Interesting charity model

Check out rang de. They provide a platform for individuals to become "social investors" and the money invested will be used for providing micro-credit to needy borrowers. You can also choose the kind of people you want your money to be loaned to. At the end of tenure, you get back your money with an interest of 3.5%. Agreed, its not comparable to any other investment option in terms of monetary returns. But then again, such options are investments and by no stretch of imagination can they be labeled charity.
Hope such innovative schemes work out and (quoting from their site)provide a sustainable alternative to charity for the needy.

Favourite comedy shows

- Seinfeld.. Kramer rocks.. George irritates sometimes .. but still this is
- That 70s Show - Kelso and Fezz.. Mrs. Foreman rock ..
- Friends - Its Joey, Chandler and Phoebe's show
- Frasier
- My wife and kids

Hindi

Dekh bhai Dekh
Office Office

Kannada

paapa pandu
silli lalli

Of random thoughts..

Alighting the escalator this time was different. The usual set of people handing out fliers were accompanied by a old man, whose profile was C shaped, a wooden stick hand and a plastic cup with a collection of few coins. You do not see that many of these people in hong kong. The reaction of the people coming down the escalator ranged from nonchalant to extremely generous. I observed a $10 coin when I dropped mine. There were no thoughts just action of dropping a dollar. I never do this frequently in bangalore. It usually would be the first one for the day or the last one for the day, or someone who really looks very bad and doesnt approach you personally (never to the ones in the traffic signals)..

Then continuing on to the MTR, and no company the mind really wandered. Instantly the thoughts were about Gini c0-index, the index which measures income disparity. Having checked the index there were a few observations.

Communist/Socialist countries have the worst income disparity
Capitalist and free market proponents are the next inline
democractic and regulated markets follow
some european countries do really well

i never believed in capitalism .. its a system of/by/for the rich with a fake ideaology that they are helping the others along, where in reality is they are robbing others more than what they actually contribute. i am not a fan of hugo chavez either.. the human nature is naturally egoistic.. and a homospaien with undisputed power, will always be able to convince he is doing in the best interest of others..

That leaves democracies (good ones) with good regulations .. these have either been lucky or have experienced problems of the capitalists or socialist countires.

i believe its a right of every human being to live decently and the govt's basic functionality is to create measures to achieve this. Not just to have policies driven by senseless capitalists ... i am one of these senseless capitalists to be ...?????? or am already one??

Ah..finally..some good news to start my day..here and here

Import import

If you listen to the TOP 20 songs in Kannada charts right now, you will find most of the hits are from music directors NOT from Kannada Music Industry!

Yes, all the big names from Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam are all in the Kannada Industry.

Devisri Prasad, Premji Gangai, Vijay Anthony and the mallu director Jessi Gift are all in Kannada.

Kannada Industry seems to be following the fact from India Inc. : If you can't match them because of demand, get them!!!!!

Of course the other industries are doing the same : getting Gurukiran, Harikrishna, Mano Murthy...

Whatever, the result is pleasant music.

Devisri Prasad is like Rahman of Telegu movies. "Sangama" title song is amazing. The Veena(or sitar?) is sounding haunting...I have to see the movie for the song itself.What melody!

The Boss and reviews

have you wondered what's the main work of bosses or generally managers ..

I think its 'Review'ing.. They are born to review all the stuff done by the people under them..

create a report.. submit to your boss and you are certain to get some review comments.. if he/she is a brit, the english changes from american to brit english.. now incorporate those and submit to his boss.. now if he is a NAcan then the mode of english switches back to NAcan and you shall again get some comments.. and this goes on till you reach the CEO ..

now after doing all the changes as suggested by a dozen people, give it back to your boss (without mentioning that its been reviewd by the CEO and changes have been done accordingly).. you shall get a second round of changes (anulling the changes suggested by CEO).. and you can literally go on like this for months and years if wanted ..

to stop all these chakravyuhas .. I think you should directly go to the highest authority who will sign off your reports.. (lets consider the CEO in this example) make all the changes and send it to all those involved between you and the CEO.. saying i have created this report which is approved by the CEO.. let me know if you require any changes.. and do include THE CEO in the CC list ..

all you shall receive back is congratulations for creating an excellent report .. and use these to get your bonus ..

Christmas in October ..

If Christmas is all about gifts, then this year Christmas is certainly in October..

Following the $700 billion gift oopsy.. "the bail out" from Santa Paulson , there are similar attractive "gifts" announced by almost every developed country's Santa Claus- UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan etc

well what a bounty... but for who?? the benefits of these are always Pyramid shaped with the top few benefitting the most and the masses getting a dollar or two..

The bail out might sounds good for advanced countries where more than 50% of population has investments in terms of stocks, bonds and CDOs whose value has collapsed around 30-50% depending on which country you are... So these people indeed will benefit from the rescue, if at all stock markets bounce back .. but with a global economic recession this would largely help. The markets are staging a come back this week. Wait till 3rd week, when most of the countries announce their GDP numbers and you shall observe the technical recession, which will send the stock markets to their bottom again.

In countries like China and India where 75% of the population doesnt even have a clue about what a stock market is, all this bail outs, liquidity will do any good to them..

Now the real beneficiaries are the top 2% of the people..the wealthiest and the richest.. as usual..

I am generally of the feeling Governments always serve the interest of the rich first, middle class next and the poor at last (if they have time and concern)..and this is one such case....

HK updates

there are a few things to be reported..some of them are very serious issues .(the first one)

1. Sleep has been disrupted in the past few months due to hurricanes and typhoons .. and i hate this.. the ''ooooo' sounds are terrible ..

