I agree that an eminent star passed away.But then, declaring a state holiday is one thing which can happen only in India. And then after that, people go on rampage burning buses and police vans and damaging public property. I think there must be some political motive as Kumaraswamy blames the BJP government for not handling things properly.

Bangalore brings out its stupidity in times such as these.

Whatever.

I wanted to write a longish post on Vishnuvardhan's movies. But my interest has sapped because of these kinds of riots and the like.

RIP Vishnu

A very good actor and great looker (in his younger days). Two people Ashwath and Vishnu back to back in a matter of 1 day. Definitely, a big loss to the Kannada industry.

I'm planning a bigger post on Vishnu movies.

Avatar

Yes people, who are reading this, would have seen Avatar by now. I liked the movie. It was a good movie, nothing new about the whole movie. But I was interested in the bio diversity aspect. I was able to guess raising the dead part of the movie. But Cameron has a knack of making blockbusters. If there is a sequel to the Avatar movie, I guess the "Data Network of Pandora" will have a major role in the sequels.

One guy has covered the Science Aspects of Avatar. This is worth a read if you are a sci-fi buff. Check out this article : Science of Avatar

The beatles were saying "All you need is love" and then there was Morrison going "Light my Fire, Honey".

Here is a video from the Doors band about how the most famous song of the Doors "Light my Fire" was born. It was written by Rob Krieger. Very interesting analysis and highly recommended if you a Doors fan.

Then they talk about the Ed Sullivan Show stunt which increased the popularity of The Doors as rebels. We did'nt do what they told us. They did not want us to say "higher".

Jim was probably one of the most charismatic singers in a very enigmatic way. Nowadays there are no rockstars. There are just singers who are ruled by record labels and all this twitter, my space , facebook association to music ...Well, I'm sounding old!

The Story of "Light My Fire" by The Doors

small notes to interested people....

This tinyurl thing could become a menace. Email filters from postini , iron port could be rendered useless and all harmful links can be tiny url'ed away to mask identity. One solution could be having email filters fighting harmful urls from the tiny url servers itself. Hmmm....whatever, I try to avoid clicking tinyurls as much as I can. The identity is masked and the urls look like they can harm your computer.

Other than that, met GD gaaru who is in Bangalore for this and the next week. Nice to see him after one year. Had been to Vidyarthi Bhavan (the first time so after 2007). They have changed the look and feel, and it looks more presentable. It was in a terrible shape the last time I had been there. Now with tiles, it looked very cool.

Bird of Prey

Jim Morrison had recorded one of his eccentric/shady "poems" with absolutely no music. Fatboy Slim takes that sample and adds a remix and a really powerful video about war.

Very impacting video.

Fatboy Slim - Bird of Prey

One of my fave directors are ...

The Coen Brothers. I like their Dark Comedies. There are two really good movies which are going to be released :- Avatar (created by the indefatigable James Cameron) and then we have A Serious Man (by the Coen Brothers).

The Coen Brothers have a very distinct comic flavor in their movies. Many people did not find The Big Lebowski - funny. Burn After Reading was good and it was funny, but not great, imo.

Coming back to "A serious man", this will be a must watch. Interesting fact is that they have used a 60s song by Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love.

The lyrics are powerful :-

When the truth is found to be lies
And all the joy within you dies
Don't you want somebody to love ?

and then later

Tears are running down and down and down your breast
And your friends, baby they treat you like a guest
Don't you want somebody to love, don't you...

Check out the pure 60s style music video of Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane with the lead singer dressed as a nun. Imagine the furore it might have created those days. Jim Carrey , the actor has covered this song Somebody to Love by Jim Carrey

Looking fwd for these movies .... Serious Man and Avatar.

More states

is more better or worse ? you can argue on both sides.. people demanding for a new state feel they are ignored.. people resisting resist to avoid the split of natural resources, cross state tensions etc.. there is no one way or the other to support or oppose.. complex issues.. but I am surprised the way and when it happens.. a politician who has failed in the recent past (in assembly and central elections) goes on a hunger strike, students join the protest and 12 days later we have a new state .. supported by the fact that it should have been done 55 years ago .. Why did this not happen for any of the preceding 55 years. Is it okay for the people to be ignored for 55 years, but care for a politician going on hunger strike for 12 days..

now comes a chain reaction, vidharba, bundhlkand, bodo etc etc etc .. we might need double the number of states... smaller regions might lead to more better administration ??

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?670876

The New Generation is here

Ruchira and Sudeep are proud parents to a very very beautiful girl. Congratulations !

Give way, to the New Generation.

A very warm Welcome

Two Indias

India has certain schisms. The most common of which is the Urban India vs Rural India. Many of the Indians who are born/brought up in the Suave cities do not understand the travails of the Villagers. I always find myself amused when someone "Discovers" in their late 20s or 30s about the segregation of societies in villages or lack of lavatories. You almost always chuckle inside. The struggles for the rural Indians are never a priority for the country. As always the 80-20 rule holds good. 80% of people (rural) strive or sacrifice to make the lives of 20% (urbanites) better.

http://www.livemint.com/2009/12/03220216/Their-farmers-our-farmers.html?h=D

Sophisticated

Is the word which comes out when I watch this video.

It's twilight time. Boy says something to the girl in the golden yellow sunset and makes a quick exit. The girl goes into self introspection and walks towards the sea. The music is a total dope. And then, she sniffs out a tear drop and looks at a locket and finally smiles. The smile is sooo innocent :-) Watch the video for the smile

Beautiful.

Watch the music video : Air - Le Voyage De Pénélope

Downtempo is utilized very well.

I have not read Chetan Bhagat but,

this is an interesting observation :-

....As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you.

Read his speech at symbiosis

Rains

These 2 months is about rain. It's been raining. I remember the day when I was drenched to the bone; big water droplets splashing my helmet. It was exhilarating->later too much-> later terrifying->later hysterical. The shout, the choke.

Just made me realize how much of an instinctive person I am. The logical part of my brain told me "I do not have common sense". The animal instinct part told me to do something instinctive/irrational. Even if it meant soaking my laptop, skidding and falling in the slimy mud.

Work

I've always been this sort of a person at work:

Think ->Think->.....Until I become tired and impatient to think further and no decision is taken. Then do something because no decision has been reached and there is no more time. The "do" part , well, it happens. If I were a king in the 17th century, I would have been like a bloody Tuglaq.

And I am tired of seeing better people at work. I need to get acquainted to more people like me at work. I work hard and still do something idiotic. Hope all this irritation ends.

Why are we proud of our Democracy?

Democracy has been the "beacon of light" for Indians over the past 60 years to hide behind massive corruption, poverty and a divisive society. I do not know whether we are seriously any better off compared to the Chinese regime or say the likes of Iran/Venezuela. We always project our freedom of press, speech, and human rights and cover our fallacies behind. But in reality the democracy just works for political parties.

There is no single party which gets to exploit the country and this is where the true democracy plays. As per its citizens they are still at the mercy of the politicians and hence there is no freewill or freedom. Politics takes over priority under the disguise of "broader goodness". So it becomes a priority to

a. resolve the party crisis compared to work on flood relief

b. protect your ally at the expense of $100 billion to the ex-chequer

c. keeping the alliance CM protected while he loots the state's natural resources

d. massacre the downtrodden, uneducated dalits and tribals by terming them naxalities and redistributing the nations's wealth to a few companies in which some ministers have special interests

e. exporting rice reserved for the BPL people to Africa in the name of aid and thereby enabling some trader to make Rs 2000 crore in the process

f. Dropping charges against your predecessors even if they have siphoned off crores of money in the past decades

g. using a non-corrupt PMs face and be massively corrupt in all other functions

h. exploit the north east India in the name of national development without providing any regional development

and the list goes on and on .. ( this is just a mini list that can be traced to in the last few months)

So as it seems, if in a democracy if you are not in a function to exploit the nation (politics or government or businesses / persons who can influence politics/govt ) then you are just a vote. It does not matter if you support the UPA, NDA or the third front. Everyone is a mini Chinese communist party with no major achievements (at least the CCP can claim economic progress at the cost of its people and country).

but there is still hope for light at the end of the tunnel !!! ... JAI HO !!!

Loved this ad

I totally totally identify myself with this ad. At the college days, even now you can try it with your better halves....It works ...I suddenly remembered this ad because I have this (bad/good)habit of "switching off" when things get complicated.

Motoyuva ad

TWTW (The week that was)

Harbhajan Singh is one fellow who proves that more than talent, to win matches, you need the hunger and the patience and determination. Of course I cursed the Indian Team and went ahead to change the channel, but it just shows that cricket is a "mind-game" and everyone can be distracted. Australians need to be distracted after they make comments like "We'll win 7-0". I hope Harbhajan's hunger also inspires people like Raina, Jadeja who have failed miserably.

