Parisista

I found this gem, while confronting myself on couple of topics.
Don’t read it like a prayer, nor like a morning chant; Read it like a war cry, or read it if you are ever confronted by fear or the lack of free thoughts confront your self.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

– from Gitanjali, Offering of Songs, published in English in
1910, written by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Just saw this story coming across from Digg & Slashdot (thanks for the link, Vicente). Kalyan Verma took this picture of a bus which has a Firefox logo painted all over it 😀
The naysayers on slashdot are calling foul — probably they don’t know the photoshop too well. Here is the link

Main Course
Tandoori fish, Mutton kebabs, Mutton korma, Dal bukhara and curried vegetables to be relished with rice and a choice of rotis. The fish has been “fished” and flown from the Western India for the banquet.
Starter
Pineapple with French dressing and Broccoli soup
On the side
Red cabbage and peach melba
Served on the backdrop of beautiful Mughal Gardens.
Tandoori Kebabs, Dal, Rice and still working lunch? Yea, working my mouth 🙂

The press is speculating whether President Bush will snub the Indian-American community again by avoding the Diwali celebrations at the White House. Last year, he was at the White House but did not attend the festival. Looks like it will be the same this year. In a White House press briefing on Oct. 25th (among other pressing issues like Scooter Libbey, Karl Rove, and an ABC reporter’s scathing remarks against the reputation of the White House PR podium), somebody asked about whether the President is going to attend the Diwali celebrations:

Q Second question is on the — now again, most of Indian-American community thankful to the President for initiating — or did initiate the Diwali Festival of Lights at the White House. Now it will be next Wednesday, November 1st, when millions across India and America will — Indians will be celebrating the festival around the globe, including at the White House here. What they are saying in the Indian American community, really, just like President initiates prayers with other groups here in the White House, like Muslims and Jews, and all that, that they are requesting him, please, to the President, this time, that if he can take a few moments and be there at part of the White House Festival of Lights on Wednesday, November 1st.
MR. McCLELLAN: On Wednesday, November 1st? Well, we’ll update you on the President’s schedule later this week.

Obviously, Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary was not aware. Looks like it will be a miss again. President Bush initiated the first ever Diwali in the White House in 2003. He did not attend in person, but Karl Rove lighted the lamp and sought blessings from Goddess Laxmi.
Wanna know more about Diwali, check out the Wikipedia entry.
Diwali at the Golden temple in Amritsar, India

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s new book, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity explains the inner working of India, and brings that ideology to the Western world. In his book Sen smashes the sterotypes and myths around India, and places the idea of India and it’s Indianess in its righteous and well-deserved context.
Zoo Station quotes from The Guardian, in their review titled, Beyond the call centre:

This is a book that needed to have been written. The perception of India in the West and, indeed, among Indians themselves has never been more amorphous as it is now. The Argumentative Indian will provide a new dimension and perspective to that perception. It would be no surprise if it were to become as defining and as influential a work as Edward Said’s Orientalism.
In this superb collection of essays, Sen smashes quite a few stereotypes and places the idea of India and Indianness in its rightful, deserved context. Central to his notion of India, as the title suggests, is the long tradition of argument and public debate, of intellectual pluralism and generosity that informs India’s history.

A quick byte of trivia: Sen still possesses the blue colored Indian passport, even after living abroad for more than 5 decades.

The City of Fremont, California celebrated India’s 58th Independence day. I was just in time to catch a glimpse of Bollywood actress, Urmila Matondkar, the grand marshal for the parade. Unfortunately, I could not get a vantage point for a nice picture of her. Here are couple of other pictures.
I think this one is Fremont mayor, Gus Morrison. Not 100% sure though.

The Orissa float

For Urmila’s pics, go to Google image gallery (if you really need to see some of her pictures) 🙂