Don’t let the Canadian government silence Franke James

It seems the the Canadian Government does not like what Franke James has to say and that they’re prepared to block an art show to ensure that she is silenced. Yes, an art show.

Franke, who is an artist and author of Bothered by My Green Conscience (and creator of other superb visual essays), and who I’ve linked to here numerous times, wrote a blog post today where she mentioned how the Canadian government is trying to stop her right to creative expression and free speech. Here is an excerpt from her blog post:

The Canadian Government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party, is actively working to shut down my solo European art exhibition, which is set to tour 20 cities in Europe. The government’s interference includes phoning the corporate sponsor, and persuading them to cancel their $75,000 sponsorship.

Canadian officials have also bullied the NGO, Nektarina Non Profit, and warned them repeatedly to cancel the exhibition because they are opposed to “Franke James.”

Franke’s visual essays are powerful stories about the environment and about what we need to do to save the environment and ultimately, ourselves. To attempt to stop an artist from expressing herself is not something that you’d expect a democratic country to do, but that’s exactly what’s being done. Here’s an actual quote:

“Who was the idiot who approved an art show by that woman, Franke James?”

- Memorable words from one of Canada’s top officials on hearing that the Canadian Embassy in Croatia had offered support for Franke’s art show.

So, she needs our support. You can support Franke by tweeting or blogging about this, sharing it on Facebook (or Google+), leaving a comment on her blog post, or even emailing your friends.

The new year feels old already

2010 flew by so fast and we’re already 9 days into 2011, and it feels like an old year already. Maybe it’s just deja vu — this does happen every year, no?

I’m not sure if I’ll look back on 2010 a few years later and remember it differently, but right now I can’t say that I’m unhappy that we’re in 2011.

Sorry for the radio silence from my end. I wish that there were a compelling reason why I am not posting regularly, but it’s a combination of just being busy with other stuff, i.e. non-Internet life, and sometimes not having much to say. I have definitely reduced the amount of time that I spend online, and spending time doing other things is nice. Who’d have thought it, eh — that there this a whole other world offline?

Happy New Year 2011 by the way. May your 2011 be bright and shiny, just like the sunshine over Bangalore at the moment.

Strand Book Festival 2010

My favourite book festival in Bangalore is back.

The Annual Strand Book Festival
at Basava Bhavan, Opp. Hotel Chalukya and Sophia School, Bangalore

Fri 26 Nov – Sun 12 Dec
10 – 8.30pm

Discounts up to 80%

Parking in and around the venue.

I’ve been for a few years now and I always find something good. Can’t wait.

Why do we use only blue or black ink?

Lately, I’ve been wondering why we predominantly write with pens that have inks in two colours: blue or black. I remember that in school we were explicitly told not to use green, purple, or heaven-forbid, red pens. The penalty was death. I’m kidding, the teachers only caned us.

I remember that the school principal used to use a green coloured pen to sign letters or late slips or whatever. That green seemed exotic at the time.

I think teachers didn’t want you to write in red because they evaluate answer sheets with their own red pens and the colour clash can lead to confusions.

What I don’t get though is why we’re asked not to use any of the other colours. Green is a perfectly fine colour to use, so is violet, maybe even brown. I’ve never tried the latter two, so I don’t know.

I did buy red and green refills a few weeks ago and I started using the green one, but I had to change to blue. I was afraid that someone would use the green pen without knowing and accuse me of ruining a cheque leaf or whatever else.

Which brings me to my second point. I get why schools — whose job it is to get you ready to conform — would restrict the colour of pens that you can use. Why is there the same restriction in the real world? A form that I came across recently had instructions that told you to use blue ink only. And, in my various forays into the real world, corporate or otherwise, I can’t remember a single time that I’ve seen a pen with green or a purple coloured ink being used. I’m not kidding.

I can make a case for not using red because it’s associated with danger (traffic signal for example) but why not green or any of the other reasonably dark colours? I’m not asking for yellow and pink pens because I think that they’ll be hard to read on white paper, but brown, purple, green, maroon — they’re all colours that can be read.

