tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-347341822024-03-05T15:48:44.944+05:30The Avocado AdvocateCommentary and anecdotes on world absurdity, politics, bureaucracy, and other assorted subjects. Assorted subjects may include, but are not limited to: archaeology, food, travel, and the silliness of people worldwide.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-55732837973525576652012-07-13T06:43:00.001+05:302014-03-23T02:53:13.284+05:30autodefacebookation.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Why I'm not on facebook anymore:<br />
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1. It was too addictive, at least for me. I think <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/08/is-the-internet-making-us-crazy-what-the-new-research-says.print.html" target="_blank">this article</a> sums it up pretty well.<br />
<br />
2. I really need to focus on other things in my life at the moment.<br />
<br />
3. I want to maintain connections with people, not memes.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://gwenkellyarchaeology.com/" target="_blank">This page</a> has all my up-to-date contact information.<br />
<br /></div>
Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-17860172661212696632011-04-11T21:37:00.005+05:302011-04-12T00:06:12.680+05:30Off the soapbox, it's time to compromise<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJaDvHrPJkr0ZLVWGN-KalvAdfmJDsY0tXnNlyHB0DCf0t1tYBp9dzB_Ei73T6xYYgqTYfho1y-UkUas11New3uniiAPN9nosq19B5bEvXr2ucDpBmw65WKxK4NGspCvgx7KU2/s1600/DSC_7233.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJaDvHrPJkr0ZLVWGN-KalvAdfmJDsY0tXnNlyHB0DCf0t1tYBp9dzB_Ei73T6xYYgqTYfho1y-UkUas11New3uniiAPN9nosq19B5bEvXr2ucDpBmw65WKxK4NGspCvgx7KU2/s400/DSC_7233.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594394951006579986" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Monument of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Satyagraha">Gandhi's Salt March</a>, Pondicherry </span></div><div><br />Lately I've been pondering the question of collaboration. I've been thinking about how it may be possible to reach compromises with people who think and believe very differently. The question arises in many spheres, private and public, professional and political.<br /><br />My last post was written in a moment of great passion, frustration, anger and disappointment about the lack of compromise, the lack of collaboration between the Republicans and the Democrats of the Wisconsin State Assembly. I am still frustrated with politics. But the local, state, and national politics obviously have been and continue to be constantly fraught with this challenge.<br /><br />What can be done when people feel very differently, and simultaneously feel very strongly about an issue? How can satisfactory agreement or compromise be reached? More recently, I've been pondering this question not with the question of state or national politics, but with collaborations with colleagues in my professional life.<br /><br />In collaboration with colleagues towards common goals, such as the development of <a href="http://www.iawawsa.org/">IAWAWSA</a> as an organization, I find myself sometimes in fairly stark disagreements about how things should be done. I am not surprised that we have differences of opinion, as we are bound to think and feel differently. Sometimes these differences are obviously due to cultural differences, myself as an American, and some of my collaborators who are Indian. Sometimes the differences are simply linguistic and semantic, differences in the way in which we interpret words. But language and culture can't be used as scapegoats for all the differences of opinion and thought. Some of the disagreements are with my fellow American collaborators.<br /><br />In case you couldn't tell from having read my blog in the past, I'm a person with strong convictions about my beliefs and values. I don't think I'm special or unique in this way. Rather it poses some serious challenges. In particular, though I believe in the importance of compromise, I'm not always very good at it. It's something I struggle with, something that I consciously work to improve in my life.<br /><br />Because I feel quite strongly about most things, I find it difficult to pick my battles, so to speak. When it comes time to negotiate a compromise, I know that I should prioritize the aspects of the issue that are most important to me, and be willing to let go of the things that I feel are less important. But this principle is harder to apply in practice than it sounds.<br /><br />When the differences are obviously cultural, it's both easier and harder. On the one hand, it's easier to accept that perhaps I should respect those perspectives with which I disagree. On the other hand, it sometimes means we are so far apart in not just what we think, but how we arrive at those conclusions, it makes it more difficult to find the point of compromise in the middle.<br /><br />As my readers can tell, I'm writing in a lot of vague generalities, rather than specifics. I don't want to offend anyone, and I don't intend this as a complaint. We are bound to disagree, and it's my responsibility, and everyone's responsibility to find a way to reach a compromise. I work on it every day. But the bigger the goal, the harder it is, and working on these kinds of projects has given me a newfound respect for anyone whose job consists of this sort of compromise every day. As an academic, and being in a field which is not always collaborative, or which often creates hierarchies to decision-making, instead of equal collaborations, I have not needed to confront the challenge of negotiation and compromise most of the time. Maybe what I really need is practice.<br /><br />I suppose these thoughts tend towards stating the obvious, but I find it useful to think "out loud" about such things. I know that there is no "answer" to these questions. Rather, I am, and I hope we all are, just doing the best we can to get along.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkPePex38wHwK-uhFgg4lYL6Z7Z6UPXBNEr0z0BGV-6bCSqSvjp65JJVX1PxkzxsJQ2oKzYL_-1n0kspZsaFcvQyqBFcRuQXfD6UHjH1Sn7aLhY8cL2-WlUGx87Xa7f8CIdjBk/s1600/DSC_7251.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkPePex38wHwK-uhFgg4lYL6Z7Z6UPXBNEr0z0BGV-6bCSqSvjp65JJVX1PxkzxsJQ2oKzYL_-1n0kspZsaFcvQyqBFcRuQXfD6UHjH1Sn7aLhY8cL2-WlUGx87Xa7f8CIdjBk/s400/DSC_7251.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594395356618300370" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >The Honesty Society (provisions store), Pondicherry </span></div></div><div><br /></div></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-36649414735358643872011-02-25T13:25:00.007+05:302011-02-25T14:51:42.281+05:30At a loss for what to say<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmwqulagWKthZGLKfHH9GHON-11Ye_FBWD-WPjM7D1xjT3gy62_d4PVXLxLalFOIergy0sv_MeR-U3AATyrXRr76IdgkTs7vunkxwzw1L3lWu0QR5NVH189kzkGpyUqFxmo-Xr/s1600/IMG_0230.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmwqulagWKthZGLKfHH9GHON-11Ye_FBWD-WPjM7D1xjT3gy62_d4PVXLxLalFOIergy0sv_MeR-U3AATyrXRr76IdgkTs7vunkxwzw1L3lWu0QR5NVH189kzkGpyUqFxmo-Xr/s400/IMG_0230.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577552299898666258" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Dear Readers, <div><br /></div><div>Whoever you might be out there, whether you know me personally or not, I hope you can understand my taking this moment to stand up on a soapbox, and however incoherently (<a href="http://http//www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/02/25/business/AP-US-Wisconsin-Budget-Unions.html">it's 2am</a>) state my objections, my disappointment, my sadness about the state of democracy and government in my state, and in my country.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am an American. At times that has been a cause for shame. I've never been much of a patriot, but when we elected Barack Obama, our first African American President, I was proud. For the first time in a long time, I was proud to be an American. </div><div><br /></div><div>When the legitimacy of democracy, it's fairness, it's possible corruption is questioned in countries other than the US, I might have shook my head in sadness, but if I'm honest with myself, and with you, I never really questioned those reports. I thought to myself, "That's just the way it is." I didn't ever think it would ever come to the same sad status quo in Wisconsin, USA. </div><div><br /></div><div>We have had our moments of shame. One that stands out is in the wake of G.W. Bush's re-election, and the alleged fraud of voting machines. Today was another one of those moments. </div><div><br /></div><div>I just watched the Speaker Pro Tem of the Wisconsin State Assembly call a vote, without a motion to end the debate, without due process, call a vote, which was mostly shouted, and not even all those present in the chamber got a chance to register their vote. It was approximately 1:10am, and things had already become heated between the two sides. </div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps there was no doubt in anyones mind that the bill would pass. Even with a few <a href="http://legis.wisconsin.gov/insession/insessiondocs/Votes/av0177.htm">dissenting republicans</a>, which there were, it was going to pass anyway. But the vote called in the state assembly, following after the comments of one of the Democrats, with just seconds to respond, and both sides shouting, there was a cacaphony of yeas and nays, and then the roll was closed. Only 68 out of 99 voted. As soon as the words were out of their mouths the Republicans ran out of the room, as the Democrats shouted, "SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!". </div><div><br /></div><div>The vote went 51 to 17, and the yeas had it. Of the 17 that voted against, four were Republicans. Twenty-five Democrats were not able to register their vote before the vote was closed. Republicans <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kaufert">Kaufert</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Nerison">Nerison</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Spanbauer">Spanbauer</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Tranel">Tranel</a> should be thanked for not voting with the party line. Even that gives me some small faith in humanity. </div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, the actions of the Republican speaker, who called the vote without warning, without formal roll call, without a motion to end the debate, disgust me. I'm at a loss for what to say. </div><div><br /></div><div>I wish I could say I've never been so disappointed, but it's not true. I was more disappointed when this country somehow managed to re-elect G.W. Bush, for a second go-round. I wanted to move to Canada. </div><div><br /></div><div>But this is closer to home. With Bush, it was people someplace else, somewhere hundreds of miles away. This is HERE, in my home, and it's personal. For me it's served a dual purpose. It's highlighted the depth and width of the huge chasm of differences between my beliefs and convictions, and people on the other side. It's also had the amazing power to create unity, and solidarity, with people I didn't know before, and amongst the friends I already had, within my department in the university. </div><div><br /></div><div><div>It's not about self-interest, or personal gain. It's about doing what is right, and fighting against the corporations and institutions and lawmakers that want to take from poor and give to the rich, that want to disenfranchise us, that want to take away our voice. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>We are now unified under a common cause, and the more ridiculous and un-democratic the behavior of those in power, the more angry, but also more unified we're bound to get. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXn6HBGNRPfDKJHIjs6XXLeFbgl1QtOKc-580Hqt5r601uRh0E168JT45L03s8cXJ5nskC3gsQq3oId6Gqzy0Sevc9Y2s6XPJLbSDRn9NSyGN_1HYVRjHBG0BjN66SylAd5x_/s400/IMG_0458.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577550844858920082" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-25043526738477738672011-02-06T01:53:00.009+05:302011-02-06T07:49:50.293+05:30Adjust-panni, ippo enna?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg2-r_V9lYwPWldQ6iSNOA8fUPc63Eb8BvSRaha3lOVlWERqzjaV0W7vN7o9riswFs7JwvKmZBKflk9oX9gBYFxj4h5awSJ5-1cgG8R4rGiBivfHxAIqb9XzoHc22Rx5gH4Kle/s1600/DSC_6075.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg2-r_V9lYwPWldQ6iSNOA8fUPc63Eb8BvSRaha3lOVlWERqzjaV0W7vN7o9riswFs7JwvKmZBKflk9oX9gBYFxj4h5awSJ5-1cgG8R4rGiBivfHxAIqb9XzoHc22Rx5gH4Kle/s400/DSC_6075.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570319907958095442" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">After visiting a teeny village in rural Andhra Pradesh,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">the school children were waving goodbye as I left (Sep 2010).</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span">So I've adjusted. Now what?</span></p></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">I'm back in the swing of normal daily life in America, my calorie intake is up, with chocolate, cheese, and american junk food, and I've stopped seeing things around me as especially strange or foreign. Everything is normal. Almost. Mostly.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">There are times now, in the normal-est circumstances, when I feel completely out of place. Only, it seems, in the moments of utter and absolute normalcy, when everyone else around me is so deeply and completely caught up in that unaware normalness, then I feel somehow transported to another world.</span><p></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span">One night not too long ago I was riding the bus home late from the university, observing the other passengers. I couldn't help but see the way in which they organize themselves in the space of the bus so differently from the alternative reality of Indian buses. I experienced a strange double vision of an ordinary, late night, Indian bus, filled with passengers, superimposed on this bus of Americans. Though they are going about the same essential activity, riding a bus to go home, or to visit someone, or go to work, I can't help but marvel at the difference in the ways in which they, those physically present Americans, and imagined Indians, accomplish that task.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span">No one else around me was aware of the ghostly Indian bus, taking the same route, with ethereal other-worldly passengers, saris and shawls wrapped over heads, bending forwards in their seats, instead of leaning back, babies sleeping on laps, instead of in strollers, young children stretched across a row of three or four people. The small zippered duffle bags containing clothing and other essentials for entire families, jostling quietly on the floor. Women sitting only with other women, and men with men, unless they happen to be husband and wife, and even then, still sometimes separated. The chilly night wind blows through the Indian bus, even if chilly means its 70 degrees fahrenheit, everyone feels cold. It is only the body heat of the number of people packed closely together, 3 or 4 or 5 to a bench seat, that keeps the bus warm.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">On the American bus, men in women, girls and boys sit together, and perhaps because there are so many fewer people, they all seem to spread out, legs spread wide, slumped down and leaning back, there are several people dozing or sleeping, or listening to music on headphones. Backpacks and purses and bags spread out </span>over the adjacent seats, creating the buffer of ever-so-important personal space. Hot air blasts out of vents, and some people are talking loudly, trying to talk over the sound of the roaring heat.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span">I don't know why I sometimes experience double vision. Perhaps it's a trick of my tired, near-dreaming state, when I imagine what it would be like if I were still in India now. Sometimes I feel like I live simultaneously in a double-world.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnwjWrLpsWsvlzJRWUCF7yVjgY5hohBFBkwXJ4m_VsVthTjO6gby4FUSlGUIOOW_AN7epmMrgl9cER6ZT43AHlS_1QlHHZkg1234yJ5ilFcwyaSFaRqabCAs2Nsg3dk-xdQuQu/s1600/DSC_6654.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnwjWrLpsWsvlzJRWUCF7yVjgY5hohBFBkwXJ4m_VsVthTjO6gby4FUSlGUIOOW_AN7epmMrgl9cER6ZT43AHlS_1QlHHZkg1234yJ5ilFcwyaSFaRqabCAs2Nsg3dk-xdQuQu/s400/DSC_6654.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570389941403694530" /></a></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">India from the air, a flight between Chennai and Delhi, 2010.</span></span></div><p></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Now that I'm home, and adjusted, more or less. I find myself missing India more and more. Certainly I don't miss everything. But I sometimes dream about the food, the dosas, idlis and chutneys of Thevar's Cafe near my old apartment. I miss how friendly everyone was, in a way that sometimes seemed more genuine tha</span>n even the classic midwestern friendliness. Here the woman checking out my groceries at the store might smile, or make polite small talk, but she doesn't know me at all. Though there were things I hated about the small town life of Thanjavur, I miss the shopkeepers of the shop across the street from my house, who knew me, and always greeted me with genuine care. I miss the potter and his family who I used to visit, just to watch them work. I miss lots of things, maybe too many to name each person, place or thing.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span">It occurred to me once again though, (I've come full circle), I miss the challenge of daily life. I miss the lack of convenience, the effort it took to accomplish so many ordinary daily tasks, and I miss the joy and sense of great satisfaction at having succeeded in such basic things.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">America, as I have felt for a long time now, is too easy. Everything is too convenient. I manage to make it somewhat less convenient through my own choices - for instance, currently not owning a car. Sometimes it's hard to put </span>a finger on exactly what it is, or why too much convenience bothers me. I suspect it's that I'm not getting the same sense of accomplishment and satisfaction out the basic tasks of daily life.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">So, I've adjusted. Now what?</span> இப்பொழுது என்ன?<span class="Apple-style-span"> I suppose I will go on as I have before, always missing one or more of the places that I have called home. Happy to be where I am, happy to be alive, but with twinges of longing for my alternative realities. </span></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioGLiKy-YJPKtX-0q4ETh8YicfDy0T00kcHf2xeD1L9ewHyk5T33INCk7E-NIwqbXrJ_nPTRt6nMYEWfa9NIWAKGp-jDOgDiHkX4JzQfNrhgqpI216NEGqNq58gJzFguJ5GlJt/s320/DSC_6090.JPG" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570318564934616258" /></p><p class="p1" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span">Saying goodbye to my friend Ramu, in Kadebakele village last March (2010).</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span">As an aside, I wanted to post a link to this wonderful column reflecting on India, "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/world/asia/03iht-letter03.html">Modern India's Dance of Creation and Destruction</a>", by Akash Kapur for the International Herald Tribune (and NY Times). It has not much to do with the above post, except in that it also points to the constancy of change, the fact that since I can't live in two places at once, the next time I go back to India, it will no longer be the same place it was when I left. There is a kind of bitter-sweetness in that, one that I savor and let linger in my heart. </span></p></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-71223274093870869472010-11-20T11:15:00.002+05:302010-11-20T12:07:47.877+05:30Adjust-panneIt's that time again. I'm back in the U.S. and even though everyone assumes that it should be easy to come home, it's not. "Adjust-panne" is the Tamilization of the English verb "to adjust". And that's what I'm doing now, and will be for a while, I think.<br /><br />It's not easy to radically shift in time zones, climates, cultures, people, foods and everything. Even though this is my "native" culture.<br /><br />For one thing, things have changed in America since I left. When I left for India last November, there was no "Tea Party," at least not a recent one. Russ Feingold was my Senator, and people as far as I knew, expected he still would be. Some of my friends who were single, are now married. Some who weren't even pregnant when I left now have infants. Friends have moved states, whole lives have been transformed by the loss of jobs, and new jobs, etc. <br /><br />There is an inclination, when you leave a place, even for a year, to expect it to be the same when you get back. But that is never the case. Time does not stand still for the people you leave behind. <br /><br />I know that after a year spent in India doing research for my PhD, I should feel a sense of accomplishment. I should feel like I've really done something. Maybe it just hasn't hit me yet. Right now I feel like I'm standing still, and the trees, everything in the world around me is flying by at a million miles an hour. It's a strange sort of relativity. <br /><br />In my imagination the world in America stood still while I was gone, and now that I've come back to it, all the changes that actually took place over the course of that year seem to be taking place at light speed. <br /><br />I have changed too, though that's harder for me to recognize. I fell in love again for the first time since I was 18. I fell hard and fast, and stupidly, gleefully floated on a cloud of oxytocin-induced bliss. I felt I had never been so happy. It was long-distance love, and inevitably the oxytocin wore off and I fell again, this time into anguish, tears and insomnia. Then I started to pick up the pieces of my heart. I think I got all of them. I might have left one in India.<br /><br />I turned 30. I started brushing my teeth more regularly. I became more or less vegetarian, with the exception of eggs, and some fish. I remembered how much I love origami. I decided I want to get a dog, even though everyone tells me how hard it will be, how unstable my life is, and how I have no concept of the responsibilities involved. <br /><br />I worked on accepting the fact that my life is unstable and unpredictable, that I don't have a true home, and I may not have one for a very long time. I spent a lot of this past year daydreaming about stability, about how nice it would be to lead a predictable life, with a home, with a dog, with god-willing someday, a family. I spent a long time feeling home-sick for a home I do not have. Then I spent the rest of my time disparaging that boring life, which I do not lead, and trying to convince myself that I really do love the adventure and unpredictability.<br /><br />I spent a lot of time pondering a lot of things, and even though I can't put a finger to each and everything thing, I know I've changed, I've grown. And so has everyone else.<br /><br />Nothing is the same. Not really. Not even the things that seem to be the same. They've changed, because everything around them has changed, and that changes everything. Some people might not have changed, but I have changed, and therefore my perception of and relationship to them.<br /><br />I come back to find (or be reminded) that there are many elements of American culture I dislike. I am overwhelmed by the consumer culture. I can't believe how much time and money people spend buying things they don't need, and might not even want. I can't believe the abundance of bad and greasy fast food. I can't believe the limits of obesity that can stretch the human body to a larger circumference around the middle than a persons height. <br /><br />There are things I love to come home to. Recycling. Peace and quiet. Natural spaces (nearly) empty of other people. People driving in a more-or-less orderly manner. Avocados. Sushi. Black bean burritos with lots of guacamole. Raspberries.<br /><br />There are also things I already miss. I miss the cows, goats, dogs, cats, monkeys and (occasional) elephants that wandered the streets. I miss idlis and tengai chutney and takaali chutney, and sambar, and podi. I miss the amazing varieties of bananas and mangoes, the fresh coconut, the jack fruit. I miss the bright colors. Some part of me even misses the cacophony of the roads and streets.<br /><br />I miss the chaos of it all.<br /><br />That's the thing, I guess. When I'm in India I miss America. I miss the ordered roads, and garbage collection. I miss the peace and quiet. I miss efficiency. I miss decent chocolate chip cookies, and I miss the people that I love over here.<br /><br />But when I'm in America, I miss India. I miss the chaos and the noise of the streets. I miss the the dogs that used to live at the end of my block. I miss the rice meals, the tiffin, the chutneys, the smell of frying onions, mustard seed, and curry leaf wafting through my window. And I miss the people I love over there.<br /><br />Now that I am "home," I will adjust. Adjust-pannevain. But it will be a struggle, the same way it was a struggle when I landed in India last November. I will adjust because I have to. But it's by no means easy.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-54587942405506181632010-10-10T14:28:00.017+05:302010-10-10T18:26:43.713+05:30Scientists Suggest To Save Energy, Stop Wasting FoodIn other news, the sky is blue.<br /><br />Now that I have my snarky remark out of the way, I want to point out that the authors of <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101003081627.htm">this study</a> are right. Especially in America, we waste an incredible amount of energy in wasting food. To quote them:<br /><blockquote> Analysis of wasted food and the energy needed to ready it for consumption concluded that the U.S. wasted about 2030 trillion BTU of energy in 2007, or the equivalent of about 350 million barrels of oil. That represents about 2 percent of annual energy consumption in the U.S.<br /></blockquote>The basic point is good. And maybe kind of obvious. To make it more useful, and help individuals and corporations develop ways to avoid the problem, I think someone needs to do a more detailed, system-wide, analysis of food production, consumption, and efficiency. I would argue that loss is both in the production of food which is then wasted - when someone's ham sandwich sits out of the refrigerator for too long, and gets thrown out. But also in product packaging. Product packaging is a huge investment of energy to produce, and a huge problem in landfills. While we frequently complain about the amount of waste produced in packaging, it's also the packaging that frequently keeps food from spoiling and getting wasted. We need better packaging, more efficient packaging, and less packing waste.<br /><br />Health nuts and environmentalists shop at places like <a href="http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/">Whole Foods</a>, where they buy dry goods in bulk, which they keep in their own re-usable, and often highly effective containers. This kind of conscientious use of food, packaging, and storage is great for those who have the time, money, and willingness to invest. But the people who do that are clearly a small portion of the population over all. I make this effort, but sometimes it turns out to be too expensive. Though I don't see a reason why it should be. I'm fairly certain it's just the fact that Whole Foods (and other stores like it) have especially high mark-up.<br /><br />Ineffective or inefficient packaging is actually one of the food industries ways of trying to ensure that you will purchase their product more often. Whether the food and packaging gets wasted is really not their problem. Cereals could easily change their packaging to add a zip-loc type of closure to the cereal bag inside the box. This would ensure your corn flakes would last longer without getting stale. It might also mean you'd be slower to consume them, or less likely to throw out stale corn flakes, and buy a new box. It goes against what the manufacturers want you to do, which is consume more, no matter how much gets wasted. Corn flakes are just one obvious example, but the problem is pervasive. Either in excessive packaging - in "serving size" containers, or poor packaging which lets the product spoil more quickly, the food and packaging industries need a kick in the pants. I'm not sure if the answer is regulation, or changing consumer demand. I suspect both would help.<br /><br />The problem of food storage and food spoilage is a problem as old as humanity, though it became more of of a problem with settled village life. Being an archaeologist, I can't help but think about this question, and how it's been solved over the millennia. These days it's hard to imagine a life without plastics. What would you do without your tupperware, your zip-loc bags and containers? What would you do without a refrigerator?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwZxU6k45qsuNus7bE3QYJANugHZti3kU61T0J67goEr2adlqnk_bQI-SHot7Be2a61aoOWAFZbwDabfmoa1ZCdJd5cylYVa1k2vxOSTPs4imM6vpuo1gKW36wP6e4kFWDGbM8/s1600/DSC_5752.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwZxU6k45qsuNus7bE3QYJANugHZti3kU61T0J67goEr2adlqnk_bQI-SHot7Be2a61aoOWAFZbwDabfmoa1ZCdJd5cylYVa1k2vxOSTPs4imM6vpuo1gKW36wP6e4kFWDGbM8/s400/DSC_5752.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526347118593191490" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">View of the Settlement area of the Early Historic and Early Medieval Periods at Kadebakele, Karnataka.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Archaeologists have been studying food storage practices and technology around the world for a long time now, and there are several techniques that were pretty much universal across cultures around the world. The problem of food storage really only came along when people started producing (or collecting) surplus. Without having more than you need on a given day or at a given time, you wouldn't have the problem of storing it. But once you start making more than you need on a given day, or even for a given year, you have to find a way to store it. Here are some of the solutions that people have used across the world in the past 10,000 years.