There are big feelings, and then there are small feelings. Big feelings let me feel the deep breaths, they allow me to remember the heat of the sunrise or the pain of lonely skin or the ego of the big praise. Small feelings are sharper and yet they go forgotten. These are pains of routine, or a happy conversation with a usually terse person. This week has been about the small feelings, there was a lot of unusual routine, much more reading than some other weeks but an unusally forgetfull week in the context of the recent many weeks. I think the most representative of this, is that my phone gallery for this week is empty.
I finished reading Aruna Roy’s The Personal is Political. I found it unusually full of verbose statements. I haven’t read a lot of memoirs, but I could not get myself to complete the last few pages. Rather, I found it good to learn of small, crucial moments in Indian political history, of the RTI, MNREGA or of 2002, as I have remarked in some of my previous weekly notes.
Yesterday the PGSL organised the Kalyana Karnataka Karawaan. People found it very easy to take to rapideditor.org, a website developed by Meta to make contributing to OSM easier. I find Shreyas going to Vatican City as a reference for how densely and how well spaces could be mapped. I find myself wanting to better represent land cover more than the urban.
தமிழக நகரங்கள், நகரமயமாக்கல் - வரலாற்றியலும் தொல்லியலும் என்ற தொகுப்பை படிக்க தொடங்கியுள்ளேன். குன்று, குடி, பாடி, சேரி , ஊர், பேரூர், நகர், மாநகர், பட்டினம் ஆகிய வார்த்தைகள் மக்கள் வெவ்வேறு திணைசார் வாழ்வியல்களை தொடங்கியதுடன் சேர்ந்து தொடங்கும் வார்த்தைகளாக எடுத்துக்காட்டுகிறார்கள். ஊர்களை குறிக்க இத்தனை வார்த்தைகள் இருப்பதை இப்போது தான் கவனிக்கிறேன். கன்னட, அல்லது உருது மொழியிழும் இத்தனை வார்த்தைகள் இருப்பதா என்ற யோசனையும் தோன்றியது. அடுத்த முறை பீதர் செல்லும் பொழுது மக்களுடன் இதை பற்றி கேட்டு அறிய வேண்டும்…
This reminds me of this: While we call them stepwells or wells in English, they are much more richly varied in the region. Called as Bawdi (pronounced Bawdi, Baawi, or Baawri), kalyanis or Baaram Baawis, each coming from cultural and daily uses that vary. English is a limiting language. Shreyas has been talking about this for sometime and asked at the Kalayana Karnataka Karawaan if OpenStreetMap can accomodate more regional tags. We might consider writing a proposal for the OSM Community to formally consider this.
