On Mandela, Nehru, and Washington ...

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/16/2013 10:30:00 AM

'Given the news about Nelson Mandela, here is a re-post from a few months ago:Every year, it seems like I always end up remembering that November 14th is Jawaharlal Nehru's birth anniversary.  It is etched so deep in my memory that it can never get erased perhaps?  Maybe it is also because it comes only days before the birthday of my closest friend from high school?  When India became independent in 1947 and, became, thereby, the world’s largest democracy, Jawahar(...)'

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Reports of my demise might be exaggerated!

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/13/2013 5:48:00 PM

'The time will soon be here when I will meet with my love of twenty-five years.Spending time with that love means that I shall have very little time for you, dear reader.  Such is life.  Please do not be jealous ;)Nor do I want you to think that my absence from blogging is a statement of my demise, which, of course, will be the case at some point. Not now, I hope.We shall meet again in a few days, soon after the longest day of the year.Until then ... be sure to floss!'

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Am I in the fifth of Shakespeare's seven ages?

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/12/2013 9:20:00 PM

'My mother made absolutely tasty traditional snacks.  My favorite of all of them was her முள்ளு தேன்குழல் (mullu thenkuzhal.)  It consistently had just the right amount of a kick in it, and just the right kind of bite--not too soft and not too hard. When I visit India, I underplay a few of my favorites because I worry that mother would then want to make eats like this snack; there is simply too much labor involved. I then end up scanning through the shelves of stores a(...)'

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My turn to gift. A box of chocolates. To a teacher!

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/12/2013 12:02:00 AM

'As I sat down on the dental chair, I told Lori, "you know how much I hate flossing." She smiled and nodded as I continued, "well, since the last time, I have taken up flossing."Now Lori was all smiles. But then she is always smiles.  That's how she has been for the eight-plus years I have been to her for dental hygiene. Unless there is a Jekyll/Hyde in her, and I can't imagine that at all, I would think that her husband and kids experience her smiling personality all the time. (...)'

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American English kicks French butts. Kicks British butts too. Amurica rulz!

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/11/2013 1:55:00 PM

'I have to remember to keep the grammar Nazi inside me well under control as I begin to grade the final papers.  After all, rmmbr, we r in txtn wrld. prblms w grmmr n sntnces n englsh can luk like polish! lynne truss goin crzy.At least, we don't do this at our university at graduation; wait, do we?I don't understand it either!English rules now, and one awesome aspect of the language is that if enough people mess up the grammar then the mess becomes the norm.  (...)'

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Why am I not a "success"? I grew up liking all-rounders!

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/10/2013 4:40:00 AM

'I grew up watching cricket and obsessing about it, as most young boys did then (and most probably do even now.)  As much as I liked the artistry of the top-order batsmen, especially Vishvanath, and the spin bowlers, my first hero was Abid Ali.Yes, Abid Ali.I was perhaps not even into a double-digit age when I decided I liked Abid Ali the most.  Here was a player who could bowl pretty decently, bat pretty decently, and field excellently.  He could do it all. (...)'

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On Tamil poems, Kannadasan, and ... mental disorder?

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/9/2013 6:57:00 PM

'All it takes is a casual comment by a friend for me to turn nerdy.  Houston, I have a problem!At dinner table conversations (well, other than when I dine alone, that is!) I often find myself consciously staying away from a nerdy seriousness.  After all, social conversations are not classroom seminars, though, ironically, often academic seminars feel like they are dinner table conversations!So, anyway, a friend commented about the poetry in Indian movie songs, "i like the o(...)'

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What exactly do students get from coming to my classes?

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/9/2013 2:45:00 AM

'I will outsource the response to Jeremy:Ok, seriously, this is, and ought to be, one of the biggest issues of the day in higher education: when there is seemingly no limit on educational materials that are, and will be made, available online, what purpose do we achieve when we require students to attend classes at designated times and places?I have been struggling with this question ever since I started experimenting with online classes more than a decade ago.  But, not having (...)'

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Regrets, I have a few ...

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/8/2013 3:15:00 PM

'It frustrates me to no end when I see the youth casually using YOLO--"you only live once."  This writer at the Guardian sums it up well, for me too:This, as the distinguished internet scholar Matt Muir puts it, is "carpe diem for people with an IQ in double figures". A friend of mine reports her children using this out loud. This has to end.If only the young would really, really, understand the profound truth that there is but only one life to live.   YOLO is not the reaso(...)'

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Did you find everything you were looking for?

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/7/2013 5:07:00 AM

'Maybe it is because of the heat that I have been feeling so wiped out--it has been in the high 80s the last couple of days.  It was quite an effort to walk through the aisles and pick up stuff.  I was tempted to sit on one of those chairs there and enjoy the air conditioned spacious store.I reached the counter. The young woman with a pleasant smile was such a source of energy.  I looked at her name tag as I placed the items on the counter."How you doing, Kasey?"Her sm(...)'

