Sudipta's blog pot

A poem by Neruda...

2006-04-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

A Dog Has Died

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he'd keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.

So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.

-Pablo Neruda
Translated, from the Spanish, by Alfred Yankauer

Fall of a Trojan.

2006-03-16T12:45:00.000-08:00

I read this on Bruce Schneier's blog today. Amusing & a little disconcerting at the same time:
http://tinyurl.com/qb4a5

I have never really given serious thought to the security of my IM conversations. The most popular messenger services like Yahoo! & MSN transmit messages in clear-text over the internet but, I take comfort in the fact that my messages are important to no one. With IMs now becoming as integral to our lives as they are, it is perhaps not wrong to be a little paranoid about security.
There are plenty of secure IM systems out there. Trillian has SecureIM & GAIM has an encryption plug-in that provides encryption & authentication using PGP. For the even more paranoid, Off-the-record messaging (OTR) offers "perfect forward security" meaning unauthorized users are unable to unlock multiple conversations with just one key since the encryption key is discarded at the end of each conversation. OTR is built-in with Adium for OS-X & plug-ins are available for GAIM & Trillian.
All said & done, even though you have a secure system, there is perhaps no safeguard against pranks like these.

Interestingly one of the comments on Bruce's blog says "If the player is good enough, they'll be able to tune it out" of Gabe who was visibly affected by the prank & put up a failing performance.
This reminded me of the 1999 cricket world cup & a certain maestro of the cricketing world who came out in the field right after the death of his father & went on to hit a magnificient century. It is ofcourse unfair to expect such strength of steel from most of us who are mere humans after all. Nonetheless, it is something to aspire for and like a true Trojan would say, Fight on!

Curb your enthusiasm.

2006-03-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

I was reading an interesting article about global communication in business & how Americans in general value enthusiasm in speech.

Enthusiasm in speech is a good thing. I quite like being greeted by the excited 'good morning!!!'s and 'so good to see you!!!'s when I walk in to work every other day. I like the two minute 'how have you been!!' exchanges with the friendly water delivery guy whenever he catches me. It feels great to hear a cheerful & eager voice at the other end of the line when I have to call up customer support with a problem. That kind of enthusiasm is infectious & perks you up. Unless you're in one of those hacked off moods & would rather steer clear from all of civilization.

But, too much of exuberance of speech can sometimes be unsettling. There are some who go totally overboard with it. For instance, after the fifth 'you're awesome' from one of the fellas at dance class what was I supposed to say? Or when every question I ask is met with a 'good question!' I don't quite trust the guy anymore right?

While it may not matter too much if my dance partner thinks I'm awesome or not, when my boss says 'great job!' I want to believe that its true. Sometimes its a tough decision to skip that pinch of salt & take things at face value!

Say goodbye

2006-02-19T11:13:00.000-08:00

The other day I attended a farewell party for one of the computer consultants at work. He was moving on to a new job after having served at the library for three and a half years. Perhaps not a long period but, with the kind of amazingly supportive, warm & considerate people that he had for bosses & co-workers during the time, i'm sure goodbye mustn't have come easily to him. His parting email reminded me of my first job where it was almost tradition to send long & sentimental goodbye emails. There came a time when the mails arrived at almost predictable frequency. We would often joke about how we could make an automated bye-bye email generator with the all high frequency keywords just to make life easier for future departers.

When my turn came & I looked back in retrospect, I realised how attached I had grown to my workplace. There is so much that you live through with people at work. Challenges met, goals fulfilled and adversities overcome with joint effort. Not to forget the friendships, fun, gossip & good times that are shared. So yes, parting is difficult because although you know that better things lay ahead for you, you are leaving the comfort zone of a familiar teritorry & stepping out into the unacquainted & perhaps uncertain future. Seldom do we get to express our gratitude to our co-workers. Sometimes goodbye is the only ocassion when we do. Ironic but true!

Epicurious?

