A 'Serif' existence!

Win a Honda City

2010-11-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

Subscribe and Win!

I came across this ad in a newsmagazine: Subscribe for 5 years get a chance to win a Honda City. I have seen these ads in several magazines for more than 10 years now. But never thought about the reality till I saw this email about "reality" shows and SMS income.

Did any magazine ever showed any proof about the winner of this "Subscribe and win a car" offer ever? Have you ever come across a "real" subscriber who won a car by subscribing (for FIVE years) to a magazine? Why is this kept a secret? Is there any Govt machinery which monitors this kind of offers with luck dips?

What is the frequency of these lucky dips by magazines? Why don't they publish the results? How many "Honda City" cars do they gift per year? From how many entries do they select the winner? Who witnesses the "lucky" dip?

Absolute Zero!!!!

If you send an SMS to "save" a contestant in a reality show from "unsafe" zone, you spend much more than the standard SMS rate, sometimes this can go upto Rs 7.00. This is hidden under the asterix "standard rates apply"!!

The producer and the channel makes crores of profit.

But did anyone care for the following:

1. Is there any record of number of SMS messages received for each participant?

2. Should there be a record of SMS recieved?

3. Is the winner decided by the number os SMSs received by the contestant?

4. Why is this number NEVER revealed by any producer of these reality shows?

5. Why is the SMS rate for reality shows not disclosed during the programme or the web site of the channel or the phone service providers?

6. What is the time lapse between receiving the so called "SMS Votes" and the actual telecast of the programme?

7. What happens when a victim viewer sends an SMS well AFTER the deadline for shooting the next episode is over? He still spends Rs 7.00 and doesn't know his "vote" will not save his favourite singer?

Recently, a reality show participant in a music programme revaled to his friend in Orkut that he has been eliminated. The friend found out to his horror that this singer's fans were voting for him for more than SEVEN days after the "REAL" elimination because the episodes of the programme are shot well over 10 days in advance!!!

What happens if we post this question to the Govt?

1. We will need to find out to whom should we complain?

2. We will go by the gut feeling and complain to some dept in the Govt, they will say this is not in our jurisdiction, you ask XYZ.

3. XYZ will give the same answer and forward us to ABC.

4. After this process repeats five times, we give up!

Thousands of unsuspecting viewers will continue sending SMSs at RS 7.

The producer will not only walk, but "sing" his way to the bank!

Hollow and Empty

2009-12-27T09:23:00.000-08:00

116 smiling faces :-)

24^th Dec. 5.30am:

Nokia 73 hollers it’s time to wake up. I am breathing Zzzzzz…. into my wife’s unwilling ear.

After a ten minute struggle to freeze time, I give up.

The Art of Living Advanced course starts today and the reporting time is 6.30 am.

Half-asleep, I rustle up my favourite cup of tea and try to read the newspapers.

There is yet another rape somewhere, yet another corruption case and yawn, yet another box item on Mahendra Singh Dhoni. What will happen to the world if Dhoni is out of the team for two matches? Will the heavens fall? Will ESPN and NEO Cricket shut shop? What will Dhoni eat for breakfast when he is not in the team?

Wow.

Dhoni matters even if he is not in the team.

I braved all hurdles to the venue: which was primarily crossing the indomitable main road in front of IIT main gate in one piece. After the registration formalities, I entered the hall. It was just what I had seen the last time I had been to Shetty school hall in Powai. A meticulously clean and well appointed hall, with clean mattresses laid out on the floor. The stage was tastefully designed: A big sofa for the teacher next to a huge photograph of Guruji Sri Sri Ravishankarji with beautiful orchids and a cute Christmas tree.

Then over the next three and a half days, we were transported to a new world. Our instructor Ms Sangeeta Jani and her team led us into a new world of peace, silence and laughter. It was a typographer’s equivalent of an absolute white page without any marks. Straight out of Basel!

We did so many things – some of them spiritual, some of them crazy and naughty!.

All of us went on “silent mode” for two-and-half days. (Switching off the mobile phone itself is half way to spiritual nirvana!). It was hilarious, to attempt to speak without words – to see everyone gesturing wildly to convey a simple message.

Everyday, we got breaks from the class to walk around and explored the place. In the evening, we were encouraged to go on a nature trail. I bumped into an old friend at the course and we went on a foodie expedition which mostly ended at the Naturals ice cream parlour. Their staff would look at us sideways wondering who are these “goonga log” virtually cleaning up the shelves!

Btw, their new flavour, Guava icecream is fabulous!

Back at the course, we danced, we laughed, we shared our experiences with each other, we played cricket, football and kabaddi, we became babies, lions, peacocks, rabbits and elephants, we were dead and reborn. We sang, screamed and roared.

And we meditated to our heart’s content.

Lessons were from the Guru himself, taking us to a wonderful world of absolute peace. ‘Hollow and empty’ was an extraordinary experience and the happiness grew as we continued practising it!

In one of the sessions he asked: Imagine that you are going to die in the next one week. What will you do?

