DISQUS

I know there is a reason I sometimes just shut up and let people argue amongst themselves. :)


@ Cowardly Lioness and Rational Human - I belie one should be able to paint a naked Saraswathi and a naked Mohammad. I find neither distasteful. But even if I do, tough crap.I think the issue is that Chandramohan is in India and he's being punished, so people have taken up his cause . I certainly hope that they would do the same if he had painted Mohammad.

@ Hypocrite Hater - I don't know why Hussain doesn't paint the Prophet and his wives. I just know that he has done more to promote Hindu gods than many Hindu painters. If some of them are nude, so be it. As you can see, I posted one of his "offensive" images here as a show of support. I think punishing a ninety year old man and not allowing him to come back home (for fear of his life) is ridiculous.

@ Yuva - yeah, sadly the insane are mostly in government.

@ Nilu - You'll have to ask them if you can borrow them. The question is why do you want them? They probably don't know that you will borrow them only to make fun of them. Poor things...

@ Cranky Dude - That's what happens when you say "no" to mangoes three days in a row!! Letting an Alphonso go bad is a sin - whoever ate them saved you from that horrible burden. You should go thank her immediately! :)

@ Anand - thank you! And yes, it is a lovely place!

@ Abi - Yes, it does feel like a long time. Fortunately, in the early days, I used to post just once a week, so it was much more manageable with an insane job.

@ Confused - thanks :) And don't worry - I never thought you were imaginary!

@ Indira - ah, you see, the blog is but one component of the strategy. The key is your own attitude. The blog can help reinforce the positives, if you are open to them. And it is entirely possible that Chennai could take longer!

@ oil portraits of NY - I have no clue how long I'll continue blogging. I take it a day at a time. When I stop enjoying it, I will stop blogging. Not all my posts are about places, although a few are. Thanks for the suggestion, I will try to add more pictures going forward.

@ Amit - Good idea - should check. But we are the typical Manhattan couple - no car! But still, if the NJ stores have it, it might be worth renting one!

@ Rum and Coked - The mango is the reward for enduring the heat!

@ Indira - Ah, yes, the Himampasand comes in second for me. And the two slices and the middle was exactly how I consumed the Alphonsos!!

@ Tabula Rasa - Actually it says "Heaven is... at Almost As Good As Chocolate". I wish! Hilarious - thanks for pointing it out :D


@ Anand - Jackson Heights - great idea! After 12 years, I'm willing to pay for some Alphonso goodness!

@ Megha - I wish for you an Alphonso summer :)

@ Rathi - Office buildings should have motion sensors that turn the lights off after a certain time in the evening. We had those in California. And those buildings that don't have them should be fined.

Hmm... I think Prithvi is right that I am in a very activist mood!

And since one of your young family members will be a new citizen of the city, maybe one of your older family members who works in one such energy guzzling building can promise to turn off the lights in his office as a starting point :)


@ Prithvi - You know, I think Switzerland has exactly such a rule! Traffic tickets are a % of income. I know a guy who got a ticket there and he had to figure out if his recently exercised options counted in the income number (and if they did, he would have to add a few zeros to the ticket!)

@ TGFI and JSK - will do. As Michael said in his comments, just the tree planting alone is probably worth the $36 dollars!

@ Megha - It seems to be. It is new enough that I haven't seen anyone talk about how effective it is, but I am rooting for them. This is one of those life-changing things if it works. Will keep you posted.

@AjiNIMC - Great to hear. FYI, just to be clear, this is for real mail/snail mail, not email.

Any time! This blog is all about making the readers feel good ;)

@ Krishna - thanks for the tip. Eek, that's scary. I didn't dismantle the inner casing though - the wires are the ones that connect to wires in the wall and they were outside the core casing. I hope I am safe!

@ Saurabh - I am sure that was meant as a compliment! As in "you look so wise"... :)

@ Megha - Yep. It was truly a pain to schlep there and back - especially with none of the usual entertainment to look forward to!

@ Talky - Yeah. As an organization, one would think that for the biggest event on the calendar, the ICC would have put more effort and thought into it. Nope. Actually, that's the issue - it felt like it was pulled together in a few weeks instead of a few years.

@ Libertarian - Yes, I hope the free market works here. If a company performed this badly, a competitor would eat its lunch. Time for the ICC and BCCI to feel some pain in order for them to make some changes. Otherwise we'll continue to hear the platitudes about change while nothing happens. Like the latest BCCI selection committee resutls - a lot of "look over here" hand waving while everything stays the same!

Libertarian - The economic statistics are interesting. Maybe the Church should go into some for of loan granting to improve the lot of their customers?

Yes, Hinduism won't grow - I'm not sure I particularly care though... I would much rather that it eradicate it's new-found right wing (about 16 years old now) than grow - they are giving it a very bad name.

"Hotel California clause" - ROFL

@ indira - Ah, if it were only that easy. I removed the battery as soon as I realized it would not stop - did nothing. So, this morning, I actually disconnected a couple of wires and it finally stopped. Now, I need to make sure I get it set up again - by someone who knows more about these things than I do!

@ Rathi - Since some lights worked, it wasn't completely dark, but I put batteries in a torch today. Learned my lesson.

Thanks for the info, Will. I just checked a recent eBay email and saw the line...

Ah, 2145 Hamilton - such fond memories :)

@ Rational Human - One interpretation is that everyone is going to heaven since they removed the baptism requirement, but *my guess* is that the church will tell you that to go to heaven you have to believe in Jesus Christ. Which, since it is their religion, is perfectly fair. If you do not believe in JC, your SOL - unless your own religion covers you for that one! :)


@ Cowardly Lioness - Agreed - creationism is going to be an excellent pulpit. A very polarizing one - which could be great for marketing. And yeah, if the other side wants to win this battle, they better get their own marketing gurus. It's a free market - hire the best if you don't have it within your ranks!

