Some Screen shots from today's show. Part 2 will be broadcast tomorrow.

Dr. Jyotsna Kamat Introducing the Tradition of Wedding Songs

Ovis being Sung by Women at a Wedding

This is the amazing story of one thing leading to another thing. First there was the first of its kind (Konkani book using two different scripts) book documenting an oral tradition. It was rendered into an audio-cassette which was a sell-out. Then a CD was released. Visuals were recorded during a wedding and now this broadcast.

If Konkani weddings will re-feature these songs, Amma and Basti Vaman Shenoy should get much of the credit for restoring a waning tradition.

© Vikas Kamat

Muslim Tourist at a Jaina Monument
Jain center of Karkala, 2006

© Vikas Kamat

Signboard announcing a spiritual event
In the background is a statue of Queen Chennamma

© Vikas Kamat

Signboard announcing a shopping event with Sania Mirza
I thought that the promo for an shopping event that lasted only an hour was too much.

Nothing new about the signboards. I just thought that signboards were of a durable nature -- helpful to promote a campaign or a brand...

It is four years since father passed away. My mother established Kamat Memorial Trust to perpetuate his memory and the foundation has taken up many literary and cultural programs in the last four years, primarily focusing on young children.

This year, we expand the activities to include adults by opening a library and a community hall in the town of Honavar. Shown below is the picture of the almost complete building.

© Vikas Kamat

Kamat Memorial Center, Laxminarayan Nagar, Honavar

Some of the activities planned at the center are Yoga classes, art exhibitions, and musical programs.

The most interesting news from Olympics is tangential. Like this South Korean man recognizing his son and the drug and car scandal of Austrian Olympians.

Trans Buddha: Bush on Global Warming (Humor)

I have always used Google even to search MSDN. All I do is add a keyword MSDN to my keyword search.
Example: GetElementsByTagName msdn
Basically what I am doing is obtaining Microsoft's documentation for an API or method by adding "msdn".

Obviously many people are using this trick. Of late, I am surprised by the number of people who specify "kamat" as a keyword in their searches.
Example: kamat Gandhi or kamat kamasutra or kamat women

On a related note, I use Google even to search our own site. Yet, I am very surprised by the number of people who use our search engine. For years in succession, the search engine has been our most popular page. I have no idea why.

Update: I might not know, but the usability guru Nielsen does (my thanks to the patron who sent the scan)

Upon further reflection, these are my thoughts on why people use our search engine so much:

• Location of the search box. It is on every page
• It is very fast search, and the search results are of high quality
• It is a fallacy that one Google is enough for the web. I think there is room for Google Search and there is room for Kamat Search.