If you know the answer or have a theory about why we use only specific coloured inks, feel free to chime in. I’m stumped.

Some research after the fact

After I finished writing this post, I went to Google and found this article. It explains why blue ink is preferable on legal documents — it contrasts with the black print. Another point made, in a different place, was about copiers and scanners and how certain colours don’t copy or scan well.

Interestingly, there’s a lot of discussion on this topic but I haven’t come across any definitive answers.

• Which Is Best, Blue Or Black Ink?
• Why must I use black ink only on my application forms?
• Legality of red ink

What Gmail did when I forgot an attachment

I wrote the email, hit Send, and Gmail threw this message box out.

I am sure that most of us have done this at some point — mention that you’re sending an attachment in an email and forget to attach the file. I love that someone in the Gmail team decided to do something about it.

When an application does something that helps you, it makes you warm and fuzzy, — so, it’s just me then? — and in this case, grateful. So, thanks Gmail developer, whoever you are.

Just to make the user experience better, I’d have preferred the OK and Cancel buttons to be replaced by Send and Don’t Send. I had to re-read the message to be sure and then choose Cancel.

Still, I’m happy about what the Gmail team did right. Bravo.

Epilogue: The email was sent with the attachment.

2 States (and Chetan Bhagat)

I hadn’t read any books by Chetan Bhagat until a friend passed on 2 States to me and asked me to read it. I took my time getting to read the book and when I did I finished it pretty fast.

I didn’t like the book well enough to read Bhagat’s other work but I now get why people read his books. The book was fast-paced, the story was reasonably good and overall, the book was entertaining. In fact, the book reminded me of Bollywood.

Feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to read about why I didn’t enjoy 2 States. In The Art of Fiction, John Gardner talks about “the fictive dream” and how good fiction makes readers feel like they are part of a dream. He also mentions how writers can, by doing various things wrong, jar readers awake. When I read 2 States, at times the writing snapped me out of “the fictive dream” and some plot twists felt too convenient. So, I am probably not going to read Bhagat’s novels again because it’s hard for me to ignore these things.

Coming back to Bollywood. I don’t watch too many Bollywood movies because, most of the time, I find it hard to deal with the interruptions: the needless songs, the unbelievable plot twists, the (sometimes) over-acting, etc. But, I get that millions of people find that Bollywood movies are a great source of entertainment.

Similarly, I can see why so many people find Bhagat’s work enjoyable. Critics who are mystified by his success need to look at Bollywood’s. The mantra in Bollywood is entertainment and that’s what Bhagat delivers to his fans. It’s one of the reasons that he’s been so successful.

A great many people read to be entertained and if Bhagat is giving them what they want, why should we begrudge him the success he’s had. At least he’s getting people to read books.

PS: I enjoyed reading this Caravan essay about Bhagat’s popularity: Paperback Messiah

What the Dog Saw

When I bought the book, I hadn’t realized that Macolm Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw was a series of essays selected from his New Yorker articles. No matter, since I hadn’t read most of them anyway. One thing about Gladwell is that he writes in a way that makes the story interesting and accessible and this book (or series of essays) is no exception.

I’ve read criticism of his books recently and I think that people are missing the point. As he explains in this book’s introduction, Gladwell looks for the angle in the story that is unusual and goes after the story in that way. His mandate is to make stuff interesting and if you’ve read his work, you’ll have to agree that he does. Gladwell’s one of those people who knows how to weave a narrative and that’s something most people struggle to do consistently. (Check out his TED talk on spaghetti sauce and you’ll see what I mean.)

Anyway, the essays in the book range from the world of TV infomercials to women’s health to dog whisperers to genius and age and are in the typical Gladwell New Yorker style — well researched, interesting, and arguments presented beautifully. I have no complaints about Gladwell and his writing: he’s a fabulous writer and we need more writers like him. He seems to find connections in things that people don’t usually find and turns those connections into something interesting: he’s a modern day alchemist.

After writing this post, I realized that it is more a comment on Gladwell’s writing than about this book. Details shmetails.

