Elementary...My Dear Watson!!!!!!!!!!

Jasmine revolution

2011-03-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

The newspapers in Middle east have only one thing that to report form December. It is the Jasmine revolution that is spreading across Middle East countries one after another, starting with Tunisia in December and might be ending in Libya

Gaddafi is one leader who might succeed to overcome the revolution and continue in power. Pro Gaddafi forces are taking control of situation in Tripoli. Will this be the end of Jasmine revolution in the Middle East, coz there are some more countries that can use the benefits of revolution.

If the revolution could succeed in Tunisia and Egypt, what makes Libya so different that it is not succumbing to the revolution. Are the people not as motivated as the citizens of Egypt or Tunisia, probably not as looking at the reports, the citizens are as motivated in bringing about change in the country.

The only possible explanation is Gaddafi has more military control and his friends are not deserting him at the time of such revolution. His control on Tripoli seems so complete that the revolution is not spreading to the capital city. This is the place where the revolution has to come if there has to be an iota of chance for Gaddafi to be overthrown

If the revolutions here is drawn to stalemate and the protesters continue to loose, it might be bad news to the protesters in Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen and Oman.

One question that remains is why isnt the international community helping the revolutionaries when their own government is using military resources against them. How can a leader who uses force justify his presence as a leader.

But whatever be the case, it is interesting times for the Middle East. One question I never found, why are there so many dictators in this part of the world. Is there something in geography and genetics that predicates dictatorship

Research budget and companies

2010-10-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

There are lots of things that you can observe by being in a research company. Apart from the single fact that you might be one of the few persons who would have the information of a launch of a new product to the expansion of company to a new geography, you can also be the judge of the direction the economy is heading towards

In a recession economy, one of the major casualty is the research budget. It is hard for a research manager in a company to justify the enormous budgets he commands in a company. It i especially true for projects which are run on a regular basis. The ad hoc projects which are in majority used for estimating the demand for a new product also dry up. In the same way, when an economy is recovering, companies would like to test their products and are in constant need to self evaluate their position int he market. So the point I am trying to raise is the amount of work a research firm has indicates the direction of the economy.

Dubai has been reeling under recession for the past one and half year or more and recently the amount of projects being given to research companies has seen an increase. Could this mean that Dubai is recovering?

Another possible explanation is what is commonly termed as sunset budget. The research budget in companies are approved in the first quarter and the research managers in their own frugal mindset spend minimal amounts in the second and third quarter. This puts enormous pressure on them for the fourth quarter. In their own self aggrandizing mentality they would like to complete the budget in order to increase their budget and position next year. So the net effect is commissioning of lot more studies in the last quarter.

So now that you know research companies are billing more this months, does it mean Dubai is coming back or is it the research budget being spent by overzealous research managers. Could be anything, but the net effect is I would have lots of work in the next three months.

An associated problem with this is sudden increase is the effect it has on the manpower of research agencies and the quality of life of the researchers. I guess it requires another post in itself.

Is there a international division of labour

2010-05-26T03:07:00.000-07:00

One of the outcomes of the recent Greece crisis is the debate that is been going on about international division of labor and how this in effect contributes to crisis.

No other place is this division of labor more apparent than Dubai and Middle East. Although the organization i work for does not subscribe to this model, you can see clear difference in some of the organizations with big names

Carrefour Dubai is owned as a joint venture of Carrefour and Majid Al Futaim, with MAF being the majority holders but a silent partner. In terms of management, all the senior management roles are held by expat French and I could overhear some conversation being in French, The middle management is dominated by South Asians and some GCC arabs. The from end is predominately Filipino. This division of labor seems to be running very well for Carrefour.

So i guess the world is classifying itself into various labor divisions. However this reminds me of Strategy professor in college who was of the opinion that innovation and consultancy roles that are remaining in the west cannot be occupied by the new workforce coming from West, as they do not have shopfloor experience to innovate in shopfloor or recommend new strategies for revamping a production line.

So should the world go for division of labor

Editorial and their content

2010-03-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

Reading editorials of a newspaper is something I picked up some 10 years back and have enjoyed it so far. Let the newspaper be Hindu, DC, TOI, South China Post, Guardian or anything else, editorials provided an insight into the thinking of the newspaper as an entity and the general thought process of the editorial team and the country.

The major newspaper in this region now is the Gulf News. The physical copy of the newspaper is so heavy that it would give competition to the dumbbells if I ever try using them. The paper covers the news in the whole Middle East region as well as the West and South Asia.

However a brief glimpse of the editorial is enough to make you want to through the newspaper away. This paper lacks a thought in its editorial. It is just another means of dissipating information rather than trying to evoke a thought from the readers by expressing the view of the editor. This might appeal to the cult which claims that people are intelligent to make their own views….just give them news, but I guess I subscribe to a different thought process

Look at the recent ed piece on VOIP introduction in UAE. It does not comment on the direction of opening of telephony nor does it give suggestions on the harms of opening up. The telephone industry in UAE is plagued with problems of high base cost as well as variable cost and the government is not using the modern technology of VOIP to lower the cost for consumers. I understand the apprehensions of the government in opening of VOIP services for security reasons, but the technology has grown to such heights that the problems associated can suitably be addressed. All these issues were never discussed in the editorial piece and this is a problem that the newspapers should address.

The success of a newspaper is measured by the success of the editorial columns of newspaper and as in research process, the citation of editorial pieces of a newspaper is one indication of the success. I guess Gulf news has lot of catching up on this aspect.

Match worth waiting

2009-12-08T01:16:00.001-08:00

So tonight Juventus plays Bayern Munich for the spot in last 15 in champions league and I could say this might be the only reason to stay up till 3.30 am on a working day.

Every year in the CL, there is a group which has two big names and their matches are always good, but it has not come to this where the last match kind of decides who would get through to the round of 16.

The two teams are old horses who in between them have won 5 CL’s so far but it still kind of is not the great one as these teams are still in rebuilding stages. This kind of makes it up cause you can always state that you were following them from the time when they were building up.

So waiting for the big match tonight

Global Warming Dissenter: Is he worth it

2009-04-10T22:27:00.001-07:00

Marc Morano is a name which was always thought of as the name which would provide the unbiased issue on Global warming. Initially his whole campaign started as working in Senate. However now he seems to have made a name outside Senate and is working on developing a new website which would provide another aspect of Global Climate.

Climate Depot is the new website started by him which would be a collection of all articles which would provide an alternate explanation to Global warming and climate change.

The recent op-ed piece in Hindu has some interesting features on this and also provides some comments from his critics. Also the the author goes about finding the sourcing for the website. The Committee for Conservative Tomorrow which is one of the main source for the website has received funding from Exxon and for this reason the effort is being disregarded. I would like to believe that the research funded by Exxon would be biased but there might be a chance somewhere that with so much funding going against them, they are justified in trying to prove that maybe Exxon and other oil firms might not have such a big hand in Global Warming.

Although I would like to believe in sustainable development, I would like to go on the from of Karma. Maybe this generation is destined to wreck the earth as we know and some other form of living in earth is the source for future generations. Who Knows

Blind Date

2009-04-06T20:21:00.001-07:00

I was reading through one particular blog and it talked about this concept of Blind date that Satyam Cinema in Chennai has introduced.

I really like this concept. Surprise me is the new phenomenon. For the past 10 years all things that have been introduced has been the choice of the people, what they want, they get it.

This stems from the business concept of customer feedback and developing products based on that need. However sometimes companies introduce new products and hope that customers would like the idea and realise that there was a need for such a idea, but they did not know how to express the idea.

Lets hope Hyderabad multiplexes realise this concept and work out something like this. I really want to try this.

Piracy at a different level

2009-04-05T22:25:00.001-07:00

Every one is aware of piracy being a problem in both music and movie industry. So far the songs and movies are available online with few hours of the release.

The music industry has its own problem with U2 latest album downloaded in India even before its official launch. This is the problem with geographical release. This has been the justification provided in India for a lot of illegal downloads, timing and release of new music and movies.

I know a fan of Arctic Monkey who just cant get a CD to purchase in certain places and had to resort to downloading it illegally.

The heights of piracy was achieved with X Men: Wolverine. The movie is not stated to be released till May first week and the official date in India is not out. But just visit some of the sites and you have a version available, one full month. Fox claims that the movie is not complete and has some scenes, special effects and music missing, but on the whole it is the same movie. It was released on April 1st leading people to think it was a fake, but seems like someone did manage to get a copy one whole month before the release.

Looks like we have a new piracy trouble ahead.

Doha Debates

2009-04-05T21:49:00.001-07:00

BBC India runs Sunday night debates which seem to be the best intellectual discussion that we can hear on Indian television network. The debates that we usually are accustomed to involve hard shouting and the maximum decibel competition. The program called “ We the People” has become a farce and this has forced me to shift to Doha debates and I would vote for it as the best program so far.

Last Night had this wonderful discussion on Obama’s resolution to get tough on Israel. We had someone who supports it for the reason that he feels US should leave Israel alone as US foreign policy is being dictated by them and this would give it a fresh perspective. A former Israel Knesset Speaker who argues it is time for US to get tough with Israel, a Harvard Law Professor who states that this resolution would give a wrong message to the region and the world, as this involves getting soft of Syria, Iran and Palestine and finally a Israel parliament member who sees Israel as an ally in war against Iran and that US should concentrate on them.

All arguments sound logical and my stand on this seems to be the conflict in the middle east seems to be the centre for all the problems associated with the world these days. Even if the Israelis fanatically state that it is not a religious war and that Al Qaeda terrorism in not linked to Israel, it would be just a divisionary tactic. We have tried 40 years of being soft on Israel and not pushing them to accept the terms the region dictates and it is time for a fresh and innovative approach.

As the debaters were playing with the semantics, I have realised all of them want the same thing, solution to the regions’ trouble. They might try mitigating the losses involved on their side, but it is time to give big concessions and achieve some peace in the troubled region. This might involve Israel giving up on all its settlements and claim for complete Jerusalem. It is time US makes Israel realize that solution is needed and if they do not get it, it would mean cutting aid, including military.

NDTV Fiasco

2009-01-31T01:05:00.001-08:00

It has been four days and any major blogger in India is caught up in one issue………How would the war between Barkha Dutt/ NDTV with the blogger called Chetan Kunte lead to

Frankly I have to agree that this is far more interesting than the recent Rafa match.

Now even on 26th if people have been following Twitter closely, apart from the usual updates from scene as well as TV , there were decent tweets on how the media has handled themselves. Although I do not have the stats now, there were lot of tweets which were complaining on the way the mainstream media was handling the situation. I remember this particular scene where a foreigner ( dont remember the nationality) has just come out and said he would not like any comments and Barkha Dutt asked some personal question, and the tweets criticising her went up by miles.

No for once the justification for the legal notice cannot be from the ones who claim to be upholding the freedom of expression.

http://www.countercurrents.org/karun300109.htm seems to have a nice argument against her legal notice.

Is it really that important to Barkha Dutt that everyone appreciate her work and not say anything about her. I have had so many discussions of the whole 26th media coverage over drinks and I assure you it has not been nice.

People like criticising …be bold and take it and improve your show…..Maybe people are not good to play with words without getting personal.

She should realise Internet is only used for two reasons mostly……Porn and Criticism!!!

The United States of Tara

2009-01-30T22:00:00.001-08:00

The TV series for people with different taste has just got interesting. Steven Spielberg is producing this TV series called “The United Series of Tara”. It is not being aired in India, but for the people with right resources you could find a way of watching this.

The series is about this person with MPD or DID and she decided to stay off from the meds and deal with life with different alters. So the comedy ensures when she changes her personalities when she cant deal with the situation or gets into awkward situations.

So it is a comedy with her family and sister dealing with her various alters and how she can cope with it. There are three episodes of it available on net and I am betting on this one to be my series to watch out. This does not have that real need to be funny like those coming on TV in India and al those weird romantics like One Tree hill or so…..and trust me that Indian …english drama series is getting into that mode lately.

So this thing got me thinking, why are the TV series in India concentrating on romantic drama or comedy ( lots of romance in this also). I am not sure what is the target audience for them

As I am not so in touch lately what are the options for teens or early twenties in India, language not being bar.

The latest report I have been reading, the series called One Tree Hill, some school, college kids drama has music as a big theme and this makes them get some of interesting bands and play in the show. Has anything happened so far in Indian series. There was this one episode in Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, where some famous singers were involved in the episode.

Looks interesting topic to have conversation on……any thoughts?

Bhaiya's answer to MNS Raj

2008-11-05T04:24:00.000-08:00

Hamilton – the new Tiger

2008-11-04T07:12:00.001-08:00

Sunday nights usually are the most boring and depressing moments in a working person's life (not that I have a traditional office job) but this Sunday was different. At around 10pm in the night the culmination of this season's major spectacle started.

