Olafur Eliasson
We visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of San Francisco (sfmoma.org) this Saturday. I had read about this exhibition by Olafur Eliasson in The Economist and realised it was going to be a great set of installations. The display was named "Take your time: Olafur Eliasson".

The Frozen Car was the first exhibit we saw. (the "art" name of the entry is "Your mobile expectations")



He made an ice sculpture around a BMW car and kept the whole thing frozen. They give you blankets before you enter this -14 degrees centigrade room. How did they move it to SFO from their studio in Berlin?

We went through his "One Way Color Tunnel" next and it was officially awesome! It's like walking inside a kaleidoscope.



You are surrounded by bold colors when you look forward but once you turn back everything is black. Okay, it's white in the picture below but it was black in the SFO installation!



Along with the 360 degrees room (see below), this was the entry I was looking forward to the most. Then we looked at the various minor geometric creations he did over the years, probably as a kid?

We moved on to his Dark Water exhibit (actual name: Notion Motion). It's a screen that shows glowing ripples of water projected on to a screen like in a cinema. If anything is 'ethereal' this is! We later went backstage to see how he got the exhibit up. It was just a flat puddle of water with a powerful floodlight reflecting off of it. The exhibit room also has a plank you can hit to create your own ripples!



The way led to the "Room for one colour', where the light plays with our eyes to make you look bluish to each other! It's one of the things where you have to be there. It might be mildly disturbing if you stayed in that room for too long!



His Infinite Mirrors installations were cool too, with people seriously lining up to have a look! He lined the walls of a miniroom with mirrors and when you look into it from a window, you find yourself infinite times in the 6 directions. It was almost like sitting in a saloon in Nellore, only a lot more artistic :)

I was getting worried by this time because we hadn't found the 360 degree room yet. This was the entry they had all over the sfmoma banners in downtown SFO. It was the last thing we saw and it was very cool as I expected it to be.



There were some other entries too. Most of his work cannot be photographed and photography was prohibited anyway.

Modern art is usually boring, (just look at the other floors of the museum!) and we are mostly right when we ask 'Are you kidding?'. The rest of the museum was the kind where you had to struggle to find the 'art'. This guy was pretty normal compared to the others! He had some 'art' too but many of the entries were cool and amusing, even to us who use the word 'art' derogatively! I hope more artists did enjoyable work instead of this and this.
- posted by V G @ 12:34 PM 1 comments

 
Identify the personality - another fun game
Prakash started this thread with a few questions from a quiz at his office.
Intentionally not displaying the answers :)

She obtained a law degree from Govt. Law college,Mumbai. She was very good tennis table tennis player and won many inter-college tournaments. She was voted "College Queen" of MJ college. Her husband name is Devisingh. This was her third marriage.

a peepal tree , a banana tree , a idol , ??

He has a center named after him in a big city. It is a historic landmark.
He created, ran and finally lost control of his own company. Eventually the company was broken into multiple companies.
He was a great philanthropist.

He was born in Delhi as the second of three children.
His son is a graduate student at Stanford.
He fell down from a mango tree when he was a teenager, critically injuring himself.

He was born in Cuttack.
When asked why he was resigning from the Indian Civil Service, he replied - I studied to educate myself, not to serve the British.
He later became the Mayor of Calcutta.

X's Odoru Maharaj (The Dancing Maharaja) found a special mention in the context of strengthening of Indo-Japan ties as Manmohan Singh addressed Japanese law on 14th Dec, 2006. Manmohan Singh referred to this in his address to the joint session of Diet and said he was delighted to hear about its popularity among the young Japanese. He, also added that Japan's Odori Asimo (the dancing robot) was also impressing children in India, a remark that received much applause from the Japanese parliamentarians. Thus X helped improve the Japan-India relations.

Her real name is Nilanjana Sudeshna. A schoolteacher, who found her given name too long, used her nickname instead and it stuck. She wrote under that name; one of her major works has a character who was supposed to have a "good name" sent by his grandmother in India which gets lost in the mail.

who uses the nickname "kvkkvk" for us to see in the group ?

Cotton Prices , IBM , New York , Sierpinski Gasket
* Looking for a name or a situation / discovery.

