tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58509772024-03-14T00:34:24.669+05:30/home/roop/Public/roopesh_chander_web.logthe knurd's blogRoopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-71545944900998600662010-08-23T19:21:00.003+05:302011-05-28T11:21:43.108+05:30Inception ★★★★☆<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">In <i><a href="http://www.uyirmmai.com/publications/bookdetails.aspx?bid=1">திரைக்கதை எழுதுவது எப்படி?</a> </i>(<i>How to write a screenplay?</i>), <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/blog/2008/04/blog-post.html">Sujatha</a> says most good movies have a premise, like a What If. Like, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudhalvan">what if a television anchor gets to become the Chief Minister for a day</a>, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix">what if we're living in a dream world created by machines</a>. <i>Inception</i>'s simplestest what if is: What if one could enter somebody else's dream. That premise could have morphed into anything (apparently, as <a href="http://froogy.blogspot.com/">K</a> had told me in the cinema hall, Nolan had first thought of a horror flick on this premise) but building a heist movie on this is just ingenious.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EerF9MXQrug/Tdn36AZHoHI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/VQBBwOzEpvQ/s1600/inception_the_13th.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EerF9MXQrug/Tdn36AZHoHI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/VQBBwOzEpvQ/s320/inception_the_13th.png" width="303" /></a></div><br />
As the old adage (first <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/blog/2009/12/avatar.html">quoted</a> in 2009) goes, a middle earth doth not an LOTR make. Unlike <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/blog/2009/12/avatar.html"><i>Avatar</i></a>, <i>Inception</i> manages to present us with a new world, and also reserves enough time for a fantastic plot. It's somewhat demanding of the audience, but not on the level of <i>Memento</i> (which you're expected to watch like you read a research paper - miss that epsilon there, and you don't know what the heck is going on anymore).<br />
<br />
The rules of the dream world - dreaming within dreaming, the sense of time, how we fill a dream space with things, the kick - all thought through well. No, I don't remember ever having dreams within dreams, but, er, that's what's Nolan's point too, right? The deeper, the better, to plant an idea undetectedly.<br />
<br />
More than anything else, what I like about <i>Inception</i> is that after it presents us with the events, we're left free to invent hypotheses to fit the empirical knowledge (ie. what we saw on screen). While the audaciousness of the is premise nowhere close to that of <i>The Matrix</i>, the setting is a lot more flexible in <i>Inception</i>. It sounds odd when I say it, but methinks <i>Inception</i> ups the audience engagement by making a virtue of it's loose ends.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wgQ2h3RK3Tc/Tdn4ZWv50DI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/ClFWmAnuyPA/s1600/inception-screencap-6-water-glass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="134" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wgQ2h3RK3Tc/Tdn4ZWv50DI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/ClFWmAnuyPA/s320/inception-screencap-6-water-glass.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image source: <a href="http://moviecultists.com/2009/08/24/the-inception-teaser-trailer-walkthrough/">Movie cultists</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Take the gravity inconsistency, which was pricking the back of my head right through the movie.<br />
<b>Observed anomaly:</b> When the van does a somersault, the hotel turns and all, but nothing happens in the snow level.<br />
<b>Hypothesis 1:</b> Oh, gravity affects only the immediate next level, didn't you know?<br />
<b>Hypothesis 2:</b> Yusuf concocts a special drug to keep their sense of balance awake while they sleep. But Arthur, who dreams up the drugs with which they go to the snow level, doesn't know how to do that.<br />
<b>Hypothesis 3:</b> Well, that would mean we'll have zero-gravity in all levels for half the movie. Who wants that, dumbo?<br />
<br />
Even though all these hypotheses may be flawed or inconsistent with other parts of the movie, the fact that we as an audience understand the rules of a new system and try to fit theories to explain observations... - isn't that awesome in terms of audience engagement?<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2-4B1nz7DkU/Tdn46nKj1XI/AAAAAAAAAaA/f5QIe0wYIZo/s1600/inception-screencap-2-dreidel-top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="147" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2-4B1nz7DkU/Tdn46nKj1XI/AAAAAAAAAaA/f5QIe0wYIZo/s320/inception-screencap-2-dreidel-top.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image source: <a href="http://moviecultists.com/2009/08/24/the-inception-teaser-trailer-walkthrough/">Movie cultists</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The biggest crib I have though, is Cobb's totem, a key object in the movie. It's the worst totem anyone could've designed. While Ariadne's chess bishop can tell you whether you're in the real world even as you hold it in your hand, while Arthur's die can tell you that within 2 seconds of throwing it, to test reality with Cobb's totem, you have wait like what, one minute? :) More importantly, while totems are supposed to feel or behave oddly in the real world, Cobb's spinning top does the reverse. It falls in the real world. If Cobb was stuck in my dream and he spun the top, it would by default fall because I, the dreamer, would expect it to fall - that's what spinning tops normally do. And Cobb, as a tourist visiting my dream, would happily go about thinking it was all real. However, if, say, Arthur was also hanging around in the same dream, he could throw his dice but I wouldn't know which number should come up,<br />
so I can't make it seem like reality to him. Seriously, spinning tops, eh? What a dumb totem!<br />
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</div></div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-18005761387773842512009-12-27T18:04:00.016+05:302011-05-28T11:34:27.455+05:30Avatar ★★★☆☆<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Hallelujah_Mountains" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/jamescameronsavatar/images/e/ef/Montesvolans.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Hallelujah_Mountains">Hellelujah Mountains</a> Image source: <a href="http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/">Avatar Wikia</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>About the good parts first: <br />
<br />
The visuals are *W O W*. <i>Avatar</i> is set in the most audacious place anyone would probably ever want to set a movie in: an alien planet. No, not barren wastes that you see so often in sci-fi flicks, but one as rich and complex and full of life as our own planet. The movie makes even this ambitious setting look more than real.<br />
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The action is edge-of-the seat. The chases and fights are long and well-detailed, yet not confusing. Together, the visuals and action kept me hooked for the whole almost-three hours.<br />
<br />
<i>Avatar</i> is the most jaw-dropping-est movie of the century that is so unbelievably fantabulous that it's gone beyond just being a movie into an experience of Chuck-Norris-level awesomeness. Okay, now that the customary over-the-top appreciation of <i>Avatar</i> is done, we can move on to my only gripe. A big one, though.<br />
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It's a bit of a let down that the movie pretty much depends on its visuals to keep you entertained. As they say, a fantastic Middle Earth doth not an LOTR make. Technology is what gets this movie ashore, and ironically the theme of the movie is: wtf are we doing with all this technology? (Speaking of LOTR, I think it's pretty cool that they invented an <a href="http://www.learnnavi.org/">actual language</a> just for <i>Avatar</i>.)<br />
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It's probably because of that that I could feel sorrow in the scenes where their land is getting destroyed, but when people die or are close to dying, the feeling was more like, "yeah, move on, guys".<br />
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No one-liners? None whatsoever? What's happened, James Cameron? <i>True Lies</i> was built on one-liners (maybe they were written by the other co-author?). Even the very-similar-themed <i>The Abyss </i>has its goofy bits. <i>Avatar</i> kind of takes itself too seriously, eh? (Speaking of the lines, early on in the movie, Neytiri says, "This is sad. Very sad only." Isn't this typical of <a href="http://litterateuse.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/we-are-indian-and-so-is-our-english/">Indian English</a> only?)<br />
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The 3D was good fun. A complete absence of eye-poking ice-cream cones, as @iyermatter <a href="http://twitter.com/iyermatter/status/6933420788">puts it</a>, is nice. 3D is treated just like an incidental nicety, not something to take advantage of in the movie itself. But I would've liked a bigger screen than the one at <a href="http://urvashicinema.com/">Urvashi</a>, and if the picture had been sort of brighter (the glasses make it look rather dark, eh?). How much more awesomer would it be in IMAX 3D (I'd seen <i>Antz</i> at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-Bristol">@Bristol</a>, which was pretty cool). The 3D goggles themselves were pretty cool - they apparently have LCD shutters (non-mechanical) in them that is synced with the projectors, so each eye sees only alternate frames. (Source: Jomy and <a href="http://www.xpandcinema.com/">Xpand</a>.) Most importantly, they could fit on top of my own spectacles. :)<br />
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<i>Avatar</i> is probably a milestone in SFX technology. Some of my all-time favourite movies have been SFX milestones too: <i>Terminator 2</i> and <i>The Matrix</i>. They are cult classics because they engage with you in another level beyond just breathtaking visuals. <i>Avatar</i> is not even trying to do anything like that.<br />
<br />
It's definitely a fantastic movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe I would have liked it more if I hadn't read the "Oooh!" "Aah!" reviews, but I wouldn't have watched it but for them. Catch-22? Oh, well.<br />
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So, watch it, sure. While this is not quite a <a href="http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/avatar">"rebirth of cinema"</a> that has <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/12/19/hunters-avatar-review-james-cameron-succeeds-where-the-prequels-and-the-hurt-locker-failed/">"transcended stagnant notions of what cinema is"</a>, the world that Cameron has brought to life here is just too cool to be missed out on. Maybe, just maybe, <s>if </s>when there's an <i>Avatar 2</i>, with the setting established, there'll be more time for the director to do justice to this thingie called screenplay. After all, this is the guy who gave us <i>Terminator 2</i>,<br />