One more comment : One dayers are definitely more charming than a 20-20 match. I thought One-Dayers would be finished because of 20-20. But no, it is really much more interesting than a stupid 20-20.

Other than that, the week that went by was a very low week. Fever, cough and all that. Looking fwd for a monday and the tuesday morning to get over favorably. Thursday, I saw the movie "Snatch". There is no story but the movie is good in parts. The story exists just to showcase the characters. The characters are funny and the characters which I liked the most was that of "Franky Four Fingers" and the Pig Farmer "Brick Top". Gloriously potrayed by the actors. But these movies cannot be digested in one sitting for me. I need at least 2 viewings to understand things because there are so many subtleties. Nowadays I rather prefer a simple comedy as a good entertainer than figure out a complex plot with 2 or more interwoven stories and 1 dozen characters and some weird unheard accents.

I shall end this post with a funny thing I heard on radio.

RJ : Snehitare, Neevu invisible aadre yen maadthera ? Eega line alli idaare idanna heLokke, Bangarpete inda Syed avaru. Namaskara Syed avare. Neevu invisible aadre yen maadtheera ?

Syed : Saar naanu invisible aadre Puneeth Rajkumar avara room ge hogtheeni.

RJ : Hogbittu ?

Syed : Ashte saar, avara room ge hogtheeni.

The future : General chit chat

What a delight early in the morning having no official emails to read. I start blogging just to let my thoughts roll out.

I saw the theatrical trailer of the movie 2012. Of course I will not watch any disaster grand spectacle movies in the near future, but my mind wandered into another side as I thought about Planet Earth.

See, right now we have petrol. A person can fly to another place say Newyork or Chicago or Finland or Antarctica from Bangalore. Say about 50 years from now, I think the fuel reserves might deplete and petrol might be really costly. Might be in 50 years maybe more.

This also means, an alternate fuel must be examined. We might be heading towards an energy crisis. I did a quick google on Energy crisis and looks like :Hydrogen and Nuclear Fuels may seem to hold the key to our future generations.

Mankind maybe propelled by a Hydrogen based Economy. But from what I read (courtesy Wikipedia) : in practice, production of hydrogen from water requires more energy than the enregy released when the hydrogen is used as fuel. Free hydrogen does not occur naturally, and thus it must be generated by electrolysis of water or some other method. Countries in the world should start thinking of alternatives to Hydrogen production. How to produce Hydrogen cheaply and sell this ? => Very interesting stuff on the net.

Natural Gas might offer a quick solution to this problem, but H2 is a better option because, there is no ash and only water vapour is released which is environment friendly. GD might know better and have a better idea on this ...

And regarding Nuclear Energy it is the case of how well we can control the energy released and how efficiently energy can be utilized. You cannot generate 100000 deg centrigrade in an internal combustion engine. The engine parts may end up being vaporized. Also after hearing abt the side effects of Hiroshima (the hagaisha, hibakusha) and those people, I am really not sure whether Nuke is a great deal. However there is a lot of honcho talk regarding nuclear fuel as an energy investment .... Notice the way John Kerry says "China and India are among the many countries investing heavily in clean-energy technologies that will produce millions of jobs."

Lastly, communications and making the world closer might play a key role in the economies and I expect this sector to grow like anything. So, your super techno handsets can enable you to download a 23.5 Gigabyte leaked BBC Documentary and enable you to see the same in the loo and also act as a room freshner.

So people, invest your monies on these sectors ;-)

A nice question

In a function / or a party occasionally, a familiar face walks to you and asks the question : "Do you remember who I am ? ".
You might reply "No".
(S)he might reply " I am your (fa/mo)ther's blah blah ..."

This is a very common situation, right ?

Now here is a very interesting study(at least I found this interesting) about relations which might startle that "familiar face" referred above :

Consider all the living females on this planet. They all have descended from a single female who lived about 1.25 million years ago. This female is called the mitochondrial eve. This is proved , because the mitochondrial gene passes on only from mother to daughter (not sons).

So mathematically :

Let x be an element belonging to F, the set of all females who are living today.

Then for all x, M(M(M(.........M(x)))))) = will lead to Mitochondrial Eve. M(x) is defined as Mother of x.

Now my questions to the reader who has kept his attention until this point:-

a) Was there a single Adam and Eve pair when this Mitochondrial Eve lived ?

b) Was she the only female living then ?

Update with Answer :-

Here is a graph which is showing the Mito eve of the 4th generation tracing back to the 1st generation.

Recipe for the masala in "Masala puri"

I really want to try doing Masala Puri at home , exactly the way a street side fellow guy makes. Getting the taste at the comfort of your home is a good thing. Anyway you get the puris and the other stuff could be got at your friendly grocery store wallah.

But the big question is : What is the recipe for the masala in masala puri ?

Of course you cannot ask the guy because it is a trade secret. But we might have to build this recipe. I found one link which does talk about it.

Here is one such link :- http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2006/10/13/masala-puri/

But after eating this for so many years, I do not think I have found how this could be done.

Any ideas floating around ?

I read Subroto Bagchi's viewpoint about professional life :-

One of the things why Indians don't get to understand workplace issues till they are 23 or 24 is because they don't go to work as youngsters. When a 13 or 14 year-old in a country like the US or Japan or Europe or anywhere goes and works in a store, packs bags, or becomes a gas station attendant that individual knows the difference between my time and company time, my money and company money, what is the meaning of a paying customer.

So when you are a waiter or a waitress at 14 you know very well that you can't be on a cellphone when a customer walks in. The point is simple: workplace issues may not be understood when you take a big degree from a reputed college. You can make people aware about issues in a classroom but you can't make professionals in a classroom.

I remember when I graduated from Engineering, I thought I will be typing programs like I used to in my labs all the time. Later now I realize (I hope!) the program executable is something for which people PAY MONEY for and making it work. This will be stronger when you join a small company fighting for funds. This is something which is not taught in classrooms. Showing up on time (punctuality), proactive spirit and other things are not taught. Some people pick it up as soon as they enter the workplace, some people do not.

I feel budding engineers should be sensitized on aspects of Project Lifecycle Management , Budgeting and Management.

The largest dead snake ever found, over 50 feet.

In case you have the time to 30sec. video, let me know what was your reaction :-
See the video titled The largest dead snake ever found, over 50 feet..

Lounge

There are some lounge songs which are tingling in my mind. Enigma, Buddha Bar, Karunesh and once again Rahman's song is up there.

Enigma is just an amazing project. They really managed to make Lounge partially mainstream. Very intricate and very close to nature and most of the times, very dark. Some songs of Enigma are like "eargasms" (or if there is some word like that)....Deep Forest is another band who samples forest sounds into music.

I found the history of "Buddha Bar" (according to Wikipedia) pretty interesting :-
It is not a band, but a restaurant in Paris, famous for its ambience! They have made a franchise out of the music. But I think the music is really serious, and it needs more attention than just being played in the background.

Rehna Tu from Delhi-6. To appreciate this song and intricacies you should have a keen ear to music. Rahman sounds like Sting in this song.

Enjoy Lounge when you are in introspection mood.

My uncle's blog has got featured in Star Bloggers of Big Adda.
Great Going Chikappa.

Have a look at his blog here

one random song

long time ago there was a time when we used to have 6 cable channels. At that time there was a song called poda poda punnaku.

No idea what it meant. But I used to find it funny. Suddenly remembered that song after seeing a guy in office with a comic face the song just came out from my head

Blogging at an odd time. Yes, that's probably because of many things running on my mind.

Concentration dip is the most reasonable explanation I can think of. a)There are some days when I can literally envision a TODO list in front of my eyes. b)And there are days when the mood is bad and I want to do nothing. c)And there are some days when I want to do nothing because I feel happy and jovial and merry. Today I would tick option b.

Planning to leave early before the rain pulls yet another fast one. I have been getting caught in the rain for more than 5 times. The last time I got caught for straight 3 hrs. Eating bisi kallekai in the market below the flyover wearing a wet shirt and trouser. It was kind of fun. Uncles lifting their lungies above the knee because of the incessant rains and the mini streams.

Dasara has brought a lot of rain. And wetness. I wait for Friday => Which is also a holiday.

Late evening on a Sunday with some time. Some time, it feels good to put a blog post as a stress buster. Have been busy for the past three weeks with work going on a full speed. Tomorrow is a Monday and people want to ask what happened last week....When I think about the fact I will be scampering around tomorrow morning for following schedules and deadlines and reporting what are the NEXT STEPS and all that follow up things, I feel "haaa! How many more days of this ?".