He was an African (eunuch by some accounts).
He was sold in the slave market of Baghdad.
He rose to prominence in Delhi.
He was responsible for the downfall of the Kakatiyas of Warangal.

He used to correspond with Tipu Sultan reg fighting against the British.
He had a pet eagle when he was a child.
During battles, he used to observe it from a high vantage point, using messengers to orchestrate his troops.

He was supposedly born with clotted blood in his fist.
He "fascinated" Nehru.
The giveaway clue: He is the direct ancestor of 0.5% of people on our planet due to his lack of family planning.

He was closer to his step-mother than to his own father.
He was so strong that he could split rails.
The giveaway clue: He was one of the first examples of diligent students studying under street lights!

He is currently in Minnesota.
He'll be out of prison in 2028.
During an interview for admission into the Harvard Business School he was asked if he was smart. He famously replied, "I'm effing smart".

He ran away from his home to Visakhapatnam once.
He convinced the district collector of Nellore to help him financially while he continued his "work".
His wife died in 1994.

He was a student of medicine.
One of his photographs is supposedly *the* most famous photograph in the world, appearing in a lot of formats like t-shirts.
He took a one year trip with his friend on a motorcycle that changed his life.

He used to read while driving, (ending up in accidents).
He proposed to his first wife like this: "We might have some fun, since we both like to drink"
Remember the question of two approaching trains and a bird flying repeatedly from one train to another until they collide? When he came up with the answer almost instantly, he was asked, "So you know the trick solution?". He reportedly answered, "No, I solved the infinite series"

He came to the USA when he was a child.
He had three sons and a daughter.
One of his sons died before he died.

At an age of 30, still single, he was arrested for rash driving under the influence of alcohol near Maine. He pleaded guilty, was fined $150, and had his driver's license suspended for two years. The impact was severe and when he got married, he decided to join the Methodist church along with his wife.

He is a billionaire. He was into textile manufacturing earlier.
His family holds 70% stake in his new venture. He has setup parks which produce power.

He was one of the first employees of the company. He was the co-author / co-architect of the first three versions of the flagship product. He created the sample user (with his last name) and put the name of his pet as password for the user.

His name means legs. He is not too tall (4 ft X in) and not too heavy (5X kgs).
He wears a "backpack" always.

He crashed his airplane.
He still receives paycheck from the company he co-founded even though he is not a full time employee there anymore.
When he was young, he built a radio station and got an amateur radio license.

His was the first company to license Unix from AT&T.
He used to ask people to draw the outline of USA as a test of memory.
He used to tweak his school's computer so that the girls and boys he liked would be in his class section.
- posted by V G @ 4:46 PM 0 comments

 
Sammelan Video

- posted by V G @ 12:26 PM 1 comments

 
Identify the telugu song - A fun viral game
మొన్న వంశీ "ఎడమ చేతను శివుని విల్లు విరిచిన ఆ రాముడే , ఎత్తగలడా సీత జడను తాళి కట్టే వేళలో" అని మొదలు పెట్టాడు ఆటని. వెంటనే రాంబాబు (డోలా) "రామచక్కని సీతకు - గోదావరి" అని రిప్లై కొట్టాడు. అప్పుడే అర్థమైంది ఇదేదో చాలా పెద్ద వ్యవహారం అవుతుందని. నేను "తీసే శ్వాసే ధూపం చూసే చూపే దీపం" అని అడిగి నిద్రపోయాను . స్టాలిన్ లో పాట అని వంశీ గెస్ కొట్టాడు. చిరంజీవి పాటే కానీ ఆ మూవీ కాదు! మధు ఈలోపల "పువ్వుల చొక్కా తొడిగావంటే ఎవరీ మన్మథుడని అంటారయ్యా నిన్ను" అని అడిగాడు. అందాలరాముడు అని రాంబాబు చెప్పాడు. కొద్దిసేపటికి వంశీ Google లో వెతికి నేనడిగిన పాట "లలితప్రియకమలం - రుద్రవీణ" అని కనిపెట్టాడు. ఇంక Google ని ఈ ఆటలో ఇల్లీగల్ చేయాలని అనుకున్నా, తర్వాత్తర్వాత జనాల స్పీడ్ చూస్తే ఆ అవసరం లేదని తెలిసిపోయింది. వంశీ ఆన్సర్ చూసి "యదార్థం చేదుగుంటది, పదార్థం చెత్తగున్నది" అని అడిగాను. వెంటనే సందీప్ "ఒంపుల వైఖరి - ఏప్రిల్ 1 విడుదల" అని రిప్లై కొట్టాడు. సినిమా కరెక్టే కానీ పాట - "మాటంటే మాటేనంట". ఇది పక్కరోజు మధ్యాహ్నం వరకూ జరిగిన కథ.