the best sequel ever. </div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-83993528915393506772009-06-07T23:41:00.003+05:302009-06-07T23:54:59.243+05:30The MusicollageI'd been tinkering with remixing songs with Cool Edit for a while, and this is a piece that I had left hanging for a long time. So I just added a drum roll and a crash over the weekend to put an end to it. It sounds (to me atleast) less like a remix and more like a medley of songs that forms "a different whole", and so I'm calling this a musicollage (not to be confused with Jorge Sylvester's 1996 album). I might actually try and make more, so if you particularly dont like it, do let me know :). For arbitrary reasons, this piece is called "Domapo".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Domapo</span><br /><img style="visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px;" src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEyNDQ*MTA2NDM3NTYmcHQ9MTI*NDQxMDc5ODI3MCZwPTE4NTM5MSZkPSZnPTEmdD*mbz1jYjdlMGYwZjcyODI*ZmMzOTg4ZjUxNmQyNTAxZjlkNCZvZj*w.gif" border="0" height="0" width="0" /><embed flashvars="song_id=27966" src="http://www.muziboo.com/swf/new_player.swf" height="112" width="272"></embed><br /><span style="size: 0.8em;"><a href="http://www.muziboo.com/roopeshchander/music/domapo">Credits</a></span>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-4827747314221219862009-05-25T03:07:00.007+05:302011-05-28T11:32:49.004+05:30Sarppavarkky<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">And now, I present to you ("இந்திய வலைக்காட்சிகளில் முதல் முறையாக...") - Lewis Carrol's <a href="http://twas.brillig.and.the.slithy.toves.did.gyre.and.gimble.in.the.wabe.all.mimsy.were.the.borogoves.and.the.mome.raths.outgrabe.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html">Jabberwocky</a> <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(can your browser handle that link?)</span> translated to Tamil (<a href="http://roop.blogspot.com/2007/07/ponniyin-selvan-first-floods-05.html">he he</a>, mostly தமிழாக்கம் rather than மொழிபெயர்ப்பு).<br />
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<blockquote><b>சர்ப்பவர்க்கி</b><br />
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மாயங் காலம் வழுவழு நெளிகள்<br />
மேய்வெளி யெங்கும் கூர்வளை தோண்ட<br />
நாக்காய் யாவும் பொலபொலத் திருக்க<br />
ஷோக்காய் குருளை சீட்டியும் அடித்தே<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/Shm7lrmkpQI/AAAAAAAAAMs/6z6Kp_rMxl0/s1600-h/Jabberwocky_creatures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/Shm7lrmkpQI/AAAAAAAAAMs/6z6Kp_rMxl0/s200/Jabberwocky_creatures.jpg" /></a>கடிகூர் நகங்கள் நெறுமும் கடைவாய்<br />
கொடியது சர்ப்ப வர்க்கி, கவனம்.<br />
வனங்கொள் கிளுகிளுப் பறவை தவிர்ப்பாய்<br />
சினங்கொள் பாண்டப் பிடிதவிர்ப் பாயே<br />
<br />
நெடுநாள் தேடும் பகைவன் அழிக்க<br />
கடுவாள் கையில் எடுத்தான் சிறுவன்<br />
துந்துபி மரத்தடி ஓய்வாய் சிலநொடி<br />
சிந்தனை ஆழ்த்திட சிலையென நின்றான் <br />
<br />
கரட்டுக் காளை நிற்கும் களத்தில்<br />
மிரட்டும் விழியுடன் சர்ப்ப வர்க்கி<br />
அந்தியில் அடர்கரு மரங்களி னூடே<br />
வந்து இரைந்து கொக்கரித் ததுவே<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/Shm7ntKg49I/AAAAAAAAAM0/S3_O8aTLiB4/s1600-h/Jabberwocky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/Shm7ntKg49I/AAAAAAAAAM0/S3_O8aTLiB4/s200/Jabberwocky.jpg" /></a>ஒன்று, இரண்டு! இன்னும் இரண்டு!<br />
கடுவாள் சென்றது சளக்ச ளக்கென<br />
கொன்றான் அதனை வென்றான் தலையை<br />
சென்றான் நடையில் களிப்பு பெற்றே<br />
<br />
சர்ப்ப வர்க்கியை வதம்செய் தாயா?<br />
சிங்கக் குட்டியென் செல்வப் புதல்வன்<br />
மையா மையா! ஜும்ப லக்கா!<br />
ஹையா ஹக்கா வென்றா டினனே<br />
<br />
மாயங் காலம் வழுவழு நெளிகள்<br />
மேய்வெளி யெங்கும் கூர்வளை தோண்ட<br />
நாக்காய் யாவும் பொலபொலத் திருக்க<br />
ஷோக்காய் குருளை சீட்டியும் அடித்தே</blockquote><br />
பாதி வார்த்தைகள் புரியாமல் போகக்கூடிய வாய்ப்பு இருப்பதனால் சில விளக்கங்கள்: <br />
<br />
இங்கு சில சொற்கள் வேறு தமிழ்ச் சொற்களிலிருந்து இயற்றப் பெற்றிருக்கின்றன. வேறு சில சொற்கள், வேறு வழியில்லாமல், Lewis Carrol உண்டாக்கிய <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky#Glossary">ஆங்கில வார்த்தைகளிலிருந்து</a> கொஞ்சம்-translate கொஞ்சம்-transliterate செய்யப்பெற்றிருக்கின்றன (தலைப்பைப் போல). வேற்றுக் கருத்துக்கள் / யோசனைகள் வரவேற்கப்படுகின்றன.<br />
<br />
மாயங்காலம் = மாலை+சாயங்காலம்<br />
நாக்காய் = நாய்+காக்காய் = ஒல்லியான துடைப்பம் போன்ற ஒரு பறவை<br />
பொலபொலத்து = பரிதாபமாய்<br />
குருளை = சிறு விலங்கு (Ref: இரும்புலிக் குருளையின் தோன்றும் காட்டிடை - குறுந்தொகை, 47)<br />
கிளுகிளுப்பறவை = Jubjub bird that lives in "perpetual passion" :)<br />
பாண்டப்பிடி = bandersnatch<br />
கரட்டு = கர்வம்+முரட்டு; rugged என்னும் பொருளும் உண்டு<br />
மையா மையா = ? (Ref: வைரமுத்து)<br />
ஜும்பலக்கா = ? (Ref: வைரமுத்து)<br />
ஹையா ஹக்கா = ஹையா+தையா தக்கா<br />
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எல்லா தொடைகளும் நிலைமண்டில ஆசிரியப்பாக்கள் - இது சற்றே எளிதாய் இருக்கிறது. அந்த வெண்பா இருக்கே...<br />
(Revelation of the week: "பேட்டை ராப்" சரணம் <a href="http://www.maraththadi.com/article.asp?id=2860">ஆசிரியப்பா விதிகளுக்குட்பட்டது</a>).</div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-1311044770632969082008-12-10T22:29:00.002+05:302011-05-28T11:39:35.751+05:30What's my point of view?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I stumbled on to this <a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/06/changing-your-point-of-view.html">nice piece</a> by Duncan, and a <a href="http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/06/27/change-your-point-of-view/">follow up</a> by bbum, about taking a different point of view while photographing something. Made me dig up my photos to see how many of them employ a somewhat unusual line of sight. And I have to say there weren't many.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/3097613541/"><img alt="bcb6" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3224/3097613541_ac7d696e32_m.jpg" /></a><br />
Shot in IIMB during a discussion-ish session in <a href="http://barcampbangalore.org/wiki/BCB6">Barcamp Bangalore 6</a></td> <td><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/3090426156/"><img alt="auto" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/3090426156_912b2c0fd4_m.jpg" /></a><br />
Self-portrait from inside an auto-rickshaw in Delhi</td> </tr>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/3089336755/"><img alt="underbelly" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/3089336755_ae41229e00_m.jpg" /></a> <br />
My poor old camera was placed face up on the <i>road</i> to get this, on self-timer and an uberlong exposure. This is the underbelly of the Eiffel Tower.</td><td><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/168988170/"><img alt="umbrellae" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/72/168988170_f7389725a4_m.jpg" /></a><br />
The drizzle brought out the umbrellas, and they always look good from the top. Shot from a rooftop corridor in the Notre-Dame de Paris.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/3089606809/"><img alt="cycle-rickshaw" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/3089606809_aea7c35ec2_m.jpg" /></a><br />
Shot sitting in another rickshaw just in front of this one, this photo would have been impossible without the pull out LCD. Moradabad, India.</td><td><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/3090426172/"><img alt="doggie" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3126/3090426172_aa5758d50e_m.jpg" /></a><br />
This probably looks like normal line of sight, but is shot from a low height to put the doggy in perspective. Antibes, France.</td> </tr>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/3090426164/"><img alt="aurobindo" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/3090426164_5ba9427ac6_m.jpg" /></a></td> <td><br />
This one should really have been a simple shot, if only the scene had not been behind a grille. This is all I got out of poking my camera into a locked room in the Aurobindo Institute, Calcutta.</td> </tr>
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Equally, if not more, interesting is fellow photographers trying too hard for a certain point of view:<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/3089606839/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3224/3089606839_5fb2369801_t.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/3090508672/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3153/3090508672_49d09f7851_t.jpg" /></a></div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-48930234017514954742008-09-29T13:05:00.004+05:302008-09-29T13:15:12.709+05:30Cross CodersThis one is dedicated to <a href="http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~nikhild/">ND</a>, researcher and former Pascal enthusiast. :D<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/SOCGMsIEnrI/AAAAAAAAAKA/3abVbCS2Uec/s1600-h/crosscoders.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/rheupeiti/SOCGMsIEnrI/AAAAAAAAAKA/W2j6Pl84D4E/crosscoders.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251344718075567794" /></a>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-85035491148091942672008-09-19T01:38:00.004+05:302008-09-28T21:59:57.299+05:30car/bike<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/SNK2MET-nOI/AAAAAAAAAJA/s5XgWLr24s4/s1600-h/takecartakebike.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/rheupeiti/SNK2MET-nOI/AAAAAAAAAJA/HBp7qqr_sok/takecartakebike.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247456834272271586" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />(Of course, it's somewhat of a thoughtlift from <a href="http://xkcd.com/">xkcd</a> - it has that written all over it.)</span>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-36697257730197458112008-06-01T16:40:00.015+05:302008-12-10T09:13:16.541+05:30What do I call these? Eggheads? Humpty Dumpty?The good and bad thing about blogs is that I can blog irrespective of the crappiness quotient of what I blog. So here goes I, taking a bit of inspiration from the awesome <a href="http://xkcd.com/">xkcd</a> and the sometimes funny <a href="http://wadejolson.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/the-gearheads-7/">Gearheads</a>.<br /><!-- <img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/rheupeiti/SEKI5FPjh4I/AAAAAAAAAGo/5U04v-u_JUY/eggheads-godel.jpg" /> --><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/SEKI5FPjh4I/AAAAAAAAAGo/9lCGeqE3g5w/s1600-h/eggheads-godel.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/rheupeiti/SEKI5FPjh4I/AAAAAAAAAGo/5U04v-u_JUY/eggheads-godel.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206874633435056002" border="0" /></a>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-82563142153082402672008-05-09T16:53:00.004+05:302008-06-16T20:27:07.930+05:30Tidy Tie TyingWell, we had this concept of a Formal Friday sometime last May at TI. It was fun seeing well-pressed blazers on people who'd been seldom seen on anything better than only slightly tattered jeans. But as a light side-effect, this video tutorial on how-to-tie-a-tie happened. Meant for dummies. Turned out to be by a dummy too (due apologies to Varun).