There is this ICICI Retirement ad, in which a guy is shown doing his dream job of apple farming. Mine would be growing grapes and a vineyard and filling a barrel with clean water and filling it with grapes and stomping it. Tasting wine in the Champagne region. Wow sounds cool. Gawd knows how good or bad that is, as a job. Everything on the superior looks nice and interesting. When we get into the details and there is a responsibility tag, you just can't ignore it, thats when the grind of the routine makes a potato mash of your brain.

Apart from job blues, I have been thinking about the concept of Joint Family and what impact it had on me. I stumbled across my Upanayanam video which was from 1988. Half the elderly people featured in the video are no more and they are just memory. But there were so many relatives to my parents and so many joint families back then.
I had been a part of a Joint Family from my birth till almost 1999-2000 till which time there were about 13 people in my house under one roof. There were (and still are) many good memories, heated arguments etc. But I never had something like a "lonely childhood". There were always people around me. ALWAYS. I was specially attached to one of my grandfather (technically he was not my grandfather but my uncle's father-in-law who stayed with us ), but I cherish the conversations I had with him. He is the first person who comes to my mind. He was 68 when I was born and 95+ in 2007 when he breathed his last. I still remember him giving us a lecture on Hamlet-Prince of Denmark. It was like poetry. Hmmm Whatever. What I think is, a joint family brings in a implicit sense of hierarchy. Not sure whether this is applicable in today's India.

And it needs space (both physical space like sufficient infrastructure, financial resources as well as space for love and understanding) among its members. The festivals and other celebrations were ( and even now are) always great. It gives a sense of oneness among siblings. But if there is too much bitter competition, conspiraicies joint family just doesnt work - Like what happened to another jolly joint family which I knew.

But still Joint Families are a hit in Saas Bahu serials and Telegu movies and movies like PreethSod Tappa ?

World Integration

Wow... I loved this video on Youtube.
If there was a "World Integration" song analogical to the "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" National Integration, it would probably look like this.

World Peace!

Watch WHERE THE HELL IS MATT

Bikini Noise

why is there so much hype in bollywood about actresses donning a Bikini.....

the first news that popped up on Rediff was "Lara goes the bikini way in Blue".. phewwwwwww

the question is can bikinis increase ticket sales??

I really dont think ppl pay Rs 150 for 3 min... rather 2 min.. as the 1 min is already aired on TV

So media pls cut back the hype

Enjoy the ride

I stumbled across this lovely melancholic tune from Morcheeba and a really haunting and beautiful music video. I urge to listen to this song, follow the lyrics and enjoy the cartoons.

This video just proves that cartoons can express any human emotion.

Powerful.

Morcheeba : Enjoy the Ride

The BIG 10 bus

Has a strange logo.

Or so, I thought.

Initially, I could not even read it as Big 10 (it looked some kind of SriLankan or Malayan language). But now after thinking about it, I realize the Big10 is written both in English and Kannada. Slant your head for the Kannada script. And the English script can be read a little easily.

Good innovation.

Avatar

Wow...The story is so alien yet the essential premise of moral dilemma is so formulaic.
But I am sure, James Cameron will do justice to the story. Looking fwd for this movie Avatar.

Ideas

Well some ideas are getting generated in my head about some independent ventures. Although, I neither have the plan of taking this seriously at this point of time, but it is fun to at least orient myself.....

Eating, Working, Sleeping and sometimes Dreaming. That's been what's happening for me right now...

One idea which is definitely profitable is to start an agency which caters to the needs of the reality tv shows. One of the integral parts of Reality Tv is to elicit feedback. Feedback is basically in the form of sms'es (as of today) but it can change in the future to may be interner or web based applications on mobile, interactive television etc. So, this agency should give feedback services, conduct surveys, provide authentic voting (of the contestant mechanisms), show the voting trends etc. to a prospective television show producer. He has to just pay this agency for offering feedback services. Going down the lane, this can actually be a branded service.

Another idea (implemented by my cousin brother Sujay Rao in the US as Grasshopr.com ) which is going to catch up, in another 5 to 10 years(in India) is an agency which will provide web based services to MLA's and MP's to interact with the public. The agency should implement the processes for citizens to track and hold MPs (and the officers) responsible for their complaints. The work will be very visible. There could be a tool like a Software Defect Tracker where we raise complaints which get assigned to officials who can track the problem.

Ideas make the world go round, round, round ....

World Maps

My new found fascination with history continues (in this post) and I have found a very good website related to historical maps.

Have you ever wondered : How will an atlas published in the year 1300 B.C. look like ?

Well even I had not, but one guy has taken all the pains and created an atlas for historical eras. I just realized how much of a melting pot of cultures India has been. People from every nook and corner (of the Old World) have visited India. Chinese, Afghans,

Check this website about historical world maps

A coincidence

Yesterday I just found this three piece documentary called "The story of India" - presented by a historian called Michael Wood. And today it is Independence Day. What a coincidence!

If you have the time (like more than 6 hours) on a lazy rainy weekend (like how it is today here in Bangalore), then I would recommend this series. Very insightful and passionated documentary. Michael Wood's approach towards History appealed to me, as he puts forth the story of India right from the Dawn of Indus Valley Civilization till the Indian Independence.

The first series talks about the the Africa=>Mid East Yemen=>Kerala migration of humanity to Kerala and about the original gene preservation in some Kerala tribes (because of marriage between first cousins) and then moves over to the IVC (Indus Valley Civilization and the Aryan Invasion and Sanskrit.

The second series talks about the thinkers in Ancient India namely Budhdha and Jainism and the existence of caste system and how it worked in ancient india.

The third was about the Silk Route. Did not know much about this and enjoyed this episode the most...I was particularly fascinated by a king called "Kanishka" whom I had heard during my school days but was not aware much about him.

I could get only three episodes of this 6 episode series.

I would like to read "The Discovery of India" by Nehru someday but, you need both time and energy , so such a series is good enough for the time being :)

I saw the Hangover

recommended by zeeds ... sakkath aagi ide .... yappa nakki nakki sakkaagoythu!
I think the fat guy and the Doctor (dentist) have done a good job!

There was a similar picture called Sideways which I saw a couple of days ago. That was the same premise and there are fleeting references to Sideways in Hangover (like Napa Valley reference and the Wine tasting)

Sideways was not a goofy/slapstick comedy. It was a serious movie and there were some elements indicating a (?) dark comedy approach.

But nonetheless Hangover was fun. Saw it when I was really tired and bored and laughed the whole night!

BCB, Drag n' Drop, Coffee n Biscuits and McDonald .... Life has been pretty hectic!

The Hangover

highly recommended and not adivsed if doctors have recommended that "laughing is injurious to your health".

The name and the premise ( lost memories of a bachelor party) does not really give you the right ideas about the movie. I was in split minds when I entered the movie hall. But my doubts lay to rest as soon as the credits start to roll.

This movie is a luaghing riot. The character "Allen" is f***in (i used this for a particular reason) hilarious. The minute details are handled very well.

Dont miss it unless laughing is injurious to your health.

Another movie you might want to catch for some laughs is Sankat City.

Egomaniac politicians..

Bill Clinton recently visited North Korea to bring back two American journalists in captive back home. There could never be a remote possiblity of this happening in the Asian world. Asian political representatives are probably the biggest ego-maniacs in the world. The issue of pride (which is mainly ego), face (china and other eastern nations), royalty (middle east) will prevent them from doing anything for the common people.

The Chinese, Indian, middle east, south east politicians are probably the worst kind (combined with their counterparts in africa as well). They just keep a huge distance between themselves and the public. The political standards in this part of the world (which is usually a privilege passed on by the family or a cadre or a religious sect) totally sucks and the worst part is there will be no reform.

I wish to see a King abdullah/ Hu Jintao / Sonia Gandhi moving sometime for someone apart from their near/dear ones. We never do anything unless things reach a critical mass like the racial slur in Australia, which made Mr. Foriegn affairs minister fly down under

KPL ??

Any opinion on KPL ?

I totally agree to Kumble's opinion :-

Kumble warned that the tournament, “in its current form, would allow a backdoor entry into the KSCA for people not passionate about cricket”.

Why are people just promoting 20/20 format ? Any money for sponsorship would just be drained for 20/20 format :-( Test cricket is slowly becoming an antiquity.

Seriously, we need to support test cricket. By 20/20 format, we will forget the worlds of Yorkers, In Swing, Out Swing, Maiden Overs and getting beaten ...Ball weathering out, tiring out bowlers and fielders, slip fielder placements, off spin, leg spin and the googlies....Lunch/Tea and all the things which are actually cricket in a conventional sense. The Wisden Cricket, the real cricket. I heard that ICC wants to get away with a 5 day test cricket format which is not a positive development.


