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At Fifth Elephant
Circus at Fifth Elephant. Photos by Saifi This is more of a Spin Matsuri post than one for Mediatinker, but in the interest of keeping my travel journal full, I can tell you about the personal side of attending a tech conference as a circus person. That’s what I call myself these days, when people…
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Chair Repair
While staying at Shreyas’ place, I made six beautifully hand-crafted but torn cane chairs useable again with painted plywood seats. They aren’t fancy, but you won’t fall through them. I measured the chairs and went to Workbench Projects to use their tools. We carried a sheet of plywood through Bangalore traffic from the nearby supplier…
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Mysore Weekend
Not content to merely be the best host in Bangalore, Shreyas drove us out to Mysore to see this historic town and meet his good friends. We stopped at Somanathapura to see a beautifully carved 750 year old temple. We ate well and Tod had an especially memorable paper dosa. We went to an art museum…
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Back in the Kitchen
Ah, what a relief. We have arrived in Bangalore and are staying with Shreyas and Arun. We can cook again! After five weeks on the road without kitchen access or grocery explorations, this is such a treat. Food is a big part of our lives and we love to both cook and eat. Shreyas is…
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Resetting the Mood
My bad moods can be turned around by drawing on my body. In this case, my crankiness stemmed from a frustrating visit to Pune where absolutely nothing seemed to work out as planned: our accommodation was creepy; the friend we were visiting had to work; the parks I wanted to visit were nonexistent or closed…
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1AC to Mumbai
The overnight train from Bhuj to Mumbai was like a 16 hour movie. So many scenes out our window. We passed urban junctions full of commuters rushing for the open seating cars, rural pastures full of cows, people living with piles of garbage, derelict buildings crenelated with dish antennas. Once we got to Mumbai, we…
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Hot Days in Gujarat
Mandvi Beach Resort – hot, windy and dry like a desert with an ocean next door. After hillhacks and trekking in the mountains, we decided to visit some friends in different places around India before heading to Bangalore. I’ll say this was the least good part of the trip, but reviewing the photos and recalling…
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Trekking the Himalayas
I thought “trekking in the Himalayas” sounded pretty intense. “Let’s go trekking” conjured pictures of mountain passes and fancy gear. But amongst my friends, at least, trekking is just a hike in the mountains. Towards Triund As we were finishing up hillhacks, Manuel and I decided we’d finally escape some of the event tasks and…
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Tink at hillhacks
Hillhacks is challenging to write about. It’s got a lot going on. The only common theme of everyone’s experience is transformed perspectives. People come to Dharamsala, attend hillhacks, and go away changed. They quit their jobs. They leap into projects with new collaborators. They fall in love. They change careers. They take the first step…
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Hillhacks Gala Show
Highlights from the Hillhacks Gala Show One of the cool things we did at hillhacks was to create a Gala Show on June 6. At our venue, Shiv Shakti, we discovered a natural ampitheatre in the woods and created a wonderful stage. There was a crew clearing brush, we cleared rocks, dug out steps and…
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