Feast for Thought

Today I bid a no-regrets farewell to my Adsense account. No, I didn’t check the balance. In my work with Google Adwords, I come across that company's oft-changing policies that leave account holders at loose ends. After hearing and reading (first-hand and reported) Adsense horror stories, and experiencing Adwords’ whims and fancies, I took the decision to un-clutter the sidebar in this page. Sour grapes? So be it. I have doctor's advice to stay away from them! For some light read: 10 reasons for hating Google Adsense I wish to be fair though. There must be success stories too – here they are

Indrani's 'Tagged' gave me an idea. Here's a saying in Tamil நிறை குடம் தளும்பாது. (nirai kudam thalumbaathu) The English equivalent is probably 'Empty vessels make most noise' I invite interested bloggers to post equivalents in other languages.

The sight of any object reaching upwards is a wonderful image that implies a sincere attempt to do well and rise above the ordinary. ISRO's PSLV-C9 presented just such an image this morning as it carried ten satellites to their orbits, in its 13th flight. The entire team at ISRO and all its labs, and the private players who have helped in this mission, deserve the warmest salute from the entire nation for this achievement. We wish that Team ISRO continues to complete even bigger projects and ISRO remains a place where 'tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection'. Picture courtesy: ISRO's website

It's nice to be called 'one in a lakh', isn't it? That too repeatedly. That's how the local greengrocer welcomes us, and our shopping bag, on our visits to his rustic, well-stocked outlet. It's two years now since we began frequenting this friendly neighbourhood grocer for weekly supplies. In all this while, we have noted several changes in these still rural precincts. - The narrow highway became a well-laid four-lane runway including median and new road lights, - Two-wheeler riders switched to cars, and small car users switched to SUVs and plush sedans, - Newer showrooms displayed gadgets, trendy clothes and fancy stuff - the local ISP grew from 1 customer to several hundred - the sabziwala added a fresh juice counter for the benefit of thirsty highway traffic. But the grocer continues to give away plastic carry bags to his 'valued' customers. He's actually forced to spend Rs 3000 on gifting garbage every month, all because the Kings and Queens (re...

What kind of sound would you like to wake up to? BhoopAla rAgam ? Wake-up bugle notes? The tweet of a warbler here and the coo of a cuckoo there? The landline’s dial tone will do nicely for me, thank you. In the last three weeks the phone has been dead and / or the broadband (ISP: BSNL, enabled by an ADSL Ethernet modem / router) was not ops, so there was frequent enforced abstinence from the Web. The routine read: no dial tone/ no adsl link - register complaint at 1500 (BSNL’s universal helpline) - then call local NIB helpdesk or the server office direct, then wait. At these times, I'd remember Indrani’s phobia predictions and Raji’s ISP experiences , while catching up with offline and ‘home’ work. After several hours or several days, the phone’s dial tone and the modem’s blinking lights would gladden the heart for - pardon the repeat - several hours or several days. Then my 1500-dialing fingeritis would afflict me all over again. Yesterday was one such. A neat Net conference wa...

I am no women's lib advocate or activist, neither am I a fanatic feminist. I simply believe that in matters of home and house the husband (father) and the wife (mother) can and should seamlessly ease into the one another's role whenever the need arises. So I read with interest a very well-written piece in Deccan Herald "The Story so Far" , which was forwarded to me by several persons - a banking professional cousin, a mother of two, a dutiful daughter-in-law, an understanding daughter, and a patiently tolerant wife - all rolled into one, (of course!). The story depicts, very precisely, the typical urban household where the lady pursues a career and manages the home, with nil / half-hearted / reluctant / whole-hearted participation from her life partner (The degree of participation being directly proportional to her good luck). I quote this line from the article: "It will take time, possibly a few more generations, for the equation to get balanced". Here is t...

In December 2007, "marking his 90th orbit of the sun" Sir Arthur expressed three wishes: to see some evidence of alien life, to see "us kick our current addiction to oil and adopt clean energy sources", and finally, peace in his adopted nation. Continued research on ET's and UFO's may find success sooner or later. Political sanity is the likely solution for Wish No 3. And for wish No 2? That will require a combination of continued research (into alternate, green energy sources), and exemplary political sanity (including wisdom and will) to reduce our addiction to 'black' fossil fuels. If only, as a visionary, he had given us an indication of things to come, just as he had predicted the use of geosynchronous orbit . RIP, Sir Arthur. The rest of us will live in hope, and try to live by the message of another environmental visionary Jacques Cousteau - "If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are hum...