<br /><ol><li>Pottery. Ceramic vessels appear pretty much everywhere around the world, especially once people started to settle down in villages and farm. Ceramics are not very efficient for nomadic life, but they work great if you stay in one place. They can be used to store liquids and dry goods. They can keep out pests - at least rodents, if not always insects. They can be made to various sizes and shape specifications, and compared with older technologies of containers - they can be more durable. Prior to pottery, it appears people used organic materials, such as baskets, possibly cloth and leather bags, and gourds. These materials have another set of benefits, as well as drawbacks.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7BxBgaxwgJzyJoCyI50wUDGASytcINvsfenTIu_yzHzR3ZPVsY0dUZ-L263s97-GUHi6-DwPnkODGX804H-cz8tYFHVK9EkyphMFbFYhoNo8ZUJ-d5QksGm4g0PR491gcPbb/s1600/DSC_5142.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7BxBgaxwgJzyJoCyI50wUDGASytcINvsfenTIu_yzHzR3ZPVsY0dUZ-L263s97-GUHi6-DwPnkODGX804H-cz8tYFHVK9EkyphMFbFYhoNo8ZUJ-d5QksGm4g0PR491gcPbb/s400/DSC_5142.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526371365295362930" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">A large storage vessel excavated at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tharangambadi">Danish Fort of Tranquebar</a>.</span><br /><br /></div></li><li>Storage pits. These features of archaeological sites are also ubiquitous, and sometimes mystifying. It's hard to imagine digging a hole in the dirt, and wanting to keep your food in a hole in the ground. But storage pits often provided a natural source of cooling, as well as potentially saving space compared with above-ground storage of goods. Storage pits also frequently were inside dwellings. Archaeologists often interpret this to mean that people wanted to protect their private ownership over the food which they had produced, making it difficult for other people to get to.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCbVpQyW-JeYOzvAzT-_trvvo3dxqiyuhjnjLbvr8hyVRnz06WoYGJUYp8_6nOBKn2uGVKqmPhvgmWwIyLlxllUpsItXKNhgUY5x61XEolQSKQcKD0rKh4J-uLsrrjin1YXYYd/s1600/DSC_5727.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCbVpQyW-JeYOzvAzT-_trvvo3dxqiyuhjnjLbvr8hyVRnz06WoYGJUYp8_6nOBKn2uGVKqmPhvgmWwIyLlxllUpsItXKNhgUY5x61XEolQSKQcKD0rKh4J-uLsrrjin1YXYYd/s400/DSC_5727.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526366252184053954" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Part of a large round storage pit, early centuries BC/AD, Kadebakele, Karnataka</span><br /></div><br /></li><li>Storage bins, granaries and public storage. In contrast with the private storage pit inside a home, archaeologists have uncovered large buildings they interpret as granaries or public storage for grain. They have variously been interpreted as state controlled centers which would function by taxation paid in grain, and as grain savings banks. A public depository, which you could come and withdraw from later. In Mesopotamia the temples often took grain as part of donations, gifts or offerings, and then used that grain to support the labor of various other kinds of producers who lived in and were attached to the temples. The collection of surplus grain which supports other kinds of non-food production and activities is the basis of a specialized economy. It allows for monumental constructions, works of art, and military conquest.<br /><br /></li><li style="text-align: left;">Livestock. Live animals are a great form of storage. As long as the animal is alive, it is its own machine of creating and storing food energy. To the extent that an animal ages, and will someday die naturally, it "spoils" very slowly. Keeping the goat alive until you want to eat mutton is a great way to prevent the meat from going bad. You can also feed animals with surplus grain, agricultural bi-products like hay, and benefit from their secondary products like milk, or wool. Keeping livestock - and keeping it alive, has always been an effective and efficient way of keeping food from spoiling.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJZhwU9E82tdNcKf4BKamAMf3p82lr8h-DlD-jE0RkB3bP_s_fLM_U-Fh7jNv87gielYfRYAf3HUPNzfyZw-DdpCKRo5ijUTDKHwDcUoVORBP3gnJYss1BIG4wBjsJLOvMllbu/s1600/DSC_5736.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJZhwU9E82tdNcKf4BKamAMf3p82lr8h-DlD-jE0RkB3bP_s_fLM_U-Fh7jNv87gielYfRYAf3HUPNzfyZw-DdpCKRo5ijUTDKHwDcUoVORBP3gnJYss1BIG4wBjsJLOvMllbu/s400/DSC_5736.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526366254300190354" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">A man holding a newborn goat up to its mother to suckle. It's still too weak to stand.</span><br /></div><br /></li><li>Pickles. I've never been a huge fan of pickles myself, but they are an age-old solution to the problem of vegetables and meat spoiling. What to do with all that extra cabbage? Sauerkraut. What to do with an abundance of cucumbers? Dill pickles, sweet pickles, any sort of pickles. One thing you'll need: lots of salt. And also, you'll need vinegar - which comes as a byproduct of number 7, below.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwQXfMJULXvLj5x53TSUEEQUzx6v4Yg_c3LmE_tHgw12M_MkXCQT-oGGgNX_UCxcg2C9-j6XWtQolq-eKyLyG6fCQXCCa-anNpibkxM7Sy16nh0bQ81RCIDbfzWKB1UU5mhiu/s1600/1260321887-pickles2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 287px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwQXfMJULXvLj5x53TSUEEQUzx6v4Yg_c3LmE_tHgw12M_MkXCQT-oGGgNX_UCxcg2C9-j6XWtQolq-eKyLyG6fCQXCCa-anNpibkxM7Sy16nh0bQ81RCIDbfzWKB1UU5mhiu/s320/1260321887-pickles2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526378681382552722" border="0" /></a><br /></li><li>Drying. Drying only works really well in certain kinds of climates, but it can be made to work even in the tropics. You can dry fruit (who doesn't love a fruit roll-up), or fish, or meat. Jerky, which is sold today in silly plastic packaging near the checkout counter at the 7-11 is actually an ancient technological solution. Even before or without agriculture, people all across the world have dried the excess meat from animals - especially hunting migratory animals that you can only hunt and kill in one season. Buffalo jerky on the high plains, caribou jerky in the arctic and sub-arctic, mammoth jerky in Ice Age Europe. Dried foods lose their water weight, are easier to transport, and don't spoil nearly as quickly. Fruits and nuts have also been important items of trade in the ancient world. Dates, apricots, pistachios, cashews, all were products of different regions of the Mediterranean and Near East. They were shipped all over the world.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFyju660uzR2qU4M0N9TraLL_1snKdVHnmyjc385_KepQFq8W2_q_y1px6S1hw2xQGqX-BGvVIU5VnJNdqo9HbDBzZvdYMywIsqbV7KFYxslYvWBPhlhSp_d64sUAejn4ipP9z/s1600/salami.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 222px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFyju660uzR2qU4M0N9TraLL_1snKdVHnmyjc385_KepQFq8W2_q_y1px6S1hw2xQGqX-BGvVIU5VnJNdqo9HbDBzZvdYMywIsqbV7KFYxslYvWBPhlhSp_d64sUAejn4ipP9z/s320/salami.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526383903121371890" border="0" /></a><br /></li><li>Fermentation. Grain, fruit, milk, almost any food product, given enough time will start to ferment or break down. The process is usually catalyzed by various agents, some of which are naturally present in the food itself. Food, especially the plant food we eat, is actually meant to be food for the plant itself. It's a way for the plant to store energy, usually to feed its offspring in the form of seeds. A peach is tasty to a person, but the fruit sugars and flesh are actually meant to nourish the seed, the pit in the middle which may become another peach tree. Built into the fruit are enzymes which naturally cause the fruit to ripen, a process which breaks down the sugars, and ultimately becomes rotting. Add to that various bacteria, yeasts, and fungi, and you have a million ways in which food will naturally break down. Instead of letting fruits and grains break down in the way that they would if left to themselves, humans learned to control the processes of fermentation to make beer, liquor, wine, and cheese. Controlled fermentation is a great way to take something that's going to spoil anyway, and cause it to ferment in a way that produces a product which itself will keep longer, store useful calories, and be mighty tasty in the process.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigz9FHMYmPyOXp4axi8fbWaMgqaN_zRq4QXIzvrDCIZasfaZiY6iR4r8ZdVkGRRxho1l5FRlcspTu_w0LXqzKlaAUDqDBOE02st_DQjq6svlcDmP2yTdT9Y9jlnmlQJl2CUFra/s1600/guinness-270x300.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigz9FHMYmPyOXp4axi8fbWaMgqaN_zRq4QXIzvrDCIZasfaZiY6iR4r8ZdVkGRRxho1l5FRlcspTu_w0LXqzKlaAUDqDBOE02st_DQjq6svlcDmP2yTdT9Y9jlnmlQJl2CUFra/s400/guinness-270x300.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526374788309171826" border="0" /></a></li><li>Host big parties. What archaeologists call feasts, (or more high-falutin' term "salient consumption") is a great solution to having a lot of surplus. If you happen to have a lot of extra food, you can always throw a big party, (preferably utilizing some of the above-mentioned wine or beer), and distribute that surplus, making sure it gets eaten and consumed before it goes to waste. The principle is one of "pay-it-forward" altruism. It pays to throw big parties, and invite the whole community. This year you might be the one with surplus, and you might help someone else who's crops didn't do so well. Next year, when your yields are not as great, (or in the modern world, you're unemployed) your neighbor can throw a party, where you can come and stuff your face. Everyone benefits, and less food gets wasted overall.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;">(I considered posting a picture of some friends at a party, but decided it might be too embarrassing/incriminating... so just make a mental picture, ok, people?)</span><br /></div><br /></li><li>Get fat. This is actually the evolutionary solution to times of excess and times of scarcity. When humans (and other animals) lived without as much control over their environment, and without the ability to produce surplus, we evolved to store the excess when it was available, and keep it for later, when resources were scarce. You can probably be assured that our hominid ancestors never got truly obese. But they did utilize fat storage as a way to make it through lean seasons. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you see it) in the modern and developed world, most people never experience the scarcity. They only ever experience surplus, and the system is no longer really adaptive for modern conditions and habits. (Disclaimer: I'm not in any way endorsing getting fat. I'm simply pointing out that is one of the ways in which humans have dealt with surplus food in the past.)<br /><br /></li><li>Don't produce as much surplus. This also may fall under the category of "the sky is blue", but it's worth mentioning. If you can't keep surplus without it going to waste, and you can't dry it, pickle it, ferment it, feed it to livestock, or share it with your neighbors, maybe you shouldn't produce that much excess. As the authors of this contemporary study pointed out, energy is wasted in making more than you can or will actually use. So whether that energy is your own sweat, out in the fields, tilling more land, and producing more zucchini than you can possibly ever use, or distribute, or whether that energy is in the electricity and petroleum products used by factories to make cornflakes which will go stale and wind up in the garbage, we should work on calibrating our production to our actual consumption needs.<br /></li></ol></div></div><br />After my top ten list of ways humans have dealt with surplus, and found ways to avoid waste, I want to add two points. One is that, given all the resources we have now, and the number of people in the world who still go hungry, I see no reason why we can't practice some of that pay-it-forward altruism, and give away the surplus. I don't see any reason why there should be any waste at all. India recently went through a scandal, in which <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/Farm-ministry-comes-under-criticism-over-Rs-7K-crore-warehouse-plans/articleshow/6596198.cms">grain was rotting in government store houses</a>, and poor people were starving on the streets. With enough public outcry, the government was forced to distribute some of that grain. Clearly, hunger in the world today isn't a problem of actual shortage or scarcity. It's a problem of distribution.<br /><br />My second point is more of a musing. In thinking about all the foods which are fermented, I realized that some of my favorite foods in the world are fermented products. Good beer and wine are wonderful things. So is cheese. Oh, I miss cheese so much. It's also interesting that fermentation is a process which some kinds of primates also appreciate. Remember the youtube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSm7BcQHWXk">video of monkeys getting drunk on the beach</a>? There are also monkeys that wait for fruit to ferment on the tree before eating it. They delay gratification and wait long enough for the fruit to become fruit liquor. They don't control the process, per se, but it's interesting to think that fermented foods might be evolutionarily older than the human species.<br /><br />If we can't figure out a way to send surplus grain to starving people around the world, maybe we can ship them some beer instead? Ok, I hope everyone gets that that was sarcasm. But seriously, lets figure out a way to solve the problems of waste, surplus, and starvation, all together.<br /><blockquote>Imagine no possessions<br />I wonder if you can<br />No need for greed or hunger<br />A brotherhood of man<br />Imagine all the people<br />Sharing all the world<br /><br />You may say that I'm a dreamer<br />But I'm not the only one<br />I hope someday you'll join us<br />And the world will live as one<br /> - John Lennon<br /></blockquote>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-64939709802994140502010-08-17T21:16:00.006+05:302010-08-17T22:47:48.787+05:30Bugs and Super-bugs<div style="text-align: left;">Clearly I'm in the wrong line of business. If I were an entomologist, or bacteriologist I would be in heaven, and I don't even believe in heaven. It's been starting to rain again, and though I think it's quite early for the monsoon, I'm (mostly) not complaining because the rains bring much cooler temperatures, especially at night. Finally I can fall asleep before 5am, and sleep without sweating. Hallelujah! (Again, I'm not religious, but what is it that we secular types can say that carries the same feeling as "I'd be in heaven" or "hallelujah"?) Unfortunately the rain also brings bugs (and news of superbugs).<div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I <a href="http://avocadoadvocate.blogspot.com/2008/11/when-can-i-buy-pro-bacterial-soap.html">posted before</a> about the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, and the need for a paradigm shift in medicine towards developing pro-biotic treatments. Not just vague advice to "eat yogurt" (or in South India, curd rice - yummy), but a wide variety of healthy happy bacterial treatments to fight the good fight against the bad bacteria. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPUld6dghH67yIOR6W2K8vZgwGnubeT8-CWjGw15-wkeULAiR7Xa-kh7p2RwwSvdlVX3gaxuparYVJ_utmWsAIwgu5yQbmyyDowF1s5ArkTYdpk7j4XdgtX68X6SCxBr6EHX-W/s400/curd.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 320px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506411528279660882" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Curd Rice instead of antibiotics? Sound crazy? Maybe. Maybe not. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Photo Credit: </span></span><a href="http://jonnadula-madhu.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/10/dhadhojanam-curd-rice.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Sulkha.com</span></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>The bad bacteria are getting worse, and getting stronger. There are now <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article566886.ece">multiple</a> <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100811/ap_on_sc/eu_britain_superbug">reports</a> <a href="http://www.imtj.com/articles/2010/concerns-raised-over-bacteria-30075/">on</a> the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20013644-501465.html">identification</a> of a new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_resistance">antibiotic resistant</a> genetic strain called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NDM-1">NDM-1</a> (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase). Aside from a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-cIjPOJdFM&feature=fvw">zombie</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDUv3ZjH2k">apocalypse</a>, what could be worse than a pandemic outbreak of antibiotic-resistant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrotizing_fasciitis">necrotizing faciitis</a>? (The wikipedia article on necrotizing faciitis has a photo of what this bacteria does to human tissue. If you really want to freak yourself out, check it out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Necrotizing_fasciitis_left_leg.JPEG">full size</a> - but beware, it's really not for the faint of heart, or I would just insert it in the post.) </div><div><br /></div><div>The problem with this, in case you hadn't noticed, is that NDM-1 is a gene, not a particular type of bacteria. It is currently identified in strains of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli">E. coli</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klebsiella_pneumoniae">pneumonia</a>, but that's not all. The gene is highly adaptive in an environment in which antibiotics kill off the bacteria which lack that gene, and can be spread through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer">horizontal gene transfer</a>. In other words, there is strong selection pressure for this gene, and it is likely to spread. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now let me again make the disclaimer that I am not a physician, or a medical expert of any kind, but it seems to me that the development of new adaptations at the level of genes that can spread across species of bacteria indicates that antibiotics, at least in the form we currently have them are not going to be the now-and-forever solution to illnesses in human populations.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not a big fan of Jared Diamond's "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_germs_and_steel">Guns, Germs, and Steel</a>" (I'll save why for another post), but he is right that germs - and one might add, antibiotics - have shaped human history. And they may yet again, in unforeseen and unpleasant ways. Unless we start to think differently, radically differently, about how to combat bacterial disease. Maybe it's just the wishful thinking of a complete non-expert, but it seems as though bacteria have been fighting other bacteria for hundreds of thousands of years. Not only that but many beneficial bacteria exist inside the human body, co-evolved over those millennia, and now are necessary parts of a healthy human digestive system, etc. If bacteria fight other bacteria, and we can live with many different kinds of bacteria in our bodies at healthy, tolerable levels with no detrimental effects, then maybe we should use fire to fight fire? Just a suggestion. </div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, in addition to noticing the hubbub around superbugs, I thought I'd take this opportunity to also post a picture of my most recent bug discovery. It's some sort of centipede that I've never seen before. </div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-zj0q3BZujL7woFTRkuNm7h-T2PK8TwdEmhwNLoYvSjIF5nWD6fSKEfKFUvSlrE_WKQ86nJ3l8kbJY-3rXZMrWV_VA1ZWgVDowB485ODPhXwERYL_gKm4JDlYcylwfKIAyLi/s1600/DSC_4794.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-zj0q3BZujL7woFTRkuNm7h-T2PK8TwdEmhwNLoYvSjIF5nWD6fSKEfKFUvSlrE_WKQ86nJ3l8kbJY-3rXZMrWV_VA1ZWgVDowB485ODPhXwERYL_gKm4JDlYcylwfKIAyLi/s400/DSC_4794.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506425927551162498" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Unidentified centipede. Red stripe. Fast walker. Suggestions anyone?</div></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-27759918966015395112010-08-15T17:13:00.007+05:302010-08-16T02:17:17.820+05:30Hosting, and guesting in the 21st centuryI've been a member of <a href="http://www.couchsurfing.org/">CouchSurfing.org</a> for several years now, and I think it's a great idea, and a great community of people. The general point of the site is to connect travelers with people willing to host them, on a sort of "pay it forward" principle that you participate by hosting people in your home town, and then if you want to travel you can utilize this network to find people to stay with all over the world. It is truly a global network, and it has a safety/security system built in, with reviews of how someone is as a host or a guest. So it has the effect of regulating whether people are going to be cool/friendly/safe or not. <div><br />I have had many good experiences with hosting people here in India, and aside from being really busy with research I am definitely willing to host more. The main challenge is going back to show people sites that I have seen a million times by now. Still the temple here in Thanjavur is so beautiful, I don't really mind. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2LZo-_5wO6K2jsysa1ykXOLyhaxs3CEAxoAk0Ko134tBeZiaNFwTtHnQS3Il0hNOS3GH0GYO9XixpyMeo7b1X9NC95JHO9ETcqLjiRva39NNO-S1Ufd8mCoOJGUstqoAkl0SC/s1600/28.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2LZo-_5wO6K2jsysa1ykXOLyhaxs3CEAxoAk0Ko134tBeZiaNFwTtHnQS3Il0hNOS3GH0GYO9XixpyMeo7b1X9NC95JHO9ETcqLjiRva39NNO-S1Ufd8mCoOJGUstqoAkl0SC/s400/28.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505617895927590722" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu</div></div><div><br />Even though I have had all good experiences I wanted to post these links: <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5606282/how-to-be-the-perfect-host-in-the-21st-century">How to be the perfect host in the 21st century</a>, and <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5612122/be-a-perfect-guest-in-the-21st-century">How to be the perfect guest in the 21st century</a>, both by <a href="http://lifehacker.com/">LifeHacker</a>. I found both articles to be great guides, especially conscious of changing etiquette in the modern world. </div><div><br /></div><div>For instance, as a host, they suggest you create an information card with contact numbers, emergency numbers, and basic info like the WiFi password to your home network. If such an info card is pre-prepared it saves both host and guest a lot of time. They also suggest taking a lot of cues from the hotel industry in providing towels, and free toiletries. While I think you should provide a clean set of sheets and towels for your guests to use, I don't know if I have enough money to provide a complete kit of toiletries like the hotels do. I guess I could start taking the hotel packs and saving them for later to offer to house guests. Usually I just tell people they're free to use the shampoo and stuff if they need to. </div><div><br /></div><div>For a guest, they point out that you need to respect house rules, and not expect your host to actually play host all the time. You should have your own plans worked out, an itinerary of stuff to do, especially if your host warns you that they'll be busy with work. They also emphasize that you should communicate as much as possible about your schedule, about any special food allergies or requirements, and that you should offer to pay for things as much as possible. They also point out that you should be conscientious when packing to travel, so you don't have to make too many demands of your host. Use this tool to create your own customized <a href="http://upl.codeq.info/index.jsp">universal packing list</a>. For India in particular I posted a detailed discussion of <a href="http://avocadoadvocate.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-to-pack-for-india.html">what to pack</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>To add to what they have posted on LifeHacker, I think it is important to work out some system of keys or getting in and out of the home or apartment. If you know your guests well, and trust them, you can give them a spare set of keys. Unfortunately people sometimes forget to give them back. You can point them to the spare set of keys hidden somewhere nearby, or with a neighbor if the neighbor doesn't mind. Otherwise you have to coordinate schedules so that the guest doesn't arrive at your place without you there or a way to get inside. This has been one of the hardest and most frustrating bits about hosting with <a href="http://www.couchsurfing.org/">CouchSurfing.org</a>. I am happy to host people from the site, given they have good recommendations, but I don't always want to give out spare keys, at least not right away. I don't know that there's a perfect solution to this one, but it's something to think about, and be sure to communicate with the person you're hosting. </div><div><br /></div><div>Lastly, I think you shouldn't host if you're going to be too busy to spend at least a little time with your guests. Guests need to understand their hosts are busy, and can't hang out all the time, but if you can't have dinner with your guests once or twice, or go out with them to do something around the town, you probably shouldn't be hosting. If I find I'm too busy to actually host someone, I always recommend affordable hostel or hotel options nearby, and try to offer to meet someone out for dinner while they're here, even if I'm too overwhelmed to have them stay with me at home.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>That's my 2 cents. So, Happy Hosting and <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/guesting">Guesting</a> in the 21st century! </div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-23711976311386384352010-08-09T11:29:00.009+05:302010-08-09T14:01:02.989+05:30Profile in SPAN Magazine<div><div><p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxChkOeRnISnVN1_mwB4yv-W6sLK1dTFbpA3I9m7v2yWIcteX-6bFZ-0_J0ODPCzormGzq62y-tvMcuDGwZR2mqsvR-xGUXu8r0jMDiOATmP_7fBMg-hB5xLJT9VSLtlrsmxA/s1600/Gwen+Kelly-+SPAN+magazine+profile_scaled.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 297px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxChkOeRnISnVN1_mwB4yv-W6sLK1dTFbpA3I9m7v2yWIcteX-6bFZ-0_J0ODPCzormGzq62y-tvMcuDGwZR2mqsvR-xGUXu8r0jMDiOATmP_7fBMg-hB5xLJT9VSLtlrsmxA/s400/Gwen+Kelly-+SPAN+magazine+profile_scaled.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503302173370825570" /></a>"Fulbright grantee Gwen Kelly is analyzing <b>beads, bangles and pottery</b> pieces from the 2,000-year-old Kadebakele excavation site in Karnataka to discover how and why economic and social connections changed in that ancient society. Preparing her Ph.D. thesis for the University of Wisconsin, Kelly has also lectured, in Tamil, to students at the Tamil University in Thanjavur and has founded the International Association for Women Archaeologists Working in South Asia. A talk on her research is scheduled at Fulbright House in New Delhi on July 31. <a href="http://www.iawawsa.org/">www.iawawsa.org</a>"</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the profile of me in <a href="http://span.state.gov/jul-aug2010/eng/index.html">SPAN Magazine</a>, the U.S. State Department in India's monthly magazine. It's short, and not entirely accurate. But oh well. The photo is indeed from the site of Kadebakele, in Karnataka, though that's not where I do my primary research. Also Kadebakele is much more than 2000 years old, it's at least 3000 years old. At least they got the name of IAWAWSA out there, along with the URL. Plus the magazine is online, and the piece about me can be found <a href="http://span.state.gov/jul-aug2010/eng/IBC_newscape.html">here</a>.<br /></p><p>It started in June when someone from the magazine contacted me and said they do a series on Fulbrighters, and they'd like to do a profile on me. Below is the (abridged) email correspondance that went into producing this piece. </p><p>In order to give my readers the kind of information that might have been in the profile (that I sort of hoped would be in the profile), I'm attaching an abridged version of the email correspondance here. In these emails I tried to explain what it is that I do, and why it's important. I am mildly annoyed with the magazine for the briefness and the inaccuracy, but my reason for putting up this email correspondance isn't to accuse them of anything. I understand they probably only planned a one-paragraph short profile anyway, and that's fine. But because I spent a significant amount of time writing these emails, trying to put what I do in to a non-academic, non-jargony framework, I thought maybe that effort shouldn't go to waste. What I wrote about myself and my work might still be of some use and interest to people, even if it didn't get printed in the magazine.</p><div class="nH"><div class="h7 " style="clear: both; padding-bottom: 0px; "><div class="Bk" style="position: relative; margin-bottom: 10px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-right-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; float: left; width: 617px; "><div class="G3 G2" style="padding-top: 3px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-right-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-bottom-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-left-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; "><div class="nH"><div id=":fd"><div class="HprMsc"><div class="gs"><div class="iF" style="height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; clear: both; "></div><div class="utdU2e"></div><div class="QqXVeb"></div><div id=":fb" class="ii gt" style="font-size: 13px; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; "><div id=":fc"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">Dear Mr. Y,<br /><br />I am honored that you have asked, and I would be happy to appear in<br />your magazine. I am attaching my CV, which may give you some<br />additional information about my background.