Little Loris lives on a bamboo tree far inside the green forest. Her eyes are like big saucers but she is as small as a coffee mug. Mama Loris thinks she has the most beautiful eyes. They are round and huge and bright. In the day, Little sleeps. At night, she wakes up and plays. She loves to find bright colourful little insects and eat them. She hits Mama with bamboo shoots and swings away, laughing as Mama comes to catch her.

One night, as she is eating a small shoot, there comes Big Man. He looks up high and sees Little Loris. Then he smiles and offers a thin long thing to her. Little Loris smiles too and offers Big Man a bamboo shoot. Then something sharp hits Little and she falls down.

When she wakes up, it’s dark but not as in the forest. It doesn’t smell like bamboo. It stinks of Death, like when her Uncle Loris fell from the trees. There are no sounds here. Everything is dead. The floor is hard and it hurts. Little is afraid. She tries to reach out to find a branch to cling to. But her hands are tied. She cannot move her hands. She cries and cries. She misses Mama and Papa Loris.

Some time later, a bright light shines. Little closes her eyes, scared. She opens them a little. Big Man looks down and smiles again. He gently takes her out and makes her sit on his palm.

‘I want Mama,’ Little tells Big Man. Big Man smiles again and takes her to Fat Man who sits next to Fire. She is afraid of Fire but trusts Big Man. He will take her back to her Mama, won’t he?

She hears the Fat Man smile.

‘Her eyes are huge,’ Fat Man says to Big Man. She remembers how Mama told her that her eyes are pretty. Fat Man is good too. He will take her back to the Forest.

Then Fat Man comes to her with a sharp knife. It glistens in the Fire. Big Man uses the knife to scoop out her big saucer shaped eyes. Her pretty eyes. She cries out as pain and blood shoot out. Then they peeled off her skin. There’s so much blood and so much pain.

He picks Little up and throws her in the Fire. She burns and burns. Then everything turns black and dead. She thinks she hears Big Man laugh.

Big Man sings with Fat Man

‘We will sell her skin to the Leather Man

To make pretty bags for rich women.

We will sell her eyes and meat to the Quack

To make magic medicine for the Unwise.

And then we will be rich, oh so rich

We smell the tempting bag of Money!’

Little Loris hopes she will meet Mama again. She wants to ask her what Money means.

———————-

Slender Loris is a small, nocturnal primate who lives in the Eastern Ghats. Native people believe that all parts of the Slender Loris have some medicinal or magical powers. Their body replaces voodoo dolls in black magic. Their skin is used to make expensive leather bags. This has contributed greatly to their decline in the state of Karnataka. Though it is illegal in India to catch a Slender Loris, the trade of catching them and using them for black magic, leather and pets is high. There is no counting of how many of these little primates have disappeared from the Ghats.

Forest Tales are a series of fiction loosely based on true stories I hear from wildlife conservationists. I am working on these to create awareness for a wildlife conservation NGO called Vanamitra (www.vanamitra.org) based in Bangalore. Please do share these stories.

Convert that smartphone into a superphone with these useful little accessories and add-ons

All of us know the importance of that one-second conversation just before the cellphone battery dies on you. And when have we not wished that our phone would not lose signal in the middle of an important negotiation? If you are looking to enhance the performance of your cellphone, here are some add-ons to convert it into a superphone. Believe us, your handset will never be the same.

BoxWave Presentation Capacitive Stylus

The trend of the stylus is back for new-generation touch screens. Use this one if you like to be precise in writing and drawing on a tiny screen or simply want to keep it scratch-free. This stylus is slightly heavier than a pen and comes integrated with an LED reading light as well as a laser pointer. All you need to do is put slight pressure and the stylus works smoothly even on screen protectors. The clip-on at the side ensures you will not leave it behind in the cab. It even has a headphone jack plug anchor if you prefer it to dangle stylishly. It comes in four colours—black, silver, ruby and white.

Money matters: $19.95 (around Rs. 1,020) at www.boxwave.com. Shipping charges extra.

Violight UV Cellphone Sanitizer

A March study by the London School of Hygiene says your cellphone has more germs than a toilet seat. Kill the germs on your device the ‘Star Trek’ way with Violight UV Cellphone Sanitizer. It is a metal basket with a lid in which you can put your phone, charger, MP3 player, PDA, even earbuds or anything else which will fit in the slim box. The germicidal UV rays will zap the viruses and bacteria in just 5 minutes. It can only be used for flat phones and not for flip phones or sliders—those are too bulky.

Money matters: $49.95 for the Violight UV Cellphone Sanitizer,atwww.violight.com. Portable versions for toothbrushes and earbuds are cheaper. Shipping charges extra.

iZon Remote Room Monitor

Want to keep an eye on your child or pet while you are in office? This app-controlled camera live-streams video and audio of any space. The camera connects to your iPhone via an app called Stem:Connect. The camera has a magnetic base so that you can position it at any angle. Once set, you can see a live feed from the camera (with about 15 seconds delay) anywhere in the world on your iPhone. It can be configured to alert you when it senses motion or sound in the room. You can set the app to record feeds and upload them to a free, private YouTube account. The live stream is encrypted and sent only to your device. It works only for iOS products now (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad), but the company is also developing Android and Mac apps, and a Web browser interface.

Money matters: $129.95 at Steminnovation.com/izon. Shipping costs extra.

Solio Bolt

Launched in March, Solmate Solio Bolt by Chennai-based Ideaplus Systems gets the thumbs up for quality conversion of solar energy and product design. The batteries come with an integrated solar panel which can be charged by keeping in the sun. Once its internal 2000mAh Li-Poly battery is fully charged (which takes 8-10 hours in sunlight), you can use it to charge your phone. The Bolt battery keeps the charge for up to one year, and will deliver a full charge to your phone in 3 hours, after which you need to recharge it again. It’s not suggested as a replacement for your charger, but it is handy if you are travelling or are in a place where there’s no electricity. You can also charge the Solio from a USB port or wall charger in 4.5 hours, and can use it to charge other USB-powered devices on the go.

Money matters: Rs. 2,995 at Getsolmate.com. Rs. 85 for shipping and handling within India.

Drone Controller

If you are old school, you will love this one. Drone is an open-source standard game controller with buttons to play games and other apps on touch-screen devices. It’s ergonomic, has a standard button layout that you might be familiar with if you are an old-time gamer, and is built well enough to be tossed into a backpack. It is compatible with Bluetooth devices. If you are a bit of a geek, you can even create and upload your own code to modify the characteristics of the controller and use it for other apps and stuff. Programming and electrical information is easily available on various online forums, and it’s easy to learn.

Money matters: Pre-order at Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) for $65. From December, it will sell at $75 on www.evolutioncontrollers.com. Add $20 for shipping.

Dot iPhone Panorama Lens

Want to create a seamless video panorama from your phone but do not have that kind of feature in your smart device? Stick the Dot iPhone Panorama Lens to your phone’s camera. Introduced by the online store Photojojo, this little black lens captures all the action around you in a 360-degree video. Once it’s shot, you can use the free accompanying app called Looker to make the video an interactive Flash video. It creates videos which run like Google Street View, where you can zoom in and pan out to see all that has been shot. The video can also be saved as an HD wide-screen video with the same app. The lens is attached using rings that are to be stuck to the back of the phone or case. On the other side, it holds the lens with its magnetic ring. The lens and the app have been created for iPhone 4/4S.

Money matters: $79 on Photojojo.com. Every order comes with a free mini dinosaur to show Photojojo’s commitment to and obsession with both photography and dinosaurs. Shipping charges extra.

