Friday, June 28, 2013

Per Capita Nautanki Space

When I visit this lovely garden, morning or evening, I find a lot of people doing crazy things (no sexual innuendoes here) in the name of exercising. Perhaps when they see me running endlessly in circles for hours or doing some kind of stretching, they might amuse themselves thinking I am such a crazy guy.

Which brings me to this point. The landscape of this garden is quite wonderful. It offers relatively free and solitudinal and less-publicly-observable spaces to visitors. Guess it's this nature of the garden that prompts people to do crazy things and stay happy and feel healthy.

One of the casualties of modern town-planning is the Per Capita Nautanki Space (PCNS). If somehow that's given more conscious attention in planning, we might do a world of good to people's health.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

47% graduates in India unemployable for any job

From Hindustan Times, Mumbai Edition, 25th June 2013
This little piece appeared in a little column which could easily have been missed (and in fact, would have been missed by plenty of readers, if not majority).

Generations must have passed through years and years of education without leaving a trace of any worthwhile work. Incredible! How does a country change? How does a country choose the right people to rule itself? How does a country make sense of anything important at the macro level? How does a country take constructive collective action at all?

2 ways come to mind promptly: 1) finding some space for such news on the main page so long as people still habitually read newspapers in the morning, and 2) allotting greater space to such news, at least greater than the coaching class ads that boast of top-rankers in this exam or that exam.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

New Duck

I have imagined something. New Duck. Now that I mention it, can you imagine the New Duck? How does it look?

Now that we are both aware of the New Duck and we both imagine the New Duck, what are the chances that the New Duck that resides in both our heads is the same?

Sure, both imagine with the same name New Duck but what are the chances that we are imagining the same New Duck?

Between two individuals who want to interact with each other, words are what are used to convey and understand imaginations, emotions, expectations, manners, behavior et al. And now you see how difficult it is to be specific?

Being specific is a skill. And it is difficult. Just plain difficult. Being able to make imagination understandable through words is a mighty skill. If anyone has mastered it, hire that person without a moment's delay.

This is a part of the reason why business plans/advices/consultation seem ridiculous. It might not be a matter of bad intention on the part of the evaluator. And it might not either be a matter of bad business plan either.

If New Duck is a product, do enough to produce a prototype like object. New Duck will be far better understandable.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

@Erwan_Le_Corre

You're not a patriot just for waving that little flag, but when you make yourself healthy and strong for your country. Freedom is exercised.

Elements of persuasion

I find the following in the case of a book. I am talking about stuff found on the physical book.
  1. Title
  2. Author's Name
  3. Visual on the Jacket
  4. Appreciation/Endorsement Blurbs
  5. Award/Number of Copies Sold/Motion Picture Adaptation
  6. Story Idea
  7. Storyline
  8. Price
  9. Thickness of the Book
  10. Publishing House
  11. Material/Binding Quality
  12. Mini-reviews inside on the first few pages
  13. Manner of Indexing
  14. Titles filling up the Index
  15. Author's Pic
  16. Author's Bio

Friday, June 7, 2013

Platform, website, presence

As more people on the web have come to know of Mississippi Earrings, we face these questions more frequently now:
  • Are your products available on the net?
  • Do you have an online shop?
  • Are you selling online?
  • Why don't you sell online?
  • Why don't you set up an online platform?
  • Do you have a website?
  • What's the name of your website?
All questions look apparently the same. But if one were to get very specific about the meanings of each of the words in these questions, one would have to make very very deliberate and different choices than the answers that some questions lead one into.

Like for example, for the first question, I would have to answer, "Yes, designs are available on the net."

For the second, third and fourth questions, "No, we don't have an online shop. But we try to sell through the online medium and we do makes sales through the online medium."

Fifth question. Online platform to sell? More important is online presence so that friends and others remember us when they are buying jewelry. Platform is infrastructure, not an aid to memory unfortunately.

Sixth, yes we have a blog. Website still doesn't fit into our scheme of things. Can you see the website out there standing tall, a landmark, among the nondescript buildings? :)

Seventh, what's the name of our earrings?

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Architecture of Confusion

There's this strange being which creeps into some deep recesses of our skulls. Apparently, it is observed to make its way out through the precise hole through which human beings take in their sources of energy and survival. 

But before making its way out, it has to make its way in. So it uses two orifices on the sides of the human face and two glassy balls which see and reflect this being.

This being has enchanted so many intellectuals and fools alike. And supposedly is responsible for development of civilization too. In democracy it's considered to be the biggest part of freedom of speech.

It feels like it has truly found its home in the human skull. But on other days, it feels like human beings have truly found their homes in this being.

Yesterday morning, until I came back from the garden, I felt like life's really good. I light up my mobile phone and this being flips my feeling so thoroughly to make me feel like life's pretty ridiculous too.

But then the forms that this being manifests in is staggering. And through those forms, it makes the human beings feel like they've created amazing structures. But perhaps if a way were to be found out to reach into those deep recesses where this being resides, we might find it to be laughing out playfully watching us use its structures all over the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the one and only one, Mr. Worrrrrrrrrdemon!