• My Jewish lady dessert-worshiping character is a hit with the South Indians. #
• Most popular question from Indians, Muslim and Hindu alike: Obama? Will he really be President? #
• Traveling makes US reality seem much more obviously relative. #

"The nurture of your child is safe in our hands", originally uploaded by subvert.com.

Ads like these are *everywhere* even in the smallest fishing village. The focus on education here in India and especially in Kerala (where literacy nears 100%) is remarkable. Education through med school will run someone something like $10,000 US cmpared to private US education which would run you closer to half a million I think.

It's a literal sign of the cultural focus. Even if much of it is on memorization, just a quick comparison to the American advert focus on consumer products like beer tells you something about the direction of both countries.

Plenty of strong smells here but the strngest is growth.

• Vote for my SxSW panel on social networx future: Everything I Need to Know About the Web I Learned from Feminism http://snurl.com/3cypp #
• Vote for my SXSW Panel with @skampy: Making A Living Being Yourself
  http://snurl.com/3cypa #

• Our Brit (Conservative MP staffer) pal just read the horoscope for marriage time for our hosts' daughter. I love traveling. #
• Our train yesterday to Kottayam literally ran over a man and split him in two. Fellow passenger passed around their mobile video of it. #

• Learned today young Spanish kids were blindfolded, fed tomatoes and unable to recognize em. US/busy work life has exported a non-veggie diet #
• Watching group of school girls get taught about computers at a Net Cafe in Southern India. #
• In the beauty of Neyyar Dam, leaving an Ashram and ready to journey to a place with utensils. #

• Me+ Varkala Pamoothar hotel owner: "You told us there was hot water." "Don't waste my time." "Isn't my time valuable too?" "no." #

How to Use an Indian Toilet, originally uploaded by subvert.com.

Posted inside the washroom of Fusion restaurant in Kovalam Beach.

• Thinking about joining the protest across the street against the abandonment of little people when I leave the Internet Cafe. #
• I don't want to have any regrets to leave to my children. #

• Heading to Varkala for a beach honeymoon weekend with Stace. Hoping nature forgets it's Monsoon season. #
• Let me know the questions you want to ask people here in southern India and I'll report back. #
• @dmcar to paraphrase @jah from tHGS SXSW 07 twitter is a set in bulding "our mind." Your friends can hear what you're thinking. "Psychic." #
• Can't believe I was teaching folks here at the Technopark about social media for project management. #
• Hungry but hesitant because my poor tongue is saying "no, not another spicy bite..no!" #

• Getting ready to see the Dark Knight Returns with ghee popcorn. #
• Ready to trade half of India's growing tech sector for nationwide toilet paper infrastructure. #
• @Mike_FTW What?! Heather Armstrong? #
• Something about Amma's ashram made me want to eat a hamburger and smoke a cigarette. #