Random house word list

Dear Sumant,

Here is one wonderful website on the usage of words.

Br,
Sumant Sumant

Sequacious

Sequacious (si-KWAY-shuhs) adjective

Unthinkingly following others.

The other synonyms are subservient, tractable, confirmist, inclined to follow other than lead



Some sentences I found on internet

1) The tattoo business thrives on sequacious youth.

2)"In the April 1945 Catholic Worker, Janet Kalven of the Granville Agricultural School for Women in Loveland, Ohio called for 'an education that will give young women a vision of the family as the vital cell of the social organism, and that will inspire them with the great ambitions of being queens in the home.' By which she did not mean a sequacious helpmate to the Man of the House, picking up his dirty underwear and serving him Budweisers during commercials." Bill Kauffman; The Way of Love; Whole Earth (San Rafael, California); July 2000.



This word reminds of of the word obsequious which means fawning or a yes person. Who is too ready to please you. I think the two words have similar roots.



So here is my take on this word to describe people



We want to invest in people, make them leaders who can think out of the box rather than keeping them as sequacious workers.



Helping people become independent is the new mantra in self help books because only independent people can become interdependent, the dependent people remain sequacious.



Television is a medium where demagogues find their sequacious adherents.



Another meaning I found is

Persisting in continual intellectual or stylistic direction

I make these notes and I am tired of notes ... I want something sequacious now and robust.

Jefferson the genius

Dear Sumant,

Right now I am in Faner lab sitting at the very last row. I came here to finish several things. Call it Quadrant II activities. I have to update my address at several places including ISS, Old National and on web. I have brought with me the book on Galois Theory and I hope to read it. Yesterday I read about Jefferson, Darwin and Gandhi. Today I took time to read about Shakespeare. I will try to summarize what I learn about these geniuses. So wasting no more time lets understand Jefferson.

Jefferson was the 3rd US President and a man who is at the center of proclaiming that all men are created equal and have a right to live, liberty and pursue happiness. This was a deep statement in times of ubiquitous slavery. Even though he didn't free the 35 slaves he inherited he treated them well and his efforts eventually help eliminate slavery. Jefferson loved books and had a personal collection of over 10,000 books which he later sold to make way for Library of Congress. He was an avid reader and surrounded himself with smart people. Before becoming president he served as a vice president under John Adams. Jefferson also championed religious freedom and was very proud of that bill. Among his major contribution is setting up Virgina University. The first university outside church in America. He was a lean strong gentleman who lived a fruitful life. He was married and devoted to his wife till her death and never married again though he did have fling with other women including an African American woman and there is a controversy regarding the lineage. The character of Jefferson inspires us to think big for the society. His contribution to help people realize that everyone is equal and contribute to society had a massive effect in the US society. His thrust on education lead to America becoming one of the most humane and enlightened country in the last two centuries.

Best regards
Sumant Sumant

20 Mile Morning Bike Ride

This morning Kyriakos and I went on a bike ride from Carbondale to Dutch Ridge Road. It took us two hrs. We started at 7:15 in the morning and were back at 9:15. In between we took breaks at a beautiful privately owned lake.Check the map for the route. Any morning that begins with a 10 plus miles on a bicycle is awesome. Today I plan to read more of "First Thing First". Get some air in my bicycle and eat some grape fruits.

Water Slide

Happy Memorial Day to all of you. Today I did water slide at a party. It was fun but the guy next to my slide got a concussion.

I hope he recovers fast because I think he felt disoriented but not other people were able to empathize with him. Other than that I spent time arranging the stuff in my bed room, doing laundry and reading First Thing First. I have my PMS written and now it will be an ongoing process to review and update it. I have found an easy version of Fur elise plus my Casio song book. I will try to finish the Casio one first because it has all the hand signs.

PMS

Well its afternoon and I am in computer lab trying to jot down my thoughts. I was reading "Einstein Factor" yesterday. I have own this book for now several years and I hope in next few days I will be able to read it completely and benefit from it. I am also re-reading 7 Habits Of Highly Effect People with new insights and I am working on my PMS (Personal Mission Statement) and several other books. I am just so excited these days after giving up television and Internet that its hard to put in words. I also rearranged my room by moving my couch on the other side which freed up lot of space. I am about to leave for Carol Davidson's house in Ziegler and will be returning in evening

Br,
Sumant Sumant

Rajan Bhaiya's Gettogether

Dear Sumant,





I just came back from Rajan Bhaiya's get together at Tres Hombres.

In the morning I practiced part of the "Beautiful Brown Eyes" song on Piano. Yesterday I revised some of the combinatorics stuff, hopefully I will be able to find time to go over more readings on other topics.