Lewis Hamilton was racing to win the championship and he was fitted against the entire up and nature (even Jenson Button, Sebastien Vettel and Timo Glock had some bearing on this race)

The race started interestingly with rain 10 minutes before the race and a delay in start up and the safety car just after the first round. (good that Coulthard is retiring....he has caused more disruptions this season that finishing races). The race than was more or less eventless till the 60^th lap. Massa was leading and Hamilton was in 4^th position which would ensure that Hamilton would win the championship. Than the drama began unfolding......rain drops and heavy rain ensured that the cars had to pit again to change to intermediates. Toyota gambled and left Glock out without changing his tyres effectively changing the line up. Hamilton was left at 5^th place and with Vettel gaining on him every lap. Than Mr. Button decided to act and have his mar on the championship. He decides to go ahead of Hamilton and Vettel ( although a lap down) and eventually forcing Hamilton to go wide and open up space for Vettel to go ahead of Hamilton. This got the whole Ferrari crew jumping ( almost till the final 30 seconds of the race ) and would have stayed that way but for Glock's gamble. The rain started pouring hard and he could not handle his car effectively. This made sure Hamilton overtake him on the last lap and finishing in 5^th place. Hamilton won the championship by a single point and in turn become the youngest F1 champion. I guess the mistakes of the last season were corrected where Kimi beat Hamilton by the events of single race.

This raises the question...does Hamilton deserve to win the championship......The answer is resounding YES. True driver would gain for consistency and not for maverick one off attempt.( This is why Liverpool can win Champions League but not Premier League) Statistics of the season reveal more details on this

Although Massa has more wins than Hamilton, he loses out on consistency
- Hamilton has more top 5 finishes than Massa
- Hamilton has more point finishes
- Hamilton has more race completions than Massa.

We are rewarding for consistently driving the races rather than just winning them ( I guess this is the logic for having a scoring system )

I am not a big fan of Michael Schumacher, but would have to agree with the fact that he was the one holding the interest in F1. He was the main attraction for F1 and his retirement has left F1 with lees attraction for masses. Bernie was doing everything with changes to rules and venues but he has got his answer from most unlikely sources. Lewis Hamilton is the answer to his attracting the attention back to the sport.

The last two seasons had the same excitement and drama as hey days of early Schumi days. Hamilton , his background, ethnicity, rivalry with drivers, choice of girlfriends ( cmon!!!!! seeing Nicole in the pits was exciting and titillating.... ) has brought the excitement to the racing. It gives that extra motivation to log onto you television or web to follow the races. Even betting with friends on the races has become more interesting (I just won a bottle of Glenfiditch) and passion for the sport is on rise again.

Hamilton can do to F1 what Tiger did to Golf. He is the new delight for marketers all over the world. He is sellable and is champion. He is the inspiration that has been missing in the sport for the last 4 years or so. Hamilton evokes the same hope that Obama is able to garner. ( I know...politics and sports should not be mixed.....but it is Nov 4^th and no article is complete without invoking Obama's name) . He is 23 and has a great deal of time left in him to win races and has the personality of a champion. He would be inspiration to all the budding drivers from different backgrounds and would make it bigger than Tiger

Personal Branding: are we doing too much

2008-11-04T07:02:00.001-08:00

I got organized recently and put all my feeds into RSS Bandit and read it offline ( all you techies have been doing it for long......but I am late on this) Anyway one of the default options that comes with this is the blog called Violent Acres. One of his article talks about Dan Schawbel and this man is a personal branding expert.

According to him "Personal branding describes the process by which individuals and entrepreneurs differentiate themselves and stand out from a crowd by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition, whether professional or personal, and then leveraging it across platforms with a consistent message and image to achieve a specific goal. In this way, individuals can enhance their recognition as experts in their field, establish reputation and credibility, advance their careers, and build self-confidence"

This got me thinking.....Are we doing it to too much....... I mean we are making ourselves into salesman even before we leave kindergarten and now we have to brand ourselves.

My marketing prof was adamant that an honest communication of the characters of the product would be sufficient to brand a product. You would have to get yourself a nice product and the honest communication is sufficient to build a great brand. The product is what ultimately sells.......a bad product never has a honest communication and the recipe is a disaster.

Extending this......we are a product and our actions communicate our brand. Why do you need to brand yourself.

People have too much insecurities and the result is these phony preofessions.

Al Gore----- does he think right?

2007-12-10T10:27:00.001-08:00

Al Gore in his speech of receiving the Nobel Prize has referred to climate change as some planetary emergency. This speech has got me to thinking on two fronts which are related but in different angles.

Firstly the choice of words and the power of PR in this world. I had been educated from childhood that the language plays an important part and that vocabulary is important in conveying your feelings. However by the time I started attending college I have realized that playing with the words is an industry by itself. The journalism or PR industry has been using this for sometime to play with the emotions of millions of people. Now look at the choice of words used by Mr. Gore. " planetary emergency".....would this have more impact than using normal conversation word like climate change is in critical stage and cant be ignored. He painted a gloomy picture of what the future lies ahead for us if we dont tackle climate change seriously. Although we might not be having the effect felt right his choice of words would make people notice it and start thinking of it....

I guess i would have to give in to his speech writers ( reminds me I need to write press release we would do)

Second point is Mr. Gore's argument in terms of China. He says that developing countries should not follow the path pursued by the west for their development and harm mother earth further. They should use a different, innovative approach for the development. Although this sounds purely idealistic and would find arguments against hard to come.....the point that people would like to come with is!!! Who would pay for researching this technique of development. Should the developing countries which have the right to pursue development for their citizens or the developed countries who have more responsibility in finding methods of repairing their spoils.

If the burden is laid on the developing countries then they would ignore it as transferring funds to research when it can be used to alleviate people from poverty would be next to impossible. The motivation to pursue the research is unconvincing. However the west this is almost non existent form. They would rather pursue the ways of controlling the emissions from their part of world than pursuing sustainable development model. The west would not subsidise for the benefit of developing countries unless they see some economical benefit for themselves ( other than the real benefit of living in a sustainable environment)

As long as this paradox is not solved I guess Al Gore's vision for developing countries would remain a vision!!!

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, Sustainable development, north South relations

India: Road ahead

2007-12-06T09:45:00.001-08:00

Victor Mallet in his article "The utopian myth of India's double dividend" provides an argument that India like China cannot afford to slip from its 8% growth rate or they would face political and social upheavals. There is very good logic in this argument.

Supporters of India and other have been claiming that demographic and democracy will help India lead itself to the promised sate of development. However as this article states and numerous reports suggest, the demographic population might not be a advantage in future. The population would be biased towards the working ages but the question remains on the employability of these people. 71million young people in 5 years. Does our economy have the ability to absorb this. If not that social unrest caused by them would lead to undesired state in India.

Democracy is half working and would not be able to sustain this unrest.

I sincerely hope we continue growing at 8% so that I can continue my nice existence, happily working on Dell laptop, watching TV on plasma screen, talking on cell phones and playing my PSP while thinking of ideas of selling premium products to the 1.1 billion population

Quote of the Day:
Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside of them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must
--Muhammad Ali

Technorati Tags: India, economy, growth, sustainance

Small is beautiful

2007-12-03T20:44:00.001-08:00

In the article that appeared in FT today, Gideon Rachman had an interesting observation. Small is beautiful. I am including his complete article and would like to think what would happen to India if this concept is applied. ould we have about 28 states nd some more fighting among these states and then 40 countries in South Asia. What would we achieve by doing this. He seems to think that we will have lots of benefits, but then would it for sure

For nations, small is beautiful

By Gideon Rachman

Published: December 3 2007 19:46 | Last updated: December 4 2007 04:22

Europe seems intent on slicing itself up into ever smaller pieces. In the next month, Kosovo is likely to declare independence – making it the seventh new country to emerge from the wreckage of Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union has given way to 15 new states. Even in western Europe, there is talk of Belgium dividing in two, while a pro-independence party has taken power in Scotland.

People tend to treat countries that split up a bit like married couples. It is a sad event. And it is true that a unilateral declaration of Kosovan independence could cause a new crisis in the Balkans.

But if the formation of new countries can be achieved peacefully, it is usually a cause for celebration. This is the age of the small state.

Look at almost any league table of national welfare and small countries dominate. The International Monetary Fund’s ranking of countries by gross domestic product per capita shows that four of the five richest countries in the world have populations of less than 5m. (The US – placed fourth in wealth-per-head – is the exception.) The Global Peace Index, produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranks nations by criteria such as homicide rates and prison populations and it too makes pleasant reading for pocket-sized countries. The most peaceful place on earth is, apparently, Norway (quite cold, though) and eight of the 10 most peaceful countries have populations of less than 10m.

The World Economic Forum’s competitiveness index suggests that five of the seven most “competitive” countries have populations of less than 10m. The Human Development Index – which ranks countries by measures such as life expectancy and education – places only one large country in its top 10: Japan.

Look at the issue from the other end of the telescope and you can see why it pays to be small. Of the five most populous countries in the world, only the US is rich. Brazil, China, India and Indonesia are growing fast, but they still rank as developing nations. Governing them presents awesome challenges.

I remember visiting Palaniappan Chidambaram, who was then India’s trade minister (he is now finance minister), some years ago. Mr Chidambaram seemed a little depressed,so I asked what was bothering him. He groaned and said that he had been visited by Finland’s trade minister. This alone did not seem like a cause for melancholy, so I pressed him further. “Do you know what the population of Finland is,” he asked? “Five million. We have 5m blind people in India.”

Of course, Indians are not always downcast by the size of their country. In fact, they sometimes boast that India is on track to overtake China as the world’s most populous country.

But taking pride in the sheer size of your country is increasingly anachronistic.Traditionally it has been good to be a big country for two main reasons: prosperity and security. A big country meant a bigger market and so more trade and wealth creation. A large nation was also more powerful and less likely to be invaded.

But in the modern world, both these advantages seem to be diminishing.

Globalisation has opened up markets across the world. China and India are getting richer largely because they have access to the markets of the developed world, not because of the size of their domestic markets. Small countries can trade their way to success even more swiftly. Think of Singapore or Switzerland.

Small is also no longer synonymous with insecure.

In Europe, many minnows have enhanced their security by joining Nato. This is sometimes denounced as free-riding. Belgium or Luxembourg can afford to be small, secure and smug – because they are under the security umbrella, proffered by big and generous Uncle Sam.

But joining a collective security organisation is not an absolute necessity for a small country. Ireland and Switzerland are not members of Nato – and neither appears to be in imminent danger of invasion.

The fact is large countries are now less instinctively expansionist than they were in the days of empire. These days, invading and occupying small countries can be a massive pain in the neck – as the US has discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since the traditional disadvantages of being a tiddly country are disappearing, you are just left with the advantages.

Above all, small countries tend to be more homogenous. This makes them less prone to civil strife or dictatorship. It also means higher levels of social trust – which may be why small Scandinavian states are willing to spend so much on health and education and fare so well on human development indices.

Governments in small countries also find it easier to craft and implement policy – an advantage that might be replicated in the US by federalism. Small, homogenous countries should also be less tempted to waste money on pork-barrel projects, designed to buy off discontented minorities.

Declaring independence is also a splendid marketing gimmick. Who gave much thought to the Baltic states when they were part of the Soviet Union? But now a country like Estonia has a distinct international identity – which is very useful in attracting tourists and investment.

Given all this, it is hardly surprising that the number of new nations is proliferating. In 1945, the United Nations had just 45 members. By 1968, after decolonisation, it had 126 members. Now the number of nations represented at the UN is 192. Drink a toast to the age of the small country when it breaks 200.

gideon.rachman@ft.com

Technorati Tags: Politcs, states

Quote of the Day:
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
--George Moore

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment - Groundhog Day

2007-11-27T19:53:00.001-08:00

The editorial comment on climate change has got me to think hard on these systems. It has now become imperative for all the governments to realize that keeping mum about the carbon emissions is contributing to the world pollution in much higher amounts than realizing this.

This is similar to the conversation I was having with one of my friend about obesity in India. Although we have been having this problem for sometime, it has not dawned upon us that this was a problem till the west has thrust upon us.

Anyway getting back to the main article of climate control, the two methods as suggested by the editor are taxes and cap and trade emission control. As we would have realized, it is not just the developed countries, taxes are hugely unpopular even in countries like India. So we need a unique solution and although the carbon trading system has its own fallacies it might be a reasonable option for us. As Herbot Simon puts it, a good enough solution or a bounded rationality approach for climate change is Carbon Trading. So what is the problem : first the establishment of the system is quite difficult. England which has been pioneer in the field of carbon trading have been practicing this for sometime ( although it is only practice and not real until now) and this could be a starting point for us.

