news views and analysis

A very interesting forward talks about new foods showing up in parts of the world they were unknown to, before. Sent to me by friend of the blog, Mickie Sorabjee.

New Foods

By Martin Sandler

“Before Columbus, the diet of Europeans had remained basically unchanged for tens of thousands of years, based mainly on oats, barley, and wheat. Within a quarter century of his first voyage, the European diet became richer, more varied, and more nutritious. As Roger Schlesinger wrote in his book, In the Wake of Columbus: ‘As far as dietary habits are concerned, no other series of events in all world history brought as much significant change as did [the discovery of the Americas].’ The list of foods that made their way into Europe is extensive and includes maize, squash, pumpkin, avocado, papaya, cassava, vanilla, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes (yams), strawberries, and beans of almost every variety.

“The potato was one of the first American foods to be transported to Europe. Valued by the conquistadores, they made it a key item in the diet of their sailors. The potato then spread to England and Scotland, and to Ireland where it became the staple of the Irish diet.

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“Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.”

A very interesting website/social media tool from MIT.

In a world where fortunes are sought through data-mining vast information repositories, the computer is our indispensable but far from infallible assistant. Personas demonstrates the computer’s uncanny insights and its inadvertent errors, such as the mischaracterizations caused by the inability to separate data from multiple owners of the same name. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world, where digital histories are as important if not more important than oral histories, and computational methods of condensing our digital traces are opaque and socially ignorant.

Try out your persona.

[Link via @patrix]

The image you see below is from a recent issue of GQ Magazine published in India. Arjun Rampal actor/model answers some candid questions and one of his answers is a boastful “I am one of the few people who have gone into the Agyari pretending to be a Parsi”.

This is really pathetic and obnoxious of Arjun Rampal. A little background. Arjun Rampal is married to Meher Jesia, ex Miss India.

Current rules state that only Parsis are allowed entry into their holy places, the Agiyaris and the Atashbehrams. And Arjun is not a Parsi. What right does he then have to break the rules of a community, just to satiate his own personal curiosity and boast about it.

Rules in religion are not always agreed upon. But as long as they exist one needs to respect them. I wonder if Arjun Rampal would dare to go to the Kaaba at Mecca, which is out of bounds to non-Muslims. No offence to Muslims, but I wish he would try that stunt and see the consequences.

Parsi fire temples are not guarded securitized places. Over the centuries there has been a certain respect/trust within the society, which respects the wishes of the Parsi community and not venture into their fire temples.

I am not a legal maven, but I wonder if a criminal case of trespass can be filed against this Arjun Rampal. He has knowingly desecrated a consecrated place, an agiary.

It also makes me wonder what sort of a person Arjun is, what moral standards he must have to take credit in publicly admitting such an act.

Cross-Posted on Parsi Khabar.

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty is slated to be the Grand Marshall at this year’s India Day Parade here in NYC. This will be the 29th year of this parade.

To be held on Sunday August 16, 2009, the parade starts at 12:00 pm at 41st street @ Madison Avenue and ends at 28th Street. There is a big “mela” at the end with stalls selling everything from newspaper subscriptions to food, music, clothes and what not !.

Be there. It should be a fun-filled day, especially if the weather is good.

As soon as the word Prohibition is uttered, the first word that comes to mind is Gujarat. The prohibtion on sale of alcohol or alcoholic products in Gujarat is the reason why.

Ever since I was a child I found it funny that my parents would always lament about not getting alcohol in Gujarat. Whenever we went for family vacations to Navsari (mom’s ancestral home) or our farm in Anklaach, off Valsad, or even to Udvada the Vatican of us Parsis, alcohol or rather the lack of it was the topic of discussion. It didnt help matters that we Parsis are known for enjoying the “spirits” and a Parsi “peg” will give any patiala peg a run for its money.

The TOI brings up the issue of Prohibition and an underlying need for a debate in this article.

When as a child I enquired as to why the sale of alcohol was banned in Gujarat, I was told that it was because it was the state of Mahatma Gandhi. The G word was the solution to all the ills of society it seemed at that time. In later years I did realize that the Mahatma was not to be blamed for this entirely.