Br,

Sumant Sumant

Spiritual Renewal Continues

Dear Sumant,

Today was the last day for the Accent Reduction course by Catherine Caldwell. I liked the course and it was so much fun. I got to know more of my areas where I can improve. I have a custom handout for Hindi speakers plus tons of other to help me speak better. There were lots of areas I was not even aware of that now I know can help me a better speaker. Meanwhile I am able to find a lot of time for my reading and I also got the Gita on a website and my goal is to master "Fur Elise" by next month.

Rajan Bhaiya and his family is coming today and I am pretty excited to see all of them in Carbondale. Yesterday I saw Kikujiro. I heard the music at youtube and was blown away. Fortunately it was available in the library. The movie is fun to watch with that music appearing in background. In the night Kyriakos came to visit me and then we rented the movie "Night at the museum".

That's for now
Sumant Sumant

Renewing Myself

Dear Sumant,

It's been a while that I am taking time to renew myself. I had several holidays where I would just spend time doing things to keep myself busy and realized that the whole purpose of holiday hasn't served me well. Before the holidays would start, I would have plethora of plans and once when the holidays would set in, I would wish the school would start again because all I would do in holidays would be watching tons of movies, squaring off my time on internet. Sleeping too late at night only to be annoyed at myself for not sleeping early and ruining the whole day. This had become so recurring that I was getting afraid of holidays. So this time I have given up the internet access. In fact right now I am typing this blog on my Linux Computer which is not connected to Internet and in the background I am playing "Gin Soaked Boy", one of my all time favorite song.

Today, I spent the whole day reading to rejuvenate myself and surprised myself that I could hold on my concentration for so long. For past some time I been monitoring my behavior that I was not enjoying the present moment, instead my thoughts were projected on what I feel after 2 hrs, 5 hrs or a week. This was particularly strange to me because when you think like that your whole experience of present is watered down. If you have seen "Click" you know what I am talking about. It's like when you think outside the present you tend to go on an autopilot mode and wake up realizing that the time has passed and you just wasted it. After giving up the internet connection and cable connection I am very much like a hermit in this place. It's at a right distance from the campus to ride bicycle. I loved this May 22nd because I am very calm today. I hope to make this holiday my best possible break where I can reflect on my life and rejuvenate myself to affect everyone else positively.

Br,
Sumant Sumant

Ferne Cliff State Park at Goreville

Dear Sumant,

This last Sunday I had the opportunity to go to Ferne Cliff state park in Goreville. It's on I-51 and I would rate it as the best kept secret in southern Illinois. I was invited by Tom to hike at this place. He been there many times since he was a child. We did 4 different trails and none of them were more than a mile long. The steepest I would say is "Boy Scout Trail" and the more spectacular are "Hawk's trail" and the very first one I don't remember. The park has a beautiful lake for fishing. It was a gift to State of Illinois by a woman who owned for a long time.. There are designated places to rap and rock climbing. Overall I would rate Ferne Cliff as the second best state park in Southern Illinois after Giant City State Park.

Best Regards
Sumant Sumant

Mammoth Cave

On May 19,07 I visited Mammoth Cave with Akina and her mom. This was one of the best trip I took in recent time. It was also the first time when I explored an underground cave and what a way to begin with the world's longest and largest network of cages. Mammoth cave is only 4 and half hrs from Carbondale, IL. They have some of the best informed park guides. We took two guided trails, the historical trail costing $12 and the frozen Niagara costing $10. I loves the historical tour as its a 2 hr tour with well lit portion of the cave and it goes through some of the biggest sections of the cave.

On the trip we literally pig out at two restaurant. One was O'Charlie and the other one was Outback. Increasingly American restaurants cater to vegetarians like me with side dishes like steamed brocolli, bake, mesh and sweet potatoes, onion rings, blooming onions, baked beans etc. Outback had one of the best sweet potato I had.

India getting new fabs

This is one news that will have profound effect in the rapid development of India's economy. Companies like AMD and SemIndia are going to setup the fab in the Andhra Pradesh. Already India's economy is booming and if there is one thing which could derail the process is not having a semiconductor foundry to compliment its R&D facilities. The growth in Cell Phone industry has aptly demonstrated that the traditional economist are always wrong. The current subscriber base stands at 150 million and it more than population of any but seven countries in the world. This will benefit the whole world as price of manufacturing in India could bring down further the prices of silicon manufacturing but could provide a much needed thrust to the overall economy of India and its neighboring countries.

Meet Joe Black, Howl's moving Castle

Dear Sumant,

Today I finally saw "Meet Joe Black". I had this DVD from Caryn for past 3 months and I am glad the movie was amazing even though I had already seen the Indian version of it before. "Shukriya" was the Hindi remake of this wonderful movie which I saw few years ago. Yesterday I watched "Spirited Away". for the second time. The first time was almost 3 and half yrs ago with Yuko. I did remember many of the scenes and it was great to watch it again. Last semester I must have seen "Howl's moving castle" at least 10 times and I am head over heels with the theme music.