<br /><br />I wanted to be an archaeologist since I was 7 years old. I became<br />interested in South Asia while studying in my first year of my<br />bachelors degree. I first came to India in 2001 as a volunteer on an<br />excavation in Rajasthan. Starting during my undergraduate studies, I<br />was most intensely interested in South India, and this led me to study<br />Tamil language intensively both in the US and in India, and focus my<br />research interest in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. I have worked<br />on archaeological projects in these three states as well as in<br />Rajasthan.<br /><br />My dissertation research developed because of my interest in the<br />connection between society and economy. It became clear after reading<br />about the Iron Age and Early Historic periods in South India, that<br />there still is no consensus about the nature of social and economic<br />organization over this long time period, or how it changed. In order<br />to begin to address this question, I decided to focus on a site that<br />had already been excavated. The site is Kodumanal, located in Erode<br />District, Tamil Nadu, near the foothills of the Western Ghats. This<br />site is important, and useful for trying to understand social and<br />economic organization because there is evidence that people at the<br />site were involved in the production of beads and ornaments in<br />semi-precious stones, and that they were linked to the Indian Ocean<br />and Roman trade in the Early Centuries AD. By analyzing the<br />archaeological materials, beads, pottery, shell and glass bangles,<br />etc., I am hoping to be able to reconstruct aspects of the social and<br />economic organization of the time. In addition to looking at<br />artifacts, my methodologies also include interviewing modern potters<br />about their craft and techniques, and conducting experiments in the<br />manufacture of all of these crafts, to better understand how they were<br />made in the past. This understanding of technology, and the different<br />stages of production can tell us how that production can be organized<br />in different ways, reflecting aspects of social and economic control<br />or exploitation.<br /><br />In addition to my research, I have also started an organization, the<br />International Association for Women Archaeologists Working in South<br />Asia (</span><a href="http://www.iawawsa.org/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">www.iawawsa.org</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">). The organization is inclusive of both women<br />and men, but aims at supporting and encouraging women to pursue<br />careers in archaeology in South Asia. The goal of the organization is<br />to promote women's rights and equality in the workplace and the<br />professional domain of archaeology. One aspect of this is to connect<br />researchers from both inside and outside South Asia who share research<br />interests. It is an international network with members currently in<br />seven countries, both in South Asia and abroad.<br /><br />As for the picture, unfortunately most of the time I am holding the<br />camera, and there aren't that many pictures of me doing my work.<br />There are a few pictures of me taken by others, and one in particular<br />that I'm thinking of, and I will contact them to see if they are<br />willing to have that picture published. I assume they will say yes,<br />but I want to make sure first.<br /><br />Please let me know if you have any other questions, or would like a<br />longer or more detailed description of my work. I tried to be brief,<br />but I really don't know what you are looking for. So do let me know if<br />there is anything else I can tell you.<br /><br />Best,<br />Gwen Kelly</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="nH"><div class="h7 " style="clear: both; padding-bottom: 0px; "><div class="Bk" style="position: relative; margin-bottom: 10px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-right-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; float: left; width: 617px; "><div class="G3 G2" style="padding-top: 3px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-right-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-bottom-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-left-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; "><div class="nH"><div id=":br"><div class="HprMsc"><div class="gs"><div class="gE iv gt" style=" padding-left: 4px; padding-bottom: 3px; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 0px; font-size:13px;"><table cellpadding="0" class="cf gJ" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-top: 0px; width: auto; "><tbody></tbody></table></div><div class="iF" style="height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; clear: both; "></div><div class="utdU2e"></div><div class="QqXVeb"></div><div id=":bp" class="ii gt" style=" margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; font-size:13px;"><div id=":bq"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">Dear Gwen,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">The editor and the studio has approved the photo quality and thanks for the additional info. The editor wants to know more about your work here on your current Fulbright and what are you doing at the university or with them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">Thanks again for your patience and time.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">Best.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">Y</span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="nH"><div class="h7 " style="clear: both; padding-bottom: 0px; "><div class="Bk" style="position: relative; margin-bottom: 10px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-right-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; float: left; width: 617px; "><div class="G3 G2" style="padding-top: 3px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-right-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-bottom-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-left-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; "><div class="nH"><div id=":bd"><div class="HprMsc"><div class="gs"><div id=":i4" class="ii gt" style="font-size: 13px; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; "><div id=":i3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">Dear Y,</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">It would really help if you (or the editor) could ask specific questions. I don't know what to say in regards to "more about my work on my current Fulbright". In what way more? </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">I am primarily based in Thanjavur, and my work is mostly here, looking at artifacts, pottery, beads, etc, from their storage room. It is very meticulous and slow work. It doesn't sound as glorious or exciting as most of what people hear about archaeology. But it's the kind of work that really produces the data that allows us to take what is found from excavations, and make something meaningful out of it. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">As for what I'm doing at or with the Tamil University: I am doing my research independently, with the help of one student research assistant. In addition, I taught a short course on Archaeological Method and Theory to the Masters, M. Phil and some of the Ph.D. students. The lectures were in Tamil.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">If you want more, it would really help to have some specific questions. Or perhaps this would be best done by phone. If you want to, you or the editor or whoever, is welcome to call me.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">Best,<br /></span></div><span style="color:#888888;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">Gwen</span></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="nH"><div class="h7 " style="clear: both; padding-bottom: 0px; "><div class="Bk" style="position: relative; margin-bottom: 10px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-right-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; float: left; width: 617px; "><div class="G3 G2" style="padding-top: 3px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-right-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-bottom-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-left-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; "><div class="G0" style="text-align: center;float: right; margin-top: -4px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; display: inline; padding-left: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: nowrap;font-size:11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="nH"><div id=":gr"><div class="HprMsc"><div class="gs"><div id=":gl" class="ii gt" style=" margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; font-size:13px;"><div id=":gk"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">Hello Gwen,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">Wondering if you received the attached mail I forwarded to you by the Editor.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">Thanks.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;">Y</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size:11pt;"> </span></p></div></div><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br />From: L<br />To: Y<br />Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 11:16:14 +0530<br />Subject: RE: Fulbrighters in India</span><br /><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;">Thanks, Gwen for the additional information.</span></p><p><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;"><span>1)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;">Once you look at the artifacts, then what? Do you note things down about them? What do you note down? How will what you have observed and recorded be used? Who will use it? For what?</span></p><p><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;"><span>2)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;">2) Regarding your research, what are you researching? (theme, focus, aim, etc.?) Will you be producing a paper? If so, for whom? A lecture? If so for whom?</span></p><p><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;"><span>3)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;">Thanks again. And great picture.</span></p><div><div><div><div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="nH"><div class="h7 " style="clear: both; padding-bottom: 0px; "><div class="Bk" style="position: relative; margin-bottom: 10px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-right-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; float: left; width: 617px; "><div class="G3 G2" style="padding-top: 3px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-right-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-bottom-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-left-color: rgb(188, 188, 188); border-top-left-radius: 7px 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px 7px; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px 7px; "><div class="nH"><div id=":hp"><div class="HprMsc"><div class="gs"><div id=":hr" class="ii gt" style="font-size: 13px; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; "><div id=":hq"><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">Hi Y, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">Actually, I didn't get that email forwarded. I am just seeing it now. So here goes:</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;"><span>1)<span> </span></span></span><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;">Once you look at the artifacts, then what?</span><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:19px;"> Do you note things down about them? What do you note down? How will what you have observed and recorded be used? Who will use it? For what?</span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">Looking at artifacts involves looking at a lot of details. I have several databases which I designed, which allow me to enter data about each sherd of pottery, or each bead, or each bangle. For pottery, for each piece, I record the diameter of the mouth of the pot, the maximum diameter (if possible), the height of the rim, the thickness of the rim, the angle of the rim, the color on the exterior and interior, the surface - whether it's polished or not, if there is any decoration, what kind of decoration is there, and finally assign it to a shape or vessel category. I have defined about 100 categories of kinds of things (modern equivalents would be soup bowls, pasta bowls, cereal bowls, saucers, salad plates, dinner plates, creamers and sugar bowls). </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">This data gets collected for several thousand pieces of pottery, and then it can be analyzed by separating and combining different elements, including where it was found in the site, how deep/old it is, and all these various kinds of data I collect. This allows me to compare how many bowls there are compared with how many cooking pots in a given area of the site. It also allows me to look at fine-grained change over time in things like the shapes of vessels, the angles of the rims, the sizes that they come in. For instance, modern plates are standardized, even between different brands and producers, there is a standard size for a dinner plate. With smaller non-industrial producers we can see this as a process, standardization over time is considered an indicator of increasing scale of production. The less a person makes pots, the more irregular they are likely to be. The more they make pots, the more regular and standardized in their shapes and sizes. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">In addition to pottery, I also collect similar kinds of attributes for beads, bangles, spindle whorls, and other artifacts. All this data is combined together, and analyzed using basic statistics, looking at different proportions of things, how those proportions change over time, etc. These kinds of patterns, whether they are patterns in space, or in time, at the site are the basis of interpretations. Using a set of theories and models about people, with different forms of social and economic organization, I then interpret those patterns to try to answer questions about how many different groups of potters might there have been at the site of Kodumanal, how much time were they spending making pottery? Each of those questions has implications in the larger interpretation of how the society and economy were organized, and how that organization changed over time.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">I then take those data and interpretations, and write them into my doctoral dissertation, and into articles that will be published in journals in India and the US.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style=" font-weight: normal; color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-family:arial;font-size:19px;">2) Regarding your research, what are you researching? (theme, focus, aim, etc.?) Will you be producing a paper? If so, for whom? A lecture? If so for whom?</span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">The goal is to try to understand aspects of the social and economic organization at the site of Kodumanal, and in South India in general, during the period spanning the last few centuries BCE and the first few centuries of the Common Era. As a means to understanding society and economy, I'm focusing particularly on technologies of production, since techniques and technologies of production directly relate to the organization of production, and the society that they were produced for. Technology relates to both production and consumption, and it helps us identify different aspects of who was producing something like pottery, and who - meaning different groups or sectors of society - was consuming it. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">I will be writing my PhD thesis, and submitting it to my academic advisor and committee at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, as well as producing papers for publication. I also will be giving lectures and conference presentations. In the near future, I'll be giving a short presentation on my research to the members of my organization - IAWAWSA - at our first ever meeting in India, which will be held on July 31st, 2010, at Fulbright House in New Delhi. I will present the results of this work at other conferences, wherever and whenever they are held around the world.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=" ;font-family:arial;"><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;"><span>3)<span> </span></span></span><span style=" color: rgb(153, 51, 102); font-size:14pt;">Thanks again. And great picture.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#003300;">Glad you like it. :)</span><br /></span></div></div></div><div class="gA gt" style="font-size: 13px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(227, 233, 240); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; width: auto; border-bottom-left-radius: 6px 6px; border-bottom-right-radius: 6px 6px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-27633175406315735382010-06-22T19:09:00.007+05:302010-06-22T20:29:24.399+05:30Time-Lapse Photo software for the Mac? ImageCapture!I (somewhat) recently bought a new DSLR camera: the Nikon D3000. I had no idea what was best, and didn't have the time really to do very in-depth research about which camera to purchase. Usually before buying a new camera, or any expensive piece of equipment, I would prefer to do such research, but I was buying this one with just a few days to go before leaving for India, and was overwhelmed with other preparations on my way out of the country. I took the advice of my cousin Jon who is a professional photographer (his amazing website <a href="http://www.ortnerphoto.com/">here</a>), that Nikon is the best brand, and with that alone, went to a camera specialty store in LA. I allowed myself to be persuaded by the salesman to buy Nikon's new D3000 model, something he said which was in between their previous amateur and pro- lines (what they call 'pro-sumer'). It was at about the right price-point for what I wanted to spend, and it had all the features I thought I would need. It also came with what seemed like a desirable lens: 18-55mm. I needed a macro for research purposes, and so bought a separate (thankfully used, but in excellent condition) AF macro Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8 lens. It is much heavier, and higher quality than the camera body. So much so, that though the lens supports auto-focus, the camera does not have a motor strong enough to drive the auto-focus mechanism, and therefore it is not able to auto-focus with the macro lens. I was warned of this, and it didn't really matter, because I usually prefer to manually focus on my macro subjects: beads, pottery, etc, because I prefer to select the focal length, and what element of the object is in focus. <div><div><br /></div><div>I have since read reviews which call the D3000 Nikon's '<a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d3000.htm">worst camera ever</a>'. But it's too late now. I'm not really a pro- user, so there are plenty of really fancy things that I'm not even aware that I'm missing. I've been really happy with the camera in general, until now. Now I wouldn't say I'm unhappy with the camera, but I ran into one particular need where my old relatively 'crappy' digital point-and-shoot was better. Video. Not that the quality of video taken by my old point-and-shoot (PAS) was very good, in fact it was pretty awful. But at least it was video, and for some things, video captures better than still. Even when the quality sucks. </div><div><br /></div><div>I ran into this problem when I started visiting a local potter to begin doing some experiments in firing pottery to try to recreate some of the ancient pottery that I've been studying. I wanted to shoot some video of his various activities, laying out the pots to be fired, or making them on the wheel. Without the ability to shoot video, I thought the best option would be to take something like time-lapse images, which I could later stitch together into a video. The frame rate would be low, but at least I could capture a series of images over time, showing the activity in progress. My first attempt was manual - I set the timer on my cell phone, and walked up to press the shutter button on the camera (on a tripod) every time the timer on my phone went off. This got pretty old pretty quickly. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>It was recommended that I download Nikon's own <a href="http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/software/control_pro2/index.htm">Camera Control 2</a> software, which I did (30 day free trial), only to discover that it doesn't support the D3000 model. I started searching for "time-lapse sof<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">tware for mac" or "remote shutter control software" and any other phrases I could think of to goog</span>le, that might find me something I needed. I came across a few free and paid apps, supporting various lists of models, none of which supported the D3000. Some of them looked great. I would have downloaded them, if they listed my camera among the supported models. Then I came across <a href="http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/d3000-review">this</a> review which said "I should point out that the D3000 cannot be controlled from your Mac or PC, unlike Nikon's more expensive models."</div><div><br /></div><div>I was becoming discouraged, and almost ready to give up, when I came across the software <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/camctl/">Icarus Camera Control</a>. I went to his list of supported cameras, and found only three supported cameras, though the developer suggested that it may well work with others. On going to the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/camctl">support wiki</a> I found his narrative of how he developed the product: <blockquote>Icarus Camera Control came about because I have a Nikon D80 that I want to connect to telescopes and control via my MacBook. Nikon sells software for camera control (Camera Control Pro) but it is expensive and getting more so, it is terribly slow, and is a horrible battery hog. It is completely unusable for portable work. So I started writing my own camera control tool.<div></div><br />Linux has gphoto2 infrastructure for controlling cameras. That works well for a wide variety of camera, including my Nikon D80, but it works very poorly on Mac OS X. It compiles, but it can't really get at the camera due to Mac services that already grab access to the camera. So while I could surely use gphoto2 to make a Linux application, I need something more native for the Mac.<div></div><br />Mac OS X, it turns out, has the Image Capture Architecture that is exactly for this purpose. The ICA provides an abstract interface to locate and access cameras, as well as a means to get at the lower level PTP commands to do the more interesting things that one wants to do with a camera. And this is the level where Icarus Camera Control operates. It uses the ICA to locate the camera and images on the camera, get thumbnails, and perform basic camera control functions. It then uses PTP messages passed through the ICA to perform more direct camera activities, including probing device features and capabilities.</blockquote></div><br />Which led me to think to myself 'Image Capture Architecture' meaning, it has the built in utility 'ImageCapture'?? Is this another example of something where the app I'm looking for is <i>already installed</i> on my Mac?? Indeed it is.<div></div><div><br /></div><div>Image Capture (found at ~Macintosh HD/Applications/Image Capture), though it is not fancy, does exactly what I need for remote (USB connected) timed shutter release. It allows me to set the interval in seconds minutes or hours, and it allows me an option to determine a directory where those files should be saved - directly to the harddisk. It doesn't allow me to control any of the cameras settings, light, aperture, speed, ISO, none of it. I still have to manage those settings on the camera itself. But once it's set up, all I have to do is click start, and it begins taking pictures at my determined interval. </div><div><br /></div><div>To stitch the pictures together into a time-lapse movie, I am able to use another pre-installed app: iMovie. </div><div><br />None of these are "pro" apps, none of them allow the control that someone might want if they were going to get really technical with the thing. But I'm not at a stage where I want to get technical. And I am amazed at how, after all this searching, the applications that I needed, with the functions I wanted, were on my computer all along, and they work great. </div><div><br /></div><div>In addition, I found these online guides to time-lapse photography and movie-making useful: <a href="http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/ultimate-guide-to-time-lapse-photography/">Photojojo.com</a> and <a href="http://www.tucows.com/article/2058">Tucows.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div>I promise I'll post the results of this time-lapse stuff soon. :)</div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-41845318214558496112010-06-09T23:47:00.009+05:302010-06-11T20:56:27.060+05:30Some Thoughts on the Future of Higher Education: YouTube Lectures, Distance Learning, and Open-source Education<div>Recently <a href="http://chronicle.com/">The Chronicle of Higher Education</a> ran a piece called "<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/A-Self-Appointed-Teacher-Runs/65793/">A Self-Appointed Teacher Runs a One-Man 'Academy' on YouTube: Are his 10-minute lectures the future</a>?" by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jryoung/">Jeff Young</a>. This piece suggested that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy">Salman Khan</a>, an <a href="http://www.mit.edu/">MIT</a> graduate with a bachelors degree, who one day decided to start creating 10-minute <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a> lectures on various subjects, was the beginning of a trend, and possibly a paradigm shift in higher education in the US. Like most articles of its kind, I think it is intentionally written to be provocative. Especially when considering the audience. The Chronicle of Higher Education is primarily read by academics. In other words, professors and administrators, people who are highly invested in the system of higher education, and as such, probably to some extent invested in the status quo. They, especially the old and stodgy types, are likely to reject that technology is the answer, or in fact, that there is anything wrong with the system at in the first place. </div><div><br /></div><div>What follows is my attempt to answer Mr. Young's question, whether 10-minute, informal YouTube lectures are somehow the future of higher education.</div><div><br /></div><div>First, I should start out by saying that higher education does have problems. Plenty of them. The current system (in the US), the status quo, is by no means satisfactory to many of the participants, teachers and students alike. Some of the complaints are as follows (from my personal experience, first as an undergraduate student, then as a graduate student, and a teaching assistant). Undergrads (and their entire families) wish that college wasn't so expensive. Now that going to college seems to be a prerequisite to get a job, practically any job, it has become a necessary cost to most Americans. Without a college education, in modern America, as in the past several centuries, you are at a severe economic disadvantage. The educational gap is part of what (at least seemed) to create the gap between rich and poor. </div><div><br /></div><div>Actually, access to education has for most of recent history been a symptom, rather than a cause of economic differences. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GI_Bill">GI Bill</a>, and the increasing availability of federally subsidized student loans created a huge increase in access to education. There is no doubt that this was a good thing. But, it didn't really change the structure of universities, and instead of economies of scale making education cheaper (as one might think), the cost of education seems to have gone up. Universities definitely have costs, they have the cost of the classrooms, the buildings, dormitories, libraries, lab equipment, etc. Now, with computers, they have the cost of constantly maintaining and upgrading computer systems for student and faculty use. In addition they have the cost of faculty salaries, highest for the law schools and medical schools, since those folks could be getting much better paying jobs practicing instead of teaching. They have the cost of paying salaries to all their administrators. I'm sure that's not all. There is no doubt that there are huge costs, some of them of value to students (teachers salaries, teaching materials, access to research equipment etc), but also some costs that have no apparent benefit to students. </div><div><br /></div><div>More and more, students, especially those who pay from their own pockets (or their parents), have started to look at their education from the perspective of consumers. In this way, education is becoming increasingly commodified, and courses, majors and degrees are evaluated by students and prospective students in terms of cost-benefit analysis. Students get mad, if when paying for their studies, they are not satisfied with a course or a professor, they feel as though they have been ripped off. I don't necessarily agree with this perspective, but I do understand where it's coming from. But, like any large society, democracy, or bureaucracy, a course with lots of students can't possibly please them all. Some students may love a course. Others may hate it. </div><div><br /></div><div>The increasing access to education, and the increasing number of students going to college has created a problem of scale. Educational research (not to mention common sense) tells us that different students learn better in different ways. Some of us are auditory learners. We learn best by listening. Some are visual learners, and learn best by seeing. Some people learn best by touching and working with something hands-on. I think it's fair to say we're all experiential learners. But with so many students now, its difficult to serve all these needs with a single model for teaching or education. </div><div><br /></div><div>So if the question is posed as: "Do 10-minute lectures on YouTube serve a purpose?" I would say the answer is yes, obviously. They give people - not just "students" - access to information in a short, easily consumed package. They are free to the user (minus the cost of the computer and/or internet access), as are many thousands of lectures on <a href="http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/">iTunesU</a> - where universities are posting course lectures as podcasts, or <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm">MIT's OpenCourseware Consortium</a>. Providing content for free is great. The opensource concept which lies behind many of these efforts is great. But I don't think it's going to replace or supplant the current system of colleges and universities, at least not in the near future.