<br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/smI341aT6_k"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/smI341aT6_k" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"></embed></object>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-77623790702788856132008-04-27T10:55:00.008+05:302011-05-28T12:00:14.608+05:30The Gameworld Trilogy [4/5]<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-style: italic;"> Take a book, Sambo, a blank book. Yes, any book will do, as long as it's empty. Now make up a good fantasy plot, with the grandioseness of, if not the complexity of, say the Lord of the Rings - a nice good true-to-fantasy Good versus Evil plot. It's all up to you, however, to decide who's good and who's not, and when, but the plot has to be flawless. Then you create some lovely characters. Humans and human-forms first, if you really ask me. You can make the monsters and the aliens any way you like, but the humans should be well-formed characters. Characters one can identify with. Then you create a lot more characters, but this time, making them delightfully absurd. How, you ask? Well, for example, you can have a three-headed bartender, for one. How about a frog swathing in self-pity. Or maybe a James-Bond-ish dwarf. Anything sufficiently absurd or counterpointish would do. Now, think of all the fantasy books you've read. I know you haven't read many, but the few you have, will have to do. Mull them all over and plant tiny tantalizing references in your story. Adopt a playful narrative style if you can. Now, now, what've you got?</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><a name='more'></a></span></span><br />
<a href="http://samitbasu.com/books/the-simoqin-prophecies/"><img align="right" alt="The Simoqin Prophecies" height="250" src="http://samitbasu.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/simoqin-prophecies-cover.jpg" width="152" /></a> It's not everyday that you stumble upon an absolute delight of a book, as happened with me and <i>The Simoquin Prophecies</i> about a year back at <a href="http://www.blossombookhouse.com/">Blossoms</a>, my favourite book joint in Bangalore. Well, yes, it has a rather slow start (intriguing nevertheless: imagine an enterprising rabbit planning a book titled "There and Back Again: The Adventures of One Rabbit"), but once you're through a couple of chapters, you're on a ride. And the pace stays at a gallop through the whole of Samit Basu's <span style="font-style: italic;">GameWorld Trilogy</span>, of which <span style="font-style: italic;">Simoquin</span> is part one. The books are consistently funny for the most part, and where they're not, there's some real good swashbuckling action. Unputdownable, end of the day. Even if it may, at first look, look like a series tied together with references, from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hobbit</span> to Asterix to Monty Python to martial arts monks to The Four Horsemen to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Ramayana</span> to whatnot, there's a nice storyline, complete with loads of save-the-world category of stuff, and more.<br />
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For all their weird and fantastic abilities, both Kirin and Maya are, um, delightfully familiar. People you want to get to know. I haven't ever seen as lovely a female character in SF/F as Maya (Hermione comes fairly close, but can't think of anyone else at all). And the other lead - Asvin, the hero - is an acquaintance as well, since, well, we've seen a lot of heroes, right? Turning stereotypes around is something Samit does rather well (kinda Terry-Pratchettish, don't you think?). Sample here:<br />
<blockquote>Thog (the barbarian) tied back his long, prematurely greying hair, reapplied the fake scar to his left cheekbone and sprinkled on his favourite perfume. League Rule 2:3 stated you had to look exactly like your wooden action figure - the scar, for example, he'd had to wear since the first Thog the Barbarian toy (Plain Rugged Adventurer of the Rugged Plains: Free Replica Battle-Axe!) had been scratched accidentally by the toy-maker. - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Manticore's Secret</span></blockquote><a href="http://samitbasu.com/books/the-manticores-secret/"><img align="right" alt="The Manticore's Secret" height="250" src="http://samitbasu.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/manticores-secret-cover.jpg" width="152" /></a> The character of Red is again extremely interesting. She doesn't have a name (only a colour), but she has voices in her head that have names, and personalities and preferences and prejudices. Something like split personalities coexisting at the same time instant, just that it's split twice, er, thrice actually. And when they argue among themselves, pull each others' legs and plot against each other, it's mayhem. Outlandish, yet very real.<br />
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Like any decent fantasy, there's a Dark Lord, and a very human one at that. One who's trying to figure out how best to do his job. Of being a Dark Lord and all that. Surprisingly, the serious plot stuff and the funny tickle-your-elbow stuff co-exist comfortably:<br />
<blockquote>The Dark Lord sneezed and felt very sheepish, because Dark Lords weren't supposed to catch colds... His magical healing powers could weave flesh and bone, but had not yet evolved enough to cure the common cold. - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Manticore's Secret</span></blockquote>I also loved the way romance is handled - smooth, natural and, er, unbridled? Meaning, no giving a damn about what's the norm for the good fellas to do in books, when they're still all good. While <span style="font-style: italic;">Simoqin</span> is something of the "norm" stuff in this sense (The scene where Maya first meets Asvin, at the Frags, is classic hilarious romantic comedy fare), books two and three, are well, not suitable reading for kids.<br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br />
<a href="http://samitbasu.com/books/the-unwaba-revelations/"><img align="right" alt="The Unwaba Revelations" height="250" src="http://samitbasu.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/unwaba-1.jpg?w=152&h=250" width="152" /></a> The Simoqin Prophecies</span>, being fresh and innocent, is easily my favourite among the three. It has a chugging pace, and it revolves around people like you and me (not exactly, but atleast not on the likes of Dark Lords and alien powers). Maya (with her diary entries) is just adorable here. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Manticore's Secret</span> has a lot more visual action (Myrdak attacking Vanarpuri is beautifully written), and also turns inside out our perspectives of Good and Evil that we'd built on book one. It has a stunningly written chapter of Behrim riding a horse's mind through a landscape of the Dark Tower's illusory horrors, and being chased by a pack of werewolves. It so reminds me of LOTR: The Return of The King where all the action is of the mind. Part three, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Unwaba Revelations</span>, published last December, is all about wars, and The Gods. The battles of the war are brilliantly described, the focus panning on to strategy and the big fellas, and then zooming down to individual action, showing what it all means to the soldier on the field, even describing the politics between soldiers and commanders in the armies. If you look hard, and use a bit of imagination, you can even find some philosophy at times, in all three books, maybe a bit more of it in the third.<br />
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The names Samit comes up with are an irreverent delight in themselves: A stalactroll is a troll made of limestone stalactites, and Al-Ugobi is a desert in Artaxerxia. The three-headed bartender is called Triog. A vanar king called Bali, a highwayman called Tlotlot, crows called Maverick and Yahoo, and to cap it all, storks going by the names of S.P.Gyanasundaram, H.Sampath and O.Veerappan. I don't seem to get the significance of the name reversals though. The name of Narak, the ravian, reads back-to-front as Karan. Karan, who? On the same lines, the Dark Lord of the last era is called Danh-Gem. And a jinn called Artimagnas makes a brief appearance in book three. Either they are just there for intrigue, or I don't know my mythology well. The latter, most likely. But the unlikeliest of all is Princess Isara - I mean, I thought arasi is classical Tamil, or does Samit know a bit of Tamil, or knows someone who does?<br />
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In fact, most of the references are of the blink-and-you-miss-it kind. To give you an inkling, here is part of a side story about how, the sword of Raka (that Asvin needs for a quest), had gotten lost:<br />
<blockquote>Rukmini had learned it was Akarat the rakshasi who had abducted Chorpulis, from her friend Lalmohan, the eagle, who had chased Akarat after she had abducted Chorpulis. Now Chorpulis was probably either in the rakshasi's den or in her belly, and the sword was missing too. - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Simoqin Prophecies</span></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Missed it, right? Oh, yeah, you got that one, but not the other two, right? (Oh, right. I know. there must have been innumerable references like this I missed in the book, but the best part is that I never get to know I did. :))<br />
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End of the day, Samit does manage to create his own world, but it's not as lodged-in-my-mind as Middle Earth or Discworld. I mean, I still don't know (though I'm fairly sure it's mentioned somewhere) whether Avranti is the north of the Harmony Range of mountains or south, and I have no clue what their political stand with respect to Artaxerxia was. But there's only so much you can do in three books, and it has packed in a <span style="font-style: italic;">lot</span> of stuff. The trilogy is an absolute fun read and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes any of Discworld, Hitchhiker, LOTR or, yes, Potter. Read the trilogy in order though, and, if possible, keep the earlier books handy, er, for reference.</div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-632645925322841252008-04-01T03:27:00.004+05:302011-05-28T12:00:33.212+05:30யாமறிந்த சுஜாதா<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/R_FecLnG5QI/AAAAAAAAAEE/ToHIOK5AKpc/s1600-h/sujatha_portrait.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184028484326319362" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/R_FecLnG5QI/AAAAAAAAAEE/ToHIOK5AKpc/s320/sujatha_portrait.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a>Science Fiction-உம் நானும் அறிமுகமானபோது நான் எட்டாம் வகுப்பில் இருந்தேன் (இல்லை ஏழாவதோ?). என் சித்தி தயவில் பைண்டு புத்தகங்களாய் உருவெடுத்திருந்த பல ஆனந்த விகடன்/குமுதம் தொடர்கதைகளில் ஒன்றுதான் நான் படித்த முதல் விஞ்ஞானக் கதை: <span style="font-style: italic;">மீண்டும் ஜீனோ</span>. எதிர்கால சமுதாய-அரசியல் அலசல்களை (sociopolitical:)) விட அதில் அப்பொது என்னைக் கவர்ந்தது வருங்கால உலகின் வருணனைகளும், ரோபோ நாய்க்குட்டிகளும், ' நிலா' போன்ற அழகான தமிழ்ப்பெயர்களும், சற்றே சிந்திக்க வைக்கும் எழுத்து நடையும் தான். நான் படித்த முதல் சுஜாதாவும் அதுவே. அதன்பின் அப்போது படித்த சுஜாதா கதைகள் எவையும் ஏனோ அவ்வளவாய் பிடிக்கவில்லை, நினைவிலுமில்லை (<span style="font-style: italic;">ஆ</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">என் இனிய இயந்திரா</span>, ...).<br />