JuiceTank case

Start-up company Detached (www.getdetached.com) is launching a case for your smartphone which comes with a lightweight plug built-in so that you can simply use it as a wall charger. Once your phone’s finished charging, the plug can be folded completely flat so that nothing sticks out. No fuss, no cords and no need to carry an extra battery or that charger. The case is made of polycarbonate, used in bullet-proof glass, so your phone is cushioned against drops. The charger supports 110v and 240v. The case, announced for the iPhone 4/4S, will be available from August if you pre-book now.

Money matters: $55 if you pre-order now through the campaign that Detached is running on Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com), plus shipping. From August, the case will be available for $70 on their website (www.getdetached.com). Shipping charges extra.

Wilson Sleek

Is your conversation on a phone forever sliced into bits and parts? Dress up your mobile phone in this Wilson cradle to convert it into a signal-catching superhero. This data and phone signal amplifier cradle acts like an antenna to boost your calls, reduce the number of dropped calls, increase data rates in weak signal areas and originate calls in “dead spots”. It amplifies signals both to and from the cell tower, making your cellphone 20 times more “catchable”. Just keeping the cradle around your phone will increase its signal strength since it’s an antenna. The cradle is adjustable to any phone size. However, do some groundwork before you buy this product. Sleek 2G/3G only works between 824-894 MHz and 1,850-1,990 MHz. If your wireless service provider matches this frequency (in India most GSM service providers work in the frequency bands of 900MHz and 1800MHz, while CDMA works in the 800MHz band), only then will this product work with your phone.

Money matters: $87.98 from Amazon.com. Shipping charges extra.

*The products can only be ordered online; they are not available in stores.

Cross posted from HT Mint

I have a wee bit of masochism when it comes to writing. Writing doesn’t come naturally (like talking does) to me. It’s needs to be done in a secluded environment and I mostly hate not being around people. It makes me think, makes me sweat, it makes me run around without any results. It pays badly. Still, I love to do it. I love to write for the simple fact that it’s mostly one of the hardest thing for me to do. It’s the most challenging, the most painful thing I will ever do.

I cannot explain to you dear readers, the excitement and the fears that a blank word document page fills in me. Every time I see a blank page, my heartbeat starts drumming into a frenzy. Will I be able to fill it today? With something that might make sense to someone else? Or will I just be staring at the empty white space?

Why I am struck with these questions is because I have begun on my new book, a fantasy book I was too scared to write two years ago (which is why I wrote Mystery of the Iyer Bungalow first). Now I am finally penning this book down. The story that’s coming alive is not really mine. It’s hers. My heroine’s out and out. What will happen now? I ask myself as I read and re-read things I have already written. I don’t know. I don’t know so many things about her and the book I am writing. I am not in control, it’s painful, but still I prod on. Something impels me to write and continue to write, even though my back aches, my head aches and my emotions are in rollercoaster all the time.

In this writing, I am a medium who is telling a story, almost a shaman who connects you to the ghost. Is the heroine of this book in my head or is she from an alternate world from where, for some reason, she wants to tell her story? Am I completely making her up? Am I lying to you when I tell you that she speaks to me? She’s a person, from an alternate universe. I am a curious bystander. I dread to know what will happen to her in this. She lives in a much more scarier world than I do. She’s more exciting than I can ever be. I am comfortably sitting in my room, typing away to glory. She on the other hand, thrives on action, on the hunt. I am secretly in love with her (don’t tell her that please).

She’s an itch in my head which refuses to go away. Writing about her is not only painful, it’s also some kind of treatment. It’s an obsession. I talk about her with my family with friends. I tell them how she’s feeling today. I don’t know why I am writing about her. Why her? Why her world? Why did I choose all this to begin with? I wonder what a psychiatrist will call my obsession about writing, even though it pains me. I bet modern psychologists have a name for every obsession human beings feel. The only ones normal according to them are the ones who don’t live, don’t have a crazy passion, haven’t fallen in love and haven’t squandered money away. Also, haven’t lived to regret their choices in life. What a sorry state to be in.

So yes dear readers, I can tell you that I am a masochist. My only fear right now is that the world will end (isn’t it supposed to in Dec 2012?) and I wouldn’t have finished this story about her.

Forget just reading—now you can experience books with soundtrack, videos, animation and games

After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica announced earlier this month that it would stop publishing its 32-volume print edition. Forever. A month ago, in February, a digitally enhanced version of the Game of Thrones, the first book in the much-touted fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, was released as an eBook for iPad. The “book” is much more than a reading experience. It comes with a pop-up column of a glossary of characters and a dynamic map which tells you where all the series’ characters are at any point in the book. To add to the fun, there are clips from the audio book. To call it a book is like asking Marvin, the paranoid android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to get you a cup of coffee.

The book has evolved into a multimedia, multi-touch, customizable offering with the advent of touch-screen devices, especially the launch of the iPad. This evolved version can talk back to you, entertain you with additional videos and references and help you explore itself in non-linear ways. For want of a better phrase, the industry is calling these “enhanced eBooks”.

“Enhanced eBooks are not eBooks, or digital versions of books,” explains Sriram Panchanathan, 41, the Bangalore-based senior vice-president of Digital Solutions, part of the US-based Aptara Inc. “They are something else altogether. They have additional features to an eBook that complement or add to the reading experience.” Aptara works with some of the biggest publishers worldwide, like John Wiley & Sons, Pearson and Random House, and digital publishers like Inkling (www.inkling.com) to create digitally enhanced eBooks of their content. Their most recent titles include The Professional Chef, The Culinary Institute of America for John Wiley & Sons and Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, a self-published title.

According to Panchanathan, you can completely change the experience of reading a book on a touch-screen gadget with extra elements like audio, video, multimedia, scripted animation, a dictionary, or an interactive interface. “A year ago, publishers started with enhancing children’s and educational books with graphics, animations and audio and video but now we see a demand from them to convert non-fiction categories like cookbooks, books on gardening and even biographies,” he says. Take the example of the forthcoming enhanced title from Penguin of Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable. It’s a biography of the legendary black activist, features rare archival video footage of his life and photos, and has an interactive map of Harlem, Manhattan, to better visualise where he came from.

What’s helped obviously is that publishers now have the tools to embed multimedia in a digital book in a fast and cost-effective way. Epub 3, the latest update to the open eBook format .epub, and its counterpart, Amazon’s Kindle Format 8, were both released in October. While the .epub version 3 works for almost all touch-screen eReaders, including Android-based tablets and the Nook, Cobo and Sony tablets, Kindle Format 8 works only for Kindle Fire devices. Both formats use HTML 5, which can be used to embed multimedia elements directly into the eBook file, making it look much like a website. “This reduces the cost and size of an eBook and gives creators, the ability to experiment with styling, animation and scripting,” says Panchanathan.

Earlier this year, Apple added to the frenzy by launching iPad-enabled versions with iBooks 2.0 and a free application for Mac, the iBooks Author (for Mac users with OS X Lion only). The latter can be downloaded for free and makes the task of converting a textbook into a colourful, interactive, multimedia entity a breeze. The end result is something you can swipe to annotate, highlight, listen to embedded audios and videos, see slide shows, tap words for definition, pinch and zoom and generally do all the things that you do while playing a game on the iPad.

The software is so easy that an individual author can do it all himself. This is why Ashok K. Banker, 48, an Indian author who has self-published for Kindle, is already planning to create a non-fiction series on mythology for iBooks 2.0. “I want to reformat the research I have done in the past and create informative, interactive books for the iPad which will help in increasing sales of my titles,” he says. Banker chose to become the publisher for his eBooks last year and launched his own imprint AKB eBooks (www.akbebooks.com) to put up digital formats of his books on Kindle. “The tool for making enhanced eBooks by Mac is hugely empowering. I don’t need a designer or a publisher. I don’t need to spend a lot. All I need is my time, which I am willing to give,” says Banker.

