Lift11: Ben Hammersley, Post-digital geopolitics [en]

[fr] Notes de la conférence Lift11 à Genève.

Live and India-lagged notes from the Lift11 Conference in Geneva. Might contain errors and personal opinions. Use the comments if you spot nasty errors. Note: no kilt today.

Twenty-first year of the WWW. Bizarre situation we have now: splitting of generations. *steph-note: speaker tip, do what Ben does — pause in between your sentences :-)*

Mubarak had the same look on his face than Swiss industrials who’ve just discovered the Internet, or a newspaper which has just gone bankrupt. Interesting: psychological effects, particularly amongst the group of people who are running the world, people around the age of 50 or 60, who are supposed to be creating the future, but who are already so confused by the present.

What defines a country is distance (“in the beginning was distance”). We’re “us” because we’re here, and they are “them” because they’re over here. All the rest (language, religion, culture) develops purely because of distance. Distance defined us.

Society is structured through vertical distance. He’s up there, I’m down here. Hierarchical society. We know where we are, who is above, who is below. Freud gave us an explanation and a toolkit *(steph-note: worth what it’s worth)*. Dominant intellectual framework for the industrial age.

We judge ourselves by numbers which represent fictions (ie, popularity on Twitter). We have the wrong cognitive toolkits, in the 21st century. We used to know who the ennemies were, where we stood in society and business. Networks mess that up — initially just for nerds and geeks, but after that for more and more people.

Death of distance *(steph-note: what I’ve been preaching for years regarding multilingualism online — e.g. the boundaries today are linguistic, and not country/geographic)*

=> Diaspora. Many new forms of countries — culture, interests, principles… they all collate online. Stronger interests and links with people who are geographically distance than with our neighbours. => interesting situations! Mailing-lists with guns, for example. *steph-note: literally?* Very difficult to shoot a hashtag.

Older generation brought up in a world of hierarchy (pyramids), and the younger generation a world of networks (sheets), and us in the middle. And the young ones don’t understand hierarchy, and the older ones don’t understand how a network works. “Shoot the leader and everything else will go away!”

Don’t understand that they don’t understand how to understand this stuff. They lack the intellectual framework on which to base this new form of thinking. *steph-note: did anybody say “culture shock”? Another of my incessant choruses… 😉 — exactly what many people from the West are faced with when trying to “get” India.*

Explain, don’t complain. The reason communication breaks down over these matters is people lack the cognitive toolkit for the discussion. Our primary problem is not to encourage innovation, it’s to translate *steph-note: amen — and exactly how I view my work*.

Lift11: David Galbraith, Four trends for the digital world [en]

[fr] Notes de la conférence Lift11 à Genève.

Live and India-lagged notes from the Lift11 Conference in Geneva. Might contain errors and personal opinions. Use the comments if you spot nasty errors.

First trend: people vs. celebrities

Valentino, first movie star, after 3200 years of acting. 300 people were injured at his funeral *steph-note: did I get that right?*

Networks favour the big guys. Insert cliché long tail slide here.

Digital goods: infinite supply > demand — and that’s where the long tail stops. Celebrity increases the head.

Celebrity is genetic: in MySpace, the “celebrities” are male singers — songbirds! A male thrush will sing itself to death to attract females.

Racks of servers at Twitter to deal with the Bieber load.

The celebrity effect allows the system to be gamed.

Gaga’s bandwidth bill: 10 Petabytes @ 15c/140 bits SMS rate — if she paid for her bandwidth, 10.5 trillion $

Second trend: peope vs. robots.

Robots = Google.

Google’s Achilles’ heel is it’s idealogical attachment to its algorithm.

Facebook is about people. Ask both “dear Google/Facebook, can you recommend a good sushi bar?” and compare the results. Friendship is a special relationship: un-spammable.

