Kiss my art!

A moment of passion that you cannot overcome. You just need to go all the way. There’s no stopping mid way… Kissing a $2 million painting could well cost a budding artist a lot more than she bargained for.

"A red stain remained on the canvas… This red stain is testimony to this moment, to the power of art."

So said the accused! And where did she leave her mark?

The immaculate white canvas so attracted Sam Rindy she smudged it with her lipstick, saying later she had wanted to make it even more beautiful.

The 3x2m (9×6-foot) painting by US artist Cy Twombly is valued at more than $2m (£970,000).

Well, let’s hope that 10 years later the price of the painting is added to by the kiss!

Tags: Art, Kiss, Canvas, Cy Twombly

Rashtrapati Bhavan or Rashtrapatni Bhavan?

Well. Despite all opposition, ridicule, scandals and scams, Pratibha Patil has become India’s 12th President (not counting the "acting ones" over the years) and the first woman to do so. What can she achieve to do in her tenure? I can’t remember any President achieving anything but being the first woman President, she could perhaps liven up the Raisinha Hill residence, eh?

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Brilliant use of technology

I love it when a piece of computing equipment comes in handy in ways other than what it’s intended for. The story of the man who was stranded and used his tablet PC to keep himself warm is one such:

As he shivered on the platform Lee had an idea. He turned the brightness up to full and kicked of a defrag on his LS800 and stuffed it inside his jacket – as a heater! With the extended battery on it there was more than enough juice to keep Lee mildly warm until the next train. So if ever you find yourself a drunken idiot stranded on a train platform at two in the morning – make sure you have a tablet to stuff into your jacket!

He also quit smoking to buy the tablet in the first place. Some may say it’s two good things achieved, but I think he may have been better served still smoking!

Tags: Laptop, LS800, Sydney, Tablet, Smoking

Gluttony, I say.

Should we encourage this kind of behaviour? Especially in a country where children die of hunger every day? I think not.

Tags: Gluttony, Cake, Limca Records, hunger

It’s done. It’s not done.

That’s the kind of answers I get from Hathway, my beloved ISP. About 10 minutes ago, someone called to tell me that the line had been repaired and that the Internet connection would work just fine from now. About 7-and-a-half minutes later, another call from Hathway and I was beginning to think "Wow, they really took my complaints of the last four days to heart and are notifying me of a working line". But then, I was reminded that this is Hathway I am dealing with. The second caller assured me that the line is being worked upon and that it will begin working by 8pm tonight. Right.

As of right now, I am confused whether the line is working or not. And I am in the tech capital of India.

UPDATE: Since this got published, it is working!

Tags: Bangalore, Hathway, Internet, ISP, Suicidal

Admission time. I still get the heebie-jeebies!

I finished my education about eight years ago. And yet, when I read this news item in the TOI, I get the heebie-jeebies. One main reason is that I would always be the anxious sorts wondering which list my name might end up on. I never had any surety about this since I would normally languish in the bottom parts of the lists. The CAP (Centralised Admission Process) I believe is a big advantage for filling up forms. After that, it’s a bit of a lottery. Yes, it does ensure that the best get into the top colleges or those of their choice while the rest suffer nervous breakdowns. And this is still class XI admissions!

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“My name is Salman Khan”

Now that’s a punch line. Subhan Allah!

Read the full interview.

[Via To Each Its Own]

Tags: Movies, Salman Khan, interview

Another Test series, another TV fiasco

As an Indian cricket fan, you must be pretty used to this nonsense by now. If not, get used to it. You need to learn how to live with it. Every time India is about to get involved in a Test series, there is a new mess about the telecast rights. ESPN-STAR who have the rights to the India tour of England have launched a new TV channel (STAR Cricket) and the matches are being telecast there (including the tour matches). This is superb news for those who get the channel. I, for one, don’t. So I depend on good old Cricinfo and the likes and sneak in highlights on YouTube if I can.

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Paan-flavoured sex or Paan is now an aphrodisiac

Safe sex is important. No doubt about it. I have long believed that the various condom distribution drives the government carries out across India will have some results in curbing and eventually reducing the spread of AIDS. Of late, however, these efforts have run into some rough weather. Starting with the ban on vibrating condoms in Madhya Pradesh in fact. While the grounds for protest and eventual withdrawal by the manufacturer Hindustan Latex was “against Indian ethics” by Hindu hardliners, I can’t wait to see what the public has to say about the newly-launched Paan-flavoured condoms among sex workers in Pune. (For the uninitiated, paan is beetel leaves and is consumed with various other spices; sweet, spicy and even tobacco.)

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Weekend versus weekday

It’s Saturday. But when you are a professional wfh-er (work from home), it hardly matters. Times of the day don’t matter either. In my case, there are roughly three ‘times of the day’ that punctuate work: Lunch, Tea and Dinner. Of course I sleep, but that’s not a break from work at most times!

Like with most people involved in technology writing or the Internet as a medium, I have an extensive RSS feed list to keep on top of. At last count, there were close to 180 feeds I follow everyday ranging from Cricket, Formula 1, Technology, News and what not! There’s a couple of cartoon feeds too! So every time my beloved Shrook, the RSS reader, goes ‘ping’, I need to rush over. Drop whatever I’m doing and run. (It is just for this that I am contemplating getting an iPhone when it does become available.) But today being Saturday, it’s been a rather slow day.

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