mindbytes

caterpillar caterpillar

2006-04-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

its been almost 4 months since i last posted...
was hibernating and introspecting.
I have emerged a stronger person...I think.
All caterpillars need to wait in a cocoon before their dream can take wings.

Smoking like an engine.

2005-12-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

Saw an old woman yesterday,
Not less than 70.
Smoking like an engine.
Felt odd. Felt bad.

Also saw a young girl yesterday.
Not more than 10.
Smoking like an engine.
Felt odd. Felt sad.

Australia smokes.

Dabbles of paint

2005-11-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

"the brush waded in the paint,
the canvas kissed the strokes,
little smiling eyes glanced up in sky...
...the happy rainbow smiled back."

--from the unwritten memoirs of the omnipresent child.

away away...

2005-11-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

I sit on a rock,
seeing the bottle...float away...
towards an unknown land.

perhaps if they open the bottle,
and plant the little seed I send...
...maybe a tree will grow.

a thought to ponder...

2005-11-13T15:45:00.000-08:00

An old woman got into the bus I was in yesterday...when her stop came,she turned to the driver and said with a big smile,"Thank you very much indeed,Driver!"
I could tell that they were not just words but she really really meant it.
As a matter of habit, or maybe expected etiquette, people do say 'thank you' or 'please'.
How does one go a step beyond and really mean when they say 'thank you'?

A walk with an elephant

2005-10-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

I have always liked Elephants, perhaps due to the fondness I have for Ganpati, my elephant God. I have liked them as long as I can remember...
I walked with an elephant a few times..near my house, on a busy market street, besides honking cars, and a 3 minute frequency train infested railway station.
He used to make his daily round of walk and I used to share his walk from the station to my house...about half a kilometre away...
It is a fascinating and an incredibly peaceful experience, walking with the largest animal on land, like a moving rock with a slow swaying walk...
I sometimes regret not having these beautiful moments in cities more often, that perhaps a village would have,but...
when the moments come, they sure are glorius.

Through the eyes of the apes...

2005-10-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a book that I couldnt keep down till I went through its 52 entries...it contained no stories in words...just full page portrait photos of apes of the right page of the book, and the name of the ape of the left page...names just like mine and yours, portraits of personalities just like mine and yours, of lives just like mine and yours...
Each ape was just looking into the camera with a story that needed no words.
Scars, smiles, mischief, distrust, confusion, pride...it was all there...

a young tapasvi

2005-10-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

Pushkar Lele is a young vocal artiste I was fortunate to hear recently in Sydney and be aquainted towards a good friendship.He was on a tour through Australia, and gave classical vocal renditions to an enthralled audience...me being one of them.
These links have the review of his tour.
Review on the esakal website
Review on the sify website
And his site...
www.pushkarlele.com
I admire his lot. Pushkar is among those artistes who have the persistence,the tenacity and the courage to lose themselves into the realms of music.It is called 'Tapasya'...and I cannot find a correct English word for it.
It is when one tends to be a 'Tapasvi', that an artiste during a rendition almost does not exist. The presence of the raag overpowers the bodily existence of the person.Then what remains are hungry souls and god manifesting through the tangible form of music.
This is the truth.

Soundbytes from a past time

2005-09-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid(physically and mentally, not emotionally, as a part of me is still a kid), I remember people used to write letters to each other to be in touch, replies used to come in perhaps a week, or a month depending how far one was located...but replies used to come.
Now its difficult to imagine many technologically-incensed people sitting and writing a physical letter..takes too much effort and time...email technology kind of expects itself to be used the most to be in touch with friends.
When I graduated, unfortunately email was still a young thing, and we didn't even have an email, all of us.And profession scatters people around too, friends while studying, competitors when u graduate.
So no wonder I have lost touch with so many of my classmates though some of my closer circles tried to keep up contacts amidst the throes of fast paced careers....
Herein start my efforts of e-connections...
trying to send bytes of hello, through veils of time, searching for faces that smiled...

an observation

2005-08-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

Life is simply an illusion, though not a very simple one...