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ஞாபகம் இருப்பது அவரது non-fiction. ஜூனியர் விகடனில் அவர் எழுதிய <span style="font-style: italic;">தலைமைச் செயலகம்</span>-உம் புத்தகமாய் வெளியான <span style="font-style: italic;">சிலிக்கன் சில்லுப்புரட்சி</span>-யும் படித்துப் பிடித்து ஆனால் முழுமையாய்ப் புரியாமல், <span style="font-style: italic;">ஒரு கம்ப்யூட்டரின் கதை</span> மிகவும் பிடித்து குத்துமதிப்பாகப் புரியவும் செய்தது எனது கணினியியல் ஈர்ப்பிற்கு ஒரு முக்கிய காரணம்.<br />
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கல்லூரியில் நான் படித்த கொஞ்சம் தமிழில் நிறைய சுஜாதா இருந்தார். கணெஷ்-வஸந்த் நாவல்கள் எனக்கு அறிமுகமானது அப்போதுதான் (<span style="font-style: italic;">எதையும் ஒருமுறை</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">மூன்று நிமிஷம் கணேஷ்</span>, ...). துப்பறியும் கதைகளுள் இத்தனை ஜனரஞ்சகமாக காமெடியும் துப்பறிவும் சரிவரக் கலந்த நாவல்களை நான் இன்றுவரை பார்த்ததில்லை (ஒரே விதிவிலக்கு: போன மாதம் படித்த Terry Pratchett- இன் <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Elephant</span> - குத்துமதிப்பாக இப்படிப்பட்டதென்று சொல்லலாம்). (ஏதொ விவேக்குக்காகவே எழுதின மாதிரி இல்ல வசந்த் பாத்திரம்? யாரவது படம் எடுங்கப்பா.)<br />
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பின்னர் சுபாஷ் சிபாரிசில் நான் வாங்கிய <span style="font-style: italic;">விஞ்ஞானக் கதைகள்</span> தொகுப்பில் பல கதைகளின் முடிவுகள் 'அட' போட வைத்தன. ஆவற்றுள் சில, சிறுகதை எனும் வடிவத்தையே சோதித்துப் பார்ப்பவை. <span style="font-style: italic;">மன்னிக்கவும், இது கதையின் ஆரம்பமல்ல</span>-வில் recursion தெரிகிறது. <span style="font-style: italic;">ஒரு கதையில் இரண்டு கதைகள்</span>-இல் சம்பந்தமில்லாத இரு கதைகளிலிருந்து கதை மாந்தர்கள் சந்தித்துக்கொள்ளும் arbit வினோதம் தெரிகிறது. <span style="font-style: italic;">நச்சுப்பொய்கை</span> மஹாபாரதத்தின் ஒரு anachronistic உபகதை - வனவாசத்தின்போது பாண்டவர்கள் ஒரு ஏரியை தண்ணீர் குடிக்க அணுக அந்த ஏரி அவர்களை எச்சரிக்க அது கேளாமல் அவர்கள் நீர் அருந்த, உடனே மயங்கி விழுகிறார்கள். எஞ்சியிருப்பது யுதிஷ்டிரர் மட்டுமே. அவர் தன் தாகத்தை தாங்கிக்கொண்டு ஏரி கேட்கும் 'பொது அறிவுக்' கேள்விகளுக்கு ("மனிதனுக்கு எப்போதும் துணை எது?", "புல்லினும் அற்பமானது?") பொறுமையாய் பதில் சொல்லி தன் தம்பிகளுக்கு உயிர்ப்பிச்சை வாஙிக்கொண்டு இந்த டயலாக் விடுகிறார்:<br />
<blockquote>".. சுனையருகில் மிக லேசாக கார்பன் மானாக்ஸைடு இருக்கிறது. மேலும் சுனைத் தண்ணீரில் லெசாக தயோ மெண்டோன் கலந்திருக்கிறது. இவை மிகக் குறைவில் கலந்திருப்பதால் உயிருக்கு ஆபத்து இல்லை. கரைக்கு வந்து நல்ல காற்றை சுவாசித்தால் போதுமானது. தேவையென்றால் டெக்ஸ்ட்ரோஸ் அதிகப்படியாக உள்ள சில பழங்களைக் கொடுத்தால் குணமாகிவிடுவார்கள். மரத்தில் ஒளிந்துகொண்டு வெவ்வேறு திசைகளில் குரல் கொடுக்கப் பழகிய அசரீரியே, உன் கேள்விகள் சுவாரஸ்யமாக இருந்தன, நன்றி."</blockquote>விஞ்ஞானம் வசந்த் இரண்டுமே இல்லாத அவர் கதைகளை நான் அதிகம் படித்ததில்லை (<span style="font-style: italic;">எப்போதும் பெண்</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">உள்ளம் துறந்தவன்</span>). அவரது அறிவியல் கதைகளைக் காட்டிலும் எனை வியப்பிலாழ்த்திய நாவல் <span style="font-style: italic;">எப்போதும் பெண்</span>. பெண்கள் சிந்திக்கும், நடக்கும், தன்னடங்கும் விதத்தை எனக்கு சற்றே demystify செய்த புத்தகம் அது.<br />
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ஆனந்த விகடனின் <span style="font-style: italic;">கற்றதும் பெற்றதும்</span> பகுதியில் அவர், தமிழ் (வெண்பா, ஹைக்கூ), புவியியல் (quantum தத்துவம், ஸ்டீபென் ஹாக்கிங்), கணினியியல் (NP-hard வினாக்கள்), சினிமா (<span style="font-style: italic;">சிவாஜி</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">மருதநாயகம்</span>) எல்லாவற்றையும் ஒரெ மூச்சில் சரளமாய் விவாதிக்கும் விதம் வியக்கத்தக்கது. பல சினிமாக்களில் அழகான சிறு நறுக் வசனங்களில் சுஜாதா தெரிவார். <span style="font-style: italic;">திரைக்கதை எழுதுவது எப்படி?</span> மூலம் எனக்கு சினிமா இலக்கியத்தையும் சற்று விளங்க வைத்தவர்.<br />
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சுஜாதாவை நாம் இழந்ததில் தமிழ் சினிமாவின், ஆனந்த விகடனின், குமுதத்தின் தரம் சற்றே குறையத்தான் போகிறது. வாசகர்களுக்கு அதுவரை கண்டிராத எழுத்து நடைகளைத் தந்த, வாசகர்களுக்கும் கொஞ்சம் சிந்திக்க வாய்ப்பளித்த, வாசகர்களைத் தன்னிடம் வாதிக்க அனுமதித்த ஒரு எழுத்தாளாரை இனி நாம் எப்போது காண்பது?</div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-75259344104943981242008-02-18T00:33:00.009+05:302011-05-28T12:01:15.687+05:30Weekly for week ending 15/Feb/2008<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">One week. We're on our way now. The safety of the harbour is behind us. We'd intended to give ourselves a month to finalize what we're going to be doing. But the first item we picked looks so really like a low hanging fruit that we plan to build that product first, in the first month, and then proceed on. (It's probably also because, you know, it somehow feels more comfortable to be doing work than planning what to be working on.)<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Productivity is rather decent. We're not really working long hours. Not even by a stretch of imagination. Yet. And the time is well spent. Well, there was the almost 2 half-days spent on setting up a wireless ad-hoc network to work over Windows Vista and Linux Mint (we just use a wifi router now), and the few hours spent internetlessly because there's a power cut (I know, we should get a UPS). But that apart, good. K's place works brilliantly. Short jaunts can take you to a multitude of food joints. And K makes good tea, if we're there before he leaves. Girish and me do disagree a lot on a good number of issues, and that makes for good conversation. T comes for her jewellery making stints sometimes. And to top it all, we had a good shuttle baddie workout in the weekend. Life's good. Let's see if it turns out decently lucrative too.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/R7iH8uKwcBI/AAAAAAAAABs/Sib3pWUz5QY/s1600-h/giveaways.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168030049662693394" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/R7iH8uKwcBI/AAAAAAAAABs/Sib3pWUz5QY/s320/giveaways.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a>Oh yeah. Earlier, I had an awesome farewell from TI folks. They took me out for lunch to a nice veggie place in dedication to my towards-animal-welfare vegetarianism. The parting gift was (hold your breath) a Calvin and Hobbes complete works collection. And the icing: an ubercool handmade scrapbook with scraps from junta and lovely photos of chaps and self. Couldn't have had it better.</div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-70293796345298309132008-02-13T20:40:00.004+05:302008-06-08T13:12:37.451+05:30Started upI'm out of job, guys, and am in the process of starting a startup (as yet unnamed) with Girish. Wish us luck, will you?Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-12043170146898289472008-01-24T19:22:00.001+05:302011-05-28T12:02:20.236+05:30The Ex-Road Trip<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I ushered in the new year in the middle of a jungle, with the sky for a roof, in the good company of a good many creaky trees, lots of undergrowth, two smoldering campfires, and a bunch of slightly-scared-and-totally-exhausted comrades, with no clue how far from civilization we all were.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/2219260404/" title="Kavunji Lake"><img alt="IMG_5527.jpg" height="180" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2274/2219260404_2992e028b5_m.jpg" style="float: right;" width="240" /></a> The plan was to trek from Kodaikanal (or Berijam, about 25km from Kodaikanal) to Munnar (or Top Station, about 30km from Munnar), a total distance of about 50km, over two days. We were to take the Escape Road, the road that the British built during the Second World War, as a means to get to Calicut and sail away in case the Japanese invaded India from the east (oddly enough, the only place I could find this gem of a tidbit on the net (and more on Kodai) was, of all places, the <a href="http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_04/01JUL06/kodai.htm">transcript</a> of a WorldSpace radio programme on Sai Baba). This road is no longer maintained and though overgrown with undergrowth (hee hee), we thought we should be able to follow it coolly. I'd poked around on the net and found one <a href="http://timelessodyssey.wordpress.com/2006/02/02/kodai-to-munnar/">blog</a> that had an excruciatingly detailed appendix describing the route to be followed for this trek.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/2218470963/" title="Grassland"></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/2218470963/" title="Grassland"><img alt="IMG_5566.jpg" height="160" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2135/2218470963_98bb6d949e_m.jpg" style="float: left;" width="240" /></a> Following a road, discontinued or not, should be <span style="font-style: italic;">so</span> easy. After all, we did Sakleshpur like a slightly prolonged stroll (?!!), and that was just a discontinued railway line. How different can a road be? What is so <span style="font-style: italic;">trekkish</span> about following a <span style="font-style: italic;">road</span> anyway? We were even considering doing another trek after we reached Kodai since we thought this might be a tad too <span style="font-style: italic;">easy</span> for us. After all, trekking through a <span style="font-style: italic;">road</span> should be a piece of cake, right?<br />
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Wrong. The exact part that we thought would be the easiest part of the trek, was the most trying. Since PJ's visit (the blog we followed) of two years ago, the forest had reclaimed the Escape Road more than we could have imagined. So much so that there was no path, only jungle. The pathway was taken over by undergrowth and the gap offered no resistance to falling trees, so what you got was man-high thorny shrubbery and a crisscrossing maze of trees fallen right across the intended line of travel. And on top of it, you can't take the optimal way around anything because you have to stick to the road (which you ascertain now and then by digging around and looking for gravel), even if the road is asking you to get lost in not very polite terms.<br />
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So, obviously, we had grossly underestimated the time needed to get to our destination. Night fell inexorably, and we walked on, hoping to find the watch tower that we were supposed to. Our hope did run out eventually that night, but as it turned out, our luck didn't.<br />
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Rajesh had the energy to write a <span style="font-style: italic;">long</span> account of almost everything, so I'll let my post just be a trailer to the <a href="http://lostinthewinds.livejournal.com/747.html">whole thing</a>.<br />