The real cricketing pundits are conspicuously missing. All we hear is about BCCI politics and some bloody Bollywood stars who just want to make money and fame and view Cricket as an investment. And Indian Media is shamelessly more interested in dishing out the politics like coach v/s team v/s captain and all that cr@p. Why can't it just focus on the cricket.

I am happy nowadays happy watching some great test cricket videos on Youtube.

pow

Sometimes I just lose it ...

I do some silly mistakes for which I am butchered and then a barrage of emails from people telling me how to do things and "avoid mistakes in the future and to try to do a quality job." ... This time I did something totally unaware (which was wrong) but which was being done by 10 other people also...But I was the lucky person to be pointed out at.

Reminds me of my FASLE compile break days in Sasken. The FASLE was used instead of FALSE and this was hidden within a compile flag. When I compiled without the compile flag everything went thru' fine and next day I had got a string of emails from people as the compile had broke.

I just lose it and find myself in a pitiable situation. This happens to me because of my absent mindedness and my basic nature to hurry up when it is a matter of nitty-gritties and meticulousness. In other words, I get bored easily ... Why ? Am I lazy ? Yes, maybe.

The human society is like a place where everyone of us is trying to outdo each other by keenly observing for that single mistake one fool makes ...Once that mistake is found that fellow can be shot, it brings a smile and relief to the rest of the people that they are not in that situation...It is that cutthroat thing and I don't like it...No point being philosophical now.

Why does it happen despite best efforts ? Maybe I am not careful enough (???)

Defying the myths of "AGE"

Found this article to be fascinating. Talks about breaking the conventional way based on one's convenience.

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?260052

Sustainablity

Recently 70% of the dow jones companies beat analyst estimates for corporate earnings. The question is that is this sustainable. My view is not due to the following reasons

1. Most EPS beat analyst estimates due to cost cutting and not due to revenue growth.
2. Analysts collectively tend to underestimate or overestimate. In Q2 they did underestimate. Perhaps they should have tied up with consultancy companies to determine exactly how much cost cutting was done. Well they were not innovative. Now for Q3 they will probably overestimate. This is make EPS for the companies to underperform. And shares will drift downwards. This week this correction will probably happen as the news regarding revenue dips permeates in the community.

btw, there are two ways to bet on this.

1. To take this as the correct prediction and short the market (sell your holdings)
2. Important one - My friends from Infosys used to always use the anti-gd strategy. i.e when I sold my shares they bought it and when I did buy they sold it and they really made (claimed) good money out of it. I dont think their strategy is anything different now as well (despite me carrying a coveted MBA). So go ahead for this one as well

ps:- The risk is assumed by thyself.
Just sold some Infy shares

Yeddelu Manjunatha !

Yeddelu Manjunatha ! is a comedy movie made by the director of the critically acclaimed Mata movie. It is already making waves here !!!

There was a very popular devotional song by PB Srinivas of the same name "YeddeLu Manjunatha". I remember during the Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations, there is a temple (near our old house) where this song was played loudly. As soon as the song was played, one of our neighbors (named Manjunatha) used to wake up and walk to the temple (he was one of the key volunteers of the temple)!!!!!

So it was a kind of signalling system or a wakeup call to him. The lyrics went "Devathegalu ninna darushanake kaadiharu" ... and those "devathegaLu" were the temple authorities who were waiting for this guy.

Oh, by the way, in the movie "Yeddelu Manjunatha !", in one of the songs, the lyrics goes :-

"This is a Manjunatha
You can see him anywhere
Manege Obba Manjunatha
Made in India"

Manjunatha is a very common name and the lyric ascertians my belief....I want to see this movie ;-)

the oil curse

http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14045268

Very interesting, baffling and saddening (US / Europe has such different standards) at the same time.

Looks like Cars get on to the top of the list of all things evil

Another Multi-Crore scam

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?250566

Another multi-crore scam. And such a simple modus operandi phewwwww!!!..

This is one of the reasons why I do not like Congress @ the helm of affairs.

Bofors
Food for Oil
Telecom spectrum

and the list goes on

Cant remember the others.. Add on please

the RIL Gas saga

Do your math first and do it well before you settle on pricing. When you come up with your price it is assumed that you have hedged your risks. And once you have signed a contract then do honour it. I have seen a lot many companies in Asia which falter on their calculations (spend very less time as well) and then spend an awful lot of resources at negotiating contracts time and again.

The case between RIL and NTPC/RNRL should not be entertained at the first place. I feel the verdict given by Bombay high court should be upheld by Supreme court as well. RIL is big enough to manipulate the petroleum ministry to get more bucks for the sale of its Natural gas from the KG basin. The petroleum ministry will indeed try to push for higher pricing which means higher revenue for them.

But, what happens to the downstream power sector which have made investments based on a gas pricing of $2.34/mmbtu? If they were to pay the RIL stipulated rates of $4.2/mmbtu, which RIL says is needed due to its excessive spending in drilling, the only way the power companies are going to recover the costs is by pricing the electricity more. This would indeed hurt the consumers.

When RIL bid for the KG blocks, it did based on its assumptions and risk. The gas pricing was based on the same set of assumptions and risks. If it won the bid based on its numbers then it needs to sell the gas proposed in the contract. If RIL had realized that indeed drilling for gas would cost more but then still bid low to get the allocation of gas blocks, then this would be FRAUD. Isnt the whole concept of encouraging private companies to participate was to push the risk/reward to them??

With its latest lobbying for higher pricing, RIL is manipulating the system and nullyfying the risks it has assumed. This clearly should not be allowed. This is the first allocation to private companies for gas drilling in India, and this should not set a bad precedence. However big RIL is and however close they are to Mr Deora, this should not be entertained. I hope the court gives the right verdict.

Guava and Pomegranate

As a kid these were my two favorite fruits apart from Nellikayi (Amla) and Mangoes. Mangoes used to disappoint a majority of the time, as most of them used to be bitter (except totapuri). Of course I am talking of the stolen mangoes. In fact I am talking about stolen guavas, pomegranate and nellikayis as well.

Some of my most memorable childhood summers in Bangalore ( i used to spend a lot of time in my village in Chitradurga as well) have been spent stealing the above mentioned fruits from my neighbours. We also used to fish for Tamarind and Gasgase (some form of red berries) during the summer. But since these were mostly available easily ( and hence probably never tasted that good). Custard apples always turned out to be raw, so never used to fish for the same.

Stealing Guava, pomegranate and Mangoes required some exquisite skills. usually follows a 3 stage process - finding the right target house, spotting the right fruits and timing the plucking. (and sometimes you need to be "Beware of Dogs", screeching gates, slippery floors etc etc ). Apart from that each fruit had its own set of problems

Guava - U need to get the riped one and not the rotten/raw one (the ones which fell on the ground were for secondary citizens)
Pomegranate - Finding a ripe one was tough and the plant has sharp thorny branches and you could not climb the tree as well
Mangoes - The size of the tree was somewhat scary.. the risk outweighed the benefits

I can remember sneaking out of the house from the backdoor (hated those doors which used to make screeching noise) during the hot afternoons of the summers. Between 2 -4 was the best time as most mommies who are the guardians of the fruits/ us would be fast asleep at this time. Before 2 pm they would be busy with the lunch and post lunch activities whereas by 4pm, the milkman used to wake them up. We used to roam around the locality during this period, take a guess at the least risky target (some spying ensured this) and u would go for the kill. Each member of the gang would take a turn indeed.

You would end up with half a dozen guavas / 2 mangoes/ 1 or 2 pomegranate / or pockets full of nellikayi for a day, which would be split between friends and savored along with some uppu/khara (salt and red chilli powder, except for the pomegranate). Also you were to make sure you would sneak back into the house and pretend to be asleep. Unfortunately you would be caught sometimes, which means being reprimanded, complained which would ensure no activity for a week when you would settle for Tamarind on gasgase. (and being condemned with bananas and moosambis from the market, these were the worst fruits along with apple)

this summer there are still plenty of guavas and mangoes... some kid somewhere in the by lanes of Chamrajpet might making his steal.. we will head for the street market sometime during the week and settle for some fruits using HKD....

Psychedelia

It seems this poem is written by Shishunala Shareef. Interesting. The translation is easier for me to follow (than the kannada lyric)

Kannada :

Gudugudiya sedi nodo Gudugudiya sedi nodo vodalolagina roga tegedu idyado manasemba sanchiya bicchi dinadinavu maho ambo bhangiya kocchi nenevemba chilumeya hacchi buddhiyesuvantha kendava mele nee mucchi burudi yembodu shareera idanaritu sukrutakkittu kolavi aakaara, kolavi aakara varashishunalanemba neera tumbi arivemba ariviya hoccho mojugaara shuddha gnana maelaeri daaridra deha suttu, hogeyu haaruvudu buddhivantara yeledu varasiddashishunaladeeshana torvudu


TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH :
Smoke the hookah smoke the hookah smoke out the disease inside you and feel good open the small cloth bag called mind take out the hash called lust and crush it put it in a chillum called faith light it up with burning coal called intelligence.