@ Prakash - While the Church's recent decision makes Christianity more appealing, the Hindu Pujari's (priest's) actions makes Hinduism more unappealing. So while he may be using more advanced segmentation methods, maybe you should tell him that he's in a war for people and he should make his product as appealing as possible. After all, you have lots of other options!! :)

@ Steve - You are very welcome :)

@ Dave - Glad to hear they are cool guys - I hope things go well for them at Yahoo!

Hi Will - I had a small inkling that legal requirements may be what made them have that line in there... but I've never seen that before and I get tons of junk (oops, marketing) emails.

Does that mean that most people are not complying with the Can-Spam rules?

@ August and Ash - Thanks so much!

@ blr bytes - Thanks for sharing. What a coincidence! Glad your Doha landing ended well too.

@ bharath - Exactly. And thanks!

@ Gashwin - What great information - thanks *so* much for sharing! And don't worry, no offense taken at all. Yes, I know that dumping fuel is the norm and in fact, dumping fuel makes you safer when you land and I thought that maybe the yelling brace position was protocol - but it was freaky none the less.

And thanks for the links - the flight tracker stuff is very cool! I was a few days too late to find this flight as an unregistered user - I am sure, since you are a flight buff, that you are registered :)


@ Dave - Actually it was to Grenada (with a brief stop in Barbados). And Grenada was quite wonderful, thanks :)

@ TGFI - you have your answer!

@ Traci - thanks for the information! The sticker idea is a great idea - very cute. I love how startups and smaller companies actually care enough to respond to these blog posts. You just made me an even bigger fan of Feedburner!

@ Jeffrey - Yeah, I think it is scarier when you think about it afterwards. And yes, the cabin crew was basically lounging around, completely unconcerned - I think that made it much less stressful than it could have been. Now that you have two under your belt, I hope you've had your quota! ;)


@ TGFI - Yes, very true. I was stunned that this happened to me. But in reality, I think the captain and crew know their stuff, so they handled it pretty well.

@ Raghu Ram Prasad - I couldn't really do much, so calling me bold would be a huge stretch! Thanks for visiting!

@ Petra - The quality of customer care post-event was astoundingly pathetic in how minimal it was. I totally agree that US airlines are the worst. I avoid them like the plague when I travel internationally and within the US, I try to stick to JetBlue as much as possible. Have never been on Austrian - will have to try to fix that soon :)


@ Libertarian and Syed - Thanks so much!

@ Confused - It's so cool, though. Great way to waste time!

@ P - It is representative of large tracts of Manhattan. Look at a map of Manhattan - it is fascinating: the highest population of married folks is the upper east side and in particular, along the park! Seems obvious, but kinda' cool to see it represented so clearly.

@ Ricky - Dig deeper... I am sure there is some stat that would make your block unusual!

@ Greg - Hey! You're very welcome. And can you please update your blog? :)

@ ali/preethi - glad you enjoyed it!

@ mark - Ah, that's great to know. Do you know where one can get the original song? Is it on a CD that one can buy?

@ Jeffrey - Hope you are having a fabulous vacation too! Your advice sounds about right...

@ Abi - Very interesting article. Yes, maybe what I desperately needed was to just turn off completely. I have to say though, the beach is much more pleasurable than watching that chunk of cheese! :)


@ Libertarian - I remember that line - fabulous. And I feel as relaxed as he looked in that scene.

@ Ei - Ah, massage on the beach - perfection defined. I wonder if I could have gotten them to erect some sort of screen so that I could have done that. Too late... but an idea for next time...

@ TGFI - Sorry! Even when on the beach, my thoughts are with you, wishing you luck on your thesis...

@ Libertarian - Yes, I am rooting for a Sri Lanka too. Any South Asian team, please! :)

@ Forth Umpire - I watched my cricket in India when I was much younger, so I don't recall taunting. I am sure it happens across the world, though. All I will say is that I watched matches with Australians and other supporters (in Antigua) and the only ones I heard it from was the English. Everyone else, while boisterous, stayed away from whining incessantly and hurling accusations.

And re: the Dilhara incident - I am not sure why it happened. What if he just couldn't get the ball out normally? That happens - we've all seen it. Just not on the last ball!

@ Prithvi - Wow, those are astounding numbers. Thanks for sharing. And the cartoon captures the idea so succinctly! :)

@ Shub - excellent. Tell me how you like it.

@ Rathi - you would love it here. Anjali would have had a great time ;)


@ Niranjana - great tip. Thanks for that. I looked it up - what a great resourced!

@ ./w - interesting. I think they are right in taking on the US. If someone runs a site from Antigua and US customers happen to access it, why should that person be prosecuted for violating US law? Not based in the US, not the US jurisdiction. Sure the internet makes this hard, but the US needs to figure out how to solve the problem - they can't extend their laws globally. I don't know if they can win, but yay,Antigua and Barbuda!!

@ Lotus - Cuba is supposed to be fantastic. I had a friend who went last year and had a great time. I'm sure you will have a blast!

@ Gaurav - definitely! I rarely read science books but this one is different. It falls into the category of "If I had read this as a kid instead of the boring textbooks I had, I might have gone in this direction..."

@ Lotus - Wow, I didn't know he was bipolar. Certainly explains things - yes, a lot brilliant folks who were/are afflicted. Oh, and thanks for the recommendation on the biography. Will add it to my list.