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Through the trek, we could distinctly see the difference between walking through casuarina and shola, since we start off among the former and end up in the latter. We did see a few places where we saw whole acres of cut-down trees. Apparently, sholas are the native staple flora, and the British experimented with cutting off some of the shola and planting eucalyptus and casuarina in place of that. But that doesn't help the local fauna at all - no food (for the herbivores and therefore for the carnivores) and no foliage to hide. So that means they can't live there, only travel through. So the Forest Dept is trying to undo some of what the British did by replacing some of the British-induced conifers back with shola-class trees. (By the way, the word shola comes from the Tamil <span style="font-style: italic;">solai</span>, so Pambadum Shola, which we walked though afterwards, actually is பாம்பாடும் சோலை. Cool, huh?)<br />
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Photos from this trip: <br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/crimsonbloat/KodaiToMunnar02">Rajesh's</a>,<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67523061%40N00/tags/kodai2munnar">mine</a></div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-71803295811034979042007-11-26T02:51:00.001+05:302011-05-28T12:02:39.426+05:30And now, for something completely different<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Those guys the Python language was named after, was how I knew Monty Python as. And that was all I knew of them till Version One Dot Oh <a href="http://vodo.blogspot.com/2006/06/adapted-version-of-sketches-of-monty.html">came along</a> one evening to our office (yes, really) and staged a few hilarious Python sketches. I really did think VODO were fundo thespians, until I watched their <a href="http://vodo.blogspot.com/2006/06/harvey.html">Harvey</a>, which can <a href="http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/04/13/stories/2006041301770300.htm">actually</a> manage, on a scale of one to ten, a respectable minus two, if the rating process had been fixed, in VODO's favour (Well, actually it was passable - you know how it is, na - calling something crap can be delightfully hedonistic).<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/R0nogBcg4KI/AAAAAAAAABM/T5T5GVl3j-g/s1600-h/alwayp4.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136892486834249890" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/R0nogBcg4KI/AAAAAAAAABM/T5T5GVl3j-g/s320/alwayp4.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a>But I digress. Coming back to something completely different, I did have the good fortune of watching <a href="http://www.evam.in/">Evam</a>'s Always Look On The Bright Side of Life <a href="http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2007/07/12/stories/2007071251040200.htm">last July</a>, and I loved it. Here was timepass at its best. And it started before we entered the auditorium (No, I'm not talking about the cute-looking ticket seller). As junta were loitering around in the corridor outside the audi, waiting for the show to start, a jolly chorus broke the buzz of conversation, and the troupe danced into the scene, singing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always_Look_on_the_Bright_Side_of_Life">the song</a>. It's pretty difficult not to join in when whackily dressed overenthusiastic jesters are singing a catchy tune. And it got whackier as the evening progressed. The show was, as all Python shows are, a mishmash of sketches. Some of them were rip-roaring (Haggling, Mattress, Argument, Michelangelo), some amazing (Johann Gambolputty), some that bring out just a wide grin (Lion Tamer, Four Yorkshiremen, Job interview, Camel spotting), and a few outright lame (Hospital). The starting sequence with Evam personified was stylish. Leading in each sketch with projected multimedia was cool. But really the catchiest trick of the lot was the impeccable dances between the shows, in the pretext of rearranging the stage setting (or was it the other way round?). A bunch of girls dancing to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra-eav09lyM"><span style="font-style: italic;">I like to move it</span></a> while shifting out furniture on stage for the next act is bound to bring in chuckles. And, I must say I really liked the friendly ambiance in the Alliance Française as well: bedded seating on the floor, with the stage few metres away in a not-so-big audi. It probably made it all the easier to relax and get involved quickly. And we could see the wiggling of fingers, the twitch of eyebrows and the quivering of noses so much better.<br />
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The show led me to a whole new timepass activity: watching Monty Python sketches on youtube. A lot of them are outright hilarious, except those on the Holy Grail. One could see that there was very little script improvisation that Evam (or VODO) had had to do. But boy, are they demanding on the actors. The comic timing and spontaneity need to be spot on. On top of that, Evam has given it a kind of more slapsticky flavour with exaggrated movements and expressions. It does help in making it funny, and probably helps reach out to the kids in the audience. The little Indianizations here and there in the script by Evam (Haggling, Michelangelo) do tickle the ulna bigtime.<br />
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The Indianizations were probably more prominent in the sequel, <a href="http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2007/09/20/stories/2007092050810100.htm">in September</a>, when Karthik seemed rather taken to <a href="http://www.sivajitheboss.com/">The Boss</a>. But the magic field was weaker this time. I still did have a great laugh mind you, just that they were fewer (Murder, Hungarian tobacconist, King Arthur) and farther apart than the first installment. There were some sketches that I thought the Evam renderings were not executed well enough of (Murder, Dirty fork), but I might have thought so just because I had seen the Flying Circus do it themselves. The multimedia and the dancers were as good as ever, but the venue (Chowdiah) was a tad too big to my liking.<br />
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So, the moral of the story is: Check out the Python videos on the net, and the next time Evam stages a Hyssssteria in your city, don't miss it.<br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br />
PS: I might really have mixed up what sketch went into what show. I'm so confused that I can only tell which is from what only by how far I remember the stage to be when that was acted out.</span></div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-59281241267305310502007-08-23T00:17:00.003+05:302008-12-10T09:13:17.663+05:30Leh: BackSurprise, surprise - we made it. Safe, grinning, and rather impressed with ourselves.<br /><br />And we did manage it a lot better than I would have expected. 0 casualties, 1 injury, 1 puncture, 2 damaged clutch plate sets, 1 cut clutch wire. All seven of us doing fine. All bikes in riding condition. Yeah, looks like we were really safe drivers.<br /><center><br /><table border="0"> <tbody><tr> <td><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rshanthi/LehBikeTrip/photo#5110882483889827106"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 250px;" src="http://lh4.google.com/rshanthi/Ru2Ail0E7SI/AAAAAAAAARk/EIjz5KMqkV8/s288/IMG_5475.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> </td> <td><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rshanthi/LehBikeTrip/photo#5110871694931978962"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 250px;" src="http://lh4.google.com/rshanthi/Ru12ul0E6tI/AAAAAAAAAM0/rW8SuTuOrw4/s288/IMG_5259.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rshanthi/LehBikeTrip/photo#5110882681458322802"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 250px;" src="http://lh6.google.com/rshanthi/Ru2AuF0E7XI/AAAAAAAAASQ/M4n746fQZvs/s288/IMG_5547.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></td> <td><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rshanthi/LehBikeTrip/photo#5110867958310430434"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 250px;" src="http://lh6.google.com/rshanthi/Ru1zVF0E5uI/AAAAAAAAAEo/8QgwYrQ74wY/s288/IMG_4871.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></td> </tr><br /></tbody></table><br /></center><br />With zero out-of-the-city biking experience, it does take some nerve and a bit of audacity to take on <span style="font-style: italic;">this</span> route. And the reward is a whale of a time. The drive alternates between exhilerating, dangerous and tricky, as fast as the scenery changes between green slopes of grass or pine, cold desertlands and barren mountains in wild dashes of colour.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/R1j12yeaEuI/AAAAAAAAABU/z8sEEvQedK8/s1600-h/IMG_0324_L.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/R1j12yeaEuI/AAAAAAAAABU/z8sEEvQedK8/s320/IMG_0324_L.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141129296254472930" border="0" /></a><br />One avid biker (well, he just became one) in our group, Sriram, has finally started <a href="http://sriramramadoss.blogspot.com/">blogging</a> all the nitty-gritties. Hope he manages to finish it too.<br /><br />So there. Riding a ~200kg cruiser for ~2500kms, about a thousand of that in the Himalayan roads, is fun, back-breaking and perfectly doable. Nothing audacious about it, really. Trust me, I know.<br /><br />Photos from this trip: by <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rshanthi/LehBikeTrip">Shanthi and Jomy</a>, and by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/roop/tags/delhilehbike/">Roop</a> (my camera conked early on)Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-70948961567285179332007-07-28T00:29:00.000+05:302008-06-16T16:00:08.572+05:30Leh: Flag offIt all starts tomorrow. The road trip. The third best, say <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/apr/01/fivebest.canada.australia">some</a>, but possibly the best we might get to do.<br /><br />We're catching a flight on Saturday to Delhi, renting some Enfield Thunderbirds there, and biking off to Leh. Going a clockwise round trip of Delhi-Srinagar-Kargil-Leh-Manali-Delhi, about 2500kms in all, and will also be paying an exclusive visit to Khardung La, north of Leh, arguably the world's highest motorable road.<br /><br />Abhi is just back from a <a href="http://pixelfactory.co.in/gallery/Exploring_Ladakh/">biketrip</a> to Leh, and between the five of them on seven bikes over 14 days, they had 15 gigs of photos, 1 puncture, 1 burnt sprocket, 1 damaged suspension, 1 hairline fracture and about 15 minor injuries.<br /><br />Unlike Abhi's gang, we seven are a somewhat odd lot, without much biking experience (does trekking experience count?) With a who's who of riders looking like this:<br /><br /> The number of riders<blockquote>who have fixed bikes before: 1<br /> who ride a bike regularly: 5<br /> who have ridden bikes regularly: 6<br /> who have ridden an Enfiled for >10km: 0<br /> who have biked on long trips: 2<br />our plan does look rather audacious, don't you think?