2006-02-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

Nothing beats the contentment of having a well cooked meal or the pleasure of serving someone who appreciates good cooking. This is a popular bengali recipe for chana dal or "cholar dal" as it is known in bengali.

Chana Dal (bengal gram) : 1/2 cup
Ghee (Indian clarified butter): 2 tsps
Sliced dry coconut pieces: 8-10
Dried red pepper: 1
Cumin Seeds: 1/2 tsp
Chopped red tomatoes: 1

Pre-cook the dal by boiling it with half a teaspoon of turmeric powder. Chana dal or Bengal gram takes longer than most other lentils to cook. If you're using an Indian style pressure cooker, 10 minutes on the burner after the steam vents out is a good measure. In a saucepan: Add ghee. Toss in the pepper, cumin & sliced coconut pieces when the ghee is sufficiently hot. Next, add the tomatoes & saute till it becomes pulpy. This adds colour to the dish. Put in the pre-cooked dal & 2 tsp of salt. Bring it to a boil. Add a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar for that finishing touch.
If the sight of the simmering yellow & red doesnt whet your appetite, the heavenly aroma certainly will! Serve with steamed rice and say a little thanks for the small pleasures in life!

Deja Vu

2006-02-01T00:46:00.000-08:00

Do we all associate certain smells & sounds with certain people or experiences? Does a certain peice of music bring back memories of a goneby moment? Does a particular smell transport you to a different time & place? It happens to me a lot & very often at the most unexpected places. A whiff of a certain perfume in the mall and I can almost smell the person linked with the memory of that scent yet, I cannot put my finger on it. A forgotten but cherished number playing at the restaurant brings in a fleeting visual of another time in the past, makes me feel as if the melody was woven into the picture of that point in time. sometimes the imagery is vivid and at others somewhat undecipherable. The same is true with the sensations of the palate too. A characteristic flavour brings back the awareness of a particular time, a certain peice of conversation or a specific person tied to perception of that taste.
It is amazing how the human brain records & stores experiences. It is amazing how much it accumulates over time. We feel that the conspicuous ones are the ones that stick. But, once in a while it will surprise you how the seemingly unremarkable memories are hived away only to be unearthed at such unexpected stimuli.

Gotcha!

2006-01-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

Letting iTunes play the shuffle DJ today was a good idea as it seemed to pick just the right kind of songs for my mood. One long forgotten number was 'In the air tonight' by Phil Collins. I love this song for its soothing melody but, always thought that the lyrics were somewhat disturbing. Legend has it that Phil Collins wrote this song after he witnessed the tragic drowning of his friend who was being watched by another guy as he drowned but, not offered any help.
I tried hard to recollect where I got this titbit of history from but failed. To my disappointment, it turned out that the above story is nothing but another myth propagated by the hoaxsters of the internet.

Sometimes it is indeed hard to tell fact from fiction. But most times it is not!

I have often wondered what it is that prompts people to mass mail faux messages that are so blatantly ridiculous.
Is it fear? What if you really get hit by a flying saucer & are sent to hell for not making your 50 friends scroll down a 100 lines to make a wish?
Or maybe sheer kindness for that sick child with the missing spleen who will be helped through secret corporate affiliations linked with every forward.
Perhaps its the need to do their bit for the crusade aganst those evil messenger companies which will shut service just because nobody cared to forward those chain mails.

Other than being plain irksome chain emails can turn out to be a serious nuisance when they rob the credibility of a genuine message. For instance, I know a friend who was seeking information & advice on his wife's ailment & decided to send an email to everyone in his contact list with the aim to reach out to as many people as he could for help. Sadly, there were several people who were unaware of his situation & disregarded his plea for help as just another cry for wolf.

Luckily, we have resources like Snopes & Hoaxbusters that are a great place to check up facts & help save some pain for friends & some precious bandwidth on the internet.

