and will need another century to oust the first world and create it’s own identity. Eradicating red tapism and poverty needs to be more important than getting Walmart and Dolce & Gabbana to open up stores. I am hopeful that with this identity crisis will come a new approach and new way of looking at revitalizing India within it’s traditional boundaries and rich cultural heritage as opposed to changing it to be something that it’s not.

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A father, a sister, a brother, a daughter - four deaths that have touched me in the last 4 weeks. Each week bringing a new wave of sorrow. Four incidents unrelated yet connected through me. I sense their pain and their loss yet there is nothing I can do. I continue to live my life the same way, just aware that there is life and there is this unexplained thing called death.

My work revolves around solving information problems and bringing meaning to information. Annotations are the lifeline of explaining these information islets with the goal of simplifing the blob. Emotions are high and patience a virtue and I sometimes forget that tied to every information problem is the sound of the beating heart.

And so I am reminded that outside the information microcosm that I am so consumed with, there is the meaning of life that I will never solve or comprehend.

Growing up, I sometimes would read Indian comic books that covered stories of epic heroes. The visual depiction was traditional and often lacked the sophistication in story-telling that you are accustomed to in the Western world. Story-telling and character development is in our history, as is evident in the numerous Hindu gods and goddesses that we worship. And comic books would have been the ideal medium to instill the sense of pride and awareness that as a child, I completely lacked. Sadly, epic stories were not as popular as Archie comics. I often knew more about Veronica than about Tansen.

So imagine my surprise when I found out about Virgin Comics and their efforts to revive Indian history through comic books. What was even more surprising was to know that filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor is behind this effort. I have friends in the animation world that have done mini-projects backed by his vision and I have understood that his passion to put Indian history on the world map has been relentless.

So to see what these comics were doing different, I played hookie from my weekend errands and spent a few hours checking out the illustrated Ramayana. I admire the work and the the artists behind the illustrations. While the visual design surpassed my expectations, I was disappointed in the character visualization and story-telling style. Rama looks like a cross between a western superhero and the Indian god Shiva while Ravan had the flavor of an evil Manga character. The language had a yuppie spunk to it that is not typical of Indian story-telling. Call me old skool but I am still not sure if I really like this compared to what I have been used to growing up. I realize that to cater to a western world the characters were modified. This is heartening and despite my initial impressions of the visual impact, Virgin comics will be on my “interesting things to track” list.

Ever thought about capturing the infinite universe of changing information in a computer program? See this unbelievable attempt to capture present day mythology.

Jonathan Harris is the mastermind behind this visualization. Part visual designer, part anthropologist, part artist, part storyteller, Jonathan has a body of work that is often my source of inspiration. As I watched this new applet transforming gobs of infinite data into finite visualizations, I was fascinated at how he uses technology to tell a story.

His philosophy of passive information gathering is an interesting concept, especially when I am building interaction models based on contrived forms of user feedback. Passive information gathering as Jonathan says is about living life, while what you say or do on the web is captured without your knowledge.

Data then is real and spontaneous helping create richer experiences within the web sphere. Universe is one example of that richer experience.

While the concept is revolutionary, what piqued my interest is the approach. Just like we do in web design, Spot Runner uses templates for presentation and layout allowing for little flexibility in design while taking the guess work out of design. With modularity you pay a price, compromising creativity, to create a style that can sometimes be monotonous. You see that in blog and website design today. Big headers, white background and blocky layouts. But then you also have web standards making design presentation more sophisticated.

Local channels advertising sucks big time like website design sucked in the early 90s. Spot Runner can be the next Six Apart in the television advertising arena making for standardized and sophisticated looking ads that can make you want to give next-generation entrepreneurs of small businesses some thought.

Modularity as I am discovering is useful when you can leverage all levels of mass communication to tell a story quickly and for cheap.

They give a group of people a sense of itself, making possible weird, fascinating feats of coordination.

It is building a sense community as we get more and more isolated working remotely and exclusively. So when I learn that my programmer from Phillipines loves onion bagels and hates the rains I now have a better understanding of her likes and dislikes.

Agreed that there are drawbacks to using this tool, like being constantly pinged about your friend’s whereabouts can get annoying at times, I still believe that the tool has the power to improve social communication through non-emotive mechanisms.

The challenge though is how do you communicate in less than 160 characters? Think back to the first few words that were uttered by humans or as Clive says - haiku. You can only get better.

Read the Wired article

I find that this can be useful especially in the corporate space. Think about all the micro managers that you wished could leave you alone.Twitter away! Bombard them with second by second updates of your whereabouts. SMS, IM - the opportunities are endless.Micro managers beware.

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Avg time: 20 - 30 minutes
Pair with bread or rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pigeon pea lentils (also called toor dal)
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp asfaoetidia
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp chilli flakes/powder
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil

Method:
Pressure cook the lentils to a fine paste or cook in an open vessel with 2 cups of water.
Heat the oil in a soup pot or pan.
Add asafoetidia, cumin seeds and chilli powder.
As the seeds begin to roast add the crushed tomatoes.
Add turmeric and cook the tomatoes until the oil begins to leave the sides of the pan and the tomatoes are fully cooked (6-8 minutes).
Add the cooked lentils and tamarind water and bring to a boil.
Add salt to taste.
The end result should be soupy so add water as need be and bring to a boil.
Cool and eat with rice or bread.

Trivia: Sindhis often make this dal on Mondays. I don’t quite know the reason though I am guessing that Monday is the day of fasting for Lord Shiva and several Sindhis do fast on this day. A key rule for breaking this “Monday fast” is eating food that is devoid of garlic or onion. Sindhi dal is the perfect dish, garlic/onion free and quick.