అసలు గోల నిన్న రాత్రి మొదలైంది. జనాలు సెకండ్స్ లో పాటలేంటో చెప్పెయ్యటం. హైదరాబాద్, బెంగుళూరు, మినియాపోలిస్, సనీవేల్ - జాగ్రఫీ తో సంబంధం లేదు. ఇక ఉత్సాహం ఆపుకోలేక మా గొలుసుకథ ఒరిజినల్ ఆడియన్స్ ఆదిత్య కూడా ఆటలో కలిశాడు. నేను "తహతహ తరగదు అలజడి అణగదు తనసొద ఇది అని తలపును తెలుపదు" అని అడిగాను. "ఈ మనసే - తొలిప్రేమ" అని సందీప్ చెప్పేసి "నిద్దరనే సెలవడిగి, ఇద్దరినీ కలవమని" అని అడిగాడు. "బంతి, చామంతి" అని మధు చెప్పాడు. ఈ లోపల ఆదిత్య అడిగిన "అందంగా ఉంది, తన వెంటే పది మంది" కి కూడా "బొమ్మని గీస్తే - బొమ్మరిల్లు" అని మధు చెప్పి "చేరువైన రాయబారాలే చెప్పబోతే మాటమౌనం" అని అడిగాడు. "మళ్లీ మళ్లీ ఇది రాని రోజు" అని ఆదిత్య, నేను చెప్పాము.

తర్వాత "పడుచు తపనలివి తెలుసుగా, మన్నిస్తున్నా చెలిగా" అని అడిగాను. కొద్ది సెకండ్స్ లోనే "కరిగిపోయాను కర్పూర వీణలా" అని సందీప్, ఆదిత్య రిప్లైలు కొట్టేశారు. Google వాడకుండా ఇది ఎలా సాధ్యం అని వంశీ ఆశ్చర్యం! ఇంతలో "వుడికించే చిలకమ్మా నిన్నూరించే, వొలికించే అందాలే ఆలాపించే" అని ఆదిత్య అడిగాడు. "ఒక బృందావనం - ఘర్షణ" అని రాంబాబు చెప్పాడు. సినిమా కరెక్టే కానీ పాట - "నిన్ను కోరి" అని సందీప్, మధు, నేను చెప్పాము. "శృంగారవీధుల్లో చిందేసుకో, మందార బుగ్గల్ని చిదిమేసుకో" అని మధు ట్రేడ్ మార్క్ పాట అడిగాడు. "కాశ్మీరు లోయలో - పసివాడి ప్రాణం" అని సందీప్ చెప్పేశాడు. నేను "నా కోసమే చినుకై కరిగి, ఆకాశమే దిగదా ఇలకు" అని అడిగాను. "అలుపన్నది ఉందా - గాయం" అని ఆదిత్య చెప్పాడు.

మొట్టమొదటి ఆన్సర్ లేని పాట మధు ఇప్పుడు అడిగాడు "నువ్వక్కడ నేనిక్కడ నింగక్కడ నేలిక్కడ" అని. చిరంజీవి పాట అని మిస్లీడ్ చేసి ఎవరూ చెప్పలేకపోయేసరికి "చిరు చెయ్యేస్తే - స్టైల్" అని తప్పించుకున్నాడు. నేను "నువ్వే నా లక్కు, నీ మీదే హక్కు" అని అడిగాను. శివ సినిమా అని మధు గెస్ కొట్టాడు (పాట ఆనందో బ్రహ్మ). తర్వాత "పాలల్లో మీగళ్లు, పరువాల ఎంగిళ్లు" అని అడిగాడు. "చక్కిలిగింతల రాగం - కొదమసింహం" అని ఆదిత్య, నేను చెప్పాము.