Here’s a trend: recommendations from friends replace algorithmic results

Third: people powered design (amateur is better than pro) — consumer vs corporate design

Consumer Internet products are better than professional ones. Because:

  • low marginal costs (digital goods are mass markets, exclusive ones are a bit crap)
  • architecture vs features (pass features to contractor)

Until recently software wasn’t designed (marketing => engineering). This is changing.

It’s not about features — cheap hifi has lots of features. It’s about design.

Even astronauts bring their own computers alongside NASA’s. The important thing is design.

Fourth: public vs. corporate networks (or why Skype is free)

5 hour video call: 0$ — compare that to the cost of a voice call through the cellphone network.

It has to do with the infrastructure. The web as wiring.

Two kinds of network, incompatible: free (internet, roads) and pay per trip (phone, rail)

But the internet runs over the telco’s network.

What video is doing to the net is increasing traffic thousandfold, but with the same road.

Messaging is overcharged and video is undercharged. Not all bits convey the same information value (video vs. SMS) but they are charged the same — so the charge per unit of information is completely unbalanced.

Something has to give: either government control (Internet runs on non-corporate networks) or 2 internets (corporate message network) or net neutrality is dead (messages prioritized over video, for example). Trend is no more all-you-can-eat data.

Lift11: Jean-Claude Biver, The importance of innovation and thinking different [en]

[fr] Notes de la conférence Lift11 à Genève.

Live and India-lagged notes from the Lift11 Conference in Geneva. Might contain errors and personal opinions. Use the comments if you spot nasty errors.

“See what people will do for a Hublot watch?” (ad with pic of a guy who got mugged and beaten up for his).

To grow, a child must innovate. From day one! With education and growing up, we close that up — which is why so many artists etc say they want to find the creativity of their childhood once again.

Difference between people who have learned something and people who innovate. Creativity and innovation are more powerful!

Jean-Claude’s company: always strive to be first, or to be unique, or to be different.

They don’t care about watches (people don’t buy them anymore anyway). Buying an expensive watch is completely stupid and irrational (above 50 CHF). So the important thing is not the watch — above 50 CHF, you don’t get better quality. Produce watches which aren’t needed for time-keeping — we look at the time on our mobiles or on the computer or on the car dashboard.

So they made a watch that was all black. Everything black! Forget that a watch is about showing the time. Imagine an all-black Big Ben… would cause so many accidents!

Conceptual innovation. Old Swiss watch-makers are turning around in their graves. The role of the watch has changed. It’s not a rational product to show what time it is anymore.

Creativity and innovation is a way of thinking. To encourage that in the company, they have nurtured an atmosphere which allows people to make mistakes. Give a bonus to people when they make mistakes! (Big mistake? Big bonus. Small mistake? Small bonus. Haha!) Then they’ll be happy to make mistakes. They become active! They start trusting themselves! Innovation brings uncertainty. It’s like a vision — it’s not reality. Take risks, be active. *steph-note: this makes me think about taking hundreds of crap photos with a digital camera for one magical one to appear.*

Our creativity is something we all had, but lost. We can find it again. No work anymore, all play. Time flies!

Story. Japanese discover football, many years ago. To be nice, FIFA gives them the World Cup to organize. Yay, football will be popular in Japan! JC’s boss says they should take a Japanese guy as an ambassador, for football. JC says “no, crazy, they’re not that good” — but goes to watch. 25 players + referees: same height, same hair… can’t identify the guy! Identify him with the number… but really didn’t manage. They insisted. Ended up saying he’d take him if he died his hair in Ferrari red. Not so crazy! They accepted. He died his hair, on from that day on, he was the only one you could see on the field… they took him as an ambassador, and was then transferred, etc… known because he was different, unique, and the first!

That’s how we’ll survive. Must be the first, unique, and different. *steph-note: echoes with some of my thoughts these last days on how what a platform does is not as important as how old it is — regarding usefulness and popularity*

Lift11: Don Tapscott, Macrowikinomics [en]

[fr] Notes de la conférence Lift11 à Genève.

