MayaBoli School For Hearing Impaired

MayaBoli Deaf and Dumb School
Originally uploaded by vbha.

On 1 Dec 2005 I got the opportunity to visit the Mayaboli Deaf and Dumb school in Yeola. This is a rural area in Nashik district in Maharastra. The school is a proud symbol of what dedication and good will can do even in a resource less environment.

The school houses around 80 deaf or dumb kids. Most (around 70) stay in the school. The school is currently on a rental property which is doubled as a hostel. It has no dedicated financial resource but largely survives on the effort Mr. Arjun Kokate. Local donors have made it a tradition to celebrate occasions like birthdays by contributing to this cause. The school has been functional since last 10 years and it currently up to grade 7. They do follow the curriculum of state board. It takes about a year and half or more to teach a normal school year curriculum to these kids. Of course preschool is much elongated. The staff is around 20 people, including teachers, cooks and other workers.

Pictures are can say more than what I would attempt to paraphrase, , please check them at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mayaboli/

The goal of this project is to have a self sustainable school upto 10th grade atleast, making sure that the students which it trains are able to stand up for themselves rest of the life. The founder of the school Mr. Arjun Kokate is very well known social worker in the area. He has dedicated his life and so has his wife to the cause of education.

Freakonomics

This was really an interesting read, which i finished last week in my couple of Flu days :). I was sick but i still enjoyed reading this book.

I read the book from cover to cover, yeah! But it was not that engrossing from what i remember it gave me a message to ask freaky questions and try to find answers for them. Like how important is parenting? Why do Druglords live with their mother? Or still so im my context i would ask Why does an average india spend atleast 5 times his salary on a marriage? Why does US capture 30% worlds GDP and China+India combined capture only 8trillion of the 40? Why there are more female engineers in India than USA? Why is mans journey to moon still controversial? Agree-ably some are good and some bad questions but the gist of the book is to ask akward questions and try to answer why. And yeah! that the only thing i like about it :).

Or another interesting question which is the next book i read is Why capitalism succeeds in west and fails in east?

AllGoRhythms 2005, How did it go?

AshaAllgoCoordsShakingOut
Originally uploaded by vbha.

The photos from AllGoRhythms 2005 show presented by Asha, Seattle on Oct 22, 2005.

The show was sold out and the band played bollywood masala music for about 4.5 hours and a number of once more! The audience never got enough of dance numbers!! It was lovely to see folks from all ages crowed near the stage to shake with the dhinchak zatka numbers:).

Monadlogue

Starting a blog for Monad ramblings!! Here is the first port about the Monad Package Manager i have written, its very very alpha and needs a new scriptdepot. But hej Microsoft is going to move fast to win the web but until then i'll use what serves my purpose. So here it is Introoducing MPKG - the Monad Package manager

Introducting the Monad package manager. You can download it from http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~vaibhav/scriptdepot/mpkg.msh.

The scriptdepot contains a bunch of monad scripts to experiement with. To install the package manager copy the script to your msh directory and run it as follows: mpkg.msh -install http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~vaibhav/scriptdepot/mpkg.msh

You are all set to explore the package manager. It allows you to search the internet for scripts just type mpkg.msh -search [query].

Fun! fun !! ride enjoy!!

Artificial Music

My rendition of Alap in Raag Bhup with Teen-taal in beats, the code is in lisp:

(setq *BHUP-SCALE* '(55 57 59 60 62 64 65 67 69
71 72 73 75 76))
(setq *TEEN-TAAL-THEKA* '((0 45 500 10 127)
(500 41 500 10 127)
(1000 41 500 10 127)(1500 45 500 10 127)))

(defun compose (number-of-events ontime)
"(compose 77 0)"
(if (zerop number-of-events)()
(cons (list ontime
(+ (choose-bhup-notes 0) 0)
;;to put it in MIDI range
1000
1
127)
(compose (- number-of-events 1)
(+ ontime 1000)))))

(defun surleena (number-of-events)
"Alap with zor n zhala optimum @ 25 events"
(let
((alap (long-notes
(compose number-of-events 0) 0))
(zor-zhala (scale-tempo 0.5
(compose number-of-events 0)))
(zor-theka (scale-tempo 1
(repeat-events 8 2000
*TEEN-TAAL-THEKA*))))
(append
alap
(shift-ontime
(* 1000 number-of-events) zor-zhala)
(shift-ontime
(* 500 number-of-events) zor-theka)
))
)

(defun long-notes (events change-so-far)
"Assuming events are well-formed"
(if (null events) ()
(let ((change (random 500)))
(cons (change-tempo (first events)
change-so-far change)
(long-notes (rest events)
(+ change change-so-far))))))

(defun change-tempo (event val tempo)
"(change-tempo '(0 34 1000 1 127) 0 500) returns
'(0 34 1500 1 127)"
(list (+ (nth 0 event) val)
(nth 1 event)
(+ (nth 2 event) tempo)
(nth 3 event)
(nth 4 event)
)
)

(defun choose-bhup-notes (number)
"Picks one note from a flute based bhup scale"
(let ((val (+ (random 23) 53)))
(cond
((memberp val *BHUP-SCALE*) val)
(t (choose-bhup-notes number))
))
)

(defun memberp (elem elist)
"Is elem a member of elist"
(cond
((= elem (first elist)) t)
((null (rest elist)) ())
((not (null elist))
(memberp elem (rest elist)) )
)
)

(defun scale-tempo (factor events)
"Scales tempo 0-1 1 implies no effect"
(if (null events) ()
(let* ((event (first events))
(ontime (round
(* factor (first event))))
(duration (round
(* factor (third event)))))
(cons
(list ontime (second event)
duration
(fourth event) (fifth event))
(scale-tempo factor (rest events))
)))
)

Enjoy the code is LGPL.

Verses Froms The Bible

Biceps/Triceps	Shoulders/ Chest/ Back	Legs
Standing Barbell Curls	Barbell Flat Bench Press	Squats
Preacher Curls	Barbell incline bench press	Machine Squats
Incline Dumbbell Curl	Dumbbell flat bench press	Leg Presses
Reverse Preacher	Dumbbell Incline	Leg press toes pointing out
Cable Press Down	Dumbbell Decline	Hack Squats
One Arm Press down	Parallel Bar Dips	Lunges
Seated Triceps	Dumbbell Fly	Leg Extensions
Lying Triceps	Incline Fly	Leg Curls
Lying dumbbell extension	Cable Cross over	Standing Calf Raises
Lying cross dumbbell ext	Rope pulls	Seated Calf Raises
Kick Back	One arm cable pulls
One arm extension	Barbell Flat bench Press
Dips	Dumbell Flat Bench Press
	Decline Dumbell Press
	Dumbell Fly
	Close Grip Chins
	Lats machine pull down
	One arm dumbbell rows
	Seated cable rows

Abdomen:
· Crunches
· Reverse Crunches
· Hanging Reverse Crunches
· Vertical Bench Crunches
· Cable Crunches
· Seated Leg Tucks
· Machine Crunches

Walking the old ropes for a new mate

IMG_0086
Originally uploaded by vaidehib.

Yep! i'm on the east coast helping out Vaidehi get settled in to life as a graduate student! In this picture, she is at her alma mater showcasing the big-M. This reminds me of my days as a graduate student from India trotting the soils (eventually spoils) of US of A. I have been trying to assist her in getting all tucked up for the semester bash but hey! I'm also trying not to feed her too much!! After all self-reliance works best, but yep as a younger sibling i do pamper her a little bit :). Indulgences and bonds!!!