links for 2009-08-31

• Let Us Just Keep Things This Way – Books – livemint.com
  Let us just keep things this way
  And not forward move nor backward go
  Let every day be just like this day
  A restless peace, and no one to know.

  Let us wander on a path that’s winding
  No signpost at bridge and bend
  Never seeking and so never finding
  That place which asks of us an end.

  Let us not reason our faith in feeling
  Dwell in dreams as much as deed
  Trust in time—that’s always stealing
  But sometimes give to those in need.

  As time must move—we may as well be still
  And let it take us where it will.

  (tags: Poetry poem mint)
• Speaking in tongues « Smoke Signals
  Why does Jaswant today get a free pass? Why is he the hero in the passion play currently unfolding? Why is he not being grilled on his own sins of omission and commission?
  This is a demonstration of sycophancy. Misuse of the party. It’s sickening.
  That’s Jaswant on Advani’s use of the party machinery to promote his book. And his own actions, in being ‘conservative with the truth’ as long as he had a stake in Advani’s, and the party’s, prospects were… what?
  (tags: politics india bjp)
• Education Needs to Be Turned on Its Head
  Schools fail not because they don’t impart knowledge or skills, but because they kill curiosity, smother excitement for learning, club down with a furious brutality our desires to be independent, to think for ourselves, to learn about things that actually interest us…
  Kids know how to solve problems, when they want to do something.
  We don’t need to teach them to learn. We need to get out of their damn way…
  (schools) can’t motivate kids to learn, because they’re forcing it. They’re trying to impart on them a rigid system of authority that kids naturally rebel against…
  Creativity isn’t dead in our kids. It’s alive, but it’s being marshaled to beat the forces that are beating them down…
  One, we need to relax and not look at childhood as a time when every minute needs to be filled up with rigid rules and learning…
  Two…we have no idea what the workplace of the future will be, so stop worrying about preparing them for that…
  Three, also realize that we don’t need to be hands-off
  (tags: Parenting Education kids thinking)
• Why Inclusiveness Matters | Pertinent Observations
  One major bane of public transport planning in India (and abroad) has been the assumption that public transport is for the poor, and excluding the rich out of the equation. Not finding decent public transport option, the rich has thus gravitated to using one-passenger cars which have had a disastrous effect on traffic in general. And it is only now that cities are taking an inclusive approach and planning public transport for everyone, and you see various cities putting in place high-end buses…
  So the moral of the story is that when you are planning (regardless of whether you are the government, or a corporate, or the head of a family), you will need to take into account all possible stakeholders, including those outside the system being designed. Only then will the design be efficient.
  (tags: planning cities inclusiveness)
• Hotel Food | Vir Sanghvi
  Because India is still to develop a full-fledged restaurant culture, it is the hotels that have become centers of F&B excellence. This is great and worth applauding. But my worry is that too many hotels ignore the dining needs of resident guests in the pursuit of outside F&B business.
  (tags: food restaurants hotels service)