Live and India-lagged notes from the Lift11 Conference in Geneva. Might contain errors and personal opinions. Use the comments if you spot nasty errors.

Upto three weeks ago, revolutions had an organization behind them mobilizing the people, managing logistics, etc.

Now, because of social media, the cost of collaboration for dissent has dropped dramatically. This is positive, but there is a historic challenge: when the old regime falls, there is no structure or organisation or party or institution ready to take over — and we need organisations. Peer produced “wiki revolutions”.

Many of our institutions are in a state of atrophy. Turning point in history. GM, financial institutions, newspapers… all these institutions are stalled, but at the same time being rebuilt around the network.

Pre-printing press, knowledge was concentrated with a few people. Printing press, democratization of knowledge. Internet: a revolution on par with that of the printing press, but very different. The printing press gave us access to recorded knowledge, whereas the internet makes us all publishers, gives us access to what is in other people’s minds: the age of networked intelligence.

Digital generation (the biggest ever) faced with a terrible world: high unemployment. Social revolution leading to an economic revolution. This crisis is creating a burning platform in all of our institutions.

Collaboration — openness — sharing — interdependence — integrity: 5 principles for innovation, wealth, and sustainability.

Need for values. *steph-note: spaced out a little here*

Don saw his book related to the Obama campaign *steph-note: damn, missed the details here*

GM: went bankrupt. New: Local Motors. Completely different model, co-creation.

Financial system: subprime crisis.

Newspapers: old model is Chicago … Times (?) — new model = Huffington Post.

Old: climate change, Copenhagen conference. New: platforms for learning and action.

“What an exciting time to be alive!”

New: WEF’s Global Redesign Initiative.

Peer-produced “Wiki Revolutions”. We’re at a turning point.

Natural analogies? flock of birds. *steph-note: shows beautiful video of huge movements of a gigantic flock of birds, with Albinoni’s Adagio playing in the background — oops, am hypnotized by the birds and the music*

Quotes St-Exupéry (“respect the past for it was once all that was humanly possible”).

Of Grief and Travel [en]

[fr] Retour d'Inde, et je pleure mon chat comme il y a un mois, après une sorte d'interruption où le deuil a gentiment glisser sous le tapis. M'habituer à son absence alors que je suis ailleurs, dans un contexte complètement étranger, c'est une chose. A la maison, cela va prendre nettement plus de temps.

As all of you must know by now, my cat Bagha died just ten days before I was due to leave on a month-long trip to India, my first “real” (understand: three weeks or more) holiday in many years. It’s been a horrible, horrible loss for me — and if at this stage you’re thinking “just a cat”, switch to “11 years of life together”. I cried every day until I left, and was still very upset when I arrived in India.

Ready to Pounce

At some point, in India, I stopped crying. Different context, people around, not much privacy, but mainly, I think, lots of exciting Indian life and people to keep me busy. Over a month, I had plenty of time to settle down in my holiday-life over there — and holiday-life and travel clearly never involved having Bagha around.

When Bagha was alive, I would miss him when I was travelling. The first days would be the worst, and then I would get used to it and stop thinking about it. After a few weeks, though, I’d be really looking forward to seeing him again. It was part of what would draw me back home.

So, maybe I was just following my normal travel-pattern here too.

Coming back has been really hard. In all honesty, it feels pretty much like I’m back to where I left off before my travels. A few things have changed, though — the work of time: I’m not in shock anymore (I’ll talk about shock in a later post about another recent death), and I don’t really expect to see Bagha sleeping on the couch or on the bed when I enter a room. I still have “where’s the cat?” or “I need to get the cat” moments, though. Many times a day. and I’m going through a lot of tissues again.

I don’t know if this “break in grief” was a good thing — not that I regret going to India at all, and I immensely enjoyed my time there — but I remember wishing I had “more time” before leaving while I was preparing my bags and departure.