The pipe is like the body understand this.

Do the good deed fill it with water called his name air-tighten it with a cloth called knowledge around it. Let the purity rise up with the smoke burning the rotten body attracting the knowledgeable who will show you the path to the great shishunaaladeesha.

An alternative

The recession has affected JOBS worldwide. Instead of layoffs if we could have trimmed a day out of everyone's schedule it could have been fantastic. You start your week on Monday afternoon and end by Friday afternoon.

The economy will not recover until Jobs situation improves and the jobs wont improve until the economy improves.. its a chicken and egg problem..

Lesser work days and increased holiday might lead to better consumption.. traveling and a healthy work life style..

Atleast I vote for monday afternoon start and friday afternoon off..

If you are Infosys 1,00,000 empolyees, saving a day per/week will result in 4,00,000 days/month. Shaving 5000 jobs will result in 110,000 days with the much more side effects, the rest 95K will spend a day of their week worrying about their jobs resulting in a -ve 380,000 days (without saving cost benefits)...

But the practical problem is the implementation.. firing is probably more easy. implementing 25% pay cut across the board is quite difficult for a large company.

One of the finance companies which my friend works for in HK did an across board 25% pay cut. People not interested were let go (natural lay off). I felt it was a pretty cool idea. (though it was not a good deal for my friend, as he did not get an additional day off / week)

The Chinese Way

China recently detained 4 Rio Tinto employees, one of who is an Aussie of Chinese origin and is the General Manager/Head of the Iron Ore trading group, under the pretext of stealing State secrets (as a spy ofcourse). For the world this seems very rididculous - a business person stealing state secrets.



But from the Chinese point of view this makes sense..



How??



Chinalco - A STATE owned aluminuium company.. who is having a big stake (12.5%) and trying to expand its stake in Rio Tinto.



If the Aussie is digging some information on Chinalco which might be exclusive then it is a SECRET



So we have the STATE SECRET being stolen and he is allowed to be arrested under the law..

As sunday rolls on to give way to the Mundane Monday, I am listening to the Kannada movie Josh's song: Thanthane Thanamthane. The song is played almost everyday, the song is somewhat catchy and self indulging. The music director has used Depeche Mode's style of Guitar and vocals. Of course, I should mention that the heroine (whats her name?) is pretty : sakkathaagi idaale.

Aley Aley is another song which is good, but the supporting music is too much (IMO).

One comment about the marketing of the new Kannada movies: A movie promoter must promote a movie not a budding actor's image. Instead of having promotional shoots, why not use the movie stills itself ? That will at least attract attention for the story (IMO).

Also, I am suprised by the number of posts on kannada_movies. Do check it out here!

how fit are you?

idondu extra chinte eega....

i was quite relieved to read an article which suggested that working out more than 3-4 times a week after the age of 25 is not healthy in the long term.. hehe .. this is the kind of articles which help you :-).. believe me even 3-4 times can be a stretch..

it says you will be wearing-out your bones and muscles and cartilages blah blah and you will realize this only when u are 50ish around..

so maaja maadi boys and girls .. remember physical activity once is 2 days only.. and alternate between upper body and lower body..

but the article also said avoid Junk food.. now thats a suggestion even harder to implement.. ayyo hogappa yestu dina anta avoid madokke aagotte..
"you can run away from junk food, but cannot hide from it", it gets back at you somehow.. except you are lost in a tropical island/forest/desert/mountain which has no civilization.. (any other places where french fries has not made its way still..??)

Overflowing rivers

This picture here reminds me of our trek back in 2002 to Kumara Parvatha. After 1.5 hours of waiting for the river water to subsize, we took a plunge to cross the bridge with knee length of water (culprits include richie, harsha, kummi, teju, sudeepa, raghu and myself), encouraged after watching some locals in white dhoties crossing the river. The view across the bridge was magnificent with logs floating on the water, which seemed to be flowing out of a mountain.

However, our joy of a brave act was doused when the hotelier across the bridge (where we had breakfast) informed us that 2 persons were washed away the previous day trying to cross the bridge. We had at least one person in the gang who dint know swimming and the RedBull bravery award should go to this chap.

The Air India Saga

They came, they destroyed and now they want it to be resurrected.

The Tatas gave the Air India to the government, who screwed it up and now want a TATA intervention to revive it again. For what?? screwing it again??

Sometimes feels like its an achievement India still exists under such anarchy. We need to cross check if the country as a whole has been pledged secretly to some other country(Just in Case). You might one day wake up and realize you no more are called an Indian but a Russian/Chinese ..argghhhhhhhhh

Tell me your dreams

My dream yesterday was interesting (at least to me).

I have read about many bag packing stories in search of spirituality. I am really keen to do such a thing. Steve Jobs has done it. Hippies do it. My ex-colleague has done it. I want to do it.

So this dream was about me going in my car to Udupi. I am driving near the beach and I am listening to devotional music. My wife asks me, "Why Spiritual Journey ?".

I am livid by the question. I answer, "To find the spiritual meaning of life". And then I am about to explain what this is all about...

There is a traffic jam.

I ask the neighbouring Honda Activa guy : What is this all about ?
"Yenu illa Sir, Shivarajkumar was the new pilot of an AirFrance plane. He crashed it in the Arabian Sea and 220 people are missing. But he came out with the blackbox"

I say: Thats fine. But why the jam ?

"Sir, Karave have blocked the road and protesting that ShivrajKumar has to be released to them".

At this point I wake up. I was tired out and frustrated of the jam and the fact that my spiritual journey was ruined.

It was 3 a.m.

Butt Pocket

The butt pocket seems to be a major advancement in Men's fashion. (claim it as a fashion and not a necessary based on the following arguments). Though I do not know the history of this significant development, I am curious of its development and acceptance as in the Male community to house the "Wallet" in it.

Its astonishing that the Butt pocket mainly serves for the Wallet and Comb (mainly Indians) and sometimes bits of Paper. The introduction of the butt pocket (BP from now) seems to have come out of the need to remove irritation from the thighs. One can understand this phenomenon trying to walk with a wallet in the front pockets of the pants. While growing up its a sign that you have matured i.e you have grown from a child to an adult and you can handle the wallet in the Butt (its a style statement as well among teenage boys) and dont need to protect it in your thigh pockets.

But apart from this situation the BP/wallet scenario is mainly negative. It is uncomfortable while sitting, inaccessible (wallet) in crampy seats, and feels like you are paying the bill from the Butt (looks and feels derogatory). Security wise it is counter intuitive as well.

Another interesting fact is the pentration of other products into the Butt pocket. Later advents (mobile phones, ipods, PSPs) never got into the Butt, I mean into the BP. These are still largely reserved for the thigh pockets. Even the rumors of wireless signals harming genital parts could not move the mobile phone from front to the back (i speak of majority here)... leaving the Butt pocket exclusive to Wallets and Combs (in case of Indians)

So, weighing the positives vs negatives it looks like mostly out of Fashion rather than purpose ?? isnt it?

ps:- I love having pockets in pants (not in the shirt though). Imagine otherwise carrying everything in a Man purse.. phewwwww.. so many more animals would be sacrificed and ofcourse you would compete with the ladies in one more arena (who has the better bag)

The adda turned 5 years old today

woah man...It has not changed much....Its the same old place but the number of posts have decreased (i think). And the look keeps changing every year.The content is still informal and hastily written (thats true for me) with some grammatical and spelling mistakes. A great man who was drunk told these words on a running train "Fcuk the grammar". So the blog goes by that principle.

heheh.

The Wimbledon and the Chair Umpire

It was certainly Roger Federer's day. How else can you describe his victory on the Center court? After struggling for 4.15 hours, the light (no the Shade) got on to Roger's side. I do not want to take some of the brillaint tennis he played esp in the 5th set, but certainly Roddick was the better player until the Sun/Shade got better off him. Yes, blame it on Sun or Roger's experience (from last year) to use the Sun to adavantage, we have a new Grandslam master in the world - Roger Federer surpasses Pete Sampras with one more title and the difference seems to be the French open title :-). The two players in the 5th set displayed such high fitness levels that it appeared that they had just started the game.

