Yesterday I met with Sanjaya Mishra, a scholar and researcher in the area of distance education. Sanjaya and I first met at the Vidyakash conference a bunch of years ago and we clicked almost immediately. I always enjoy meeting up with him when I am in Delhi, though...
Posts related to: India
Summer travel 2008 photographs
I have been taking photographs as I travel around Asia (what I have previously described as my multi-national TPACK tour) and uploading them onto Flickr as and when I can. Go to the photographs
Arriving in Malaysia
I am currently in Kuala Lumpur, arrived here last night, after spending a night at Delhi. I stayed with my old high-school buddy (Hartosh) and his wife, Paminder. We spent a nice evening chatting and catching up – since a lot had happened since we had last met, not...
Multi-national TPACK tour
I leave tomorrow (actually today, given that it is past midnight as I write this) on a multi-national TPACK tour. I touch 4 countries in around 2 weeks!! I am taking a non-stop flight from Newark NJ to New Delhi, for the first time ever. It is a 15 hour flight and I...
Kenya sings India for Pangea Day
NYTimes technology columnist, David Pogue, has a recent blog entry about Pangea Day, a global film festival coming up in a few days. As he says in his note: Pangea Day endeavors to bring the world together and promote understanding and tolerance through film. Over...
Introducing India…
I had been invited to the Second Annual Internationalizing Michigan Education Conference: Building Bridges from Michigan to the World to speak about India. The title of my presentation was Learning about India, the world’s largest democracy. I was assisted in this by...
Dances for Cause, photographs
This past Saturday the Okemos High School auditorium hosted Dances for Cause, a fund-raiser for Habitat for Humanity. My daughter, Shreya, performed a dance with her dance group (the same dance they had performed for Milap 2008). Also on the program were dances from...
Arthur C. Clarke, RIP
Arthur C. Clarke, popularizer of science and science fiction writer died today. He was 90. Clarke was one of my favorite authors growing up though I haven't read him in a while. I still remember the thrill I felt when I read the last sentence of "Rendezvous with Rama"...
The loneliness of a long distance migrant
“On bad days, I do feel lonely in a way that I can’t explain,” so says Dilip Ratha, a World Bank economist who studies the economics of migration. The article, a profile of Ratha's life and work, is worth a read, but what really stood out for me was the above quote,...
India Breakfast, a photo report
The India themed breakfast at the College of Education, a kick-off for India Week, was a great success. [Here is a previous blog entry announcing this (and other) events.] I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who helped out, and also provide...
India Week @ Erickson Hall
The Indian community in the greater Lansing area celebrates India Week every year (more or less) around March. [More details here and here.] As a part of this event I (and other members of the College of Education) have been organizing an Indian themed breakfast and...
Milap 2008
The Indian Cultural Society of greater Lansing (ICS) held its annual cultural program Milap 2008 this past Saturday. It was a great program with traditional and Bollywood dances, songs, and other performances. My daughter Shreya's dance troup, performed a Kathak dance...
Amruta Patil’s Family Album
A few weeks ago I had featured Nina Paley, animator and story teller. I just discovered another amazing talent: graphic artist Amruta Patil. I got know Amruta through the desi blog ultrabrown which recently featured an interview (Amruta Patil and Kari: A short Q&A)...
Design is for life
Quote for the day: Parents look at their children today when they are 3 years old and say "Oh god!, He doesn't know how to operate the computer! How is he going to go ahead like this?" They should instead be worried if their child doesn’t know design. They should say,...
RK, calligrapher, designer, teacher
R. K. Joshi | 1936 - 2008 R. K. Joshi was a calligrapher, typographer, artist, type-designer, and teacher. He has been maybe the greatest influence on me and what I do as a designer and teacher. And I know I am not alone. He influenced a generation or more of...
Street Use
In blogging Kevin Kelly's piece on "Better than free" (read that post here), I came across another site that he maintains, titled "Street Use," self-described as follows: This site features the ways in which people modify and re-create technology. Herein a collection...
Taare Zameen Par
Taare Zameen Par (loosely translated as "Stars on the earth") is a new movie produced and directed by Aamir Khan, one of Bollywood's biggest stars. He also acts in it. What is unique about this movie is that despite its Bollywood trappings, it is a somewhat serious...
Looking for IT in India
A few days ago Jack Schwille, assistant dean for international studies in education, sent an email out to all faculty and students at the college of education announcing a talk by me titled: "Help Punya find IT in India?" This presentation was to be fifth in the...
Sita sings the blues
I have been following Nina Paley's career for a while now. I first found out about her through the now defunct Desi website, badmash.com and have tracked her website off and on. Nina is an amazing animator and her best work is devoted to the Indian epic The Ramayana...