</blockquote>Wish us luck. We'll need it.Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-30322093871082675652007-07-08T00:42:00.001+05:302011-05-28T12:08:31.882+05:30Ponniyin Selvan: The First Floods [ 0/5 ]<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">You don't get good Tamil books in Bangalore, and I've always picked some whenever I go to<a href="http://www.indiaclub.com/Shop/SearchResults.asp?ProdStock=3458" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084538729958546466" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_N4YG_hP4vY8/Ro_pCS3lHCI/AAAAAAAAAAY/0mmSk9K6HWQ/s320/ponniyin_selvan_firstfloods.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a> Tambiland. Last time, unusually, I picked up something in English - a translated version of Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan (a 5-part novel in Tamil about the Chola dynasty, set in 10th Century Tamil Nadu - arguably, the popularest Tamil novel ever). Gulti had asked me to pick it up for one of his friends. Girish, did you tell me you'd read a bit of a pathetic translation of Ponniyin Selvan? Was it by one Karthik Narayan by any chance? It must be, because it's the only one I found on the stands. And because it fits your description well.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>I've been leafing through it while waiting for it to get picked up by Gulti (hope he doesn't read this before he does), and (... I meant, before he picks it up), and (... picks the book up, that is, ... from me), and (finally) I think it's pretty awful (the translation, that is). After five chapters of it, before having read the equivalent original, I found it unpickuppable (is that the correct opposite of unputdownable?). And then, I started on the original in Tamil, and I was hooked.<br />
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A translator has to know both the languages well, and must be able to retell the story in his own words to a different audience. These, to me, are basic qualities one must have to even attempt to translate. Well, strictly speaking, anyone can attempt to translate. Well, apparently, that's what's happened here, in the curious case of <span style="font-style: italic;">Ponniyin Selvan: The First Floods</span>.<br />
<br />
I was startled to read this passage on King Rajadhittha Cholar: <br />
<blockquote>"Who could be compared with him in valour? Seated on an elephant, had he not lead his army in the Battle of Thakkolam? Did he not die and attain immortality clutching his enemy's spear, for which he was given the prestigious title, 'The Lord Who Slept on the Elephant'?"</blockquote>I mean, all the build up is passable, but this talk of sleeping on the elephant, come on guys. The title given to Rajaditthan, as per Kalki and history is: "Aanai mel thunjiya thevan" (Kalki's original passage in Tamil <a href="http://ta.wikibooks.org/wiki/%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%8A%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A9%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D_%E0%AE%9A%E0%AF%86%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D/%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%81_%E0%AE%B5%E0%AF%86%E0%AE%B3%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%B3%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D/%E0%AE%86%E0%AE%9F%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%A8%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B3%E0%AF%8D">here</a>). [aanai - ஆனை - elephant; mel - மேல் - on top of; thevan - தேவன் - Lord]. Now thunjuthal - துஞ்சுதல் - is to sleep, but can also mean to die, especially when one says thunjinaar, and has been used in litreature in that <a href="http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/romadict.pl?page=1958&table=tamil-lex&display=utf8">sense</a>. Let alone intricate knowledge of Tamil, <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> (:)) can figure how awkward the title of respect sounds here. One look at the appalling appellation - it's supposed to be in praise of the king - and you know this translation of the title amounts to either blasphemy or utter lack of common sense.<br />
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Otherwise, the translation is exact. Line by line, to be precise. It leaves you with an odd feeling, like watching a Chiranjeevi movie dubbed into Tamil. Actually worse - imagine watching a Chiranjeevi movie dubbed into English. In the pretext of retaining the regional flavour, the translation tells a perfectly good story in a style that is an absolute misfit. The narration feels contrived and deliberately rigmarolish (while the style perfectly fits in in 10th Century Tamil). It's a bit like attempting to translate: "Stay, strangers unknown! Who are ye, friends or foes, that have come thus strangely clad riding to the gates of this town? Now, ye comers from afar, declare to us in haste: what are ye called?" (Thanks: JRR Tolkien) - and keeping the odd clause order and addressals in that passage in another language, in an attempt to keep the Old English style.<br />
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Allow me to illustrate. Here is a passage from <span style="font-style: italic;">The First Floods</span>:<br />
<blockquote>Furious, Vandiyathevan shouted, "Is this the practice in your town, to stop your guests at the gate?"<br />
<br />
"Who are you, thambi, to talk so impudently, and where do you come from?"<br />
<br />
"You want to know? I am from Thiruvallam in Vanagapadi. At one time your ancestors used to tattoo my ancestor's names on their chests and indeed felt proud to do so. My name is Vallavarayan Vandiyathevan. Understand?"</blockquote>If you agree with me that this has an odd feel about it, and if you happen to be able to read Tamil, you should see what Kalki had penned this as in <span style="font-style: italic;">புது வெள்ளம்</span>:<br />
<blockquote>வல்லவரையன் முகத்தில் கோபம் கொதிக்க, "இதுதான் உங்கள் ஊர் வழக்கமா? வந்த விருந்தாளிகளை வாசலிலேயே தடுத்து நிறுத்துவது....?" என்றான்.<br />
<br />
"நீ யார் தம்பி இவ்வளவு துடுக்காகப் பேசுகிறாய்? எந்த ஊர்?" என்றான் வாசற்காவலன்.<br />
<br />
"என் ஊரும் பேருமா கேட்கிறாய்? வாணகப்பாடி நாட்டுத் திருவல்லம் என் ஊர். என்னுடைய குலத்து முன்னோர்களின் பெயர்களை ஒரு காலத்தில் உங்கள் நாட்டு வீரர்கள் தங்கள் மார்பில் எழுதிக் கொண்டு பெருமையடைந்தார்கள்! என் பெயர் வல்லவரையன் வந்தியத்தேவன்! தெரிந்ததா?" என்றான்.</blockquote>The English version reminds me of an old Tamil serial called <span style="font-style: italic;">பிடிவாதம்.</span> The one in which everyone speaks with all the clauses mixed up, something like "Like this why are you, today? You yesterday, were fine, is not it?" (illustrative only; not actual). It spawned a whole new dialect (?!) of Tamil, called Junoon Tamil, after the Hindi serial it was dubbed from. And one poor guy in my college who sometimes talked like that was actually nicknamed Junoon.<br />
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I believe it is perfectly possible to narrate this story naturally in English. I haven't read any Indian historical novels in English to make a fair comparison, but mythological, yes. Both Rajaji's <span style="font-style: italic;">Mahabharata</span> and R K Narayan's <span style="font-style: italic;">Gods, Demons and Others</span> are proofs that you can retell an inherently Indian plot, with kings, palaces and stuff, in perfectly simple and natural English. The key is to retell the story and not translate it line by line as if it were a 10 mark translation question in an 8th grade Tamil-II question paper.<br />
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A bad translation is not just a bad book. It's a bad name for the original. I'm actually concerned that people will read the translation, and wonder how such a seemingly bad novel can have a cult following, and might possibly conclude that all Tamilians are litreatively challenged, for all you know. So don't read Karthik's translation, and advice people against the idea. Yes, even if they paid for it. Even if <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> paid for it. Read <a href="http://www.zine5.com/archive/sum.htm">this</a> instead - I've leafed through a couple of chapters, and I think it's a lot better (tell me if I'm wrong, okay?).<br />
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And, please don't tell Gulti. I have to claim the price of the book from him.</div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-17728073349622165382007-05-27T22:43:00.001+05:302011-05-28T12:08:52.557+05:30A wisp of Lisp<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Lisp is a funny looking language, with a scary deluge of parantheses. Some of you might know it as Scheme (it's different, but not very). I had loved it in college days - the Lisp questions were all like puzzles, and all you had to do to solve them was keep recursion in mind (efficiency can go to hell), and most importantly, none in my class <span style="font-style: italic;">loved</span> it, or that's what I think - many could barely stand it. I remember a particular class test since it was probably the only one I actually enjoyed writing: it had ten questions each of which required you to write a small Lisp program that did arcane stuff like computing x power y and inserting into a list and stuff.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Now that's a surprise since I abhorred (and still abhor) the idea of "writing" a program on paper, however trivial the problem. I think if I had to write a program to do the same arcane stuff in C or <span style="font-style: italic;">insert your favourite language here</span>, I wouldn't have been comfortable vouching for a program I "wrote" straight on paper. But with Lisp, all you had to do was write something like the equivalent of a mathematical expression that describes the functionality, and you're done. Talk about succinctness. In fact, I think unless it's a lab test, "Write a program to ..." questions are unfair in any other computer language - for the examinee to solve perfectly or for the examiner to verify without doubt. Too tedious to do either.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://lisperati.com/casting.html" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://lisperati.com/different.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a>I read up on the background behind why Lisp is so like math only last weekend, prompted by Penrose's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Emperor's New Mind</span>. The history starts with Hilbert's decision problem, put forth in completion in 1928. Hilbert <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entscheidungsproblem">asked</a> for a general algorithm that could take in an algebraic conjecture (like, say: it's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan%27s_conjecture">impossible</a> to find integer values for x, y, a,b such that (<i>x+3)</i><sup><i>a</i></sup> − <i>y</i><sup><i>b</i></sup> = 1 for <i>x, y, a, b > 1</i>) and say whether the conjecture is true or false. While many solutions exist for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diophantine_equation">problems</a> of such nature, there are many conjuctures that are unsolved. So asking for a general algorithm for this is a tall order, and as it turned out, it was proved that it is impossible to find one, using three completely different methods, respectively by three different people: Gödel, Turing and Church. Lisp borrows heavily from the methods that the last two invented for their counterproofs.<br />