2. Been the 'last man standing' for a couple of times. this is very common if you are in cities like bombay, hk, ny and take the train to office. Of the cities i have travelled HK is still the safest for public transport. I have consciously avoided Shanghai trains (but the MegLev is impressive @ a max speed of 410Kmph). It is not so fun clinginig on the last sq inch on the train and trying to avoid the doors slamming your back(to save a minute or two).... not that much an hassle when u consider mubmaikars avoiding the walls of houses and electric poles. The NY trains are no better.. some of them had open doors/broken doors.. the best experience is to use the SFO BART .. u always manage to find a seat and can also have a view of the lush green landscapes..

3. I have taken a big deliverable off my list .. rather have it moved from pre-marriage to post-marriage and hence have become so lazy that I am late on my other deliverables ..

4. shopping is in swing .. i never knew watches could be so freaking expensive.. and tag heuer, omega and rado form the bottom of the list of the expensive watches.. i was so surprised to see the prices that i started reading the product descriptions closely, to see if they have found some costlier metal than platinum and used in the watch.. alas most of them were still stainless steel.. but some were interesting time pieces.. created by old men with no modern machinery.. now i really dont want that ..whey would i trust the old men .. its like trying to buy a car from the workers who worked on the first ford.. these watches arent for me for certain..

5. fashion conscious HK.. HK might rank 3rd/4th behind paris, tokyo, NY/london in fashion.. even men carry Gucci Prada bags in here and makes life difficult/uncomfortable.. btw, i got a backpack for myself.. its a Samsonite, finally moving out from the wildcraft, naturecraft, Nike/adidas/reebok years ..feels really Unclish types to own a samsonite ..

6. Finally finally managed time to get an haircut .. i always find these sessions fascinating .. u have to make sure u dont go to a cheap saloon.. else u might repent for the next few weeks of your life. Here is this guy, who works on your head like a sculptor .. you can understand the initial parts completely.. cuting the long messy hair, and after a while it becomes a one way affair ..its the barber's world. All you have to do is to try and avoid sleeping so that he does not cut too much hair .. and a word of advice, please always order one size more than your intended size .. if you want medium hair length, say long and so on and so forth.. barber's have such a penchant for cutting your hairs ..they always prefer the shorter way out, though it is harmful to their buiness (they really cant think business when they are working on a piece of art)

Uncle v/s 3 year old niece

Setting: It is 11 pm in the night, and the niece is still up and about. The parents and uncle are all tired after a long day, and want to call it a day. Uncle takes charge in sending the girl to her room.

U: hey, are you a good girl or a bad girl?
N: I am a good girl.

U: Do you know that good girls listen to their mommy, and go to bed early.
N: [ ignoring uncle ]

U: [ Nonplussed for a moment, that his immaculate logic isn't getting through. ] So aren't you going to sleep ?
.....
.....
.....
N: Today I am a bad girl.

This could be you dear reader, in a few years time :).

early wee hours

blogging at 3:30 am sucks .. another disturbed night.. another wrecked day tomorrow..
its become so common now that i have to finally vomit/admit on the blog..

living with typhoons is no mean task .. the incessant 'oooooooooooo' sounds of the wind .. the rattling of windows .. the doors shaking everything can drive u nuts .. and ppl talk about man damaging the environment crap ..here is nature spoiling my sleep ..probably for the dozenth (not sure if this is a word.. but at 3:40am it becomes one) time in less than 3 months..

i am here complaining about it so strongly and the wind still makes that 'oooooo' noise shamelessly.. btw .. where do we lodge an official complaint against these absurd noises..

crapppppppp............even the laptop fan makes a terrible noise ..looks like most of the things are exercising 'freedom of speech'......... having blurted out like a mad man let me see if i can gather some sleep now

10 Random Things

0. Life in the cab as usual is fun. I am using a Tempo Traveller instead of the TATA Star Bus which I used in Sasken.

1. There is one really fat loud guy who sits next to me in the cab. He wears Rayban glasses and sits in the cab and he yaps non-stop on his mobile until I reach MGRoad.

2. His mobile has Rangeela's Tanha Tanha ring tone. The starting flute sound of Tanha Tanha. He is also crazy about ringtones. Another guy has a "sweet-sounding" bird's ringtone. Some people like it. But for me, the sound gives me a sensation. The sensation of a squirrel nibbling your ears and squeaking with delight as you wither in pain.

3. Our office is gonna shift to Infantry Road....Embassy Icon near Indian express building

4. My dog's vet was upset with me because I was using the leash to drag the dog. He likes animals more than he likes human beings.

5. The actors in use case diagrams look really funny. Arms are stretched and so are the legs. Mostly the guy who conceived The Use Case Diagram was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. But he forgot to draw the Actor's Johnson ;-)

6. I was reading about some technology which uses Refraction of light. Really interesting stuff.

7. Chitranna song in Budhdhivanta is tooooo goood. The tune is a copy of a tamil song. But the lyrics are good - courtesy Uppi. By the way the actress "Suman Ranganath" is back in the song. She is looking good.But I think she must be at least 35 or even 40 (the last time I saw her, she was paired opposite with Shankar Nag.)

8. I like to watch the new World Movies Channel. It is good!!!!

9. What should we really DO in life ? What do we like ? Who will evaluate us ? Why should we be evaluated ? Finally what is the meaning of all this in life ?

Sex ranks 7th in Indian men's life priorities

and still Men get all the blame for being u know what.. (its not even in the top 5)

btw, the ones which took the top six positions were ..
Family life, spouse, work or career, being a parent, financial well being and physical health.

for details read this http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/oct/01sex.htm

i dont know if this true during kamasutra days..
a big improvement .. or detrioration.. depends on the magnifying glass you use..