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Unemployment and the moral(e) issue

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/6/2013 3:54:00 AM

'As it gets closer to the time that I will have to start grading, a different kind of a reflex reaction kicks in--I seek compensation in terms of reading and blogging, perhaps to replenish the dead grey cells. Plus, there are incredibly serious problems all around--way more than the "poor me" problems.  Isn't that right, friend? ;)Consider, for instance, this scary, scary chart:I am flummoxed trying to imagine a 50% unemployment.  And more!  What the what?We are not ta(...)'

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I travel because ... Google Earth and iPhone are useless!

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/5/2013 10:30:00 PM

'"What country are you off to next?" asked a neighbor as we both approached the mailbox station at our street.I laughed.  For somebody who blogs a lot about various personal stuff, it is strange that I don't seem to always want to give direct answers when I am asked about those very issues in the real world.  It is difficult understanding myself. And I want to understand my fellow humans?  Especially the female kind?  What a Herculean task! I asked him whether he (...)'

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All excited to meet my love ... 25 years!

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/5/2013 4:05:00 AM

'In a world where love seems to be more and more fleeting anymore, and true love appears to be less terrestrial, I have been in love with her for a quarter century.A love that has never wavered.An unconditional love, despite not getting anything in return.  Not even a glance in my direction.She is quite a charmer--very few have ever charmed me like she has over the twenty five years.I first laid my eyes on her in graduate school.  I was a naive graduate student from India w(...)'

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Rain, rain don't go away

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/4/2013 1:56:00 PM

'It is interesting that the monsoon sets in India just as the long wet months of rain end in this part of the world. In my imaginations, the clouds consider their work done here in Oregon and move on to the other side of the planet where the billion-plus in the Subcontinent eagerly await the downpours after having survived yet another summer of heat and dust.As kids, when we visited grandmas' villages every summer, I found it fascinating that people always talked about the rain. &nbs(...)'

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A pregnancy that men should also avoid. Yes, men, too!

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/4/2013 6:13:00 AM

'Way back, when young, once when I was experimenting in the kitchen, I wondered what could happen if I added a couple of drops of vanilla essence to the coffee that was being "filtered" in the traditional south Indian approach.Both my mother and grandmother had the same reaction: "why does this coffee taste like Bournvita? Did you add that to the coffee?"  Good thing I didn't get smacked for messing with the holy coffee that was a religious experience every single time it was co(...)'

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The end of the term. And the end of the year. Where are the gifts?

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/3/2013 9:58:00 PM

'Looks like I already missed out on a gift!I returned from class and there was a note stuck on my office door:Hello!We came by to say hi since we were on campus. We hope you are doing well"P" and "L"Oh, it would have been such a pleasure to meet the couple, who got married two summers ago.  Of all the weddings of students that I have been to, this was unique because both the groom and the bride had been in my classes.  Once, in the same class too.  At the wedding "P" t(...)'

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Never been a better time to be a public intellectual

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/2/2013 5:51:00 PM

'Eleven years ago, when about this time of the year I had started planning for the migration northward to Oregon, I was scanning the local, downtown, community newsletter of sorts--I think it was called the Village News, perhaps modeled after the Village Voice. In that, and unexpectedly, I received one of the best compliments that I have ever received.  The editor had noted my departure from the university and the town with a comment that the area was losing a public intellectua(...)'

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On Father's Day Gifts

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/2/2013 3:48:00 AM

'In an episode of the Cosby Show, Bill Cosby whines on about how the children put a lot of thought into making their mother feel special on Mother's Day, but that they shop at the last minute for him and get cheap, atrocious gifts. Yes, fathers all over America, and perhaps in a few other countries too, put on a fake smile when they get boring neckties, yet again, as gifts.  Makes for ah, some--oops, awesome--memories!A few years ago, my daughter gave me a gift that I certainly (...)'

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Life is not about the grammar issues

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 6/1/2013 3:57:00 PM

'Before you get any incorrect ideas and leap to conclusions, let me make it clear: spellings matter; watch out for the comma, which can kill a person; and, yes, make the writing look sophisticated by using semicolons!However, let us not get carried away.  There is more to life than grammar. A lot more.  Way more.When I was a kid, one relative who never failed to impress me was my father's uncle.  In conversations we always referred to him as RM.  Like all of us, h(...)'

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The poor will always be with us ... NOT!

Author : Sriram Khé      Blog : Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity      Date : 5/31/2013 4:15:00 PM

'As I noted in this commentary at Planetizen, back in 2007, the graduate schooling in the social sciences, after an undergraduate in electrical engineering, was a result of wanting to do something to mitigate the suffering caused by economic deprivation. It didn't take much to realize that this was no easy project.  But, that made it all the more intellectually fascinating and an important one from a practical standpoint.  Of course, a few years after wrapping up the doctor(...)'

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