The Indian eBook market, however, remains woefully sparse when it comes to publishers thinking of enhanced eBooks, though there are many successful companies in India working on technologically enabling eBooks for publishers worldwide. “There is a lot of interest by publishers to embrace new technologies in India, but not many have jumped into it yet,” says Prashanth H.M., 42, head, corporate strategy, Excel Soft Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Mysore, which has developed a platform called Saras to create touch-screen eBooks specifically for e-learning. “The economics of creating enhanced eBooks might be too high to experiment with, considering the market for them is still nascent.”

Enhancement of a single eBook, if the publisher takes the service from firms like Excel or Aptara, can cost anywhere between $500-5,000 (around Rs 25,450-2.54 lakh) or $1-10 per page depending on the bells and whistles they want to add. Then there’s the size factor. A regular eBook in ePub or Kindle format is around 1-2 MB in size but an enhanced eBook is as big as 100-200 MB in size, which means it can become a download nightmare in India where Internet speeds are still woefully slow. It also limits the number of books one can carry in one’s device.

Banker says: “There is a fear in Indian publishers about the loss of control that the digital age represents. Online publishing directly empowers me as an author to put my creation online and you as a reader to buy it.” But he concedes that publishers are willing to learn, by force or by acceptance, since the market is already changing.

“Since the pace of innovation is so fast, it’s hard to predict what the future will be with these eBooks. I feel the very boundaries of what we think of as a book will get tested,” says Panchanathan.

Boosted books

While publishers ponder which way the wind will blow, have a look at the experimental enhanced eBooks out there

Enhanced a game of thrones

This fantasy book series by George R.R. Martin was made into a successful TV series last year. Now it comes back as an enhanced eBook version, launched by HarperCollins earlier this year.

Buy: £4.99 (around Rs 400) on iTunes store, $8.54 (around Rs 430) on Amazon.com

Chopsticks

Created by Penguin, Chopsticks is an eBook app about the personal story of a young piano prodigy. It’s called an eBook only because there’s no other word that can express a novel made up of all these elements—scraps of dialogue conveyed through handwritten notes and IM messages, illustrations, drawings, photographs, songs and videos. It captures the love story in a mix of YouTube videos, instant messages, letters and family photos. The story, created by author Jessica Anthony and graphic designer Rodrigo Corral, was released for the iPad and iPhone in February.

Buy: $9.99 on iTunes store

S. Holmes by byook

A list of books cannot be complete without a Sherlock Holmes story. This abridged version, created by Byook and released in February last year, comes enhanced with soundtracks and marginal illustrations. The soundtracks are not made of background music, but background noises (including blood-curdling screams while you are reading) which help you immerse yourself in the story and sometimes make you jump out of your skin. When there’s a murder, blood will spread out on your pages. When there’s rain, droplets will fall on your page. The text appears handwritten on a journal with ink spots. The sepia tones and the newspaper-cut illustrations add to the retro feel.

Buy: $1.99 on iTunes store

Skulls by Simon Winchester

Developed by TouchPress and released in December, ‘Skulls’ is an interesting story about Alan Dudley, a skull collector who was arrested for his hobby. But what makes this one unique is richly illustrated, stunning visuals. The photo gallery of the book contains pictures of more than 300 human and animal skulls. The pictures of skulls can be enlarged and rotated 360 degrees while studying. You can also put on 3D glasses and view the images in 3D. The skulls can also be searched by their family, class, group and behaviour, making this a good reference book.

Buy: $13.99 on iTunes store

Cross posted from HT Mint website.

My memory. It was stolen. Just a few seconds ago. Just when I opened a new window to write this blog. I wanted to tell you about this author, a popular guy, a Nobel prize winner, whose work I have never read. His few written words inspired me, ignited me, made me smile, helped me move. This was all yesterday. I don’t remember his name now. My memory just went out, like lights going off in Indian summer heat.

These are a few residual sparks that I gather, urgently, before those also plunge into the no-memory black hole. I wanted to tell you all about it. 

• When I write, I should write for one, not for all. For you.
• When I write, I should not go back to edit, because that’s just laziness.
• When I write, I should not depend on my logic but delve into my heart and my unconsicous. I should ponder on things that float there.
• When I write, I should try to tell the story as honestly as I can.
• When I write, I should not stop to worry.
• When I write, I should not remember all this.

Just write.

This is all that’s left of him in my heart. I don’t know his name now. I don’t even know what he actually said. All I remember is that he said something, something that hung onto my body like passive smoking. Something that I don’t want to remove with a shower.

I miss my memory about him. All the missing facts and links I could have told you about. But does any of that matter? Does my memory matter when I die? Does it float around in the universe, dropping by various other humans, telling them about this author? Do you hear his name?

Your cellphone might have a convenient service for medical help, but how reliable is it?

Acouple’s sleep is disturbed in the middle of the night. Their nine-month-old child is crying in pain, and has fever. The couple try to call their family doctor but can’t get through. The mother suggests calling a health helpline on their mobile service provider. Within minutes, they are connected to a doctor who asks for the symptoms and then offers a prescription.

At the press of a button: It is a quick way to connect to a health professional for minor ailments at a nominal cost.

So goes the advertisement for Mediphone, a tele-triage (medical advice over the phone) service for Airtel subscribers that started its call-a-doctor facility across India in January. On similar lines, Spice has launchedJeeyo Healthy, a service that offers its customers doctors-on-call with health-related information and advice on their handsets. Companies such as Aircel and Tata Docomo are also offering tele-triage services.

Meant for minor problems like back, neck and stomach aches, cold and fever, tele-triage is a quick way to connect to a health professional at a nominal cost. Mediphone charges Airtel customers across the country Rs. 35 per call for consultation, a mere fraction of what it would cost to visit a doctor (which could range from Rs. 200-500).

“This is one of the reasons for its popularity,” says Nitin Verma, 43, vice-president, Healthfore, a division of Religare Technologies which runs Mediphone. Dr Verma has 25 doctors in his team. He explains that Mediphone is actually a call centre designed to answer questions related to medical problems. When you call the service, you get to speak to a medical officer or a nurse. The person ascertains whether it’s an emergency, in which case they connect you to an ambulance service. But if they feel it is a minor problem that can be resolved on the phone, they connect the caller to a doctor or resolve it themselves.

The idea of diagnose-on-call doesn’t go down well with everyone from the medical fraternity. “A doctor should never prescribe a drug without seeing a patient,” says G.K. Ramachandrappa, national president, Indian Medical Association. “If someone says I have a fever, it could be anything from typhoid to malaria or a simple virus. A basic drug like a paracetamol may harm the patient in the long run.” According to Dr Ramachandrappa, a visit to the family doctor is best. “Either that or go to the emergency ward of a hospital near you, or call up 108 for a free ambulance,” he says.

Nandu Madhava, 35, CEO of mDhil.com, an online and mobile phone portal on health education, agrees with Dr Ramachandrappa. Madhava tried tele-triage as a business model but quit after a while. “Calling and talking to a doctor just doesn’t work. Four out of five of those calls always ended with advice to call an ambulance or go see a doctor. The risk of misdiagnosis is far too high on the phone.” That pain in the groin could be anything from a pulled muscle to hernia or cancer, says Madhava, adding that this was the reason mDhil.com decided to focus on health-informative videos.

Dr Verma accepts the possibility of a wrong diagnosis, but points out that the service has been running in countries like the Netherlands and Australia for 25 years and has proved quite useful for patients.