Gandhiji advocated prohibition as a public policy first time in a long missive to viceroy before setting out on the Dandi march on March 12, 1930. His idea was that this would deny the government a huge revenue. Thus, Gandhiji mainly saw prohibition as a weapon to fight the British rule. There was no mention of wrecked lives, ruined homes, etc. He did not then raise social or moral issues .[link]

60 years later, Prohibition is in reality a failure. One can sit at the Globe Hotel in Udvada and get all kinds of beer and whisky without a hassle and with only a slight premium. At our farm in Anklaach, it is not uncommon for villagers to brew their own “mahuro”….a country liquor made from distilling certain flowers.

The last time I was in Ahmedabad was during a ZONASA Convention in 1996. Our hosts, the students at CEPT gave us easy pointers to where we could get our “khumba” as Old Monk Rum is referred to.

So then how is the prohibition actually working? Isn’t not allowing the official sale of liquor, actually forcing people into illegal trade and consumption? And who really benifits from this illegal trade ?

Allegations are flying freely that prohibition has spawned corruption in the police force. The initial fault, however, lay largely with the political leadership. Prohibition is essentially a social legislation and police comes in as a backup. Instead, men in uniform are the only one left holding it. Some in the force make the most of minding what is nobody’s baby..[link]

How farcial the situation is, can be seen as one drives from Udvada to Devka. Devka is in Daman, a Union Territory abutting Udvada. An official hoarding announces “Welcome to Daman, Union Territory” (or something similar). And within 50 meters of that hoarding on the Daman side are liquour shacks. And there are dozens as one drives into Devka. These shacks are no more than sheets of tin metal with a roof and plastic chairs and tables. The shacks contain cold storage for beer and other soft drinks to be accompanied with alcohol. And people drive in just to drink and drive back.

Daman has a glorious history that spans millennia. It saw empires and invaders come and go, leaving little marks on its otherwise vibrant culture, art and tradition. It is, however, not the rich cultural heritage that attracts tourists to the Union Territory. The main attraction of this place with 10 distilleries remains liquor [link]

It would be really interesting to see if Narendra Modi has the political courage to re-evaluate prohibition as a concept and move ahead on this issue.

In a way, prohibition is only illustrative of what Gujarat has come against as times change and the booming business in the state goes global. It is a defining moment and the task to examine the issue of prohibition should go to a proper commission of inquiry to be helped in its work with studies by experts in all that it involves. Not just how traditions and values dear to Gujarat would be sacrificed if a few people get to drink as they like.

With the current political scenario, it seems highly doubtful.

In a classic example of Bambaiya ingenuity, an advertising prop was taken off the hoarding and used as a real life tool.

Aircel the cell phone company had a life raft on a billboard at Milan Subway. The caption read “In case of emergency CUT ROPE”. The people did just that. And fun follows.

Received via email from Vikrant Parikh.

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Parents and students of New Era School on Pedder Road took out a “rasta-roko andolan” outside the school to protest the school closing an unsafe building. Traffic along the six lane Pedder Road was disrupted for over 8 hours (+/-).

Pedder Road in the city is one of the busiest thoroughfares. Not only for local traffic but also for suburban commuters connecting to points in South Bombay.

This protest was nothing but a tamasha that the parents and kids resorted to so that they get some media coverage. Ironically this happened on the same day that Omar Abdullah resigned. So the hoped for TV coverage didnt happen as they wouldve loved.

What pisses me off is the reasons and the modus operandi of these very selfish parents. The school wants to demolish the building because it is unsafe for occupancy. They are moving the children to another building a little distance away. The building has been inspected by three independent structural engineers who all agree that is is unsafe. However the parents still want the school to keep the building open and let their children study in this unsafe building.

The parents allege that the school is trying to shunt out the lower fee-paying SSC division to some other building and use this plot to build a fancy high fee-paying Int’l division school.

The controversy started last year when the school management decided to permanently shift SSC students to a new location on D N Road in Fort, as they wanted to demolish the existing building at Hughes Road for IGCSE and IB Board. Parents approached the HC against decision and won the case in July.

