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!!!

More Rhumba!!

Danceworks is an amazing place on Friday nights! Last Friday i had a tonne of fun dancing to the beats of Rhumba, Swing, Salsa, Waltz, Two step disco, Foxtrot.... Its kind of strange how they pack all this in to one evening! However, the group lesson of Rhumba before the open dance was neat.

The routine is really elegant -
From a basic step of quick quick ' slow,
quick quick ' slow;
one moves to Quick Quick ' right leg forward,
left leg forward rock rock ROCK;
left leg forward left leg back ' turn her outside in clockwise direction,
bring her back in anticlose-wise direction;
move left leg cross and ' turn her around,
left leg back in position and do a full basic turn;
go back on your left leg then move forward on left leg,
and turn her around such that she is in a lock position (i.e with twisted arms);
circle around 180 in quick quick slow,
move around her while scratching her elbow and come in front of her!;


Count the number of semicolons in above routine, its 6!! So there you go! you have a routine to spend atleast 12seconds!!! Wohooo!!

Body Building, The Arnold Way

Yesterday i bought the book The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by the one and only one Arnold - talk to my hand!! So do i want to body build ? Hmm.. not really its freaking difficult to built muscle for a vegetarian and I'm interesed more in strength building. Jeffrey Snover recommended me this book, so i just decided to give it a shot. I sampled the chapter on nutrition as i relaxed in Borders, what Mr. Arnold says really made sense - eating right is important and for building muscles getting more protein intake is abosultely essential. The various levels of workout and nutrition in this Bible quite impressed me, so i just bought the book and tuked in back bag pack and biked over the hill back to my house.

I have been using FitDay to keep track of my nutrition but its freaking difficult to use. I still have to find a good software to keep track of my food intake. But hey in any case the Mantra to body build is to Eat like a pig and work out.

Yep! I'm dancing more:). This time is quick lessons in Rumba and Waltz at Danceworks studio.

Rhumba is one of those shaky latin dances with the basic step to trace a box. Its

Slow-------QuickQuick
(1, L)          (2,3, RL)
|                    |
(5,6,LR)         (4, R)
QuickQuick-------Slow

The instruction video in the link above show a different way of Rhumba but above one is what I learned. Its more Waltiz and less shaky ;). The

Waltz is the founding father (or mother) of ballroom dances. The basic step is a box step with uniform beats no quickies like rumba:

Slow-------SlowSlow
(1, L)       (2,3, RL)
|                 |
(5,6,LR)       (4, R)
SlowSlow-------Slow

Remember to hold the Women at shoulder blade and look in eyes. Smiles make dacing fun :). Waltz is a romantic slow moving progressional dance. Progressional implies that you more with your partner through the dance floor (mostly in counterlclockwise way).

Thats all for Dance-101 as of now :).

I'm really happy that Vaidehi will be soon be going to The University of Maryland. Here program is a very interesting mix of techincal and managerial courses in telecommunications.

Over the four years in United States I have realized that early risers are very effective and efficient workers. However a student life is very un-predictable and some courses are in the evening as well. But hej, I guess everything gets over by 9 so waking up at 6 should not be a big deal!

From my campus life in the radical school of UCSC I learnt more my socializing with other folks than in the class-room. I actually got a very broad view of life and yep arts. So mixing with other folks and brooding new interests is something which is way easier in school than anywhere else.

The Indian education system focusses on rote learning and the culture to certain extent is closed (people just like to hang out with their kinds). These are the prime two things which one should strive to un-learn on the US campuses.

Having said a few paras about my learning and un-learning i must say that no education is complete with international experience. I will always feel lucky that i got a chance to undergo this amazing learning process.

The Asha Tags!

RajiMadeTheTags
Originally uploaded by vbha.

The original plans was to have two tags "Wheels of Change" and "Asha - working for education of underprivileged children in India" but in a days notice Raji could just get "Asha" lovely organge tags and she had to literally burn mid-nights oil for this.

An Ode to STP 2005 bikers

I'm impressed by Raji's ability and peotic talent here is the sampler:

‘Twas early on a Saturday morn,
That 5 brave bikers wound their way,
Six and ten score miles they rode,
Into Portland to make their foray.

Thro’ sun and rain and wind and gale,
Over hill and valley and plain and dale,
A flat tire here, a torn tube there,
Survive they did, many a scare!

Read their saga in the thread below
(Actually it’s just a picture slideshow)
And if you’re inspired to do similar feats
Go grab your bikes, put on those cleats!

‘So, what’s next?!’, you may impatiently ask
Well, if you haven’t guessed it yet
This weekend is when we will start
Training for STP 2006, you bet! :-)

Watch out for more info in Friday’s mail
On the ride we will take on this time
(And I’ll stick to prose instead of verse
And spare you the pain of my corny rhyme!) J

-Raji (B-)

Drafting Joy!!

DraftingJoy!!
Originally uploaded by vbha.