Bangalore 142 Fancy Buildings.jpgWhat this trip has shown me, though, is that life goes on. Or at least, that I can rebuild a life for myself. This is very similar to what my year in India showed me: that I could start from scratch somewhere and find friends, have a life, be happy enough. (I write happy enough because generally, that’s how I am — “happy” on its own has not often been a general state in my life, though it’s a regular short-term feeling.)

But life elsewhere without my cat and life at home without my cat are not the same thing.

I'm Home [en]

[fr] Je suis rentrée. En Suisse, il fait gris et froid et Bagha est mort. Retour à prendre au jour le jour, en me félicitant d'avoir prévu une reprise en douceur après ce mois de décrochage.

I’m home.

Back in cold grey Switzerland, back to my dead cat and other losses that were put on the back-burner while I was in India.

Sorry for the gloom. There isn’t even snow to make things a little fun and exciting.

To be honest, I don’t feel really home. “Home” has lost a bit of its “homeness” without Bagha.

Part of the love I’ve had for my cozy flat these last ten years was because Bagha was here. Not all of it, but part of it. I used to always look forward to coming home after a trip, because it would mean being back with my cat. I missed him when I was away.

OK, maybe I’m painting the picture a little rosy in hindsight. Maybe I didn’t always look forward to coming home from my travels. But I was always happy to see Bagha again. I always looked forward to that.

Of course, it’ll get better in the coming days. I’ll see my friends again, rediscover the comfort of Swiss life, get working on my projects here (both personal and professional).

And scatter Bagha’s ashes in the garden.

Even now, all is not bad. It’s quiet. I have privacy. There is cheese.

I miss India already, though. You know, Nicole, I think I understand what you meant a couple of months back when you told me that you loved and hated it here, because I think I feel the same about India. I love it there. But some things also drive me nuts and make me thing “OMG I’m so glad it’s different at home”.

I’m going to spend more time in India. Two weeks scheduled in October (Delhi, Hindi tutoring) and most certainly January 2012, like this year. I have plans. Go back to the lovely homestay in Mysore. Visit a village near Pune where a friend has relatives. Go to Goa (yeah, even though it’s your cliché tourist destination). Spend a couple of days in Mumbai with Reality Tours and Travel. Plan a trip to Rajasthan (a lead and contacts showed up a week ago). In Pune, visit Parvati temple, the Aga Khan Palace, and one of the hill forts without giving up halfway there. Take Marathi classes. I could go on.

India is huge, diverse, exciting, chaotic. It’s a mess. The disregard for safety and rules can be maddening, but it’s also a healthy release from our coddled and controlled lifestyle here in the West.

I’m home now. A little anxious about how the next days will go, but I’ve decided to take it day by day. Today: unpack, check the state of my bank account and bills to pay, make a few appointments, go to judo. Tomorrow: go to a few appointments. Wednesday: dive into three days of Lift.

Indian Stretchable Time [en]

[fr] En quelques mots? Pas envie que mes vacances se terminent.

You what what they say about time in India: IST doesn’t stand for Indian Standard Time, but for Indian Stretchable Time. I think it’s pretty obvious to anybody who spends enough time here that the perception of time is very different here than in Europe, for example.

Pune 142 Laxmi Road Shopping.jpg

Holiday-time is also different from work-time. Days stretch ahead when your holiday is long enough. You forget what day of the week it is. You lose track of how long you’ve “been here”. You spend a whole day in Lightroom and fooling about online without worrying about being “productive”. You get up when you get up, don’t worry too much about mealtimes (especially if that is taken care of by your hosts), forget about your upcoming plans and deadlines.

And suddenly you realize there is less than a week left before you’re back in Switzerland, back to work-life, back to processing e-mails, back to a catless flat, back to earning money and paying attention to how much you spend, back to the cold and grey winter, back to everything you left behind.

Let me say it clearly: I don’t want my holiday to end and I don’t want to go back.