</div><div><br /></div><div>What can such digital online educational media provide? Lots of things. They can be used as supplementary tutorial material for students who are studying a subject, and need help understanding it. They can be introductory pieces, giving information and background on fields of study, and the kinds of results those fields can obtain. They can give access to knowledge and information to people who might otherwise have no access whatsoever. And those are all wonderful things. </div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqNjTydd8F2bVCodlua3h6aYRUPynLxSHuxZPXQ153zYQ4zCPM3GxKwW00D_0vwZkIGEbX21oXjk7Lu2cM0FScTvmw1g7JsFOkVQ9ZqlN4d5oN3vDnyDVkaOQxeCvD04eTbBCM/s1600/DSC_2532+copy.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqNjTydd8F2bVCodlua3h6aYRUPynLxSHuxZPXQ153zYQ4zCPM3GxKwW00D_0vwZkIGEbX21oXjk7Lu2cM0FScTvmw1g7JsFOkVQ9ZqlN4d5oN3vDnyDVkaOQxeCvD04eTbBCM/s400/DSC_2532+copy.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480854838716624690" /></a><div><br /></div><div>But there are lots of things, at least with present day (2010) technology, that a 10-minute YouTube video lecture CAN'T do. For instance, it can't give students hands on access to labs or other materials. In anthropology we teach many courses with hands-on activities. For human evolution we look at casts and reproductions of fossils of our hominid ancestors and the skeletons of contemporary primates. For archaeology we give students a chance to look at ancient pottery, beads, stone tools. We can teach them how to flake stone tools, not only by showing it, but by giving students two rocks to bang together, and guiding them through the process. You can watch as many videos - or <a href="http://www.discovery.com/">Discovery</a>, <a href="http://www.history.com/">History</a>, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/">Nova/PBS</a>, or <a href="http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/">NatGeo</a> TV shows you want about human evolution or archaeology, but this doesn't replace the experience of being able to hold such things in your hand and observe them directly with your own senses. Without this sort of hands-on access, everything about education would be purely conceptual. And while lots of knowledge is purely conceptual, that's certainly not true for everything. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another drawback is the ability, or lack thereof, to simply raise your hand and ask a question. The YouTube model, and other social media models, do give the opportunity for feedback, through a comments system, but it is much more difficult to engage in a full scale question and answer session, or even debate over a topic, at least with the existing software. Even with an (oldskool) IRC style chartroom, at least, such a discussion might be possible. </div><div><br /></div><div>The last, and perhaps most important aspect of education that is missing from a 10-minute YouTube video model for higher education, is the opportunity, or even necessity of students to do their own work, their own research, to think, and write, and then have that product be evaluated by their peers and their professor. A frequent end to a college course is the submission of a final paper and a class presentation. Ideally, students should be submitting their own work, their own thoughts and responses all along, during the course of a semester. In large scale education, this does get cut back, and that's definitely a problem, but not one that's solved by a 10-minute YouTube video. </div><div><br /></div><div>Many universities are now offering distance learning courses. They are modeled on the traditional method of giving 1-hour lecture two or three times a week. Students submit questions by email, or post to a message board, and watch online videos, or sometimes audio-accompanied powerpoints, in a relatively low tech solution. It works passably, as a system, as most any student who's taken a distance learning course will tell you. But it's got serious drawbacks. Is it possible that 10- or 20-minute chunks are more digestible than the current hour-long discourse? Definitely. </div><div><br /></div><div>I think that learning at a distance, is one answer among many, to the question of the future of higher education, and how to get information, or perhaps better thought of as knowledge, to more people. I think that to reach the level where distance education can meet all of the same requirements, and provide all the same things as in-person, physically present education, technology needs to advance a LONG way. For instance, technology, such as in a virtual reality simulation, could potentially bring students the same level of interactivity with each other, the professor, and "hands-on" experiences with lots of things. But that sort of virtual reality is decades if not more away from us, and may never develop in the way it has been envisioned in science fiction. Even if high-quality virtual reality were possible, I still think I'd be advocating real, human, in-person, direct contact for the best quality of education. </div><div><br /></div><div>But that's just the thing. Even if we take that some version of in-person education is the best, potentially the most rewarding for both teacher and student, we are again stuck with the problem of scale. The worlds population is currently almost <a href="http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html">6.9 billion people</a>, and counting. It's growing, and will continue to grow (though that's a debate for another post entirely), and we want to educate everyone, or as many people as possible. In order to do that, we have to diversify the ways and means of distributing knowledge and information - this is definitely already changing in the digital age, with YouTube, Wikipedia etc. And we need to change the model of university education, to reduce those costs. </div><div><br /></div><div>But, if you've ever listened to any NPR station, podcast, or YouTube video lecturer asking for donations and support, you know that there will always be costs involved. There are costs to creating new knowledge - otherwise known as research, there are the costs of supporting teachers to live and buy food for themselves and their families, there are costs of distributing knowledge, especially bandwidth, which is a cost both to the distributor and the consumer. These costs will never go away. It is now mainly a question of who will shoulder the burden. Will we someday have advertising supported education: "This lecture brought to you by Cyberdyne Systems"?</div><div><br /></div><div>I personally would like to see the college and university system miniaturized rather than super-sized. I think that many, many small colleges and institutions could do a much better job serving peoples needs for education, around the globe, with less overhead, fewer administrators, etc. This would bring education to the people, rather than bringing the people to the education. In the sense that small colleges, and community colleges already exist all over the US, this need is to some extent already being addressed. Community and vocational colleges are providing good basic education, at a much lower cost than the larger universities. They are much more numerous, more locally accessible, and open to all. This system could potentially be replicated abroad. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another solution is to diversify the approaches to content. Some students want or need a liberal arts education - with courses in a wide variety of topics, outside of the one they ultimately select as a major. Other students may not want or need those courses. Offering programs that are more targeted on one particular topic, without requiring students to take courses in other areas could also reduce the number of years in education, and the cost to the individual. I believe the option should be left open. I personally loved my liberal arts degree. I loved taking courses in many different disciplines. But such programs are not even available in the UK or India, where degrees are solely in the subjects that they are listed under. A student in a bachelors in physics, for instance, will study nothing but the discipline of physics. Not to say that there aren't diverse fields within physics, but still, a student in India taking such a course will at no time be expected to think about politics, or read a novel. This can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing, depending on the individual, and the topic. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is a lot to appreciate behind the idea of free, online, 10-minute lectures. And maybe, with increasing technological developments, these sorts of environments will be able to offer some of the aspects of in-person education that are lacking. Whether or not a person is giving accurate information is another thing to worry about. But I think, in the future of social media, crowd-sourcing, and potentially open-source education, I'm not sure that will be the biggest concern. I think my biggest worry about a digital age, open source, distance education, is that education isn't just about gaining knowledge or information, it's about learning how to think for yourself. It's about learning how to communicate those thoughts well to others. Having personal contact and relationships is hugely important. Having a mentor, a person who responds to you personally, and with insight, and care, is something that will become increasingly difficult to find in a YouTube/Wikipedia model for education. That is why I don't think these technologies can ever really replace the relationship between teacher and student. </div><div><br /></div><div>With more and more students, we need more and more teachers. We cannot attenuate this link to nothingness. One professor cannot teach us all, because one professor, (or ordinary citizen like Salman Khan) can never REACH us all, in the way that, at least sometimes, professors reach out to students and not only impart information, but guide us into becoming better people, better thinkers, and better citizens of the world. </div><div><br /></div><div>Because of the benefit that mentoring relationship has brought me, I want like to thank all of my teachers, and especially my mentors, who were and still are more than just teachers. Anyone who has ever had a great teacher, or a great mentor, and I hope that's most people, I think we all understand the value of that relationship, which is something that a YouTube lecture can never provide. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thank you to the teachers who have touched my life: Ms. Trout (2nd grade), Mrs. Dever (6th grade), Jennifer Shikes-Haines (7th grade), Mr. Halpern (9th grade English), Mrs. Grover (10th grade History), Mr. Panasenko (10th grade Biology), Dr. Cohen (11th grade History), Dr. Linda Grimm (Oberlin College, Archaeology), Dr. Michael Fisher (Oberlin College, History), Dr. Perween Hasan (Oberlin College, now University of Dhaka, Art History), Dr. Lynn Fisher (Oberlin College, Archaeology), Dr. Lipika Mazumdar (Oberlin College, now U. Pittsburgh, Anthropology), Dr. J. Mark Kenoyer (U. of Wisconsin-Madison, Archaeology), Dr. Sissel Schroeder (U.W.-Madison, Archaeology), Dr. Carla Sinopoli (U. Michigan, Archaeology) and Dr. Kathy Morrison (U.Chicago, Archaeology)…. just to name a few. </div><div><br /></div><div>I don't think I would be the person I am today, if I had simply listened to lectures online, even if those lectures were given by the very same professors and teachers I am listing here. These people have done more than lecture material at me, they have taught me how to think, and how to write, and how to be a better person. Maybe my list is exceptionally long. Maybe I have been extraordinarily lucky. I hope not. I hope everyone has the opportunity to have such wonderful teachers and mentors as I have had, on and on, into the digitally mediated future… </div><div><br /></div><div>Update 6/8/10: Recently was linked to <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/a-classical-education-back-to-the-future/?ref=opinion">this</a> article, which argues for a return to truly "classical" education.</div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-75118911937901767512010-06-02T01:42:00.004+05:302010-06-02T03:12:26.198+05:30Belonging<div>Why is it that we humans seem to want, or even need to belong? What is belonging, and how do we measure it?</div><div><br /></div><div>The music swells at the end of the film, the young man joins his tribe, his group, his people. He finally belongs. Members of the group greet him like an equal, like a friend. He is reunited with the girl he loves, and now he can be with her. They hold hands, walking with the group towards a new future, through the ashes of the past. </div><div><br /></div><div>This could be the end of many movies, but in particular I'm reminiscing on the end of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/">Avatar</a> (by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000116/">James Cameron</a>). Like many Hollywood movies before, the themes of love, hardship, and belonging carry the film about an otherwise ordinary, and perhaps uninteresting character. </div><div><br /></div><div>I almost hate to admit it, but in that moment at the end, (sorry folks, spoiler) where he is accepted, and his soul transferred from his human body to his Na'avi body, and the music swells, and he gets up and walks away with the girl, hand in hand, in that moment tears welled up in my eyes. Now maybe I'm extra sensitive, maybe I'm more emotional than some people, but I don't think I'm the only one. It felt like an almost <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomic_nervous_system">autonomic</a> response. There seems to be something deep and universal about this need to belong. Something that pulls at us, that identifies deeply with the need to belong, and the relief, satisfaction, contentment that Jake Sully feels when he finally does belong. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am fascinated with this subject because I have always been fascinated with things that are universal in human nature, and simultaneously fascinated with the things that make us different. </div><div><br /></div><div>It seems to me that the need to belong is universal, but the act of belonging, the groups, tribes, cultures, languages, religions, political parties, to which we belong, are part of the immensely diverse manifestation of that need. </div><div><br /></div><div>We've come up with so many solutions to belonging, we can't avoid the fact that many of them are contradictory: Religions that each proclaim to have exclusive truth, cultural and ethnic identities defined in opposition to the other. Sure some groups are non-exclusive. You can be a member of a book club, and also a member of a volleyball team. But you can't (at least technically according to both groups) be both a Muslim and a Hindu. Some of these groups are in friendly, or not-so-friendly competition. Others are at war. </div><div><br /></div><div>I have come across many examples of this problem recently. For example, apparently India used to allow multiple citizenships. Now, it seems, they are demanding NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) who have obtained other (such as U.S.) passports to <a href="http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Surrender_Indian_passports_Govt_tells_NRIs_NRIs_say_no-nid-68053-cid-1.html">surrender their Indian passports</a>, and pay a "processing fee". Apparently, you they are just now choosing to enforce a rule that you can't have dual citizenship in both countries. (Petition for NRIs to sign <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/ip100521/petition.html">here</a>). </div><div><br /></div><div>Anthropologists have long examined the ways in which people define their identities, as members of various groups, frequently nested within societies. What function today as the major categories of identity were not always the most important ones. Today, it would seem broadly, that religion and nationality are the most important identifiers. At least these are the ones that divide us the most. </div><div><br /></div><div>Within nations, there are political groups. Parties, and perhaps more strongly in many countries, the "right" and the "left". In many places, party politics depend heavily on other aspects of identity to mobilize and form their membership. Ethnicity, language, religion (or sect of a religion), these elements are all used, played like strings on a harp to make people feel like they belong. </div><div><br /></div><div>Most world conflicts, wars, civil wars, massacres, colonizations, invasions, and battles, though they may, at their root be about money or resources, most conflicts are played out, and defined in terms of "us" and "them". Because "us" and "them" are really arbitrary terms, accidents of birth, of time and space. I think this is partly why it fascinates me so much.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even though the categories that make up "us" and "them" are arbitrary, and in some sense illusory, they seem very real, and people act as though they are real. The same is true of international boarders, lines on the map. </div><div><br /></div><div>To be asked to belong, might be the greatest feeling in the world. To be invited to join something, to be told you have something to contribute, that we value your presence, provokes a powerful feeling. A recent NY Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/magazine/30Mayor-t.html">article</a> talked about the marginalization of young Muslims, and how this relates to their radicalization. The article made this seem like rocket science, that someone had figured out, if you don't want people to join the 'enemy', you might want to ask them to join you instead. </div><div><br /></div><div>But to me this isn't rocket science. People want and need belonging. And if they feel marginalized and pushed out by one society, they are going to seek another that accepts them, that validates their views, that gives them vindication, and perhaps even one that gives them the opportunity to retaliate. The solution? Not to marginalize them further, to accuse, to arrest, to put them in jail, but instead to offer them a place at the metaphorical table. </div><div><br /></div><div>As modern nations become a jumbled up mix of people migrating and immigrating from other nations, bringing their different identities, and with them, different practices, beliefs, languages, and ways of life, it seems like a growing problem of figuring out how so many different people can belong together to something greater. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the United States of America, the solution to this problem has always been to tell immigrants that the something greater is America itself. To become a U.S. citizen, to be American was a chance to belong to something great. </div><div><br /></div><div>But, as I've said before, it's not clear to me that the nation-state is the best solution to this problem. We unite everyone in America as Americans, and (we used to, more or less) make them feel welcome, and wanted, and to feel like they belong, but we do this in counterpoint to other nations. This is a tact that seems to me to be designed to foment and facilitate war. </div><div><br /></div><div>In reading the news, I am faced with many different versions of apocalypse. Nuclear disarmament activists warn of the risk of impending nuclear war. Environmentalists warn of the changing climate, the rise in sea-level, extinction of animals, the total transformation (or annihilation) of earth's ecosystems. These are just a few of the ways in which I am told the world, or civilization, or everything as I know it may come to an end. And while I agree that many if not all of these causes that are news-worthy are important, and something should be done, I believe that if we are to have any chance at surviving ourselves, at avoiding nuclear holocaust, etc, we must also find a new way of belonging.</div><div><br /></div><div>If we are not enemies, if we all belong to the same 'tribe', then we won't need nuclear weapons. If we join together, and decide to belong to something greater than religions or nations, then we have a much better change of being able to do something about climate change. </div><div><br /></div><div>It shouldn't be to hard to see what I'm pushing at, the unification of humanity, the concept of belonging to us, to our species, to unite us above and beyond everything else. </div><div><br /></div><div>Strangely enough, it had actually occurred to me recently (and before watching Avatar), that what Stephen Hawking said about the fact that we probably <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0427/Stephen-Hawking-Aliens-may-not-come-in-peace">shouldn't try too hard</a> to contact aliens, since they might just come over here to kill us, wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing. My strange and totally flawed reasoning was that an alien threat would help to unite humanity. Maybe, if we had something truly "other" to fight against, and define ourselves in opposition to, we would learn to embrace our unity, and get over our differences. </div><div><br /></div><div>Taken further, to its ultimate conclusion of inter-species warfare, that solution isn't really a good one either. But then I'm not the first person to think of that either. Avatar represents it, and vilifies humans for their destruction and exploitation. Even if we're fighting another species, that doesn't necessarily make us the good guys. This is a point most effectively brought home by Orson Scott Card in the book <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenocide">Xenocide</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, what can I say? It is clearly human to want to belong. Perhaps it is even biologically programmed. Maybe such needs are also programmed in to other social species, dolphins, whales, parrots, wolves and primates. Maybe it would be there in alien species as well. If our species isn't the answer (or our planet), then we are stuck in an ever expanding universe of inclusive belonging, a plan that doesn't seem very tenable either. </div><div><br /></div><div>By needing to belong, we seem to need to define the other. We need not only to belong, but to define that to which we do not belong. While this may have been an adaptive strategy for early hominids, defining the hominid social group, in juxtaposition with competitors, or predators, it's not a good working model for the future of humanity. </div><div><br /></div><div>At some level, I love the things that are universal. I am fascinated by the things that we share. These things are probably to some extent defined by our biology, and evolution. But they are not all good. We are universally capable of hatred, and fear. We are universally inclined to belong, and in doing so, define others, against ourselves. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even though belonging is this thing that unites us, and watching a movie about some young guy finding himself, finding that sense of belonging with an alien species tugs at some heart strings, I think we need to find a way to rise above it. Not necessarily to find bigger and bigger entities to which we can belong, but to stop feeling that need so strongly. Or at least to stop feeling it in a way that requires defining the other in opposition to the self. </div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-37812800718566912582010-05-10T14:51:00.008+05:302010-05-10T16:39:03.751+05:30A life dilemmaAs I come closer to finishing my degree, and (hopefully) starting a career, I feel as though I am faced with a serious dilemma about my future. The U.S. economy, and lack of jobs may decide my fate for me, if I am unable to find a job. But assuming I am able to get an academic job, any job in any college or university, I feel like academia affords me two choices. One, is to aim for the greatest prestige, a job in a top school, publish lots of books and articles, and get to be well known, and respected, and get tenure. The other is to take a job in a smaller college or university, one that isn't particularly prestigious, one where perhaps the emphasis is on undergraduate teaching, not on publishing and research. <div><br /></div><div>Maybe it is a form of conceit on my part, but I feel like, should I choose to pursue it, to put all my effort and energy in to writing, and research, I could be successful, by these standards. There are no guarantees in life, but it doesn't seem impossible. But I'm not sure that this sort of success would bring me happiness. I'm not sure it would be fulfilling or satisfying. Because, it seems to me, in order to achieve that, I would have to sacrifice a lot of other things which I love, and which give me happiness and satisfaction. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even to get through graduate school thus far, I feel like I have already given up most of my hobbies. Besides writing academic papers, there are a lot of things that I enjoy doing, most of which I haven't had the time or resources to do. Not that I would have pursued any of those things as a career either. I did woodwork, pottery, printmaking, made jewelry, sewed, painted, wrote poetry and short stories. I was always learning new things, new crafts. And there's more I want to do, more I want to learn. </div><div><br /></div><div>I know in some sense, that thinking about these things at this point in my life is somewhat pointless, as the time to make such decisions has not yet come. I haven't even finished my thesis, or gotten my degree yet. But I am always one to worry, or to cast it in a less negative light, one to think ahead to the future. I can't seem to be able to help it. However you call it, it's a part of who I am. And so I am pondering my life ahead of me, and decisions yet to come. And I suppose I want to work out in advance, the principles I feel should guide those decisions. I want to work out how I feel and what I think, so that when those decisions come, they'll be easier to make.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course the equation is more complex than I have made it out to be. I also want a family, and I want to have children. And even though it seems as though modern society tells me I can have both a career and family, it seems that only one sort of academic career is conducive to having a family. Not that you can't be successful and have children also. My mother is a great example of how this can be done. But I do think that, seeing my mother, as well as other women professors, it seems that it is very challenging, and that you may have to wait to have children until much later in life, after you have tenure, and are settled down. You may have to prioritize the career over having a family, and hope that the opportunity to have a family will still be there later on. </div><div><br /></div><div>The other option appears to go for the less high-powered career. Still a career, still in academia, but one with less prestige, with fewer demands and expectations, with less pressure to produce, and to be known. It seems to me, from my current vantage point, that such a career would give me the opportunity to have the best of both worlds. It would afford me the time, and enough energy left over at the end of the day, to have children, and a family, to have hobbies and enjoy life. </div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe this is too naive a view. I don't know. I'm not yet in a position to see it clearly. I know every job has it's pros and cons. I know that nothing will ever be perfect. And you can't be happy all of the time. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even as I write this, I feel somehow guilty. I feel to say this somehow goes against all the efforts of my mother, and feminists of her generation, and before and after, who have fought for women's right to have a career. They fought to be respected as individuals with intellectual merit. They fought for the chance to have high-powered and successful careers in prestigious institutions. And I feel guilty saying that it's not the path I want to follow. </div><div><br /></div><div>I appreciate the fight. And, when it comes to my organization, <a href="http://www.iawawsa.org/">IAWAWSA</a>, it's a fight I think is worth continuing, for women around the world. The right to have a career, any kind of career that you want. The right to be high-powered, even famous in your field, and the right to be little-known, except by your students. </div><div><br /></div><div>I realized today that my career cannot be my whole life. If I let my career consume everything else, I will end up miserable and unfulfilled. Archaeology is a part of who I am, it is something I love deeply, and want to continue doing for the rest of my life, but it can't be everything. </div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps it is overly optimistic, but I want the fairy tale ending. I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want the happily-ever-after. </div><div><br /></div><div>Just for fun, I'm adding a few pictures of a craft project I did in 2006, a dollhouse I made for my niece. It was something enjoyed making, and it also embodies the idea of that fairy tale, the happily-ever-after. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xS_VGuBAwL7Qqfv91LzQMxhUgRcp4zePxSNuQ_0HTKPNNm1bCSl7_wkfY1e77fqhOYY7hkHuKitu7cwkOU5EbjJxtuCebneDq21ElNymUqszhAZjMBj3F7bP1u3_NxtFXdac/s1600/IMG_0135.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xS_VGuBAwL7Qqfv91LzQMxhUgRcp4zePxSNuQ_0HTKPNNm1bCSl7_wkfY1e77fqhOYY7hkHuKitu7cwkOU5EbjJxtuCebneDq21ElNymUqszhAZjMBj3F7bP1u3_NxtFXdac/s400/IMG_0135.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469587452976930594" /></a><center>The castle exterior</center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuBJ-OaKhPrfECMFCtY7i-4DAk55yBTA4usCbNUL4oXOeBdYVOTVYqCIGGPk53JHzeJCJyEHg1iLulU2RkdT139N02R8PmyIKxMO3uT3BHMacqRJJD_3PiCYoBeGT1Kto3HwPl/s1600/IMG_0136.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuBJ-OaKhPrfECMFCtY7i-4DAk55yBTA4usCbNUL4oXOeBdYVOTVYqCIGGPk53JHzeJCJyEHg1iLulU2RkdT139N02R8PmyIKxMO3uT3BHMacqRJJD_3PiCYoBeGT1Kto3HwPl/s400/IMG_0136.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469589038468520258" /></a><center>Castle interior, dolls at play</center><br /></div><div><br /></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-39168644355076510152010-05-09T15:07:00.005+05:302010-05-09T15:30:36.392+05:30May is the hottest month<div style="text-align: left;">I am so glad I am not in Thanjavur right now:</div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6cNvH3YKZFWqqa8nujMDZeM_cbgf7gPftzGAAikrJT8FAJdpL6ulXixo1avML8LgzUejCZAdoRXsjfZgWFoS8HjE5AObHJEd85l5WXUqJ05G4CM6p8eUiJNxyQA8N41_SZlT/s400/Thanjavur.jpg" style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 287px; height: 179px; " border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469206337349829570" /></div><div><br /></div><div>Instead I am here:<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRJ_ATqEV5hGQhHQVKkWHBQ2IqfxCfSvwBQhIrydBHc0D0elhE84uSK4SeMBV6TaNF4oC9dZXany3q2k7-sXLfMz4-Th_oX4rbOpg1nReBVvEBZ-pvPI0kBfRNU6z31wQPvMI6/s400/Pondicherry.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 274px; height: 151px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469207173144349026" /></div><div><br /></div><div>and I'm going here:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaXBZnjP6pnSU83_u77Ut4IAHxcefyT-k437Jvrm-6e5_c2vgPOQ6xktTt8fWSLOjyWHnXtAmIfZr9D6Gn07oXflDsfofy6hFq7dY00-TOqkFr1WH6Fi7wP40vga1MVDc-HBlR/s400/Darjeeling.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469207474673913170" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 283px; height: 147px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-23134558574095645782010-03-26T16:58:00.008+05:302010-04-17T21:39:27.236+05:30The Indus Valley Debate: Language, Script, Identity, ComplexityRecently a friend of mine pointed me to an <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/war-of-words-in-the-cradle-of-south-asian-civilisation-1927005.html">article</a> from <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/">The Independent</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization">The Indus Valley Civilization</a>, that posed the question: Was the Indus script really a script, or was it just a symbol system? Hidden within this question are several others: Were the Indus people capable of something as complex as a script? What language did they speak and/or write? and Who were they?<br /><br />First, some background. The Indus Valley Civilization was centered on the Indus river and grew and flourished between 3300 B.C.E and 1300 B.C.E. It's exact boundaries are not known, but the sites where the Indus script are found are spread all over Pakistan, Western India, with some additional sites in Oman, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJVHb3HWqzdG80xKRR4VR3JmSf-3S14fL6KGZ0ug1F868dTB6GMglPqKQoh3YDKRqKpXql-VWr2cV_JQkv6mdf280w4Ca4gE3amO2sPCgvHVIUSzCf5R2jAHZm44zYDtyIcUYB/s1600/IndusValleyMap.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 347px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJVHb3HWqzdG80xKRR4VR3JmSf-3S14fL6KGZ0ug1F868dTB6GMglPqKQoh3YDKRqKpXql-VWr2cV_JQkv6mdf280w4Ca4gE3amO2sPCgvHVIUSzCf5R2jAHZm44zYDtyIcUYB/s400/IndusValleyMap.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452931782305816146" border="0" /></a><br />It is considered by most scholars to be one of the major early "primary" states, i.e. it developed independently of influence from the outside. It was an urban civilization, with many large cities, with dense populations, neighborhoods, urban planning, and water and waste management. It also had many smaller towns and villages, mostly agricultural, some engaged in different specialized economic activities, such as coastal fishing villages, and sites with an almost industrial scale of shell bangle production.<br /><br />So who were the Indus Valley people? Was their script a script or a symbol system?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZqBdEKR6qFa8xCGEGl-2uakJd-XOonGWRJ6I1wZabQpRygE0hW121sZ8uh3ZDwFKgDKDVzSgc_N6uUKKt6NoryHQJDY6YsUw4zw_IMBuwW_ZRmeL_nrMcCnwEbUbEKL5YFB7o/s1600/indus_seal2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 398px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZqBdEKR6qFa8xCGEGl-2uakJd-XOonGWRJ6I1wZabQpRygE0hW121sZ8uh3ZDwFKgDKDVzSgc_N6uUKKt6NoryHQJDY6YsUw4zw_IMBuwW_ZRmeL_nrMcCnwEbUbEKL5YFB7o/s400/indus_seal2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452930158189317570" border="0" /></a>A Steatite Seal with Indus Script and the Image of a Unicorn.<br /></div><br />The article starts off by first quoting a local tour guide saying he's not sure the people of Harappa are his ancestors, because they had such complex technology. Then the article goes on to create a completely false divide between scholars in the west, and scholars in India and Pakistan. According to the author, Andrew Buncombe:<br /><blockquote>Many experts in south Asia and elsewhere believe that symbols and marks inscribed on seals and other artefacts found here represent an as yet undeciphered language. Arguing it may be the predecessor of one of several contemporary south Asian argots, these experts say it is proof of a literate Indian society that existed more than 4,000 years ago.<br /><br />But other experts based in the West say although the symbols may contain information, they are not a true language. They claim the judgement of their counterparts in south Asia may be swayed by regional nationalism. </blockquote>This ethnic/racial divide between people who claim it is a script and people who claim it isn't is total bull****. Pardon my French. There are plenty of scholars in the "west" who have written extensively about the Indus script as a script - not a symbol system. Examples among these are <a href="http://www.helsinki.fi/~aparpola/">Asko Parpola</a> - a Finnish professor of Indology at the University of Helsinki, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Mark_Kenoyer">J. Mark Kenoyer</a> - professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (and my academic advisor).<br /><br />A variety of people over the years have argued that the Indus script is really a symbol system, and not a real script. Their reasons for this usually stem from the lack of (preserved or discovered) long inscriptions. The vast majority of inscriptions come on Indus seals, with some on pottery, inscribed on shell and terracotta bangles etc. Wherever they are found, they tend to be just 6-10 letters or symbols long. This is the main reason why it has not yet been deciphered. As one of my professors put it, for the Indus Script, all we have is the white pages in the phone book. For those who do believe that these symbols are letters and not pictographs, it is argued that the seals, and other short inscriptions are the names of people and places, probably with honorifics. There may have been inscriptions or texts on paper, bark, papyrus, wood or cloth, all things that are not preserved today. We will probably never know if there were or not.<br /><br />And that is the real problem with the debate. The answer is we really don't know for sure. We can take the data that we have, and draw inferences and interpretations from it. We know these letters/symbols are standardized, that there are patterns in which ones repeat, and in what order, that they are found on objects that we would consider to most probably have belonged to individuals, and not groups. There is also an inscription, one that was inlaid in wood on a sign board near the gateway to the city of Dholavira. The signboard had fallen, the wood disintegrated over time, but the inlay lay as it had fallen, flat on the ground, buried for thousands of years. We can make an inference, a judgement, based on the context of the inscription, it's placement, location, size etc., that it probably said "Dholavira" or maybe "Welcome to Dholavira". Without decipherment we can't really know for sure.<br /><br />Aside from the short length of inscriptions, what has prevented any really conclusive and convincing decipherment of the Indus script is the fact that we don't know what languages people were speaking. Note the use of the plural: Languages. That's a huge problem, in a civilization as large and complex as the Indus Valley was, with sites spread across a huge area of mostly Pakistan and India, but also as I mentioned with sites showing presence in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Oman, we should not assume that everyone was speaking the same language. They probably were not. There were probably people from diverse backgrounds, speaking different languages, who came to trade, who may have used Indus styles of clothing, ornaments, and other markers of identity (or not), but still spoken different languages, perhaps their "mother-tongue" as well as whatever language was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca">lingua franca</a> of the Indus Valley, the language people had in common.<br /><br />It is really only modern identity politics that makes the language question matter. Modern South Asia has hundreds of languages, and most people speak more than one. Battles for identity are fought over language today, and the supposed "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryan_migration">Aryan Invasion</a>" that brought Indo-European languages to the subcontinent is an ancient sort of incarnation of the concept that people with a different language and identity came to India and took over. The Aryan Invasion Theory has been thoroughly debunked, but the modern implications of who the Indus Valley people were, are still at issue.<br /><br />The people of modern Pakistan (and India) should be able to claim that the inhabitants of these amazing sites, with all their amazing technological achievements, are their direct ancestors. That this heritage is their heritage, and not somebody else's . So when someone comes along claiming that the Indus Valley script isn't a script, or that it was used to write a Dravidian-family language instead of an Indo-European one, or some other lost language, it is an insult to the people of modern India and Pakistan.<br /><br />Because the inscriptions are so short, and because they were most likely using the script to write in more than one language, (the same way the roman script - that I'm using now can be used to write French and Spanish and Italian, among others) we can't really say for sure.<br /><br />The argument that their civilization was complex, and therefore they must have had writing, is sort of a fallacy, though I can see why people would use it. There is no reason necessarily that a complex society must have had a complex writing system. It just so happens that, as far as we can tell, the Indus script has all the features of a writing system, and not a pictographic or symbol system. The same debate was waged about Egyptian hieroglyphics until the Rosetta Stone was discovered, which allowed the decipherment of hieroglyphics as a script, and not a bunch of symbols (bird, wheat, pot, man, fish, are all letters representing sounds like an alphabet, not symbolic representations of birds, wheat, pots, men, or fish).<br /><br />So the truth is, we can't really be sure. The Indus script displays all the features of a writing system, (Steven Farmer is really, really wrong about this), but we won't know for sure until it's deciphered, and we can't decipher it until we know what languages they were writing, and which language was being written in a particular inscription. We probably can't know most of those things, unless we find longer inscriptions, or the Indus Valley equivalent of the Rosetta Stone.<br /><br />Parpola (the Finnish Indologist) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iravatham_Mahadevan">Iravatham Mahadevan</a> (an Indian epigraphist) have both argued that the script was used to write a Dravidian language. Neither of them have yet come up with a conclusive decipherment, but even if they (or someone else) someday is able to prove that the Indus Script was used to write a Dravidian language, this does not mean that the people of the Indus Valley are not the ancestors of modern Pakistan and India, who speak Indo-European languages.<br /><br />Language and identity are one thing, and genetics another. A good example of this is the diversity of languages that was spoken in France before the standardization of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_French">Modern French</a>. The people are the same, but over a number of generations they stopped speaking the languages they used to speak, and started speaking standard French. People may have spoken a Dravidian language (or another language which is lost today), but that doesn't change the fact that there is strong genetic continuity between the people of the Indus Valley Civilization and the modern inhabitants of Pakistan and Northwestern India.<br /><br />Disclaimer: I'm not a specialist in Indus Valley archaeology. But I am an archaeologist and I have read a lot about this topic. This is my commentary on the subject, not an academic paper -- I'm not citing every statement I make. I probably should, but I don't have time. If you're really interested you can go track down publications by J. Mark Kenoyer, Gregory Possehl, Rita Wright, and many more. For more information check out <a href="http://www.harappa.com/">Harappa.com</a>.<div><br /></div>EDIT:<div><br />Recently The Hindu newspaper published an <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/15/stories/2010041553550900.htm">interview</a> with Asko Parpola. This is some of what he had to say:<br /><blockquote><b>The Hindu: There is some criticism that the Indus script is not a writing system.</b><br /><p><br />Parpola: I do not agree [with that]. All those features of the Indus script which have been mentioned as proof for its not being a writing system, characterise also the Egyptian hieroglyphic script during its first 600 years of existence. For detailed counterarguments, see my papers at the website www.harappa.com.<br /></p><br /><b>The Hindu: If it is a writing system, what reasons do you adduce for it?</b><br /><p><br />Parpola: The script is highly standardised; the signs are as a rule written in regular lines; there are hundreds of sign sequences which recur in the same order, often at many different sites; the preserved texts are mostly seal stones, and seals in other cultures usually have writing recording the name or title of the seal owner; and the Indus people were acquainted with cuneiform writing through their trade contacts with Mesopotamia.</p></blockquote></div><br />So there!!Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-57242877237984573582010-03-24T16:18:00.012+05:302010-03-28T23:50:21.245+05:30The Fight for Equality Goes OnI used to think <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism">Feminism</a> was finished. That we were done with it. Not because it was irrelevant, but because I thought it had achieved its purpose, and was no longer really necessary. I was of this opinion by about age 15, when in high school, in Berkeley, California, as far as I could tell, women were equal to men, boys to girls. Pretty much every adult woman I knew had a career, had achieved as much if not more than some of the adult men I knew. Kids in school seemed equal, and so through the lens of that very limited (and perhaps rose-tinted) glass, it seemed to me feminism was no longer needed.<br /><br />I was aware of feminism at the age of 15, because my mother was a feminist scholar and writer, someone who thought about and had written about gendered inequalities for most of her adult life. But at that point in my own life, I just didn't see the point. Why make such a big deal? Women were feminists, they had fought for equality, for their right to vote, to own property, to make decisions about their own bodies and health. Women had fought, and won. Or at least so it seemed to me.<br /><br />It took me a long time to realize that although this might be true, in limited contexts, severe inequalities still exist for women in many other places. Of course by college I had heard of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban">Taliban</a>, and of various other forms of discrimination in America and around the world. But I had never really confronted it face to face. I don't think it really hit home until I came to India for the first time in 2001. By that time I had read enough anthropology about India, and Indian culture and society to be at least somewhat prepared for the gender bias that permeates most of Indian society. Here the bias against women persists across boundaries of language, religion, social status, across pretty much every barrier that divides Indian society.<br /><br />I don't want to reiterate a large body of academic (and non-academic) work on gender relations, roles, and inequalities in South Asia. For those that are interested, I'll put a few suggested readings at the bottom of this post. <br /><br />Women's education and literacy still lag behind men. Women, even Ph.D. educated ones, are frequently expected to give up careers in order to marry and have children. The feminine role of wife and mother is one where frequently little compromise is allowed. I don't want to paint an entirely dire picture. These things are changing somewhat, and bit by bit, young women are being allowed (the key word: allowed) to pursue both a career and motherhood. This is not made easy, since facilities like daytime and after school child care are extraordinarily hard to find. Women may sometimes be far more educated than their husbands, with career and earning prospects higher than their husbands, but family and culture dictate that she should stay home, and the husband work or pursue his goals. I had this discussion just the other day with an educated and intelligent woman, married into an especially conservative household here in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. She told me her in-laws (with whom she now lives in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_joint_family">joint family</a>) don't allow her to sit on chairs. Men sit on chairs, and women are expected to sit on the floor. She works at a shop which is owned and managed by her husband's family. She isn't allowed to pursue a real career based on what she studied. She is not allowed to leave the house by herself, without a male relative as a chaperon.<br /><br />In the university where I am conducting my research, there are many young women students. But only one woman in the department faculty. Most of the students will never get the chance to pursue archaeology as a career.<br /><br />Women are also, to varying extents, viewed as sexual objects, and not as equals and human beings. They are subject to harassment in public spaces: groping, grabbing, lewd comments. This is horrifyingly and surprisingly common. It varies to some extent from North to South, with less harassment in South India than the North, but still is present everywhere. This is not even to mention the frequency of rape, domestic abuse, and more serious forms of sexual abuse.<br /><br />Indian women are not the only victims of this harassment. All women are subjected to it. I have personally been groped, had my breast grabbed, been cat-called, whistled at, had men expose their genitals to me, listened to innumerable inappropriate comments, attempts to kiss me, solicit me, and 'seduce' me. I have heard stories told by women whose experiences were worse than that.<br /><br />I guess if you've been reading this blog up until now, maybe you'll realize where this post is going. Recently I started an organization: <a href="http://www.iawawsa.org/">IAWAWSA</a>, the International Association for Women Archaeologists Working in South Asia. In my <a href="http://avocadoadvocate.blogspot.com/2009/11/iawawsa-international-association-for.html">last post</a> on the subject, I talked a bit about the goals of the organization, but didn't go into much detail as to why I decided to start it. The above issues in contemporary Indian society affect both Indian women and foreigners like myself. I wanted to start an organization to support women, and their career goals, to support research conducted by women, and to bridge the gap between different nationalities, to talk about the issues of gender bias that we all have in common.<br /><br />It turns out there is still a need for feminism, for empowerment. Still a need for equality.<br /><br />So now that I've talked about some of the issues and challenges that women still face in India, in the realm of equality, rights and freedoms, I want to address some points about what I want IAWAWSA to become.<br /><br />The gender bias that exists in India is systemic. It is pretty much across-the-board. And if it is going to change, it needs to be confronted and challenged from all possible angles. I did not start an organization to give micro-finance loans to women-run businesses (though if you want to do that I recommend <a href="http://www.kiva.org/">Kiva.org</a>), and I don't belong to an NGO. There are plenty of those. I started an organization that I hope will help the people I know, women archaeologists, and simultaneously help further research in subjects I think are important.<br /><br />Ultimately I do hope to be able to offer funding, scholarships and grants to women to do research and pursue their careers. But at the moment we are an organization that offers a less material form of support. We can offer the support and encouragement to each other as peers, and as mentors. We can offer the support of opportunities to learn, opportunities to do fieldwork, opportunities to conduct research. Until we have the funding to offer financial support, we will conduct conferences, seminars, and have meetings to get to know each other. We can develop more specific initiatives as we go along and gain in membership.<br /><br />This brings me to my last conundrum. I started this organization with the express and specific purpose of helping women in a struggle for equality. The struggle is waged at both the level of colleges and universities, but also, and most importantly in the wider social context. I want to support women. I want to empower women. I want to have an organization FOR women. But the "for" does not necessarily imply that it is exclusively made up of women.<br /><br />Exclusion based on gender is part of the problem. Excluding women from joining groups, being able to participate in a wide variety of activities a huge part of the problem. To exclude men would not solve anything. It would, it seems to me, just strengthen the divide between men and women, and create an atmosphere of hostility, rather than cooperation.<br /><br />Civil rights for African Americans in the US were not won by organizations that discriminated against whites because they were not part of the category those organizations were created to help. A gay rights group is still a gay rights group, even if straight people join. And a group like IAWAWSA is still a group to support and empower women, even if men join.<br /><br />In fact we need men to join. We need men to understand the problem. If the society as a whole is going to change, as it needs to for women to become equals, the change has to come from everyone. Women alone can't change the system. Not only would it be hypocritical to exclude men based on their gender, it would be counter-productive to our overall goal.<br /><br />It has recently been suggested to me that if men are allowed join IAWAWSA that would change the nature of the organization. That would make it an organization FOR everyone. It would change everything. I strongly disagree . The stated purpose, the raison d'être of the organization, to support and empower women in the profession of archaeology, and it need not change if men are members. To the contrary, I think that male membership will strengthen the organization, and demonstrate that we are all equals.<br /><br />I don't really expect many men to join IAWAWSA, but if they want to, if they want to support the cause of equality, and empower women to pursue careers and research, then I think that's wonderful. It gives me hope that more men will come to see the value and importance of equality. The sooner that happens the sooner the system will change.<br /><br />I am curious though how you, my readers, feel about this issue: so I have a short poll here to find out what you all think.<br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/2949388.js"></script><br /><noscript><br /> <a href="http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2949388/">Should men be allowed to join an organization that is "for" women and women's empowerment?</a><span style="font-size:9px;"><a href="http://answers.polldaddy.com">polling</a></span><br /></noscript><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/2946791.js"></script><br /><noscript><br /> <a href="http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2946791/">If men join an organization that is "for" women, and the empowerment of women, does their membership change the nature of the organization?</a><span style="font-size:9px;"><a href="http://www.polldaddy.com">polls</a></span><br /></noscript><br /><br /><br />Suggested (and <span style="font-weight: bold;">very</span> selected) readings:<br /><br />Bumiller, Elizabeth (1990) <span style="font-style: italic;">May You be the Mother of a Hundred Sons.</span> New York: Random House Books.<br /><br />Jeffrey, Patricia (1979, 2000 reprint) <span style="font-style: italic;">Frogs in a Well: Indian Women in Purdah</span>. Delhi: Manohar.<br /><br />Desai, Neera and Maithreyi Krishnaraj (2004) An Overview of the Status of Women in India. In: M. Mohanty (ed.), <span style="font-style: italic;">Caste, Class, Gender: Readings in Indian Government and Politics</span> (pp. 296-319). London: Sage Publications.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-67621093961191525762010-03-24T10:27:00.001+05:302010-03-24T10:54:56.393+05:30A Day in the Life<p>I am an archaeologist. I love that I get to say this whenever anyone asks the inevitable question, "What do you do?" The inevitable response: "Oh! I always wanted to be an archaeologist." Which leads me to ask them, "So why aren't you?" The answers to that one vary from, "my parents never would have supported that", to "well I discovered I wanted to be a ______ more", but most commonly, "well i never thought you could really make a career out of it". To which my answer is usually (silently), "It's not that hard!". </p> <p>In any case, the profession of archaeology has a sort of mythos amongst the general populace. The stereotype is somewhere between Indiana Jones (rugged, outdoorsy, unshaven, and adventurous) to Lara Croft (sexy, rugged, outdoorsy, adventurous, and um... shaved?) In any case, whatever our use of razors, we are apparently either hyper-masculine or hyper-feminine, and we prefer the jungle to the library. The latter is probably true, but the former not so much. </p> <p>Whatever the gender, the other representation that the public has of archaeology is through extraordinarily dry and boring TV shows on PBS, Nova, and the History Channel. The actual work of what it means to be an archaeologist, what it is really like, is rarely accurately represented in the media. So I guess I've decided to take it upon myself to try to change that. </p> <p>So what is a day in the life of an archaeologist like?</p> <p>Well, the true answer is that there is no typical day. And that is probably the best part. Even within a single profession, we wear many hats, and routines change frequently, moving across the globe in many different settings. On one day, you might find me excavating at a site somewhere in India, and on another day find me in a library, a university classroom, a lab, walking across a landscape, or staring at the most minute aspects of an object, like a bead drill hole, using a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_electron_microscope" mce_href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_electron_microscope">Scanning Electron Microscope</a> (SEM). </p> <p>The truth is that aside from the manner in which most archaeologists divide their time between teaching and research, there are many, many different things that constitute doing archaeological research. To start with, I'll outline a day in the field, excavating, since that's where I was most recently, and that may be the most fun part of the job. But keep in mind that the amount of time spent excavating is frequently a rather small percentage of an archaeologists time. Out of a year, most archaeologists are lucky to spend 2 months in the field excavating, and even that is limited by funding, research permits, and other constraints. With that in mind, here we go, down the rabbit hole, a typical day in the field:</p> <p>5:45 am - Wake up. It's still dark outside. I have set at least two alarms to make sure I drag my sorry, exhausted, carcass out of bed. I am not a morning person, but to dig, it's worth my while to wake up. It's not uncommon for me to form some expletive, out loud, or in my head, as my first waking thought. "****. I have to get up. ****. Oh, but I get to dig!" And I hop out of bed.</p> <p>6:00 am - Get dressed. Field clothes: usually some sort of REI cargo pants, many pockets, hopefully vented for air circulation, and a cotton shirt. Applying gobs of SPF 50 waterproof sunblock. Applying some sort of bug repellent. </p> <p>6:15 am - Get packed for field. Backpack must contain: Trowel, notebook, clip board with necessary recording forms, pencils, measuring tapes, line level, plumb bob, cloth and plastic bags to collect artifacts, sharpies to write on said bags. Also need four liters of water, extra sun screen, extra bug spray, first aid kit.