But the interesting part of the match was the award ceremony. As per tradition the Chair umpire got a medal. (or whatever they give it to him, I am not good with keeping up with traditions). Well ! Honestly how difficult is it to be a Chair umpire in tennis esp Wimbledon?? Your main job seems to be uttering "Silence Please, Thank You" and come on not even in French/other exotic lanaguage this time. You get a panaromic view and a coveted one of the finals(yes, there is only one chair umpireEven Henry Kssinger/Russel Crowe/Bjorn Borg/ if Barack Obama cant have it). You get the luxury of admonishing players, look down at the audience and the other line refrees (whose job is excruciating, you have to just keep watching the lines and not get to see the match, thats really cruel. I have great respect for them). Isnt this enough of a reward ??

Why the F*** do you need a medal ? Its probably like the life time achievement award. Dude! you have toiled all your way from the Lines refree/ball boy (I truly admire the Line referees)to the Chair umpire in your 30 years of service at the All England Lawn Tennis association (not to mention, you have got paid, free tickets to your family and friends and numerous goodies as well). Here it is we award you for your dedication to the sports.

This is one position where you dont need previous experience (especially with the technology assitance). If you have played tennis once is life, thats an eligiblity and the atmost requirement for this job. This is a job where you can get recommended ("influence" by Indian terms) by some high dignitary and get elevated to the post and peform superbly, without anyone pointing his fingers at the misappropriateness of the Job promotion.

All that that referee of the referee needs to say, "Look, what a brilliant game we had, and the chair umpire even got a medal, My selection is absolutely correct :-), what else you want? "

My reply would be "I want that f***in post" :-)

Weekend .. two views

Can be looked as either "Killed" or a "relaxing/much required" one..

Friday night - dinner with Hebbar followed by ample TV
Saturday - late brunch (homemade), followed by Ice-age 3, shopping, late lunc (@ 5 pm home made again), an hour jog (Mrs missed it), a shower, a well deserved dinner, ample TV,
sunday - late brunch (uppit), Seinfeld marathon, ample browsing, late lunch, good tea.. dont know what lies ahead..

Read the Arundhati Roy article on Outlookindia.com, thoughtful, but as Bill gates puts it "Democracy is the least of the worst political systems".. there seems to be no solution.. for the lower rung of the soceity democracy might feel like Communism (without the benefits associated).. I really need to visit the mining states of India sometime to understand what she writes on mining and the industrialization.. (someone from these states can easily identify with the same) the other issues water, communalism, free market, corrupt political system endorsed by democracy and media is fairly clear. Kashmir again I am not completely aware of.

A $2billion election .. wowwwwwww.. thats just the official part of it???
The cost of maintaining democracy is clearly huge but miniscule when compared to the post-election exploitation..

Apart from these something that were interesting this week
- North Korea firing missiles on Saturday - South Koreans/Japanese would preferred McCain vs. Obama.. Obama certainly is not a toughie to keep North Koreans from testing missiles.. his weapons are twitter and facebook
- Unemployment numbers -- well not a surprise at all for anyone except the forecasters.. 9.5% in the US and EU, looks like good co-ordination going there, but beleive me the world is truly recovering.. spending / consumption will happen, at a given price though, just have a look at the Zara/Lane Crawford sale in Hong kong..
- Still wary abut equity markets, not worth investing.. well no capital as well. real estate in India looks interesting though.. by 2012 prices would have appericiated by 50% atleast from current levels (prophecy ... not much numbers have gone behind this one..)

okies.. time to get some Flakes and milk..

adios to the weekend...

the forgotten BRAHMA

Nice article fwded by Pushpa. A question which we always questions, discuss and cant conclude. Some insights into the Indian behaviour.

http://www.livemint.com/2009/07/02203128/Why-Indians-don8217t-give-b.html?h=A3

Only glad thing is the behavior is changing

ps: I feel sorry from Brahma

Paying a huuuuge tax this time .... Looks like I goofed up some numbers when I changed from Sasken to NSN. Apart from that, I think I have confused housing loan procedures and its applicability to tax procedures....

olle naraka yaathane

Power cuts

With no rains in the places where it has to rain, the power production in the state (and states like TN and MP) has dropped. The result is power cuts.

We talk about India moving towards a newer industrialized economy. But the monsoons coming on time is a question of Rs.9000 Crores. That's the impact of weather.

Wake up citizens of India! Let's do the rain dance.

UPDATE: I did a few quick rain dance moves here (with fellow concerned pseudo environmentalists here at the office), the rain god is pretty pleased and it is raining here in Bangalore. Hope it is raining elsewhere too. We need the power and the water. But I will not have a nice trip back home :-(

Michael Jackson

The beat, the music, the voice....there was only one, Michael Jackson, a legend that passed away and left millions of people with tears in their eyes..

Well I have been listening to non-stop Michael Jackson...I guess many of us are doing the same....What a genius and what a loss to the world of Music. Off the Wall -> Thriller -> Bad -> Dangerous -> HIStory The last four albums happened right in front of me (unlike the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix or Led Zep )..... Really felt sad. He was a good guy and not many of his songs needed skimpy dressed women....I really would like to remember MJ as the King of Pop who also expressed his music through the moves and passion rather than the mess of his later days...I disliked all the forwards which showed his degenerating and changing look.....RIP MJ...I will always be your fan....

Current song :- not as well received as the other ones

MJ

MJ is no more. The news is there everywhere, but I felt like saying it. The first English song I ever heard was in 3rd std "Beat it" by MJ. One of the last few remaining great icons in music industry.

Personal E-mails

have almost become inconsequential now. All I get on a daily basis are promotions from banks, updates from subscription sites. The rest and majority of the new mails are Spam. This truly wasnt the case 3-4 years ago.. is this part of the growing old phenomenon??? or the effect of social networks, mails, chats and cheaper tele-communication costs??

If so, this sucks .. there is nothing to look forward on the e-mail..

I am currently secluded, sitting in a cubicle staring the mountain and thinking about methanol ( well actually ..not even that.. the priority is more like how will I spend the next 3 long hours.. ) and soon I will not even have a neighbour (due to the redesign in the office)

I think I need to get back on facebook/twitter and reconnect to the world......
ps:- looking fwd for the dinner today.. hebbar's going back to blore in a week..thats quite sad.. one sould who looked spirited enuf to stick to the stressful hk world.. will miss him around...

Some Science News blogging

In the wake (or rather the laze) of the afternoon hour I present you my dear reader, this piece of information. What are the latest "sciency" stuff happening around :-

#1
Scientists have found that if you want to get someone to do something, ask them in their right ear. Known as the 'right ear advantage,' scientists believe it is because information received through the right ear is processed by the left hand side of the brain which is more logical and better at deciphering verbal information than the right side of the brain. 'Talk into the right ear you send your words into a slightly more amenable part of the brain,' say researchers.

Keep that in mind. OK. I repeat it, in your right ear. And next time do not bother whether the right ear has more wax than the left ear.

#2
Some other scientists are wondering how to greet an extra-terrestrial (link) ?
I remember the wonderful movie "Contact" when I saw this latest research topic-Interesting but hopeless in my opinion. Also I had interest on this topic sometime ago after seeing Contact and I had stumbled across the way Aricebo Message has been coded. This was a message which was sent into outer space with the hope that atleast 0.0000000000000001% chance somebody could decode this... The more interesting part was how it can be arranged to be decoded. Not sure whether such an intelligent life exists. In earth only we can take years together to decode such a signal

Well, the lunch break is over at office and I sit here.The whole day you are busy attending meetings and teleconferences and all that and the work accomplished at the end of the day is NOTHING. Waaaaaaawww!!!

I remember the days when I used to blog with passion and keenness. Today I am blogging for the sole purpose of staying awake in front of this monitor. As I type this I am falling asleep, but I mind my spellings you see :-). The red spelling mistake lines marked by my browser are distracting.

I was thinking about Yograj Bhatt today morning. The Mungaaru Male director claims he has found out a method to generate electricity from the pressure of vehicles moving on the road. I am not making this one up. Check out Yograj Bhatt and his electric idea. How about having a broadband service based on the car horns ? Or heating water after starting a quarrel ?

Heheh, jokes apart this is a good idea at least for the movie.
Life goes on in the corporate circle. I shall wait for the afternoon coffee (and biscuits)

Sat Evening Random ramblings

Sat evening and night means party to many people, but not me. I don't avoid it but I do not make an effort to party. Especially one of those days when I just am tired.

Today I did not have anything substantial as the morning was hectic and it is nice to stretch my legs on the bed with the faint hum of the ceiling fan and the muffled noise of a great dane letting out ocassional barks whose dB is less than the hum of the ceiling fan in my room. May sound boring, but it is relaxing at least to me :-)

The next week is undoubtedly going to be hectic and I will have to sleep a little less than usual, but I hope I can balance. Coming to the morning, it was well prepared shaavige paayasam and then the long tiring drive along the hebbal flyover which has kept me from going anywhere.

