I kind of wish it had been the classic old lady beating him with the shoe. . .

"When the operation of the machine becomes so odious, you've got to throw your body upon the wheels, upon the gears, upon the levers, and upon all the apparatus of the machine, and you've got to make it stop."

I hope too many patriots' bodies aren't chewed up in Pakistan. Great find, Manish.

but how long before the college’s patience runs out?

Sigh. I'm sure they're standing by their faculty longer than any normal place of employment would, but it means they---a nonprofit---are going to be paying the price for the state department's incompetence. Less money for research and scholarships.

Does India even have such draconian POW "rules"?

I'm still peeved you have short changed your own home town. Come back to Berkeley and have a pear gelato --the roads are narrow and the cars are bike, but the broadband is fast.

The exotic one is the best!

vandalized by badmashes with hammers

With Vij it's always a Punjob. . .

Those are beautiful sculptures, and I am sad they will have been damanged before I ever see them. Thanks for telling us about them---you should share your non-desi travels more often. The power of tile and rockbits on curved surfaces is interestingly evoked in the Sarantine Mosaic, a fantasy dulogy. May or may not be your cup of tea, but it's a fun read.

Makes me miss New York and want to visit Bombay!

What a great shot. It would be great to have a series where the dancer just randomly appears all over the world, in the background.

Wow, Manish, that sounds fascinating. You're reminding me why I filled my suitcase with books the last time I was in India--and that was just classics. Why is it so hard to get foreign books in the US? This Amazon page does not inspire my ordering confidence. (Who Won the Vietnam War? WTH?!)

Wow, good ones all around. I rarely see this in pairs of celebrities, but once I was on a bus with a pale white girl with brassy brown hair and it was all I could do not to blurt out to her that she looked, quite beautifully, exactly like Gong Li. When I first saw Rani Mukherjee in a movie I could barely concentrate---every time she smiled a certain way she looked exactly like my Icelandic friend.

But a potentially brilliant one because music afficianados these days are probably much more interested in paying for their Arcade Fire than their U2.

In a vacuum, I'm a little more accepting of naming a kid India versus Cambodia. course there's India Arie. . .I guess one of the reasons is that India just rolls of the tongue better. I mean, lots of guys are named Bharat, eh? ;-) Also China, Brittany, Calife. . people get named after places.

But yeah, I think it's a terrible idea in this case, where tit seems his child is somehow going to be a stand-in for the India aspect of Jolie's global concerns.

that last picture looks like music! beautiful, of course. :) Happy Diwali, Manish et team ultrabrown!

What does hitting Reply do?! "No, sorry, I disagree." "Oh, woops? What do I do with the kid I've alreayd employed?" "You know what law you should pass next? You should pass a law banning child labor on trains! That's what you should do." "LOL. U JOKE!"

Oh thank god, the Luce is safe.

Yeah, I think I'd be sold entirely on the basis of the catalog. The feature set looks just fine. Books are heavy!

OMG, that Horlick's Pandal deserves a post of it's own. Wow!

Beautiful pictures as always.

Nice post, Manish. For some reason my ultrabrown wasn't reloading earlier.

Re: Jeff Smith quote: "The minute it dawns on the GOP that they’ve given powers of indefinite detention to President Clinton II or some other Democrat, they will suddenly rediscover why overweening executive power is bad, and at that point there will be partisan agreement to repeal this bill or at least amend away its worst aspects."
I'm not sure this machinery will allow another such president to happen . . .

Fusion Dandia? Bah, I want real Fusion dandia. Ever since I read Amit Varma's description of stick fighting ("wielding huge sticks with which they hit huge sticks held by their fellows, as if it was Dandiya Raas on Viagra. No such thing.") I've wanted to choreograph fusion Aikido-Dandia ras, with a little rock and roll on the side. Because whacking at your training partners with a jo in the Dojo does feel an awful lot like dancing.