</p> <p>6:30 am - Departure. On my most recent field project, we stayed in the rather luxurious accommodations of a hotel. This isn't always the case, but it certainly is nice. We'd hit the road by 6:30, stopping on the edge of town for breakfast, on the way to the site.</p> <p>8:00 am - Arrive. Start digging. Well, actually, start making notes. Making notes, recording observations, taking measurements, and writing down every possible piece of information is the most important part of digging. We don't just dig things up out of holes in the ground to admire them aesthetically. The artifacts, whether they are pottery, animal bones, beads, charred seeds or wood, stone tools, are meaningless without context. Without understanding where an object comes from, it is essentially meaningless. </p> <p>So for the sake of argument, I'll just say we're starting to excavate a new "level". What is a "level", you might ask. A level is an volume of dirt, which is a layer of soil, as it was originally deposited there, hundreds or thousands of years ago. </p> <p>At Kadebakele, the site where I was recently working, our units were 2x2 meters square, though the area being excavated might combine multiple 2x2 meter units, up to 4x4 or 4x6 meters together. These areas were selected because they represent different parts of the site, areas where different activities were occurring. Because people did things differently in different areas, there are different layers of soil in each place. Our job is to understand what was going on in an area at a particular time, and that means taking out a layer of soil which is horizontal, which was deposited as the result of some activity in the past. </p> <p>Because we dig deeper, and deeper, and as we dig, we remove the dirt above, in effect destroying it, we must record the exact position and relationship of objects in a layer, (or level). To do this we have a piece of paper called a "Level Form". A level form helps us keep track of all the relevant information. For instance, how deep were we when the level started. </p> <p>To measure this, we have set up something called a "datum", a point for which the exact elevation (in meters above sea level) is known. From the main datum, we then set up a point near each trench, called the "sub-datum" to measure the depth of things within that trench. We set up the sub-data (plural of sub-datum) because sometimes the trench is a long way away from the main datum, and because we can. Once we know the elevation of the sub-datum relative to the main datum, we can also know the elevation of everything inside the trench.</p> <p>Because dirt accumulates over time, in layers, the layers on top are the most recent, and the layers on the bottom are the oldest. This is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_superposition" mce_href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_superposition">law of superposition</a>. Things frequently don't work out as neatly as this, but for the sake of argument let's just pretend that today they are. That means that identifying the layers, as they were deposited, and digging each one up separately is the most important thing we can do, in order to understand what was going on in the period in which that dirt was deposited. </p> <p>So the top of the form. We write down the starting depths of our level. We use the metric system, because well, it makes sense. We write down 5 different depths, each of the four corners of the square unit, and the center. We do this because though things are deposited in layers, those layers aren't always exactly flat. Sometimes they slope down, or make a hump up, or do a million other things. </p> <p>We then record things about the soil itself. What kind of soil is it? Is it sandy? Is it silty? What color is it? We use the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_color_system" mce_href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_color_system">Munsell soil color chart</a> as a way of specifically identifying the color so that it can be compared later. "Brown" isn't a very useful or descriptive term. We also describe how compact the soil is, it's texture, and how densely filled with artifacts it is. </p> <p>We start digging. We look for changes in the above mentioned aspects of the soil. We want to take out all the dirt that is the same together. We want to leave dirt that is different for the next level, or if it's a smaller area than the whole unit, like a pit, we will call it a "feature". </p> <p>I scrape the dirt with my <a href="http://www.pasthorizons.com/shop/" mce_href="http://www.pasthorizons.com/shop/">trowel</a>. Is the dirt the same color as it was above? Is it the same texture, the same compactness? Any sort of change might be grounds to stop excavating this level, and start a new one. Everything artifactual, mainly pottery, animal bone, charcoal, beads, bangles, assorted other objects of human manufacture, is placed in some sort of bag and container, and labeled with the information about it's origin. It is labeled according to the designation of the site, the trench, the unit, the level, the depths, the type of contents, the date and the people excavating it. </p> <p>These objects will be analyzed later. This is one of the other ways in which I (and many other archaeologists) actually spend a lot of my time. It's not enough to dig up a bunch of stuff. In order to really understand it, the people who made it, what life was like at that time, we have to employ many different methods to analyze these different kinds of artifacts. This is food for future blog posts. </p> <p>In any case, the principle is, if the dirt is different, it may belong to a different time period, and the objects found inside should be kept separate. They can always be combined later, if it is decided that two separate levels really belong to the same time. But this determination is left until later when other data, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating" mce_href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating">radiocarbon dates</a>, can be employed to help determine whether or not these differently colored or textured deposits of dirt are different or not.</p> <p>We dig more. All of the dirt that comes out of the unit is put through a metal screen, of at least 1/8th of an inch mesh. This helps us catch all the small things, that would almost certainly be missed if we just had to go by eye. Everything is important. Everything is data. For instance we will collect the animal bones, and they will be identified later to help understand what people were eating, and how their diet and habits changed over time. If we didn't use the screen, if we didn't collect the small bones, we'd have a very biased perspective. It would appear that people ate mostly large mammals, such as cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and maybe wild animals like deer. With the bones we collect from the screens, we find that people were also eating small birds, small mammals, and fish. </p> <p>We put these different artifact categories into different bags. We label the bags carefully. We keep track of how many bags there are, by writing that information on the form. We also collect items like charcoal, and measure the exact coordinates of that charcoal, in order to get the kinds of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating" mce_href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating">radiocarbon dates</a> I mentioned before. Ideally we'd like to have a date for each layer that we excavate, so that we can see the full sequence of dates and understand the deposition of the layers at the site. </p> <p>Still digging. I notice that the soil is becoming more compact. It's also a different color. I'm coming to the end of my level. I remove all the dirt from above this change in the soil, and call that the end of the level. We record the ending depths, four corners and the center. We make more notes about the contents of the level. We draw a map (in plan view) of what the bottom of the level looks like. Is there a house? are there stones making up the wall of a structure, is there a pit? These kinds of things have to be mapped, because they will be removed and destroyed in digging up the next level. </p> <p>If there is something like the outlines of a structure visible in the holes where wooden posts once stood, or in the stone foundations, this is important. We want to try to figure out what kind of structure it was, and if possible excavate the material inside the structure as separate from the outside. This will help us understand what kinds of activities took place inside the structure, and what kinds of activities went on outside. We may not be able to tell if something is a house, or some other structure until later, when we do analyze the contents. </p> <p>In this system of excavation and recording, something like a structure becomes a 'feature'. It gets a separate kind of recording form, and it will be excavated so that we can see what's going on inside it, versus outside. </p> <p>What I am describing is a very oversimplified version of how these things usually go, but it's meant to help you non-archaeologists understand. So I hope my fellow archaeologists will stop rolling their eyes now at the over-simplification, and let me go on. </p> <p>In the case of one of the trenches I was recently supervising in excavation, the major 'feature' of the trench was a large pit. Actually two large pits, to be exact. Pits are tricky to understand because they get filled up with dirt, but their filling-up is usually un-related to the reason why they were dug in the first place. As far as we archaeologists can understand, people most frequently dug pits for storage. They needed a place to put things, food, or other important stuff, and without cabinets and shelves, and tupperware containers, the easiest place to put things was in a pit in the ground. But then most pits don't fill up with the sorts of things people actually wanted to store. Most of the time it would appear people took out their food or clothes, or whatever they were storing, and filled the pit up with other dirt that wasn't important. Sometimes they may have filled in the pits on purpose, and other times they may have been left open and un-used, and filled up over time, rather unintentionally. </p> <p>So I finished excavating my first level. At the bottom of this level I have noticed two different kinds of soils, not just one. Around three edges of my square 2x2 meter unit, I found a mud-plaster surface, a surface someone prepared intentionally, perhaps as part of a house or courtyard. This surface is very compact, and it's light colored. But the surface doesn't cover the whole unit. There is a giant pit. The soil inside the pit is much looser, and darker brown. It's also much more full of artifacts. In other words, it's full of garbage. </p> <p>In this case, the pit is identified as a 'feature'. It gets excavated separately. It will also get excavated first, because, by definition the pit is a later intrusion into the surface which it is dug into. The surface had to be there first, in order to have the pit dug into it. We will try to excavate out the contents of the pit before excavating the material around it, so that we can also avoid mixing the material from these different time periods. </p> <p>Even within the pit, we try to dig out different layers of the dirt inside the pit separately. Among the most important English phrases the Kannada-speaking villagers who work with us have learned is: "separate separate", right after "different different". </p> <p>Oops I left out lunch. Oh well. We usually stop for lunch around 12:30 or 1:00pm. We eat a picnic lunch of plain and masala buns, with fresh veggies like cucumber, tomato, and onion, and an occasional hard boiled egg. We have additional snacks like (the eponymous) <a href="http://www.eastwestbazaar.com/product_info.php?products_id=1188" mce_href="http://www.eastwestbazaar.com/product_info.php?products_id=1188">tasty nuts</a>, dried fruit, and a box of apple juice. Reapply sunscreen. Especially those as pale as myself. </p> <p>4:00pm - Quitting time. Pack everything up. Carry back to the village all buckets, tools, etc. More digging will have to wait 'til tomorrow.</p> <p>4:30pm - Back to the hotel. Long ride home. The scenery is beautiful. At least on the main road, the traffic can be atrocious. Hopefully we'll be home in an hour. Sometimes it takes as long as two.</p> <p>6:30pm - Lab work time. Now that we're back at the hotel, and (hopefully) freshened up, it's time to do all the work on the computers to record all the key information from the day. Primarily this involves checking in all the bags of artifacts that we collected, and entering them into the database. Once they have been entered, the pottery can go back to the village where some of the local women are employed to wash the dirt off it, so that we can study it more easily later. The rest of the things get sorted by categories and locations, and put in to various trunks and boxes for later analysis. </p> <p>7:30pm - Dinner. Meet the crew and go out for some grub. Exhausted, starved, and sometimes bedraggled and dirty, we are always an interesting sight to see at any of the restaurants around town.</p> <p>8:30pm - Back to the lab. Usually there's still work to do after dinner. More data entry, more organizing the finds. </p> <p>10:30pm - Bed. Totally and utterly exhausted. Not a minute spent in my day doing anything besides working, eating, bathing, and working. Barely enough time left over for breathing. I'm usually asleep before I've even hit the pillow. Have to make sure the alarms are set for tomorrow. </p> <p>.....</p> <p>5:45am - ****. ****. Time to get up and start another day. OOOH! I get to dig up stuff no one has touched in over 2000 years! </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-20963671110070252852010-03-06T21:56:00.002+05:302010-03-07T01:03:47.242+05:30A very unpleasant experienceI was having a lovely evening ... went to a great sushi place in Bangalore tonight with my two friends from the dig, my last night here before I go to a conference, and before they leave to go home to the U.S. I had a great dinner, and great company, and was feeling like life was pretty good. <br /><p><br />But after arriving back at the hotel, a rather fancy establishment on Residency Road near Bridage Road, I had one of the top most unpleasant moments of my time here in India. I asked for my clean laundry at the front desk, when I returned from dinner, since I am leaving in the morning and I have to pack the clothes. The man at the desk said he'd send someone.<br /><p><br />I went up stairs, said goodnight to my friends and went to my room. I was met in the hallway, by a young guy holding a bag with my laundry. When I opened the door to my room, he tried to step inside, but I stopped him at the entry way, and told him to put down the laundry there. I tried to get rid of him, because he seemed creepy even then, but he said "You check" and indicated the laundry. So I set down the bag and opened it. I was counting the clothes looking down at the bench, when he stepped closer, and I looked over and realized his penis was hanging out of his pants. It was right there, and it wasn't an accident. He told me to sign the receipt, and I did, avoiding looking at him all together, to get him out as quickly as possible and shut the door. <br /><p><br />I called the front desk and asked to speak to the manager, but I was told he isn't there now. The man asked if he could help me. So I told him what happened, saying that the man who delivered my laundry had "inappropriately exposed himself to me". He came up stairs to speak with me in person, but he brought the guy with him. So when I asked to speak to the front desk guy they both stepped in to the room. Without looking directly at him, I gestured at the guy, and said "He has to leave". So the manager told him to wait outside, and stepped into the entry to the room. I asked him to close the door so I could speak with him privately. He did, and I explained, gesturing at my own "down there" and said "He exposed himself to me!". I had to say it twice for it to sink in, but then the front desk guy did indeed look very shocked. He paused for a second, and then asked "Maybe by accident?". I told him, "No, I don't think it was an accident. When he walked away, he was laughing." <br /><p><br />The hotel desk employee or whoever he was, apologized profusely, said in the future that it would not happen. I don't know if there will be a future as I'm pretty sure I never want to stay at this hotel again, but I guess that's reassuring.<br /><p><br />I think the thing that's bothering me the most is that now I don't feel safe, or like I truly have privacy in this room. It has made me paranoid that there is some sort of secret hole in the wall, that the mirror is really a mirror you can see through, or some other invasion of my privacy. It's probably unnecessary paranoia, but it isn't a pleasant feeling to wonder if there are sick men hiding on the other side of the walls, watching with their parts exposed. <br /><p><br />I don't like to feel like a victim, and if I can help it, I'll just avoid the feeling all together. I suppose it could be worse, he didn't try anything else, but I do feel sort of victimized, assaulted, and harassed. I also feel like there is a pretty good chance that that this has happened to others here, but they may have been too ashamed or embarrassed to talk about it or complain. <br /><p><br />I am not the kind of person who feels that sort of shame or embarrassment. I half contemplated for a moment whether this event might in some way be my fault, whether I might have done something that invited this. But I immediately discarded that notion. I recognized it immediately as one of the signs of victims of sexual assault or abuse. I trained in college as a sexual assault support counselor. I know how common it is for victims of many forms of sexual assault to blame themselves. A <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=victims+and+self+blame">google search</a> will tell you the same thing. So I decided I am not to blame. I reported it once to the front desk, and I will report it again in the morning.<br /><p><br />I don't necessarily feel that the entire hotel is bad, or that it should be avoided. I think most of the people who work here are decent and good people. I don't blame them either. But I do hope this employee loses his job, and I hope that I am wrong in my paranoia about holes in the walls. I am not sure I'll ever stay here again, but I'll have to see how I feel about it later. Maybe I'll be able to get over my anxiety and come back again. Or maybe not.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-14194068578118766962010-03-05T18:21:00.003+05:302010-03-05T23:50:04.219+05:30LongingI know it's been a while since I've written. I was working on an excavation in Karnataka for almost two months, and it was extraordinarily busy and exhausting. It was also wonderful, and I'll write a post about that soon. Just a note of warning, this post is a bit more personal than what I usually write. And by personal, I guess I mean emotional. Oh well. <br /><p><br />Now that the excavation season is over, everyone I was working with is about to go home. They return to comfort and familiarity, to family and friends. And I will be in India for about 8 more months. Though I have not been homesick at all in the past four months, I was suddenly hit with pangs of longing, as I listened to my friends talk about the things they are looking forward to back home. <br /><p><br />The thing is, I'm not really homesick. I don't have a home to be sick for. I find myself longing for a home that doesn't exist. I find myself missing a home I have never had. I long for the home I someday hope to have. It's pure fantasy, it lives in the form of day dreams, scribblings, and internet research. <br /><p> <br />The home I dream of having changes from day to day. It changes settings, countries, and climates. It changes changes architectural styles, and it varies in size, form, color, and shape. <br /><p><br />I have no real formal training in architecture. But when I was about 6 years old, I took an empty tissue box, added cut out cardboard wheels on drinking straw axles, and independently invented the concept of the 'mobile home'. At summer camp I started doing woodwork, and made a number of small items, and then began to work on furniture. When I was in high school I studied architecture and design, primarily in the form of a class at <a href="http://www.newschool.edu/">The New School</a> on furniture design. I particularly enjoyed the section on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus">Bauhaus Modern</a>, and wrote my paper on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mies_Van_der_Rohe">Mies van der Rohe</a>. Though many of my scribbled drawings of my imagined home are frequently in my own version of the high modern style, I actually feel most at home in places with much more natural wood and stone, than I do with stainless steel. I love the warmth of wood, the color of light that it reflects, the infinite visual depths of the grain. <br /><p><br />One thing is constant. The plans of my imaginary houses are always open, airy and full of light. One version of my home is perched on the side of a mountain, overlooking a deep valley. In this incarnation, it is mostly glass (triple-pane for good insulation), with stone floors. It is built into the mountain, and two or three-tiered, partially subterranean. It leans into the mountain, and is rooted there, with windows on three sides. It smells like the damp earth.<br /><p> <br />In another incarnation my home is in the desert, it is single storied, and square like a hacienda with a huge open air courtyard in the interior. It has a peaked ceramic tile roof, with wooden rafters, and adobe walls. It is made of shade, and sunlight, with a cistern to catch the rain. The courtyard is paved with sandstone and pebbles collected from a dry gully wash. The pebbles make a secret mosaic, only showing their colors when they are made wet by the rare desert rain.<br /><p><br />In another incarnation the house is a cabin, deep in the woods amongst rolling hills. It is small in plan, but with a tall atrium roof. The interior is paneled with a warm rich pine wood, honey colored, and sweet smelling. It nestles in amongst the trees, with bright tall windows, it brings in the light that filters through their leaves. The light changes the house with the seasons, from green to yellow red orange, to white and back to green. <br /><p> <br />Another version of the house is three storied, brick and stone and wood. On the ground floor, in the center is a living room under an atrium that goes up three stories to the roof. On either side, two separate staircases lead up to bedrooms and on the third floor, studies. My third floor study is surrounded on all four sides by windows with built in book shelves all around. Across the atrium opening, through my windows, I can see the man I imagine I'm married to puttering about in his study, making notes, pacing back and forth, absorbed in his work or some other project. <br /><p><br />Aside from the changing architecture, the changing materials, climates and locations, my homes have variously changing inhabitants. Sometimes they are full of pets, a dog, two cats, or a couple of parrots. Sometimes there are kids. Sometimes I am alone. Lately, these daydreams have been populated by one person in particular. This is the most dangerous part of the fantasy, the part most likely to cause heart break and disappointment later. It's also frequently the hardest part to avoid imagining. <br /><p><br />Of course, these homes are concepts of design, primarily in the aesthetic sense. If they were to become realities, I would have to take into account the question of environment, of energy efficiency, of water, etc. Obviously these things are important, but to me they are impossible to conceptualize in the abstract. Each location, each climate, each house would have its own specific needs, its own conditions of heat and cold with which to contend. Those things can and should be dealt with later, dealt with in reality.<br /><p><br />To add to the list of homes described above, which are the product of many years of thought, many years of contemplation and sketching in notebooks, I have recently been given new concepts to consider, especially: <a href="http://weehouse.com/">WeeHouse</a> and some of these from <a href="http://tinyhouseblog.com/">TinyHouseBlog.com</a> such as <a href="http://tinyhouseblog.com/stick-built/tumbleweed-tour/">this</a>, and <a href="http://tinyhouseblog.com/stick-built/williams-cabin/">this</a>. These teeny tiny houses appeal to me at multiple levels. First, it brings me back to my original (re)invention of a house on wheels, a home you can take anywhere. Second, I love the eco-friendly nature of it, and the coziness of something so small, so compact. I love the idea of minimal living. It is a way of life I feel I am more or less engaged in now.<br /><p><br />To imagine a home that I someday hope to have, however, is really an exercise in futility. In the career path that I have chosen, to be an archaeologist, I will in all likelihood have to sacrifice the ability to choose where I will end up living, and simply go wherever I can get a job. To have a job at a college or university, if it's in the US, probably means that my home will not be in the desert, on a mountain top, or amongst deep woods. And although the image of this home is important to me, it isn't as important as my career. <br /><p> <br />Home is where the heart is, or at least, that is how the cliche goes. The problem is that my heart is divided amongst so many places... places that I have lived, places where family and close friends are, and places that I hope to someday live. Recently my heart has set up shop in a new location, with it's hopes no longer set on a place, or a kind of house, but rather on a particular person, who I can't seem to stop myself from hoping will be the co-inhabitor of this imaginary home. As I have repeatedly told myself to let go of the attachment to all of my other dream homes, so as to avoid disappointment later, I have told myself to let go of this hope as well. So far though, no success.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-8913178000875124122010-01-02T02:53:00.006+05:302010-01-02T05:19:37.943+05:30Politics, Power, the History of India and MeLately I've been reading "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewel_in_the_Crown_(novel)">The Jewel in the Crown</a>" by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mark_Scott">Paul Scott</a>. It's the first novel in a series about the end of the British rule of India, and it was the basis for the <a href="http://www.merchantivory.com/">Merchant Ivory</a> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086739/">film production</a> by the same name. Though it's a fictional story, it's set in a very real historic moment, one that I find especially fascinating.<br /><br />As an undergraduate student at <a href="http://new.oberlin.edu/">Oberlin College</a>, I was first exposed to the study of India and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia">South Asia</a> by in a two semester history course taught by the amazing <a href="http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/history/faculty_detail.dot?id=20747">Dr. Michael Fisher</a>. This course began with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_valley_civilization">Indus Valley Civilization</a>, and ended with contemporary South Asia. Though I chose to pursue archaeology as a career, my interest in the the colonial history of South Asia, which was spurred by Dr. Fisher's course hasn't diminished. It is a period in the history of South Asia, and in fact of history generally, which I think has a lot of lessons which can and should be learned and remembered in the modern world. It also provides an interesting model in which to think about past (pre- and proto-historic) episodes of colonialism and imperialism.<br /><p><br />My reason for bringing this up here, however, is not to expound upon the academic value of the study of South Asian colonial history. It is to reflect on the impact it has had on me personally. There are many threads that make up this knot, in which I feel I am firmly tied to both India and the United States, and to global history, politics and economy. I am going to attempt to pull apart this knot just a little bit here. And in doing so, first I would like to present an extended quote from the novel "A Jewel in the Crown". It is from a letter written by the character Hari Kumar (Harry Coomer), to his friend Colin Lindsey in England, where Hari/Harry was raised:<br /></p><p><br /></p><blockquote>"Vidyasagar is a pleasant chap whom I rather like but have a bad conscience about. The first few weeks I worked on the <italics>Gazette</italics> the editor sent me round with him practically everywhere, and then sacked him. Vidya took it well. He said he guessed what was in the editor's mind when he was detailed to show me the ropes. He said, 'I don't hold it against you, Kumar, because you don't know anything.' He chips me a bit whenever we happen to meet and says that given time I might learn to be a good Indian.<p></p><br />But I'm not sure I know what a good Indian <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span>. Is he the fellow who joins the army (because it is a family tradition to join the army), or the fellow who is rich enough and ambitious enough to contribute money to Government War Funds, or is the rebellious fellow who gets arrested like Moti Lal? Or is the good Indian the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_gandhi">Mahatma</a>, whom everyone here calls Gandhiji, and who last month, after Hitler had shown Europe what his army was made of, praised the French for surrendering and wrote to the British cabinet asking them to adopt 'a nobler and braver way of fighting', and let Axis powers walk into Britain. The nobler and braver way means following his prescribed method of non-violent non-co-operation. That sounds like a 'good Indian'. But then there is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehru">Nehru</a>, who obviously thinks this attitude is crazy. He seems to want to fight Hitler. He says England's difficulties aren't India's opportunity. But then he adds that India can't, because of that, be stopped from continuing her own struggle for freedom. Perhaps then, the good Indian is that ex-congress fellow, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose">Subhas Chandra Bose</a> who makes freedom first priority and is now in Berlin, toadying to Hitler, and broadcasting to us telling us to break our chains. Or is he Mr. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Ali_Jinnah">Jinnah</a> who has at last simplified the communal problem by demanding a separate state for Muslims if the Hindu-dominated Congress succeeds in getting rid of the British? Or is he one of the Indian princes who has a treaty with the British Crown that respects his sovereign rights and who doesn't intend to lose them simply because a lot of radical Indian politicians obtain control of British India? This is actually a bigger problem than I ever guessed, because the princes rule almost one-third of the whole of India's territory. And then again, should we forget all those sophisticated aspects of the problem of who is or is not a good Indian and see him as the simple peasant who is only interested in ridding himself of the burden of the local money lender and becoming entitled to the whole of whatever it is he grows? And where do the English stand in all this?</p><p><br />The answer is that I don't really know because out here I don't rank as one. I never meet them, except superficially in my capacity as a member of the press at the kind of public social functions that would make you in beleaguered rationed England scream with range or laughter. And then, if I speak to them, they stare at me in amazement because I talk like them. If one of them (one of the men - never one of the women) asks me how I learned to speak English so well, and I tell him, he looks astonished, almost hurt, as if I was pulling a fast one and expecting him to believe it.</p><p><br />One of the things I gather they can't stand at the moment is the way Americans (who aren't even in the war yet - if ever) are trying to butt in and force them to make concessions to the Indians whom of course the British look upon as their own private property. The British are cock-a-hoop that Churchill has taken over because he's the one Englishman who has always spoken out against any measure of liberal reform in the administration of the Indian Empire. His recent attempt following the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force in France to lull Indian ambitions with more vague promises of having a greater say in the running of their own country (which seems not to amount to much more than adding a few safe or acceptable Indians to the Viceroy's council) only makes the radical Indians laugh. They remember (or so my editor tells me) all the promises that were made in the Great War - a war which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_National_Congress">Congress</a> went all out to help prosecute believing that the Crown was worth standing by because afterward the Crown would reward them by recognizing their claims to a measure of self-government. These were promises that were never fulfilled. Instead even sterner measures were taken to put down agitation and the whole sorry business of Great War promises ended in 1919 with the spectacle of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_massacre">massacre in the Jallianwallah Bagh</a> at Amritsar, when that chap <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dyer">General Dyer</a> fired on a crowd of un-armed civilians who had no way of escaping and died in the hundreds. The appearance of Churchill as head of the British war cabinet (greeted by the English here with such joy) has depressed the Indians. I expect they are being emotional about it. I'd no idea Churchill's name stank to this extent. The call him the arch-imperialist. Curious how what seems right for England should be the very thing that seems wrong for the part of the Empire that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli">Disraeli</a> once called the brightest jewel in her crown. Liberal Indians, of course, say that Churchill has always been a realist - even an opportunist - and will be astute enough to change coat once again and make liberal concessions. As proof of this they point out the fact that members of the socialist opposition have brought into the cabinet to give the British Government a look of national solidarity.</p><p><br />But I wonder the outcome. I think there's no doubt that in the last twenty years - whether intentionally or not - the English <italics style="font-style: italic;">have</italics> succeeded in dividing and ruling, and the kind of conversation I hear at these social functions I attend, Guides recruitment, Jumble Sales, mixed cricket matches (usually rained off and ending with a bun-fight in a series of tents invisibly marked Europeans Only and Other Races) - makes me realise the extent to which the English now seem to depend upon the divisions in Indian political opinion perpetuating their own rule at least until after the war, if not for some time beyond it. They are saying openly that it is 'no good leaving the bloody country because there's no Indian party representative enough to hand it over to.' They prefer Muslims to Hindus (because of the closer affinity that exists between God and Allah than exists between God and the Brahma), are constitutionally predisposed to Indian princes, emotionally affected by the thought of untouchables, and mad keen about the peasants who look upon any Raj as God. What they dislike is a black reflection of their own white radicalism which centuries ago led to the Magna Carta. They hate to remember that within Europe they were ever in arms against the feudal <italics style="font-style: italic;">status quo</italics>, because being in arms against it out here is so very much <italics style="font-style: italic;">bad form</italics>. They look upon India as a place that the came to and took over when it was disorganized, and therefore think that they can't be blamed for the fact that it is disorganized now.</p><p><br />But isn't two hundred years long enough to unify? They accept credit for all the improvements they've made. But can you claim credit for one without accepting the blame for the other? Who for instance, five years ago, had ever heard of the concept of Pakistan - the separate Muslim state? I can't believe that Pakistan will ever become a reality, but if it does, it will be because the English prevaricated long enough to allow a favoured religious minority to seize a political opportunity. </p><p><br />How this must puzzle you - that such an apparently domestic problem should take precedence in our minds over what has just happened in Europe. The English - since they are at war - call the recognition of that precedence sedition. The Americans look upon the resulting conflict as a storm in an English Teacup which the English would be wise to pacify if they're to go on drinking teak at four o'clock every afternoon (which they only did after they opened up the East commercially). But of course Americans see the closest threat to their security as coming from the Pacific side of their continent. Naturally they want a strong and unified India, so that if their potential enemies (the Japanese) ever get tough, those enemies will have to guard their back door as well as their front door.</p><p><br />Working on this paper has forced me to look at the world and try to make sense out of it. But after I've looked at it I still ask myself where I stand in relation to it and that is what puzzles me to know. Can you understand that, Colin? At the moment there seems to be no one country that I owe an undivided duty to. Perhaps this is really the pattern of the future. I don't know whether that encourages me or alarms me. If there's no country, what else is left but the anthropological distinction of colour? That would be a terrible conflict because the scores that there are to settle at this level are desperate. I'm not sure, though, that the conflict isn't the one that the human race deserves to undergo."</p></blockquote><br /><p></p><br />I chose this particular quotation for several reasons. First, because it is an exceptionally good encapsulation of the history of a particular moment. Of that pre-independence moment in Indian history, when the tensions of politics, economy and the struggle for independence were all fomenting, and leading towards what ultimately happened, which is the creation of the independent nation-states of India and Pakistan in 1947. But more than that, and secondly, it places the character, Hari Kumar, inside that history, showing his position in it, and the conflict he feels in allegiance and loyalty, as well as his belonging. In fact, long sections of this book are dedicated to Hari Kumar's sense of belonging or not belonging. Of all the characters in the book, I sympathize most with Hari Kumar.<br /><p></p><br />The character of Hari Kumar/Harry Coomer, (a parallel of many real-life individuals), was born in India, but brought up and educated in England. Upon his father's death in England, and without any inheritance, he is forced to return to India, the country of his birth but not his culture. It is alien to him, at first, and he despises being there. He feels isolated, alone, and especially an acute sense of not belonging. Though he speaks perfect English, with an English public school accent, and was raised in English culture and society, though he feels English, he looks Indian. This disjuncture between his culture and the color of his skin puts Hari Kumar into an exceptionally difficult position in society. He is perpetually marginal. He can never truly or completely fit in with either the English or the Indians. He is explicitly excluded from British society in India, and simultaneously feels separate from and other than the Indian society he hardly knows, and has to struggle to understand.<br /><p></p><br />I hope it is not read wrongly then to say that I feel sometimes like a parallel and sort of mirror of Hari Kumar. I say that I hope it is not read wrongly, for me to say this, because it is an opposite sort of situation. I come from the west going east, I am white skinned living in a brown skinned society. And in many very obvious ways this makes all the difference in the world between me and Hari Kumar. I will get to that point later. Before addressing the differences between the fictional Hari Kumar and myself, I'd like to say something about the similarities. First that, like Hari Kumar, I wish that such things as skin color could be erased. I wish that the color of my skin (which creates a first impression of me here), didn't so thoroughly define my initial interactions with everyone I meet. Though people here are frequently kind and welcoming, I still feel a kind of marginalization. A sense that no matter what I do, including learning Tamil, dressing in appropriate Indian dress, cooking and eating Indian food, I will always be foreign and other; that I can never truly belong.<br /><p></p><br />But why do I seek belonging? Maybe I shouldn't wish for that at all. But the truth is, I feel that India is my country, at least as much as America is. It has been my home for almost 3 years. And, in both a symbolic way, and a real way, India has become a part of me. It is a part of who I am, and the effect it has had on me can never be erased.<br /><br />As an undergraduate I read the book "<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=KwZatzse3CsC&dq=Fluid+Signs&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=LZ1y9k0aU8&sig=JXz0kvmpQOLjB62hHGjYxP7dBFs&hl=en&ei=3Xc-S8OdIJXk7APL06GgDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false">Fluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way</a>" by E. Valentine Daniel. In this anthropological (and semiological) study of Tamil culture, Daniel outlines one of what he considers to be the most important concepts of Tamil personhood, and that is that is the concept of substances. Inherent in this concept is that a person is affected, and even constituted by the substances they take into their body, meaning first mothers' milk, and after that, the substances of food and water, and the air that is breathed, among other things. And tied strongly to the sense of personhood is the sense of place, ones' home town, ones' village or in Tamil ஊர் (ur). A place itself has substance, the dirt, the air etc. Though my ஊர் will always be the place I was born and raised, I have also been substantially changed by this place, I have eaten this food, drank this water, and breathed this air. It has become a part of me, and me of it. And part of me wants to claim this place, especially Tamil Nadu, as my place.<br /><p></p><br />This brings me back to the other problem. I said "claim" this place. By "claim" I do not mean a sense of ownership, as in the colonial or imperial sense. The problem is that I cannot pretend that the colonial history of India does not exist. Though I have no desire to dominate or rule, I am (and always will be) placed in the category of the colonizer. The color of my skin, and the nation of my birth put me into that category. Now America never colonized India, but it was a colony, it was in its own way another outpost of the British Empire.<br /><p></p><br />Because of this history of rule and domination, of dividing and conquering, of manipulating and exploiting, between my (supposed) country/civilization (America/the "West"), and this country/civlization (India/the "East"), I will never truly belong. Though I say my supposed country/civilization, because if I could, I would make it otherwise. If I could choose my belonging, I would rather not count myself amongst the rulers, conquerors, manipulators and exploiters.<br /><p><br />I would prefer to count myself among the Hari Kumars, and the Mahatmas, than among the Churchills and Dyers.<br /></p><br />I truly and genuinely hate this history of domination and exploitation. At an intellectual level it fascinates me to study it, to read this as history, and to try to understand why and how it came to pass. But at an emotional level, it makes me sick. The arbitrariness and gruesomeness, the cruelty and humiliation, the exercise of power for purely economic gain, all of these things disgust me. So, to the extent that there are good things about American culture, about the society I was raised in, I suppose I don't mind claiming it as my own. But to the extent to which being American/"western" associates me with unjust domination of other people around the globe, historically, and presently, I conscientiously object. I choose another allegiance, another nation, or even better, no nation all.<br /><p><br />And though my position is not exactly like that of Hari Kumar, I feel that his (fictional) position in that historical moment, and my not-so-fictional position in this moment, are very much similar. And so I echo Hari Kumar's closing thoughts in the letter to his friend: "At the moment there seems to be no one country that I owe an undivided duty to."<br /></p>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-33264062718522842852009-12-05T17:57:00.010+05:302009-12-07T00:22:12.943+05:30Home sweet homeSo my apartment is what I affectionately refer to as "bug central station", which is what it is because there are no screens on the windows or doors. It's also kind of dingy looking, and definitely needs a fresh coat of paint. Leaking water has caused the paint to discolor (a lot) and previous residents have spilled things, written things, and generally left walls in serious need of new paint. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4157607372/" title="June bug by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2592/4157607372_1821048ace.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="June bug" /></a><br />A june bug that found its way into my apartment and was beating itself to death by running repeatedly into the wall. </center><br /><br />The place is cheap, and I've asked my landlord if he'd be willing to paint the walls, but he didn't exactly jump on the idea. The rent is Rs.1000/month plus an extra Rs. 50 for the water bill, and the electric is paid separately, but adds up to about Rs. 150 every 3 months. So for about Rs.1100, which varies between about $20 and $25/per month depending on the exchange rate, I have one living room/bedroom, a kitchen, shower and toilet. <br /><br />Even if it were a fancier place (and I have lived in some), with fresher coats of paint... most places in Tamil Nadu do not have screens. Most locals don't have screens, and windows are not built with screens in mind. So even if it were a nicer place, it'd still be bug central. <br /><br />It would also be nice if there was a door between the kitchen and bathroom, and even between the bedroom and kitchen/bathroom... but those things are not absolutely necessary. The toilet has a door, but the shower has no door, no curtain. It is separated from the kitchen by a partition wall, with a wide doorway. I hang a curtain between the main room and the kitchen/bathroom, on the rare occasion that I have guests, so that the kitchen becomes a changing room, and they can shower in privacy. <br /><br />To me this is perfectly functional. It's definitely not beautiful. Though I think the coat of paint is really the main aesthetic issue. The floor is an ugly sort of tile, reminiscent of the hallway floor in my elementary school, with bits of rock embedded in a brown matrix. But it is easy to clean, doesn't show the dirt and dust which naturally comes in the windows, and stays pretty cool even in the hottest part of the year. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4160005602/" title="My room by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2713/4160005602_3a3623dea7.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="My room" /></a><br />My room</center><br /><br />When my friend visited from the US last year, she said "Wow, Gwen, you're really roughing it." But I guess I don't see that as the case. It's a house, it's solid, with a roof over my head, and indoor plumbing. Many people here in Tamil Nadu live in thatched/plastered huts, with dirt floors, that they frequently plaster with a wash of cow dung, or sometimes lime plaster. They have outdoor toilets, and outdoor bathing areas. These are frequently screened off by means of more thatched walls, and sometimes not roofed over. Some places, until recently were not wired for electricity. Now THAT would be roughing it. <br /><br />Camping, sleeping inside a cramped tent, on hard ground, and having to walk in the woods to go to the bathroom, that's also roughing it. <br /><br />Maybe it's my own attitude adjustment... my own lowering of expectations. But I don't consider my home to be "roughing it". Yes, it is lacking some conveniences. It would be nice to have a "geyser", which is what they call a hot water heater for the shower. It would be nice to have screens on the windows, and fresh paint on the walls. But none of those things are really necessary. <br /><br />For hot water for bathing (only really needed in December anyway when it gets a bit chilly - and by chilly I mean 65) I use an electric coil heater, which is immersed in a bucket of water, and I take a "bucket bath" instead of a shower. The rest of the year the water is pleasant enough, whether it's hot in the middle of the day (as the water tank on the roof gets hot from the sun) or cools over night, it's just fine for me.<br /><br />It might be nice to have a western style toilet too, but that's mainly because it's more difficult to read while squatting... <br /><br />All these things are adjustments I made before coming to this apartment, so living with a squat toilet, no instant hot water, or screens on the windows, those were all things I'd already experienced. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4159299993/" title="Kitchen by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2773/4159299993_d720889039.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Kitchen" /></a><br />The kitchen</center><br /><br />When I came to Thanjavur in January, it was hard to find a place, and I wanted to get to work immediately. I wanted to get down to the business of what I came to do. So I didn't want to spend weeks searching for an apartment. I'm sure if I had, I probably could have found something perhaps cleaner, or more aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps a western toilet or water heater. But at the time, I had gone from a hotel which was expensive, to a hostel with 10 beds in a room, equally dingy, and without privacy, and I hadn't found anything else for a while. I was thrilled to find a place of my own. However small and dingy-looking, it has everything I need. <br /><br />If I were going to stay in Thanjavur longer, I'd search again for a nicer place. But I'm not. I'm leaving for fieldwork in January, and I'm hoping to spend only two or three more months here after that. For that, it's simply not worth the trouble of searching, or the trouble of packing everything up and moving. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4160120370/" title="Baby lizard running away by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2785/4160120370_06bdfecfde.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Baby lizard running away" /></a><br />Lizards are my friends. There are probably a dozen or more living in my apartment, and they eat all the insects, especially mosquitoes.</center><br /><br /><a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/sets/72157622939366974/>This</a> is the entire set of photos on Flickr. Be warned it contains pictures of a very large cockroach... victim to my instant cockroach killing spray.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-49735170980930658632009-11-28T13:37:00.026+05:302013-05-31T01:14:44.616+05:30What to Pack for India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have some friends coming to India for the first time in just a couple of weeks, and they're asking some good questions about what to pack. I have a fair amount of experience in the packing department, having come and gone from India about 10 times since 2001, so in addition to answering their specific questions, I thought it might be useful to post something here for everyone.<br />
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I'll try to break it down by what, for convenience sake, you might want on a short trip, and what not to bring you're going to be staying long enough that it's pointless to bring a year supply of X because it is available if you know where to look.<br />
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DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind most of my knowledge and experience is specific to South India, and in particular Tamil Nadu, and things might be, in fact probably are, different in the North. Also, this is my personal advice based on experience, I am NOT a medical professional, and you should always consult your doctor on anything medical-related before traveling abroad. <br />
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<h2 id="Contents">
Contents:</h2>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=34734182#Toiletries">1. Toiletries and over-the-counter medical stuff</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=34734182#Mosquito">2. Mosquito Related</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=34734182#Guide">3. Guide books</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=34734182#Clothing">4. Clothing</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=34734182#Gadgets">5. Assorted Useful Gadgets</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=34734182#Gifts">6. Gifts to bring</a><br />
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<h2 id="Toiletries">
1. Toiletries etc.</h2>
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For the traveler on a short trip, go ahead and bring a complete set of all your preferred toiletries, your own soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant etc. You should probably also pack a small first aid kit. Most of these things are available here in India, though not always in the brands or forms you might prefer. But if you're going to tour around and try to see the sights, you don't want to waste your time shopping to find toothpaste, so you might as well bring your own.<br />
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For someone coming to India to stay a long time, you can actually get almost everything you would want here including familiar American brands. This is totally different than it was in 2001 when I first started coming to India. Now you can get all sorts of brands of shampoo AND conditioner (used to be you couldn't get conditioner anywhere). <br />
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A couple of items that are hard to find, and especially people are picky about what they use: DEODORANT, especially stick deodorant, and also surprisingly, any kind of herbal deodorant. There are tons of sprays, usually heavily scented. Occasionally in a store with imports you can find some brands like men's Speedstick, but if there is something in particular you use, you may want to bring a big supply of it.<br />
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For women: Tampons. Pads are widely available, and for some reason, OB are becoming more available, but if you prefer anything else, you should probably bring it. Also, yeast infection treatments. <br />
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Some things are harder to find: Cloth band-aids. And band-aids in shapes other than long strips. I bring a big supply of the "finger" band-aids, or off brand varieties of the same. A good, well stocked first aid kit is always a good idea. <br />
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In terms of medical stuff: Some of the most familiar medications are hard to find, or seem to have different names. I bring Ibuprofen, Pepto-bismol (or generic), Immodium (or generic) and Sudafed not "PE"(the real pseudophedrine that you have to sign for works best for me). These items (or compounds) may be available here, but not under ANY name I've ever asked for at a "medical shop". Which, by the way is what they're called here at least in the South, if you're ever in need of one. There are of course different versions and equivalents of the kinds of things listed above: Paracetemol is the same as Tylenol, several things available for upset stomach, and various cold remedies. My reason for bringing the American versions is that when I'm sick, I'm also comforted by knowing what I'm taking, and knowing that it'll work, because I've taken it before. <br />
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You probably don't need to pay for a full prescription of something like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciprofloxacin">Ciprofloxacin</a> which doctors sometimes recommend getting in advance. It's a very good, very strong antibiotic, and it is great if you have a bad bout of diarrhea, dysentery, or a urinary tract infection, among other things. However, it IS available in India, for much much cheaper than it is in the U.S., so if you should need it, you can get it easily. <br />
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One last piece of advice from experience: If you do see a doctor while in India, and are prescribed something you don't recognize, it's probably a good idea to look it up online, and see what it is before taking it. If you have any drug allergies, this is especially important, because it may be something you're allergic to under another name. Even if you don't have drug allergies, it's a good idea to know what it is before you take it. This is a (sad and funny) story for another post, but lets just say all doctors are not created equal. Some in India are among the best in the world, and others are complete hacks. A good motto in this department is "Trust but verify". <br />
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<h2 id="Mosquito">
2. Mosquito Related</h2>
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To take <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria_prophylaxis">prophylactic anti-malarial drugs</a>, or not to take prophylactic anti-malarial drugs, that is the question!! This is my two-cents. Again, I am not a Medical professional, please consult your doctor. <br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria">Malaria</a> is an extremely serious disease , it can kill you, or be very, very unpleasant, it causes brain swelling among other things. However, Malaria is not the only mosquito-borne illness you have to worry about in India. There is also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue">Dengue</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikungunya">Chikungunya</a>, and rarely reported <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Nile_virus">West Nile Virus</a>. These last three are viruses, and Malaria is a parasite, so any medicinal prophylaxis that works for Malaria will not prevent becoming infected with one or more of the viruses. <br />
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If you are going on a short trip to India, short meaning less than a month, and if you are going to be in warmer more tropical regions (i.e. not Ladakh, Kashmir, or any part of the North in winter), you MAY want to take one of the anti-malarial medications out there. There are two main types, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinine">quinines</a>, and the antibiotics. Both varieties usually require you to start a week before departing, and stay on the medication two weeks after returning home. Get a prescription from your doctor, and make sure the know exactly where you are traveling, because there are specific drug-resistant strains of malaria in some regions. <br />
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Both categories of anti-malarial prophylactic drugs have side effects, and these vary person to person. Some of the serious side effects of the Quinine varieties (taken weekly), such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroquine">Chloroquine</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mefloquine">Mefloquine</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malarone">Malarone</a>, have reported psychotic side effects, including violent dreams, suicidal urges, and rarely psychotic breakdowns. I know of at least one student on a study abroad program who had such a breakdown, and had to be sent home. <br />