Some of the questions that need to be answered are:

Does the government have enough machinery to measure the output and do so in a reasonable manner and within reasonable cost?
Would the government be able to allocate appropriate amount of carbon points to a particular sector? The experience of EU shows the power sector has received unusually less stricter norms.
Will the companies that have been doing some work on this be negatively punished. This is similar to the debate going on in terms of the state allocation of funds in India. The development achieved by some souther and western states in population control have worked negatively for fund allocation as the population had weightage in fund allocation. As we would have realized companies like Tata which are socially and environmentally conscious have been taking strides in controlling emission and working towards better environment would find it tough as the allocation is based on previous emissions. Reducing it from this levels to take advantage of carbon trading would be difficult.
Would all industries be included or in search for the next big industry or the maturity level of industry a concession granted? Doing so would defeat the purpose of this approach.

Also we would have this argument form the industry we have some years left before we can think of environment. It is still our days of indulgence. I guess we cant afford to do this anymore

As India has managed to provide the whole world a new model for communication development in country by skipping the necessity to have land lines everywhere, we might just provide the world with another solution which includes developing with a environmental attitude

P.S. : Mr. Ratan Tata, although I respect you a lot, the 1 lakh car is something which goes the obvious logic keeping the above picture in mind. A Delhi Metro kind of project would help environment and also help Tata to grow profitably.

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment - Groundhog Day

Quote of the Day:
Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
--Dr. George Washington Carver

Technorati Tags: carbon trading environment sustainable development India

Black Friday (shopping) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2007-11-26T06:34:00.001-08:00

This concept of Black Friday. Sometime I wonder if it is the same concept as we have Diwali shopping in Delhi or Durga puji shopping in Kolkatta or the Dusherra or Sankrati shopping down south.

Now lets look at this concept. Why do people like the idea of discounted sale and occasion sale. Although I am not a psychologist or something, I guess people just like it when things are on discount or sale. The people are smart to know that these retailers work on huge profits and they wait for the days when they make these margins reasonable and not insane amounts as they do usually

Now as for the theory of why people line up at 4.00 am.... it is classic game theory at play. If everyone lines up 7.00 am...they would have maintained the same line...but then so e person decided he can beat the line by reaching at 6.55 and if you continue to think all people are rational...all end up loosing and coming at these insane hours of 3.00 or 4.00 am

Black Friday (shopping) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote of the Day:
The bananas were like that when I got here!
--Humpty Dumpty

Technorati Tags: Retail Black Friday

FT.com / Home UK / UK - Man in the News: Nicolas Sarkozy

2007-11-25T00:25:00.001-08:00

Lets face it. Sakozy can never be what Thatcher was. I might sound racist...but the answer is simple...he is French....French love enjoyment....he will not be able to make the tough decisions which "The only man in England" could do :)

FT.com / Home UK / UK - Man in the News: Nicolas Sarkozy

Quote of the Day:
That's right. 'Tain't yours, and 'tain't mine.
--Mark Twain
(when friend said that a certain rich man's money was "tainted")

Technorati Tags: Politics Sarkozy

fun to have such emails in mailbox :)

2007-09-16T09:59:00.001-07:00

For Internal Use of Employer (Please don't delete or modify while replying to this email)

Monster Resume ID: 9124269 Personal Folder ID: 4269451

Dear Vamsi Kiran,
Yahoo Splash Awards Center
124 Stockport Road, Longsight,
Manchester M60 2DB - United Kingdom
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Four Hundred and Twenty Thousand Great Britain Pounds (GBP420,000) for the 2007 Promotion which is Organized by YAHOO AWARDS & WINDOWS LIVE.
YAHOO! collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail and few from other e-mail providers. Six people are selected monthly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners.
PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
Winners shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Centre. Yahoo Prize Award must be claimed not later than 15 days from date of Draw Notification. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.
Stated below are your identification numbers:
BATCH NUMBER: YPA/07-43658
REFERENCE NUMBER: 2007234522
PIN: 1206
These numbers fall within the England Location file and you are requested to contact our fiduciary agent in Manchester and send your winning identification numbers to him;
Agent Name: Rev. Albert Time
E-Mail: talbert02@walla.com
Tel: + 44 704 572 6984
As soon as our agent hears from you, he shall commence the process that will facilitate the release of your fund to you.
Congratulations!! once again.
Yours in service,
Dr. (Mrs.) Edith Barth
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING!
Do not tell people about your Prize Award until your money is successfully handed over to you to avoid disqualification that may arise from double claim.
You may also receive similar e-mails from people potraying to be other Organizations or Yahoo Inc. This is solely to collect your personal information from you and lay claim over your winning. In event that you receive any e-mail similar to the notification letter that was sent to you, Kindly delete it from your mail box and give no further correspondence to such person or body.

This mail has been sent by one of the employers (Employer name: TERRY HAMPTON) accessing the services of monster.com.sg and not by Monster. Monster is committed to protecting the privacy of our users and our “Terms of Use” prohibits any misuse including spamming. If you consider the contents of the mails inappropriate or as spam, please forward this mail to spam@monster.com.sg

Quote of the Day:
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
--George Moore

Technorati Tags: fun, interesting

FT.com / Asia-Pacific / China - Beijing’s food seizure seen as retaliation

2007-06-27T13:11:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: China US Games

What can you say about the Chinese. They can do anything and everything. This is a purge game strategy going on with both parties increasing the stakes.....lets see how it unfolds

FT.com / Asia-Pacific / China - Beijing’s food seizure seen as retaliation

Quote of the Day:
Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.
--Will Durant

The 50 Who Matter Now - Jay Adelson (1) - Business 2.0

2007-06-20T11:54:00.001-07:00

This year's list of 50 who matter has the usual names on the top but some interesting facts are also brought over in the list. For one Private Equity occupies a bigger name than venture capital. This is the trend that people might want to look into future. The other notable feature is omission of Gates. I know he has retired and all that stuff but a list without him kind of feels odd.

There are a bunch of people from Web 2.0 revolution. Some of the people like chairman, president heads of Digg, Tech Crunch, Nina, Joost, Facebook suggests the phenomenon of Web 2.0 in directing the complete business.

Another observation is the power of Green. The only persons related to automobiles in the top 50 is from Toyota and Telsa and I feel Prius has a lot to do with it. Arnie is up there because of his environmental concerns

China and India have there mandatory representation in form of Baidu and Reliance. Although I am not so sure if Reliance fits into the overall theme of Business 2.0

Anyway it is a nice list to have and hope to see that they really do matter in this year also

The 50 Who Matter Now - Jay Adelson (1) - Business 2.0

Technorati Tags: business, influencers

Quote of the Day:
If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.
--George Bernard Shaw

Make GMail the Default EMail Client in Firefox at Digital Inspiration Technology Guide

2007-06-07T13:52:00.001-07:00

I really appreciate Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspiration . He has taken the pain to answer my silly doubt and put my name on his site.....I am almost famous.......

Make GMail the Default EMail Client in Firefox at Digital Inspiration Technology Guide

Quote of the Day:
We're lucky poodles migrate south.
--Al

Technorati Tags: Tech, Gmail, amit

Serie A - Euroscout: Fabio Quagliarella - Yahoo! eurosport UK

2007-06-07T13:45:00.001-07:00

Has Italy found the answer to the long missing striker problem. Looks like this might be it  This kid might go on to be the Roberto Baggio of this decade. For long there have been temporary in form of Totti, Del Piero, Inzaghi ...but if things are as good as anything then we have the next exciting player from Italy.

For me Baggio, inspite missing on the famous penalty has been one of the most charismatic striker who infuses life into the match.

Technorati Tags: Football, Italy, Fabio

Serie A - Euroscout: Fabio Quagliarella - Yahoo! eurosport UK

Quote of the Day:
We're lucky poodles migrate south.
--Al

Windows live writer

2007-05-31T05:55:00.001-07:00

Have recently come across this new version of Windows live writer which allows you to write your blog at any point of time and publish it when you are connected to the net. This cool service is amazing and does not require you to be connected to net all the time...but do i care.....i have free access to net in school and home and this is not what will tempt me.....

However the idea that i can just keep typing at my pace and allow me to structure is what is interesting. It has nice features of add in tools and i hope this increases my pathetic pace of publishing posts

Solution to its India's infrastructure problem

2007-05-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

Recently I have had the opportunity to listen to some distinguished panel speak on infrastructure adequacy in India and the challenges that we face and what are the possible solutions to this problem.

some clearly stated facts in the conference suggest that, these are the facts related to infrastructure in India

Government is really committed to increasing the spending in the infrastructure sector by allocation of 350 billion for infrastructure development
The policies in some sense are archaic but things are improving and there should be hope in terns of changes
Telecommunication sector is the most quoted in any conference either related or unrelated ( ok i agree that is not a fact and just my observation)
There is no dearth of funding for good projects

So what are the real problems that are facing the infrastructure improvement in India

Simply put they can be said as :

Dearth of high quality, supported by good promoters Projects: This means that the quality of established project is quite low in the country. We have lack of good promoters in the country. So there seems to be constraints on the resources of the few big promoters already established in the country. Now Power sector is another big infrastructure segment which is for the right or wrong reasons is quoted always...............Government feels that the country can absorb about 11000 MW of power in the next 4 to 5 years that is by the end of 2011. Now for this kind of power requirement there are 2 problems : fuel and the distribution network. Unless these problems are solved the power companies evaluation and funding will not be on scientific basis. So only companies that have established sources of fuel and also clearly planned merchants to absorb the additional power will be the only ones funded. So again we are back to the problem.....need more credible promoters.

Secondly another problem seems to the lack of corporate debt market in the country. Now I would have got lots of heads thinking on how is this related to the infrastructure segment. It is really simple My dear Watson..........

Now for any new project in the country, funding is done either by debt or equity........the typical gearing ratio in India for infrastructure projects rages from 1/2 to 1/3. so now for such high quantities of debt, what are the options available to the promoters. The banks cannot lend so high amounts because they have there own constraints in terms of assets and liabilities and also the cover ( number of years.....a project life is 20 years...but they would have to lend for only 10 years....causing undue pressure on the valuation of the project). Also the Indian market is structured in such a way that corporates cannot borrow money from outside the country without being taxed ( indirectly...higher interest rate and government conversion tax). Now what does this mean, companies would have to borrow from the general public without giving them equity status. Corporate Bond market can easily fit into this mode. So w would need a credible bond market in our country to channelize the savings of people. The government bond market is running efficiently in the country...so it is time for us now to invest in establishng the Bond market with adequate rating systems.

So what are the solutions to our problems

Allow more foreign equity participation in Infrastructure participation. Reduce the norm for the Indian promoter equity. This would solve the problem of the number of promoters. ( However this would have there own problems------ the way the projects work in India is completely different from the usual world over and as the Chinese say Guanxi is important in India also)
Develop a credible Corporate Bond Market ( all you finance interested students...there you found a new profession...become a bond trader in India)

This might make India run in the race to catch up China.........."China here we come!!!"

2007-02-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

恭喜發財,
年年有餘

For all these people, who do not understand such language, this is a way of greeting for the Chinese new year

The first word can be translated into English as "Kung Hei Fat Choy" which means Congratulations and be Prosperous

The second word can be interpreted as "Nian Nian You yu " which means Every Year, have surplus

So this whole greeting would mean Have a prosperous year .......and Keep having surplus fortune every year

This year is the "Year of Pig" , and is considered to be associated with fortune and luck. The best part is you get to see some people order a complete pig on their dinner table. It is much better than seeing a monkey or something like that

Telugu typing made simple

2007-01-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

తెలుగు లొ కొథగ త్య్పె చ్ెయదమ్ నెర్చ్ుకున. ఈ తయ్ప్ిరితెర్ థొ తెలుగు ఎఙ్లిసశ్ లొనె త్య్పె చ్్యవచ్ు. అన్ధరు దిని వదవవ్హు.

సితె పెరు Pడ్ష్తెెత్

ఛ్ల సిమ్ప్లె గ వదవచ్ు. ఛ్ిన లొ అన్దరు మన్దరిన్ బసశ లొ నె త్య్పె చ్ెస్తరు. ఈలన్తి ిరితెర్ వున్తె తెలుగు కుద పొపులర్ అవుతున్ది

Do birthdays speak something

2007-01-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

Came across this site which provides stats about your Birthday.

As usual did enter and what does the first line state....my date of conception....totally unwanted for ////but keep going and then you will find out some amazing things.....