At first, I started counting the long list of "things to do..." and then realised it is all rubbish. Then the realisation came that what I believe is in a way good for peace. Do not have any desires... Then you can die a happy man whenever the "call" comes!

And then guruji gave the most important lesson of my life: If you die now, nothing will happen to the world. Life will go on as usual.

So true!

Something I always believed in!

So, what was so special about this course? There were 116 participants, aged between 17 and 70, from diverse professions. By lunch time on the first day, the place was brimming with positive energy and everyone around was happy! It is a very, very rare treat to be in a place full of radiant, beaming faces!

Morale of the story: There is no word called Depression in our dictionary.

JGD!

Acknowledgments:

Sri Sri Ravishankar, The Art of Living Foundation,

Sangeeta Jani, Vinaya Hegde, Neha Ahuja, Prem and Preeti Nambiar, Chandrasekhar, Swati, Rama, Shweta, Prasanna, S.P. Singh and all volunteers ( I don't know all the names ) who worked so sincerely for this wonderful course.

Mobile by default

2009-09-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

A headache in the pocket: Why i love my gmail !

First of all, the disclaimer:
Any Resemblance to Actual Events or Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental.

A few months back, my doctor shared one 'experience' with me. He started having chest pain and went for a check up. In an era, when even a patient with a running nose is also asked to go for full body MRI, my doctor (in his unfamiliar position on the other side of the fence) was also asked to some tests. A week later, doctors couldn't find out what is causing the chest pain. Then he met a smart cookie, who asked him what is kept in the shirt pocket. Then the bulb lit up like we see in Tintin comics....Eureka!!! He was keeping his mobile in his shirt pocket!
My Doctor stopped keeping his mobile phone anywhere near his chest and the pain vanished like "select-all-delete" in Photoshop!
And everyone lived happily ever after!

Cut to:
Yours truly, an avid nokia user and mobile phone lover, experienced a bit of a headache. And came across a few emails by Prof Girish from IIT B about the health risks of mobile phones on the human body.
I reduced talk time on my mobile phone from 60 minutes a day to 10 minutes a day.
My headache also went for a 'select-all-delete' !

This set me thinking about the "default" setting in our minds about how we use mobile phones.

Once the phone got liberated from the wires and started travelling everywhere with each one of us, personal space is vanishing. Everyone has access to everyone's personal space and it is 24 x 7!!. Irrespective of whatever the recipient is doing and where he is, the phone is going to shout and announce an incoming call (of course, we have the option of using the silent mode).

Most of us check emails atleast 5 times in a typical working day, between 9.00 to 5.00.
I realised that 90% of our mobile calls can be avoided if both the parties are having plenty of (and free) access to the internet.
If one person doesn't have access to the wild world web, there is SMS. I love the SMS option because the phone will not ring when you are driving or jumping into a bombay local train, crossing the dangerous main gate road in front of IIT or taking a class. The SMS gives a better clear picture of the purpose of communication and the most important thing is that the recipient can read the message as per convenience.

Today, I fell into this trap of "default" setting. I was flipping through my diary and realised that today is my close friend's birthday. Without thinking about anything, on the spur of the moment, I called him on his mobile. Poor friend, he took the call and said "I am driving, will call back...".
Then I realised that in the brain vs heart battle, my emotional self got the better of the logical self and made the call ! Maybe, an SMS saying Happy Birthday might be enough. I don't think a real friend will feel bad that I didn't make a personal call for a birthday!

When you get a call on the mobile, you don't have the time to "mentally prepare" for a conversation. In the case of SMS, I get all the time in the world to "mentally prepare" for tackling the message. Sometimes, I have predictable communication requests from friends.
There are people who call at the most inconvenient timings (like a working day 11.00am when there is a 99% chance that every working man is busy with official duties...........or on sunday at 2.00 pm when every human being on earth will be enjoying a siesta!) just to ask "How are You".
I really appreciate the concern...but I hate the timings!

Last few months, I was looking at the purpose behind calls I get on my mobile phone.
1. Courtesy calls: To ask "How are you?"...these can come at anytime the caller finds convenient. The recipient's convenience is never thought about. Recently I had to write a very bad mail to a friend who loves to call at 11.30 pm and 6.00 am. Thank god there is a "silent" mode in my handset!

2. To wish me "Happy Onam" personally. If you are roaming, you pay for incoming calls and god save you!

3. Asking the telephone number of common friends.

4. To add one more role to my already stressed out life: To make me play Agony Aunt (or uncle). They take out their problems one by one......I listen with patience and bite hard...think of god...yes he is there.....then visualise all the divine icons...test the patience again and again.
Yes it is there intact. Meditation really helps.

5. To save on recruiting agencies. Everyone in publishing wants to find a "designer".... " or my ex- student" who should be not only very very good at work, but who will work for the cheapest salary (or free). I stopped this free service long time back!

6. From telemarketing jerks offering life insurance and car loans.

Now I feel that most of these communication problems can be solved in email or SMS. Dialling on a mobile phone has become a way of life for many people. Like a 'default' setting. I wonder if we ever think about the person who is receiving the call. Will he be free when we are calling? Is it the right time? Is it important to make this call? Can the purpose of the call be solved using an SMS or email?

