Author: navin

Rejoice: German-style board-games now available in India

I have been a fan of German-style boardgames (aka Eurogames or Designer Games) for over 10 years now. My friends know that I have a big collection of these games, and this year, we’ve started the concept of ‘Games Night’ at our place where 10-20 people show up on a Saturday and play these games until Sunday morning.

I bought most of these games while we were staying in the US, and kept adding to the collection on every US trip. Unfortunately, my US trips have stopped, and my collection is now no longer fresh. That is why I was particularly happy to see this website which now makes these games available in India. Very cool. I haven’t ordered from them yet, so cannot comment upon their customer service etc., but hopefully soon.

Those who’re wondering what’s the big deal about these games is, here are the salient features:

  • These are board games, to be played with real people, face to face, not computer games
  • These are games that are not as stupid, and mindless as monopoly, but also not as brain-bending as chess
  • These games are designed to be played by families or groups of friends – lots of interaction, lots of fun, and get over in a couple of hours.
  • The games have beautiful components

For a more detailed explanation, see the wikipedia page

Preventing child sexual abuse – What every Parent should know and do

About 15 to 20% of adults report receiving some form of sex abuse as kids. That’s right 15-20%. Which means, if you know 6 kids, there is a high probability that one of them is being, or will be sexually abused. This abuse can range from inappropriate and repeated touching, all the way to penetrative sex. And it is happening all around you. And it affects girls and boys equally (below the age of 12, after which girls are more affected).

But, most of it can very easily be prevented. All you need to do is to have a simple 15 minute chat with your children, once every six months. This chat does not involve talking about sex, does not involve talking about genitals, and is not an uncomfortable chat, and is not scary for children.

Here is a video of what this chat is like:

If you can’t see the video above, go to see it on YouTube

That is Dr. Bhooshan Shukla, a Child Psychiatrist going through one such session.

That’s it. That’s all you need to do.

For more detail on the Hows and the Whys and FAQs, see Dr. Shukla’s blog post on this subject. By the way, you should subscribe to his blog too.

Again, this is important, this is easy. Please do it.

And please spread the word.

This is not a problem that affects only western countries, or only kids in slums, or only kids from broken families. It affects everyone. That’s why you need to do this.

If you don’t have kids, I’m sure you know others who have kids. Please tell them about this.

If you would like such a session to be conducted in your society/school, but are not confident enough to do it on your own, you can contact me, or Dr. Shukla, or meetu (email), and we can figure something out.

Update: from Dr. Shukla on 11 August 2011:

This video is gathering steam. Almost 18,000 vies at the last
count. I am answering about 25 e-mils every day (since last one month!) about abuse and people’s experience when talking to kids. So far views and mails form over 20 countries (all 5 continents!)

I think we have acquired some really good karma here.

Please continue to spread the word. Thanks.

What do Indians on the Internet think of various people

Today, while I was catching up with my RSS feeds in google reader (i.e. wasting time on the internet), I saw this cute map: The United States of Autocomplete. At this point, I decided that instead of wasting time reading other peoples’ blogs I would waste time writing my own blog. So I decided to see how some prominent Indian names/phrases fare under Google autocomplete.

All these results have been obtained by typing the first word or words in Google search and noting down what Google suggested as the first suggestion.

Tried some cities. Pune university. Bombay high court. Delhi metro. Chennai rain. Trivandrum airport. So, apparently, people in Pune are studious, in Bombay they are litigative, and in Trivandrum, they’re just trying to get out.

Politicians were more interesting:

  • “Sonia Gandhi biography”. Really? That’s what people find most interesting about her? I was vaguely dissatisfied, so I looked at the remain suggestions, and was further appalled: “Sonia Gandhi hot”, “Sonia Gandhi photos”. Yikes! The internet sure has some weirdos. And the next was “Sonia Gandhi address.” I hope CBI is taking note.
  • Rahul Gandhi girlfrield. Yep! Even after so many years, people are primarily concerned about that. No wonder he fared so badly in Bihar.
  • Atal Bihari Vajpayee poems. Poor guy. After all he’d done, he’s going to be remembered as the PM who used to quote poems in parliament.
  • Suresh Kalmadi Jokes. Not surprised!
  • Sharad Pawar international school. Also Sharad Pawar college of pharmacy. Followed by Sharad Pawar cancer.
  • Raj Thackeray ringtones. Yup, really, that’s the second suggestion. Scary!
  • Shashi Tharoor weds Sunanda Puskhar.

I decided to move on to media:

  • Arnab Goswami is a moron. Ok I cheated a little. The first result is “Arnab Goswami twitter.” But I swear the 4th result is “Arnab Goswami is a moron.”
  • Rajdeep Sardesai salary. (Actually the first three results were “blog”, “twitter”, and “email”, but it’s interesting that so many people are interested in his salary.)
  • Udayan Mukherjee wife. Poor guy. How prominent does a guy have to be before people start taking an interest in him and not his wife?
  • Barkha Dutt Husband. After all the #barkhagate and #radiatapes affairs, this is the top search on Google?!

I was sure Bollywood would generate some interesting ones. So here they are:

  • Deepika Padukone in bikini.
  • Gul Panag hot videos. All her intelligent conversations on twitter haven’t helped.
  • Kajol baby boy. Ouch!
  • For most actors (Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor the first three results were “twitter”, or “biography”, or “blog”.)
  • Rakhi Sawant is a man. Obviously this wasn’t the first suggestion, but really, there are people searching for this phrase?!
  • Raju Hirani next. Wow. That, If a majority of the people on the internet are wondering what is your next project, that is a major achievement

You have any interesting ones to add to this list?

(Random FYI: “Navin Kabra” gets “old songs” as a suggested completion.)