The truth about cats & dogs

2006-01-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

If you ever had a feline or canine friend, you would know-

The dog doctrine
We're warm, eager to please & affectionate to one and all. We're always up for action, restless & raring to go. Looks are secondary to us, we win people over by our unrelenting interest in them. We are not snobs, we can beg for attention & in times of crises, we take care of those around us.

The cat culture
We're cool, reserved & extremely sparing in our affections. Action & activity? we feel its best to lie down & let such feeling pass. Looks are important to us & thus we groom several times a day, lest we fall below our standards. We donot cry for attention, feigning disinterest works well for us. When troubles strike, we just sneak out the back door.

Make your pink sticker stick

2006-01-12T20:10:00.000-08:00

Would you like to save lives through organ & tissue donation after your death? "Your organ donation could save the lives of eight people, and your tissue donation enhance the lives of another 50" If you wish to be a donor, your wishes will be honored after you. You only have to let your intent known.

Underneath that is the Alcohol impairment chart showing the risk percentage of having a road accident in relation to the Blood Alcohol Content.

My new California drivers license was attached to the back of this message along with a pink sticker meant to be put on the license as a sign of willingness to become a donor.

I cannot think of a better place to stick my pink dot. I donot think I would have taken the pink sticker more seriously if it had come from anywhere else.

This reminded me of the quote from spiderman- "With great power comes great responsibility"
And, it made me appreciate the thoughtfulness of the DMV.

Choking Potatoes

2006-01-11T18:33:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered what it is with the quirky band names? It turns out that not all of the names are totally mindless after all & there are interesting stories behind some. For instance one story behind the Finger Eleven name goes, after the idea of how someone can be shaken up by showing a 'eleven' sign formed by using the two middle fingers. Yes, I looked them up after I was really intrigued by what the name meant.

There are band names that have colours in them. I can think of the following off the top of my head:

Blue
Black Sabbath
Green Day
Yellow card
Code Red
Maroon 5
Pink floyd
Deep Purple

Some band names have numbers:
3 doors down
Matchbox 20
50 cents
U 2
UB 40
9 inch nails

And some are food stuffs!
Black eyed peas
the cranberries
red hot chilli peppers
smashing pumpkins
Limp bizkit

Food stuff gone bad? Blame it to the peanut butter conspiracy

Blogonomy

2006-01-10T00:19:00.000-08:00

After reading through a multitude of blogs, I can think of every blog as belonging to a certain blog genre. Here is my taxonomy of blogs. Whats your blog genre?

Emotional:
These are blogs which rely heavily on the writers feelings or emotions about certain topics or events. Most of the blogs in this class emphasize on the writers reaction & feelings more than the facts of the experiences themselves. These blogs are inherently interesting since they tend to make the readers evaluate their own thoughts and emotions in a similar circumstance.

Factual:
These are blogs that appear to be stating facts as they appear. The writer expresses very little of his emotions or feelings about the topic, tends to be more objective & lays more emphasis on describing events or situations as they stand. These blogs are interesting when the topics have relevance to people other than just the author and also reveal some unusual or uncommon aspect of it.

Arty:
These are blogs which are wordy & read like literary pieces rather than just random diary entries. Typically these blogs are a channel of literary expression for the author. Every topic will be marked by elaborate rhetoric and elaborated with decorative details. They make for very good reading if they donot digress from the main subject of attention & if they do, then they manage to hold your attention inspite of it.

Controlled:
These blogs read like self-concious diary entries, they will mostly deal with frivolous events that hold relevance only to the writers life and present very little of the writers perspective. These blogs make for very uninteresting reading most of the time but can be extremely entertaining when served with very liberal helpings of good humor.

Unabashed:
Unrestrained, opinionated and loads of whackiness best describes this genre. Most blogs in this class are anon blogs and exploit to the fullest extent, the freedom that only anonymity can afford. These can be extremely exciting, very unusual and highly entertaining.

I think a persons writing style certainly gives some clues into his personality. I don't know what kind of a writer I am but, it'd be interesting to see if i could be slotted into one of the classes above!