This is cool. Kiran Desai became the youngest woman to win the Man Booker Prize for her book “The Inheritance Of Loss”. The last Indian woman to win it was Arundathi Roy for “God Of Small Things”, which I loved.
It took Kiran eight years to write the novel (wow!) and she dedicated it to her mother, Anita Desai, who was nominated for the Booker three times, but never won.
Click on the book to listen to Kiran’s reading.
Here’s an excellent interview by one of my favorite bloggers, Jabberwock.
This site enables you to create Pollockesque art by moving your mouse around. Click the mouse to change colors. Very relaxing and much less messy than trying it on canvas. I wished that it would let you stop painting and save your masterpiece! I’d definitely put it up here!
Charlie linked to a new site, finetune, that compiles a playlist of any chosen artist and streams the music. It also recommends similar music. My music discovery has gone down significantly since I stopped commuting to work (my only radio time). So, this will help fix that.
Update : Apparently I am horribly behind in my knowledge of music apps. Charlie pointed me to Pandora. Better than finetune. UI is better, and most importantly it allows you to tell it what you like. Hello Music 2.0, I have emerged from under the rock.
Fred Wilson has a good post about what it takes for Union Square Ventures to fund a company. It is always good when VCs are clear on what they are looking for – it makes the entrepreneur’s job so much easier.
While I agree with Fred that the cost of entry is going down, it is all relative. If you are a young entrepreneur with a job, mortgage and maybe a kid, do you quit and just take the risk or do you get a working beta (while at your current job)?
A friend was recently in this situation — he and his partner had a pretty good beta of a product I would use. It was in a crowded space, but the execution was very good and it had those key product touches that could make it the breakout product. My friend was ready to quit to do this full time. He was willing to take the risk and didn’t want to take someone else’s money till he was comfortable there was traction. The partner however wanted the security of some angel funding to quit his job.
With Web 2.0 apps and the whole “cost is going down” argument, even angels want to see traction before they fund a startup. What is the right way for an entrepreneur to proceed?
Today, Tatvam Productions was born online.
Tatvam means reality or inner truth in Sanskrit. Tatvam Productions tells stories that reach for the truth, share the reality and communicate the inner meaning.
Tatvam will be my professional blog where I blog about the entertainment world. This blog will continue to host my random musings.
Getting Tatvam live was a team effort.
And all in record time.
May Tatvam be with you!
You can either dive headfirst into the technology revolution or make excuses as to why you can’t. The person who amazes me the most in this regard is my Grandmother.
She is one cool lady. There’s been a history of coolness – from a gold medal in Sanskrit in college to driving herself (and her kids) around in Bangkok, to speaking Thai and French in addition to English, Tamil and Kannada, she’s always exhibited a passion for life that’s contagious.
Not that my Grandfather is not cool in his own right – both my grandparents are iPod converts, pulling out the little device when they feel like listening to their favorite ragams. I have a “technology is compressing our world” moment every time I see my Grandfather, sitting in his veshti, white iPod earplugs sprouting from his ears, lost in his music.
But my Grandmother takes the cake. On my last trip home, I was sitting near my Grandmom, talking on the phone with a friend. The conversation was about Wikis. I was telling my friend how they work and I said “Of course the most famous and comprehensive wiki is…” “And my Grandmother piped in with “Wikipedia”! She then proceeded to explain how it worked. So cool.
I recounted the conversation to Om and he blogged about it. The post subsequently got a couple of trackbacks too.
Not just cool, but famous in the blogosphere!
I stumbled upon this cool meme. I wasn’t “invited” to the meme by anyone since I don’t know any of the bloggers, but it was so cool that I decided to participate (is that kosher?)
Gaurav proposed three words — Mahmood, Chardonnay and Musharraf. He proposed that not only do you come up with a story, but do so in 55 words. Interesting!
Here’s my take:
FuckingEffing Musharraf was on Jon Stuart. Dictatorial comedy. Made me smile nonetheless. Not quite a smooth pinot noir, but maybe a perky chardonnay instead. Reminded me of the best of Mahmood. Wit, charm, convenient memory, lies. The worst of Mahmood. Crawling into bed alone, I wished he were here. Rememories surface at most inopportune times.
The goal of this meme is to give to ProjectWhy. Please do.
I remember the first time I heard of cow tipping, I was aghast. Growing up in India, being so rude to a cow was quite unthinkable.
The thought of cow tipping stayed with me, though. I wondered whether it hurt the cow and how the poor cow would get up once it was tipped over.
I was ecstatic when I saw this article that basically refuted the theory that cows could be easily tipped. Further research on Wikipedia confirmed the same.
Happy happy Joy joy.
Back in 1997, the economy was good and consulting firms wooed b-school students with style. Mitchell Madison flew folks to NY and put them up at The Pierre, a landmark at the South East corner of Central Park. I remember being blown away with the little suite (that I had all to myself) with amazing winter views of park’s skating rink.
Until last year, The Pierre was run by the Four Seasons. In fact, when I did a Google search, the Four Seasons still came up second, with the line “The Pierre New York is a Four Seasons Hotel”! Taj bought The Pierre last year and it was a dramatic and emphatic expansion for them.
I read about it when it happened, but it really struck me when I was walking by the the Pierre a couple of weeks ago and I saw an enormous Indian flag hanging next to the US flag on The Pierre.
Everyone talks about globalization and refers to outsourcing. Here we have an Indian company, expanding into the US, employing Americans. Very cool.
After blogging just for family and very close friends, I decided to make the leap and open the kimono (so to speak).
So, to my imaginary readers – Welcome! Enjoy. And please let me know what you think. (er, right, uh huh, great!, applause)
Note: blog title inspired by Hugh MacLeod cartoon.