What about health hazards of mobile phones? Recently, I read about the extremely dangerous health problems faced by people staying in buildings which host the mobile transmission towers. Those who are in the top floors face a real danger due to radiation from the high power transmission towers.
There is no concrete evidence (or published evidence!) on the hazards of mobile phones on the human body, especially for those of us who use the phone close to the ear.
Even if there is scientific proof that mobile phones are bad for our health, that news will never appear in any newspaper! Which newspaper wants to sacrifice crores of advertising revenue from the mobile companies and service providers?
Long live the zoozoo!

Now for the flip side. Mobile devices empower us to stay connected when we are driving, in a train, on top of a hill, in a boat, in a hospital......wherever we are!
In case of an emergency, it is a wonderful tool to find out if our dear and near ones are safe.
For those who need help in an emergency, can contact family and friends very fast.

So my friends, please use more email and sms and give your mobile a holiday!

Good bye Nokia, Welcome Gmail!

But I still love the zoozoo ads:-)

Story of a WIV

2009-09-09T05:39:00.000-07:00

Recently I learned a very valuable lesson on the value of time. I happened to read a letter written by Dr. Sunil, an NRI, a classmate and friend of my brother.

Dear Dr. ......,
I would like to document some of the ayurvedic recipes developed by my grandmother for common medical problems. She has done a considerable amount of work in the area of natural medicine and handed over all the data to my mother. I would like you to discuss this with my mother in detail and work on a project to make a documentary film on this topic. Please give me the details of time required, total cost etc.
I am enclosing a demand draft of $ .............. for your valuable time needed at this initial stage of the project. Please let me know the time required there to encash this so that I can plan all future payments according to that.

This letter, dated some time in 2003, showed a very serious acknowledgment of the time taken by a person to finish a task. Dr. Sunil later told me that it is a way of life in USA, that they pay for whatever amount of time taken from others.
And even for social visits, he calls up and discusses the time slot convenient for both the parties!

Last month, I had a very sad experience-got one WIV (walk-in-visitor).
I was in M.S. University, Baroda and got a call from an old friend, who was keen on pursuing "research" in IDC.
"Where are you" I asked.
"In front of your cabin" - he said!
That was a shock!
He had come to IDC from a far away city without informing me!.
It was his first visit to IDC and had hundred questions.......whom to meet? where to stay? what to do ?

He didn't have any reason for dropping in without informing. I thought you will be in your room, he said!
Email, mobile phone, landphone, SMS, post office.......no mode of communication was useful here!

I am observing the trend now...About 90% of visitors I get are WIVs! The sad part of this trend is that I have missed meeting so many of my great friends because of this reluctance to inform in advance about a visit!

Maybe, the fact that I am in an academic institution might be playing in their minds...a kind of misunderstanding that a teacher will always be inside the dept and hence no need to fix a meeting! How cruel is that?

After that, I am very very careful about meeting people. I stopped going to anybody's cabin as a "walk-in-visitor". I try my best to call the person I want to meet and fix up a convenient time.
It is a very good idea to respect other people's time.

It is very very important to fix up a time slot to meet anyone, even your closest friend.
Most of us chalk out a list of things to do in a day and most of the tasks will have a deadline. What happens when there is an unexpected guest who takes half an hour from you? All other tasks get postponed by half and hour or some tasks are postponed to the next day!

The important lesson here is that the WIVs will never take responsibilty for problems created by our failure or delay in finishing our work.

Recently, I had a very serious issue with a chronic WIV who walks in to every cabin in the office and spends min 45 minutes in meaningless time pass conversation. He made sure no one can do any serious creative work in the office space! People who had to do any serious work had to go out and sit in other spaces to avoid this WIV!
Now cabins of many staff members are always empty, in fear of the WIV!

I have a friend, Mr. Sethu Das, the commander in Chief of "Friend of Tibet" organisation. He recently decided to spend half a day with me at IDC to discuss some issues on graphic design. The meeting was finalised one month in advance through email and he kept his time like a true perfectionist. It was one of the most memorable design discussions I have ever had, enlightening on both sides! Because of the advance notice, I could keep the entire time free of any disturbances and was totally relaxed.

A lesson for all of us.
Time is very very valuable, mine as well as yours.

Whose lifetime is it?

2009-06-10T02:28:00.000-07:00

Lifetime validity: dead or alive?

There are so many offers from mobile phone service providers which offer "Lifetime" validity of a new phone connection. They say that you can receive calls for a "lifetime", without charging your prepaid account. Happy and impressed customers flocked to get these schemes. You pay the minimum initial activation fee, a minimal top up and there you go! we can receive calls for a lifetime!
We never thought about this question: Whose "Lifetime" are they talking about?

1. "Lifetime" of the person who takes the prepaid connection?

2. "Lifetime" of the company who sells the account?

3. "Lifetime" of the mobile phone instrument?

4. "Lifetime" of the man who owns the mobile company?

If the answer is 1. then how will the company know when a customer is dead?

Confusion at its best.

I asked many of my friends this question, no body knew.

