Re: [silk] FoU v3
Venky wrote: [ on 10:36 AM 8/23/2007 ] Charles has kindly offered his place, this Saturday evening. Who's up for an impromptu evening of food and drink and chatter? Cool! I'm in. Seven of us met up at Charles' place yesterday for the abovementioned food, drink, and chatter. Did I mention food? Charles had laid out quite a spread, starting with Prosciutto, along with fresh figs, watermelon and cheese for nibbles. Dinner was a pasta dish (farfalle with goat cheese and nuts); as well as Chinese - spicy chicken in black bean sauce, and stir fried pork with rice. Various beverages were also consumed, with Venky driving me back home safely. One could safely say that a good time was had by all. :) As far as this year's FoU is concerned - It is begining to look like the 1st week of December (or thereabouts) is it - almost all the non-locals, for various reasons, would probably be able to make it to Bangalore in that timeframe. Sadly, Charles and Debbie would have reverted to being non-locals by then. No clarity on the venue yet. Going back to Fireflies was one suggestion, and Ayurvedagram was another. Speaking for myself, I'm venue-agnostic. Any thoughts from others? Udhay -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] Pakistan at 60 from Rafiq Dossani
On Sunday 26 Aug 2007 11:21 pm, Ingrid wrote: My experience ''at the grassroots certainly confirms that caste (and gender) biases are a significant barrier to development. I've just returned from southern Tamil Nadu where caste atrocities are a daily affair. Have witnessed much the same in Maharashtra and UP. And have no reason to believe it's any different elsewhere. Beyond that, however, is the fact that we simply haven't achieved democracy beyond the political kind. And continue to put faith in technocratic solutions of the government scheme, microcredit, mid-day-meal variety as a substitute. Rural and tribal India continue to be our inconvenient truth - one we would wish away if we could as we'd like to urban slums, infanticide and the like. True. I forgot to mention gender issues - which is possibly a Freudian slip indicating a bias of ignorance in my own mind. Caste and gender issues have a vise like grip on Indian society. With caste having everything to do with family, power and inheritance, it's no wonder that control of the female becomes a convenient imperative. The social structure in India seems to have evolved into an extremely robust, resilient and long lasting animal. While we may lament the inadequacy of technocratic solutions in changing things, it may be worth recalling that a millennium of influences like egalitarian Islam and British rule of law have done nothing to change the state of affairs despite the fact that all these issues were recognized and documented by Islamic writers and later by the British. What Islam and the British did were again superficial, and did not reach the heart. Islamic leaders upset the existing power structures of the high-caste elite and imagined that this would somehow free and empower those that were lower down the pecking order. The British, for all their dispassionate contempt for native pecking orders, actually empowered the upper castes further and did not touch anyone else apart from a few cosmetic and much tomtommed outlawing of thuggee and suttee Surely, the failure of three different top-down systems over a thousand years in removing the most indolent caste and gender issues, and related social ills must offer some lessons to us? Perhaps top-down imposition of something or the other is is never going to work. Neither is the removal of caste barriers near the top (by mixing and churning), because caste layers exist independently at every depth. Mixing at the top has no effect on the middle or bottom. Nobody has managed to cause mixing at the bottom. How does one go about doing that? What is it about the system that makes it so robust? Does one have to forcibly mix and try and change a robust existing system to achieve ends like better literacy, maternal and infant mortality? Can we not have reserved schools and reserved hospitals for adivasis for example. shiv
Re: [silk] Re-architecting the music business
Lawnun wrote: [ on 08:58 PM 8/14/2007 ] The idea of record-label free distribution has been done at least since 1997 [1], to varying [2] degrees [3] of success. [4] In the States, it was quite a big deal when the rock group Clap Your Hands Say Yeah sold over 200k albums on iTunes, sans a recording deal: Another data point, from Brit newcomers Enter Shikari: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003566805 U.K.'s Enter Shikari Scores Without Label April 03, 2007, 4:10 PM ET Mark Sutherland and Lars Brandle, London Rock outfit Enter Shikari is claiming victory over the label system after crashing the U.K. top five with its self-released debut album. Take to the Skies, which the band put out on its own Ambush Reality imprint, entered the Official U.K. Charts Co.'s albums survey March 25 at No. 4 with sales of 28,000 units, marking the first significant chart success for a new act operating outside the traditional label system. This vindicates our decision to do things ourselves, band manager Ian Johnson of London-based Mythophonic Management says. He notes that the band turned down several offers of six-figure advances from major labels in favor of remaining independent. There's not a major label out there that could have sold us more records in week one, Johnson says. It's very easy for majors to throw money at something and smother it, but we actually spent less than we originally budgeted for. Outside of rock press ads, Enter Shikari relied upon its fanatical fan base to push the record into the charts. The St. Albans, England-based band, which fuses metal with hardcore techno, attracted considerable media attention last year when it sold out London's legendary 1,600-capacity Astoria -- the only unsigned band to do so, after the Darkness -- on the back of its MySpace popularity, where it lists more than 100,000 friends. snip -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] Pakistan at 60 from Rafiq Dossani