I share my Birthday with Salma Hayek, Keanu Reeves, Jimmy Connors and Lenox Lewis. So after all i am related to celebrities in some way

Then the most intriguing detail.... "born in the Egyptian month of Hathys, the third month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil)"

This sounds totally cool although i have no idea what it means......

Person of the Year ...Follow up

2007-01-28T07:32:00.000-08:00

As requested ....I nominate Cosmic Voices as the Man of the Year for this Blog......and I hope to get the favor back,.......

I am gonna be the Person of the Year for something

Person of the Year

2007-01-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

What is this obsession with people to nominate person of the year. The year has ended and we have a foray of person of the year

First Time claims "You" as person of the year. We have been having such personalities for sometime now. Then FT comes up with Lakshmi Mittal as their Person of the Year, then some music called Artic Monkeys as the band of the year and so on

I think i should ask my MBA people here to nominate me as the person of the year for the place i have been sitting in my classroom. I might qualify as i am the only person there :)

2007.....whats going to be New

2007-01-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

2006 has been amazing year for everyone and everything, including the disasters. What i would like to see through these couple of posts is will the trend continue to be the same or would we be for some rocking times. The topics i would be covering would be wide and varied

Doing justice to my studying MBA, lets start of with the business world

The major trend that has been observed in 2006 has been the M&A spree in the world. This has not been limited to the advanced developed countries, but also the emerging economies. Acquisitions of emerging economy companies have hogged headlines for sometime. Now what would happen to these trends and would the emerging economy giants be able to compete with the giants of the developed economies.

Before predicting, the reason the global giants have been silent for sometime is the pressure from within for instituting the corporate governance infrastructure and complying with the controversial new laws of US. Now that these things have been sorted out mostly (I would like to believe) things could get difficult for the emerging economy companies.

Recently read an article in Newsweek talking about this acquisitions of 3 major emerging economies, namely China, India and Russia and what lies in store for them.
As the article states, China expansion has been limited to natural resources companies (Sinopec) and ably supported by the government. Other companies like Haier have not managed to acquire (Maytag) and Lenovo which did manage to acquire would need some time to evaluate the success of its acquisition.
The case is not much different in India, which has seen a robust acquisition spree this year. The article questions the ability of these acquiring companies management strength in managing this and I would like to concur with the author in this issue. The management philosophy of all emerging companies is not yet suitable to manage these mature market companies and it would be a long time before they can achieve substantially from these acquisitions.
Finally Russia is just playing to its pure natural resource advantage. All minerals based companies Aluminum, Nickel, Oil are the ones which are expanding and they are tightly under the control of the government (still). There strength lies in commodity pricing which may change anytime (looking at recent trends).

So what is in store for us in 2007. The example set by some companies would continue and there would be some more bold acquisition attempts. The Big Boys would get there act together and we would see some global expansion fights we have not seen from early 80's (when Japanese started expanding). GE, Exxon and Microsoft's of the world in every field would be gearing up for the fights with Sinopec, Infosys, Gazproms.

Happy time for the consumers!!!!!! and also prospective employees

Extreme Banned Commercials - Ikea - Tidy up ! Insane ! Original ! Girl ...

2006-09-23T01:38:00.000-07:00


Banned Commercials from Ikea -> www.be-dumb.com ! A really insane ad that I have come across.

2006-08-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

Dilana - Lithium (Rockstar Supernova)

I think she is gonna be the next superstar

Can brain have a gender!!!!!!!!

2006-08-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

Your Brain is 7% Female, 93% Male

You've got the brain of a manly man
Feelings, schmeelings... tears aren't for you.
You could break both legs and not get misty eyed.
A great problem solver, nothing ever phases you.

What Gender Is Your Brain?

A seeker Soul....is that me?

2006-08-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

You Are a Seeker Soul

You are on a quest for knowledge and life challenges.
You love to be curious and ask a ton of questions.
Since you know so much, you make for an interesting conversationalist.
Mentally alert, you can outwit almost anyone (and have fun doing it!).

Very introspective, you can be silently critical of others.
And your quiet nature makes it difficult for people to get to know you.
You see yourself as a philosopher, and you take everything philosophically.
Your main talent is expressing and communicating ideas.

Souls you are most compatible with: Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

2006-08-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

Marlboro man Commercial 1960's

This is the classis ad that simply revolutionised advertizing

Big Brother in action--Death of Freedom of speech

2006-07-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

There is this strange problem that people in India seem to facing......they cannot access most of the sites on blogspot. When i heard this on some site ..i felt it was some problem that was from google or the ISP's

Then i came across this report. This sounded somewhat far fetched. Maybe some over enthusiastic journalist applying his brain...but then the whole blog world including this site seem to be hanging on this.

After trailing down various sites and then the conversations uploaded....it looks like govt of India has decided to block sites which are on blogspot domain and typepad......

Now what would be the reason for such a move......

First of all Indian broadcasting bill does allow for all kinds of control to them...but can this be done so arbitarily........doesnt this amount to violation of freedom of speech , a fundamental right guaranteed by the Govt of India.....

Now the bigger problem in this market is there is no forthcoming answer from any official corner on the nature and reason for blockage.

Is India going the Chineese way. Is the basic freedom of sppech and expression being curtailed in India. As per the constitution ...this can be blocked only during emergencies and for spreading hatred.....which i think most of the sites are not doing......

There seems to be a enaction of George Orwell's 1984. The information that is allowed...and the medium for information are being modified to suit the requirment of the holders of power (Big Brother in action)

If the case is to curtail the medium of expression....this is sheer hypocricy of the country that claims to have biggest democracry but does not follow the basic principles of democracy. The ususal arguement given in the world by the propogators of Indian democracy over the benefit of being India to China is to enjoy the freedom of speech and democracy.....where is our advantage over China going..........What is all the bragging about when we cant provide the neccesities of democracy to the people.

It is not the end

2006-07-08T03:13:00.000-07:00

Fifa World Cup 2006 Germany: The extravant football bonanza is almost at its final stages.....the last two matches which are gonna decide the first four places are left.........and it is good time to comment on them

First of alll
...this world cup has almost become the lowest scoring worlcup and would give a tough fight to the Italy 90 in stats......what started of as a feast of goals with 6 goals in the first match......has seen less goals and uninspiring goals during the knock out stages......

Some of the awards unless some thing happens dramatically in the last 2 matches

Best Match: Italy vs Ukraine

Best Player: Cannavaro

Best Offensive player: Lucas Podolski

Best inspiring player: Christiano Ronaldo

Best Goal: Maxi Rodriguez

Best Player to wtch out for: Lionel Messi.

The whole team has been going on plans with the fav teams passing on to the next rounds.......but this has been the tournament of the old people.....Zizou risning like Phoenix....Figo ressurecting his career.....beckham playing some football after a long time....

The only people who are going to gain after this world cup would be the Equador people.....Also the Ricardo , the portugese goal keeper will have a rising career because of the world cup.....Christinao Ronaldo who has been booed for every second he touched the football against France will have a nice future if he decides to leave Manu U......with the rooney incident he might consider this as a valid option....

This world cup has demonsterated that the back 4 can get you the club...or atleast to the last stages.......The France team which actually has nothing to offer other than Zizou should have been eliminated at the end of first round are vying for the championship....

Life is full of strange reasoning........

The Hostel

2006-07-08T02:54:00.000-07:00

I have just moved into hostel to do my education or rather live during the so called stage of higher education and i dint something to celebrate this....by watchng this movie :The Hostel

This is another classic by the movie maker, Tarantino himself...actually it isnt..as techically he hasnt done anything in that part and he has just given his credentials to it...but people who have followed his movies would understand that there is everything that is to be with the Tarantino movie......

The movie starts as usual in the drug haven of Amsterdam.....(actually i just want to go to Amsterdam for the heck of it to know what this means).....and then it travels all over the Eastern europe and then there are these amazing girls in the movie which make you tick the minute you have a look.....

then starts the real fun...the gory Hospital...where the torture of human beings is done for the fun part of it.....who could have thought that there are sickos in the world who would have fun torturing the others and there are these minute details added to the movie....

the cost for the locals is low....then the Europeans and the highest rate os for the Amereicans......it just can be interpreted as the hatred that is now going in the world against the Americans for their oppresive policies......

The brutal killings....the intruments used for torture have been graphically explicitly shown to draw the exact image needed for the Texas massacre fans.........

A tarantino production and the best way to enjoy is after a good hard day of study or work

Need to change the way the bills are passed in India

2006-05-24T06:10:00.002-07:00

The new form of entertainment in Indian television is shifting from the normal sitcoms to " interviews with Politicians"

If you have been watching Karan Thapar shows in the recent days then you would understand what i am talking about.

The politicians come for such important TV programs completely unprepared.

Read this and this about the complete interview.

This has led me to a complete different thinking. Have these ministers passed these laws without any basis. How can the government pass such a law without accompanying facts....

I think we need more thoughts on this and I think this would involve a change in the way a bill has to be passed. I think there should be some mode for public acceptance or suggestions incoporated. More on this later

Need to change the way the bills are passed in India

2006-05-24T06:10:00.001-07:00

Need to change the way the bills are passed in India

2006-05-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

The perfect end to perfect season

2006-05-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

Last nite was an epcoh in the season of football. Barca won the Champions League finally and brought a happy ending to the season

Barca was a perfect Champion beating Chelsea, AC Milan en route to final and to top it had a wonderful coming from behind match against "Henry - inspired Arsenal"

The match was in a scenic stadium of State de France and had a competitor in Da Vinci release in the romantic city of France

The match was a thorough entertainment from the begining and the rela twist in the tale came in form of sending of Lehman, red carded for fouling Eto...although i belive the refree should have allowed the goal. With Arsenal down to 10 men and against mighty attacking Barca...things looked bright for Barca...However the party was spoiled by Henry. His curling ball was headed by Sol Campbell and the impossible was achieved.

The Arsenal defence showed resilience and the Cup looked heading to Highbury....almost till the 75th minute........then enters the Real man of match. Henrik Larson....he provides a pefect flick to the actual man of the Match Eto who guides it to the net.... Barca continues to press and is rewarded with another goal by Benetti and the provider is again Larson

This showed the attacking play of Barca was superior to the defensive tactics of Arsenal. The man who was supposed to make his mark on history.....Ronaldinho was influential but not his magical bast. This was a team effort and it deserves what it got

I hope we get mor eof these matches in the world cup

Copying, Plagiarism----and all that is to it

2006-05-08T07:02:00.000-07:00

Kavya Vishwanathan became doomed in the world of publishing...as she copied from more than one source. Hailed as the greates young Indian writer for sometime by TOI, she is now tanted almost by everyone . More recently I came across this post where the author mericelesly takes on this unknown author of some unknown book

I have failed to understand what is the problem in copying. We Indians and I believe all these people and Journalist would have passed their 10 and 12 and whatever they went on to study later by just merely reproducing the text book stuff. I am pretty sure that these people did not just copy one passage and made the remaining in "their" words. And for that matter they would not have acknoledge in the manner that we do in our technical matters. We Indians were the first to be taught in "learn and reproduce " manner and these people have just done it.

I think these authors and millions of others are just doing the same. I think the people from whom they have copied should be happy that someone read their passage and copied it.

I think they are imitating and this is the best form of flattery...moreover the other authors also got famous in this way and whoever was that person would not have expected one copy to be sold in India will have some buyers.

"Copying is my birthright and I shall Have it"

P.S For all the people I have not willing copied from any page...but if I have it is just that i admire your writing style and words and am following it. Moreover as they say in Science "thinking at different points" I have had same creativity flash as yours

The Football season ending

2006-04-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

Usually the moth of May leads to a near heart wrenching episodes in the arena called football.

However this year all that hype seems to be loosing its charm

Some of the best matches have turned out to be no goals match. Although I am not contending on the quality of the goal but the mere fact that after 90 minutes of football they have nothing to show other than 0-0 speaks for itself.

Chelsea have managed to get themselves another silverware and the maverick that Murinho is ..he added spice to it by throwing his medal into the crowd and said I dont need the second...who can accept this for a long time ( people wouldnt..but keeping the great football he gets to world..you can excuse this)

The Spanish league is almost over without any battles and the dram on Real another season without silverware continues.