Then I came across Mr. Hebatpuria, our Reiki Master who gave out the "secret".
Lifetime means lifetime of the "particular license" under which a mobile company sells the pre paid connection to you.
If by chance, the license expires a year after you take this scheme, the "Lifetime" ends there!
Many mobile companies take full use of the "fine print" feature and puts a fine catch there. You have to recharge for a minimum of Rs 200/- every year to keep your "Lifetime" connection alive!

ISSUED IN PUBIC INTEREST*

*conditions apply ;-)

LeT there be darkness…

2008-12-01T08:41:00.000-08:00

It all started in a bank I visited long time back, when I was a student. I had to get some papers signed by the bank officials, was moving from one desk to another, trying to finish off the work. The movement of my file suddenly stopped at one desk. After waiting for half an hour, I asked the officer what was the next step. He gave me a dirty look and said that the clerk on the next table has to sign and put the rubber stamp on the papers. Surprsingly, the clerk who is going to give the ‘finishing touches’ to my papers was sitting in his place. Then what are we waiting for?, I asked. The officer told me that the peon has gone to get tea for the office. The peon has to take my papers from one table to the other which was about three meters away! If the peon is on leave, then I have to go back the next day!

That seems to be the problem with our administrators.

We are waiting for the peon to come and take our files from table to table, even if we can stretch our hands and pass it on…

My heart bleeds for all those who lost their lives in the terror attack here in Mumbai.

They laid down their lives so that peace is restored and all of us can live in peace.

Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar, Gajendra Singh, Shashank Shinde, Patil and Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan (are few names that come to my mind) had families waiting for them.

What is the scene from the family’s viewpoint? The dear one leaves home for work and then you get a message about “bad news” followed by condolence messages and a long line of politicians with flowers in their hands, hiding their blood stains.

And then there is darkness…

Many newspapers gave this interesting piece of news:

Intelligence agencies had informed at least a year ago that the Pakistan based jehadi outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) was planning to attack mumbai’s five-star hotels after coming to the city via the sea. (HT-Dec1st,2008).

Fishermens union says that they had informed the police a month back that there is a plan to smuggle RDX from Pakistan through Gujarat, enter Mumbai through the sea and carry out terror strikes.

CNN IBC shows a report they made in Feb 2006 about a “sting operation” they carried out- to smuggle a box of contraband through the sea, land in konkan coast and enter Mumbai.

They did.

They successfuly reached the gateway of India with the box.

Nobody checked the box. It was a peaceful journey. On the way, they visited several customs offices, talked to the officers, studied the “patrol” boats and shared the findings with the viewers. Customs officials at one place had three boats but one driver, who was on leave when the reporters reached there. One of the boats was not serviceable for more than a year. The report showed some staff members enjoying their sunday siesta in the boat.

"What will you do if we smuggle some weapons through this area?" - the journalists asked.

There was no answer.

Another report says that the NSG took 10 hours to reach Mumbai. The only plane they could find was in Chandigarh at that time. I wonder what they would have done if a minister was also trapped in one of the hotels. Can 200 NSG men travel in two smaller planes? Maybe they will, depending on the names of hostages.

There are more questions than answers to this jig saw puzzle…

What stops our administrators to realize the dangers of leaving our coastline with insufficient surveillance, when hundreds of news reports had pointed to our “special enemy” sending many consignments of weapons, explosives, training personnel and material, beautiful currency notes?

Is it rocket science?

My hypothesis is that the “unguarded coastline” was by design - not by accident or negligence.

There might be a lobby in action either to keep the coasts unguarded or to keep the modernization plans (if any) postponed indefinitely.

We need facts:

The need of the hour is to study all the official documents related to our country’s coastline, how much intelligence warnings the administrators got and how much understanding we have about the various terror groups and their competence.

We will start with the “porous” coast:

How much are the authorities aware of the grave danger posed by the porous coast?

How many terror attacks have taken place so far, where the enemy smuggled the raw materials through the sea?

How many administrators have pointed out the seriousness of the porous coastline and the need for revamping the coast guard?

How many home ministers have handled these issues and how did each one handle the situation?

Did anyone conduct a study on the preparedness of our security forces at the coastline?

Did anyone shoot down any proposals of modernization? When? How many times?

Do we have such a shortage of funds that we can’t afford modern equipments for our security forces?

Where is the bottleneck?

Do we need a home minister who will show some common sense in learning from our big big mistakes and take steps to create a better equipped coast guard?

To have better security in key locations?

To make sure that we don’t sit on intelligence warnings?

After almost every terror attack, we read this news: Intelligence agencies HAD warned the state administration.

Is there a pattern there? Do the administration take all warnings very lightly, by default?

Do they laugh it off?

How much do we spend on security to our ministers, their foreign trips and their facilities?

There is something wrong somewhere, maybe mistaken priorities?

After all what Partilsaab said was true: “Itna bada sheher mein…….”. (small incidents like this happen on big cities like this!!)

LeT there be darkness.

One for the Road

2008-07-06T01:39:00.000-07:00

Bottoms up:

Malayala Manorama, 6^th July, 2008.

