DEMONstrate @demonstrate-blog-blog - Tumblr Blog

Incredible India - sound journey - Punjab

tung tung da sound bajda...

rural olympics, tractors, folk singers, tractor sounds, bullet thump, and all the sounds under the sun....

Goan Gujju in Africa

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Liberia to be precise...

Liberia has a pretty interesting history. Fun trivia – Liberia is the only other country which follows the imperial unit system like US does. You know - those units which make less sense in rest of the world – gallons, miles, Fahrenheit etc... The reason for this is pretty interesting and a quick glance at their history will put things in perspective. A further glance at their recent history will answer queries on US (ironically) and other countries had imposed sanctions, why an eight of water vessels on earth are registered in Liberia, and why all major natural resource companies (metals, minerals, oils etc.. ) are flocking to this country.

Don’t worry if you didn’t know of any of these (let alone where it is on the map). I found about the country when my friend ‘goan gujju’ decided to take the leap and explore the unchartered. Read his ramblings here - gujjuinliberia.blogspot.com. He has invited suggestions to expand his ‘to-do’ list, so do pour in your African dream over there.

#liberia #Life

Incredible India - sound journey - Punjab

tung tung da sound bajda...

rural olympics, tractors, folk singers, tractor sounds, bullet thump, and all the sounds under the sun....

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

#MTV #punjab #travel #India

Goan Gujju in Africa

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Liberia to be precise...

Liberia has a pretty interesting history. Fun trivia – Liberia is the only other country which follows the imperial unit system like US does. You know - those units which make less sense in rest of the world – gallons, miles, Fahrenheit etc... The reason for this is pretty interesting and a quick glance at their history will put things in perspective. A further glance at their recent history will answer queries on US (ironically) and other countries had imposed sanctions, why an eight of water vessels on earth are registered in Liberia, and why all major natural resource companies (metals, minerals, oils etc.. ) are flocking to this country.

Don’t worry if you didn’t know of any of these (let alone where it is on the map). I found about the country when my friend ‘goan gujju’ decided to take the leap and explore the unchartered. Read his ramblings here - gujjuinliberia.blogspot.com. He has invited suggestions to expand his ‘to-do’ list, so do pour in your African dream over there.

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

#liberia #Life

Boston, Glasses and India

Boston is a beautiful city, known for its history, culture, food and a lot more... The city throws up many surprises not found in any guides/books. One beautiful surprise is the Glass Harmonica. Invented by benjamin Franklin, the instrument produces melodius music. This adds one more invention to Benjamin Franklin's list... Is there anything which he did not do??? So, coming back to the Instrument, you might have seen something similar in the movie 'Ms Congeniality', where sandra bullock play music out of some wine glasses. The Instrument uses the same concept of rubbing wet fingers over the rim of wine glasses. But the clever Mr. Franklin took those glases, removerd the stem and put them on a spindle.

So if you do happen to visit Boston, head out to harward square or the paul revere house. You might find Vera Myer playing beautiful melodies on the Glass Harmonica. She might even stop you to ask which country you belong too, and chances are she might play your national anthem or a famous folk song. BTW... she like jana, gana, mana.... :)

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

#boston #travel

Different form of art

Taken at Guggenheim Museum

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

Bapu in ny

Taken at Union Square Park

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

The Art of Nandalal Bose

Which is the most iconic sketch on Gandhi? Not the Nehru clan - Mahatma Gandhi. Chances are you either remember the sketch on dandi march or the one we used to see on DD. Am still trying to figure who to be credited for the DD sketch - i somehow (read through propreitary internet search technique) found who drew the dandi sketch. In addition to the "gandhi-walking-towards-dandi" sketch, Nandala Bose (or Basu??) was a teacher, principal at Shantiniketan and a wonderful artist. Along with his disciples, he designed the constitution of India (designed - not drafted). Or rather provided illustrations, calligraphy and border art for the constitution of Republic of India. More details on art on the constitution in later posts. But as for now - some of Nandlal's art:

Nandlal Bose, Artist, 1882 - 1996

Also Nandalāla Basu

A gifted and lyrical draftsman, Bose was a highly creative and intellectual artist and teacher whose work never remained static. Throughout his long career he explored a variety of styles and diverse mediums that captured his poetic—almost religious—vision of nature.

Nandlal Bose was born in 1882 in Bihar. He studied at the Calcutta Government College of Art under Abanindranath Tagore between 1905-10. He taught at the Indian School of Oriental Art and was principal at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan between 1922-51.