Of course, I look forward to seeing my friends again — but I’ll miss the people I love here. And I am very grateful I took example (partially) on danah and decided to send all my holiday e-mail into the black hole — meaning I will be coming back to work without an e-mail backlog to catch up on.

But right now I really don’t want to go back to my life.

We had a really nice time in Bangalore and Mysore. My Bangalore photos are online now, but I haven’t got around to sorting through the Mysore ones yet, or writing all the articles I want to write — as if putting it off was going to extend my holiday. (Articles? Bangalore Walks, Hillview Farms Homestay, Security Theatre in India, some thoughts on Indian culture in the light of independence and colonial legacy, a whole bunch of Indian recipes…)

I’ll go back to reading my book or hanging out on Quora now, while Nisha makes lovely-smelling chapatis next to me and the dogs nap on the cool stone floor.

Choc culturel à Bangalore [fr]

Cet article a été initialement publié sur le blog de voyage ebookers.ch (voir l’original).

Après plus ou moins 14 mois en Inde si l’on met mes séjours là-bas bout-à-bout, j’ai vécu la semaine dernière un de mes plus grands chocs culturels indiens: Bangalore.

Bangalore 126 Fancy Buildings.jpg
Tout en vitres et en hauteur.

Après Pune, Bangalore est immense, moderne, et ressemblerait presque à l’Occident. Grands boulevards (même s’ils sont surchargés de voitures), bus neufs climatisés roulant à toute vitesse (autant que les embouteillages le permettent), tours vitrées chatouillant les nuages, population jeune et habillée à l’occidentale, arbres majestueux, restaurants luxueux et chers, immense chantier du futur métro en plein air au-dessus de l’artère principale de la ville, aéroport à faire pâlir certains d’Europe… Certes, on trouve à Bangalore des coins qui me font penser à Pune. Mais ma petite semaine sur place m’a laissée presque un peu déboussolée.

Bangalore 076 Street Views.jpg
Rickshaws rutilants et bien alignés près de Commercial Street.

J’ai commencé à mieux comprendre cette ville lors de mon dernier jour sur place, à l’occasion du Victorian Bangalore Walk auquel nous avons participé (fortement recommandé, je vous en reparlerai). Bangalore, comme les Etats-Unis par ailleurs, est une terre d’immigrés. Au tournant du 19e siècle, les Anglais y installent leur centre militaire (cantonment) pour l’Inde du sud. Forte population Anglo-Indienne, donc, afflux par la suite d’immigrés du reste de l’état du Karnataka, installation précoce de l’électricité (1906), arrivée d’entreprises comme Tata et Texas Instruments, sans compter les prisonniers italiens durant la deuxième guerre mondiale qui ont grandement contribué au développement du football dans cette ville… Quelques éléments d’histoire disparates et un peu en vrac, n’empêche: Bangalore est une ville qui s’est développée à travers ses immigrants — et ça continue aujourd’hui. Moins de 30% de la population de Bangalore parle le kannada, la langue locale.

On comprend donc mieux l’occidentalisation rampante, l’esprit entrepreneurial et le développement fulgurant de Bangalore, centre de gravité technologique attirant entreprises et cerveaux du sous-continent et d’ailleurs.

Mais qu’on ne s’y méprenne pas: la ville reste indienne, surtout dans ses infrastructures. Coupures d’électricité, maisons construites les unes sur les autres, ascenseurs et connexions internet en panne, vaches déambulant sur des routes souvent en mauvais état, rickshaws et leurs mythiques conducteurs (surtout ici!), offices postaux inintelligibles aux non-initiés, et surtout, mondes parallèles qui se côtoient sans jamais sembler se toucher, ou tout juste du bout des doigts. La nourriture y est excellente, et Bangalore recèle bien entendu des quartiers de petites ruelles (surtout dans la vieille ville) et des marchés détendus où il fait bon se balader, comme le Gandhi Bazaar dans le Basavanagudi.

Bangalore 040 Gandhi Bazaar.jpg
Gandhi Bazaar.

