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Google made the engine, let me make the train!

Last five days has been exhausting! I was involved in interviewing craftsmen who came from all over India to attend a Bamboo Workshop at IDC. The Bamboo Lab with collaboration with IGNOU organised a week long workshop for craftmen working with Bamboo. I got an oppertunity to introduce the participants to the world of internet. All of them were novices, some of them had hardly seen a computer. This situation is quite normal here. I used a LCD projector to show them the screens, explained the files, folders and the usage of the mouse etc. I asked them to click on the "e" button of the internet explorer and showed them various kinds of resources which is possible to get from the intenet. The participants were excited and loved the computers. Many were hesitant as they could not read English, some with the usual recluctancy to technology - "What if it spoils?" syndrome. I showed them, shops, forums, blogs, company websites related to bamboo and all were pretty thrilled.
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Divine Whip

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I should have listened to my uncle when he asked me not to buy this whip. I didnt believe quite then that the whip had dark powers and could trouble the inner balances of oneself. I bought it because it looked so lovely. A whip in the form of a cobra. Just 200 years ago almost all objects had gods on them. Nut Crackers, Utensils, Furniture, Bullock Cart, Houses were smeared with the gods. Todays satellites too! as the belief still remains. Poojas & rituals has remained but the ideas of shapes derived from the gods have almost dissappeared. Todays objects dont have gods even in some new temples. I didnt listen to my uncle when he said that to buy this whip requires a special ritual and only the farmer who uses should buy. Socially it made complete sense but modern me simply dismissed the logic. I was eager to show it to my professors and make it an object of study as it contained nuiances of ritualistic mysticism, godly forms, ritual object, post modern interest etc etc. It was simp
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Madhumad Sarang

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