Bangalore-based start-up Healthcare Magic too discontinued tele-triage services to some telecom companies earlier this year, after nearly a year of trying to make them work. “The revenue model wasn’t working for the doctors in our network,” explains Kunal Sinha, 34, CEO, Healthcare Magic, who believes doctors can earn much more as consultants. However, he is hopeful of tele-triage as a model. “It has great potential. We need a better revenue model between the doctors and telecom operators.”

Healthcare Magic has tied up with 40 companies around the country and provides on-call doctor services to their employees. “It’s a new model and we own 100% of the revenues and pay higher to the doctors,” Sinha says.

We look at some tele-triage and health information services offered by mobile phone operators and websites.

• Aircel Apollo Mobile Healthcare

This tele-triage service, begun in October 2010, connects to an Apollo health officer, at the very least a qualified nurse. She listens to the symptoms, consults the doctor and prescribes over-the-counter medication. A free consultation follows within three days. Since the tie-up is with Apollo Healthcare, the officer can connect you to an Apollo hospital ambulance, get medicines home-delivered from its pharmacies where possible and fix appointments at their hospitals and clinics. The 24×7 service offers advice for a limited list of ailments, like abdominal, back, knee and chest pain, cough and cold, or diarrhoea.

Languages supported: English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati and Marathi

Areas it works in: Pan-India

Cost: Rs. 2/minute

Call: 55106 (only for Aircel customers)

• mDhil.com

Optimized for all mobile phones, mDhil.com is a free-to-use online health community. Once it loads, you can read articles and see images and 2-minute videos on all types of health issues, especially those not spoken about openly in Indian families: sexual, psychological and reproductive health. The fun videos on condoms, birth control pills and AIDS education are aimed especially at educating youngsters and garner 5,000 views every day—about 40% of them on cellphones. The website is in the process of launching a dedicated video channel for mobile service providers on 3G networks on a pay-per-view and monthly-subscription basis.

Language: English, interspersed with words from other Indian languages

Areas it works in: Pan-India

Cost: Free

See: m.mDhil.com (works on all mobiles)

• Sparsh by Tata Docomo

Introduced in January 2011, this is a health awareness listen-in audio service with a special focus on sexual and reproductive health education. It’s useful because of the privacy and comfort it offers callers. Once you call in, you get a list of categories (AIDS, contraception, physical abuse, STDs, etc.) from which you can navigate to a sub-menu with related content capsules.

Languages supported: English, Hindi, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam

Areas it works in: Pan-India

Cost: Rs. 10 for 10 days and Rs. 30 for 30 days. Browsing charges are 1 paise/second

Call: 529222 or dial *567*7# (only for Tata Docomo customers)

• Mediphone by Airtel

Call on this tele-triage service, and an automated option takes your consent for charging Rs. 35. In the case of pre-paid callers, it first checks whether there’s enough balance to pay. You are then connected to a health officer, a nurse. If it’s an emergency, she connects you to a local hospital’s ambulance service. If it’s not, she notes details of the ailment before connecting you to a doctor who recommends over-the- counter drugs through an email/SMS prescription. The prescription includes the doctor’s name and his MCI (Medical Council of India) registration number.

Languages supported: English, Hindi, Punjabi; Kannada will be introduced in April

Areas it works in: Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Hima- chal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and the National Capital Region

Cost: Rs. 35 for medical advice and 50 paise/call for call connect

Call: 54445 (only for Airtel customers)

Crossposted from LiveMint website

Technology is changing the way people get in shape. Here is a round-up of fitness gadgets that can help you look good

Actor Hrithik Roshan apparently has two expat personal trainers to help him shape his already fab body for Krrish 3. It is rumoured that Aamir Khan has also hired an expat trainer to beef up for Dhoom 3. It is a good idea to hire personal trainers because not only do they encourage and push you, but also figure out a fitness routine especially made for your body. But not all of us can afford to pay hourly fees of Rs. 500-Rs.2,000 for consultation. If you fall in this category, fret not; you can buy new-age fitness gadgets and technology that can play the part of your very own personal trainer. Be it running, swimming, walking, dancing or gymming—these devices track your steps and heart rate and give a detailed analysis of your daily workout. The right gadget depends on the type of exercises you do, so we found the best in each category.

Walking

Striiv

A pedometer/keychain that acts like a cheerful trainer, encouraging you to walk more daily through various games. It counts every step you take and every stair you climb and gives a daily/weekly chart of calories burned and distance covered on its 2-inch high-resolution touch-screen display. It also gives you goals whereby you can make a social contribution: Take 60,000 steps and Striiv will donate a dose of polio to a child in India; take 18,000 steps and it will conserve one parking-spot size rainforest in Tanzania or provide one day of water for one child in Bolivia. The more you walk, the more you give. Then there’s ‘Myland’, a game in which you build huts and plant trees in various territories—growth and moving up new levels are based on walking, running, and taking the stairs. A new feature lets it make personalized challenges geared for you after it adapts to your progress and performance. You can even use the device to challenge a friend and outdo them by real-time walking. All this, by simply keeping Striiv anywhere on your body—in your pocket, purse or attached to your belt.

Wallet dent: $99, on www.amazon.com

Cycling

iBike POWERHOUSE

All you need to do with this device is select a goal-based plan. The gadget offers options like iSlim, ExpressFIT, Brazilian Butt, KidFit, Weekend Warrior. All are available through the official app which can be downloaded in App Store. While iSlim is free, the other options cost $9.99 each. Once your plan is selected, the iBike POWERHOUSE uses power management and analysis technology to guide you through 45-90 minute bike rides over four-six weeks. The plan tracks your real-time performance and automatically updates your workout plans. It encourages you to pedal at the right levels for better performance. You can even take calls or listen to music while cycling though that is not really recommended. The only drawback is that it works only with iPhone and iPod Touch.

Wallet dent: $269, for the device, the Powerhouse app and the iSlim plan. Extra plans cost $9.99 each and are purchased through the app. Order onwww.ibikesports.com

All in one

Basis B1 band

Launched in January

If you thrive on numbers and stats, then pick up this wrist band. The gadget won the Best of Innovations Design award as well as the Engineering Award Honor by The Consumer Electronics Association at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, US, earlier this year and is available on pre-order from Mybasis.com. The Basis looks like a wristwatch and is the neatest health tracker. You must wear it at all times, and it tracks quite a lot of fitness stats: It has a 3D accelerometer to track activity (walking, running and strolling), then there are extra sensors to monitor your temperature, galvanic skin response, heart rate and through that, the number of calories you burn. In addition to all this, Basis also monitors the quality of your sleep—how long you slept, how often you woke up and how often you turned on your side. The gadget then crafts all these little pieces of information into a comprehensive picture of your health. The Basis syncs via USB to the website where you can get an online update of your overall activity and health. You can even share the charts with your friends online.

Wallet dent: Expected to be $199 (or around Rs. 9,751), on Mybasis.com

Running

Adidas miCoach Speed Cell

Launched in January

Take your running to the next level with this 10g clip-on battery-powered data collector. The miCoach Speed Cell gets attached to your shoe—as a perfect fit if you buy a pair of compatible Adidas trainers or a clip-on for standard running shoes. Once activated, it records up to eight hours of data about your running speed, acceleration, distance travelled and pace. This data can be downloaded with its built-in wireless network to a PC, Mac or Android/iPhone through the free miCoach app. You can prepare a digital diary of your workout and view, analyse or share results with other miCoach users. You will figure out not only the basic “how far” and “how fast” but also the moment by moment speed as well as the approximate calories burnt.