A very interesting news item with a title “Hartalinu Ernakulam kudichuteerthathu 3 kodi”.

This roughly translates to “Ernakulam drank up 3 crores on Hartal day”.

Ernakulam district ‘celebrated’ a hartal day recently by consuming alcohol worth Rs 3 Crores! There was a 30 to 40% increase in the alcohol sales on the eve of the hartal day. Which means all “Bevadas” in Ernakulam decided to stock up their favourite brands to celebrate the hartal day!

Beverages Corporation, which has 46 outlets selling alcohol, recorded a rise of more than 50% increase in sales.

Another interesting development was the price of chicken. From Rs 50.00 per kilo, the price rose to Rs 62 for the hartal rush and all sellers enjoyed a two fold increase in sales volume. A few days before the hartal, the market was facing a shortage due to a truckers’ strike, but the hartal rush solved all the problems of the chicken market.!

So many people are happy! All wine shops, bar owners, chicken sellers and all alcoholics—hic!

Who “ordered” the Hartal? Why? What did they achieve from it?

Who takes responsibility for the consequences of the Hartal?

What happened to the court ruling banning all such Hartals in Kerala?

Who wants the answers?

Filled up with our favourite whiskey and belly stuffed with chicken, we are too drowsy to seek the answers…

One for the Road:

There was one more news item, tucked in a small box in a last page, with a small photograph of a 59 year old man.

“Hartal dinathil 10 kilometer cycle chavitti kuzhanjuveenu marichu”.

Which means “Died after cycling for 10 kilometers on Hartal day”.

Mr. M. A. Augustin (59) had to be present in a court on the Hartal day. Since all bus services were stopped, he was forced to cycle for 10 kilometers. He fainted after the 10 kilometer journey, in the court premises. Policemen in the court rushed him to the nearest hospital, but it was too late.

May his soul rest in peace.

---

Ani Tithech Mrutyu

2008-02-08T02:44:00.001-08:00

Pranam.
Prof. R.K. Joshi at the IDC-ICOGRADA design event, Feb 2007.

Prof. R.K. Joshi at the IDC-ICOGRADA design event, Feb 2007.

Prof. R.K. Joshi at the IDC-ICOGRADA design event, Feb 2007.

Prof. R.K. Joshi during his Calligraphy Workshop at IDC. September, 2005.

Prof. R.K. Joshi during his Calligraphy Workshop at IDC. September, 2005.

Prof. R.K. Joshi during his Calligraphy Workshop at IDC. September, 2005.

A Calligraphic expression by Prof. R.K. Joshi.

Image courtesy: Biju Neyyan, Sr VC student, IDC.

Image courtesy: Anand Bhandarkar, VC 1990-92 batch.

My adaptation of Anand Bhandarkar's work.

Image courtesy: Rajeev Prakash, VC 1988-1990 batch, IDC.

Image courtesy: Mr. Pankaj Sapkal (1990-92 PD batch)

Feb 14th, 2008.
Prof. R.K. Joshi's last rites were performed at the Sion crematorium, Bombay.
RK, as we called him, left this world on Feb 4th when he had gone to San Fransico for a seminar.
RK was a Guru in every sense of the word.
A great calligrapher, typographer, poet, teacher, orator, researcher.....there are no words to describe his genius.
He was a great source of inspiration to a large number of professionals in various areas of Graphic design- Calligraphy, Font design, Advertising, and many more like literature, theatre, fine arts, software, digital media etc.

I find myself lucky to be taught by him in IDC.
It was in 1990 june, I had joined IDC, IIT B as a student of Visual Communication.
Prof. Joshi opened up a new world in front of me - a beautiful world of letterforms. He used to talk very passionatley about letterforms...
He saw letters in a very different light, very very different from anyone else.
There was life, energy, mythology, movement, sound, form, meaning and GOD in every letter form.
All of us used to wonder when he used to bring old copies of U&Lc magazine to the class and talk animatedly about various fonts.... oh! look at that lowercase r of rockwell.....a of charter.........G of ITC veljovic........that "O" of poster bodoni............. Shoulder of "r", bowl of "g", descender of "y", tail of "Q"..............

It went on and on.

He was the most "expressive" teacher I have ever seen. RK supplemented his arguments with animated actions, great vocal expressions and movements. Sometimes, we all burst into laughter when he acted out themes.
Once he was explaining visual balance in letterforms and he imitated the way humans balance their bodies while travelling in bus. It was so animated and funny, but all the students who attended that will never forget how to visually balance letterforms.

He loved to use the word 'type'. Most of his sentences ended with that phrase "of the type".
When I started learning Typography more seriously, my friends used to tease me and urge me to add this phrase whenever I talk! Students, naughty as they are, love to make fun of teachers and we were no different. We used this term "RK of the type" frequently.

And there were the mimics. Students love to make fun and imitate their profs, however friendly and helpful they are! We all loved to imitate our profs and I was always at the forefront of these sessions! We used to make wonderful stories about each Prof and imitate them and RK's obsession towards A4 size sheet and "proper format" and "documentation" provided good ingredients to the fun.