Je vous l’avoue, j’ai de la peine à l’aimer, cette ville trop occidentale à mon goût, même si pour beaucoup d’indiens elle représente le futur, le progrès, et la direction que doit prendre leur pays. Mais je ne doute pas qu’il doit faire bon vivre dans cette métropole multiculturelle, pour qui a un revenu lui permettant le train de vie qui s’y étale.

Bangalore 068 Street Views.jpg
Panneaux d'affichage.

A visiter? Oui, certainement, surtout si le côté “rustique” de l’Inde vous intimide un peu et que vous désirez conserver quelques repères en matière de confort occidental lors de votre séjour.

Depuis ici:

Comment j'organise mes photos sur mon disque dur [fr]

[en] I organize my photos into yearly and monthly folders. Inside the monthly folders, I create "shoot" folders with a name that'll help me identify what they are about easily. For my trip to India, I've had to add say folders too, as I'm taking many photos nearly every day.

OK, ce n’est pas de la grande science, mais si ça peut être utile à quelqu’un, voici le système que j’utilise depuis de nombreuses années pour ranger mes photos sur mon disque dur. C’est assez simple mais ça marche pour moi.

Bangalore 041 Gandhi Bazaar.jpgJ’ai un dossier “photos” dans lequel je crée un dossier par année (2006, 2007, 2008, etc.). Dans chaque dossier “année” je crée douze dossiers “mois” (01, 02, 03, etc.). Au début, je rangeais simplement toutes les photos d’un mois donné dans le dossier du mois, mais suivant quand, ça fait vite beaucoup de photos.

Donc habituellement, je groupe mes photos par “gros paquets” à l’intérieur d’un mois donné en créant des répertoires comme “Promenade au bord du lac”, “Apéro de l’eclau”, “Sortie bateau”. Ça m’aide à facilement retrouver mes photos.

Je ne suis pas très systématique ni soigneuse dans ma façon de nommer mes photos. A nouveau, je fais des gros paquets, je choisis un nom générique (Bangalore) et je numérote automatiquement (impensable de faire ça à la main). Après, des fois, je rajoute des précisions, soit sur mon ordinateur, soit sur Flickr. Ça dépend de mon humeur!

Maintenant que je commence à utiliser sérieusement Lightroom, je cherche à tâtons comment mieux nommer mes photos. Pour ce voyage en Inde, par exemple, j’ai trop de photos chaque jour pour utiliser mon système de classement habituel, donc j’ai créé encore des répertoires par jour à l’interieur des dossiers “mois” — et je suis en train de nommer mes photos “Ville ### Série de photos” (exemple: Bangalore 041 Gandhi Bazaar). On verra si je continue comme ça!

What's Up? [en]

[fr] Occupations, réflexions et choses intéressantes des derniers jours.

Keeping myself busy in Bangalore, either by eating in posh restaurants, buying too many books, conversing with fellow travelers, learning to use Lightroom correctly and uploading my photographs, and hanging out on Quora.

A few random things for today.

Bangalore is a real culture-shock for me. Big, new, shiny, orderly and expensive compared to the India I’m familiar with (Pune).

I’m still dumping my photos on Flickr without much sortage (or they’ll never get online!) but I’ve started organizing them into sets. Check them out.

Instagram.app is just wonderful for taking snapshots when you’re traveling. I’m getting my friends hooked on it.

Blossom Book House in Bangalore is a book-buyer’s paradise. They even prepared my book parcel for me (I just need to go to the post office and send it, praying it won’t cost an arm and a leg).

Magazines Store has cats. Meow! And they’re on Facebook!

Cats

I have a backlog of Indian recipes to write up.

2011? More travel, more reading, more writing, more photography.

Want excellent (really excellent) Western food in Bangalore? Go to Chamomile. It’s pretty pricey (by my Indian standards) but absolutely delicious. I think this was our biggest culture shock so far: we were really worried when we saw the place and the menu, but ecstatic when we started eating the food. My dad had an extraordinary T-bone steak, perfectly cooked.