Wallet dent: $70, on www.shopadidas.com

Swimming

Finis Swimsense Performance Monitor

Launched in January

If laps are your calling, wear this watch-like device and dive in. This nifty little gadget will measure the distance you swim, the number of laps and your pace. The device is smart enough to tell the differences between four types of major strokes and record your swimming by the stroke, detailing the amount you swam for one type of a stroke, the rate and the number of calories burned. Post your session, analyse your progress and understand your activity preference by syncing the device with a PC or Mac using the included docking station and USB connection. The data is sent to the Swimsense Training Log website (swimsense.finisinc.com), which then sends you a detailed report.

Wallet dent: $199.99, on www.finisnc.com

Floor and studio exercises

Ubisoft Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012

Launched in November

The launch of Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect in 2010 led to a slew of movement-based games claiming to make you fitter. But Ubisoft’s three-month- old video game ‘Your Shape Fitness Evolved’ is different. It gives you over 90 hours of activities, including full boot camp, cardio boxing, jumprope, yoga, and also teaches you dance routines like latin, hip hop, Bollywood, etc. But that’s something you will find in many fitness games out there. What it additionally does is use Kinect’s state-of-the-art motion tracking to monitor your body and detail your body stats. It also uses projection technology to track your limbs and give you active feedback on your workouts as you are doing them. And it’s more accurate than your yoga instructor. Moreover, you can state your fitness goals and customize your workout and define days in a month and it will remind you whether it’s cardio day or yoga day.

Wallet dent: $44.99, on www.amazon.com, and if you don’t already have it, an Xbox 360 and Kinect for Rs. 22,990, on www.flipkart.com

Crossposted from Mint website.

Shruti and Smriti are two wise sisters. Smriti or Memory comes to you while you are reading things. You remember her wise lines long after she’s gone. Shruti or Listening comes to you anytime, on the road, in a movie, while you travel. She tells you secret things brought from the Wells of the Wise. After you hear them, she smiles and sprinkles the dust of Forgetfulness. So all you remember is that you heard something somewhere which changed something in you. The tale I try to tell you here, is of the latter kind. It was told to me while I was sitting somewhere, with hypnotic drums playing in the backdrop. It was told to me by a stranger. I don’t know if it’s true. I don’t know if this is how it was told to me. But something of it (which I try to retell) stayed with me. Don’t miss the videos in the end of this blogpost.

Sort of facts:

It is a festive night as people start to gather in front of a small temple in Kannur, Kerala. The drums are beating fast and slow. The occasion is a ritualistic dance of Theyyam, or bhuta-in-human form, which comes to the coastal Malabar area of Kerala every year from January to April. There are more than 500 bhutas in the district, all can solve (or bring) a particular type of a problem, disease, dosha. These bhutas have been there since a long, long time. They are mentioned in the Mahabharata. They have lived in these places since times immemorial, since people had problems. We are waiting for the bhuta-of-the-night, Hem Vayanattu, to come and retell his story, like he does every year.

I sit in a makeshift greenroom outside the temple. This is where a man who is about 40 years of age is dressing up in elaborate costumes. He has bright vermillion lips and dramatic eyes drawn with black charcoal. His whole body is green with bright white light-like dots on his slightly protruding stomach. He’s a mere man right now, being dressed up by his father (who is 60ish) and his son (who is in his 20s). In a few moments from now, he will become a host to the Bhuta. When he’s ready, he will become a vehicle for Hem Wayanada. He will become a source through which the spirit can retell its story, reenter the world of the living and talk to the people. He knows it will happen and so readies himself. There’s excitement in the camp. There’s also nervousness. Mere men are never comfortable when a spirit from another world is about to enter their world. He wears the heavy headgear and swathes of colourful clothes in the sweaty balmy night. He’s in the theyyam-becoming business so knows that this is his moment—when he becomes god-like, from the mere man he is. He’s sweating and looks tense. He takes a sip from something that looks like toddy. I am assured it’s a kind of ginger tea.

		Theyyam at Kannur, Kerala VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The story retold:

An hour later, Hem Vayanattu comes. He hunches and sits down next to me. He spits. I turn to him and try to take a photo. He shakes his head. Listen, he whispers. His breath smells of toddy and his eyes glitter dangerously. I become a little wary. I have to be, being a female in today’s time. I smile hesitantly. He grins and begins.

A long, long time ago Hem used to be a mere man. He doesn’t remember when. All he remembers was that he lived in a village next to the Forbidden Forest, where no humans were allowed. Rumour was that the Forbidden Forests was the abode of Lord Shiva himself, who came there in the nights and made merry with his ganas, his hordes of bhuta and preta. Anyone who would go there would die. He never ventured close to the forest.

Then one day a sweet breeze from the Forbidden Forest ruffled his hair. A flame hit his heart. He became restless and angry and frustrated. He would catch himself walking to the end of the village everyday where the Forbidden Forest stood. He stood there for hours at the Edge, trying to peer inside the forests, to see what it was that made it forbidden. One night, as his family slept (did he tell you he had a family? A wife and two children) he stood up and left. He took a deep breath, and entered the Forbidden Forest. There was no trail to show him the way, since no one had entered the forests before. No human that is. He walked on. The forest thrummed with a rhythm. It grew dense and dark. So dark that even black kajal would shine like a lamp in there. He was scared, his heart thumped up and down rhythmically like a drumbeat from his stomach to the middle of his neck. The hair on his back and arms stood on attention, as if they were trying to guard him from evils around him. He knew that he was in danger. In those times, real tigers and poisonous snakes and other things roamed the forests. They weren’t afraid of people. They ruled the forests.  He walked and walked. He doesn’t really remember why.

Then he suddenly came across a clearing. Moonlight blinded his eyes as they became used to the light. He saw Lord Shiva dancing with his ganas. Bhutas, pretas, deformed creatures of the night were laughing, screeching, drinking and merry-making. But he wasn’t afraid. Lord Shiva turned to him, his eyes glittering. “Do you want to join us, Hem?” he asked kindly. Hem nodded, mesmerized. What else could he have said? So he became a Gana, a creature of the night. For a thousand years, he danced, drank and made merry. It was a happy time.

Then Lord Shiva left without saying a good-bye. The Ganas were devastated. Every night, they started to keep 108 pots of fresh toddy in earthen ware to call Lord Shiva back to the Forbidden Forests.

“Do anything but don’t drink from those pots, Hem,” warned a Gana as he was about to reach the pot, “They are a prasad for Lord Shiva.”

One thousand another years passed. Lord Shiva didn’t come. Every day, the ganas would keep those 108 pots of toddy reserved for him. Every night he wouldn’t come and the toddy would go waste. Meanwhile, the forest begin to change. It leaves turned yellow and brown spots appeared on its feet. It begun to die, being rhythmically cut by humans whose population was growing stronger. All the Ganas, except Hem, one by one left the Forests to go deeper into the lands of the Earth. But Hem didn’t leave. He sat in the clearing alone, under the moonlight, looking at the toddy that was going waste every night. He was so thirsty. He wanted a sip.

One night, as he sat alone in the forest, waiting for Lord Shiva, he felt so thirsty that he couldn’t resist. He wanted a drink, so he went and picked up a pot of toddy meant for Lord Shiva. Then he drank. He drank and drank till his sweat became stinky. He drank till his eyes dilated and he fell on the ground. He drank till his bloodstream and piss was full of toddy. That night, Lord Shiva came to the Forbidden Forest. He saw the empty pots and a dead-drunk Hem. He got angry and with a flash of thunder, tore out Hem’s eyes. For he had sinned and taken the toddy that belonged to Lord Shiva.