Breaths of Oxygen

2005-08-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

...had a great time ..SONY had an environ day yesterday...abt 100-120 people, including me, went into a weeding and planting project at 'Cobbity Farms' 70 km off Sydney.Our team leaders identified the weeds(abt 4m tall trees) that were eating resources along banks of river McLean...we used hand cutters, saws to cut weeds named 'Baloon Vine, Privete, and Black berry' and posion the base with some chemical..then we used spades to dig small pits and planted about 450-500 small native saplings...With people working,men, women and children, each carrying away cut branches, to pile up as a heap to be burnt finally, and most of us covered with dust and leaves, it looked like a scene of monkeys and squirrels doing their bit to build the Setu.
goood fun, great satisfaction....

Come back please

2005-08-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

In a shoping mall I went yesterday, I sat to read a book while waiting for a friend.
Just opposite me was a game centre 'IntenCity !'. From my seat, I could see some of the game consoles...each one buzzing with teens, definitely enjoying. The games were an assortment of nice violent games...McBoxer, TokyoCop, Ninja Duels, and Extreme Hunting. Among the many interesting shouts that I heard were, "Kill him Dude", "God I need more bullets"...
Between the game consoles and me lay a tile strip with metal words inlaid... Touch Smell Hear Taste Feel.
I could hear my friend calling on my cell, so I closed the book and started to talk.
As I talked, I could still hear the buzz of the teens and could see my book in my hand - 'In Search of Gandhi- Richard Attenborough'

a line Plato said

2005-08-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

was reading an article on the day of the 50th year of the Hiroshima Nagasaki bombings...amazing to read the extent of damage it caused, people died on the spot, as they were, due to the intense heat, their charred bodies were found exactly in the same position they were in, when the bombings occured, classrooms with students sitting, teachers standing on the dias, nursing homes with nurses with outstretched hands...a blazing moment of time freezing them in their path...
the article quoted a line by Plato, which he said all those years back in his time, but still holds good...and god forbid, though seems it will in all reality hold good for many more unyeilding years...
"Only the dead truly see the end of the war..."

Two inspiring souls

2005-08-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have been lucky to have met and worked in life with some very inspiring people...two of them connected to the beautiful field of education...

Dr. Vivek Montero
http://www.navnirmiti.org/

Shaheen Mistry
http://www.akanksha.org/index.htm

I have included their sites in my list of links on this blog...
I have worked for a teeny weeny time with them, but have felt the same satisfaction and happiness one feels,
when one plants a tree...and knows, that you did the right thing...

an anxious moment in time

2005-07-27T05:11:00.000-07:00

Between a strange confidence,
and utter self-doubt,
I ponder...
on the face of tomorrow,
as life smiles an unfathomable smile,
and asks,
"Are you ready?"

sunshiners

2005-07-25T23:14:00.000-07:00

Some people just bring cheer to you when they come...received a mail from a dear old friend, who fits this description.
a single sunbeam is all it takes to fill up my room...

A poem on my blood group

2005-07-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

"In moments of trial,
in moments of fire,
in moments of despair,
and in moments of anguish,
sometimes I look at myself,
and am relieved to find that...
... my blood group is still 'B+Ve'..."

An eggy thought

2005-07-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

"Dont count your chickens before they are hatched...but hey, dont bury your hen either."
-just an original line told to myself.

Object of desire...

2005-07-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

...people have all sorts of objects of desires...cars, bikes, digital cameras, dragon toys, power puff girl toys, caligraphy pens, boys/men, girls/women, money...
my object of desire currently is an harmonium...spent some time googling and getting images of harmonims...ooo la la ! Fantastic ones, teak wood, 3 3/4 octaves and scale changers ! Currently pining 'cause I left my harmonium in India when I came to Sydney...hoping to get my harmonium back near me soon...
Till then, I am going to gaze at these lovely masterpieces...
'I guess it takes all types to make the world.'

...so I just cut-pasted...

2005-07-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

Quote by Mark Twain on ant:
"As a thinker and planner, the ant is the equal of any savage race of men; as a self-educated specialist in several arts, she is the superior of any savage race of men; and in one or two high mental qualities she is above the reach of any man, savage or civilized!"
-----
I found the quote and it took me back a few years...
...as a young insensible child, I had often made life miserable for ants...by cutting their chemical paths to confuse them in their tracks, putting them in water line prisons, and a few more barbaric things, till I realized one day that they were not little toys to play with as a giant would do, but actual living creatures...
'I guess I grew up a little that moment...'