ఈ సారి ఒక పదం మాత్రమే ఇచ్చాను "రుద్రమకు". అయినా సందీప్, ఆదిత్య చెప్పేశారు "ఊర్వశీ - ప్రేమికుడు" అని. మళ్లీ "మైథలాజికల్" అని అడిగాను. "లేచిందే లేడికి పరుగు - మనీ" అని ఆదిత్య చెప్పాడు. "కాలి మువ్వగ నిలిచెను కాలము" అని అడిగాడు. నేను అప్పటికే అడిగేసిన పాట అది, "లలితప్రియకమలం - రుద్రవీణ" అని చెప్పి "చిట్టా" అని అడిగాను. ఎవరూ చెప్పకపోవటంతో "అమ్మమ్మలు తాతయ్యలు - నువ్వే కావాలి" అని చెప్పి "అనుకోని రాగమే అనురాగ దీపమై" అని అడిగాను. "పూసింది పూసింది పున్నాగ - సీతారామయ్యగారి మనవరాలు" అని రాంబాబు చెప్పి "ఓడిపోవాలి స్వార్థం, ఇల మరచిపోవాలి యుద్ధం" అని అడిగాడు. "కొత్త బంగారులోకం - దొంగ దొంగ" అని మధు, నేను చెప్పాము.

ఆదిత్య "కసి కసి చూపులతో కొస కొస మెరుపులతో" అని అడిగాడు. "గిలిగా గిలిగిలిగా - రాక్షసుడు" అనుకున్నాను కానీ, ఆదిత్య కాదు అనేసరికి "ఇందువదన - ఛాలెంజ్" అని మధు, రాంబాబు, నేను చెప్పాము. మధు "నీ కత్తి దూసెయ్యి దూసెయ్యి" అని అడిగాడు. "ప్రేమిస్తే ప్రాణమిస్తా - మెకానిక్ అల్లుడు" అని ఆదిత్య చెప్పాడు. నేను "వేణువా వీణియా" అని అడిగి తర్వాత "ఏమిటీ గానము" వస్తుంది అని హింట్ ఇచ్చాను. "సుమం ప్రతిసుమం" అని ఆదిత్య చెప్పాడు.

తర్వాత పాటలు కాకుండా మాటల మీదకి ఆట మళ్లింది. దాని కథ ఇంకొక రోజు!
- posted by V G @ 11:35 PM 0 comments

 
Discussion on Intelligent Design
Vijay Started it

***

Here's a famous example, assume you find a watch in some field. You'd immediately conclude that it was made by someone right? Would you be willing to believe that the particular watch you found "evolved" from some primitive stuff?
They apply this argument to complex pieces of apparatus like the human eye. Another frequently used argument is called "irreducible complexity", blood-clotting needs about 12 proteins (all of them) to work in tandem for it to occur.
They say that such systems are irreducibly complex, lack of anyone protein disturbs the process. It must mean someone should have designed the process, an "Intelligent Designer".


**************

Sujith

*************

Vamshi, I guess, you knew this was coming ..

But I take umbrage to the fact that you mentioned this in the same breath as the so called saffronization of history ..

Aren’t we talking similarities between Oranges and apples here.. ?

e.g.

Apples : Evolutions.. say the horse came from the donkey .. ID says nopes, horse came from someone who wanted humans to ride ..

One is provable.. one is not ..

Oranges : Someone might say , Aryans invaded from North west.. , others might not agree and that it might have been a peaceful migration..

Both are just different ways of “recorded” history .. neither Is provable..

And what is proven .. might not be addressed .. ( Temple remains in Ayodhya .. ) .. :D

Let me digress.. Let things be discussed.. why are we putting things under the carpet..

Someone famous said “ Nobody can stop an idea , whose time has come “..

Similarly may I say … “Nobody can ever perpetuate an idea, whose value is not forthcoming “..

Isn’t the current version of history “leftized “ .. Mooplar rebellion on the Malabar coast ?

Massacres and Freedom struggles can be made to look different when painted with a fresh set of paint..

Why do we still depend on the British to provide us with our history ?

President Kalam writes in his book.. “In our entire history , we have not attacked another country .. “ .. That is plain wrong..