Its only the Italian league which has some action left..maybe Ancelloti and the boys can mange to do something to add to the" last day title"

Even the Champios league matches are ending up with 0-0 scores. The catalans with their fervour for goals and Mialn with Schevcheko, Inzaghi , kaka could not produce a single goal in the second match

The less we talk about Arsenal and Villareal match ..the better. Riqueleme hailed as the next grat by Mardona...forgot the basics of football when he matched Beckham's glory in missing the penalties. This was at 88th minute when a goal would have dramaticall changed everything

I hope the world cup adds something to this..if not depression will continue on the tube

The world Cup mania

2006-04-29T21:50:00.000-07:00

This mail I received aptly describes the mood for the world cup

Dear Wife, Partner, Girlfriend, Significant Other......

Following are the rules that you need to follow during this Football World Cup......

1. From 9 June to 9 July 2006, you should read the sports section of thenewspaper so that you are aware of what is going on regarding the World Cup, and that way you will be able to join in the conversations. If you fail to do this, then you will be looked at in a bad way, or you will betotally ignored. DO NOT complain about not receiving any attention.

2. During the World Cup, the television is mine, at all times, without any exceptions. If you even take a glimpse of the remote control, youwill lose it (your eye).

3. If you have to pass by in front of the TV during a game, I don't mind, as long as you do it crawling on the floor and without distracting me. If you decide to stand nude in front of the TV, make sure you putclothes on right after because if you catch a cold, I won't have time to take you to the doctor or look after you during the World Cup month.

4. During the games I will be blind, deaf and mute, unless I require a refill of my drink or something to eat. You are out of your mind if you expect me to listen to you, open the door, answer the telephone, or pick up the baby that just fell on the floor....It won't happen.

5. It would be a good idea for you to keep at least 2 six packs in thefridge at all times, as well as plenty of things to nibble on, andplease do not make any funny faces to my friends when they come over to watch the games. In return, you will be allowed to use the TV between 12am and 6am, unless they replay a good game that I missed during the day.

6. Please, please, please!! If you see me upset because one of my teams is losing, DO NOT say "get over it, it's only a game", or "don't worry,they'll win next time". If you say these things, you will only make me angrier and I will love you less. Remember, you will never ever know more about football than me and your so called "words of encouragement" will only lead to a break up or divorce.

7. You are welcome to sit with me to watch one game and you can talk to me during halftime but only when the commercials are on, and only if the halftimes score is pleasing me. In addition, please note I am saying "one" game; hence do not use the World Cup as a nice cheesy excuse to "spend time together".

8. The replays of the goals are very important. I don't care if I have seen them or I haven't seen them, I want to see them again. Many times.

9. Tell your friends NOT to have any babies, or any other child related parties or gatherings that requires my attendance because:a) I will not go, b) I will not go, andc) I will not go.

10. But, if a friend of mine invites us to his house on a Sunday towatch a game, we will be there in a flash.

11. The daily World Cup highlights show on TV every night is just as important as the games themselves. Do not even think about saying "but you have already seen this...why don't you change the channel to something we can all watch?" because, the reply will be, "Refer to Rule #2 of this list".

12. And finally, please save your expressions such as "Thank God the World Cup is only every 4 years". I am immune to these words, because after this comes the Champions League, Italian League, Spanish League Premier League, FA Cup, etc.Thank you for your cooperation.

My take on reservations

2006-04-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

My schizophreniatic personality composing of an IIT engineering and having ideas of socialism was put when i had read this and this post on the reservations

Though both the posts are right in logic of theirs ..this is what i call the glass through which you are looking at approach. This reiterates my point that socialogy, one of the most important subject that i had written in an earlier post of mine is completely neglected field andis causing these problems. I believe the merit shoudl not be compromised but at the same point the injutices done for over few centuries have to be set right. For the country to not fall prey to its widening gaps, immediate steps have to be taken to set things right.

The politicians are thinking on these lines is anybodys guess, but the collateral benefit that is induced by their vote garnering techniques of introducing reservation is one thing that needs to be explored.

The nation is growing but only in few pockets with some sections being pushed further down. The use of high security in the residential buildings suggests that things are not right with the way Indian society is moving.

CSR a buzzword in coporate circles is explained as the fear of security concerns among the corporate. The high flashy lifestyle might evoke some reactions among the poor which in turn will be harmful to the corporate finnally. Further this is the only way to increase the purchasing power of 70% of India . Latest reports suggest only 30% of Indians are actually enjoying the benefits of liberalization.

So although I am not clear if reservation is the only method for solving but the intention to solve this economic divide is clearly appreciative

Naxal Movement- Civil War?

2006-04-13T07:04:00.001-07:00

I was browsing through NY times and what strikes me on the most prominent place in the site is this article

The article claims we are in middle of an almost inevitable civil war. I am not sure of the actual situation as my knowledge is limited to the newspapers and televisions...but has the defination of civil war changed.

A civil war as defined by wikipedia is :

A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight for political power or control of an area. Some civil wars are also categorized as revolutions when major societal restructuring is a possible outcome of the conflict. An insurgency, whether successful or not, is likely to be classified as a civil war by some historians if, and only if, organized armies fight conventional battles. Other historians state the criteria for a civil war is that there must be prolonged violence between organized factions or defined regions of a country (conventionally fought or not).

But this defination cannot be applied to the Indian Naxal movement. This is still at infancy stage and does not cover 70% of Indian population.
Further this article has not appeared in any of the Indian papers but has its presence in NY.
A careful tarnish image in making? Only time can say

The fall of legend - Gezika Mendiata

2006-04-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

In the football parlance people might have many greats and legends...but for me legend is the man who has truly inspired his team with his performance. One such person is Gezika Mendiata

For the fans who have regularly followed football in the year of 2000, 2001 and 2002....Mendiata symbolized the traditional underdog. Valencia which was the team consisting of no known superstars was responsible for elimination of many star studed teams from European competition.

I still remember the day when I was walking out of the common room avaoiding to watch the match as it was Valenci when my senior told me...this is the team which shows what Team work can do. Mendiata is the unsung hero of the team. His long passes on that match has found himself a lifelong fan on that day.

However his fitness problem at the end of 2002 and subsequent moves to Lazio and Italian clubs has not brought back his lost limelight

Last season he has moved to M'borough and his revival hopes were seen. But consistent problems with injuries has robbed him of playing in EPL. This season also looks grim and as this news the season has already ended.

Hope he has one more season where he can regain his glory.

Current mood : Contemplative

A quick update

2006-04-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

The match is complete and it has its share of ups and downs.

However this looks like Real is coming back to form just at the right moment. The catalans are resting on their glory and are not fighting as hard as they should be

The real Match

2006-03-31T23:37:00.000-08:00

We are going to witness "the match" again. This is one match that surely stands out for all the drama that unfolds

Last year has seen the sheer pure magic of Ronaldhinio.....his 2 goasl had received him a standing ovation from the real fans.

Couple of years earlier, it witnessed the a unique reception to the ex Barca great Luis Figo after he shifted his loyalties

Further the thrashings of 5-0 in consecutive years of '94 and '95 was another epic

Lets hope another thriller unfolds tonite

The answer to Life, the universe and Everything

2006-03-27T06:54:00.000-08:00

Last night, The architect was informing the one that he is som of errors of a complex equation of life. this got me thinking to the first time this movie got me inspired and the answer to Neo's quest .....Then I relaised I had the answer to this already

This number as Douglas Admas in Hithickers guide to Galaxy states is the answer to everything as this was proposed by the worlds second greatest computer.

I think it is time to go back to basics.

answer to Delhi's frustration problem

2006-03-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

Recently a friend and me got into a nice discussion on coming up with a solution for Delhi's numerous rape cases.

I think this problem is more socio- pyschological problem. This segment in India has not been clearly given its due in India. For a generation and a country growing at enormous pace and for a generation caought in between traditional values and modern outlook, a tremendous amount of investement is needed in sociological well being of society. However not to digress from the topic...the brilliant solution for the numerous rapes in Delhi is simple: "Introduce Dance Bars"

For all people who had seen Mumbai during dance bar days and Delhi would agree on few points

A girl walking in Mumbai in a western wear in a crowded local station would not even raise an eyebrow. Cut the scene to Delhi, a girl dressed in normal Indian traditional dress in a bus stop would draw stares and remarks from every section of the crowd, a rickshawallah to business tycoon (not that he would be at bus stop)
A bar in Mumbai would have girls to stare and Delhi bars are deviod of same and this leads to the attacks on women visitors.
Forbidden apples and unapproachable women are tempting and people would go to any length to get them

So this discussion has lead us to believe that we can go ahead and solve this grave problem by introducing Dance bars.

This discussion went ahead and concluded that basic Indian male psyche would be satisfied by leching at the girls in dance bars and would not resort to impounding on the girls. This is a axiom which can be proved at all ages.

So we plan to submit a petition to Shiela Dixit and get this novel concept introduced. If this does not work then we always have the option of shutting them down. In this era where projects have been started by succesive governments get funded without any logic, here is one which has sound logic!!!!

Level of frustration at cyber cafes

2006-03-05T03:35:00.000-08:00

Just was browsing in one of the net centers in New Delhi. As usual the technology does not allow to remov ethe searches in googel. So I just put in starting alphabets and this is what i found in them. I think the net cafes are places where people get to see porn. Nothing else. And i think this is new way of enjoyment. Knocking in public

Indian Blogs- Journalists alter ego

2006-02-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

An interesting observation in blogosphere of India. Most of the blogs which are well heard of are have been in controversy or won awards have been by journalists. Some of the remaining interesting blogs seem to be maintained by wannabe reporters.

This seems to be the trned in this part of the world. I was thinking this is alternate mode to the usual stuff we get to read in newspapaers or magazines....looks like will have to wait for some mroe time before i have some genuine non writer stuff to come up from here

Indira Gandhi International Airport

2006-02-25T06:05:00.000-08:00

Indira Gandhi International Airport
Originally uploaded by Bichu.

Have recently been to IGI Terminal at Delhi. This places is swamped with people seeing off somebody than with people going to "Phoren". But If this sense of seeing does not end...Airports are gonna have hard time. I had to see off my cousing and her housband. It was just a coincidence that I was the only person from my family in Delhi and they decided to fly from this place. It seems they too had a carnival along with them at Hyderabad.

Oh when would we understand. Seeing off can also be done at home

Interesting website

2006-02-25T05:49:00.000-08:00

Recently I came across this website. This website allows you to submit a crazy drawing and you get some other drawing swapped. This reallly got me hooked. There was no real algorithim associated. It randomly throws back some drawing by some another guy who has been crazy to come to this site.

This sort of stuff is interesting. An example of drawing i got back to my useless stuff

India as in google Maps

2006-02-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

India as in google Maps
Originally uploaded by vijaymv_in.

Google shows India to the world

New Delhi February 2006 123

2006-02-19T06:40:00.000-08:00

New Delhi February 2006 123
Originally uploaded by Brough Turner.

Yet another attempt at Phot blogging. Famous metro station with its potted plants

Delhi Metro

2006-02-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

I am trying my hand at Phot blogging. This is Delhis famous Metro ramp. Fortunately there are plants also

Is maturity obtained from age

2006-02-19T05:34:00.000-08:00

I have written about this topic in a previous post of mine. However this seems to be the topic which needs to be further probed into. I am talking about being courteous to people on phone, even the people from call centers.

I have been trying to take appointments from people for my project. I heard from lots of people that market research is about Patience and waiting for the appointments. But i think the problem lies in attitude of people

Some people in India are not mature and this is the root of the problem.There is this particular communication manager of one company. She was really an immature lady. She wouldnt even listen to the person talking over phone. She was busy creating ana aura of "being busy" when it is universally accepted fact that communications department is most undertilised overpaid part of the organization. Finaly after pursuing her for more than 15 days over telephone and emails (Had I invested this time on some good chick, I would have been lucky today) she decides to read my email and claims to be busy and could not meet me for the interview.

This same scenario dramatically changes when I take an appointment with other person. He listens to me and explains his schedule and promises me an interview at the end of his journey, specifying precisely the date and time for the interview.

After careful deliberation, I have realised this is just maturity speaking. MR would dramatically change with maturity and with no change observed on this part, MR is slated to be in same state for a lonmg time in India

Current Mood: Contemplative
Current song: "Mai Aise Kyon Hu"

New Ministers, new faces- Is there any Change

2006-01-29T05:44:00.000-08:00

The new expansion of Council of Ministers has brought new faces into this cabinet, but will this provide the new fresh energy needed for the government

The government has been giving satisfactory results for the term, but it needs new energy to cope with these time.

Lets hoe thse ministers do make an impact in the new budget

Sanjay Gupta- Is he India's tarantino

2006-01-28T05:35:00.000-08:00

Uma Thurman held the knife and the legend of Tarantino continued to live. The image created by "Pulp Fiction" was reiterated by the famous Bride.

