I read this today. http://thingstodoindelhi.com/  and hence this.

An open letter to all my friends who think it's cool to bash cities like Delhi or  Bangalore or Mumbai or Kolkata. 

This isn't new, and strangely, horribly, it is growing like weed we are not able to control. On some days, it pops up as a real long post from a girl who is commenting on the moral code of the male specimens from the other city, to which an equally long post from the “other city” emerges out in no time. On some days, it is the “trending topic” on twitter, where people bash the other cities shamelessly, and even proudly. I am now writing this with a confession that I have been a part of this bashing too. But this post is about how I got into this mud slinging drama, with the very literate, but not-so-educated inhabitants of the New India. 

I was born and lived in Delhi all through the first quarter of my life. All this while, I always heard with reverence, the stories of people who were living near the south shores of my country. My father, used to tell me, they were extremely hard working people and great intellectuals. Leading a simple lifestyle and contributing to India's scientific heritage. I would be lying, if I were to say, that I didn't want to become APJ Abdul Kalam or Narayan Murty, who almost calmly brought upon a new resurgent wave of entrepreneurship in India. 

Later, as I was growing up, I could hear stories of near and far cousins who went to Bangalore to participate in the technology boom, whose epicenter was right in the heart of Bangalore. They spoke about the heavenly weather, and the delicious food. 

All these stories went straight to my subconscious and were forgotten till the day, when I came to know that I got admission in a reputed design school in Bangalore. I then heard how Bangalore had emerged as a unique cosmopolitan city in India, allowing people irrespective of the caste, religion or patronage to flock here and make a living, an intellectual living based on merit. 

I fell in love with Bangalore the moment I stepped foot on its soil. The weather is just so good, I was at a place where I could get  soulful of idli's and other yummy Karnataka food. I never felt out of place in this city. I was out of my home for the first time, and made Bangalore my home. With my new found freedom, it gave me a whole new set of goals and meanings to achieve them. 

I am not the person who wants to belong to a geographical location to derive her value system, it doesn't matter to me. Yet, the reality that you accompany some of the characteristics of the people you share your life with, cannot be altered completely. 

Yet, I had the shock of my life, when some my friends at my college, started bashing Delhi almost on a daily basis. It was open and heavy during classes and then in the chai time breaks. How the people in Delhi are rude and how they are all rapists and how tacky their behaviour is in public transport. It went on and on to no end. I was agreeing to a lot of such allegations and so-called factual remarks, and they didn't make a difference to me. But, when they continued to no end, that's when my patience gave away. 

Delhi, or any other city in India, or for that matter, the world cannot be spoken as one entity. Simply because it is NOT. The times when you could speak of a group of people having the same ideals about life has evolved. Delhi is simply now, a potpourri of cultures and people. There is a presence of every small and big community in Delhi and they have carried on with their own rituals, and Delhi has accepted it. It has to. So, it goes for the any other city in India. Will Bangalore reject all the workers who come from Madhya Pradhesh and Bihar to lay the foundation of Multinational IT parks and companies? I don't think so. 

And is everybody in Bangalore an entrepreneur? Working in an IT company? Does everybody in Bangalore has idly sambhar all the time? As breakfast, lunch and dinner?

This kind of a generalization only shows how shallow your facts are. How you have easily fell into the trap of general comments which are simply overheard or passed down at Chai stalls and friendly gatherings, as personal experiences, which would be fatal if you were to accept it as a rule, and not as an experience. 

It is more fatal when people start not only believing it, but spread it assertively. 

In its creative ways, it is indeed healthy to recognize the fallacies of people and their irresponsible behavior, but is it indeed healthy to go all about it, to hurt people as well? Delhi is way too rowdy to hold a rock concert, but its theaters are also full when Anoushka Shankar decides to perform. Also, Sambhar is not the only heavenly dish in Bangalore, but there are hundreds of gems ready to explode as a gastric delight in your mouth, in every morsel.  

Also, to readers, who are now thinking of writing to me an insecure blogger who's just wrapping all this in a pretension of covering up the sins her city commits every hour. I want to point everyone to a place where I am so sure you wouldn't have taken the pain to visit, else such spiteful and irrelevant  remarks wouldn't have emerged out of your facebook profiles or tweets.

This is a link to National Crime Records Bureau of India, I would urge you to download the Crime statistics report. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_India#Crime_by_locale

and http://ncrb.nic.in/ and go through a real reading of the statistics

Also, a warning to NOT believe even the above mentioned stats 

http://lawandotherthings.blogspot.in/2011/12/indias-unknown-crime-rate.html

And in the end, if you cannot change the situation a bit, kindly refrain from spreading hatred and anxiety in other people, who feel insecure in their own country because of ignorantly-assertive people like you. 

Peace.

A Delhi-and-Bangalore lover.

I am reading about the information architecture of Twitter, when I stumbled upon the fact that Loren Brichter, who made Tweetie, the first third party app for IOS, invented the pull to refresh gesture, which is now, used by dozens of apps. 

http://daringfireball.net/2011/12/new_twitter

This post atleast was an eye opener in how do you actually review apps. The detailed review is what helped me the most, when I was really searching for examples of Information Architecture in play than the usual theoretical sheaths of paper I was reading till now. 