I am looking forward for Rob to make it to the summer school. He is a wonderful guy who loves Math for the sake of curiosity and it will be pity if the school's GPA criteria holds him back for attending it. We have taken several classes together and its been fun studying with him.

My class on accent reduction is fun. For 2 hrs everyday we have been going over finer points of the language and I love it. The instructor Mrs. Catherine Caldwell keeps the class interesting with her giddy humour and encouragement.

That's for now
Sumant Sumant

Mirakatani

Yesterday I watched a documentary on Mr. Mirakatani a homeless made documentary on an American born Japanese Artist. Though Pearl Harbour Story is well documented and made famous by numerous movies and documentaries. The Japanese side of story was new to me. Mr. Mirakatni was sent to concentration camp in Tulu lake, near castle rock mountain even though he was born in Sacramento, California. More than 7 out of 10 American born Japanese had lost their citizenship in that frenzy. His paintings were really good spanning lots of different area from Hiroshima, to different animals etc. The story has a good ending. He got back his citizenship in 1958 but was not aware of till the shooting of this independent movie. His reluctance to take social security check and for a 81 yr old, he is in pretty good health.

Euphoric

I just checked my grade in Fourier Analysis. I got an A !!!!!! Woohoo.. Dr. Kammler is awesome.

random traipse

Dear Sumant,

Its finally Friday and I am done with all the exams. It has been busy and in retrospect I realize that I watched a lot more television this semester and it was a valuable lesson for me. No more TV !! Now coming to how I am going to spend this break. First I have an Accent reduction course starting from Monday and then I have two classes in summer Math 447 (Graph Theory) and Math 472 (Linear Programming). I am peped up for all these. I am moving to a new apt at 2200 S. Illinois Ave. It was a great experience to live with Udita. He is a wonderful person and I will miss him dearly. Hopefully tonight we can find some time to out to dinner. That's for now. Time for me to collect Laundry and head back home.

Br,
Sumant Sumant

Vegan Parents kill Child ???

Now this was the kind of line I read on CNN. To me it was hilarious and reading on the blogs at diggs.com it confirmed me there are tons of people here who bought into this story. There are several factors which refute the story,

First if the vegan diet was the cause then there shouldn't be Hindu and Jain people majority of who are all vegetarian (ref wikipedia). The second was it was an African American couple. Now its akin to saying one can find Muslim Vegetarians ! This is an Oxymoron !! One can only pity how much ignorant these people are !! Instead of investigating the real motive it is being blamed on veganism. Veganism is far more healthier lifestyle and being increasingly embraced by more people. The main reason most people have cancer and arthritis is because of their meat diet. Instead of blaming on veganism, one should find out the education level, their background and it will easily reveal that they use veganism as a ploy to hide their real motive.

Sumant Sumant

My traipse on Maya Angelou at SIU

Dear Sumant,

It's just 1 more week to go before this semester ends. At this pt of time ask anybody and their favorite wish is the same. Yesterday I went to Nelson's place to look for the apartment I will be moving in around 12th of May. It's a nice and clean looking place and I think I will stay there for 3 months. Yesterday Maya Angelou visited the campus. It's funny that I didn't know that how famous she is. The line for people wishing to get to hear was enormous. More than 1200 people wanted to see her speaking. I didn't know much about her and had little interest in what she had to offer in terms of spiritual enlightenment. I did go over the wiki and to me it seems that her story will be another rant on racism and prejudices she struggled with. Which to me just bring back bad memories of past and buttress animosity. While reading today's edition of Daily Egyptian it confirmed that. I am very much for people who inspire other but I think most of the role model that African American's are just too focused on their personal struggle with racism and poverty rather than hundreds of other who could be a much better role model in inspiring their community, like for example Prof. Saleh or Astronaut Higginbottha.

Best regards
Sumant Sumant

Kitsch and Ketch

Dear Sumant,

Today in the morning while I was solving the "Jumble" an anagram quiz, I came across this word "HECKT". I correctly identified that it will be "KETCH", a word that I must have read somewhere but I was thinking about "Kitsch" a word for Inferior art. So for the benefit of everyone I am posting several pics of Ketch. A Ketch is a two mast sailboat and if you search on pictures on google you might see several of these. Ketch is pronounced as Ketch in Ketchup.

The definition of Kitch is from Wikipedia and it reads as
" Kitsch is a term of German origin that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior copy of an existing style. The term is also used more loosely in referring to any art that is pretentious or in bad taste, and also commercially produced items that are considered trite or crass "

All these pictures are from google images and so the copyright for these remains with the owner.

The last time I visited museum of art in Chicago I took lots of picture of the famous paintings. Could all those pictures be called Kitsch ? Probably not, Kitsch are inferior imitation of great artwork, the digital pictures are exact replica, I think Kitsch is more to do with copying style than content. For example when I see Picaso's work, I always think its not too difficult to imitate it !

Best regards

Sumant