Now Sajay Gupta had Amitabh Bachan romancing Raveena and people felt a class director has been born and then out of blue he made Sajay Dutt hold a "Hammer" and I think we have an answer to Tarantino

So if you would have guessed...this is just another article praising the already well reviewed movie "ZINDA"

The movie had all the makings of Cult movie. The beautifully picturised scenes and the best edition have added to this movie. The use of black and white, gray and silver have added good effects to the movie

Finally the movie had Sajay Dutt and John Abraham playing their parts so cooly that you would love the movie for its cinematic appeal

Although the movie might not appeal to all sections of the crowd, it just goes onto show alternative stories will be accepted in India.

Thursday 4/1

2006-01-05T04:09:00.000-08:00

This is one of the best days to happen inthis cold winter days of Delhi. Yes it is a holiday on account of some Guru Gobind singh's birthday. I am totally thankful to this guy for making me get one of the best rests that i terribly needed. Now back to my site for gettin in some updates

Crystal Blur This is my new reading site. This coool girl has a nice way of narrating Mahabharata in a neo language...our language. She keeps updating it regularly and it has its share of controversy. But this is one girl who knows her history really well

Harish Khare in his article talks about some democracy...but if someone can make sense of this article try getting me in also. He talks about people should not react...which absolutely does not make sense to me

Go Air seems to have some admirers The best part that I liked about this post was reference to hot housewifes and in flight entertainment. I think I am on my way to buy some GO Air tickets

And finally Chelsea have pulled it again. They roped in Maniche from Dynamo Moscow. This guy was the only good player left in old Porto side who didnt make it out big. He deserves every bit of his transfers. And with Essien Drgba and Geremi out for six weeks..it is time for some shopping for Chelsea to maintian its lead and charge onto Champions league.

Personality of the year

2006-01-02T05:21:00.000-08:00

It is again the time of the year when all the newspapers, TV and magazines and now blogs have come up with "man of the year" personalities. So it is time i too incorporate this into my blog.

Some of the persons who really mattered in this year:

Politics : Manmohan Singh is a good contendor for all he has done to this country... (I know ..another boring topic) Another person who made heads turn was Nitish Kumar with his famous Bihar elections. So was Sonia Gandi with her ambivalent presence

But of all the person who was in news and made the best noise is the winner and he is "NATWAR SINGH" to this country

Next Category : Sports

So many Indians have tried to grab headlines...like Narain Karthikeyan, Sania Mirza, MS Dhoni, ...but guess what the player who really mattered this year came from a land far away...and was called Freddie" ...yes Andrew Flintoff. He was the symbol of Australian downfall and he is the man who really matters

Science: Whatever anyone says.....El harbidri for winning Nobel prize when nobody really thought he would

and for most controversial person of the year ::::: YES it is MR. VOLCKER....who just rocked everyones world

No more of Natural Selection

2005-12-22T05:45:00.000-08:00

Recently I heard of this case Kitzmiller vs Dover area school district and then went about doing my research on his concept of Intelligent Design

All these years of education has taught me that humankind or rather plainly put I was born because I was selected meaning to say Darwin's Natural Selection is the sole criteria for humkind to flourish and there might be some new species which will be selected in future

However with Intelligent design I have another theory that states that I have been developed intelligently and that a lot of R&D went into manufacturing me. An engineer can accept this moe easily. It also gives us more importance.

However scientifically this cannot be proved as it is just another form for "Divine intervention" and can be exploited by all religions. Further there is nothing substantial being added to this world by this theory

Although I like it, it looks like it will take its own time before being accepted

The end of Road for "REDS"

2005-12-09T05:11:00.000-08:00

AIDS- Is this the only way

2005-12-04T05:11:00.000-08:00

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articlelist/1803578002.cms

This is the article that caught my attention for all wrong reasons.

Somehow these days AIDS has become synonymous with Condoms. I mean arent we loooking at it all the wrong way

I know about : "ABC" way of fighting aids....Absitinance, Be faithful and Use condoms. But now it seems everyone remembers only C. The AIDS concert talks about just use condoms and avoid AIDS. What a unique way to fight AIDS

About this article... I think Mr. Aiyar feels he is being progressive, liberal and so on by giving his son a condom at 16. But guess what I think he is stupid. I think he should put sense in his son to get the values of waiting till marriage. Absitinence till marriage is not a sin

There was this particular serial on Zee Cafe...where 5 people are in a classroom, waiting for a professor and keep discussing various things. Somehow the topic comes to " age at loosing virginity" 4 People boast of various ages and one man says he lost it on his first day of marriage. What do you expect. "An akward silence". I mean people are so embarrased at this

It is just choice and people have to respect all choices. " Even waiting"

November and December- The season of marriages

2005-12-03T00:30:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been to Allahabad and Cheenai to attend marriages and I am due to go to Bangalore for another.

There have been reports of 15000 marriages on one day in Delhi. Thia was on Sunday , so thank God no traffic mess , but stll it was crowded on roads

All this puts me to think. What is it so special that people get married in Winter
One obvious reason for all thos settled in US, it is vacation time and how better to spend vacation than get married :)

This is quite understandable, but why Indians staying in India. I think it is one myth yet to be broken

Putting my thinking hat, I did come up with some reasons...lets see
1) Winters are cool and so dancing and bozzing is cool, you would not sweat ( a good reason i suppose)
2) Winters are cold and this is when you realise you need company and how better way to get that legally
3)In a year of Indian calender...half the months are unmarriageable...God know why...but whom am i to question them?. Of remaining some months are Summer...when getting married and sitting in front og fire for so long is unbearable. That leaves out some months and with all other combinations....November sounds justified.

Putting this along with freaknomics...let us extrapolate
---> if people get married in November and with Indians not understanding meaning of Birth control....all children should be born in September...( I need to clarify this with Census board)
---->Marriage involves lot of investements and shopping. SO the companies must register there highest growth is3 rd quarter.....I think i am right here........
----->Since college and school kids are the one most excited during marriage season and bunk schools/colleges....the class room rate must be lowest during these moths ...have to check it out

Enough of this... I need to go attend another marriage

The prize for Truth

2005-11-24T05:35:00.000-08:00

I think there might have been 100's of posts on this topic, but then it is my right to write about this topic

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1305300,curpg-1.cms

I do not know this person personally but as posted by my friend in our yahoo group I quote

" In my first year at IIM Lucknow, I met this ratherjovial character, called Manjunath, nick Macha. He wasa brilliant singer, and carried the music club almostall by himself. Also, equally passionate on theFootball ground - he lifted our hostel spirits inevery match we played. Macha had been working in IOCL, Uttar Pradesh and hehad refused to join an MNC. Used to talk about doing"real" work. In his job, he encountered an erringPetrol pump dealer and decided to take action againsthim. The dealer retaliated by firing 5 bullets intoMacha's chest. Macha had known that the people he wasdealing with were dangerous, but none could haveimagined such grave consequences. Police caught thekillers while they were attempting to dispose his bodyin the forest area.I was feeling extremely frustrated that a man has tolose his life if he wants to stand by his principles,and while I can remember fondly those joyous momentswith him, and sympathize with the family, that is ALLI do.The Lucknow alumni is trying to get media / police /government attention and am sure monetary compensationshall be provided to his family. But after losingtheir only child, what compensation are we giving hisparents ?! "

Some observations are like :

Media has not reported the fact for one week. People and media in particular cry foul that graduates of IIM and IIT do not do anything great or the country and are responsible for growth of American economy. However you have an example of a brilliant graduate who did not go to US or sell toothpastes but was actually working for a Oil PSU. If such sacrifices are not noted then what is the purpose of hese people doing such jobs

I would go on to say he is a martyr, in the sense not only Soldiers ho have shed their lives protecting the country are martyr's but so are people who give their life to sincerity of job

As stated by my friend I really am not clear what should be done, but I am sure that his death should not be a waste. It should be made a role model for the others

Current mood: Perplexed

The Power of people

2005-11-16T05:47:00.000-08:00

The title might be misleading, it should have sounded like : the power of knowledge of people but i shall let the reader decide what he wants it

Last weekend I had to go to Allahabad to atend my friends marriage ( This would also make for a nice post). However the idea of this post is diferent

Setting: AS2 coach of Prayag raj train at New Delhi Railway station, precisly cubicle in and around seat no 16

People see an unclaimed luggage on seat no 16. What they do. they go about enquiring people if they have placed the luggge and then they cordon of the area. Just about 5 minutes before the start panic starts setting in and then the attender is the guy who has to take he brunt for allowing someone to place this luggage

The situation almost reached a point when along with TT, people decide to stop the train and get a bomb disposal squad. At this time in comes a man in inebirated state

You should have seen the condition of the man at the peoples stares and abuses.

However he most appreciative point of this incident is the awarness among common people. From times when people do not care to the time when an unclaimed object is observed immediately and lives saved

"This is the Power of People"

Pragati Maidan and Trade Fair

2005-11-16T05:12:00.000-08:00

This tuesday turned out to be pleasant with me trying to get a view of the famous Pragati Maidan to vist India International Trade fair

Although I started out to see that in full wnthusiasm , the journey to it put me of completely

I had first to tag along wih my roomate to Karolbagh. For all those who do not know this area it is wuite far of from my place and if that is not suficien...the bike was driven on some areas at 10 kmph making me cry for lack of googles

This was followed by an auto stint to Pragati maidan. We reaced gate no 7 and were told that tickets are avialable only at Gate 1 and 2. So I had to walk some 1 and 1/2 Km to bu tickets and another 1 km as the waiting at gate 2 was really long

Finally I went inside and there right in from of my eyes is inviting Punjabi stall : ::::: I jumped into it and then realised they have nothing to offer other than Rajma Chawal

Finally we went about going around ......looking like those really interested people. This being a holiday on account of Gurunanak Birthday, the crowd turnout was really huge of the tune of 175K people

Finding my way through this maze of people and stalls I managed to look at stall of some of the states. They were not really exciting to catch my attention. Most of the states were selling stuf there. I think Kerala was impressive in this aspect that they put up boards stating that : "Just for Tade enquiries: Not or Sale"

Of all the stalls that was really impressive was the Power and telecomunications building

However this soon ended as my roommate was fed up and forced me out

I am waiting for autoexpo to see the real power of Pragati Maidan

Freedom of sppech

2005-10-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/2005/10/question-of-principles.html

A war is being fought out. On a different turf and for different reasons.I heard of people not able to express freely in newspapers and all that stuff, but this has become even biger. You cant write even on your blog.

Where has Freedom of speech gone

Also Heard Gaurav has resigned from IBM. Such a reputed company did not stand up for its employee is a matter to be thought of seriously

All I can say " Independence is not about just gloating....it is about being able to express freely"

New age communication

2005-10-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/08/stories/2005100804301100.htm

After some stints on personal and television, I am back to what this blog is created. This article in Hindu speaks onto itself, the effect that new age communication is having on young minds

It doesnt take much time before this crosses the seven ocean to India. Already all the students of good technical and Business schools and also most of people relates to software Industry have started using Internet as it is being used in West. It is just time before we ape the west.

Some of the hinderances that we face are High speed internet connectivity. It is high time that connectivity speeds, to say broadband is spread in the country.

Now for the topic of the article, young ones between 14-21 have created their own blogs.

I am normal average Indian passing out from a good college and having a decent circle. However i could count the number of my friends who are into blogging. Thia activity is one thing that has spread into the community. My new workplace, counting itself as a place for all MBA's has very few rather neglicible people who blogging.
How can this revolution of blogging sprea to India. HOW?

Art of conning people

2005-10-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

People who corn others and earn their living are called- Sales people
People who train these sales people- marketing Gods( that is what they feel)
People who corn them: ???? "market researchers"

For all those who do not know, I have moved out from Hyderbad and am now in Delhi, capital city (more about it in later posts) and am in a marketing research firm.

During the course of working rather termed as training, some interesting things seem to be happening !!!

With no names taken for anonymity purposes and also saving my self, lets get on with story

A big customer wanted to do satisfaction study (People who have experienced this product would have their own shares of compliants and would never get a ++ customer satisfaction). So there comes a researcher ( cute: keep this in mind, this has lots of implications in later part of story ) with all might and experience to deal with customer.

Next part of story involves getting this customer introduced to all interviewers ( people who take survey in MR parlance). Client, as usual feeling all so important about company insists that these have to thoroughly proficient people with good knowledge and communication skills (i they had that would they be working there :) )Now the poor researcher and the field head are at loss. Then the bright idea sticks into their head: Con the people who are good at connig : pretty smart ha

So here I jump into the picture. I being unfortunate am in a training and am couaght by both the field and researcher to pose as a interviewer. This " Can't say NO" will someday get me into trouble and I agreed to do so. The other reason being as said above.