Nowadays I know about the various cosmetics which women use thanks to Ruchira :-) Multani Mitti is a kind of some powder (it is mud from Multan...lol) which is applied onto the face until it dries. I felt it is very very similar in texture and the characteristic smell of Gopi Chandana which is the stamped on our Madhva foreheads.

Meanwhile my folks are watching some crazy kannada movie called "Dheera" - The hero is Rockline Venkatesh. And somehow my dad is fascinated with his histrionics. I watched a little bit of the movie, but I felt that script can be best described as "simian".

Apart from that , got an opportunity to catch up with friends from Sasken. Wonderful times spent on a friday afternoon.

As I type this, I remember the ant massacre that happened yesterday. By the hit spray I might have killed thousands of ants, but frankly there were too many ants. I heard that there is a population explosion of ants post rains and I have to find a quick remedy for this apart from the Hit spray. One ant was about to enter my ear when I slept at night .

As I type these lines I remember this lyrics :-

There's an insect in your ear if you scratch it won't disappear
It's gonna itch and burn and sting
Do you want to see what the scratching brings ?

Rediff message boards Jokes

Hilarious!

Phase in Space

Found this hilarious short story somewhere (the link is lost- i closed the tab).

------

Phase was lost. There was no question about it. At first, the jungle had seemed a nice enough place - full of interesting birds and animals, and lots of smokeable looking plants growing all around.
Now, four days later, the plants had all been too damp to light, the birds kept him awake at night and Phase had yet to encounter an animal which did not try to attack him. Scratch that. He had yet to encounter an animal which did not succeed in attacking him.
Now he was lost in an uninhabited, alien jungle on a far away planet in a completely parallel universe and those drums were driving him insane.
The impossibility of drumming in an unihabited jungle hit him about the same time as the spear-butt from out of the bushes to his left.
He awoke to find himself sat in a clearing surrounded by about four dozen young women wearing the sort of fur bikini that would have made Raquel Welch give up and go home.
He very carefully didn't pinch himself in case he was dreaming.
"Hello," he said, still quite dazed from the attack.
Several of the younger ones (aged around 18) took flight across the clearing towards the mud huts that surrounded it. "My God!" he thought "They look almost as good from that angle as they do from this"
The eldest woman there (23ish) looked him up and down.
"You are male?" She asked.
"You can't tell?" he replied, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice.
"All our men were killed several years ago in a bizarre accident involving a herd of Tortoise. Don't ask. We have spent the last few years searching the jungle for more men to help with the whole 'having children' thing."
Phase quietly resolved never to pinch himself again for as long as this lasted, just in case.
"So, when do I start?"
"Right away, if you like," said the tall brunette to his left.
Phase rubbed his hands with glee.
"The children are over here." Said a redhead.
Phase was confused. "Children?"
"Yes," informed a blonde, "We have more than enough men for the first bit. This jungle was full of tribes whose males were only too willing to volunteer. But we're much too busy having sex to raise the children ourselves, so any other men are assigned the task of looking after them."
The first girl took his arm. "Don't worry, the rest of your life will just fly by if you concentrate on changing nappies and not trying to escape in any way." She looked puzzled. "Why are you pinching yourself like that?"

Mmmmm

I have started traveling in a two-wheeler to the office, I save a lot of time. Mysore Road is like a maze with walls created by the buses and the lorries and it is for the 2-wheeler guys to figure the way.

It is an interesting game but I have started singing to myself as I ride my bike. Long time ago, I was a bathroom singer having soap operas but all that stopped I guess when I was in my 8th or 9th standard when I started to listen to the English songs. English songs are not hummable by me for some reason.

In a car I typically tune in to a radio station which gives me non-stop music and also non-stop jabbering by the ads and the rjs. But when your head is inside a helmet and you sing loud enough it is fun.

Today I recollect, I was singing many songs which brought me different memories.
Notable ones include Kehna Hai from Padosan, Tere Mere Sapney from the movie Guide, Sun Sun Zaalima from Aarpaar and Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam which reminded me of my maternal uncle.

And then I was humming Megha banthu Megha, Naliyutha from Dr.Rajkumar and some songs like Cheluve nanna Cheluve from the movie Suprabhaata ....

Life is a musical journey. There are highs and lows. There is the rhythm of time and every song begins and some songs stop abruptly and some songs fade away...Memory lingers on....

Scrum

I had been to this interesting course on a new method of software development called Scrum.

Very interesting method of developing new software called Scrum based on the Agile Modeling (Have a look at the Agile Manifesto if you are one of those guys obsessed with the software development methodology )- A kind of iterative software development rather than the conventional waterfall model.

To describe scrum very shortly :-

*) There is an owner of requirements designated as the Product Owner who gives the requirements every 2 weeks. The requirements are given in the form a log called the Product Backlog.

*) Then the team works every two weeks and comes up with a potentially shippable software. To achieve this potentially shippable software, they need to work towards the deadline - They are collectively responsible for the success/fate of the software. They also meet EVERY DAY for a period of 15 minutes and they meet at a cubicle or at canteen or whatever - They call it as the Daily Scrum Meeting.

At the outset this looks really awesome. However there are some doubts like :- how can scrum scale to large products , performance management, who will perform Project Management when there are no managers .etc.

At the end, I was given a certificate as "Certificate Scrum Master".
But seriously I want to implement this kind of software development when I start my own company.

Heheh... Okay other than that, Deccan Chargers won.
However, I feel IPL is based on luck, form and time. All the teams are equally strong, I feel...

phew!

relief :-)
It's been good since yesterday eve :-)

I believe Rahul Gandhi made the difference. UP was strategy by Rahul, AP was unexpected , Kerala was destiny.

As Advani sets to retire, I believe that the strong leader, decisive government was a little too direct attack on Manmohan Singhji. Is it sheer bad luck to him or was he not a good enough leader to lead the country. I guess that question will remain unanswered.

Most importantly, I think the governmnent will be formed in no time. But hope that they do a good job of doing the right thing. It is also vital that Rahul Gandhi gets a good portfolio.

And thank god , idiots like Mayawati are kept at bay and they can not afford to act like street urchins and they can be shooed away.

From my recent actions, I am actually confused. What the heck, do I really want ? Ambition, pride, affection, self actualization , self realization OR the other side : Love, family, friends....

What do I really want in life ?

What is the use of having a resume with a list of achievements which nobody understands/bothers about when you are old. You need people who love you and people whom you love and the warm bonding.

That's perhaps the most important thing in life.

Found this on BIG B's blog today....http://bigb.bigadda.com/?p=2381

They said that a black man would be President “ when pigs fly”.

Indeed 100 days into Obama’s Presidency …Swine flu !!

I think Amitabh Bachchan is having fun with forwards or getting hilariously creative these days.

hehehe ... I remember we had some crazy discussion about Flying Pigs some years ago. I do not remember whether it was with Naga/GD or Teju

The next big thing in search

I consider search as the necessary and sufficient companion to browsing the internet. I had written a post abt cuil sometime ago. I didn't like the search engine.

The new search engine(well not exactly search engine) in the horizon is called Wolfram|Alpha. This is done by Stephen Wolfram (whose website I use currently for referring obscure graph theory definitions). Stephen Wolfram is a genius: that's what I hear and read. So I hope this is something REALLY different from what we have seen and hopefully joins Google rather than competing with Google.


Let's look fwd to the release of this.

Planet Earth

Let me ask you a question:
Just think of the word Nature and close your eyes. What do you see ?

For me I used to hear buzzing crickets in a dense forest. Some people whom I asked this question remembered the famous photos of ice capped swiss alps, green valleys and the blue lakes (straight from a calendar hanging from your house)

But there are many aspects to nature.

We never think of the blistering heat of Sahara Desert, the sand dunes of Niger , the merciless cold of the antarctic, the deep million strong bat infested caves in the world, the mountainous regions of Andes or the mighty himalayas or the fresh water sea of Amazon or the mighty coniferous forests with its 5000 year old trees or the great African Plains or Deep Sea sea urchins and sea anemones and creations like Blue Whale.

This is similar to a question which a professor asked me sometime ago in my college days. When someone asks you, think of a number we end up thinking of natural numbers. No one thinks about sqrt(5)+isqrt(3) or some numbers like that, lamented the professor.

The world is so diverse bursting with life. There are many places where people like us (armchair travellers) won't visit. But to hear the tales and more importantly to see them is sheer bliss. It is like seeing and understanding the diverse world god has created for us. In fact it is like seeing one aspect of GOD himself if you see the nature he has created for us.

