How to access blogspot from China

I'm currently in Shanghai for work related meetings and have been having trouble getting to Blogspot since the Chinese government censors access to various internet sites.

I've found a useful hack from a Chinese blogger:sweet-blogspot-fix-from-chinese-blogger. The Russian Anonymizer site seems to work, but not for all sites.

Fireflies Festival of Music 2007

It's that time of the year again - the annual Fireflies 'dusk to dawn' festival of music is back, and after rumors doing the rounds, I finally heard confirmation about the fest on Friday night. Last years Fireflies festival had been absolutely fabulous (read my post dated April 2006), and this years line up of performers was just as stellar.


The all night long festival is held at the Kaggalipura village, which is about 20 km from Bangalore (see route map for details).

For the sleepover, Monami and I packed a mat, pillows, food, sheets, and an umbrella. The forecast had said there were 70% chances of rain, but fortunately, the weather held out.

The directions provided were good, and it's a straightforward drive down Kannakapura Road past various temples that had pujas (for the lunar new year and harvest festivals) and Art of Living. Somehow, we missed the Ganesha temple and the prominent sign for Fireflies and had to turn back after we had gone too far.

The first performance we saw was the Tala Vadya, from the Karnataka College of Percussion. Their ensemble included the mridangam, ghatam, dholak, drum pad, and the tabla. They were quite impressive although the richness of the tabla drowned out the other instruments.

During the break after this performance, a few announcements were made which hinted at possible future synergies between Bangalore Habba and Fireflies, as well as with the Alliance Francaise, whose director Eric is a regular here. I'm a bit divided on how I feel on further commercialization of an event like this, since it can dilute the focus and novelty, but I'll hope it'll help drive similar breakaway gatherings.


Next was an interesting performance by Clio Karabelia, a visiting half-Greek/half-French harpist with a supporting sitar and tabla. Unfortunately, she had various problems with the mikes, and the sound of the tabla/sitar all but drowned out the harp. I hope she'll be back, perhaps for a harp solo.

Dr Thomas Chandy and his group of eight senior citizen musicians - the Jazz Revival performed next, and were just as good as they were the last year. Dom Saldhana, their ageing sax player, who met Dr Chandy when he had come to Hosmat hospital to get his knee fused was their blue-eyed old boy, winning the audiences hearts.



After all that jazz came a high energy show from Dollu Kunitha, Karnataka's very own group of rising star drummers. The finished by walking up through the crowds and then continued drumming near the stalls behind for what seemed like the longest time.

Oikyotaan!!! The group that everyone had been waiting for, and it around 1AM, they took stage. And for the next two hours, the audience was treated to a splendid variety of Baul and Fakir music. Bonnie, their lead singer has tremendous stage presence and an amazing voice. With the assitance of Karthik, their Baul singer and other contemporary artists, they have a sound unlike any other group out there. Having heard them now for the second year running, I'm fairly certain we will look back someday and say, 'We were there - we heard them back then!'. The finished to a standing ovation, and the CDs they had for sale were quickly lapped up.

Like last year, they were followed by a Qawalli group, this time Shafiq Pervez and group from Nagpur. They were interactive with the audience and were splendid playing favorites like 'Dum Mast Kalander' and 'Purdah hain'.

The next performance was a sarcastic Serbian guitarist, who played a few traditional Serb songs before launching into a self-indulgent jam with the accompanying drummer. When he finally finishes, the sun is already rising and the next ensemble's nature themed jungle beats rouse the audience. If the organizers had chosen to keep this spot a bit tighter, its possible that they might have finished by day break as initially planned.

The morning raga parameshwari, the final signature piece and wake up call from sitarist Hindol Deb built up tempo gradually over time. The artist was seemingly annoyed that he was permitted to play only at around 7AM, and that there were noisy disturbances with the sound systems being removed during his poignant performance.

As we left in the morning, looking at the garbage strewn all around, we wondered if the message of social responsibility, one of the themes of the event this year was being heard. Is further commercialization of the event really the answer? I'd love to know what other people think.

Overall, Fireflies is easily the most entertaining annual event in Bangalore today. The wonderful vista of talented artists, the near magical ambience and the lively and appreciative audience make for a memorable night. And oh, at the risk of repeating myself. Oikyotaan. Oikyotaan. Oikyotaan. They have a sound like no other. Hear them live.

Namma Bengaluru!

I've resisted blogging about Bangalore and stray dogs (over 10 on my street!) - there's just enough said out there and more. But when I saw not one, but a dozen grazing cows from the balcony of my apartment, this really cracked me up. :-) And in case you are wondering, I dont live in the outskirts - we are 5 km from downtown MG Road, and nearby the Diamond District building where my company's office is.

In the pictures below, you can see the cows grazing in the middle of open area (erstwhile military land, although practically abandoned today). You can see Diamond District and Natasha Golfview in the background. The strange fenced structure the cows are strutting around used to be a water tank.

An April Fools Day prank

I started a silly prank on a few colleagues this Fool's Day - The pretext? That we had just closed a deal through a reseller in Pakistan and that they had to prepare to travel immediately to engage in meetings. They got quite worried, calling their spouses and parents to enquire frantically about the safety issues of visiting Karachi. One spouse insisted that her husband not travel, while one colleague's father told him that he would need to go to the project along with an ISI bodyguard. One felt that it would be best to turn down the deal rather than do business with terrorists.

We then got the group together in the board room, to explain the 'urgency' behind the trip, and to get their signatures on the visa application forms (conveniently downloaded from the Pakistani government website, with a authentic looking logo and the works) and a mocked up indemnification form signing off on all liabilities from the company. A few faces looked a bit small while the forms were being passed around.


When we broke the news, there were loud guffaws for the longest time!!!! Oh BTW, I'm now on the hit-list for the next prank, so stay tuned for updates ;-)

Note: Names changed(?) for anonymity

Team,

Great news – we’ve just closed a small but significant deal in Pakistan (new territory!) through our reseller partner (POS) there. Pakistan Telecom has signed up for 10,000 seats of SmartAccess, SubAgent and RA. POS will drive up most of the implementation since we for obvious security reasons will not be in a position to engage there longer term. However, we need to spend 3 weeks training them on the solutions, and to assist with the initial design.

You can find more information about the Pakistan Telecom at: http://www.ptcl.com.pk/

Harin and Narik, it would be good for you to start to prep for the travel to Karachi next week. I will get back to you with information on visas, etc. Vatsa/Rehan, lets sync up as well.

Thanks,

Aravind Krishnaswamy
Director, APAC Global Services
Cell: +91-9945564582
SupportSoft, Inc.

I got a call late that night around 10PM. I picked up the phone - it was one of my colleague's mother. I could hear it coming - "How could you do such a thing? My son and I got so worried!". Instead she said, "I was so amused to hear the whole thing - I am still laughing!".

Phew!