When you've got water stuck in your ear, how do you get it out?

2005-07-05T20:33:00.000-07:00

While I was making my profile here, they gave me this weird question to answer, I am not sure why they asked though...
When you've got water stuck in your ear, how do you get it out?
Anyways, the only answer I could think of was:
"If you are on the top of the world, look up and the water will fall down...if on the bottom of the world, look down and the water will fall up..."

...Hmnnn, maybe I should try it out...afterall...truth lies in experience

Can rain drops become hexagonal?

2005-07-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

Yes they can!
When it starts raining, try and see them without wearing your glasses...they look beautifully blurry and hexagonal...and with colours in them sometimes...if I remember right, when u narrow your eyes, the edges of the hexagon draw outwards...try it sometimes, its fun! Not sure how people with good eyesight should go about trying it though...? Maybe they will see the drops just as they are...too bad they can't see as well as people with bad eyesight, hee hee
'sometimes the blind can see better than those with eyes'

A frost filled Dragon

2005-07-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

In Sydney, where I am now a month old, I am still getting used to the wonders and the spine-chills (no pun intended) of the weather...
Yesterday late evening, when I went for a stroll, I could see vapour blowing out of my mouth when I tried breathing by mouth... its like being a cold dragon with vapour instead of fire coming from the mouth. When I put my hand in the vapour’s path, it just broke into two parts, circled around my hand and joined again (I think...or maybe an illusion)
...funny to see it.
'was a nice experience for having eco-non-hazardous smoke coming from a non-smoking fellow like me...'

A Telepathic Converter for me please...

2005-06-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

I wish we had telepathic transmissions digitally converted for the blog to read and publish…Over the past month, there would have been thousands of mindbytes that got churned, re-looked, nurtured and evolved, in the maze of synapses within my brain…they are still there somewhere in my mind’s warehouse after being processed, but I am too tired to pull them out and place them like well trimmed flowers on display…
Someday if they not yet withered, maybe I will…
Till then let me ask around if anyone has devised that telepathic digital converter I so desperately need…

The Spider's Misinterpretation

2005-05-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

I was working on my PC and a spider walked/crawled right onto the monitor screen... it was the kind of spider that stalks its prey...inches closer and when within striking range, jumps on the prey like a tiger!
In my local language 'Marathi', we call it ' Maashi cha wagh' which translates literally as ' the tiger of the fly' because of its pouncing strategy...
Well Mr.Spider misinterpreted my cursor as some juicy black insect moving around and started stalking it...to my amazement and amusement, it started pouncing on it too! I hope the spider didn't break its teeth biting into the monitor! I simulated the movement of the insect with the cursor, going close to the spider, then a bit far, quivering, shaking, crawling like a true insect would do, and the spider fell for it :)
went for almost 8-9 mins...then the spider realized something is wrong and with a sigh crawled to the edge and jumped off the screen...

Some years back, I was observing a lovely spider net glistening in sunrays and how a spider in a net reacts...
I tore a small piece of a dry leaf and threw in the net...the spider came running and grabbed the leaf (prey) ...checked it, then threw it away...
I threw a second piece and again the spider went for it..checked it and threw it away...
But after that when I threw a piece in, it just wouldn't come to grab...clever one, quick to learn and not take notice anymore...I was really impressed.

What took my monitor screen spider so long to realize the folly?
Tried for 8-9 mins before it gave up.Was it too dumb? Too optimistic? Never say die attitude? Or was it simply a new environment that confused it?

Wish I knew spider language... Could have conversed with it and said sorry for fooling it...

What does smell look like?

2005-05-12T05:13:00.000-07:00

me and my 4 yr old nephew Ameya conversing today morning...
"Gautam Mama (uncle), do you know what smell looks like?", Ameya popped a question to me out of the blue..
Good heavens! I had never before wondered what smell looks like!
"O I don't know really..how does it look??"
Ameya squeaked impishly,"Gautam Mama, it is green and stinks! And it comes by plane, then takes a taxi, then bus, then rickshaw...and then comes in from here..."points to his nostrils.
"O smell goes in from there? I see....hmnnn.And where does it go from there?", I asked curiously.
"Ummm...Nowhere, it just stays in the nose!"
"But how does it go away then?", I persisted.
Ameya looked up mischiveously, with his big, black as charcoal eyes twinkling and said, " When you press your nose, like this, poink poink, the smell is scared and ruuuunnnnnnnnnns awaaayyyyyyyyy..."
I sat down and started thinking about my own ways of picturizing smell...