Blind and bleeding, Hem roared through the Forbidden Forest. He fell and tripped on branches. He was bitten by many insects. He couldn’t see. He was angry! What kind of a Lord is so wrathful that he cannot share a mere drink with his servants? As his anger softened, he felt remorse. He realised that he had done wrong. He prayed to Lord Shiva for forgiveness. He was after all a man, a spirit, not a god. He was prone to mistakes. A thousand years more he prayed and Lord Shiva came. He smiled and said:

“Hem Vayanattu (for that was the name of the Forbidden Forest), I will give you divine sight so you can see. Stay here and see what is Real. See into other men’s hearts and tell them what they want to know. Show them their deepest desires and fears and guide them.”

So Lord Shiva left and Hem Vayanattu was left behind to handhold the people living beyond the Forbidden Forests.

Hem lights up a beedi and smiles with his crooked teeth, “I am not a man or a god. I am just someone who has to do Lord Shiva’s work. I am just someone who crossed a line, twice and lived to tell the tale. And now I come here to guide my people. What do I know about choosing the right path? I just like to come here and drink toddy that is offered to me.”

His eyes are sharp. They hit my heart like daggers. His powdery lips bend like a bow into a frozen smile. He gets up, rubs off the dust and hollers. The audience shivers as the drums start to beat faster and faster. He dances and dances as the night falls darker and darker.

————————————————-

I am willing to bet that I have got this story wrong somehow, but then, I am a storyteller and forget and make up with other things. If Hem Vayanattu Kulavan Theyyam (or someone who knows his story) has a different tale to tell, I would love to listen.

Message across the e-ocean

The nerdiest romantic proposals of all time—any geeks out there who can top these this Valentine’s, do write in

In April, Aayush Jain, 27, an engineer, proposed to Ambika Bumb while dancing in a flash mob to Bhangra tunes at Pier 39, San Francisco, US. Called the “Bollywood-Bhangra Flash Mob Proposal”, the video of his proposal on YouTube had garnered 161,352 hits by Tuesday and has made the couple online stars. A delighted Bumb was surprised by the effort her boyfriend had put into the proposal. “He even involved my brother, sister and friends through a secret Facebook group, which made the whole thing 10 times better,” she said. What surprised the couple was the buzz it created online.

For a generation which lives on the Internet and BBMs on mobile phones, proposals with sunsets in the backdrop are passé. Take the example of Greg Rewis, who was the first one to tweet a marriage proposal to Stephanie Sullivan, in March 2008. All he did was put in four words, “Will you marry me”, as part of a conversation he was already having with Sullivan.. Her reply: “…I’d be happy to spend the rest of my geek life with you…”. Home-made videos, lolcats, iPhone apps, virtual reality games, Google Maps or Foursquare—people are finding tech tweaks to make their proposals stand out. Here are a few of our favourites.

Stream it live

What’s a happy event if none of your family members are there with you? Matt Van Horn, who works for a tech start-up called Path, appreciated the value of family and friends. So in August 2010 he used Qik, a live-streaming mobile service, to propose to his girlfriend, Lauren. He arranged for a friend to take his girlfriend to the top of a hill in San Francisco where he was hiding behind a rock. Yet another friend used his iPhone to live-stream the proposal through Qik. “It took me a week’s planning to do this. I added last-minute touches on the day of the proposal,” said Van Horn via email. Family and friends had been alerted half an hour earlier to keep a lookout on his Qik channel. As soon as he saw Lauren, he checked into the spot via Foursquare, which auto-updated his Qik, Twitter and Facebook accounts. “I knew Lauren received my tweets via text message on her phone,” he wrote on his blog, “so I asked her to turn around as I proposed!” Meanwhile, his girlfriend, who didn’t even know her boyfriend was in town, was delighted and surprised when she saw him pop up from behind the rock with a smaller but very important rock in his palm. They are now happily married. “I am extremely happy with the way it turned out. I love doing things for my wife, so there will be plenty more surprises for her in future,” he said in an email interview.

See it online

iDo

In 2009, Bryan Haggerty, 30, a San Francisco-based designer for Twitter, created an app to propose to his partner Jeannie Choe on her iPhone. “I design mobile apps for a living so I decided to take this way,” said Haggerty in an email interview. “I finally designed the app as a mobile Web app so that she would receive a text message from me with the link to launch it.” The app, called Romantech, displayed a map containing location points throughout San Francisco. Each point had a video in which Haggerty gave clues on where to go next. Eventually the two met at a point where all the location dots on the map connected to form the shape of a heart (<3) symbol which had a lot of sentimental value for the techie couple. “The app was one time only use, tailored specifically to one person,” Haggerty explained over email. For romantics, Choe said yes. The couple is now happily married, with a four-month-old daughter, Euna.

See it online

A new kind of bottle

A staunch believer in the idea of a message in a bottle, KC’s boyfriend John, a Web developer, created an online website to propose to KC in July 2006. The website (www.willyoumarrymekc.com) had an online quiz to check if the person who replied was the real KC. It took KC until June 2009 to reply and say “yes”. Why?

Because she had no idea the website existed. “I wanted to test out whether fate would bring my message to my girlfriend,” said John in an email interview, adding that the website was “a message in a bottle that I tossed into the vast ocean of the Internet”. From start to finish, the whole website, including the design, content and fine-tuning the questionnaire so that only KC could pass it, took two months. In those three years, he got 4,611 responses to his eProsal (as he chose to call it); of them, 1,851 took the quiz meant for KC (and failed). KC received an email in June 2009 which looked more like spam than real. Still, she decided to check it out and got the shock of her life. “Now I want to make a domain for willyoudivorcemekc.com but I don’t think my wife finds the joke funny,” John said over email.

See it online

Standing on the street

In 2008, Google employee Michael Weiss-Malik got an unusual chance to propose to his fiancée Leslie Moreno a second time after a rather humdrum proposal (though she said yes to that one too). “I did what any Silicon Valley geek would do: I decided to upgrade to “Proposal 2.0, a new improved online version,” he writes on his blog. When his company announced that the Google Street View vehicle would be outside his office at Mountain View, US, to record, he knew this was his chance. The Street View extension to Google Maps lets a viewer explore a place through 360-degree street-level imagery. As Googlers lined up along the street to appear in the Street View worldwide, Weiss-Malik was there holding a banner which said: “Proposal 2.0: Marry me Leslie”. The banner was recorded and can still be viewed on Google Maps if you see a Street View of the Mountain View Google office. “It was a fun random thing that’s part of the history of our relationship,” he said. If he had a chance to propose to her differently, he would go non-tech and “buy her a puppy”, he said in an email interview.

See it online

Light writing on the walls

In December 2009, Derick Childress sparkled his love for Emily on the buildings of Raleigh, North Carolina, US, with a light graffiti video of “Emily, will you marry me?” on the streets. The technique, known as Light Writing, moves a spotlight across a space while a DSLR camera is left open with a very, very slow shutter speed. The photograph that is captured shows a continuous streak of light in the final exposure. The shot in itself is not that unusual but was made so by the sheer size of the project. Childress decided to make a video of many such captures put together. To find the point where he could place his camera as well as write with his spotlight, he used Google Earth and approximated the view from high-rise buildings in his city. “Since none of the letters could fall on areas that were inaccessible by foot, the requirements for the vantage point were very specific,” he wrote on his blog.

It took him some days to find the right spot, a hotel which had a top-floor restaurant open to the public. Then he booked a room in the hotel, called up some friends and connected his camera to his MacBook Pro. Along with his friends, he went to the streets to mark spots where the spotlight should be moved so that the words could be captured by the camera. It took them three days in freezing rain to get the short video. He then took Emily out for a movie, took out his MacBookPro and showed her the video. “When the words ‘Emily, will you marry me?’ came up at the end, I was down on one knee with the ring in hand,” he said in an email.