Just look for the temple remains.. in Cambodia .. I read one article.. some months back.. which said..

The kind of brutality that the Tamil Kings committed in Indo China .. ( old Malaya.. circa 1300 AD , is second to none.. )

One king it seems had decided to move his capital to the other side of Bay of Bengal.. probably explains why .. no remains of

His kingdom remains here ..

One more recent article from http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/19spec2.htm

How is that I have never heard about this ever in my life till now ?

As they say, one man’s hero is another man’s villain ..

-sujith

***************

Vijay..

*********

History discussions are usually painful.

The "Intelligent Design" debate has a chance of being resolved at least after a few thousand years. By 10000 AD, Evolution might explain everything about life or we might have become familiar with the aliens from Andromeda who designed the life on earth.

Aryan Invasion Theory and other such controversial things have no such luck (until we invent time travel!). We have to depend upon written history which is woefully incomplete. Unknown stuff is scary. How are you going to "prove" that ancient people from India DID NOT go to Egypt and build the pyramids? You say there is no evidence? I can argue it just hasn't been found yet. Most of history has to make do with what it has, not what could have been found.

Some hyper-radical views of 18th century british historians have mostly been discredited. No one seriously backs the AIT any more. Sujith mentioned british historians and leftist historians in the same breath as well. It has a little explaining to do. How Indian history was perceived by both was a little different. Early british versions of Indian history angered our nationalists (for obvious reasons) and they lashed back with their own flowery versions. Neither approach is really useful.

Sujith & Vijay, thanks for the nice discussion ..

Sujith, I continue to have this problem with you :-) .. you are taken by one (in my opinion) insignificant sentence in the whole mail and you are out on a trail .. I guess the context was clear .. I was never subscribing, much less recommending, to any of the versions of history, right ya left by making the sort of comparison .. (on second look, I wouldn't even have brought it in for I feel the saffronisation will gain credence by equating it with the ID discussion .. okay, I am kidding) .. to use your own metaphor, I wasn't comparing Apples and Oranges .. I was just saying both Apples and Oranges are fruits .. can't you take things that simple .. or has someone proclaimed a ban on using both those words in a single sentence or paragraph .. ufff ..

And Vijay, nice points you have raised .. A few thoughts from my side .. Only research should prove other research wrong .. nice thoughts .. but which research is right .. more so when every historian worth his salt is tagged by a faith and there are always doubts on the methods of analysis themselves .. plus all historic (so-called) facts are always readily discredited .. "History is written by winners" is the common refrain (though I think that's an all-pervasive convenient argument to counter anything inconvenient) .. Objective evaluation is an ideal we all can aspire for but which I think is humanly impossible .. for each of us (however learned and matured) have our own notions/beliefs/hunch/gut whatever .. plus there is that issue of convenience/inconvenience of all people in power making the process that much difficult .. but having said all that (even going beyond the point while doing so), I go by every word you said .. all misgivings considered, if not for anything, the leftists view "seems" non-prejudiced for it's mostly devoid of extremes .. I think that's the way the world is, any given time ..

And yes, history discussions are painful .. but interesting too .. :-)
- posted by andhramahabharatam @ 1:02 PM 2 comments

 
A Trip to Nandi Hills
It did not rain much.
Yes,It did not rain as much as we expected.
But there was few showers in the middle to remind us there have been heavy rains in bangalore
for the last few days.



All the photographs have been very colourful because of the Jil-Jil shirts.



Long drive.Everybody enjoyed it .


There were 8 bikes to carry 15 people.


Lots of Photos.Both individual and group photos.







There were some hiccups as well, Kalyan falling down from bike, VB getting caught by the traffic police.





Earlier in the morning, Sammelan started with few calls from NRIs Sandeep,G.Vij
and Prakash.



We just had heavy breakfast ..no lunch , And then had heavy dinner.


- posted by andhramahabharatam @ 6:45 AM 2 comments

 
Maa Lokam - Golusu Katha
Maa Lokam is story written by a group of people almost independently.

The chain story has been moved to new blog.

http://golusukatha.blogspot.com

Sammelan
- posted by andhramahabharatam @ 1:53 PM 1 comments