On 8/27/07, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Perhaps top-down imposition of something or the other is is never going to work. Neither is the removal of caste barriers near the top (by mixing and churning), because caste layers exist independently at every depth. Mixing at the top has no effect on the middle or bottom. Nobody has managed to cause mixing at the bottom. How does one go about doing that? What is it about the system that makes it so robust? Does one have to forcibly mix and try and change a robust existing system to achieve ends like better literacy, maternal and infant mortality? Can we not have reserved schools and reserved hospitals for adivasis for example. I think reservations (Indian jargon for affirmative action) has done more to perpetuate caste differences than anything else in modern India. It gives an economic incentive to the beneficiaries to emphasize their caste and it gives other castes more reasons to hate the beneficiaries. The recent riots in Rajasthan where one caste was demanding benefits and another caste (of approximately the same social status) opposing the demand is a case in point. If reservations were based purely on economic status, I imagine that poverty alleviation programs and better education would do a lot to reduce the importance of caste. -- b
[silk] Illustrated Coffee Guide
http://www.lokeshdhakar.com/2007/08/20/an-illustrated-coffee-guide/ I wish all the baristas in the cafes in the US educated themselves at least minimally from this site. It might not be a gourmet coffee drinker's definitions, but surely better than what most of the baristas dole out. Many of them just throw some espresso after they put the milk/foam into the cup. I have so far been impressed with the baristas in the cafes in Bangalore. Most of them know how to prepare a good latte or cappucino. Venki - the original
Re: [silk] Illustrated Coffee Guide
On 8/27/07, Venkat Mangudi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have so far been impressed with the baristas in the cafes in Bangalore. Most of them know how to prepare a good latte or cappucino. Including the ones who warn you that an espresso is black coffee? And the ones who use tepid milk? My pet peeves. What do you reckon is the best coffee chain in Bangalore/India. Or perhaps even the best stand alone coffee bar in Bangalore? In other news, Mocha [1] is opening a branch on Lavelle Road, right next to Javacity. [1] http://www.mocha.co.in/home.html
[silk] In BLR for a week
I'm going to be around from tomorrow till the 4th (weekend excluded - away at a training session). Udhay has confirmed that he'll be ready for lunch or dinner, any one else? Cheeni
Re: [silk] Illustrated Coffee Guide
I'll second Gautam. Cafes in Bangalore and Chennai like to state the obvious. Double shot espresso, saar? It's only black coffee saar... Sir, Espresso will be a little bitter saar... C On 27/08/07, Gautam John [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 8/27/07, Venkat Mangudi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have so far been impressed with the baristas in the cafes in Bangalore. Most of them know how to prepare a good latte or cappucino. Including the ones who warn you that an espresso is black coffee? And the ones who use tepid milk? My pet peeves. What do you reckon is the best coffee chain in Bangalore/India. Or perhaps even the best stand alone coffee bar in Bangalore? In other news, Mocha [1] is opening a branch on Lavelle Road, right next to Javacity. [1] http://www.mocha.co.in/home.html -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravages http://www.selectiveamnesia.org/ http://chennai.metblogs.com +91-9884467463
Re: [silk] Illustrated Coffee Guide
Gautam John wrote: Including the ones who warn you that an espresso is black coffee? And the ones who use tepid milk? My pet peeves. Gautam, I was in Delhi last week for my brother's wedding and happened to drop into a Barista outlet to grab a coffee. And when I ordered a cappuccino, I was asked if I wanted it strong or light, sir? It's the first time somebody has asked me that in a Barista. Must be a Delhi thing. In other news, Mocha [1] is opening a branch on Lavelle Road, right next to Javacity. Javacity sucks monkey balls, so this is welcome. If only the Mocha waiters didn't wear those silly Alladin-esque hats... -- * Madhu Menon Shiok Far-eastern Cuisine Indiranagar, Bangalore Visit us @ http://www.shiokfood.com Phone: (080) 4116 1800 My food photos: http://flickr.com/photos/themadman
Re: [silk] Illustrated Coffee Guide
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan wrote [at 11:02 AM 8/27/2007] : I'll second Gautam. Cafes in Bangalore and Chennai like to state the obvious. Double shot espresso, saar? It's only black coffee saar... Sir, Espresso will be a little bitter saar... I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. They may well have been burnt before by customers having ordered (say) espresso without knowing exactly what it was. Udhay -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