On June 4, the school management had circulated a notice to parents that school would restart on June 29 at building in D N Road, Fort. The school, however, did not starts as the matter was pending in court [link]

If this is correct and I am sure there is some truth to it, then take this to court, get a stay order and pursue it through legal means. Don’t resort to uncivilized hooligan tactics.

The police stood there for the most part and could not do much as they said kids were involved and therefore they could not use any means to disperse the crowd. I guess they meant tear gas et al.

The parents took shelter behind the children and held the city and lakhs of people to ransom.

What is more appalling is that students were encouraged to do crazy things like climb up on the front of buses etc as this picture shows.

This also sends a very wrong message to children, the adults of tomorrow. It teaches them that taking the law into your own hands is the recourse to all problems and loutish, roughish behavior is the way to go.

Image Copyrights Mid-Day

Mahafreed Irani, a journalist with Times of India and a friend from the blog/twitter/facebook world has a first person account on her blog.

I am thrilled to inform you about the soon to be published Monograph on one of India’s foremost architects Nari Gandhi.

There is a personal connection here for me. The author of the monograph is Prof. H, Masud Taj my professor at Rizvi College of Architecture from 1992 to 1997,  and a dear friend.

This monograph is published and designed by Pranav Upasani, a fellow alumni from RCA and a good friend, and Prof. Y D Pitkar, a visiting faculty at RCA in the 90’s and a friend too.

Received via email from Pranav Upasani …

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Disclaimer: If you cannot take sarcasm and humor, please leave this site. This article is not intended or meant to be demeaning or insulting to anyone except self-righteous US Politicians having extra-marital affairs.

India is the outsourcing capital of the world. Of this there is no doubt. Of course all the outsourcing is intrinsically linked to IT. The BPO’s attest to that. Even the recent KPO’s have their roots in the prowess of India as a backend server to the corporations of the world.

However there is one area where we need to buck up.

In recent times American politicians have gone left right and center in having extra marital affairs. The pioneer of the current era was undoubtedly President Clinton. And since then there have been a whole bunch of politicians who have “sinned” in the very Christian sense. Funnily most of them are Republicans and “God-fearing” men of the faith. And at least one of them is a hypocrite of the highest order. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford voted to impeach President Clinton, but then still goes ahead and has one fulll blown affair and then confesses to having more than a roving eye with various other women.

However this very casanova Sanford may have created an opportunity for India. He outsourced his affair to a Latina from Argentina. As a late night comedian put it….”Oh what happened to the good old days when hot blooded US politicians had affairs with US women….are these US women now not good enough ?”.

Here is India’s chance. Indian women are some of the most beautiful in the world. Of that there is no doubt. And now there are direct flights to India that can get these US politicians to our shores in 14 hours!

So there I say, lets start advertising India as a great destination to have an affair. Market it to all the US politicians, be they Democratic or Republican. Issue them visas, give them sops, prepare custom made holiday packages and while at it, throw in “have one, get one free” deals.

More outsourcing power to India, what say ?

Much of what is considered “New York” in a very “Greenwich Village” kind of way owes itself to one lady. Jane Jacobs, in her 1961 seminal book “ The Death and Life of Great American Cities” documented the urbanscape of her surrounding neighborhood in Greenwich Village. This book opened up the debate about how we perceived our cities and what urban planners, architects and designers need to consider in preserving and revitalizing neighborhoods.

Jane Jacobs passed away in 2006, however the preservation group GVSHP that she helped found continues her work and mission. They had initiated a proposal to change the name of the street outside her former home at 555 Hudson Street between W 11th and Perry to be renamed as “Jane Jacobs Way”.

The Architects Newspaper in a blog post announced today

In a released statement by the GVSHP, Executive Director Andrew Berman said, “Jane Jacobs had such a profound effect upon our city and our lives; there are few people more worthy of the honor of having a street co-named in their honor.” Approved in 2006 by the local Community Board and the full City Council, the naming will take effect early next week with the installation of the official “Jane Jacobs Way” signs.

Way to go, GVSHP. Am sure Jane Jacobs will be happy with this one !