<br />
Turing's approach (published 1936) was to imagine a machine to solve each conjecture - much like how one would write a program to fit all sorts of values to x, y, a and b to see if (<i>x+3)</i><sup><i>a</i></sup> − <i>y</i><sup><i>b</i></sup> is 1. So, you could have one Turing machine (say T<sub>C</sub>) that tries to solve this (<i>x+3)</i><sup><i>a</i></sup> − <i>y</i><sup><i>b</i></sup> business of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan%27s_conjecture">Catalan's</a> conjecture and another (say T<sub>G</sub>) that works on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldbach%27s_conjecture">Goldbach's</a> conjecture, and so on. If T<sub>C</sub> will come to a stop sometime, we will have a solution for <i>(x+3)</i><sup><i>a</i></sup> − <i>y</i><sup><i>b</i></sup> = 1, and would have proved Catalan wrong. If it's gonna run forever, well, then we'll know Catalan was right after all.<br />
<br />
Now, if a machine could take on conjectures like this using a standard set of instructions, those instructions themselves can surely be passed as input to a Turing machine. We can imagine Turing machines that can take in the "software" of particular turing machines as input, and make use of that. The most straightforward of these would be the Universal Turing machine (T<sub>U</sub>). If you pass to T<sub>U</sub> the "software" of T<sub>C</sub>, T<sub>U</sub> would then act like T<sub>C</sub> till it<sub></sub> comes to an end. This is not unlike the Perl interpreter, that can run either your T<sub>G</sub> program or the T<sub>C</sub> program or whatever program.<br />
<br />
Turing used the concept of Turing machines capable of taking in as input a set of instructions to reinterpret Hilbert's original problem. Turing reduced the decision problem to finding a Turing machine that could take in the "software" of a particular Turing machine, and say (in finite time) whether that Turing machine will complete in finite time, or not. (If you're imagining a code-analyzer for Perl programs, note that it's not just sufficient to check for semantic errors like infinite loops and the like - T<sub>C</sub> will never complete, even if it's programmed perfectly.)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://lisperati.com/casting.html" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://lisperati.com/lisplogo_warning_128.png" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>Now, Lisp (short for List processor), is a mechanism for dealing with lists. A list is a simple and scalable representation of data, especially if it can accomodate other lists as members. If you use parantheses to <samp>(enclose lists and (lists of lists) like this)</samp>, no doubt you see a hell lot of parantheses on Lisp programs. But this also offers a way of thinking of programs as lists - the first element in the list is an operator, like <samp>+</samp> or <samp>append</samp>, that can act on the other elements in the list, like <samp>(+ 41 1)</samp>.<br />
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A list processor should have some basic list operators (like <samp>get_first_element</samp> and <samp>get_length</samp> and so on). We can map these operators to individual Turing machines. And while there are Turing machines, we can very well envisage a Universal Turing machine Lisp operator that could take in a program (represented as a list), and produce the result of that program. Given the basic list processing infrastructure that was Lisp in 1958, it was suprisingly <a href="http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/paulgraham/jmc.ps">easy</a> to formulate an <samp>eval</samp> function, written using the existing list processing infrastructure, that could act as the Lisp-equivalent of the Universal Turing machine. Well, if you actually think about it, this Lisped T<sub>U</sub> is actually a Lisp interpreter, since it can take in a Lisp program, and execute it. And, lo!, you have a new working programming language.<br />
<br />
And that's why it's so much like math. And it's probably because of it's likeness to abstract mathematics that it's still <span style="font-style: italic;">the</span> language whose programs can be simultaneously readable and succinct. Let's see if Paul Graham, it's all-time-<a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/icad.html">fanatic</a> can actually give it a new lease of <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/arc.html">life</a>.</div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-1161537158590581992006-10-22T22:40:00.001+05:302011-05-28T12:09:19.597+05:30Notes for my endgame<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-style: italic;">This was written 18 hours before in Bangalore, being posted from Om Beach, Gokarna.</span><br />
<br />
Well, this is pathetic. I'm just about to leave for another trip, can you believe it, to Gokarna, starting in 15 mins, to finish up the unfinished business, and there's not one post in my blog since that. That settles it (hopefully). And, every friend of mine with whom I have had philosophical quarrel seems to be living outside Bangalore, atleast at the moment, so this is possibly the best medium to hold arbit conversations now. So, here I go.<br />
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I have been reading Tuesdays with Morrie (I seem to read it less and less everyday, reluctant of having to finish it), which evokes basic questions on what our priorities in life should be. That, and the premature death of a teammate, has gotten me wondering how different my life will be if I knew when I'm gonna die. (Well, deathclock.com tells me that I have time till May 2, 2054, but that's so long away that it tends to infinity.)<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I don't think I can compress my life - it's sure to get lossy. Since experiences can't be compressed, I should probably try to be selective in what I want from life. I should indulge, create, diversify. I would want to keep doing the things in life that I like the most (travelling, reading, writing, musicing, programming) and not want to do any of the stuff that I don't (corporate games (?!), some other programming). Maybe some other stuff would get added to the ToDo: Write a book? Teach? Atleast help a kid with homework?<br />
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But there could be constraints that can knock stuff off the list. In fact, most probably, there would be. In terms of how much my body can take. Maybe even financially. But surely, there will be stuff I can do.<br />
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Right now I have no clue on my life a couple of years from now. Will knowing it make it any less interesting? Will life, being a journey, cease to be attractive once the destination gets in sight, the same way as a book's tempo wanes as it approaches the end? Well, one interesting part with death is nobody knows what happens after that. Doesn't that make it extremely interesting?<br />
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How about living life in quanta? If we can look ahead only so much in our lives, does it make it any better if we live it as if we live only as far as we look ahead? We would be doing only the things we like, and we would be living for the present, with your own custom granularity for 'present'.<br />
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That was heavy. Especially because I've got no time to pepper it with lighter Wodehousian stuff, as I always like to do (Shanthi's on her way to pick me up already). Shit! So when I don't have time, I don't do the things I like to do, huh?</div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-1132522521738653732005-11-24T00:34:00.003+05:302011-05-28T12:09:41.867+05:30Plan B; B for Beach<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Thanks, that was very gracious of you (see <a href="http://roop.blogspot.com/2005/02/cybersquatting.html">previous post</a>). I'm about a month late in blogging this trip of ours to anticlimactic forests and cute lovely beaches. The delay can well be attributed to any of starting trouble, writer's block, holiday hangover or work pressure, but let me play the honest guy and admit I was lazy.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/65215475/" title="Kulgi Nature Camp"><img alt="gokarna 10-2005 004" height="180" src="http://static.flickr.com/27/65215475_c496d443bd_m.jpg" style="float: left;" width="240" /></a><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Oct 13, 2005:</span> We had only called up Dandeli Forest Dept. the day before, and couldn't book tents in the Kulgi Nature Camp - we were just asked to come to the camp, where two tents were expected to be vacant.But, lo, you guessed right, they were not. We were politely shown the door, or gate, whatever (intriguingly, there's a cut-out of a bison by this gate) ("Rooms, no. Only dormitory."). We anyway didn't fancy the idea of staying in a "nature camp" just 1km from civilization, from where there was a rain-induced moratorium on treks ("No permit") and the watchmen very skeptical of jungle safaris ("If you're lucky, you can see.."). We also considered Jungle Lodges, but they were really expensive, and they seemed to prefer hikes (though they called them treks) to treks anyway. We rang up a trek organizer, one Manjunath Rathode (our eventual trip-nemesis) who wasn't available, went back to Dandeli, and checked in at State Lodge, just opposite the bus stand, with whom we got a safari arranged for the evening.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>"We", btw, is Shanthi, her man Jomy, and Binu and myself. We all work for the same company, and all but Jomy in the same team, in a broad sense of the word. Binu was the new entrant for trekking, but he was too scared, of the emptiness of the long holiday, not to join us.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/65160504/" title="Rain in Kulgi"><img alt="gokarna 10-2005 007" height="240" src="http://static.flickr.com/26/65160504_8f7ebb7cb5_m.jpg" style="float: right;" width="180" /></a>At four that evening, we were weirdly greeted with an Ambassador for the safari - apparently, we were to be driven to the nature camp to get permits, and then board a jeep further down. We had just drove past Kulgi after getting the permits, when the driver got a call from his boss saying the road ahead was blocked. After much haggling with the boss (who turned out to be the Manjunath chap) over phone, we decided to forgo the Rs.200 we had paid for the petrol. Binu never got his tongue around the place in the whole showdown, and his phone fight was like: "We came to see the safari, not Kujla... Yes, but it takes 8 bucks from Kalaja to Dandeli, and we've already... This is ridiculous, to just get to (what the beep is this place called, da) Kajoli, you can't...". (Once back in Bangalore, he did put in some dedicated effort, and has now mastered the art of saying "Kulgi".)<br />
