I am pleased to announce the introduction of a Blog at Kamat's Potpourri.

Picture of the day:

Just look at the amazing dress of this nomadic tribal woman! She belongs to a community called the Lambanis.

Over the past year, many patrons have complained to me that we do not have content to adequately represent the Christianity in India. While reminding our disclaimer that Kamat's Potpourri is a personal site -- meaning we do not have to follow the Quota system -- I have uploaded father's Kannada article on Konkani speaking Chrtistians of Karavali.

Usability Critique of The Wimbledon Website :
A very well organized site built by IBM. Color combination is in harmony with the Mecca of Tennis. The live scorecard applet is very functional -- what's up with the 3262 on graphic though? The full-text search, navigation, and the quality of information are all very good.
I wish that they did not restrict the contents to a width of 600 pixels...
Instead of seperating the teasor and the link to the full story, why don't they just hyperlink the story title?

Wimbledon -- an exciting finals is on the cards. (I am rooting for Goran)

The cost of photography has doubled in India over the six months. With the advent of digital photography, you would think that it goes down...

No wonder most people in India have Never Been Photographed.

I am currently reading: The Open URL Specifications

My father writes about his visit to Pakistan.
Kamat Goes to Pakistan

If you have done this before, please drop me a line at

Amazon has The Godfather DVD Collection for pre-ordering.

Remembering the Godly work of William Carey

Now that Microsoft has withdrawn the Smart-Tags, why are we continuing with the Microsoft-Free-Fridays?
Mumble. Mumble. But do check out the Picture of the Week (Stub shown below)

See also: Lessons I learnt from the Microsoft-Free-Fridays protest.

I have added links to durable blog entries.

Some history for the uninitiated:
Goa's Freedom Struggle....except in Kashmir

See: Pre-historic rock paintings of Bhimbetaka

Also: Indian Attire Through the Centuries

For example: see all blogs for July 2001

See also: Anatomy of the Kamat Blogging Engine

First, I'm shocked at the childishness of Adobe's encryption algorithms. Second, since when finding faults in a commercial product and exposing it in a public forum became a crime? A responsible company would have fixed its problems with due apologies to customers....

(I concede that the motives of the Russian progammer are questionable. He didn't provide a workaround to Adobe's shortcoming, just a way to benefit from the shortcoming...)

I have a bigger fear. At this time there are all kinds of companies trying to build digital libraries and such based on Adobe's PDF and e-Book technologies. Imagine all the content that will be in Adobe's formats after ten years. Can we trust this company to contain/represent the entire mankind's knowledge?

The policy makers just don't get the protest.
The protestors don't understand globalization.
Both don't understand what it is like to be without a job.

"In a country where college graduates remain unemployed for decades, what were an illiterate, unskilled man to do?"

Civil Protests do work -- Read lessons from a protest launched against Microsoft called the Microsoft-Free-Fridays.

My mom said with tongue in cheek --"You know why they are recognizing your father; to tell all their customers to be as patient as him!!"

Kamat's New Book Out!
Kamat's magnum opus, "The Return Journey" (in Kannada, Marupayana) is scheduled for release on August 15th at Dharwad. Published by the legendary publishing house of Manohara Grintha Mala, the book is a socio-ecological commentary on post Independent India. Most of father's books go out of print quickly, so reserve your copy by becoming a subscriber to the Manohara Grintha Mala -- which is the only way you can buy the book.

As more and more publishers go un-public (meaning charging for content) I wonder they will reduce the importance of the search engines...because the content is not crawlable or searchable...

Talking about searches, I am playing with the Microsoft's full text searching. I hope to provide a much more relevant PictureSearch results..someday...

We have a new Site-map at Kamat's Potpourri.

Street Vendors of India

In India you can get anything and everything on the streets. A new series of pictures on the roadside hawkers of India.

After Kamat Sr. (my father that is) returned to India in 1966 after a doctorate in the environmental sciences (at ESF), he lobbied to increase environmental awareness and protection in India.
He failed.
But this year, at the invitation of a prominent educationist, Kamat has proposed establishing of a institute for environmental sciences in India. Located in the Karwar-Goa region, it will educate the Government and the people on how to use forests as a true renewable resource.

Also:
• Full Coverage at Rediff
• Full Coverage at IndiaInfo

Adobe's PR Nightmare Continues
I wrote on July 19th: Can we trust this company to contain/represent the entire mankind's knowledge?

Upside Today: Is Adobe a software thug?
A: Yes. "...and is sentenced to a future of mediocrity in the e-publishing business."

Treasures in the attic

Remembering my friend Vithal Mahale and his family's glorious history dating back to 16th century!

The Mahales of Honavar -- A junked copper inscription reveals the genealogy of a once prominent family and explains the root of a local tradition.

Throughout this week, I thought about two women, both originals but little else common between them, who passed away.

The woman who brought down an American President -- Read the life story of Katharine Graham (1917-2001). It is not only a story of courage, but also of character, wisdom, leadership, and of inspiration. Goodbye Mrs. Graham, and thank you very much!

The Bandit Queen -- The life of Phoolen Devi is not for the weak hearted, or for those who do not understand caste and poverty. An illiterate, and a victim of abuse, she took to revenge, mass murder, and politics (ya! she was an elected member of the Indian parliment!). Is being illiterate same as being condemned?

More Q&A on the women of India.

There's panic and hoopla about the Code Red worm, but no one can tell me how I can tell if I am infected.

Microsoft says: Shut up and apply this patch.
NIPC Says: You must act!
ZDNet says: It is a major problem

Meanwhile I got this. It looks like a worm, but is it Code Red?

I say: UNIX rules for webhosting (kamat.com runs on UNIX)
See: Choosing a Web Hosting Platform

Mourning the Death of a Kamat Model

Gajanan Honavar, a patron from Gokarn, has written that the person in one of Kamat's celebrated photographs, Devate Bhattaru has passed away.

Like so many others, I wonder if this is the only photograph of his life...