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The most common anti-biotic drug prescribed as an anti-malarial is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxycycline">Doxycycline</a>. It is taken daily, and must be taken with food. Over the long term it is known to harm the stomach, and can cause increased sensitivity to the sun, making serious sunburn a risk if you are on Doxycycline. Since it is also an anti-biotic, the risk of yeast infection for women is also higher. It doesn't have the same risks of psychological effects as the other categories of drugs, but I did experience severe stomach pain after about a month of taking Doxycycline. <br />
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My personal opinion is that if you are going to be in India for longer than a month or so, it is not ideal to take any of the anti-malarial prophylactics, because of the side effects, and generally having such strong chemicals in your body for such a long time. In addition, since these drugs do NOT prevent Dengue, Chikungunya, or West Nile Virus, your best bet is to take lots of preventive measures to avoid being bitten by mosquitos at all.<br />
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I use a pump-spray (not aerosol) with deet, such as <a href="http://www.offprotects.com/mosquito-repellent/">Off Family Care</a> (or generic). I use it on a daily basis, and I especially spray the skin of my feet and ankles, the cloth of my pants around my ankles, and my exposed arms and neck. With maybe one or two sprays aimed at the clothes covering my mid-section. Even during the monsoon season in Tamil Nadu, which is a pretty mosquito-y season, this is enough that I haven't been bitten at all in the 3 weeks since I have arrived, except on the one day I forgot to put it on. <br />
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I also sleep under a <a href="http://www.basegear.com/mosquitonet.html">mosquito net</a>. I use a portable variety, which hangs from a line strung between two points in the wall or a single point in the ceiling. (This is way easier to set up than the 4-point variety.) It is light and pretty easy to pack, but if I was going from hotel room to hotel room on a daily basis I wouldn't want to set it up over and over again.<br />
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As for what's available here, they use a cream mosquito repellent applied to the skin called Odomos, and several varieties of plug-in diffusers which diffuse a chemical into the air that pretty much keeps the mosquitoes out of the room into which it is plugged. The biggest brands are Good Knight and All Out, and I recommend the liquid variety over the pads. You can take one of these with you from hotel room to hotel room, and plug it in as soon as you arrive (though most hotels will provide one often they use the pads, which I find are less effective). It works great overnight, even with the windows open. Some varieties are wall plugs that have no cord, just plug into the wall socket, others have a cord of about a meter, which I think is better for a bigger room, since it means you can position the diffuser sort of near the middle, or nearer to your bed, in case the wall socket is far off in a corner. <br />
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I always carry a spray bottle, tube, or wipes of some sort of repellent in my bag with me at all times. If you find yourself in an especially mosquito-y area, apply more! <br />
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Since I have known people to get both Dengue and Chikungunya, and both were quite unpleasant diseases, with sometimes long-lasting effects of joint pain, etc., I decided my plan was not to take any of the anti-malarial medications, which I think may give a false sense of security about being bitten by mosquitoes, and instead I am very careful not to get bitten at all, if at all possible. I am here for a year, for a shorter trip, I might consider taking one of the drugs. <br />
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And on to happier subjects...<br />
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<h2 id="Guide">
3. Guide books</h2>
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I personally prefer the <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/">Lonely Planet</a> guide books, as I have found their balance of information about sights/sites, and information about food, lodging, banks and other facilities to be very useful. <br />
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Lonely Planet offers several guides to India, including an all-India guide, and several specific guides to different regions. If you're going to travel in South India alone, I highly recommend their <a href="http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/Primary/Region/ASIA/Indian_Sub_Continent/India/PRD_PRD_2816/South+India+Travel+Guide.jsp?bmUID=1259404758874">South India Guide</a>. It's got more detail, and a different set of accommodations than the main guide. It also gets you "off the beaten path" a bit more than the main guide. <br />
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I also hear good things about the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rough-Guide-India-7th/dp/1858289947/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259404823&sr=8-6">Rough Guide to India</a>. Especially that they give more in-depth historical and contextual information about sites, compared to Lonely Planet. However their listings of other information, such as accomodations, food, etc., are sparse. <br />
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One important thing to note is that the different guides cater to different crowds, and the Lonely Planet guide tends to cater to, and be used by the young, international, and to some degree "hippie" crowd. While the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Frommers-India-Complete-Pippa-deBruyn/dp/0470169087/ref=cm_lmf_tit_8_rsrsrs1">Frommer's India</a> tends to be upscale in their selection of accomodations and the prices are more expensive than most young people can afford, so the Frommer's guide works better for more "grown-up" crowds. <br />
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I suggest going to a physical bookstore to peruse the various options, so that you can see for yourself how they are organized and what kinds of information they present. This is the best way to find what works for you. <br />
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<h2 id="Clothing">
4. Clothing</h2>
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Clothing is particularly an issue for women traveling India. This is not a particularly good thing, but it is a fact of life. What is considered culturally appropriate or acceptable varies significantly from place to place, and especially between major urban centers and other smaller cities, towns and rural areas. <br />
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Men have it pretty easy. As long as they don't wear short-shorts, they are probably fine almost anywhere. For entry into a temple or mosque they may be expected to wear long pants. <br />
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Despite what Bollywood movies show, very few women go out in public in any context, urban or rural, wearing a tank top. Some varieties of sleeveless tops, those with higher necks, going to the shoulder joint, with no bra visible under the arm MAY be acceptable in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, however, they are still not common. In general short sleeves are required. <br />
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If you're coming for a short trip as a woman, you may not want to purchase all new Indian clothes on arrival, though who knows, maybe you will. If you do pack from home, it should be appropriate to the time of year and climate (look it up based on when and where you're going.) It does actually get cold in the North in winter, and VERY VERY hot in the south, especially in March, April, and May. <br />
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Still, despite the heat, shorts, tank tops, and skirts above the ankle are a bad idea. You will probably be considered to be a "loose woman" (akin to a prostitute or porn-star) wearing a tank top and shorts. You will almost certainly get pinched and groped, cat-called and harassed. I hate to say that you will be "asking for it" but in this particular cultural context, that's exactly how it's viewed. The Indian perception of western sexuality is already one that is extraordinarily promiscuous (mainly perpetuated by Hollywood movies and pornography), and if you want to avoid being labeled as such from the get-go, you should consider wearing clothes as modest or traditional as possible. This conception of promiscuity permeates pretty much the whole society, so not only does dressing respectably get you fewer gropes from men, it also gets you more respect from women. And more than that, if you wear Indian styles of clothes, they appreciate the gesture as respect for their culture, and will generally say so. It's valued as much as, or more than, learning a few words of the language. <br />
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The two major traditional kinds of Indian dress for women are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sari">sarees</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salwar_kameez">salwar kameez</a>. <br />
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To get Indian clothing you can buy "ready-made" Salwar Kameez, or have it stitched by a tailor. Many shops sell "cloth sets" which include 3 matching pieces of material which can then be stitched into a top, pants, and shawl. You can also get saree blouses and under-skirts stitched (ready-made really isn't a very good idea for a saree blouse). The shawl, or "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupatta">dupatta</a>" part of a salwar set is an essential item, it is intended to cover your breasts, and even though it may be completely transparent fabric, it is still considered "modest". Ready-made stuff is sometimes not well sized for larger Americans and foreigners, so you may actually need to get things stitched by a tailor, if you are a bigger or taller woman. Even if you are not, having things tailored to fit you, just right in all dimensions, and to your personal specifications is just a nice feeling. <br />
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Modesty is an extraordinarily important aspect of dress for women, and western clothes, are usually de-facto immodest, even if they are baggy or cover a lot of skin. If you're coming with your own western clothes to India, I highly recommend bringing or buying a shawl or shawls to cover your upper body, and occasionally your head. (To visit a mosque you will be absolutely required to cover your head.) Even for daily wear in many cities and towns, you will find that "modest", appropriate, and especially traditional Indian styles of dress will get you friendlier treatment, and less harassment. <br />
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For visiting sacred sites, temples, mosques, etc., be aware that even more strict rules on modesty apply for both men and women. If you plan to visit such places, keep this in mind. You may not be allowed inside without appropriate clothing. <br />
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<h2 id="Gadgets">
5. Assorted Useful Gadgets</h2>
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The most useful gadget I own is my headlamp. I have a <a href="http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/shop/mountain/lighting/cosmo">Black Diamond Cosmo</a> headlamp. I use it when the power goes out, and when I want to read a book in bed at night, inside the mosquito netting, and don't want to have to get in and out of the netting again to turn off the light. It's comfortable, it doesn't require a hand like a normal flashlight, and it has two different settings for bright spotlight and wider more diffuse light. I find it is an indispensable part of my life. The power goes out frequently, either in scheduled power outages, or randomly due to various glitches in the system. I have packed a suitcase by the light of a headlamp, prepared dinner, and a wide variety of other tasks. I suppose I could live without it, but I wouldn't want to. You could bring a flashlight, but I think that would be a much less practical choice.<br />
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If you are bringing any electrical devices, laptops, cameras, anything with a plug, or rechargeable batteries you may will also need <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Universal-World-Travel-Charger-Adapter/dp/B001MGUB9Q">plug converters</a>. If your item (such as a laptop) has an AC adapter, all you need to do is convert the type of plug to the Indian plug. If it does not (such as hair dryers, electric razors) you will need a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/VOLTAGE-CNVERTER-SMF-200-FOREIGN-TRAVEL/dp/B000W9DJ1Q/ref=pd_cp_e_2">voltage converter</a>. Checked the specs on the item you are carrying, and do some research. These are available in India, at some "electrical shops" but they can be hard to find, and it's usually easier to get one or two in the U.S. <br />
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<h2 id="Gifts">
6. Gifts to bring</h2>
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Gifts are a good idea to bring, especially if you will be staying in anyone's home, or visiting friends or friends of friends. It's not 100% expected that you will bring gifts, but it is definitely appreciated. <br />
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Ideally you want to bring gifts that people can't get themselves in India, or that are prohibitively expensive here. This is (unfortunately?) an ever shrinking list of things, as global consumer capitalism continues to expand, and new markets are opened in India, more and more things become available here, and are no longer special or gift-worthy. <br />
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One good category is chocolates, especially fancy boxes of chocolates or chocolate bars.<br />
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Also location specific t-shirts and other paraphenelia like key-chains, mugs etc., from a home university or home town. This can get expensive if you have a lot of gifts to give, but it is definitely something you can't get anywhere else. <br />
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Lastly, anything home-made, any home-made clothing, cards, paper, art, food, etc., made by you or your family. Home-made gifts are frequently brought by Indian families to their counter-parts in the U.S., and it works both ways. Some non-commercially packaged foodstuffs may be a problem in customs, so pack it well. <br />
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It used to be that pens were something everyone asked for, and now there are plenty of good quality pens widely available. However, it is still "traditional" in small rural villages (at least in the South) for kids to ask for "school pen, school pen". So if you think you might want to just give a way a load of regular ballpoint pens, get a couple packs. You'll be immediately popular with all the kids in the village.<br />
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Wow, that was long! I hope you find it useful. If you have any questions, critiques, or anything to add, please leave a comment.</div>
Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-35592296048288988082009-11-26T19:15:00.002+05:302009-11-26T19:56:11.798+05:30Happy Thanksgiving!Thanksgiving is not a holiday celebrated here in India, but in the spirit of the holiday, I did thank a lot of Indians. <br /><br />For your holiday enjoyment some of turkeys I've seen lately:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4127533876/" title="Turkey! (Vaan kozhi) by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2584/4127533876_8a37243cbc.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Turkey! (Vaan kozhi)" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4127561922/" title="White Turkey by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2570/4127561922_8fce4b211b_b.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="White Turkey" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4126801495/" title="Turkey looking pissed off by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2565/4126801495_d0ea78f12a_b.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Turkey looking pissed off" /></a><br /><br />Happy Turkey Day!!Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-17499042298250547422009-11-23T19:19:00.005+05:302009-11-25T22:35:57.273+05:30A Village VisitYesterday I went to the village of Poondi, about 20 km from Thanjavur town. I went because my friend R., who is a Ph.D. student in the Tamil University here invited me to visit her and see her family home, and her village. I went and ate lunch with her and her mother, and we also took a walk around the whole village, 4 parallel main streets, about 3 blocks long. I have a lot of pictures, especially of the wildlife, and not so wildlife, of which I'll post some here and more on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/sets/72157622734565395/">flickr</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4126757443/" title="Village Street by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2690/4126757443_79a5cd9cb0_b.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Village Street" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4126737705/" title="Cock (Kozhi) by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2524/4126737705_93e4b282f6.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Cock (Kozhi)" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4126886267/" title="Monsoon clouds and spider by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2643/4126886267_fb4f6ff032.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Monsoon clouds and spider" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenkelly/4126843741/" title="Lizard (Basilisk) by gwenkelly, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2533/4126843741_bda12ea8c1_b.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Lizard (Basilisk)" /></a><br /><br />This trip made me think of two important things: one, when someone starts telling me the story of their life's tragedy, especially a dead husband or father, or other close family member, I have no idea how to react, or why they're telling me their story. <br /><br />The second thing is, everyone assumes I'm rich. And yes, in a way, simply by virtue of being American (or from any other "developed" country), one has more money, and general resources, including education and cultural capital with which to affect things. But I am a student, I have lived on a crappy graduate student stipend, or without employment, scraping by, for many years now. Even though the amount of money I make as a teaching assistant sounds like a lot in dollars, and even more converted into rupees, I always try to tell people how much things cost. How rent takes up a third to half of my salary, other basic costs, food, transportation, clothes, etc, take up most of the rest. I have a little expendable income for going out to the movies, or going out to dinner with friends, but only because I live very cheaply in everything else.<br /><br />So when people look at me like I'm rich, and expect that I have infinite amounts of money to give away, it's difficult to convey that it's not really the case. And even though many Indians, even wealthy Indians don't give beggars money, they sometimes give me a dirty look, if I don't give a beggar change. Suddenly I'm the bad person, for not giving my spare change to someone begging. And I do give to beggars. Most recently, I literally didn't have any change. Other times, I've made a decision based on the number of beggars in a particular bus stand or other location. I was once in the unfortunate situation where I decided to give a small pack of biscuits to a child beggar of about 7 or 8 years old. I was in a bus stand, and that child produced 2 more, who also got biscuits, and they produced 4 more, and so on until a mob of shouting, pushing, reaching and grabbing children had surrounded me. Generosity is hard. And I believe more in supporting development programs, education, etc, than simply giving out food or a few rupees. It's that whole "teach a person to fish" thing. <br /><br />So when my friend R's mother told me about how her husband died, my first thought was whether or not she was going to ask for money. I feel bad about that. I feel terrible, actually, but the issue of my "wealth" relative to others' misfortune is an issue that I face every single day. Anyway, I should have realized that money isn't the issue, since I've already hired R., who is a very smart young woman, to be my research assistant, to help me re-write bags and labels for artifacts, and enter data into spreadsheets, and a variety of other things. I already paid her, for her first weeks' earnings, and I'm sure I'll continue to have work for her for a while.<br /><br />But if money isn't the reason why R's mother was telling me about her husband's death, and all the troubles that followed it, then I don't know what is. Is it sympathy? If so, I don't know if I'm expressing my sympathy in ways that are culturally appropriate, or even enough. Perhaps my exclamations of "Oh that's terrible" (in Tamil), and "Oh no, that is awful, I'm so sorry" should be more dramatic, more emphatic (as seen in Tamil soap operas)? I don't really know. I've spent a lot of time here in Tamil Nadu, in this culture, and there are still a lot of things I don't have figured out. This feels like an important one. I really should know how to respond appropriately, when someone tells me that a family member has died. <br /><br />In any case, aside from what felt to me like an awkward moment, because I didn't know how to react to a widow telling me her difficulties, I had a wonderful time visiting the village. I should start asking friends who I know better, and who understand some of the cultural differences, about the appropriate way and level of response to these things.<br /><br />As a final note, I realized a couple of the reasons I don't like to take and post pictures of ordinary city streets in Thanjavur and other cities... One it's so chaotic and densely filled with images, angles, lines, colors, that it's almost impossible to frame a good looking shot. Second, it is dirty, dusty, muddy, sometimes covered with garbage, and generally not very attractive. I guess my concept of photography is that it should show things that are aesthetically pleasing, and a lot of the really ordinary city streets, I don't find aesthetically pleasing... I should work on that though. Maybe this weekend I'll take a walk around town, and shoot a lot of pictures, just to see what comes out.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34734182.post-50170911178450392772009-11-21T15:03:00.012+05:302009-11-21T17:45:20.378+05:30Staying ConnectedStaying connected to friends at home, and around the world has changed A LOT since I first started coming to India in 2001. Back in the day I had to create a Yahoo mail account (I know, ancient!), because my college email didn't offer webmail, only POP mail (even more ancient!), and if I wanted to be able to access email in India, it was going to have to be webmail.<br /><br />At that time, international phone rates, both from the U.S. and from India to the U.S. were unbelievably expensive. I think it was nearly 50 cents a minute on ATT from the U.S., and maybe the equivalent of 25 cents from India to the U.S.<br /><br />In India, internet cafes were few and far between, and the computers inside them were dinosaurs. These days net cafes are more common, and the computers are still dinosaurs, but not the same ones as before. Maybe the current computers date to about 2001.<br /><br />In any case, in 2001, I don't think the idea of having home internet had really sprung up yet in India, though I could be wrong. I didn't spend a lot of time in peoples' homes, at least not ones who could have afforded such a thing. I was in Rajasthan for a month, working on an excavation at the site of Gilund, and the only homes I really visited were those of the villagers of Gilund village. The village had only recently been wired to the grid to receive electricity. What I remember most about those homes is the copious amounts of <a href="http://chefinyou.com/2009/10/kheer-rice-pudding-recipe/">kheer</a> I ate while we went from house to house on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Fitr">Eid</a>. Yum! But off topic...<br /><br />Back to the point! Home internet, including broadband by DSL is much more common now. It is, however, a HUGE pain to get set up (<a href="http://avocadoadvocate.blogspot.com/2007/03/fing-patriarchy.html">something I blogged about before</a>). Now, the both the technology and tools of staying in touch have changed radically. There are so many options, more and better, and far cheaper than before.<br /><br />Here is a list of what the tools I currently use to keep in touch. If you're using the internet (and you must be if you're reading this), you have probably heard of these things:<br /><a href="http://www.gmail.com/">Gmail</a><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a><br />Instant messanger (<a href="http://adium.im/">Adium</a> - which combines AIM, MSN, Yahoo, G-Chat, and many more).<br /><a href="http://www.skype.com/">Skype</a><br />(A fairly short list, and yet still somehow it's an overwhelming amount of in-touch-ness!)<br /><br />In order to connect to the internet I use a USB cellular modem, which (though a bit slow) allows me to connect to the internet anywhere there is cell service. I have mine through <a href="http://www.tataindicom.com/HSIA-photon-usb-personal.aspx">Tata Indicom</a> (primarily because I found that they are the only brand with a modem that is compatible with Mac OS). It took some working still, to get it running with the Mac, and the Tata people had no idea how to help me. I found this <a href="http://www.blogger.com/vinuthomas.com/Forums/download/id=198.html">PDF guide</a>, which, though outdated, was still clear enough to show me what to do. I currently pay Rs. 849/month for unlimited time and data, on a pre-paid basis. This works out to between $17 and $20/month.<br /><br />Probably the neatest new set of tools for communication is the system I found (through a lot of internet research) of having a local American phone number that forwards to my Indian cell number. I won't give out my phone number here... but I will give away the secret that means that American friends and family can call me for basically free (no one pays long distance anymore after cell phones), and I pay 1.8 cents/min to forward the call to my Indian phone.<br /><br />For a basic version of this service, and purely incoming calls, you can just use <a href="http://www.localphone.com/">LocalPhone.com</a>. They are the company that does the basic job, giving you a local US number which friends can call, and they set up the forwarding to the Indian (or other international) phone number. They charge 1.8 cents to India, different rates to other countries around the world. It takes a few days to set up, and you have to maintain a pre-paid balance on the site. You have to request a local phone number, but you can request where it is local to, and most places/area codes seem covered. Once you have the incoming number, you can forward to an international number for cheap, cheap, cheap.<br /><br />My Indian cell phone, which is a pre-paid SIM from <a href="http://www.airtel.in/">Airtel</a>, has free incoming calls, at least in the state of Tamil Nadu, which is considered my local network, and is where I spend most of my time.<br /><br />I have enhanced this with the addition of <a href="http://voice.google.com/">Google Voice</a>. Google voice is a service that used to be called "Grand Central" which allowed you to create a single incoming phone number, and forward calls to any other number you had, home, work, cell, etc. However, presently, Google Voice only works forwarding to American phone numbers. The pros of using Google Voice are:<br /><ol><li>I have the same US phone number now as when was in the US, now it just forwards to my Indian phone.<br /></li><li>I can use Google Voice - the website, to call any phone in America, and it calls my Indian cell first (making it an incoming call, and therefore free as far as the Indian cell service is concerned), and then dialing the American number. So I can make outgoing calls (using the internet) for the same 1.8 cent rate I get for incoming calls.</li><li> If I don't manage to get to the phone in time, or if it's off, I get voicemail! My Indian pre-paid cell service doesn't come with voicemail. And more than just voicemail, it sends me a transcript of the voicemail, in email. Now, granted, those transcripts are frequently VASTLY wrong, since their voice recognition software isn't very good yet, but it's still a neat service and the audio clip of the voice mail is right there to listen to as well. If you do happen to call me and get my Google Voice voicemail, please speak clearly... :)</li></ol>The cons are:<br /><ol><li>Google Voice doesn't just forward directly to an international phone. (Though they indicate in future they are planning to make that available).<br /></li><li>I have to have a computer and an internet connection in order to make an outgoing call for the same 1.8 cent rate.<br /></li></ol>If anyone knows of any other neat or new methods/technologies of staying in touch across vast oceans and distances, let me know, I'm always open to new things!<br /><br />Note: The Google Voice service is currently available by invitation only. I don't have any invites, and I got my own by signing up on their <a href="https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/">website</a>.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05355325209960467205noreply@blogger.com0