Incredible Folktales of India

2005-05-12T04:09:00.000-07:00

Rich. Imaginative. Incredible.
I had the fortune to read a compilation of Indian folktales by A.K.Ramanujan, in a book I got as a gift. The book has folktales from about 22 different languages in India.
Things one cannot imagine happen in these tales...

Sample these:
...in a tale from West Bengal, a man who is to tell four stories feels drowsy and falls asleep...the 4 enraged stories come out of the sleeping man and sit on his belly to conspire how to kill him...

...an old woman is full of woes due to mistreatment by her two sons and two daughter-in-laws. And because she cannot share her woes with anyone, her woes keep on growing, and she becomes very very fat...then on day she finds a small room with only 4 walls. she tells woes of one son to one wall and the wall crumbles under the weight of the woes, and one by one, the four walls crumble under the woes given by the 4 people. The old woman becomes thin and goes home....

Incredible eh? I found the tales a mix of fairy tale with childlike imagination and lots of day to day happenings of India. It gave me a glimpse of the ageless tradition of folklore in India...

A must read: 'Folktales From India- A.K.Ramanujan' ISBN- 0-14-023328-8
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Learning approaches at a design institute.

2005-04-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

In our first lecture with Professor Kirti Trivedi, he asked us the difference between an undergraduate course and a master’s course.
The topic got different responses from our group, from the duration of the course, the curriculum, the professor’s being the experts in their field’s and some more… The lecture ended with us understanding that the main difference is the learning approach of students.

An undergraduate course is mainly theory and practical, and one in which, if students rote learn theory and do well in practical, they could graduate with more or less same level of knowledge/information.
A Master’s course however does not guarantee the same level of knowledge at the end of the two years. Why? Simply because what each student looks for in such a course differs..and so does the approach to reach to what one is searching for...
-----------------
The lecture ended, the course ended, and we all got our Master’s degree in Design from IDC, IIT Bombay. It’s been almost 3 years since the lecture, and I find myself reflecting back on the two years.
We had in our batch different types of students, and I wonder whether they had different learning approaches.
I have a strong belief that they would have had.
-----------------
Types of students at my design school
These were the 3 types of students we had in my design school.
Of course, the parameters could go in levels of personalities, gender, learning skills, interpersonal skills and many more…each level would present a possibility of research.

These following types are based purely on their educational+professional backgrounds:
1)Graduate students with no professional experience. ( 16 nos.)
2)Graduate students with professional experience. (11 nos.)
3)Students who have already done a similar level course in some other subject. (1 no.)

Several queries emerge,
Does the book oriented study of undergrad environment follow itself into a master’s course?
Does a professional experience make a difference in time management during submissions?
Are different strategies adopted when learning in such different levels?
What does a Type 3 student do different from what the student did in his first experience at a Master’s course?
-----------------
The sample size is really too small to arrive at any conclusive statement, but it could help start small waves of mindbytes.

I am right now in the process of interviewing these students and getting their feedback. It would be difficult because I am trying to reach their thought pattern, something, which they acted upon, but might not have realized about the learning approach consciously.
I hope to share the feedback soon.
If we as a design community build upon such research, it could serve as useful data for design schools too....
-----------------
...Let me be aware through the teachings of Buddha, that there are atleast 8 ways of looking at anything...

applied usability?

2005-04-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

In a discussion with a student at IDC, I mentioned that though I am in the field of core usability work right now, I would really like to be do applied usability...
He said the term sounds interesting and asked me whether I coined it?
Well I am not sure of that,or whether I heard or didnt hear it before...but I thought I should muse for myself a bit on what I meant when I said applied usability?
----
...The company I worked for as a Visual Design Specialist is a world leader in the field of Usability. I got to do graphic solutions for websites and desktop applications, but somehow the approach for the redesign or fresh design was always clinical. Guidelines of task analysis,ROI, and usability perspectives were the honoured ways of work, and rightly so, because that was what the company was about. And a company very good in that too.
I however missed seeing any excitement from the user's experiential perspective. I know it is but imperative that the site or application or the product functions absolutely to the user's tasks, with minimum of errors, mistakes, confusions.
But I hope the designer in me takes usability as a tool to getting a more usable solution and knows that there is a 'beyond usability' too...
I have a hunch that if I, for myself atleast, decide that I am doing 'applied usability', I might be able to put 'usability' in my subconscious actions, and search for that' beyond usability'.
The definition of applied usability, well I am not really sure right now...