Bothered by my Green Conscience

It’s no secret to anyone who reads this blog that I’m a fan of Franke James’ visual essays. I’ve linked to her work, I’ve blogged about it, and tweeted about it as well. (Franke James, for those of you not in the know, is a multiple award winning author and artist, who lives in Toronto.) After trying to find a way to buy her book (here in India) and then a few weeks of procrastinating, I finally got my hands on her book. (Thank you Flipkart.com.)

Bothered by my Green Conscience (hereafter Bothered…) is a series of visual essays — five to be exact — about the Franke James’ journey to the green side. In the beginning of the book, Franke comes up with the big idea - Do the hardest thing first, before you change your mind.

The hardest thing that the author did was to give up her SUV. Then, since she didn’t need her driveway because she had no car, she took on the city of Toronto and got the first permit to build an eco-friendly driveway in Toronto. Her driveway is now a converted garden with plants and trees and more importantly less storm water runoff. Reading the essays makes you wonder about the things that you can do to make your life more sustainable and green.

Even though I had read all of the visual essays online, reading the essays in Bothered… was a totally different experience and the essays were easier to read. I also didn’t appreciate how much work goes into creating each visual essay until I saw the illustrations on the pages of the book. The visuals that Franke James uses with her words are way more powerful in conveying her experiences and thoughts than any book with only words could be.

As soon as I finished the book, I wanted to give it to my family members so that after reading it, they’d understand why I use baking soda for cleaning, why I segregate garbage, etc. In fact, Bothered… is one of those books that you feel like giving to everyone you know so that they can also get the “green thing”.

Bothered by my Green Conscience is a terrific read and unlike any book that I’ve ever read. I wish and hope that more people will read it.

The power of F11*

{* — F11 because it is the shortcut you use (usually) to view a document or web page in Full screen mode. Also available through View -> Full Screen in the Menu bar.}

I’ve discovered recently that if I view a document or a web page in full screen mode, I tend to pay more attention and am distracted less easily. I also noticed that I don’t jump around as much and focus on what’s in front of me — instead of multi-tasking, I am single-tasking multiple tasks.

At first, it is a bit disconcerting in full-screen mode, but now I like it better than the normal mode. When I am in FS mode — and I must confess that this is not as often as I’d like — I do find the overall experience less frantic. (I’m specifically thinking of web browsing here, because I’m a multiple-tab kind of guy and seeing other tabs open makes it tempting and easier to jump, especially when attention wavers even a little.) Using the FS mode seems to slow and quiet things down.

If you’re a multi-tasking, multiple windows kind of person, then try using applications in full screen mode — it’s worked for me, it may work for you.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a multi-tab hit.

P.S. You may have read about how using full-screen text editors (e.g. JDarkRoom) is helpful — this is just a way of using full-screen in other applications.

Dreams in Prussian Blue

Disclosure: The author of Dreams in Prussian Blue, Paritosh Uttam, is a friend, so take whatever I say with a pinch of iodized salt.

Dreams in Prussian Blue (DiPB) is the story of the relationship between a promising young painter, Michael, and his girlfriend and patron, Naina. When an accident causes Michael to lose his eyesight, Naina is forced to make some tough choices. What these choices are and how it affects their relationship is the meat of the book. The author also introduces the back story – how Naina and Michael meet – at regular intervals through the book.

DiPB is a nicely told story, it moves at the right pace, and the suspense keeps you interested throughout. I read a short review in the Deccan Herald saying that the novel’s pace was slow, but I couldn’t disagree more — I felt that the pace was perfect. Also, the book was a light read and enjoyable.

One thing that many first-time and some experienced authors get wrong is that their characters feel flat (cardboard characters) and not real. Not so with DiPB — the characters in the book feel like real people, which isn’t an easy thing to pull off. In addition, you think about the protagonist, Naina, after you’ve finished the book.

So, while I bought Paritosh’s first book because he’s a friend, I’ll buy his second book because I enjoyed his first. I’m looking forward to reading what he comes up with the next time.