Started learning processing today. Feels great to see awesome stuff done by designers using processing. 

Its about 12:30, and I am really wondering whether to code next or to write my autobiography which is up for submission on monday. I think I'll write. 

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile, which I
Have loved long since, and lost awhile!

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path, Thyself hast trod,
Lead, Savior, lead me home in childlike faith, home to my God.
To rest forever after earthly strife
In the calm light of everlasting life.

A globule full of hot air, which bends a little. Almost resists when I step into it, one room at a time. May be, I ran a little too fast, the rooms did not get time enough for my welcome. May be.

May be, they are still a little angry with me. A two inch wall between me and the walls. I can touch them, yet can't. A part I owned a few months back. Something has retreated back into some deep abyss my hands can't reach.

The walls are saying, be my guest, but don't suggest colours for me. Every action seems like a preparation to go back, to go away. Have enough, before you go. Pack this, before you go. Coming is like a long preparation for going.

Flitting like a housefly.

Hi child,

I am writing to you long before it is required. So long before that I might as well deny a lot of what I am writing today. But, I am standing on a juncture, where my opinions are not suffering from lack of experience and my ambitions aren't celebrating the toast of finality. It's a state of flux, and an extremely heady time. So, I just want to let you know, just in case, you stumble upon this, when you are in this state of flux.

1. Lose yourself once to see the other side

No matter in what environment I raise you. With Gods to protect you, elders to venerate and shy away from. No matter how much I deny the existence of black hole desires, no matter how much I exxagerate the notion of bad people, like bats howering all around you, just so willing to snatch away your soul at the slightest invocation. I will always be travelling on a colorful rainbow of lies. The truth is.

1.1 People take drugs. Normal people, like you and me. And all of them are not bad. Some just lose themselves completely, so much that they are not able to come back, ever. But some, can come back.

1.2 People make friends for a night. A night where alcohol sloshes the insides and the outsides of people. They laugh with you, confess uncalled-for affection and love. They cling to each other, with the longing reserved for lovers meetings after millenia. The world will look beautiful and meaningful again.

The meaningless smiles look pristine and the professed love looks so real. Everything, like the intoxicated night is ephemeral. Evaporates like the darkness, which is blown away by the flicker of a candle.

1.3 People make love, but don't really mean it

Yes. This happens. May be, this is the unlearning that will be the hardest. The cadence of two bodies, in a harmonic motion swaying in unison, seems to be one of the purest joys one can experience. But these joys are also scripted, edited and tampered with.

All these events happen and will happen in your time too, and you should lose yourself in these waters before you decide that these are indeed dirty waters.

2. It is really possible that you spend your entire life, trying to look good

Making an impression, looking your best, may be experimenting with your hair, your body is an accepted norm. The female population may be has more to do with colored lips and nails and eyes.

They start with accumulating clothes of different colors, then accumulate clothes for different occassions, like the welcoming of the day and bidding goodbye to it, for standing in a room full of similar looking females or sitting in a big dark room with one big projecting screen.

You will not find the dearth of occassions to groom yourself. Thanks to the emergence of science in beauty, you may also see someone else entirely in the mirror everyday.

And clothes will not be just fine. There will be stones to put in ear lobes, and neck and feet and toefingers. There will be shoes to match and bags to choose.

People spend hours to look their best you know, but you know what. One can spend their entire life, yes, entire life, this one shot life, trying to look good.

3. You will be judged.

No matter what you do, you will be judged at every point in your life. Judged by how you speak, how you look, with whom are you seen frequently.

People will change if you seem too ambitious, they will change if you are not. The colors of people will always be dependent on a lot of variables. And they will be out of your control.

4. It's possible to mould yourself by breaking away from everything

Your genes will control a lot of your outer things, but you know what the good news is. You will always be able to control all the inner things. You can shape your thoughts, your decisions and your intellect. And this is a huge huge gift you will be rewarded with.

This is the gift which will let you lay a claim on yourself, your own existence and essence. Do whatever in your life, but don't let this go waste.

I will keep adding to this letter as I am nourished with newer experiences. I guess, I can afford the luxury of time this time around :)

Gloss all over.

 Glossy lips and eyes.

 The world is perfumed.

Nothing stinks on the outside.

 The planet has turned on HD.

 Love and peace.

Bought and sold.

 Empty, hollowed and bold.

A lot is drowned in noises.

Warm and fuzzy flew away last night.

Remember me is a button I need to click.

The skeleton is peeled, not broken.

Arrows of words and eyes.

The mist is making me shiver.

Save me. Someone.

First week whizzes past. And how !

To set things straight, I am here :

 >>  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/NID_Bangalore_amphitheater...

to study

>> Information and Interface Design.

The first week hasn't flown somewhere. It has dragged painfully, each day, longer than the other, yet shorter in a way. Even now, I have to decide what to do, catch some sleep or post ?

I've decided to catch my sleep, which is a semi-precious commodity here :P