2005-04-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

Gautam Karnik ( =me)

Instinct and Intellect in design...

2005-03-31T09:59:00.000-08:00

I am listening to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi[1] sing Raag Brindabani Sarang[2]. I am mesmerized, to say the least, and the effect of this rendition seems to be permeating deep within me...
I stop my multitasking attempts in work and drench myself to the rain of musical notes...
---------
I am a student of music, and a student of design too, and I attempt to understand the design of a music rendition...
As a design student, initially I was tempted to think of design as a field of pure intellect and rationale. perhaps with a clear depart from art. But when I hear the masters of music, I know that there is something beyond just calculation. When one learns to calculate time divisions in music, and place notes on these calculations,one is making music, yes. But masters make magic.How do they do it? Its probably years of practice which makes the rendition instinctive, and each note breathtaking...
---------
I am increasingly of the opinion that there exists art in design, and also design in art.The system design of Indian music is laid on strict parameters of numbers and relations of notes,rejoicing on a calculated divisioning of time grid. But through these strict constraints, emerges a unique rendition everytime. The people who made the system design for India music must have been really amazing.
I remember a class in Visual Design where Professor 'Kirti Trivedi' showed us graphic design layouts made by his guru 'Kohei Sugiura'. It was inspiring for us graphic design students to see the range possible through a common grid. I also clearly remember thinking, that is this just positioning graphic elements on a visual grid?..
What has he done, that makes looking at these layouts an unforgettable experience?
How one uses grid is possibly the reason what makes a master a master...
Here seeps in fragrance of art, 'instinct' holding hands with 'intellect and rationale'.
----------
As a student, I have realized that this is possible...I hope that someday I reach closer to connecting instinct and intellect..
----------
Panditji ends his rendition with a drut composition[3] ...the trail of the tanpura[4] lingers on further...
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Glossary:
[1]pandit bhimsen joshi: A living legend of Indian classical vocal music.
[2]raag brindabani sarang: Raag is an Indian term for a combination of specific musical notes with defined structures for ascent and descent. Brindabani Sarang is one such combination of notes.
[3]drut composition: A fast tempo musical composition, usually presented as the last part of a rendition.
[4]tanpura: A vital musical instrument for Indian classical music, it has just four notes in it, but emanates a drone that tends to form a complete octave. This helps the artiste to stay in perfect tune throughout.

Face of a new childhood?

2005-03-29T21:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday as I walked home, a couple with two small kids about 4 yrs old, walked behind me, the husband asked the kids, how was karate class today?...one kid replied, "no papa, today the class got cancelled"...the wife said,"yep, only the dance and the personality class happened.."...
i was wondering about the changing face of childhood...
Pressures to make the child good, and better than the other child, has caught the parents...
yes, the same ambition to make the child sing poems in front of visitors has always been there...but perhaps the frenzy has increased...
perhaps the face of childhood is changing...
Thats why perhaps in design, social studies need to be a pertinent inclusion (?). Ergonomic studies, Ethnographic studies and now social studies to be aware about how the user profiles are going to drastically change...
a child image conjours itself in front of me and says,"I have changed...already."

Paints and a blank canvas...

2005-03-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

I remember a child I knew 26 years ago,with a tray of paint tubes and blank paper in front...
the child without thinking just plunged into paint and with abandon,filled the paper in streaks of colour, without a real intent or plan as to what to paint...

I just met the same child, but now it is caught in an anticipation, lined with hope and even a bit of apprehension as to what will come on the canvas...

I wonder where will I find the same abandon again? Because now I have grown up, and with age comes a free ad-on of societal standards, the responsibility of behaving rightly...infact in profession, the responsibility extends to even behaving intelligently !

I hope to help the child find its own abandon of thoughts on this blog-canvas, because sometimes out of ramblings of a child...
one just might hear an unthought of way of looking at life...