I've never been to Bombay, but your pictures confirm my theory that western coats somehow inspire passionate masonry. You've never been subjected to my speech about why the campus of our Alma Mater is, despite its irregularity and scarring, so much lovelier than the formal, symmetric beauties of the east coast---the libraries and the bell tower are bult from that special white granite of the Sierra. It has more flecks of crystal, and glows golden in the warm evening sun. I could believe that the land of marble everything and shimmery paint takes full advantage of the effect. Sunrise cities are diligent and powerful, giving a heart strength for an accomplished day, but sunset cities set the heart throbbing for a vibrant night.

A chaat bar in a gym is probably a lot healthier than a juice bar. Yogurt and protein and cukes and less sugar. ;-)

Whoa. Until I read the quote from the animal rights person I didn't realize the Elephant was real!!!!

I love the idea of a hair cutting saloon. Presumably the aftershave is whiskey and the hair spray is vodka?

Oh! Plaster of Paris? That's why they don't just dissolve. Sad. I'd rather have a very tiny one so he can dissolve painlessly into the ocean than a big ostentatious one.

If your heart starts to resemble a Malgudi sp. masala dosa with cheese shavings on top you're in big trouble!!! :-D

Muscle to muscle at least makes some sense---gross reminder as it is of what people are really eating!

Manish, I am so so sorry that your new hometown is hurting, so sorry that you're dealing with so much sadness and grief on a journey that started out with so much optimism and excitement. It's enraging that this keeps happening, infuriating that there is so very little recourse short of invoking disaster. Whenever I'm in India or immersed in Indian politics, my head starts hurting and I keep wondering --why oh why didn't they go with a Congressional system and a stronger central government from the getgo? I'm not going to pretend to be able to analyze the current slate of officials----it's beyond me to keep track---but losing faith in democracy and principled action is not the way to go. It's horrible that India's hand's are so often tied way above and beyond the call of morality, but do we really want India to be like Israel is right now?? I read descriptions of the carnage in Beirut---my alarm clock woke me up with the single sentence, "Of the 50-some people killed in this attack by Israel, many were civilians, including a family of 10,"--and my stomach churns and I think, "good lord, didn't they just see what happens when bombs hit innocent human flesh in Mumbai? After watching that disaster on the news, how could they turn around and purposefully, openly attack another transit system with so little functional outcome?"

It's not just a matter of electing people, but participating. Our government was never just about citizens merely voting--and the extent to which it has become one about votes for most of the citizens is reflective of the extent to which our democracy is ailing. India needs less party politics and more citizen councils and civil society.

Take care Manish, and come home soon! You're long overdue for a long stay by the blue bay from whence you came.

I'm glad you're okay, Manish. Hope all your friends and loved ones are too. . .so sad.

:-) did you see the daily show take on zarkawi's death? very amusing.

Blow is a tricky word. . .bombs, cocaine, sex, wind, breath plus the wackiest of anglo saxon conjugation.

I totally want that green means go thing here. We should make it happen!

That saffron milk sounds yum. But methinks almond or cashew butter would go better with the mango spread. My latest sin--toast almond butter, blackberry jam, and hazelnut chocolate spread.

That's weird. I always felt that India's much greater experience with terrorism made for much calmer dealings. I wonder if it's a reaction to foreigners? (Valentine?) That seems like a pretty reasonable reaction though.

Isn't it a bad idea to keep something sour like ketchup in a metal tin?

I dunno about spices, but Americans have plenty of herbs. Sassafras, Sarsparilla, Juniper, native mints, and the like. Recall that Chile Peppers are indigineous to the Americas. One of these days when I have more time to wander about in the woods I'm going to invest in a field guide to edible native plants. There are some tasty ones out there.

Diwali, at least, is on a weekend this year. Almost nothing else is. Very frustrating.

Isn't there a way for shopowners to control the bandwidth each computer gets from the computer? I wonder how the economics of playing to gamers vs. older customers will work out in the long term.

Did they drop the letters on puprose or is that how the cover always looked?

I can't believe that people think all books for teens are crap. That's crap! I'm a little unclear on what the dividing line is, but I was thumbing through some of my adolescent reads and just amazed at how good they were.

waiting waiting. ..