So here I am , with all my 16 years of premier education posing as a interviewer to a Client, who herself (yes the client was yet another opposite species member, although not so cute as I had hoped) would not have had this education was acting like Queen of the world. The rest of the story goes by in the same order: She trying to check my English speaking abilities,communication skills and basic internet fundaes:

Client: Do you know how to speak in English
Me: Yes
Client: Hae you done any study before
Me: Yes
Client: Which ones
Me: ( Loss of words; dont know what studies) Done Industrial corporate interview on Waste heat Recovery Boiler
Client: Ok, Do you know about internet
Me: ( THinking, more than you i suppose) Yes a little bit

This goes on and on as she tries to test me in simple knowledge

All this for getting a " thank you" from a cute person.

Finally after 40 minutes of torture, the client leaves satisfied, that she has got an "OK" kind of interviewe ( I could have shot her for that)

Final twist in the story : Researcher leaves not even acknowledging my effort. This is what you get for going through mental trauma: no Lunch, no movie, no cofee invitation; not even a thank you.

Monday- 9/5

2005-09-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

After Mumbai , it is now the turn of Software capital to be hit by rains

The report says there has been 34.4 cm of rain and this has led to the death of some 5 people.

The important part to be noted at this report, is the diversity in India even on rains. While the south and west have been continiously receiving rain, North..as in Delhi are reaching sultry levels of heat.
At this point of time when I am leaving Hyderabad to go to Delhi, I am sure I will look at this diversity.

Current mood: Contemplating
Current song: Rain Rain go away, little Johnny wants to play

This article on ammending of the power of courts in reference to the Contempt of Court has or will bring relief to the many lawyers and human right activists. This proves the point that one word can make the difference.

Truth is the word that has been added

There would not be anymore arrests of Arundhati Roy for just trying to reason out the judges, nor will the judges not be immune to Tehelka type tapes.

Current mood: Hope
Current Song: Ab Ayenge Naye Din

KCR and Narendra would resign from the government. However TRS would continue to support from outside. Although Babu has provided instances of the gain of such stance on number of occasions, i really do not see the point of TRS gaining by doing this. They might score a point and would be provided with oppurtunities to strike at will, but I think the issue of Telengana would not rise in another 3 years or so ( election time again).

Current mood: Reflective
Current Song: .........

The dress or the strokes- what is that appeals

2005-09-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

I am really confused lot. God Please save me. This was the reaction to the match

As usual the Sunday went by and I was in my ineberated state when reaching home, the clock struck 11.30 (okay it didnt strike, but I like to say that, old colonial culture effect). Then the match of the day, tournment, year started...

For all those people who have not yet got the thing, the Fourth round match between the indian Cindrella Sania Mirza and the Russian beauty Siren Maria Sharapova

I was confused, sang Linkin park, but then this was the situation that really put me to confusion. What am i supposed to do,

"Beauty, Beauty everywhere, how am i to live "

Sania with her nose ring, hanging earrings and Killer looks was trying to stay in match and was appealing to My Indianess ( also my Indian taste too !!!!) and Siren Sharapova was launching her game in full throttle, accompanied with her beauty to draw me to her side.

The end did prove that the better player had won. If only Sania could improve her Serve, we would be seeing more of these kind of matches rather than watching those William sisters battling it out.

Sunday Evening- a couch potato's treat

2005-08-29T03:28:00.000-07:00

I had heard from lots of people and have personally experienced this terrible problem called "Sunday evening trouble".

It is a phenomenon by which people believe that not socializing ( I mean going out and enjoying) on Sunday evenings would make them ready for the Week ahead and stay at home. This inturn hurts them and they end up miserable on Monday morning.

But this Sunday was pleasently different. I was at home for the day.....yes I know it sucks and I should change this. However this has been different, in a complete bliss.

Yes I am talking about August 21, Sunday. The TV which ususally sucks has been so effective on me that I have not stopped spreadings its laurels.

I had watched TV from 5 in the evening to 11 in the night. ( I know that you would say too much TV is bad for health....you can put it as my Mother says....too much of TV is making me Lazy and Fat////) But I was unable to shut it for a minute. Only Nature could dare stop me, although it was just couple of time :)

Anyway This evening was quite surprising. Ususally Remote is used by people when they are bored and try changing channels to find something interesting ( All you perverts keep your thoguhts for yourself....interesting literally means interesting)

But This Sunday Remote was my weapon to keep myself abreast of the happening on various channels. I had used it so effectively that Star and all nes channels with their excellent coverage would have been put to shame ....haahhhaaaa.

I had the following things to watch on TV:

1. F1 at Turkey where the lil' Kimi had again managed to beat Alonso
2. Asia XI vs Africa XI. Although it ended in a washout, this was bowlers paradise and my obsessionf or bowling has led me to watch this.
3. Everton vs Bolton Wanders. . Ok guys dont try judgin by names. For those regular followers of EPL, you know that these are the best performers after the big 4 last season.
4. Chelsea and Arsenal. This is the second week of EPL and we have already seen the titans clashing for the second time. Yes the blues have struck the blood twice

5. For all you romantic and comedy buffs, it was HUM TUM on Sony.
6. For the serious watchers there was this movie on Star One starring Rahul bose about Mumbai streets, water wars and strange incidents
7. My Local cable operator added his own twist by screening this movie called IDIOT starring Ravi Teja. This is a classic for all the telugu movie watchers
8. Finally The Kings of Tennis Rogerer Federer and A ROD clashed in some tournment in US

Now with such a wide variety to keep update of ....you would realize my pains of operating the REMOTE.

This was how the TV lookes at around 6 in my hose

KIMI is leading the race, Alonso is currently 3 rd and kimi has 22 seconds to pit and come back. IS his sufficient for him to come again in the lead

Everton has scored and now the Bolton wanderes are all over Everton, trying to equalize. They would not leave an inch. This match will go the last wire

Zaheer is having the life of his time. This is his third 3 wicket hall in as many matches.he is simply unplayable

At 9.20 it was acomplete different picture.

Chelsea is going all guns in the last few minutes of first half. Arsenal have managed so far. Can they keep up with Chelsea for the remaining time. Only Time can tell us

Hum( Saif ) is trying to meet TUM( Rani) again. Now is some beatiful location of Paris. They break into this hummable tune

CHANTI( Ravi Teja) is bashing up group of people from Task force sent by herione's father

Rahul Bose is trying to relate his story to this swanky news reporter no talk show hosst, selling his idea to her shocking program. All these people think that an Hinglish movie has to have pedophiles and sex. Grow up guys

Later in night:

Chelsea has scored through cheeky goal of Drogba.

Hum and TUm are fighting over some understanding problems.

CHANTI is again bashing some mroe people. I love this music just for the passion put in by Ravi Teja

Rahul Bose is rescuing some small girl who doesnt want to be rescued.

During this time Roger Federer has started pumping his forehand on A ROD.

Finally all good things had to end and then CHELSEA won, Hum Tum meet, Chanti gets his girlfriend and an IPS post. Rahul Bose rescues the girl and some new person is hosting the show. Asia XI could not bat because Nature decided. Roger won, Everton came as better of two and Kimi WON

So you see all the couch potatoes ahd to really stress themselves to keep updated.
Unfortunately you cannot be told what Couch potatoship is, you have to experince it

Trying to recreate the magic

2005-08-29T03:14:00.000-07:00

Things seem to be taking a different toll in my life. I am going to experience a new significant change and this would lead to hundreds of new things.

How do you approach such a change.

I have taken a conscious decision of changing my life for the better.
I believe that you have heard lots of people say this. Does it really mean that you can change the life as you want.

I was trying to clear some old stuff and had come to read this beautiful peace of attitude change in people:

* What's better than focusing on the negative? Focus on the positive.
* What's better than working hard? It's working smart.
* What's better than dreaming? Imagineering.
* What's better than doing something for yourself? Doing something for your country.
* What's better than a vision? A cause.
* What's better than a long speech? Definitely, a short one.

But is it really possible for people to make a conscious change in their life. Life runs on hope and that is the reason that people still believe in change.

I am in contemplative mood and this would change the life as it is.

The world of bliss

2005-08-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

Remember the day 9 th August, the day Nagasaki was bombed some 60 years agao, another significant event happend. Althought this just effected my life and all those people who would interact with me from this day. I have become techno savvy or something of that type. I just earned myself a MP3 player

This has officially started my transformation into the world of bliss and solitude. Now this new gadget has the ability of freeing you into your own world, in a crowded chaos. I would be experiencing the joys of living in my world, my thoughts my music. If you have not yet understood the meaning let me realte the story of 10 th morning. ( I got the songs downloaded on 9 th night to put this gizmo to use directly).

I wake up as usal early morning read 8 am. Then come down to living room, put on the gizmo and start reading newspaper. There I am in the morning chaos of my house, completely cut off. I am listening to music and into my world, completely oblivious to the happening. This is what I mean by the bliss.

I have not yet tried this latest gizmo at my office place, but I think this will have the same result at tat chaotic place. More updates on that later.

As for the thoughts of we do not have social interaction due to such gizmo's is quite uncalled for. I can and would interact as much as I like. This is an instrument that would reinforce my choice of the people I wish to interact and socialize.

Mockery of sport

2005-08-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

ZIM v/s NZL, Test, 07-Aug-2005 (NZL beat ZIM by an innings and 294 runs)

ZIM: 99/10 in 49.5 overs (Run Rate: 1.99)

Batsmen: N Mahwire - 4

NZL: 452/9 (dec) - ZIM: 59/10 (Fol)

This is what the recently concluded New Zealand -Zimbabwe match scoreboard looked like.

Some significant details of the match:
Daniel Vettori , a New Zealand bowler scores a century
The Match is concluded in 2 days time
These are significant among the remaining stats. This brings me to the question Is it worthwhile for ICC to continue to have teams permanently in Test Status

These kind of results puts the game to shame and drives away the audience. In this era where cricket is fighting with other sports matches like this will kill the interest in sport and would harm Cricket in long run

The game should not only attract audience of the playing nations but should have a universal appeal. Compare this with Ashes 2 Test, which provided a nail biting finish.

I would ask ICC to reconsider its permanent system and come up with some form of group thing that is presently going on in Indian Ranji Trophy.

The world test playing teams could be 6 or 8 in the higher league and another league consisting of another 6 nations. The teams can play each other in a span of 2 years and the bottom team or 2 teams of higher league could be demoted and the top team from bottom league could be moved into higher league. This would ensure that test matches are played among equals and the threat to be demoted or the motivation to be promoted to higher league would add its own excitement to the league.

Cricket needs to have drastic changes to improve in this new world, to gain its rightful space in the arena of sports.

Voting time- My choices for UEFA football awards

2005-08-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

Uefa has announced its nominees for UEFA Club Football Awards for 2005. This is a celebration of the season which has seen quite wonders in the various leagues. The English league has seen Chelsea emerging after many years(50 to be precise) aided by Jose and Abrohmvich. The revival of FC Barca, the maintenance of supremacy by Bayern Munech and Old Lady Juventus. Also the Uefa competitions has seen Moscow and Liverpool triumph. AC Milan had shown its class in Champions league failing at the last hurdle. This season has truly been exciting

Now for the awards. I have my own winners for the competition. Although people who know me or read by blog would know my winners by now

Goal Keeper: Peter Cech He has one of the best records in the league. He has just let in 13 goals. His competitors have had good matches but not such a season. He has been quite remarkable for Chelsea through out the season
Best Defender: John Terry Do you need to tell anything more of this Defender cum captain. He has been truly exceptional winning matches. He has also been responsible for some turn arounds in crucial matches, providing the inspiration.
Best Midfielder: Fanky, Frank Lampard He is what truly summarizes Chelsea's run this season. He has been best tackling midfielder, providing truly exceptional goals. He is a complete player
Best Striker: Andriy Shevchenko : A striker and an inspiration to his team. No words are sufficient for the goals he can score and has scored

Put your views.

No more Rbk

2005-08-03T03:31:00.000-07:00

Addidas is aquiring Reebok

Mergers and aquasitions have been termed as the way the business would work. This they term is helpful for the business. But what about the customer

All my life I have shunted Nike and have been buying shoes from Addidas or Reebok, as I hate the big company. Now with this merger, i have even less choice. although they might run shoes of different brands, but do i really see any advantage by this. I would not have choice between my favourite companies. I would be left with Addidas and Nike and I would prefer Addidas.

Now also I would see less ads, I mean no more " From the place that I come there is no Plan B" as it would reflect. Maybe I do not see it immediately but I might have long term benefit from them.