See it online

Pointing with a map

Ari Gilder, a software engineer with Google, decided to set the myth that “women can’t read maps” to rest with his marriage proposal. In February 2011, he created a romantic scavenger hunt for his girl using the Google Maps mobile app. He constructed a personal route on the Google Maps using its MyMaps service. The map touched some destinations in New York City where they had shared experiences. “On the road to ‘The Big Question’, I wanted Faigy to visit places around New York City that were filled with memories of our relationship,” he writes on the official Googleblog where his story was carried first. Then he coordinated with Faigy’s manager to give her a Nexus One which came preloaded with a custom-made app he had built. The app would let her check in to each location and then prompt her for a password for the next location.

He had a friend stationed at each of the six locations marked on the map to give her a rose, take her picture and then give her a question. The answer to that question was the password. “When Faigy entered the password, the app would automatically initiate walking navigation to the next location,” he said in an email.

See it online

When you’re dealing with complex data, visualization tools can help you simplify it and, more importantly, spot key trends and gain new insights

Shweta Taneja

Sales figures, consumer behaviour and market research – the work we do often involves understanding and communicating a lot of complex information. To make good decisions, you need to be able to understand the data, and quickly. Visualization tools can simplify data, and make it easier to understand and spot key trends.

According to Deloitte’s “Tech Trends 2011: The Natural Convergence of Business and IT” report released in March, data-visualization tools were the fastest developing area in software last year.

Data in, graphic out: Visual representations of data are easier to understand.

“Data visualization compresses information quickly,” says S. Anand, 37, chief data scientist, Gramener, a Hyderabad-based data-visualization company. “For example, in a chart, a bar can give you a data set with its height, colour and thickness, so you have already compressed a table with three columns into one graph,” he explains. “A 40-page report can easily be converted into a single page of graphics.” By doing this, a large amount of data becomes easily accessible, and trends and highlights are easy to pick out, compared to a table of numbers.

“Data-visualization tools are typically designed to highlight relevant insights, rather than just present raw data as in a dashboard,” explains Stewart Langille, co-founder, Visual.ly, a new online visualization tool. Another useful aspect of viewing data as visuals is that you can highlight the information that’s really important and even get newer, completely unexpected insights into the data sets.

Like the idea? We list some of the most innovative online data-visualization tools:

Tableau Public

Website:www.tableausoftware.com/public

After you install the software, you enter the data either as a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access) or text file with tab spaces. The software reads the file to identify variables. Once you choose the relevant variables, it creates a visual chart of your data. The software automatically tries to give the right kind of chart, but you can also manually choose from options such as bar charts, histograms, scatter plots, bubble charts, pie charts, bullet graphs, maps and heat matrix, etc. Tableau charts can also be interactive, so viewers can rearrange the data to analyse it from different perspectives. The chart is saved on www.tableausoftware.com

The downside is that visualizations and data are public—anyone can download your work. To keep it private, and for added features such as more filters and representations, you could buy the Personal Edition for $999 (around Rs. 50,300), or the Professional Edition for $1,999.

Cost: Free to use, with paid editions starting at $999.

Many Eyes

Website:www-958.ibm.com

Many Eyes, launched in January 2007, is one of the first data-visualization tools, and was created by IBM Research.

You have to upload your data to the site, and can view it as a scatter plot, matrix chart, network diagram, bar chart, block histogram, bubble chart, graph, pie chart, treemap, and many other visualizations. The upload process is cumbersome, though—you can copy-paste, but only from a properly formatted text file, not a spreadsheet. It accepts a specific style of rows and column data. So even if you have a spreadsheet, you might need to edit it to make sure Many Eyes understands your data.

As with Tableau Public, whatever data you upload becomes public property, but unlike Tableau, there is no paid, private option.

Cost: Free to use

Spotfire Analytics

Website:spotfire.tibco.com

The software creates an interactive dashboard which shows your data and your company’s progress to you at a glance through 3D graphs. You can also use the dashboard to give your clients or investors a clear picture of exactly what they are investing in. All you need to do is drag and drop your Excel or CSV-formatted text files into Spotfire, and then start playing around with your data. The analysis can be shared or embedded on websites, blogs or social networks, and there is no download needed as it runs off the Web. A paid service, Spotfire keeps your data private.

Cost: Starts from $199 per month.

QlikView

Website:www.qlikview.com

QlikView is meant to find new business answers to problems through data analysis. The tool also offers comparative analysis of a product or person. QlikView also has versions for smartphones and tablets, and is well suited to use on touch screens.

Cost: QlikView Personal Edition software is free, but you can only use it to analyse data, not share your results. To share data, you need the enterprise version. Pricing varies, so contact www.qlikview.com

Visual.ly

Website:Visual.ly

A collection of infographics from various professionals in the industry, Visual.ly allows users to easily share charts and infographics. In March, the company plans to launch a free online tool to convert data into visuals—there is a small demo available on the website where you can convert your Twitter feed into an infographic about you.

The input data has to be in known data sets like Excel and CSV files. Users need to create a login for the tool, input their data and select from a choice of templates to customize.

Cost: Free. Paid packages are expected but have not yet been announced.

FusionCharts Suite

Website:www.fusioncharts.com

FusionCharts Suite is an Indian commercial visualization tool which can convert any database or Web script into Flash or HTML5 charts, gauges and maps. Creating the chart takes 15 minutes, and you can choose from over 90 types of charts. The visualization helps in analyses of data by giving trendlines, colour ranges and number scales. You can choose subsets, tips, export charts and do visual editing. Once you are ready, the chart is rendered and can be shared or embedded in a website. You can choose whether the chart is editable by others, and can use the software to create real-time charts that update automatically.

Cost: One-time purchase for commercial use starts at $1,299. For personal use, you can get a licence for $499. Also available as extensions for Flex (starting at $299), Dreamweaver (starting at $69) and VisualBasic 6 (starting at $99).

Crossposted from HT Mint

Internet is a life-savior for me. I cannot imagine not checking out my emails, blogs and videos that have refreshingly non-censored language and sometimes when I have time (and inclination), even porn. So I write to support the Black Out Day today. I write to support the action against a supposed ‘democracy’ trying to stuff of the biggest democracy in the world – the INTERNET! Stand together people, because we have to do this soon in our country as well if Kapil Sibal has his way. Here’s something to keep you smiling in grim times. I am embedding more because soon I might not be able to do it at all.

Protest against what’s happening in USA now by visiting www.internetcensorship.org and signing a petition meant to come from international users.

PS: Is that how activists happen? You are just sitting around doing your things and then something comes along that doesn’t let you do them. So you have no choice but to protest against it, no?

I have been toying with the idea of doing a blog on the phrase ‘Shame, shame Poppy shame’ something that is used quite freely around me, though no one knows where and how it originated. I heard it recently spoken by my mother, who rarely uses English words when in family, use this phrase for my 2-year-old nephew when he was happily running around in the buff. The term is usually used for 2-5 year olds and sung in a nursery rhyme format.

The complete rhyme is: Shame Shame Poppy (or Puppy) shame, all the donkey’s know your name.

I have rarely heard the latter, just the first four words. The phrase is a part of a list of ‘If you Grew up in India is the 90s’ you use this phrase.

According to  samosapedia it is “a light hearted remonstration for some, usually minor, social transgression or faux pas, a taboo flouted, a line of decency crossed…”

I am not completely sure about this definition. It’s more than light-hearted remonstration for one. The rhyme itself seems to have come from the British rule, but the Indians have associated it more with the idea of nakedness.

The phrase is happily used in Pakistan as well as shown by this blog by an American woman married to a Pakistani guy. She mentions how her in-laws say ‘Shame, shame’ everytime they see her child naked. It’s the same as Indian households.