Since 1911, Bose has exhibited in several national and international exhibitions

source; http://www.contemporaryindianart.com/nandlal_bose.htm & http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/322.html?page=2

Imp links

nandlal bose - fb page (yeah - he even has an fb page)

nandlal bose - wiki page

nandlal bose - bio - calcuttaweb

nandlal bose - nytimes slideshow on the artist

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

The Art of Beohar Rammanohar Sinha

Long name, but then artists are not defined by the length of their name. Shri Beohar R Sinha might not be a widely recognized artist, but his art defintely is. Amongst the most prominent places, his art is visible on the constitution of Republic of India.

Hailing from "Hindustan ka dil" - Madhya Pradesh - Jabalpur to be precise. His family had been the zameendars in jabalpur area. His interests revolved around quit india movement, working with gandhi ji. He also drew the famous line sketch of M.K.Gandhi walking towards dandi...

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

DEMON is back...

Help! I am a DEMON

http://goo.gl/0SW1l

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

#name #anagram

Did inequality cause the crisis? - via Mostly Economics

There are two school of thoughts on what caused the US subprime crisis. http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/ discusses the reasons here. reposting the blog here:

Raghuram Rajan’s famous book Faultlines there has been a lot of talk about inequality and how it cause the crisis. Rajan says inequality was rising in US and in order to avoid protests, politicians let people eat cheap credit. As people got cheap money, there were there were no real protests on rising inequality and people moved on. However rising credit led to other weaknesses in the financial system and as it happens in most crisis, a credit euphoria led to a bubble and then a crisis. So that is broadly Rajan’s discourse on why the crisis happened.

This has been countered by Daron Acemoglu saying politicians have stopped responding to needs of lower class a long ago. They have just been looking at the top income class. The latter has captured the former as a result we see higher incomes at the top and rising inequality. The seeds of the crisis were sown by this risk seeking top income class which took up higher leverage and made more and more money. When the risk turned other way, we had a huge crisis on hand.

Empiral analysis is required to establish any correlation between crisis and inequality. A paper by Michael Bordo and Christopher Meissner looks at historyand says inequality does not seem to be the reason for the crisis. Credit booms mostly lead to financial crisis but inequality does not really lead to credit booms. Low interest rates and growing economy are the two main factors leading to credit booms:

Our paper looks for empirical evidence for the recent Rajan (2010) and Kumhof/Rancière (2011) hypothesis attributing the US subprime mortgage crisis to rising inequality redistributive government housing policy and a credit boom. Using data from a panel of 14 countries for over 120 years, we find strong evidence linking credit booms to banking crises, but no evidence that risingincome concentration was a significant determinant of credit booms. Narrative evidence on the US experience in the 1920s, and that of other countries, casts further doubt on the role of rising inequality.

We do find significant evidence that rising real income and falling interest rates are important determinants of credit booms. This evidence is more consistent with the alternative story of Borio and White (2003) attributing credit booms and crises in the past three decades to the Great Moderation which created a benign environment conducive to rising credit. It is also consistent with other empirical work that covers the period 1960-2002 (Mendoza and Terrones, 2008). The negative and significant relationship of short-term interest rates and credit growth may also be consistent with the story of for example Taylor (2009) or Meltzer (2010) who attribute the U.S. housing boom to expansionary policy by the Federal Reserve in the early 2000s in an attempt to prevent perceived deflation. Moreover housing booms and busts in other countries did not reflect redistributive housing policy, but in the period before the Great Moderation they occurred in episodes of expansionary monetary policy. Regardless of whether the Borio and White story or a simpler monetary policy story is the true explanation for credit booms that lead to financial crises it seems pretty clear from this examination of the data that they have little to do with rising income inequality.

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

To sneeze... or not to sneeze

Image via Wikipedia

Sneezing is taken quite seriously. A "bless you" is the most common response to a sneeze. Why? My proprietary web search technique reveals it is something to do with one becoming vulnerable to devil while sneezing or heart skipping a beat. So the caring+religious peoples started blessing sneezers (is that even a word). Somewhat like "may god save you from the devil, for you sneezed". Though its meaning is lost now and it’s more like an automated response. Like "hello" on phone. People say it for no reason at all.

An atheist finds himself in a fix while dealing with sneezes. How should one respond to a sneeze... and more over.. how should one respond to a "bless you". The first part is the easier one, just say nothing or at best "you ok" or "good health". The later is difficult. Have few responses handy, but do keep in mind that it may be taken offensively.

which god

what about goddess?

and you didn’t mention allah

no he won't

thanks but no thanks

Related articles

What Happens When You Sneeze? (everydayhealth.com)

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

#atheist #religion #sneeze

an incomplete dream – 11 Madison Avenue

I always knew that there was something incomplete about this building. 11 Madison Avenue or EMA as it is fondly known. The building sits like a big bully in the flatiron village. But no wonder. Afterall only a third of the plan was ever built.