All I can think of is wait and see

Virudh- a question on the system

2005-08-01T00:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, having nothing better to do, I landed at Sangeet to catch a a late night movie. The movie was the latest Hindi family drama Virudh - starring Amitabh Sharmila, John and Sanjay Dutt

The movie started of well with family emotions coupled with humor. It was the same humor that we have been witnessing for the last so many years. And then the angle of Son studying in US and all those types are introduced. Then the guy going for a British girl. (Anushka did not appear like an English in any angle though) all this seems to be a normal Hindi movie. Then just before the intermission John Abraham dies and then begins Amitabh's struggle to clear his name.( John plays a good guy caught on wrong side of a politician.

This goesn on and so does the movie. The part that I didnt like about the movie is the complete lack of faith on the system expressed by the Director. He is still of the stereo type where the hero has to solve his own problems.( Police and Judiciary fail him).

Now into his present time where the young generation is under the impression that India is changing and that there is Hope for everyone in the system, these movies act as a deterrent to the idea of change in attitude of people

I am really hurt that the hero had to take things into his own hand as the system had failed him. Cant we have change from this system. I would like to have movies which talk about the system working and that there is hope

But I missed one thing. This movie was full of advertisements. The movie looked like a collection of advertisements in the first half of the movie. Amitabh advertises Nerolac, Western Union money transfer; Sanjay dutt advertises Elf oil. This keeps going on and I think the movie would have gained by endorsing these brands. This is new innovative way of advertisements that has crept into movie world. The earlier versions just were the use of them by the actors. Now it has grown to advertising of the products.

Rate my views and out in comments.

To Dress or not to dress : This is Hamlets new question

2005-07-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/29/stories/2005072907910100.htm

Now colleges in Chennai have banned or rather imposed dress code. Does it matter to me, Not really as I have passed out of college for sometime. But the whole idea is lack of freedom of expression.

World is moving towards a direction where we are in a police state. Bush says " It is with me or against me." It is white and black...nothing grey. I am being judged by the state. They decide the things that I need to do, they impose things on me.

Growing of democracy means having importance of individual. You cannot protect me by imposing curbs on me.

This is being imposed on the new generation that is molding the culture of the nation. The 80's crowd have cried on lack of business atmosphere. Once this has been solved, we have the problem of inividualism. People are not allowed to be themselves. This would play on the creativity of mind. People would be bound to think in the box and all those wonderul innovations would be lost.

Rahter than looking at it as imposing dress code, I look at it as curbs on my freedom. and mind you this individual freedom is not hurting others freedom.

To conclude I am no anarchist, but I value my freedom

Gurgaon violence

2005-07-28T04:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/28/stories/2005072806201000.htm

The recent days events in Gurgaon from a different perspective.

The thing that should have been explored more was the reaction of Japanese ambassador to India. Of all people Japanese should be more considerate of the workers rights. I am totally against his tackling of issue saying that this would create wrong impression for India as a destination.

Worker's rights and registered unions are the norm in Japan. The Japanese cannot expect to have a different way in the world. They are respected all over for the work culture that they spread. So how do we witness such embarrassing remarks from an ambassador.

I do not justify violence in any form , but the right f the workers to form a union to demand for their rights and working conditions. This is the essence of manufacturing system in the world and this could not be debated at all.

I feel the report does change the Labour law and this would be beneficial to both sides.

I think government should ask for an apology from the ambassador.

Mumbai- a different way of life

2005-07-26T23:39:00.000-07:00

Mumbai- Financial capital or land of dreams. Place where your idea of becoming rich can turn into reality. I do not know if all this is right

The thing that I know is Mumbai experience is really, truly exhilarating

I had been in Mumbai for about 12 hours and I am in awe of the city. The life and the attitude of the place is truly worth appreciating.

I had learnt about geography of Mumbai- heard it is chain of 7 islands. I dont even know if I have touched atleast one, but one thing I learnt it is really big place. Going form one end to other takes really long time

The other thing that I heard about Mumbai that i keep on hearing is that Mumbai does not sleep. However on the day that I went Mumbai did sleep slightly. I got down a train at 5.30 and caught a Local and it was empty and I could see lots of shops have not yet opened. I think Mumbai dos sleep, if not completely, partially

The time sense of Mumbai is great. The world works on Mumbai train timings. 8.37, 9.17, 2.23. The life is determined by which train have you taken and which train are you going to take.

Another experience that really lived upto its reputation is the "Mumbai Local Train Experience" I had the opportunity to take 2 train rides. The first one being early morning did not count for much experience. However the other train from Vashi to Vardala road in 9.17 train was really exciting.

Train rolls onto the station ( it is the starting point... mind you) and before you know anything people have filled the train. All the seats are taken up and people stand in between seats. I somehow managed to squeeze myself as the fourth person on a seat.close to door ( I thank my God and fate for this) Then stats the journey. I thought myself if this is the journey, then I am enjoying it. However the journey would begin in couple of stops, precisely one stop.

The nest stop people rush into the train as if something huge is happening and viola .....no space left. Then starts what is real fun.

Imagine the scene. About 300 odd people in a compartment. People jam packed without any space to move. A man standing is reading newspaper , without any problems. Some people are fighting over " dhankafy". Me seated in the seat is also pushed about. Then I hear the famous compartment songs( bhakti songs that I hear people sing.) It is truly worth relishing. Stops come and go, and it is just more addition of people. No body thinks of getting down.

Finally it is my turn to get down. I get up one stop before and try moving towards the door. This is more daunting task then cracking JEE. There is no space and if you try squeezing, people admonish for " dhakafy". So I still manage to push people around and get to about few feet from Door. The station comes and I am involutarily pushed out. At the same time more people get into it. And the Journey keeps going.

To add to this , kind of icing suppose, I get down and it starts raining. I manage to get into a taxi and then begins my taxi Journey of Mumabi. It looks like the whole of Mumbai is always on move

Mumbai, the experience is worth every penny

Affirmative action plan

2005-07-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

A slight change from the routine. Last night I was watching a drama series called Boston Public on Star World. This particular episode had one of the major stories as affirmative action plan

What is affirmative action plan.As all people who are aware of USA and its policies would tell you, it is a way of government to remove the discriminations encountered by some races, by providing a level playing field

In the context of our country it could be termed as Reservations awarded to ST and SC.

The arguement, as in the drama is Should this be continued.

People in favour speak that there has been lot of oppression in the past and that the level playing field has not yet reached. And People against it state that it should be for the needy, not based on caste/race.

My views on this is clear: Reservation is necessary, but not in the form existing now. This reservation is being taken undue advantage of by the rich reserved people. I know a guy who spends Holidays in Europe but uses this for getting admission.

There should be an attitude change and people should start using it only as per their use. Creamy layer should be avoided from it. Moreover poor people from other caste/race/color who need help should also be provided

Further if Colleges are using this to gain diversity, another method should be evolved. This is not a way of getting diversity.

What are backlashes

2005-07-11T03:12:00.000-07:00

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1166792.cms

Last week London witnessed it first terrorist attack. All this time that England has been supporting anti terrorist activities and is the only country not to have experiened any terrorist activity,

Now that London has become a victim of a gruesome terorist attack, the important things to note about them are:

1. Timing of the attack : Has this any relation to London being awarded Olympics 2012. Security has been one of the majr concern for IOC and this reiterates it more.

2. Target of Blast: The target was underground transport. This is a symbol for london and one of the widely used. This clearly shows the lack of security measures at these public transport measures.

However another gory part attatched to this is the backlash that we see. The mosques in UK are being targetted by angry English mob. This is a insane way of solving the problem. Letting out anger in this form is also not helpful as this will fuel further hatred.

Sarkar- Godfather, an appreciation of mafia

2005-07-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Yet another change from the routine of writing about the newspapaer articles. But this could also be considered the newspaper article.
The movie Sarkar starring Bachans and directed by the factory owner Ramgopal seems to have stuck the right chord. Mr. Verma's obsession with underworld has given birth to yet another excellently scripted and edited movie. Howver apart from the reviews that are innumerably available on net and newspapers, the thing that strikes me is human clamour for underworld and crime stories.
Why does Underworld/Mafia/Goon stories sell. why do we like movies with this stuff.
Marlon Brando lived through his role of Don Vito Corleone. More than the book, his potrayal of the role was responsible for the success of his move. There were other movies of the same genre whcih have seen considerable success in the west.
Cut the thing to India and there have been some movies of Don's which have ruled the box office. The latest offering on form of Sarkar has shown that interest has not waded in this genre.
Why do we like these kinds of movie's. Does it reflect that veryone clamors performance or is it the feeling that best acting performances are put forward in such roles. Movies run for the reason that we like to see something away from our regular roles in our daily life.Howver this justification can be suited to the slapstik comedy. How does this justify to Don movies.
Does it mean we want Power. This is something we do not have in our daily life and would want it.
Think about it!!

Yet another observation after Sarkar is...so much can be said through faces (with a good bacground track). As all reviews would have stated, Verma put the camera onto actor's face and has asked him to contineu. Even Katrina could come with good acting, a plain face acting maturedly.

Last thing that you can talk about Sarkar is Ramgopal Verma's obsession with Underlworld. So much has been written about and so much will be written about it. However I would add, something dramatic should have happened in his life. You need inspiration to come up with good direction and nothing better than life.

Imrana- Latest Religious judgement

2005-07-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/01/stories/2005070108110100.htm
This is yet another case of religious laws conflicting with Judicial system. Muslim clerical cases have been an area of controversy for a long time and this is another example of the same.
This is yet another case of religious laws conflicting with Judicial system. Muslim clerical cases have been an area of controversy for a long time and this is another example of the same.
I really dont want to coment anything as this is a senstive issue. But I would just try to raise a Question.
Is it relevant in India to have muslim clerics give decisions based on Mulim religious contexts. Should we not have common civil code?

A change-- Whats in Culture

2005-07-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

For a change I wanted to talk about a Television drama that I had seen last night. This is about Practice in Star World. I like the drama series. However there is something that cought my attention last night
This episode had a case of a small girl belonging to some culture, having their own customs and ususal stuff.However a strange thing is that in this custom the girls get married at the age of 12. Yes I am serious 12. A family of this ethinicity is in this episode dragged to court by the Kid who is supposed to get married. Lawyers fought as usual arguing on both sides. The arguements were sounding right (maybe for them, but not for me).
However the highlight is that the daughter has lost. She was forced back to parents and that they can follow their custom. This the judge justifies stating that America is being pursued as an imperialist because it is interfering in other people's culture and trying to look through the American lens. When he sees through ethnic lens he feels that there is nothing wrong in doing. My problem with the whole thing is: getting a child married at 12 is Bad. The culture which allows this needs reformation. It is the right of American judges to choose the right thing. But not view it through some lens
Do pour your thoughts !!!

What is this about Sensex

2005-07-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/2005/06/28/stories/2005062803501600.htm
Sensex an enigma or a statistically proved concept. This thought is provoked each time the Sensex touches new highs. I think people are euphoric each time it touches a new high.
Does Sensex really is a true indicator of the state of economy of our country. Is Sensex an indicator of the overall well being of the country.
IS this the factor that determines the poverty of the factor.I just feel it is a small percentage of human being who are effected by the growth of this factor, the rich get richer using this tool.
Am i sounding a socialist. This feeling does arise when all channels keep shouting of this when it really does not matter to 3/4 of the population

Saga of Chelsea and Schvchenko

2005-07-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1150968,curpg-1.cms
This article shows the determinaton of Chelsea to become leaders of football. Also the class of Andrey Schvchenko is determined. He is the man of the moment in the football season and Chelsea needs the best.
Does Chelsea really need Andry? The answer could be YES and NO. Yes for a striker of his caliber wouls be an addition to any team. Moreover he is a team player and would gel into any team. NO , as Chelsea does not need big stars. Mourinho builds a team and does not need super stars.
Does Andry need Chelsea. The answer still remains the same. YES and NO. Yes for a club coming up and going to dominate the football for a long time would be good for his career. NO as Milan is suitable to his style and Milan is providing him good oppurtunities

The Hindu - Challenging your grey matter

2005-07-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/sudoku/index.htm

Hindu has come up with an article. It is termed as Sudoku. A new puzzle daily which would challenge your brains and make you work like hellThis is one thing which stands out from ususla business practice of Hindu. It is a good begining for them and would depend on the response generated by the articleI wish Hindu does such innovation regularly

The Hindu - Challenging your grey matter

2005-07-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/sudoku/index.htm

Hindu has come up with an article. It is termed as Sudoku. A new puzzle daily which would challenge your brains and make you work like hell This is one thing which stands out from usual business practice of Hindu. It is a good begining for them and would depend on the response generated by the articleI wish Hindu does such innovation regularly