EXCELLENT rare t-bone steak

I’m hooked on Quora. Tell me if you want an invite. (Can you get in without a Twitter/Facebook account, by the way?) I spent all morning two days ago answering cat questions, and have started getting replies to some of my India questions (asbestos, anyone?).

India is a great place to get stuff repaired. My chappal (Indian sandals) which cost around 12 CHF to buy cost me 45 CHF to re-heel in Switzerland. Here: 20 Rs (1 CHF = 46 Rs). Need to replace a broken screen on an otherwise functional laptop? Quite affordable, labour included. Next time I come I’m bringing all my old sandals with me. And any laptop that needs repairing. Oh, and scanning slides? See:

ScanCafe looks like an excellent slide/negative/photo scanning service. They built their scanning centre here in Bangalore. Pity you can only use their services from the US/Canada for now. I am going to see if there are good slide scanning services in Pune/Delhi though, for next time I come (I have 1000+ slides to scan from my year in India). Spend some time reading their website — a model of what a company website should be.

Two other great websites I encourage you to spend time visiting, and great projects:

First, the Ashraya Initiative for Children, a small non-profit in Pune that helps street kids. They’re doing extraordinary work, both by housing selected children (Residential program), supporting Yerwada children’s education (Outreach programs) and improving life in their community. My friend Mithun is their Social Media Manager, which is how I came across them. I’ll be paying them a visit when I go back to Pune next week and am eager to see how I can support their work. Oh, read their blog too and find them on Facebook.

Second, Reality Tours and Travels Mumbai, a travel agency which specializes in small guided tours off the tourist track: Dharavi slum tours (80% of the profits from those tours go to NGOs working in the area, mainly Reality Gives, the non-profit sister organization they set up for that purpose), village tours (2 days and a night in a local village outside Mumbai), as well as the more traditional market and sightseeing tours. All that with guides from the local communities who speak very good English, in small groups (less than 6 people). Anita’s friends from Australia, whom we spent the day with yesterday, did the Dharavi slum tour and were very enthusiastic. I’m definitely planning that and the village tour for my next visit to Mumbai/Pune.

In the same vein of “non-touristy tourism”, my dad and I will be taking a Victorian walk through Bangalore tomorrow morning.

Taking photos from a train, like I did on the Udyan Express? Some tips gleaned from Twitter and experience: wide angle, manual focus to infinity, speed locked on 1/1000th, shoot facing direction of travel or opposite (rather than at a right angle) to minimize motion blur. If traveling in an AC carriage like we were, do not hesitate to go and open the door between the compartments. Forget about shooting through the dirty tinted windows.

Udyan Express From Pune to Bangalore 16.jpg

Plans?

  • Come back in October to spend two weeks in Delhi to brush up my Hindi. Got good Hindi teachers there to recommend for private lessons? Let me know.
  • Travel through India by train. Or maybe, travel to India by train. Or by car. Anybody done this?
  • Do stuff other than helping people communicate better (just a vague desire, I’m not looking at a change of career right now, but I’d like to… do stuff, rather than just talk all the time)

Indian food is mainly carbs. Not much veggies in fact. A few veggies, tossed in spices, and lots of bread to eat them with. And rice and daal. And if you’re eating non-veg, it means “no-veg” — meat and bread. (Bread = Indian breads.) Nice, but not very balanced.

Fashion seems different in Bangalore. More Western clothing. Much more. Women in business suits. Way less salwaar kameez.

Going to Mysore rather than Pondicherry after all. Happy with the change of plans.

Internet-enabled India is very different from non-Internet India (ie, my experience 10 or even 7 years back).

Very happy with Cleartrip for booking train and flights in India.

It’s lovely to have lots of “empty” time to do things without having to worry about being productive. I guess that’s what holidays are, I’d forgotten!

OK, back to sorting my photos and learning how to use Lightroom 🙂