I am really happy that I saw the whole series of Planet Earth. In summary you can say that it is a mix geography and biology : But it is done with some so much passion and pain staking detail for a period of four years, that I just cannot summarize the whole series as a mix geography and biology .

Everyday all forms of lives : Trees and animals battle for survival. There are so many things in the series that I cannot put it in one post.

Watch the series Planet Earth: It is really worth 8hrs of your time. I watched the series over a period of 10 days. But I feel good as a earthling now!

Bob Dylan

I saw this conversation in a Bob Dylan Message board :-


PassionNTennis (1 month ago)
i dont get this song

b1kuje43 (4 weeks ago) +1 Reply
come back when you're older.


Couldn't agree more :-) The more older you are, the more intriguing Dylan gets :-)

Voting

Please check this link for knowing voting details for Indian Elections 2009. It worked for me , best of luck to you and cast a wise vote tomorrow.

Passing thought

In the olden days, the kings had scholars (like the nine gems in Akbar's court) who specialized in various things and also they helped in enriching art, culture, mathematics of the kingdom.

But to think of it, were they paid monthly or per visit? Were they salaried ? How did they find refuge at the king's court ? Was it through recommendations ?

What would they do coming to the court everyday (if they would)?

What if the king were a dung headed moron ? Would he have such scholars ?

Dancers, yes I can understand :-)

Will banking become boring?

An article which coincides my point of view...
Btw, I am still haunted with my decision of pursuing a career in the Industrial sector as against one in an Australian Investment Bank ( though I could have been fired a goof 3-4 months ago atleast.. the lure is still there.... hmmmmmmmmm)


FOR quite some time now, many of those who have headed for some of the best known business schools in India and abroad have done so in the hope of making it to one of the top banks — or “shadow banks”— of the world. Commercial banks apart, investment banks, hedge funds and private equity have hogged the lion’s share of graduates from these places. Part of the motivation has come from the mouth-watering presentations made by the world’s leading financial firms. At top B-schools in the US, some firms were known to lay out a career path for graduates that led up to a million dollars in three years flat and up to ten million dollars in ten years’ time. That path may have been strewn with 18-hour workdays seven days a week but it has still proved irresistible to many. The other element in the lure of financial firms has been the sizzle and fizz of innovation, the opportunity to dream up and sell exciting, new financial products. This is set to change in the years ahead. Some of the change was already in evidence in the recent placement season at the leading B-schools in the country. The great names in investment banking that used to swoop down on some of the best talent failed to show up — because many are now history. At IIMA, one of the biggest recruiters this year was not Lehman Brothers but our own Union Bank of India. You could call it a revolution of sorts. There is more change along the way. One of the few things that are certain in these uncertain times is that financial innovation, risk-taking and the profits and rewards that went with them will be reined in. That should cause the financial sector itself to shrink in relative importance in the advanced economies. Financial regulation is in for a sweeping overhaul. In particular, three key elements of regulation are poised to change the face of the financial sector. The first is that capital requirements for banks and other financial intermediaries will go up. This will undermine one of the key sources of abnormal profitability in banking — extraordinary leverage. One of the revelations of the present crisis is that many banks and investment banks were operating at a leverage of 30 or more. Hereafter, banks will find themselves subject to a regulatory minimum of capital that will be above the 8% required currently under rules framed by the Bank for International Settlements. This is the capital that is required to be set aside against “risk-weighted” assets. It is very likely that, on top of this, banks will be subject to a limit on leverage as conventionally measured. As equity capital is costlier than debt, an increase in capital requirements (or a decrease in leverage) is bound to push up the cost of funds for a bank. This will impose a cost on bank customers — a lower deposit rate or a higher borrowing rate or both. Higher borrowing costs, in turn, will tend to depress output. But financial instability carries its own costs: the loss of output as a result of a financial crisis can be anywhere between 5% and 45% of GDP. The judgement today is that the latter outcome is less preferable. Higher capital is seen as crucial to stability. Once capital requirements for banks go up, we should expect bank profitability to fall. The halcyon days of return on equity of 20% or more in banking may well be over. SECONDLY, regulators are going to be far more sceptical about the supposed benefits of financial innovation. It is clear that the explosive growth in one innovation, securitised credit, laid the seeds for the present financial crisis. Moreover, as a report prepared recently by the head of UK’s Financial Services Authority (The Turner Review) points out, innovation has spurred growth in the financial sector in ways that were either illusory or harmful. Financial sector value-added as a proportion of GDP in the UK rose from 5% to 7% in the period 1995-2007. Partly, this reflected the illusory gains in a rising market arising from mark-to-market accounting. The review suggests that the surge in value-added was also harmful in so far as it arose from rents from complex financial products. The Review notes: “Wholesale financial services….grew to a size unjustified by the value of its service to the real economy”. There is talk of excesses in the financial sector. It would be more accurate to say that the financial sector itself constituted an excess both in terms of its relative size in economies and the sort of returns it generated. It is unlikely that banks will hereafter be able to launch product innovations at will. Thirdly, we must expect constraints on bankers’ pay. Regulators will insist that incentives for bankers be based on measures of performance that better reflect risk and the long-term performance of banks. More importantly, higher capital requirements and lower profitability in banking will limit rewards in the financial sector. Outsized bonuses will not be passé but they will be more difficult to come by. This is greatly welcome and somewhat overdue. Thanks to absurd compensation packages, financial firms (along with IT in India) have created huge distortions in the labour market. They have tended to lay a disproportionate claim on the pool of human talent to the exclusion of manufacturing and other sectors. Will these changes in regulation — higher capital requirements, constraints on financial innovation and tighter norms for incentives — make banking a ‘boring’ sector rather like some regulated utility? Not really. The management of risk that is or ought to be the core of banking will remain challenging and exciting. Besides, innovation is not just about product innovation, it is also about process innovation, finding ways to deliver products more efficiently to customers and broadening financial inclusion. While pay packages in banking will be less extravagant, bankers won’t be exactly starving. What the emerging direction of regulation will do is strip banking of some of its hype, the glamour and danger that one associates more with adventure sports. Actually, the comparison is inapt. In adventure sports, it is the sportsman who pays dearly for his mistakes. In banking, it is the audience that has all too often ended up paying the price.

2014 elections, India

This is certainly something to look for. As Pushpa smartly commented during an election awareness advertisement on the Zee News, it certainly grabbed my attention. There was Aamir Khan requesting the public to "Think before Ink". I commented, wow this is interesting, then the wife comments "2014 and not 2009 will be the one to watch out for". I agree, I am eagerly waiting for the 2014 elections. What has just happened in the Indian political scenario is just a begining. A few very interesting movements which I have personally noted down

1. Independents contensting from perstigious constituencies - even if it is for the heck of it (which does not seem to be), there are more people from the Corporate world who have shown interest in contesting. More people from private life entering the public domain.
2. Public fund raising for election campaigns - Received a mail for contributions from a close aid of an MP contesting from Chitradurga (my home district). Really interesting.
3. Awareness campaigns - Some one like Aamir Khan can certainly draw a lot of interest across a huge spectrum of voters - Young and old, rural and urban voters, men and women, which will hopefully be seen in the voter turnout.
4. Web campaings - has been gaining prominence
5. Younger contestants - though we are still voting for 70+ candidates - the likes of Advani, manmohan singh etc there certainly seem to be more younger lot taking the plunge - Krishna byre gowda, rahul gandhi, Janardhana swamy etc. This would only improve in 2014 with the oldies hopefully retired by then ( I personally feel and hope that this would/should be the last election for the likes of advani, deve gowda etc)
6. Real agendas (security, infrastructure, taking priority in deciding votes rather than current equations of cash, liquor, caste etc. This will improve going forward

There are a lot more positives which have happened and will continue to happen in the coming years. Ceratinly next two decades will be very interesting for India.

Interesting website

Most living organisms quite logically think of the immediate future.For eg. I plan what happens in the next six months and I guess that maybe with many of us. Some people plan for a year or two. Fewer people for 5 years.

What abt planning for the humankind for the next 100 years? The next thousand years ? You don't, right ? Nobody does.

Quote :-

Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multi-tasking. All are on the increase.

There is an interesting project called Project Longnow which takes projects which goes on for thousands of years. It kinda sounds cool and very "culture and humanity driven".

Take two of their products :-

One is a mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium

The other is called Rosetta Archive serving nearly 100,000 pages of material documenting over 2,500 languages because of accelerated loss of the world’s languages. Just as globalization threatens human cultural diversity, the languages of small, unique, localized human societies are at serious risk

Have a look at the Longnow website and the Photos of the Clock which looks majestic. Also the way the specifications for the clock is written requires thinking which needs to take thousands of years into account !