One of the arts i learnt on STP is drafting. Its almost true that laziness is mother of invention. Drafting is biking close to the biker in front of you at speeds above 15mph so that you get the advantage of not having to deal with wind resistance, it saves almost 30-40 percent energy in bad winds. This is what the brids who fly in flocks achieve.

Almost half of the STP I was drafting ;). Lazy guy!- but hej wait i did pull the draft for quite a sometime too once for about 5-6 miles with a duplex and other time with a batch of MSN search chick team.

In this pic i'm drafting in a very cool bunch. While passing a biker the puller would always say - "on your left and five ugly guys behind" :).

WheelsOfChange-STP2005-team

WheelsOfChange-STP2005-team
Originally uploaded by vbha.

After 13 hours of strenous biking and just about equal time of picniking, partying, slacking and rambling we completed the 206 miles from Seattle to Portland in two days for July 9 and 10th :).

Wohoo! starting to keep myFitDay.com - Public Journal. Its a nice tool to monitor your health. Thanks, Ujjwal.

Click Flying Wheels to see how i survived 70 miles of a hilly bike ride!!! :)

The Microfinance Revolution: Sustainable Finance for the Poor presents the modern thoery of Microfinance. Typically to answer questions like why to lend out to poor and what is the guarantee that the small money lent will be repaid by the poor. A list of detailed research paper about the same appears here. Scoring to lend!! Why would some poor person give money which was lent. I would say only if the money which he got made him some profit! My idea of economy is something is profitable only if it makes a profit for the consumer.

Yahoo shopping, has done a great job but still i cannot find a motorcycle which i want to buy! Clutter..

Monthly Average Graph (Indian Rupee, American Dollar) 2005of Rupee vs. Dollar shows a constant decline of dollar. Dollar is hitting a huge valley. About a year before it was 46.5 Rs. and now its 43.37!! Man!! day by day seems the amount i'm earning is useless, and my efforts, dreams not as grandeur!!

The other thing which have always confused me is how the banks give exhange rates to customers. Is ICICI Money2India good enough for transacting money to my family in India or I losing like a rupee for each dollar. I dont understand. May be one of these days i'll read something or meet someone who really is street smart in this......but as of now my money is hitting the sink...zooop!!!

Infinite Photos thats my collection and if you can browse them all i have equal number of them else where!!! Like all other mortals i'm having a tough time keeping my media (photos, videos, music), writings, emails, blogs, wikis, yahoogroups, msngroups and bookmarks away from fragmentation and at one nice location!! It would be really nice if there way to aggregrate all of them in some fashion where my family, friends, co-workers and aquaintances would view and collaborate on them.

The two most important factors for this to happen is that the medium has to be quick and easy to use. I can setup my home page to point and aggregate all of it its fast for me and works but i wont be able to collaborate on this. And yep it doesn't scale.

So well come to new age phenomena... fragmentation of the golden egg!!! Every one agrees that the inet is the hen which gives a golden egg but unfortunately there are too many stake-holders for this golden egg or as rappers might put it too many daddy's for a little chusa....:)

Salsa Zone

I'm learning Salsa from Michelle Badion at the UW Experimental classes. I'm pretty interested by the moves I learned so far. Here is the sampler, well not a video tape yet but just more ramblings :).

• Dont do basic steps at any point the easiest thing to make the follower feel that she is going places is to keep doing half turns all the time.
  
• If you are in a close hand position and want to go to open arm position then do a half turn to get in that position.
  
• Basic step 1-3, turn - turn - turn 5-7, Back Step 1, She 2 goes, Back Step 3, he goes 5, back step 6, she goes 7, basic 1-3 : Is michelle favorite turn!
  
• Fancy turn: raise her arm- 1, back turn 2-3, turn her around to side 5-7 and she is locked in to you, front step 1,-3, turn her out 5-7 ...
  
• Side step has three turns: Full swing (one and half turn) outside turn, Half inside turn, full inside turn.
  
• Side step is like basic 1-3 and step on side on 5 and 6-7 is the turn or she goes to the other side (ie half turn).
  

Thats all for Salsa as of now. I have to write the step in more detail and there are quite a few i forgot ;).

VaiBHAv's Homepage The UCSC all in one web-page, which i so dearly and nearly need to update. Its time to thing of a webstrategy, there is a craze nowaday of blogging. Atanu Dey, keep one for his ramblings, and seems folks have started aggregating desi bloggers!

Blogging is a great concept as it serves the purpose of keeping a daily dairy and a list of web-marks. But i dont know sometimes I would like to write things which are just for me not public and i love to use a book and a pen...it promotes thinking. I havent been convinced of the digital thinking capability, thats one of the reason why i ramble here :).

Btw, some one said a nice thing yesterday
People keep talking of Digital Divide but what about TV Divide, Radio Divide why wasn't there one!

~laterz

Split it

Fitness Challenge 2005 Describes a nice way of how exercise should be split up. I'm going to split the way I exercise in two One day do chest and back and Other day do Biceps, Triceps and Shoulders. Abs and Cardio should be done everyday.

Primarliy I have to figure out more chest exercises. The above link has some nice suggestions which i should explorer.