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Computing, Libraries, Tennis, India & other interests of Vikas Kamat
Here's a picture of TinTin taken today. Has she grown! We heard from TinTin's brother Einstein today. He has grown very cute as well. I want to host a party one day bringing together as many of TinTin's family together as possible. That'll be such a blast! I am looking around for a new host, because my current host is saying that in order to upgrade my plan, I'd have to reload all my content! I told them, if I have to reload all my 10,000 pictures, why would I want to stay with the same company, paying 1996 hosting fees? Makes no sense to me. Anyway, I am considering getting a dedicated server from RackShack or ServerBeach, or to go with a shared hosting. The biggest problem is the license for Microsoft SQL Server, on which our Blogging Engine is built. I cannot use the Microsoft Database Engine (MSDE), because it does not support full-text. What a pain. I should have written my software with MySQL/PHP. My sincere thanks to Directi.com, a webhosting company, who have volunteered to host Kamat.org free of cost! But I cannot accept the offer, because, as I told them, Payment is a form of control that is fundamental in a customer-vendor relationship. Anyway, till I figure out something, I won't update.. some functionality (greeting cards, blog archives, PictureSearch) might get broken during the migration...
Govind Pailoor is inviting friends of Gandhi to Jog in Dandi with him on Nov 28th. It will be a symbolic re-enactment of Gandhi's famous Salt March. SlowRead is a new website started by Raj Karamchedu for economic and social entrepreneurial opportunities in India. You've heard of the Blog Mela (Blog festival). Now there's Blog Kela (blog festivals gone bad) In a strange co-incidence, the new release of Matrix (Revolutions, which I saw yesterday- three stars) has resulted in increased traffic on our webservers. One of course is a search for Sati (meaning virtuous woman) lands people in our section on the Sati System. Sati is the name of a Indian girl in the movie. The other search is for Navaras which lists the nine-juices of poetics, which has inspired a track in the movie.
Presenting the latest selections of Faces of India from Kamat Photo Archive.
(from my mother via telephone) Violence against Hindi-speaking people has broken out in Assam state. The victims are mostly refugees from the state of Bihar, and are accused of taking away local jobs. The artist I wrote about the other day (see: House is full of kids, yard is full
of shit) came from a family of distinguished artisans and temple-builders (his
last name was "Templemaker"). He
himself was a skilled sculptor and painter. Unfortunately he� lived in a
time when there was no patronage for his skills. The ivory was banned, and the
sandle-wood (two of the base materials for his sculpting) was rarely available.
He made a living by preparing ephemeral wedding decorations, and personalizing
umbrellas (writing names on them) and automobiles. © Vikas Kamat He had many children. One of the daughters was in my class. She did not get
through IV grade and became a classmate of my younger cousin, then she failed
again, and became a
classmate of yet another cousin during the VII grade, and again a classmate of
yet another cousin who is five years younger than me, during her IX grade, and
hence was the subject of many hilarious jokes. Then I left Honavar, studied engineering, joined a computer company, and once
again had the opportunity to visit Honavar under a Rural Development Project. I
wanted a sign made for our office, and decided to call upon our artist. I was
told that due to debts and financial poverty, he'd had to sell his shop and now
worked from home. So I went to his house. I was happy to see the artist and greeted him -- he was a role model for me
when I was growing, when I used to watch him make fantastic carvings from dry
wood -- although he didn't recognize me in my expensive clothes. He had become
old beyond his age. He then pointed me to the adjacent� living room� and said "they are in there". Two of his daughters were sitting inside the room and one of them, my former
classmate, approached me. She recognized me, and asked me to come in. I quite
didn't understand, and told her I wanted a sign painted, she then referred me
back to her father and said a sweet tone to visit her when I was free. My family members then told me what had occurred of the artist's family. The
girls had taken to prostitution. It made me sick to my stomach that a girl who
had studied with me had had to go to the flesh business, and whose father I had
so looked up to, knew about it and possibly was now acting as a pimp. As I have grown older (this incident occurred ten years ago), I have nothing
but sympathy for the artist and his family. Systematic destruction of forest
resources denied him the only means of livelihood. There was no role for an
artist in a society where the temples were being built only illegally, and plastic and
manufactured art was gaining popularity. What could he have done? What else
could his daughter have done? You know, poverty is the worst form of violence. See Also: G.B.Joshi Memorial Trust, Dharwad is organizing a "G. B. Joshi Memorial Theater Festival" in Dharwad from December 26 to December 31, 2003 at 'Srujana' Dr. Annajirao Sirur Auditorium. Most of Joshi's famous plays will be staged by different amateur troupes. 'Sattavara Neralu' directed by late B. V. Karanth, which has been performed more than two hundred times by Benaka, Bangalore will be an additional attraction of the festival. T. S. Nagabharana and Sunder Raj will be acting in the play. The following other plays will be performed 1) Kadadida Neeru 2) Jadabharatana Kanasugalu 3) Parimaladavaru 4) Aa Ooru Ee Ooru 5) Nane Bijjala. I am adding a new page to mark the occasion. See Also:
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