Author Salman Rushdie uses this phrase in Shame based in Pakistan where he talks about the idea of ‘sharam’ which includes an element of society with the English word shame.  It has been interpreted as showcasing an example of an hangover of the idea of shame in post-colonial discourses.

So I have a feeling that the phrase is not as ‘light-hearted’ but rather associated with our culture’s idea of nakedness as being something shameful and which should be hidden. Of course it comes disguised in a sing-song, smiling sort of a way.

Since I am obsessed with graphs in recent weeks, I searched for the word ‘shame’ in Google Trends  which tracks the ‘average traffic of shame from India in all years’. I was surprised!

What’s so shameful about 2007 and 2011 that Indians used or searched for this word so much?? Makes one’s mind wonder. Check out the whole analysis of the word here which will also give you region wise search, etc.

Hiding deep-rooted hang-ups about sexuality and ‘sharam’ behind sing-song phrases reminds me of yet another phrase for today:

Eve teasing

The word which has become popular to casually talk about the pinching, winking, breast-staring that happens in this country, has its own Wikipedia page. Quoting the rather nicely done definition there:

“Considered a problem related to delinquency in youth,^[3] it is a form of sexual aggression that ranges in severity from sexually suggestive remarks, brushing in public places and catcalls to outright groping.^[4][5][6] Sometimes it is referred to with a coy suggestion of innocent fun, making it appear innocuous with no resulting liability on the part of the perpetrator.^[7] Many feminists and volunteer organizations have suggested that the expression be replaced by a more appropriate term. According to them, considering the semantic roots of the term in Indian English, Eve teasing refers to the temptress nature of Eve, placing responsibility on the woman as a tease.^[8][9]”

Apparently the word is very strong in Bangladesh as well if Google trends (I am obsessed!) has anything to go by.

“Eve teasing is a euphemism used in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan for public sexual harassment, street harassment or molestation of women by men.” – thedailystar.net

In India-only search, the phrase seems to have gained popularity in middle 2011 when there was a protest against the very idea.

The phrase seems to have its origins in India in the 1960s. I found a very interesting citation of 1960s on the website Double Tongued.

1960 Times (London, England) (Apr. 22) “Protection For Indian Girl Students” (in Delhi, India) p. 9: One aspect of the problem of student indiscipline which is plaguing university authorities in India has been the bullying and harassment of girl students in the few coeducational institutions—a pastime so common that it has been given the name of “Eve-teasing.”…“Eve-teasing” is not, apparently, just the oafish high spirits or ill-will of a handful of male students but is rather a symptom of the strong resentment which many students feel against women in the universities.

1963 Selig S. Harrison Washington Post, Times Herald (D.C.) (Oct. 26) “The Sad State Of India’s Youth” p. A8: Police officials have been discovering that the collegiate enthusiasts who prowl streets in Indian cities are not content to watch the girls go by. Indian newspapers have carried accounts of police roundups in Srinagar, Dehra Dun and other centers for indecent advances at bus stands and traffic intersections.…Happy headline writers have dubbed the new offense “Eve-teasing.”

The quotes above are from international media. I couldn’t find references to the same in 1960s Indian media. It had to be a journalist to coin a catchy, casual phrase. I place my bets on it being a male journalist. The phrase emerges from the authorities/media/patriarchal society talking jokingly about male students jeering at their fellow female students.

Eve and Tease are two words created by a patriarchal society which has been in the habit of leading and objectifying their women. It’s the same society which feels that the woman’s body is impure, full of things they don’t understand and so women are not allowed in temples during periods. Their bodies are objects which when covered should be venerated and when uncovered is a source of shame. 

The phrase manages to have a relaxed attitude about things like rape and at the same time squarely puts the blame for teasing/distracting serious, studious university boys on their fellow female students. It also places the blame squarely on women for having the tempting bodies and temperaments (again patriarchal perspective). The problem which Indian women are facing even today with a Karnataka minister blaming women for being raped because they wear tight jeans.  

It’s interesting to see how new words take on the same old meanings. Only more insidious.

I would like to close this with a link to one of my favourite blogs, http://blog.blanknoise.org/. Read it, if you are any gender, to understand what the other side, the non-patriarchal, the women, feel about the word.

The policeman said, don’t blame us if women get raped if they are dressed provocatively. Karnataka Women and Child Welfare Minister C C Patil said women should know how to dress or presumably face the consequences.

And here’s what the media said. I have used about 20 articles generated in the media (in English press) to see the words we use when faced with such a blatantly provocative statement from those in authority. 

Interesting. I wonder if these words alone express even an iota of the rage I feel inside me.

My toothbrush,

It travels

When no one has their eyes open

Or are listlessly staring

At the slow moving

Ceiling fan.

When all are lost

In their own private

Heavens or sometimes hells.

That is when my toothbrush

Slings its bag

On its bristly shoulder

And sneaks away

Mutedly

Into the dark lanes

Of unknown names.

It never speaks of it

Where it went

Or what it did.

It never lies too,

It just smells.

Of beds slept in by strangers

And roses dipped in honey

Sweat dripping from armpits

Or a nose that is runny.

That is how I know.

That it sometimes goes

For when we touch

And make love

When its bristles tickle my teeth

Sometimes I smell

The dampness of the beach.

© 2011, Shweta Taneja

Pic credit: @Maf1967

Muses are like opportunities. They come knocking on your door at unexpected times. Sometimes you have been waiting impatiently, looking at your cellphone screen’s right hand side corner for that precise moment to strike, tapping your fingers on the side board. At times like those, you open the door without waiting or wondering who it might be in the middle of the night.

Sometimes you go out looking for muses, your hair spread wide, like a cuckoo’s nest (BTW, has anyone wondered why cuckoos keep their nests so haphazard? Maybe it’s avant garde style yet to be recognised as such). You ask stray cats, sleepy dogs and curious ravens if they have seen any muses (or opportunities can also do, please). They all shrug, look back at you like you have lost a bolt or two.

Then there are times when muses fall into your email box. There they lie, along with emails from the banks you don’t have accounts with, enthusiastic group emails of astronomy you don’t remember subscribing to and emails from sellers who are convinced you cannot do without such-and-such baby oil or book. But even when the said muses have been served to you in a platter (or in this case, your inbox), there are chances you might miss them.

You might just delete that email without opening, like you have done to other emails from this website you had subscribed to long back ago, but don’t remember why. You might open it, with cynical curiosity, scanning the email because you don’t want to go back to that synopsis you have to prepare. Even if you open it, you might fail to click the link of a short translated story of a Spanish author whose name you cannot pronounce. After all, writers and writings are out there on the internet paisa a pandrah. Then you might open the link but forget to read it as it lies waiting amongst the other tabs opened for later reads.

So that’s why if you do end up reading that story at all and realise with surprise that it was at all this time a muse, waiting to spring up and surprise you, to fire your rockers into writing,  like a virus hidden in an attachment, it’s nothing short of a miracle. The muse is an unexpected best friend that landed at your doorstep, just when you were standing in the balcony, wondering what it will feel like to jump. 

All this while, all you had to do is click one email link. A simple click which would have saved you from those empty days when you look in the space and no thought welcomes you. Just a simple click. Was it meant to be? Is this how destiny works? Or is it just a web, an intricate spider web of unexpected choices you constantly make every moment of your existence? Is it free will or do you have no choice in the matter? How can you ever be sure of either?

All you can do is bow to it. Smile, thank the skies, or if you believe in chaos, thank chaos. Write a blog, write a poem and scribble down the thoughts that strike you for your novel. After all, you have been granted the gift of a muse today. It doesn’t happen every day.

This post is dedicated to a muse who came unexpectedly and resulted in this blog. Thank you Juan Villoro and Word Without Borders for the unexpected muse called Holding Pattern.