In third and fourth semester, he was my project guide. I had taken a magazine redesign project in my second semester and it was a great learning experience. There were three students in the batch guided by him, working on three different topics and we met him every week. He had asked all of us to be present for all the three discussions. Later, I realised it was a great idea to listen and learn from other students' projects too. He urged all of us to take part in each others' project discussions and encouraged us to give suggestions.
At the beginning of the design project on magazine design, I was discussing my grid with him. I had measured the page area, column width etc in millimeters and all type specs were in pica system. Prof. Joshi explained to me the importance of standardisation- If you measure in millimeters, then measure everything that way. Then I shifted all my calculations to the Pica system (12 points to the pica, 72 points to the inch...). Calculations became simpler from there on! Later, in the industry I came across many magazine design groups where pica systems were used systematically.

As we moved towards the end of the project, he made all of us prepare a hand written project report, in A4 landscape, following the same format as the final printed version. He will take that report and spend a few days with it, reading each and every line of that report. When he gave it back, he had carefully gone through all the pages, text and visual and had given important feedback. Every spelling and grammar mistake was marked out, visuals had comments marked out.

I learned the importance of using correct language there.

Sometimes, we used to have unplanned discussions, and the topics ranged form manuscripts to drop initials to font design and poetry.

And then, there was "Binyas".
RK along with other scientists had worked on softwares for Font creation.
First was "Palatino" and the second one was "Vinyas" at NSCT, Bombay.
( A Bengali friend had pronounced it as 'Binyas' and the name stuck! )
Normally, font creation softwares like Fontographer and font studio followed the principle of defining font characters by creating the outline through a Bezier curve.
Vinyas followed a different principle: it allows the designer to create a spine first and then assign different brushes to it. It was good for calligraphic expressions and was great for typographic experimentation. I created a Malayalam equal thickness font as my Project-3 in this "Binyas" software.
It was a strange experience, the software at that time didn't support a mouse!
Now, people find it difficult to believe that one can design a font without a mouse!

He was the Head of IDC at that time, burdened with the duty of signing hundreds of official documents! We used to disturb him a lot with our "key permission forms" and requests for change of toner and all kinds of mundane things. I really wondered why we had to disturb a person like him for such mundane things!

When I joined IDC as a faculty, RK came to IDC once, when I was taking my first session on Typography. I had modelled some of my assignments on what RK had given us in 1990. I met him, touched his feet and took his blessings on my journey as a teacher in Typography. I told him that I have given the same assignment he had given us. Later, I arranged a discussion of my students with RK in IDC library where he talked to them at length about what designers can do for the world.
That was the time when the term "I.T" was getting very popular.
RK, with his animated actions, said "Nowadays, every child in this world wakes up and says 'IT!'

Then he gave me the MOST important lesson of life.
He said "I dont have any claim to any of the work I have done. There is a power up there - it is taking my hand and doing something. I am just a tool."
That was in 2000.

In 2007 feb, in the ICOGRADA-IDC event at the IIT convocation hall, he gave the next important lesson.
He gave a talk on his typographic research and work. One of the most memorable lectures I have ever seen - He finished his memorable lecture with a mention of Indian philosophy which talks about destruction of one's creation. The next slide showed his signature, which slowly pixelated into a white background.
The captions read: "I left the place as if I was not here before...".

The standing ovation was deafening.

Let me pay my humble tributes to a great legend.
My tears.
My typographic experiments.
Whatever work I have done in graphic design.
-All dedicated to HIM.

A quote from RK

Ek Akshar Likhav ----------------------- Write one Letter

Ek Tap Thambava --------------------- Wait for one lifetime

Mag dusara Akshar ------------------- Then another letter form

Ani Tithech Mrutyu -------------------- And Then there is Death

(Courtesy: Mr. Arun Kalwankar, ET, IIT B)

Like Prof. Nadkarni mentioned in his speech at the condolence meeting at IDC, we can't wish that 'may his soul rest in peace'...because he can never be resting in that sense...he was one of the most active people ever...
I was thinking............can we come to terms with a new situation......about going to a temple and we suddenly realise that the temple is there with an empty throne......the idol is not there....

The silence is deafening...

...

New PJ on Setu

2007-10-07T21:23:00.001-07:00

Lord Rama surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman,
how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this
bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the
ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is
indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at
Hyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day
even before they could stick the posters on its pillars."

Hanuman with all humility spoke, "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your
grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the
sea and they held. No steel from TISCO or cement from Ambuja or ACC was
ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."

Ram spoke ,"Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the
bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves a lot of money and lot
of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more
money on construction. "

Hanuman humbly bowed down and said, "Why not we go down and present our
case"

Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us
to submit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or school
leaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and some times in bullock
carts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as the address
proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself under
litigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire with
bow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may
take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under the
reserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece
suit and announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious.
So it is dilemma so to say."

"I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge."

"My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work.They will ask you to produce the
lay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how the
project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is accepted
without documentary evidence in India. You may cough but unless a doctor
certifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself
personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce
a life-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated."

"Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have given
darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Saint
Thyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and still
they disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth. The only
option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government
records straight once for all."

Lord smiled ."It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he may
look like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama
Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was in
the forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on earth
as long as certain Khan is around."

Jai Shree Ram

Tech can be tacky!

2007-09-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Last month, some Trojan virus laid siege on my Sony VAIO. It infected the Powerpoint files. Norton, AVG, Avast..... all of them caved in in abject surrender. Experts advised immediate reformatting. They showed me the process of reformatting and reinstalling the OS from the laptop itself (F10 is the magic key, they told me).
Accordingly, I started setting up the machine for internet access. TCP IP, gateway, DNS and whatever else you need to get that IE icon moving. Fifteen attempts and three days later, an expert came home, checked everything and declared that my personal firewall was “stopping” the machine from accessing the outside world! So Norton was using “Parental” control over me, I thought. He uninstalled many little “utilities” and after three hours, the access was granted!

Why was this utility blocking access to Internet? I wondered. One expert explained that many personal firewalls presume you need protection from “evil” forces in the outside world and take decisions for you.

They take decisions for me! That sounded scary.

At the same time, I felt vulnerable without Norton.

---------------------------------------------------------------

So far, I was “hard-connected” to the net, with the LAN cable attached to my laptop. Now I was about to enter the wi-fi world. A friend of mine gifted me a wonder gadget -- a wireless router – on my birthday. A tech-freak himself, he decided to set it up for me last December. He laboured for two to three days, trying to unravell the settings of the wireless box. I learnt some new jargon by the way: SSID, DHTP, etc. I watched as he went through the paces, poring over the user's manual and going through ALL the dialogue boxes thrown up by windows. The result, though, was worth it: we could use the laptop anywhere in the house!

Soon after the virus attack, I had to set up the wireless network afresh. The directions on the wireless router read, “Just insert the CD and follow the step-by-step procedure and you are wire-free!” I complied. Soon, I had a problem on my hands-- the problem of plenty.

I was flooded with a host of “Assistants” eager to aid the installation! One popped out of the balloon from my taskbar; the second one came from Windows; the third from the CD I had inserted. These three kept up a constant barrage of do's and dont's. I felt like a child facing three teachers (each brandishing long canes in their hands) at once. Worse, each was talking at cross-purposes. Sigh! Whatever happened to old-world schools that allowed us to handle on teacher at a time!

Next, the installation CD wilfully stopped short of the last step, refusing to instruct what to do next. Windows too seemed to have caught the mood. It refused to set up a new wireless as I had used a third party software earlier.

After celebrating my limited success in eliminating all my teachers one by one, I wearily summoned some expert engineers who struggled with my lap-top and wireless router for two days. When they accepted defeat, I bravely looked at all the screens all over again: DNS, gateway, DHTP, WINS and lots of new gobbledygook.

Of course, the balloons were back. They told me all sorts of things, reported problems, constantly offered help but never could. I got nostalgic about the good old macintosh days, when the balloons always gave enough hints at solving the problem.

At some point, the `experts' shouted Eureka. They'd finally got the settings right. Victory was ours, and was it sweet!

But I still hate the wizards and the balloons. They are a serious problem. These assistants were constantly with me, watching my every move, registering my movements through email accounts, surfing, credit card numbers, etc. Everything about me was online and available with them. I had no escape.

Let me take you through this torture in chronological order. When I start my laptop, so many balloons and windows “offer” to take me through guided tours: a tour of Sony VAIO, the features of Windows XP, MS office, Netgear, Wacom.....it goes on and on.

Then I open my browser to check my email. When I start typing my username and password, a new wizard comes and offers to remember my password. If I go to check my bank balance, it again makes an uncomfortable offer.

Every now and then, a tiresome window warns me that I am about to see an “insecure” item. Do you really want to see? it wants to know. The silver lining is a cute button at the bottom, which says, “Do not ask again”. If I click on that it doesn't come your way again!

Even as I write, there is one fellow who wants to help me type out my blog post. Start Menu- All Programs-- MS word. I start typing and there he is! This assistant offers help in typing an official letter.

What is happening here? Why do these wizards assume we won't remember passwords, we can't type and official letter on our own, or format them, we can't change the gateway settings on our own, we can't decide if we need “protection” from internet?

I am afraid of the future.

A future when these wizards will enter our real world. When you get up, a wizard will peep in and announce, “It seems you are about to get up. To get up on the right side, click this. To jump from the bed, click here. To sleep for ten more minutes, click here.”

When you try to brush your teeth, one f the genies will shout, “It looks like you are going to brush your teeth. Since you are using Windows Vesta version 1000 toothbrush, Colgate gel is not compatible.

Try rebooting with Windows compatible Pepsodent XP or Close Up”.

When we take our favourite soap, a wizard will freeze your hands and announce “Jaguar shower is compatible only with Lux shower gel”.

If you go to a bar, you might hear them mumble, “Looks like you are going to drink. Please register your version of drinkingforfun software ver 45.0 and click on drink. Conditions apply.”

And let's not even think about sex!

Being religious--Who Me?