#skyscraper #Newyork #madison avenue

The Art of Sanjay Patel

Have been mesmerised by vintage illustrations for quite some time (Peter Irwin, Frank McIntosh, and old school travel posters), I began to yearn for more. Illustrations I reviewed in past ran around a similar theme: hand drawn illustrations, heavy in their use of colours, subjects which are either events or places or stereotypes. And then I began thinking, how would the new-age illustrations be. With all the computing power and tools at disposal, how would today’s artists approach a subject? The answer lies in vector images by a fellow desi.

Sanjay Patel – Illustrator – Pixar

Having worked at Pixar, Sanjay brings new perspective to illustrations on the table. His illustrations are somewhat inspired by Japanese school of animation. Saying his creations are out-of-the-box, gorgeous and stunning would be an understatement. I am sure you have seen his works in the past. He was on board (literally) for many Pixar movies like Ratatouille. His subjects in recent books and exhibitioins, just like his drawings, are unique – Hindu Deities. And definitely not the kind we see on Indian roads. Do visit his website: www.gheehappy.com (you know like be happy, but with desi ghee) He has many books under his sleeves, buy one today. It’s a treasure and is cheaper in India: flipkart. Read more about Sanjay here

The Little Book of Hindu Deities

Need I say anymore? The book is a wonderful composition of all many famous Hindu Gods and Goddess (after all Hindu’s have 36000000 gods). A primer on Hinduism, it’s a good read to start on Hindu mythology. Garud Bhairav Lakshmi: Kali Agni Vishnu Buddh Shiv Hanuman in Lanka Ravan’s fury Jai Shree Ram Ram and Sita Sita and deer (shurpnakha) HanuMan Ram and vanar sena attacking lanka Bholenaath Durga Ganesha

#sanjay patel #design

How the fb IPO should be...

So facebook has launched its IPO… Lots been said about it here and there.

But hey, in the whole process, where is the user? Wasn’t facebook suppose to be “user-centric”?? We all now what happens if investors run companies. And then we also know how clueless companies are if they are run by founders (read google). So facebook should do something different. Something new. Going the IPO route is very old-school and not fb like. After all the stock exchange won’t autopost on FB if I buy FB (yes that’s the ticker they are aiming for).

The company should raise money through its user-base and let them trade the shares on facebook. How about that?? 500 million users can each contribute $10 to raise $5bb. Given wha tpeople spend on online games, FB credits etc... most of the userbase should be on board with a $10 share price. A lottery system can be used if number of applicants are more than 500mm. There can be some flexibility here in terms of max share per user - say 5 or 10. All users should be given stock-credits which could be later traded on the website. And just like the exchange, prices would be determined by stock-credit trading. The big investors can then jump in here and trade FB credits for FB stock-credits. And about that conflict of interest, well an SEC app on fb platform can take care of it.

Trading can be 24x7. No middlemen involved. And given the userbase, there would be ample liquidity - across the globe. Voting rights will also flow to the share holders. And management releated polls can be easily done on fb platform.

Shareholder meeting can be done online, implies less expenditure on travelling and renting hotels etc... Company-Investor meetings too can take place online with ease. All on the FB platform.

Am i missing something here or is facebook just another offshoot of the capitalist society.

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

#IPO #stock investments #facebook

Vintage posters - temple tour of india

This just keeps getting better... found these old posters on Indian Tourism. My guess is these were comissioned by non-Indian travel/tourism entities. Thankfully the elephant was rescued by temples. Need to find someone who can get wall size prints. Or someone who can redraw these.

Am trying to collect old posters on India. pls let me know if you find more. exciting non-monetary reward awaits you... ;)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

Vintage India and AirIndia Posters

Came across vintage airline posters on India. While most of them stick to elephant, TWA had beautifully used an indian lady for one of the posters. thumbs up to TWA. AirFrace seemed bit modern-art types. British Airways or erstwile Imperial Airways used temples, forts and "6-day" London to India via Egypt posters. In addition there are few AirIndia posters. Most of them belong to the golder era of 50s and 60s - under the art direction of J. B. Cowasji, Air India Design Studio, Bombay. They are simple yet powerful. AirIndia needs to bring back "The Maharaja" and maintain an international identity.

AirIndia Swiss

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from DEMONstrate

#posters #airlines #India #airindia

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

DEMONstrate