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The evening was well spent with pointless philosophical discussions on life, the universe and lovelives of individuals, some of which (the conversations, I mean) trickled on to our dinner table at the nearby restaurant. The day was perfectly concluded by an inebriated gentleman (all restaurants in Dandeli are "bar-cum"-prefixed), who took a dislike to our conversing in English, which he couldnot follow well apparently, and politely suggested we use Hindi instead. He probably wasn't a purist, since he didn't object much to my thoughtless "Tik hai. No problem.". Anyway, we didn't linger long to observe his reactions.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Oct 14, 2005:</span> We boarded the first bus to Karwar at 7:00 the next morning. We hadn't researched on Karwar, but knew it was somewhere closeby, and that it has good beaches. After 3 hours in the tightly packed bus, and a brunch at Karwar, we decided to proceed immediately to Gokarna (I'd been to Om beach earlier, and that's the best beach I'd ever been to (note the past tense), and so I told my co-wayfarers).<br />
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At Gokarna, we were unsure whether we'll get to stay in Om beach itself, or we'll have to stay put in Gokarna. Binu and I set out to go to Om and find out. The first autowallah we asked to get to Om never got over our refusal of his one-way ride offer for 150 bucks - he almost followed us everywhere that day, telling everyone we talked to, how unfair our dealings were and how his miraculous machine was the only thing that could ever get us to Om. Anyway, fortunately, we stumbled onto this chap called Felix (our eventual trip-saviour) who gives away bikes on rent, and he offered to get us to Om and back on auto (driven by his friend, Rs. 200) while he arranged our bikes, so we can check out Om beach for lodging and also see how bad the road to Om was. It <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> bad - I had about 60% confidence of riding a geared bike through that final 100 metres of slush (I had started on geared bikes about 2 weeks earlier). <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/58167133/" title="Om beach"><img alt="gokarna 10-2005 082" height="180" src="http://static.flickr.com/31/58167133_e96105f848_m.jpg" style="float: right;" width="240" /></a> No rooms in Namaste Hotel, Om beach (I had this feeling that they didn't want to rent it to Indians). No rooms in the other shack too. Beautiful beach, though, complete with one blond guy practicing juggling with clubs. We went back, checked in at Hotel Gokarna International, Gokarna, and took the bikes that Felix had to offer us on hire: a Yamaha and a Kinetic Honda (Rs.500 for both). We decided to pay Om a courtesy call right away, even though it was a bit too late in the evening for the slimy mountain road ahead.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/65203889/" title="Stopping by the sea on a cold evening"><img alt="gokarna 10-2005 015" height="180" src="http://static.flickr.com/30/65203889_03b8ba620f_m.jpg" style="float: left;" width="240" /></a>Our first stop was intended for some by-the-road photography, but the Yamaha wanted a longer pitstop. After multiple deft, but futile, kicks by Jomy, we called up Felix, who offered to come right away and see what was wrong, the noble chap. But after shaking the bike at 30-degrees to ground on reserve, it spurred to life, and we asked Felix to stay put. Alas, the Yamaha didn't quite want to stick to this rule, and Jomy had to improvise creatively - adding a jolt here and a slant there, on future unforced engine halts. Later, that night, the Yamaha's owner disrecommended the Monte-Carlo-incline-and-jolt method and suggested we blow into the tank to rescuscitate the engine from then on, though Jomy continued to prefer the former.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/65203891/" title="Kudle beach"><img alt="gokarna 10-2005 017" height="180" src="http://static.flickr.com/33/65203891_5ef01ac0c6_m.jpg" style="float: right;" width="240" /></a>Having spent quite sometime in a twilight photo shoot at the top of the hill facing the sea, it was dark when we parked our bikes on top of the cliff. We found our way down in the moonlight, but after barely ten minutes in the deserted beach, we dragged ourselves back - we couldn't sure if the bikes were safe.<br />
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Once we were back in Gokarna, the other three badly wanted to have fish, and we settled down in the beach at the second shop from the sea (run by one Vijay, if I'm right) - apparently the only place by the beach that served fish. While we were waiting, it started to rain, and we got <span style="font-style: italic;">into</span> the shop. But it wasn't just a shop - it was their home. There was the bed, with a plastic sheet suspended below the leaking thatched roof, like a circus net, that the son (about twelve yrs old) drained periodically into a vessel. There were framed Hindu gods hanging on one wall. And the kitchen nearby, where our order was being prepared. The items of our order, we noticed, also became their dinner.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/66248871/" title="In Om beach"><img alt="gokarna 10-2005 051" height="240" src="http://static.flickr.com/24/66248871_a7c5a3eeb7_m.jpg" style="float: left;" width="211" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Oct 15, 2005:</span> We were up very early the next day, the last day of the trip, hoping to maximise our beach time and were munching on our toasts hungrily at 7:30am in Namaste at Om beach. The costume of the fellas from afar needs special mention, and I don't mean the bikinis. A lot were dressed in those dull-saffron cotton dhotis. One even had a garland on. The phoren crowd definitely seemed mixed - there are families, with reluctant kids being dragged by the parents into the water; couples furiously keeping journals in short-size school notebooks; single ladies solemnly reading at their breakfast table; gangs smoking away God-knows-what. But somehow, nothing really looks out of place.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/58161905/" title="Half-moon beach"><img alt="gokarna 10-2005 109" height="180" src="http://static.flickr.com/28/58161905_89bff07377_m.jpg" style="float: right;" width="240" /></a>After a brief visit to the rocky hillock that forms the center wedge of the Om, we proceeded on, to the Paradise beach we had been told about in the hotel. After an enjoyable little hike of about half-an-hour over the hill at the south end of Om (not recommended for non-trekkers), we were at Half-moon beach (though we thought that was Paradise beach then), a cute little beach cradled with palm-fringed hills all around. Since it's accessible only by foot or by boat, there was not a soul there, but for the old lady offering to sell us bottled water and the old man working on a small paddy patch we set sight on as we descended onto the beach. The water was refreshing, but we didn't risk venturing very deep - the shore fell off much earlier than in Om, and there was not a soul, remember. After cycles of getting wet, sun bathing and climbing rocks, we decided, not unreluctantly, to turn back at about 2:00. We had to go to Kumta to catch our bus back to Bangalore - we couldn't book from Gokarna, so we had to get there asap.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/roop/58161901/" title="Going back to mundane parts of Earth"><img alt="gokarna 10-2005 074" height="180" src="http://static.flickr.com/27/58161901_17e77d3329_m.jpg" style="float: left;" width="240" /></a> One little thing was the test of sacrifice that Jomy passed without a whimper - Shanthi's flimsy footwear of the fashionable kind snapped in Half-moon, and she was asking around for a spare among the limited 'floating' population of the beach (ie. us three). I surreptitiously suggested that she take Jomy's, with the side-effect that Jomy had a slightly less comfortable way back than the rest of us.<br />
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The quick retreat from Half-moon does leave me asking for more. And we never got to Paradise. Unlike textbooks and papers, I'd rather not leave that as an excercise for the reader.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://data.mapchannels.com/embed/thosegokarnabeaches.htm" style="border: solid 1px black; float: right; height: 350px; padding: 0; width: 280px;"></iframe><br />
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<blockquote><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/roop/sets/1421307/">More photos</a> of this trip</blockquote><br />
<blockquote><br />
Dandeli:<br />
Bangalore - Dandeli: Rajahamsa Bus: 8:30pm at Bangalore<br />
Kulgi Nature Camp, Kulgi. [Disrecommended]<br />
<ul><li>About 8kms from Dandeli - take a jeep/tempo/bus from Dandeli bus stand going to Ambika Nagar, get down at Kulgi circle, turn right, walk about 1km</li>
<li>Acco: Rs. 200/- per tent for two</li>
<li>Safari: Rs. 800/- per jeep, Rs. 200/- for guide, Rs. 20/- per head for permit.</li>
<li>Contact: Deputy Conservator of Forests, Dandeli. 08284-31585</li>
</ul><br />
Jungle Lodges and Resorts, Dandeli. 08284-30266<br />
<ul><li> Rs. 1700/- per head for 24hrs for twin-sharing acco, food, hike and a coracle ride.</li>
<li> +Rs. 250/- per head for a half-day trek</li>
</ul><br />
State Lodge, Opp. the bus stand, Dandeli.<br />
<ul><li> Rs. 230/- (?) per double room.</li>
</ul><br />
Gokarna:<br />
Dandeli - Karwar (3 hrs): Karnataka state transport buses: 7:00, 8:30, 9:00 am at Dandeli<br />
Karwar - Angola (? hrs): intermittent buses<br />
Angola - Gokarna (1 hrs): hazaar buses/tempos<br />
Hotel Gokarna International, Gokarna. [Recommended]<br />
Namaste Hotel, Om beach. 100/- per head (or was it 150?)<br />
Bike rental: Felix, +919448321675 [Recommended]<br />
Petrol: The motorbike workshop on the way from Hotel Gokarna to the bus stand sells petrol<br />
Gokarna - Kumta (~20 kms): intermittent buses/tempos. we unnecessarily took an auto (Rs. 200?)<br />
Kumta - Bangalore: Rajahamsa bus: 7:30 at Kumta, later non-Rajahamsa buses available</blockquote><br />
<small>Updated 21/May/2008 to add map widget from <a href="http://www.mapchannels.com/">mapchannels.com</a></small></div>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850977.post-1064344581806019162005-02-05T20:35:00.000+05:302007-05-27T22:43:11.410+05:30CybersquattingI have just one thing to tell you before I start blogging in a big way: <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Wait!</span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span></span><br /><br /><br /><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span>Roopesh Chanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09373979458051224935noreply@blogger.com1