2006-04-21T03:22:00.000-07:00

21^st April 2006.

What is so bad about being religious?

I am wondering why are some people shy about being religious. This was triggered off by an interesting event last week. I happened to visit a temple on my way to work. This was a habit which evolved over the last one year. There is a small Ganesha temple outside Kurla station in Bombay. I have to change trains at this station and it was very nice experience going to this temple in the morning. At the peek hour traffic, commuters stop in the middle and spend a few seconds—and a few dedicated ones spend minutes—bowing before the idol, close the eyes and enjoy those ‘moments of peace’.

On my last visit, when I came out of the temple, I bumped into a student of mine. He looked very very uncomfortable and seemed to be unhappy that he met me in a temple. I was wondering what went wrong. In a tense and apologetic tone he requested me not to tell anyone in the institute that I met him in the temple! I promised him to keep this a ‘secret’ and walked off.

It rang a bell.

I realized many hindus, especially from the young generation, seem to be ashamed of being religious. I am wondering why! We feel shy to be seen in a temple, it is considered very “old fashioned’ and ‘orthodox’ to go to a temple, it is considered ‘out of sync’ if we listen to a bhajan, it is out of fashion to pray to God!

Why is it happening to us?

Look at other communities—Christians never feel shy to go to church, Muslims never feel shy to offer namaz. Why are hindus so shy of our own rituals?

I had this ring tone of the bhajan “Om Jai Jagdeesh Hare” in my mobile and many of my students used to laugh when they heard it! They found me old fashioned!

Remember the film ‘Kuch kuch hota hai’? When Tina finds out Rahul comes to the temple every Tuesday, she feels so nice about it—BUT Rahul pleads with her not to tell his college friends about this! I think it is a wonderful and truthful commentary about religion today. While a Christian and Muslim is proud to be what they are, Hindus have to feel shy about being a hindu!

I am not forgetting the fanatics and the rath yatra specialists and the moral policing hypocrites!

I am talking about the younger generation, the yuppies and the next gen—gen X!

It is worth an effort to look into the psychological aspect of this.

Rahul in ‘Kuch kuch hota hai’ and my student in front of the Ganesha temple believe that their ‘modern’ and ‘macho’ image will be destroyed by the tag of being religious—the very sight of them near a temple!

Did the british do this? Maybe, after they brainwashed us into believing that everything Indian is bad and everything western is great and God’s gift to mankind!

Sunrise and Windows

2005-06-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

When did I see a sunrise last?
I am wondering for sometime about this-when was the last time I saw a sunrise? I remember seeing that on a coffee bottle whenever I shop for groceries! What about the real one? Last month, on a flight to Chennai, I saw sunrise. Before that? One sunrise I can never forget is one at Kochi, near Lakeshore hospital. That sunrise is a part of an experience I am trying hard to forget. But this sunrise on the way to Chennai was very nice!
It was an Indian Airlines flight and the AC was not working. Many passengers complained, many of them were rude. After some time, a senior air-hostess came to answer the people who were complaining. I overheard the last part of their coversation...She was saying: "This is the first flight of the day and it takes time for the AC to start. What can we do?"
Strange-an AC of an airbus A320 takes 40 minutes to start?
No apologies and no word from the captain. May be, he was not aware of all this.
We didn't have any minister on board to force his way and open the emergency door!

I was giving a talk at Chennai and I asked this question to the partcipants. There was a deafening silence after that. After some uneasy moments and lots of ..., ..... and .... and pauses most of them said they dont even remember when was the last time they saw a sunrise!.

When was the last time you saw a Windows screen or a keyboard or an ATM machine? Very easy to answer!

This throws up so many uneasy thoughts in my mind. Are we moving so much away from nature that we dont see any of the beautiful experiences gifted to us?
Are we being cleverly engineered to believe that webshots sunrises are better?
We start to believe that a computer can solve all our problems?
Everything is turning digital. Searching for a partner, fixing up a date, chatting, exchanging notes, finding out astrological compatability (see the kareena-shahid advt in TOI today?), finding a name for a new born baby, fixing up a holiday, booking a ticket, bill pay, applying for a loan..............everything is digital now. Of course, some are very useful.....I loved the onlinesbi site and use it to pay so many bills........it is very convenient to book your tickets online!
But how dependant are we on computers?
Should I spend some time without this digital leash?
Once my wife was looking at a sunset and pointing out to a lovely streak of some unusual colours in the sky. I looked at it and my first reaction was that " Oh! Looks just like a clour correction in Photoshop!". Wife lost it. She screamed about my fixation towards macintosh and photoshop.
A year later, I was wandering about at the faculty of fine arts and M.S. University, Baroda (my alma matter) and looking at the annual display of work by passing out students.
It was a great experience looking at the works of Painting and Sculpture students! I always feel so small and humble and sense my ego getting smaller and smaller when I see these kind of students doing such brilliant work.
Every visit to an art school teaches me lots of lessons.
The most important one is to take time off from Macintoshes and Windows and start looking at the world beyond that!
Thanks to my wife and all those brilliant artists and art students who keep reminding me of many more surises to see!